2017 Plans

It's that time of year to think about what we're stitching next year. I'm going to try and keep my new starts to a minimum, but I would like to start something new this weekend. A lot of stitchers have a New Year's Day tradition, but I'll likely start on December 31st because of how the weekend is this year. :)

It's been a busy holiday season, but I have a decent update on AAN's Spider Banner. Here's where it was a few months ago:

And now:

I have a few plans for 2017 too. I'm going to try and stick with ideas I planned out in October in this post. The first week of the month will be for BAPs/HAEDs, and that includes any partial weeks to start the month. I'm debating about what to work on first in January. I would like a new start, so I think I might pull out one of my new HAEDs. 

or maybe this older one. 

I won the chance to buy Realgar fabric from Chromatic Alchemy and I think this would look really good with this one and take out a huge chunk of the stitching, maybe 2/5? 

I chose a couple nice hand-dyed fabrics for the others as well, so I'm not sure which one will get the call tomorrow. All three need some background removal sort of... so I'll have to figure that out tonight. 

The second week of the month will be for SALs. I have the frog SAL from KLT Charting, the Fantasy SAL from Lakeside Needlecraft that I'm stitching with Kate, plus the Under the Sea one from Lakeside that I haven't purchased yet, and the See Ya Later Alligator SAL from Jodyri Designs. I think that's it, although I'm thinking about trying to stitch a small monthly design to send to my Grandma, and ideally it should only take 1-2 days, so this might be a good place to put that project too. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to stitch the monthly patterns from Palko-Lap, or maybe some Durene Jones designs. I bought a few several from her Etsy store, but most of them are Xmas-themed. :)

The third week will be WIPs, and I currently have slightly over 50...!!! But 2 are really small and almost done, so I'm saying 49 real, will take multiple days, WIPs. I have 3 focus WIPs to complete first:

AAN Spider Banner - see above

Somebunny to Love - aiming for Valentine's Day

and letters S,H, and G:

That takes us to the 4th week of the month and that will be anything I want. I already have a few new starts I'm interested in, and I'm not sure if I'll start one in January or not, depending on how well Somebunny is going by the end of week 3. 

Here are some of the new starts I'm considering:

Stained Glass Butterflies - Cross Stitch Gold December 2016

I have a piece of fabric called Bridget's Garden from Chromatic Alchemy that almost matches the background. That would make it a little faster. Plus, DH dislikes the purple border, so I'll try and do blue on the border like the blue butterfly. 

Bugs for DD - Cross Stitch Crazy February 2017:

Moon Hare - WOXS Sept/Oct 2015

So no set plans, no marathon of starts, mostly working to get my WIP pile down in 2017 and not buy too much more stash. I'd like to organize what I have and start printing some of the digital files to put in binders as a backup copy. 

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year! 

Tiffstitch

Objective Complete!

As the time wound down, I wasn't sure if I could Autumn/Christmas Elegance fully finished into a pillow and At Our House as a cube finish. But I did! 

I managed to complete At Our House on Sunday and then spent Monday and Tuesday finishing it into this:

I used a large piece of styrofoam and stainless steel pins and pinned the stitching over some felt padding, then some dark brown fabric to the back. I also used a brown ribbon to hide the join. I tried to make a peaked roof like Jo had suggested, but I didn't have any stiff card and couldn't quite figure out how to make it work. I think they'll be happy with it anyway. I even remembered to sign it! 

Last night I really wasn't sure if I'd have time to finish Autumn/Christmas Elegance because I had to make sure everything else was wrapped and organized. Plus our computer system died at work and DH dropped everything to come and fix it, fortunately my parents were here and could babysit! He was at work until 10pm, and I had to drive back and get him then. But I used this tutorial when we came home and managed to complete the pillow in about 30 minutes. 

For whatever reason, I found that tutorial made everything click into place for me. I often find I lose focus with all the steps included in some tutorials, but this one was perfect for me. 

I did a fairly decent job on the seams of the envelope closing. One is a little better than the other, and that is the inside one. :)

Thank you so much for all your encouragement and suggestions, it really helps!

And Happy Holidays and Happy Stitching everyone!

Tiffstitch

Advent Calendar Blog Hop Day 16

Thanks for visiting and joining in Jo's Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year! I've been thinking about what I want to post all month since I posted an Xmas one for Jo's Birthday Blog Hop it was tough to find something I hadn't already posted about on my blog. 

I included this in a multiple photo top ten post about 18 months ago, so hopefully it will seem newish to most of you!

Angelic Melody - completed in 2012: 

This was one of the largest finishes I'd had at the time. It's 11x15 and was gifted to my MIL. The metallics weren't too bad to deal with, and neither was the fabric too stiff even though this is a Dimensions kit. I was really happy to have completed it. My cording could use work, but hey, first time for everything!

And Jo's question this year is: Decorations - do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

The only decoration I have that is always out is a stocking knitted by my Grandma. She made one for each grandchild way back while I was in undergrad and each one has a different design. Then she knitted one for our significant others, and for our children. She actually has knit 2 for DD because she forgot she had made one. I think that's about 17 total? They all get hung up when the Xmas decorations go up, then filled on Xmas Eve. :) 

Happy Holidays everyone!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - December Edition

I made it all the way through the year! And I mostly posted on time, so I'm pretty impressed with that as well. It's been really fun meeting new bloggers and crafters and I always enjoy reading your GG posts. 

For the last time this year, GG is the brainchild of the brainy Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. There's a link-up on her GG post and you can check out everyone's gifted and shoe-horned stitching. :) 

Since the last GG post I've managed to fully finish the Song of the Weather hardanger lapghan and given it to my Grandma:

I'm well ahead on At Our House by LK:

I'm showing 2 photos so you can see the whole thing so far. There are 2 more lines of text under the dark blue squares and that's it! I think I can finish on the weekend and get it finished-finished by Thursday to give it to the recipient. 

Rejoice Tree is fully finished as well as a cube style finish:

And that's all I have to show stitching wise. However, I was gifted a few charts in the after Thanksgiving HAED sale, and I need to figure out how to start these 3 next year:

 Mini Autumns Promise

 Mini Among the Cherry Blossoms

Mini Computer Catastrophes

I think I can figure out a way to start all of these. I'm thinking I can remove the background on the 2 dragon ones and use a hand-dyed fabric and that will work perfectly! Plus I will probably tent stitch because I need to get an HAED finished some day! 

I hope you've all had a great month and I hope Jo feels up to doing this again next year. Thanks for being an awesome host Jo!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Finally Friday!

It's been another busy week for me and I hope it hasn't been too busy for the rest of you!

I have some progress on At Your House, and I'm over halfway done. I didn't quite get it finished by the end of this week as I was hoping, but I'm well on the way. I have to work tomorrow, but not Sunday, so there's still some hope I'll get it complete over the weekend. 

I have a little more completed, but I haven't taken a new photo yet. Things at work have been busy, so I've been stitching and stitching and then go straight to bed. It's so nice to have stitching as a release valve! I'm really looking forward to finally a day off on Sunday. I'm also getting 4 days off over Xmas, so I also can't wait for that break. 

I think right now I'm going with getting At Our House complete and one Frosty Friend before Xmas. I still need to put the bargello pillow together and I'll need to decide how to finish this one as well. I was wondering what you all thought about a vertical pillow? Versus a framed piece. The recipients tend not to get around to hanging things very quickly. 

Have a good weekend, and thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Catching Up and Xmas Plans

Thank you for all your great comments on my Rejoice Tree finish. Grandma liked it, although a lot of people weren't sure what it was? They had laid it down sideways one time when I went to visit Grandma after I had set it up correctly. Hopefully they know now. 

And the blanket was successfully fully finished in good time. I will admit to still tying knots in the fringe on our way to our friends house, but that was still a good 3 days early. :)

Here's the finish:

It wasn't difficult to do the fringe, you only have to remove the horizontal threads on each side, then tie the vertical threads in knots. If you try this yourself, have 4 inches or so to make it easy on yourself!

Sewing the black fabric on the back so it didn't fray too much wasn't terribly difficult, but a little scary for me since it was my first "real" project for someone else. One seam was really teeny, but we managed to complete the seams without destroying the hardanger squares or the afghan, so that's something!

I'm not showing photos because it's not pretty, but it doesn't have to be, it's the back! and black on black stitching, so you'd have to really work to see it anyway.. I hope.

Grandma modeling her new lap-ghan. :)

I managed to get a decent amount of work done on At Our House as well. This is the mostly updated photo:

I'm working on the upper part/page 1 first and I'm a little farther ahead than this photo, but I haven't had a chance to take a new photo since we got back, or time to stitch. I'm also fighting off a cold, so haven't been up to much in the evenings. 

It's really fun to stitch, although since I have to hold my Qsnaps in hand I have to be careful not to stitch too long or my left hand cramps up from holding the frame. 

That meant I switched out and worked on my other travel piece as well:

This should be an easy finish with another hour or so to work on it. 

I also brought along my Frosty Friends, but I only did a line or so on one of them, so not much to show there. My Xmas goal is to finish all 6 of them. We'll see if that happens. ;)

Does anyone else like Advent calendars? It was a tradition in my house when I was growing up and we're rejuvenating it for DD again this year. I think she'll get into it a little more than she did last year. 

Kate was amazing and sent me some Moo Free advent calendars from the UK! Their chocolate is so good compared to what dairy free stuff I can find here. 

There is one missing as of last night. It was too early this morning to have my chocolate, so it will wait until I get home. DH and DD have one too, plus DD has a Thomas the Tank Engine one from her grandparents. I hope she enjoys it!

I think this post is long enough for now, hope you all had good weeks!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch