Jo's 10th Year of Blogging Celebration!

Hi everyone! I decided I must join in with Jo's 10th anniversary of blogging celebration. There's no one else quite like her with all the hosting she does in the blogosphere and on Facebook and stays active on both, plus so much more organized than I can ever imagine. :) You're amazing Jo!

To celebrate, Jo came up with a Ten Things Tag list, so I will do my best to complete it. 

 1.    The tenth project you completed

I completed so many little things before I started blogging and literally have no idea what my 10th project would have been. However, if I limit it to my 10th finish while on Blogspot, then we have:

Hello Invaders (designer on Sprite Stitch)

stitched 1 over 1 on 14ct towel band with DMC

I can't remember if it called for rainbow colours or if I made that choice to make it more summery. I ended up gifting this to my sister-in-law and that made her interested in cross-stitch. She has since completed 2 generations of the epic Pokemon stitches! So it was clearly a worthwhile stitch. 

2.    The tenth blog post you made

You can find that post here. I was home alone with our 2 month old at the time and worked on Tribal Dragon, which has since been finished, but back in January 2014, looked like this:

Tribal Dragon by White Willow Stitching in January 2014

stitched 1 over 1 with Soie Cristal silk on 25ct pewter Lugana

3.    The tenth blog in your blog roll (or your reader or however you follow blogs)

I used to use Feedly, but haven't been up on it for a while, so I'll throw in another 10, tenhourstitcher! We've teamed up for some starts over the last year or so and have no signs of stopping yet. :) 

4.    A designer you have stitched more than ten designs

I have a few of these, Dimensions, Durene Jones, Mill Hill, Lizzie Kate and HAED now. Apparently I like to challenge myself? :)

5.    A project that took/is taking more than ten years to complete

Anyone surprised I have more than one of these? One I'm not sure where one is, one I'd have to find where the pattern is, although I have the project and threads, and the other I made a mistake on and have to restart. 

Dimensions ornaments - this project is currently lost somewhere

Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden 

stitched as charted over 1 or 2 specialty stitches with DMC variations

I don't remember why I stopped stitching on this one, possibly because we moved and it got put away somewhere, so I lost track of the SAL? I need to find where the pattern is, but I have since found the project and threads. 

Blue Fractal by skitzzzzzz

stitched 1 over 1 on 22ct hardanger

I uploaded this into Pattern Keeper and as I was trying to edit what I'd done, I realized I've made many, many mistakes in this one. At first I thought I could get by, but now I've realized it needs a complete restart. So this will likely be a long time before I get back to it. 

6.    A design on the theme of "ten"

When I think of multiple charts, I always think of Country Cottage Needleworks and their sets of designs. One that has 10 charts is Main Street:

I thought of this one first because I believe there are a lot of variations of this chart that people have designed on their own. Like a Gilmore Girls version, etc. 

7.    The tenth colour on your current project.  Do you use this colour a lot?

Hmm, my current WIP doesn't have 10 colours. Let's see what the next planned WIP is, nope, that one doesn't have 10 colours either. Okay, let's go with Amazing Animal Kingdom. That one definitely has more than 10 colours. The 10th colour is DMC 169. I think this colour does tend to come up in a lot of projects because it's a nice medium gray. 

8.    Your tenth WIP for WIPocalypse, WIPGO or whatever list you make

The 10th WIP on my blog WIP list is Land of Dinosaurs, yet another unfinished one. 

This is from a World of Cross Stitch Magazine October 2015. I had started it back when DD was interested in dinosaurs and she still is, maybe she still will be by the time I finish? 

9.    Your tenth finish this year (or last year if you haven't finished ten so far this year)

I just finished this one almost a week ago, so I haven't even shown it on the blog yet. Now in it's premiere:

Cindy Cane by Mill Hill

stitched as charted with kit fabric, threads and beads

10.    How has your stitching style changed in the last ten years?

I had tried full coverage 10 years ago and gave up because it was so difficult with paper charts. I kept trying and until Pattern Keeper came out, I had stopped buying full coverage patterns. Now I keep buying more! It's so much fun to stitch with Pattern Keeper now. 

Other big changes are I only started to become aware of the smaller designers around 12 years ago, so hadn't really stitched much except from kits up till then. Since then my fabric and thread stash has grown tremendously. It's a lot of fun to kit things up now instead of buying kits and I enjoy using the colourful fabrics, as you've probably seen from my blog. I think I'm maybe a neater stitcher now too? Possibly. 

This was a lot of fun Jo! Plus it made me have to organize my blog and get all the WIPs and completions updated. Slowly but surely getting there. :)

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

March Round-Up and One Fully Finished Gallery Entry!

Maybe some day I'll have time and opportunity to do these wrap-ups at the beginning of the month instead of the middle, but not this time. :) I'll hold out hope for April since I have plans for May at this point. 

I kept Amazing Animal Kingdom as my focus project, and also had several others come out for a little bit of work. 

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Monaco as charted

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full crosses on 28ct Monaco (added some white above the dragons)

Lots to go on this, but a lot is in 032 Kreinik and that seems to be out everywhere, so I'm in no hurry on this one. 

Canadian Hero (Terry Fox) by Stitching Jules Designs

stitched 1 over 1 on 25ct easy guide as charted

I haven't been back to this since I started, but hope to finish his face first and make sure I'm happy with it before continuing with the rest. 41 years and 2 days ago Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope in the far east of Canada. 

In Harmony by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 (or as charted) with kit threads and fabric

This one is my oldest WIP right now I think, so I use it for "penalty" stitching in one of the Facebook groups. It's had a decent amount of progress in the last few months, so a finish this year might be within the realm of possibility. 

Under the Sea SAL hosted by Lakeside Needlecraft by Durene Jones

stitched 2 over 2 as charted except for this part, the submarine is charted as grey

Diamond Painting! Tried something new when I wasn't feeling cross stitch one day. That has happened a lot in the last year, and will likely continue until things are more settled and "normal". Who knows when that will be. This was fun and it's a fairly small project as these things go, so something I might pull out again to work on this year and eventually finish. It will be a wolf face. These are square drills/diamonds and I think round would be better, but I'll finish it with what I have. 

Amazing Animal Kingdom by Aimee Stewart charted by HAED

stitched 2 over 1 tent stitch on 32ct experimental fabric by Chromatic Alchemy

I'm almost done a second page on this one, below the first page. I didn't quite manage it by the end of the month because of getting caught by a mini-obsession. 

Patsy Pine by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 on perforated paper as charted

I picked this up again at the end of the month to see where I could get to. I felt like it was going pretty well, and although this my March 31st stitching, this project is now finished, as well as 3 others. 

Yes, my mini-obsession is trying to get things finished in April! So I haven't touched Animal Kingdom at all and it is safe in a project bag until I get back to it. I haven't taken it out of the qsnap because I'd been planning to get to it, but I think I might go ahead and do that since I still have new startitis and might do a full 31 starts in May. 

I took a day to sort out some options for projects, kit things up, and tried to keep it somewhat reasonable. I still have plans for the new starts during the Olympics with Rachel and those projects are already set. Unless I change my mind again. :) 

And you saw this one in my GG post, but here it is again, a big finish for me!

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 or as charted with kit threads and fabric

And finally my FFO!

Happy Easter freebie

stitched 1 over 1 with Dinky Dyes oops threads on scrap of 18ct CA fabric

I glued this to a card and then forgot to give it to DD for Easter, so it will wait till next year. That sounds so unlike me.... 

I'm still debating on 31 new starts. I don't need that many of course, but it's not about that. I was trying to organize some things and noticed I'd been running out of room for fabric, so started thinking I could start more things, or at least kit them up and have things earmarked for certain projects. That got me back to thinking about just going ahead and starting things I've been wanting to right now instead of waiting till July. I easily found enough projects, and took a day to more fully whittle things down. I have 22 fully kitted, so that's a good start. That may or may not be what's driving my desire to finish things this month, and I have 4 complete already, so maybe another 4 will be possible before the end of the month. That would put a good dent in the WIPs at least. 

I hope you've all had a good April so far. Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Easter Blog Hop 2021

Hello all and Happy Easter if you celebrate, Happy Bunny Day if you celebrate that way and have a nice weekend if you don't celebrate at all. Our fabulous host Jo is hosting the Easter Blog Hop again and here is my stitching! I finally managed to finish it off just in time for this post. 

blackwork Easter freebie - unknown designer

stitched with Dinky Dyes Oops pack silk on 18ct Nimbus by Chromatic Alchemy

A quick little fun stitch and I still need to FFO it. I hope you all have a great weekend and here is your letter:

And please follow along to the next blog here and meet this gentle soul if you don't follow her already. 

Stay well, and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch