DUCJFC 2016 - January 31 - WW Tribal Dragon WIP

Thank you for all your fun comments and guesses on the Peanuts characters! They're fun to work on except for the fractionals on Aida. I took a break today from new starts and went back to a WIP from early 2014. That's not too bad for me. I've got quite a few that are much older. 

The final piece will look something like this:

This was my long-distance travel project last year and I managed a decent amount of progress last year from here in January 2015:

to here in November 2015 (the last time I worked on it):

I had 2 stitching sessions today on a day off instead of my usual one, so I managed a lot of progress!

I'm excited to see the start of his tail and it was really nice to fill in that gap in his wings. I might start on the chest and underbelly now and I hope to add a little blending filament to the thread I'm using for that to give it a little sparkle. I think dragons need a little bit, as you know from my dragonlets. ;) 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 30 - Land of the Dinosaurs

Today I'm working on something entirely different for me. I've been subscribing to the digital edition of WOXS on Google Play. I prefer the Just CrossStitch digital editions since you download them as a .pdf and can print them at your leisure. With Google Play Newsstand I have to use a digital device to view the chart. 

I spent some time trying to make it work on my phone, but the chart was so small I couldn't enlarge it to work well. Later, DH showed me it was on "condensed" and once he had put it on "normal" I could have used it. However, phones are still kind of teeny and not a lot of fun to stitch with for me. 

I ended up using a small (and cheap!) Nexus tablet and that worked pretty well for my start:

It's hard to tell what you're looking at, and I can't really show you a photo of the finished project, but the bright red/orange is the outline around a triceratops crest. The blue is sky. This is a fairly large project, almost fully stitched 9x12. If you subscribe to WOXS, it's from October 2015, page 79/80.

I'm using 32 count Jobelan in Summer sky, even though it looks grey in that photo, and stitching 2 over 2 with the recommended DMC threads. I hope I get a chance to get back to this one. It's very bright and full of fun little dinosaurs. DD is really into dinosaurs right now, so I hope I can finish it up within the next year or so. 

Plus a little more on Lucy:

Just the backstitch to go now!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 29 - Last Comic Character in Series

Great guesses yesterday on the new start and #2 now that it was more revealed. 

I have another new start today, but it's a small one:

I doubt you can guess anything from that, but I did continue on with the second new character (Lucy) and I'm here now:

I hope to continue on with these while I start new ones or work on other WIPs as I'm determined to get all 5 complete and sent off as soon as I can. The recipient has been extremely patient and she deserves my time. 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 28 - Another Finish! And a New Comic Character

Tonight I went back to Charlie Brown to finish him off:

And here's the one I had finished previously:

I hadn't stitched her name yet, but I didn't think I wanted to count that little bit as a "start". 

So here's the real start:

It's another character from the series and good luck guessing this one! Although at some point it's a process of elimination. :) 

Plus I continued on with #2:

Any guesses now?

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 27 - Reveal and New Comic Character!

Well done everyone that guessed correctly! It's even more obvious today that I'm stitching:

Charlie Brown. 

In all the colour cartoons I've seen he has a yellow shirt, so having it be red was different.

And I even had time to start the next one:

I doubt you can guess which one from just this much, but it is from the same comic series if that helps. :)

It's interesting stitching these after using the hand-dyed WDW on Spider Banner. This is easier in a lot of ways, but I really do love stitching with hand-dyed threads and seeing how the colours end up. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 26 - Comic Character

I left the title deliberately vague on this one so you can have a chance to guess who I'm stitching. A few years ago I agreed to "stunt stitch" (stitch for someone else) these and I'm woefully behind. I thought getting these all started might help me get in a more "accomplishing goals" state of mind as well. 

I had started this one previously and had maybe 10 rows stitched. I forgot to take a photo before I started though, so this is where I ended up tonight:

This is a fairly well-known comic character, although the shirt is a different colour than expected. 

I hope to continue on tomorrow and maybe get a finish as well as start the next one. 

Thank you as always for all your support and good luck guessing!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Careers You Would Love/Hate

Today it's Top 10 Tuesday again! Make sure you check out Kate's and Keebs' blogs for their lists too. 

TOP 10 CAREERS YOU WOULD LOVE/HATE

1. LOVE: Cross Stitching if affordable

2. LOVE: Running an LNS

3. HATE: Dentistry - I find teeth kind of icky...

4. LOVE: SAHM for DD - I wish I could do this, but it makes more financial sense for DH to.

5. HATE: Sanitation Engineer

6. HATE: School Bus Driver - The good ones get my undying admiration

7. LOVE: Hockey Player

8. LOVE/HATE: Video Game Tester - I'd only want to play games I like and testers tend to be hated by the game designers since they tell them all the problems with their code

9. LOVE/HATE: Blogger - I know a lot of people can make a living from this, and I enjoy blogging, but I feel like I'd be very stressed if my income was dependent on it. 

10. LOVE: Librarian - this was a childhood dream :) 

I hope you like the list and what's your number one career you'd love to have? 

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 25 - LK's Ho Ho Ho WIP

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday! I pulled out another WIP tonight and set a smallish goal for myself, to finish the next star on Ho Ho Ho!

Here's where I left it in December:

And I managed to finish another star and a little bit more:

Which meant I could pull out Spider Banner again, and stay up too late again because I'm having trouble stopping with this one!

I made a small error yesterday, but I managed to fudge along without having to backtrack too much. No one will know and I'll likely forget at some point as well. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 24 - AAN's Spider Banner WIP

When I mentioned the Spider Banner in a previous post, that made me want to dig it out and start right away, but I had a few other things lined up first. 

Now I want a quick break from the afghan fabric and I pulled this out to stitch on the lovely evenweave. Afghan fabric is nice and all with the large holes, but I do really enjoy evenweave. 

Here's where I left off last DUCJC:

And I managed quite a bit of progress by staying up too late once again:

I hope you can see the sparkliness of the fabric, it's so gorgeous! So far this is WDW Cherry Vanilla, Cyclamen and Gunmetal. 

This one is calling very strongly, so it's possible I'll only manage a mini-start tomorrow and go back to this one. We'll see how tomorrow's project goes. 

Happy Stitching and thank you for cheering me on!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 23 - KLT Charting SAL (Owls)

I will admit to continuing on with Day 3 before beginning today's new start:

There are a lot of colour changes in this one, but I checked ahead and the others are easier, so I hope I can go back to finishing in 2-3 days again with the other days. This one will be worth it when I finish though. The pattern looks hilarious and I hope it turns out well. 

I decided to skip starting Day 4 in favour of starting the new KLT Charting SAL. A good friend, Kay, purchased the SAL for me for Xmas. So I have to start, right? I'm stitching them on the same afghan fabric as the dragonlets. 

You may have seen a few more of these owls around, and here's my start:

It kind of looks like he's winking at us. ;) I'm using 4 strands of DMC 823 for the outline and 3 strands of Jodyri threads - A Dory Moment and I'm enjoying how it looks so far. I saw someone on the Facebook group had stitched the eyes in yellow and I'd like to do that too, but I'd have to find a yellow that matched the Jodyri thread well. It could always be something I go back and finish later. 

I had DD look through my threads with me and she tends to pick threads that have yellow in them first since it's her favourite colour. She does love to look at all the different colours of threads too. She originally chose one that had blue, green and yellow, but it was a little too light for the white afghan fabric. This one is very similar, but darker. 

I'm stitching over 2 threads so this owl will be pretty big when I'm done. It's the only way it seemed to look good on the loose weave of this afghan though. I tried stitching with perle #8 in 823, but I didn't like the look at all, either 1 over 1 over 1 over 2. I'm happier with how flat the thread lies with regular thread instead of the perle. 

This is another I'd like to continue on with for a little bit, but we'll see what tomorrow brings!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 22 - Dragon Dreams Dragonlets of 2012 Day 3

My plan to finish Day 2 before starting Day 3 fell apart a little today. I managed to start Day 3, but only just! 

Here's my Day 2 finish:

I'm in love with the turtle-doves! 

And the start of Day 3:

Since I'm a little embarrassed at how small a start that is, here's the whole thing so far:

I may have to start Day 4 before I finish Day 3 at this rate, we'll see! There's a fair amount of colour changes in Day 3. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 21 - Dragon Dreams Dragonlets of 2012 Day 2

I think I need to copy/paste this title so I don't have to re-type it every time when I'm only changing the last digit! 

Thank you for all your comments on my start yesterday. I enjoyed it so much I decided to finish Day 1 before starting Day 2:

I made a slight change to the pears and made them more green than yellow since we try and eat pears when they're green and slightly healthier than when they're yellow and starting to get overripe. 

And I had enough time to make a decent start on Day 2:

I'm using a lot of blending filament and I hope I have enough for the whole series! I'm stitching 4 over 2 on the afghan fabric and using 2 strands of blending filament. I love how sparkly they look, even though you don't see much of the dragon on Day 1.

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 20 - Dragon Dreams Dragonlets of 2012 Day 1

How's that for a title to a post? :) I've admired Dragon Dreams patterns for a couple years now and hadn't really known about them until then. Although no new designs will come out for sale, there are still some available at most online LNS' and possibly your local LNS. 

These little dragons are still available on her Facebook group I believe if you're interested in stitching them. Here's my start on Day 1:

I'm stitching it as charted except for adding Kreinik blending filament to the dragon and stitching the number in #4 Kreinik braid. The first 6 should fit on the top part of some 19 count afghan fabric I have hanging around. I think I'll do the last 6 on the bottom and then I'll have to decide what goes all around the edges. 

Thank you for all your comments yesterday about how this was getting to be a grind. I hope to manage the 60 starts, but like some of you said, it is supposed to fun and if it isn't, then I'll stop. I enjoy stitching too much to "challenge" myself out of it. I feel like there should be some effort to it since it is a challenge. I had kind of a rough week last week at work and I think I was feeling overwhelmed. We'll see how it goes this week and where I get to. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 19 - Reflections of Canada

Thank you all for your comments and support. This is becoming more of a grind, so I switched things up from my "plan" and started something new that I'd been holding back. 

Finally I'm bringing out one of my most anticipated starts for 2016. Reflections of Canada by Ink Circles. It's an exclusive design to Thread & Eye, a LNS in London, Ontario. I convinced my parents to stop by on my last visit home to them and Mom and I had a great time! Dad was done a lot earlier than Mom and I were, but even she was done well before me. 

If you're ever in London, Ontario, make sure you stop by. They do sell the chart by mail-order/phone order, so you can also give them a call. They're revamping the website, so you can find them on Facebook for now. 

Reflections of Canada will look like this when finished:

from inkcircles.com

I used to live near London, Ontario, but that was well before Thread & Eye opened. I'm looking forward to going back the next time we visit my parents. She has a lovely amount of hand-dyed fabrics you can browse through, plus she stocks Dinky Dyes threads! 

Time to stop salivating and show you my start:

I'm stitching on 25 count ivory linen with Jodyri threads in Ruby Slippers. You can see a CN tower on the left with a beaver tail started just to the right, and on the right side is the start of a totem pole. There's a Mountie head below the totem pole and a maple leaf to the left of that. It's a very fun piece to work on. 

I was really undecided about mandalas in general, but when they have designs that really grab me, they are fun to stitch. I hope I can get back to this one soon. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Expressions You Love to Use

Top 10 Tuesday time again! Make sure you check Keeb's and Kate's blogs out for their lists. I'm a little late getting mine up, sorry about that. 

TOP 10 EXPRESSIONS YOU LOVE TO USE

This is another one I should have had DH's help on since he could probably name off 10 right away. I'm having trouble thinking of 10!!

1. Dude

I will admit to using this a lot in the past, although less so now. 

2. 1 or 2

It's a work thing and I do like my work. :)

3. See how it goes/let me know how it goes

I think I saw this to almost everyone I see. 

4. What are you doing?

Since DD parrots this back as "What in ya doing?" I realize I must say it a lot. 

5. I love you/ Je t'aime

to DD a ton and to DH in DD's hearing

6. Silly Max

re the cat, and this gets parroted as well, but I have just cause:

7. Jesum Crow

I don't actually use this, but it's a common Vermontism. DH adopted it. 

8. That's not too bad

Again, a Vermontism that covers anything from a stubbed toe to compound fractures

9. Retro


Some of my work involves looking at fashion and talking about retro this and that, so it comes up frequently

10. Happy Stitching!

this may be a cheat, but I do love signing off my posts this way

I hope you enjoyed the list and.....

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 18 - Butterfly Quote by Jodyri Designs WIP

Back to another WIP today! I started this last year for the summer SAL on a multi-designer Facebook SAL page. They had a winter SAL as well and I continued on, but soon had to put this one aside for my Xmas stitching and to try and finish up a few more of the 2015 challenge pieces. 

Here's where I left off last November:

14ct mottled blue Aida with Jodyri Pink Laydee and Sparkling Citrine

and this is today:

The thread colours are consistent, but I cannot get a good photo of the fabric, even with different phones. 

I also put a few more stitches into December mini-cat to get it to here:

Hope everyone is doing well with the challenge so far, and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 17 - Everyone Brings Joy

I was gifted this chart by a fellow CSF member a few years ago: 

from stitchingbitsandbobs.com

I've been looking for a reason to start it and now is the perfect time! It shouldn't be too long a stitch and it's a good way to use up some of my variegated thread stash. 

Here's my start!

I'm stitching on (I think) 14 count oatmeal Aida and stitching 2 over 1 using leftover variegated threads from other projects. So far I've used WDW Peacock, Bayberry, Camellia, Azaleas, and Purple Haze respectively. There will be more! 

I enjoyed stitching it so much I stayed up too late and finished watching the Jessica Jones Netflix series. If you like more realistic superhero shows, if that even makes sense, this was good. Weird, but good. Jessica Jones is a P.I. and is exceptionally strong and can jump/fall really far, but she can't fly. She's also been traumatized by someone putting her under mind control and drinks. A lot. She cares about people and wants to help but also wants to be left alone. The actor does a tremendous job making you love and hate her depending on what's going on. Good things happen, but really bad things happen too, and I hope that helps you decide if you want to watch it. 

I'm really excited about watching The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I loved listening to the book both times and it has decent reviews. Has anyone else read it or have you watched it? Anyone else not know it was a movie too? :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 16 - Rejoice Tree

And we're back to another new chart today, and fun with fabric and floss!

I'm starting the Rejoice Tree Ornament by M Designs tonight and it will look something like this when complete:

from theangelsnook.com

I decided to change up the colours and stitch it on 14 count Aida (3 over 1) from Silkweavers and I'm using Waterlilies Nefertiti:

I managed a decent start while watching The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and some more Poirot. I think I have enough thread in the one skein to finish the whole tree. That didn't occur to me until I'd already made a good start with 3 over 1. I didn't think 2 over 1 would cover the fabric enough. Let's hope I'm right. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

DUCJFC 2016 - January 15 - Kiss for a Snowman

Time to break out another new kit! Today's start is Dimensions - A Kiss for a Snowman which will look like this when finished:

And I made a decent start to here:

I debated about trading out the stiff Aida that came with the kit, but in the end I couldn't be bothered hunting through my stash, so I used it anyway. I think this one will go fairly quickly since it has a lot of half cross stitch, but we'll see. 

This will be another gift for DD and I think I might try and get it done for her birthday as well. 

I managed a decent amount while watching a couple of the last Poirot series. Has anyone else seen those? I may or may not go through the whole series, but I definitely hadn't seen these latest episodes. They're worth watching if you're a fan of David Suchet as Poirot. He's the definitive Poirot to me. If you're a real stickler to the original books you may not be as happy with them, there are changes, and not always for the better. 

One of them was filmed on Agatha Christie's estate, so that was interesting to see as well. 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - January

This is my first year of GG, hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. I enjoyed looking over everyone's posts last year, so I thought I'd give it a try this year. 

I have too many WIPs to name, but I'll list off some of the GG I'm working on so far this year. 

We have Letters from Nora S, H and G for my DD:

 

 

on 28 count Nuriel's Forest from Chromatic Alchemy with charted CC

Princess and the Dragon also for DD on 28 count Amaranthine fabric I won from Chromatic Alchemy, so kind of a gift?

A double GG with a RAK fabric and stitching it for DH is Yesterday by Jodyri designs on Eye of Newt by Chromatic Alchemy

And monochrome Link for DH:

As well as Autumn Elegance redone in Xmas colours for a co-worker:

Here Comes Treble for my MIL:

Somebunny to Love for DD from a magazine gifted by Kate:

And a finished gift for a friend:

That was pretty picture-heavy, so kudos if you got through it! Clearly I like to stitch for others. :) 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch