Shortest Day SAL

I hope you're all ready for Xmas! The area is getting ready, because this is what was happening today:

It was beautiful to watch, although not so fun to drive in. But now I'm home and don't have to leave the house until Sunday, so I can enjoy it from inside my cozy house. 

Stitching has been happening! I joined Jo's Shortest Day SAL, which was maybe a Facebook only group and managed one small finish for a little friend of DD's:

The bottom photo has a truer colours. This was a little cutie from a WOXS series of Xmas smalls on Chromatic Alchemy 14 ct Nimbus I think. 

I'm also charging along on DD's gift:

and finally remembered to take a photo of the Frosty Friends I was working on:

I'll finish them some day. Maybe I should try and fit them into the Christmas Ornie Blog? The themes this year are:

January - Deck the Halls

February - Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer

March - We Three Kings 

April - White Christmas

May - Hark the Herald Angels Sing

June - Good King Wenceslas

July - God Rest You Merry Gentleman

August - Away in a Manger

September - The Little Drummer Boy

October - Oh Christmas Tree

November - Jolly Old St Nicholas

December - Frosty the Snowman

I can hopefully manage a few and get some more ornaments done so I'm not scrabbling like this year. :) If you'd like to sign up, check out the other themes and info here. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Xmas and/or Happy Holidays or enjoy your days off! Your comments are always so encouraging and helpful and I really appreciate them.

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - December Edition

It's the last Gifted Gorgeousness of 2017! I hope you've all had good years full of gifts made and received and stitched with/on. Check out how we've all tried to join in over at Jo's smashing blog!

I haven't been getting a ton of stitching done, and I gave up on Frosty Friends as gifts for DD's teachers. I settled on towels instead and finished this one recently:

This is a free design from Kincavel Krosses. There are lots of great Xmas designs, some smalls, so if you're still looking for a pattern, check there. I stitched it on an ivory towel with an Aida band with DMC 4520. 

The other teacher will get this towel that I finished in 2015 I think:

make that early 2016 by the album it's in. :)  This is from Cross Stitch for the Holidays 2011 edition and I used the charted threads. 

I also received a gift for Stashmas from the Cross Stitch Forum:

There's an annual Stashmas exchange and I had a great time this year! I forgot to take a photo, but this is what I sent my exchange recipient:

I finished November and got it sent off a little bit late:

and as you saw in the last post, December was finished:

and the gift for my Xmas-loving friend:

plus the progress on Covered Bridge:

and Fishing:

I still forgot to take another photo of Frosty Friends, so I will try and get a photo at some point. :) There's a little bit of time left in December to try and get this little kit finished for DD, so I'm going to start tonight. Nothing like last minute! 

Happy Stitching and Happy Holidays if I don't get back on here before Xmas!

Tiffstitch

2017 Advent Blog Hop

Here is is, only a week to go until Christmas Eve! This is a big day in our household as well since DH's birthday is coming up as well. Hello to everyone hopping over from Jo's blog and a Merry Christmas!

Check out everyone's Advent posts over here at Jo's blog!

This year Jo's question is: How do you plan to spend Boxing Day?  Do you have any traditions associated with this day?

When I was younger, on Boxing Day we would go around to all of our local relatives and see what they had received for Xmas, eat leftovers, etc. I had 2 sets of aunts and uncles to see and 5 cousins total, so there were always lots of things to play with. I don't think we did another big family meal with our grandparents since we spent almost the entire day at their house on Christmas Day. Some years my parents would go out to the Boxing Day sales, but not that often. 

Now that I'm working full-time, and living in the US, a lot of times I've had to work on Boxing Day. I don't this year, we're going to take it off, so it will be nice to have a day to relax. Perhaps we'll think of something to do as our own tradition? We've already made up one for our tree and put it up on DD's birthday in November. She gets a kick out of it, so we'll continue as long as she's happy with it. 

On to stitching! I'm sad to say I really haven't had much time lately, much too much going on in the house, but I'm still aiming to get a few things done for local friends and maybe DD's teachers. 

However, I will get this in the mail and hopefully it will arrive on time!

Palko-lap December:

I stitched this on Phlogiston by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 4520.It was a fun little stitch and my first time stitching with the Coloris line. I think it was pretty easy to stitch with, typical DMC issues, and worked well. 

I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday season, however you celebrate it! DD was very enamored by Santa this year. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Time to Start the Xmas Stitching!

Okay, just kidding, let's pretend I started months ago... :)

Hope you've all had a good 2 weeks! It's been very busy for me, hence no posts since the last one on November 21st, and that was a scheduled post! I was away at my parents and came home to emergency house guests fleeing a domestic situation. We're all alone again and they're in a safe place and things seem to be moving in a positive direction at this point. Fingers crossed it will continue for them! 

Now for some updates. I'm extending the time for finishing my gifts for my Grandma and uncle to hopefully Xmas, although I might extend the time for my uncle's. I did get some done, but it was busy at home, as usual, plus my parents have been having issues, but anyways, stitching got done! And that's always good. 

Oh, and I might have a small addiction to the new Animal Crossing mobile game....

 Covered Bridge got a lot of beads and more stitches:

Fishing is really coming along:

I had forgotten to bring this one with me, so madly trying to finish it before I start December:

And I got some border done on Frosty Friends. I'm hoping to maybe get a couple done for Xmas gifts for DD's teachers. There's not much to show, but they will eventually look like this:

I hope you've all had productive weeks and enjoyed your holidays if you had them!

Back to stitching, I need to make up for lost time. :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Theme-tas-Stitch - No X November

On the 21st of the month it's time to post about anything relating to the month's theme as chosen by Kerry. Check out all the details here. 

This month's theme is No X, meaning no straight cross stitch. Turns out I have 2 medium size projects I'd like to finish, so that meant very little time to stitch anything else. I did take one evening to stitch up the Bah Humbug small by Kincavel Krosses. Find the link in this post.

I stitched it 1 over 1 on 28 ct Monaco with some stash threads. I wanted it to be somewhat useful, so I made it into a keychain:

and backed it with some shiny card stock I had on hand:

This was a gift for a friend that loves Christmas, so I enjoyed the irony. She was like, but what? ;) Until she got it. 

I hope you all had a fun month working on some different projects!

Happy Stitching and Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate it this week!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - November Edition

It's halfway through the month and that means it's time again for Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by the unstoppable Jo of Serendipitous Stitching! Join up or check out everyone else's progress here. 

I've been stitching away at the same old projects the last couple weeks, but here's the round up again. :) 

Covered Bridge

I finally figured out how to get a good photo of the colours that doesn't over-highlight everything. I have to kind of tip the project forward, so if the angle looks a little wonky, it is!

Fishing

This probably won't see any progress until we're traveling next week, and hopefully it will get a lot then!

Lakeside Needlecraft Specialy Stitches SAL

Since this was free, it's a "gift" from the designer, Durene Jones. The threads and fabric are by Chromatic Alchemy. The thread was a limited edition one and the fabric is called Realgar. 

I hope you've all had a great month since last time and I'll need to go check everyone's progress. Hopefully I'll have some more varied projects next month as we get close to Xmas too. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

'Titching Tuesday

Okay, it's a silly alliteration, but it's late and all I could come up with. :)

I'm working away at Covered Bridge still. Did I mention I think trying to finish this one first is the best idea because Fishing has no beads or fiddly bits and I think it would be easier to stitch in the car, but beads and being a passenger probably don't work well together. 

I have 2 more days of progress, Monday:

and Tuesday:

It's looking so good! I'm really happy with it, even with all the confetti. :) Fingers crossed I can get more done tonight and see where it's at before Monday. With luck there will be a finish!

I hope you're all feeling well and getting lots of stitching done. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Sunday Stitching

Time to update my WIPs! I hope everyone has had a good weekend and had as much stitching time as they wished. We've had a busy time as DD turns 4 tomorrow. She seemed to have a blast this weekend, so that's what matters. I did get a little stitching done, although having a cold and a major migraine episode this week did slow me down a little. 

There's a fair bit of confetti in the leaves of this one and I'd like to try and get the top done first, so I'm working more there first. I haven't done much with Fishing lately, but I hope to get that out this week. With luck I'll get them both finished up in a couple weeks. 

I haven't been able to do any of the No X November stitching that Theme-tas-stitch has set as the theme, but I have this one in mind for a friend. 

She's a little Xmas obsessed, so I think she'll get a laugh out of this one. It's a free chart by Kincavel Krosses and you can find it here. 

I hope you've all had a good week!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Zodiac SAL - Scorpio

It's the first Saturday of the month again and time for a Zodiac post! Head over to Jo's blog to find out what this one is all about and read about Scorpio. I have a few Scorpio's in my family and the description rings true. 

Scorpio is a water sign, so I'm shoe-horning in a few stitches with that theme. :)

Covered Bridge - get it?

 Fishing

Plus as an added bonus I finished the Lakeside Needlecraft SAL!!

I even tucked all the ends in and got rid of the waster knots, although this is not quite straight. Water can be all these colours depending on your perspective, reflection from sunset, etc, so I'm going with it! 

I hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! Jo was at it again with her blog hop and check it out here if you haven't tried for the sweet prizes. I forgot to mention which one I'd like to win, but I think the Imaginating design is the coolest. 

I realized I didn't really have any new Halloween stitching besides the Palko lap monthly stitch in orange and black, so I showed one from 2015 that I love! And still need to make into a pillow. 

On to current WIPs though! 

The Lakeside Needlecraft Specialty Stitches SAL will be over this Friday when part 6 comes out. I can't wait! I finished Part 5:

I'm stitching this one over one on 28 ct Realgar by Chromatic Alchemy with a club thread. I've almost used one entire skein, so that's pretty impressive. I'm using waste knots and hope to clean this up after part 6 is complete. :)

Fishing is coming along as well and is starting to look like something now:

I still have a decent amount to complete and hopefully I can get a few good evenings of stitching in this weekend for this one and Covered Bridge. 

I hope you all had fun yesterday and time to buckle down for Xmas! :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Trick or Treat Halloween Blog Hop 2017

Hello all! Your spooky letter at this stop is:

And this is the end, so head back to Jo's fabulous blog to enter the phrase. 

I haven't pulled out anything new to stitch for Halloween this year and there are too many WIPs to name, so let's check out Midnight Manor again, one of my absolute favourite Halloween stitches. And no, it's not fully finished yet :D

I still love the GITD thread effect and some day I'll get this into a pillow. I should look for fabric now to find something fitting. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Tiffstitch

WIP Update

I've been so excited lately when Friday rolls around because that means it's time for the next installment of the Lakeside Needlecraft SAL! There are lots of other reasons for Fridays to be exciting too though, I get almost every other Friday off, although it does mean I work that Saturday. Plus there's usually hockey every Friday night!

I hope you've all been having good weekends! My parents visited this past week, so I had slightly less stitching time, but I did manage to get a little more done on Covered Bridge:

There's lots to do yet, but it's getting there!

And then there was a little time to stitch on Friday after the Halloween party and I started on the next installment of the Lakeside Needlecraft SAL:

These were mostly new stitches to me and there were all fairly straightforward. I managed a little more stitching last night after Saturday hockey, which was a new group of people and fairly fast, and I only ended up with a few bruises. :)

And then I finished up one more side of part 5:

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Realgar, threads and fabric are Chromatic Alchemy

 

2 more sections to go and then this coming Friday will have the last part. I'm really curious what the center motif will be. I should be able to get at least another side done today, if not both. Wish me luck and no frogs. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

TBT and Mel's Giveaway

I took a little time to search through my old photos to find this one. I don't think I've shown it on my blog before, although it did make a cameo in the recent photo of the wall in the guest room. 

In case you can't tell which one I'm talking about, it's this one:

Here it is in unframed glory with the bleeding thread colours on the left. This was from a Dimensions kit I think and I'd never had thread bleed before. I was debating about letting it run out some more, but in the end the frame I chose fit perfectly and covered all of it, so I left it as is. I can't find a photo of just this one in the frame, but you could zoom in on the other photo if you want to check. :) 

This was one of the most confetti full stitches I'd done at the time (2011). I love how it turned out! 

Don't forget to head over to Mel's blog for her threads giveaway! It's over this Sunday, October 29. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Progress and a Giveaway at Mel's!

Mel of Epic Stitching is having a giveaway over at her blog for some stitching supplies. Check it out here! She's also previewing a pretty cool Feminist Icon Cross stitch book that may interest people, so head over there for all the details. 

I've decided that I'll try and stitch on a single project every night I can, so that may mean switching back and forth with Covered Bridge and Fishing so I can get them both finished by mid-November. 

I managed to get a little farther on Fishing last night, from here:

to here:

The far left is about as high as it will go, so I will attempt to fill in the rest except the sky and see where how the sky looks unfinished. It would be nice if it works so I can save myself some time stitching. :)

We also re-did our guest room in time for my parents visit and some of my cross stitch is finally hanging up! 

 I didn't stitch this, but I love how it looks now:

Unfortunately, when we hang the tapestry of Otto in our bedroom the cat tries to climb it, so we decided to put it here since at least it will be hanging up again, which it deserves. :)

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch