CJC Day 30 - Mabel Figworthy's Fancies Song of the Weather SAL

Today, the final day of my challenge, was supposed to be a WIP from 2011/2012, Abi Gurden's Tree of Stitches, but I can't find my thread or the pattern. I think it's saved on an old laptop somewhere, but I've decided to start something new instead of tracking it down right now. 

I really enjoyed stitching the first 4 parts of Mabel Figworthy's Fancies Song of the Weather SAL. It took place in 2013, but the rest of 2013 was taken up with a move and then the birth of our daughter, so I never did complete the full SAL. 

I decided to stitch all the designs from January through December on a baby afghan I have in my stash. I think this will be going to my Grandma as well, so I'll choose colours that she prefers. 

I started with February to see how I liked the placement on the afghan, and I'm using WDW perle 5 Peoria Purple. 

It's an 18 count afghan, and I should maybe be using perle 3 instead of 5, but 5 is what I have in my stash, so that will do. 

I'm aiming for colourful again instead of traditional white on white hardanger. The cutting will be tricky on an afghan, but I know some others who have managed it successfully, so I know it's possible!

Since this is the end of the Crazy January Challenge, I won't be posting as frequently, but I will try to post at least once a week. :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 29 - Spiral Fractal by skitzzzzz

Another friend from the Cross Stitch Forum designed this a few years ago. When I first started it was the first piece I'd ever done that had confetti. I'd mostly done kits prior to this, so it was a big difference. 

I had some difficulty with that aspect, as you can probably tell by where I left off in 2011 (I think)

Now that I've worked on a few HaEDs, although I haven't finished any of them, I have a better understanding of confetti and am looking forward to getting back to this one. 

I'm going to work page by page and hope to get at least page 1 done this year. There are only 6 total, so hopefully this will be off the WIP list in a couple years. 

I'm stitching it on 22 count hardanger and it's charted with DMC threads. Hopefully a few more sessions will show the design better. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 28 - Twilight Le Mans

A friend from the Cross Stitch Forum gave me this chart. DH is a big race fan and I like the misty, end of day look of this chart. I'm stitching it on 28 count Lugana that's very similar to DMC 3753, the main colour in this chart. I think stitching with the thread will look interesting on the similar fabric, so I will stitch the entire chart. 

I'd also like to get a hold of the Twilights Bike Shop chart, that one looks really appropriate for our interests. The whole series is beautiful, although I don't see these stitched up often.

I managed this much today:

That's some of the blue above the cars and between them as well as a line below the car on the left. 

The chart has some fractional stitches that aren't difficult on this 28 count linen and I think this may be another possible finish since it's not very big and there are decent sections of one colour. 

Happy Stitiching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 27 - Kincavel Krosses Bibliophile Bookmark

This was going to be a WIP of a dragon coaster that I had started in December after reading about the site on the Cross Stitch Review. They do a Freebie Fridays and the design was from one of the freebie designers. However, I've managed to lose it entirely somewhere. I have no idea where it disappeared to. Fortunately I have tons of WIPs to choose from. :)

I became familiar with Kell's designs on the Cross Stitch Forum where she offered several for free when she started her Kincavel Krosses site. I've stitched the Bibliophile bookmark before for a charity event and now I'm stitching it for a friend. 

My friend loves dark red colours, so I'm using variegated DMC 115 for this one. I originally started the Bibliophile Bookmark in 2012 I think and this is where I left off in 2014:

And where I'm at today:

I should be able to finish by my friend's birthday in April I hope. Without too much help from my "helper" anyway... :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 26 - LK's Oh Baby!

My daughter is now over a year old and I still haven't stitched a birth sampler, so it is high time I completed one. I have a few different choices, and I decided to start with this one since it's fairly small and simple. 

I'm stitching on 28 count hand dyed African Daisy Jobelan and using WDW Mauve, Meadow, and Dutch Iris so far. I had to decide which of the 16 charted designs to add for her. I like the freedom of choice in this one. I'm going to go with 8 motifs in 2 rows of 4. 

This is what I managed today:

And Bienvenue is now hanging up!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 25 - Warbreaker

Warbreaker is one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors, Brandon Sanderson. He was doing a signing in 2012 that was a few hours away from where I live and we really wanted to go. I had planned on finishing this for then, and had about 2 months to complete it. 

It may not have happened anyway, but because we ended up not being able to get to the signing for bizarre circumstances, I was so disappointed I put this away and never went back to it. 

I left it here:

And I was mostly done the top 3 pages. There are 9 in total. I completed the first page entirely and most of the second and third as well. The next 3 all have a fair amount of confetti, but I think I can bear with it to finish this year. 

This is where I finished tonight. I will admit to spending a lot of my free time sorting the colours instead of stitching. :) 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 24 - LK's Ho Ho Ho!

I think Ho Ho Ho! is Lizzie Kate number 3 of 4. I have a quite a few of her charts, and there's still some left in my stash, but these wanted to join CJC the most. I didn't have the exact threads, but I had some fairly close in my stash. 

The finished product will look like this:

I made a start with the Treasure braid for the wording and some WDW for the holly on Santa's hat and the tree. 

I think I might try and finish Squiggle Tree before this one since it will have less colour changes, but still this should be finished by Xmas I think.

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 23 - Waxing Moon's Midnight Manor and a finish!

I've never stitched a Waxing Moon design before, and I was happy to find this one. Midnight Manor is also from the Halloween sale at my LNS in 2012. 

I have a great piece of 28 count variegated dusky blue fabric that I'm stitching on. I received it in a gift exchange and it was a large enough piece that I was able to save half for something else. 

The model:

I don't plan on stitching the upper design, just the lower. And I'm not using all black either. I'm starting to wonder if I have issues with monochromes as I notice I tend to jazz them up a little with colour most of the time. :)

Here's my start:

I'm using WDW Fathom for the house and drive and the ghosts and moon will hopefully be glow-in-the-dark Kreinik. The animals will be black and the trees will be TG Soot. The fence will be WDW Kohl. 

So far it's stitching up easily and I'm looking forward to a Halloween finish!

I also finished Bienvenue:

And made it into a hanging. It's not 100% finished as I need to add a dowel to stiffen the back, but that's a job for DH, so my part is done!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 22 - Nora Corbett Letters From Nora - K and update on Bienvenue

Letter K is a gift for a great friend who passed along a ton of baby stuff for our daughter. I already have 'A' framed, and once I finish this I'll try and find a similar frame for K. These are the initials of her daughters. 

The finished product:

I have everything I need to stitch this exactly as charted. My fabric is a very similar colour, although I can't say exactly where I got it. 

I actually started this a while ago and got to here:

Then when I took the Qsnaps off I realized I'd rotated them 90 degrees and I was stitching in the wrong place entirely... I picked it all out the next day and restarted for tonight. 

This time I made double and triple sure I was stitching correctly by starting the border. I'm stitching on 28 count light sea foam green coloured fabric and I'm very much enjoying this chart. When I first picked it up all the colours made me a little wary until I realized how Nora Corbett uses variegated colours to great effect. 

I really hope to finish this one soon and it will be rotated back in soon after the end of January. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

p.s. I'm this far on Bienvenue, almost there!

CJC Day 21 - AAN Spider Banner

I picked up Spider Banner when my LNS was having a Halloween sale in 2012. I'm happy to be finally stitching it. I waited because I had seen a few variations and wasn't sure how I wanted to have the spider colouring to look. 

The original:

And my start:

I was able to get a surprising amount done tonight since DH took care of everything else to let me stitch. I'm stitching on 32 count opalescent fabric that I received in an exchange in 2012 I believe. I'm stitching 2 over 2 with WDW Cherry Vanilla and Cyclamen so far. The border is in WDW Gunmetal. I absolutely love stitching this one up. It's going so easily and so far no frogging either. 

At first I had a little trouble with the 2 over 2 on 32 count since I usually only stitch 28 count over 2, but it all came together after a couple thread lengths. I'll leave the spider colours as a secret for now, but I think it will look really interesting all together. 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 20 - Dimensions Sleigh Ride Stocking kit

I've had this kit for about a year now. I picked it up when my LNS was closing. I hope to get it completed for Xmas this year for my daughter. 

It should look like this when complete:

But I have a ways to go:

That's the start of the church on the left. This will look great when complete, but there certainly are a lot of colour changes and pulling 4 lengths of white thread through this stiff fabric is a pain. I'd like to swap it out, but I don't have the same colour and there are some areas that are intentionally left to show the fabric. I'll get there in the end. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 19 - LK's Housework

I purchased Housework a few years ago and am finally getting around to stitching it. I love LK's lettering and patterns, they're always fun to stitch. This has been no exception. I swapped some of the colours around to fit with what I had in my stash, but it's pretty close to what's charted. 

I'm stitching on 18 count aida 2 over 1 and it's coming along nicely. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 18 - AAN Maple Leaf

Although I had to work today, I managed a lot of work on AAN's Maple Leaf. I love this pattern. It's just so nice to stitch. I'm really loving the subtle variation in WDW Fire as well. 

I'm stitching on 14 count aida from Silkweavers. I'm not sure the name of the dye as it was in a grab bag. 

I have hopes to finish this one by December 31st as well. I'm not sure if it's a keeper or something I'll give as a gift. We'll see how it goes. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

IHSW - January 2015 conclusion

Despite having to work on Sunday I managed a decent amount of progress on my projects. I had to swap out Tree of Stitches because I managed to find my project, but not my threads or the pattern! I think it's in a box that has yet to be unpacked from our move 18 months ago. :)

On Friday I managed a small amount of progress on my Ladyfée 2014 Xmas SAL. 

And on Saturday I managed to complete the first letter of six for my daughter. 

And today I managed a surprising amount of progress on AAN's Maple Leaf. I had to choose something else to stitch since Tree of Stitches was out and this one called the loudest. 

I'm stitching on 14 count fabric from Silkweaver. It was in a grab bag and I'm really happy with the colour. The thread is WDW Fire. 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend hermitting and tomorrow I'll enjoy another day of stitching since it's Martin Luther King Day here. 

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 17 - Alphabet Letters

I found these neat burlap squares at Walmart and the first thing I thought of was stitching my daughter's name on them. I think they're maybe similar to 10 count and I ended up using 3 threads for coverage. 

I'm stitching the teddy bear alphabet from the Ultimate Cross Stitch Alphabet book. I purchased this book at Michael's while I was in my first year of undergrad I think. My roommate taught me how to cross stitch and I think I purchased this shortly after my first finish. It's been sitting sadly neglected for over a decade at least, but it's stayed with me through every move until I finally need it again now. 

I finished the first of 6 squares tonight and hope to get the other 5 done soon.

I'm using WDW Angel Hair for the light brown and Bright Leaf for the medium brown. I'm backstitching with DMC 3371. The red is from a Dinky Dyes oops pack, so I don't know the shade. 

This will be another project I hope to finish well before the end of the year. The first one took a couple hours, so hopefully the rest are just as easy. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 16 - Ladyfee 2014 Xmas SAL

I started this SAL hosted by Ladyfee last year, but I didn't progress as fast as I would have liked. It started in April 2014 and I did well for a while, but after we lost Otto I lost my stitchy bug for several months. I did eventually finish part 1 and received the rest of the SAL, so I hope to finish it for Xmas this year. It's a nice simple stitch and I love seeing the photos of everyone's finishes. You can see them in the gallery on Ladyfee's site. 

This was part 1:

And I managed a little more. I won't necessarily be adding the vertical lines you'll see on other people's finishes. I'm stitching on Anne Cloth and the extra lines will look a little funny. I liked the thought of stitching this on Anne Cloth though, so I will persevere. :)

I extended the white at the bottom and added the other reindeer in case you can't tell what's new. It's hard to see the white especially. 

I'm still debating whether I'll complete the border at the left. I only stitched a few rows for now, but I may complete it, and that may be something that happens only after I finish the entire row. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

IHSW January 2015 - the return

This will be my first IHSW in a long, long while. I'm very glad that the fabulous Joysze of Random Ramblings is still hosting these. It's a great excuse to tell the world to leave you be to stitch the weekend away. :) Even better it's a long weekend here in the U.S., so I'll have an extra day to stitch and look at everyone's progress on Monday.

I hope to work on some of my Crazy January Challenge pieces this weekend as I have all month so far. The line-up will be:

another UFO, the Ladyfee 2014 Xmas mystery SAL tonight

an alphabet letter tomorrow

 and the Tree of Stitches on Sunday. 

I still have to find my thread and pattern for the ToS, so I better get on that instead of being online. :)

Happy Hermit-ing!

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 15 - AAN 2015 Mystery SAL

Okay, I'm going to be brave and throw this out there, I am not thrilled with the start of the AAN Xmas Mystery SAL. I don't understand why it says "Welcome" at the top if this is an advent calendar. So I'm not in love with this so far and I didn't stitch much of it. 

I'm stitching on 28 count Jobelan overe 2 with WDW Turkish Red. The fabric is actually Amsterdam Blue which I find a more green than blue. I couldn't get a great photo of the colour and fiddling with the editing tools didn't help either. 

I'm waiting to see what comes next month and I'll continue to hope for something that fits us better. I don't mind putting different text in the top design, so I'll wait and see. I love AAN designs and I'm starting 2 for this Crazy January Challenge, but I'm disappointed with the start of this SAL. 

I'm much happier with how I progressed on Bienvenue this week!

The end is in sight. Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 14 - White Willow Tribal Dragon

I won a Bingo on the Cross Stitch Forum in 2013 and received a voucher that I used towards this chart. I've had it in my wish list for years and in my stash for about 6 months before I finally started it. I had some nice grey 28 count Lugana and I used some LNS stash of Caron Waterlilies and Soie Cristale to come up with a more colourful palette than the monochrome. I'm stitching over 1 and with my reading glasses it's not challenging at all, thankfully. 

This is the model:

And my variation will be a little different. I hope the light blue and dark blue contrast will give some dimensions to the wings. The body will be in a deep green and there may be some bling in there, which I'll leave as a surprise for now. 

This was my progress from 2014:

I'm really enjoying stitching this and I can't wait to get back to it. This is another one I hope to finish for my daughter. I hope she enjoys fantasy as much as we do. 

This is where I'm at as of tonight:

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 13 - Angel Stitchin Squiggle Tree

This is a new designer to me, Angel Stitchin'. I can't find much info online about her either, although she has a Facebook page. Her designs seem to be available at all the major online needlework shops, but I found this chart in my LNS before it closed.

The finished design of Squiggle Tree should look like this:

I'm stitchin' it on 14 count silver dust Aida and I'm really enjoying it so far. I started with WDW Liberty Red and it's looking mah-velous. I forget what green I've chosen right now, but it is another WDW. I have quite a few WDW hanging around from when my LNS closed. I really love the WDW thread variations. 

This is another one I plan on keeping in the drawer near my stitchin' spot. I really liked how quickly the border came together and I think the tree will be fairly quick as well. 

And an update on Bienvenue:

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 12 - Homeward Bound from Cross Stitch and Needlework

This chart is from the November/December issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework. I started it to be a gift for my Grandma's 90th birthday. I ended up not being able to get to her birthday party because I was in the hospital, and I never did finish this one. I would like to get it finished for her since she's still doing well at 91.

Her birthday is in November as well, so I have some time to get it finished. Most of the complicated confetti is complete, so it's mostly the outer areas of satin DMC and beading to finish.

This is where I left it in 2013:

And here is where I got today.

I've reached the outer edge of the left side so I need to repeat that on the right and top and bottom, plus all the filling stitches. It's a lot of DMC S5200 which is a little frustrating in the slipperiness and how easily it knots and frays. There are also some Kreinik stitches, but those don't bother me as much. However, I do need to keep a needle for the metallic and a needle for the satin separate. The metallics needle definitely shreds the satin thread easily. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Update on a CJC Project - Bienvenue

I'm enjoying stitching on Bienvenue so much I've pulled it out a few times recently. I would like to get this one finished next and a few more days might do it! 

The Dinky Dyes threads are wonderful to stitch with and I really like how it's coming together. I plan to hang it up near our door when it's complete. I'm not sure if I want to frame it or make it a hanging. I think it would have to be a custom frame size, so I'm leaning towards a hanging to keep the cost down. Thoughts?

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

CJC Day 11 - Dimensions White Wolves kit

This project I'm determined to finish this year. I started it many years ago, I think it was around 2003, and it's been languishing since then. I had trouble with the blends and different thread lengths back then because it was my first more complicated project. It's possible stitching on black was more difficult than I realized as well.

Looking at it now it seems ridiculously easy compared to some of the other projects I've tackled since then. I had initially intended this as a house warming gift for my brother and SIL. Since then they've moved around quite a bit, and yet I still have yet to complete this project. They recently moved again and this time they should be in one place for quite awhile, so I hope to finish this up this year. It's also my brother's 50th birthday, so it would be a great gift. Fortunately that's not until November, so I have some time.

This is what the finished product should look like:

And this is where I am now: