2022 Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hello, hello! I have had almost no stitching time this year, but decided to try and at least participate in Jo's amazing Advent blog hop. 

This year she's asked us to discuss what we have for "afters" or dessert. This has changed as I've become an adult, but it was quite varied as a child. When I was young, 3 families would gather at my grandparents house for present opening and Christmas dinner (in the evening). After dinner, there would be the choice of Christmas pudding, served with brandy, pumpkin pie and the "cookie tray". If you haven't had the cookie tray, that is still my favourite part of Christmas. There are so many different varieties of cookies and squares and Grandma would start making them in early December. They'd sit out on the porch where it stayed cool all month and on Christmas Eve they'd finally start to be brought out. 

My absolute favourite cookie we called snowdrops. It was basically meringue stuffed with chocolate chips. I've tried to make them a few times, but it doesn't always come out correctly. It's supposed to sort of melt in your mouth and I have made them chewy a few times. 

As I've become an adult and live far away from my family, we tend to have squash pie made with butternut squash. Also pecan pie sometimes or vegan cheesecake with cashews. We haven't really had a cookie tray so much as generally we make gingerbread cookies, but that's about all the variety we have. Time is a big factor for me to be able to make anything. 

I can't wait to read about what everyone else has for afters!

And now to a brand new finish, almost fully finished:

Mill Hill Snow Globe

MH16-1931 Santa Globe

stitched as charted with 3 strands floss and included beads

I hope you all have a very merry holiday, however you celebrate it!

Happy Stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

May Round-up 2022

A busy six weeks is behind me now and I didn't manage a ton of stitching, but I did manage a couple finishes and some progress on the larger projects. I also stopped by yet another LNS that's retiring. This is the last one that I was aware of in Vermont, USA. I've seen all of them close over the last 8 years, which has been sad to see. 

I'm attempting to stitch in a more focused way to get some more finishes before the end of the year, but also trying to continue working on the projects I'd like to finish this year. 

First, the finishes:

MH18-2121 Enchanted Moon 

stitched as charted, 3 over 1 thread and half cross and full cross for beads as charted

I picked up a few more of these small Mill Hill kits at the LNS that's closing, and I might have a chance to get there this weekend for penultimate open weekend to get some more. 

Next up I managed to finish The Raven:

The Raven by La-D-Da

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 25ct congress cloth by Silkweavers with DMC 310

The original pattern called for different colours of grey, but I like having it just in black, like a raven. If I ever get our bookshelves organized I think this would look good in that room. Speaking of the Raven, guess who I spotted on a trip to Boston:

We just happened to be in the right area to go to a Hannah Gadsby stand up show and it was pretty amazing to see his statue.

If you recall, these 2 finishes are from Mischievous March. The other 2 are larger and I've progressed on one, but not on the other. 

Here's where my first Mischievous March start was:

and now:

Peacock Infinity Feather by CrossStitch4Everyone

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amethyst Spirit by Chromatic Alchemy

There aren't too many colours in this one and it's only partial coverage so I've already hit a few 0s on Pattern Keeper. That's always satisfying to know you haven't missed a stitch somewhere. 

I'm keeping up on Triumphant Ride, although not quite as far as I had initially planned. That is fine, it's been a busy, stressful time. I think the last time I posted it about it, it was here:

and now I've moved the fabric up a bit:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC 310

I think is about 8000 stitches into it. Not quite where I planned, but a significant amount. I'll keep plugging away. 

I hope you've all been well! I'll try and keep up at least monthly posts and hope to try and get to see some of your posts now too and catch up a bit. 

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Easter 2022 Blog Hop

It's a long weekend in April, so you know what that means! Easter Blog Hop hosted by the indefatigable Jo! Head over to Serendipitous Stitching to start the blog off, if you're here, you're near the end!

In true Easter fashion I've stitched another bunny, although this one was finished late last year and I never showed the full finish on my blog. Here it is!

Easter Freebie by Erica Michaels through Rainbow Gallery's website

stitched 2 over 1 with Carrie's Creations Jellyfish for the border and unknown Dinky Dyes for the bunny, Glinda the Good by Jodyri for the ears, WDW Purple Haze for the eyes, 

WDW Camellia for the nose, and an unknown for the blue/green background 

on 16ct or 18ct light blue aida

And of course you're here for your letter so you know how to finish off this year's clever phrase. Not just to ooh and aah over my finish. :)

Head back to Jo's blog to finish off and let her know your guess!

Happy Easter and/or long weekend to everyone and stay well. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March 2022 Start #4 - The Raven

I chose another somewhat easy one for the last week of starts. I thought it was completely monochrome, but turns out there's 3 shades in it. The charted project looks like this:

And I found some 25ct opalescent congress cloth from Silkweavers that seemed pretty fun to try it out. I've never stitched on congress cloth as far as I know. I only managed a small start, some of the black border. The border, the stars and the raven are all black and the words and fence are medium gray and light gray. I might just stitch it all in black to make it easier though. I think that would look good as well. Or maybe do the fence in that 3799 Etoile Rachel and I have been using on the WBTW projects? 

Anyway, here's my small start:

The Raven by La-D-Da

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 25ct congress cloth by Silkweavers with DMC 310

And now it's really time to catch up from my January plans. I've not been in a great stitching mood recently with a lot of stress from work carrying home, but hopefully that will change at some point. 

I hope you're all getting lots of stitching time and don't forget to check Rachel's post for another cute stamp! They're raising fees on Etsy sellers as of April 11, so if you're looking to purchase anything, do it soon or check their personal websites if they have them. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March 2022 Start #3 - Enchanted Moon

Mischievous March start 3 is upon us! And this time I actually did choose something that I might finish this year. Behold Mill Hill Autumn Harvest: Enchanted Moon:

and I managed a little progress to get to here:

This was only 3 lengths of thread, so the whole project shouldn't take too long. It's only orange and black and then beads. 

I hope you've been checking out Rachel's new starts, she's had some gorgeous projects from new-to-me designers as well. 

One more week to go and I still may change things up this weekend, we'll see how the week goes. It was a long full moon week for me, so a nice small project was the best choice. 

I hope you're all staying well and getting lots of stitching time!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Paralympics 2022 - Conclusion

This post is a few days late because I literally have had no time or ability to post. I haven't even really stitched in days which is incredibly frustrating. I hope you enjoyed Rachel's posts, she did an amazing job of breaking down the days of the Paralympics and discussing different events. I definitely feel like I haven't done enough this time. I can't say I'll get more time to get more info on this post either, so I will post the conclusion, but am disappointed with my result. 

I did manage to finish 4 dragons out of 12, but the 5th only grew a bit, from here:

to here:

Drake #4 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent Aida by Silkweavers

with Nile Princess by Jodyri

It took 2 days and I still didn't even get 100 stitches in. 

For the Paralympics, I hope you were able to watch and I hope you read Rachel's posts. She did such a nice job of describing the day's happenings and I'm so happy for her finishes! She has some beautiful dragons to finish now, so I wonder how she'll put them all together. 

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March 2022 Start 2 - Spooky SAL

It's here again, and in true mischievous fashion I again chose a larger project. I think I must plan to live till 100 or retire in 5 years or there's no way I'm ever going to finish everything! I do love this one though. It's by The Steady Thread and was released last year. Eventually it will look like this:

There's 2 versions and some mixing and matching you can do as there is a bonus pattern if you don't want to do the spider that has a cauldron instead. The other version has gates at the top and bottom and is shown in black and white. 

I didn't get a big start this weekend, but I did manage most of the crystal ball from the middle octagon. 

Spooky SAL 2021 by The Steady Thread

stitched 1 over 2 on 28ct Cashel linen (black) with white DMC

I do enjoy blackwork once in a while, wait, whitework? Anyway, it's fun to work on something different than regular cross stitch. I did use linen for this, which isn't my favourite, but I had a piece just the right size. Does anyone else do that? Put up with a less than favourite fabric because then you don't have to cut another piece? 

I think this one will be put away for a bit and then I need to get caught up on Triumphant Ride! It's been a fun few weeks of different stitching, but I still would like to get that finished this year, so I need to catch up a bit. 

I hope you've all been staying well and having good stitching days. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Paralympics 2022 Days 3-7

Back for another fun para winter olympics sport, one which able-bodied people can play as well, but not in the Olympics! Sledge Hockey or what is now called Para Ice Hockey because "sledge" means different things in different languages. 

Para Ice Hockey had its roots in Sweden when 2 men with physical disabilities modified a simple kids sled to allow them to continue to play hockey. They added 2 skate blades and lifted the sled so that a puck could slide underneath it. There wasn't a lot of competitive interest until the early 1970s when other European countries started forming teams. If you can believe it, Great Britain formed their team in 1981, one year before Canada!

Unlike able-bodied hockey, teams can be mixed-gender. Players sit in the sled and propel themselves around with two short sticks. There's a blade on one end of each and metal teeth on the other end to help players move around the rink. The other modification for Para Ice Hockey is the bench must be level to the ice. Usually there's a short step onto the ice in able-bodied hockey. Also, the bench has ice on the floor instead of a rubber mat so players can move around. The bench must be larger as well. 

Most of the rules are the same as ice hockey, with one special penalty. If you charge at someone with the front end of your sled, that is a penalty, called "Teeing". Equipment is basically the same, although you don't technically need to wear protective gear on your lower limbs. Goalies don't necessarily have to have leg pads either, it depends on their preference. 

I mentioned that able-bodied people can play as well, and it's true! There are leagues around that allow you to play if you're able-bodied. There may be some restrictions for competitions, but if you aren't interested in regular hockey or have trouble skating, this might be a fun sport to try. There are leagues in our area since I've heard people mention playing. I know my knees start to get a bit sore now sometimes when I play, so maybe it's something to consider as I get older. 

This year, the bronze medal game was played by China and Korea and Canada and the US played in the gold medal game. Unlike the men's able-bodied team, the para teams made the medal rounds! 

I hope you enjoyed the summary and sorry it took me so long to get it posted. 

Onto the dragons! As I mentioned, I doubt I'm finishing all 12 dragons, but I did manage another 2, and one needed a lot of work! Days 3 and 4 started here:

and a finish for Day 3:

Drake # 7 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Diligence by Jodyri

followed a few days later(!) by a finish on Day 4:

Drake #11 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Jodyri Viennese Waltz

That last one took a while! I only finished it last night and kept wanting to have 2 done for the next post, but it kept going and going. I'm not sure if I'll get another 2 done before the end of the games, but I'll keep plugging away. I do have a new bag to keep these in, from @jasminecustombags on Instagram. She makes some beautiful ones!

I hope you've all been keeping well and getting lots of stitching in!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March 2022 Start 1 - Peacock Infinity Feather

Mischievous March starts now! And I started out quite mischievous with another insane start, another confetti-filled chart on a small count fabric. It will eventually look like this:

Peacock Infinity Feather by CrossStitch4Everyone

I'm working on this cool fabric from Chromatic Alchemy, called Amethyst Spirit. It has hints of mauve and almost brownish purple as well. I only managed a couple hundred stitches so far and I'm starting in the middle, so this is the outline of the feather. 

Peacock Infinity Feather by CrossStitch4Everyone

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amethyst Spirit by Chromatic Alchemy

This one only has about 14K stitches and lot of greens! 

Make sure you stop by Rachel's post and maybe Katie will be joining too? I hope you're all enjoying your stitching time. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Paralympics Days 1-2

 A lot of the first Paralympic events have been related to skiing, so I'll start off talking about how skiing is different in the Paralympics. For alpine skiing, there are 2 events, slalom and giant slalom. The categories of athletes are divided into spinal injury, Cerebral Palsy, amputation, blindness/visual impairment and Les Autres (dwarfism, multiple sclerosis, congenital malformations, etc.) These categories are then subdivided based on levels of ability. 

A lot of different countries have been able to medal in these events, with the most decorated Paralympic alpine skier named Gerd Schönfelder. He has 22 medals!

And onto the stitching. If you recall, Rachel and I are trying to complete our 12 dragons from the Summer Paralympics. The first dragon I worked on was this one:

Drake #9 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Blue Morpho Butterfly by Jodyri Designs

and it took a couple nights, but I managed to finish it here:

Drake #9 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Blue Morpho Butterfly by Jodyri Designs

and the second dragon I worked on started here:

Drake #2 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Jodyri Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath

and I finished it last night:

Drake #2 by StitchItPicasso

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct Fairyland opalescent aida by Silkweaver

with Jodyri Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath

I'm not 100% sure I'll get them all completed, especially with starting 2 new projects during the Paralympics for Mischievous March, but we'll see how it goes. At least they will progress, even if they don't get finished. 

It's a good start though, so I'll take it! I hope you're all able to watch some of the Paralympics and enjoying stitching. 

Happy stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Paralympics 2022

Here we are at the start of the Paralympics when Rachel and I will try the somewhat Herculean effort of finishing 12 dragons in 10 days. The Winter Paralympics are shorter than the Summer Paralympics so it will be a challenge! 

This is where the entire project was at the last look for the Summer Paralympics last year:

I'll start with the top left one tonight and see if I can manage to get it finished. There are a few specific Paralympic winter sports and I'll try and make a few posts about them when I can. For now, a few facts about the Paralympics:

- the first Winter Paralympics were in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

- the first Winter Paralympics were the first to feature athletes that had other disabilities, previously the Paralympics had only wheelchair athletes

- the first athlete caught cheating was in 2002 for positive steroids

I hope you're all able to catch some of the events. I'm going to try and have DD watch some to help her world view. 

Happy Stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 - Days 13-17

We made it! The Olympics are over and there were many, many amazing milestones for different athletes and countries. Also for Rachel, she has another finish! Check it out over at her blog. I didn't come close to finishing mine, and wasn't expecting to. I did get a lot done and am enjoying it so much I almost want to stick with it a while longer. But I do also want to progress on Triumphant Ride and I've completely ignored it so far this month. 

Here's where Mini Winter Magic was when the Olympics started:

Day 13 - I finally had a chance to watch some of the cross country skiing and enjoyed the women's relay. I hadn't seen it before and was curious if they got to give each other a push like in speed skating or just a tag. I was guessing there was no baton, but could be a flag or something? It was a touch, and the other skier sets off. There was a lot of excitement in hockey today as well. Team Canada men's was ousted from all medals! The bronze medal in women's hockey was won by Finland, who repeated their win from 2018, the first time that has ever been accomplished in women's hockey. Other excitement was at short track speed skating where the Canadian men's relay team won gold! One of the skaters, Charles Hamelin, is now tied for most medals at Winter Olympics with Cindy Klassen, also a short track speed skater. 

Day 14 - The big news for me today was Canada's win over the US in women's hockey. It was a nail-biter and I ended up getting up early to watch it before I had to go into work instead of staying up late. A really great game by both teams and so exciting to watch. Women's ski cross happened today as well and I loved watching how close some of the races were. There was a little controversy at the end because the athlete that came third was penalized for getting in the way of another racer and ended up losing out on the medal. It seems a little harsh because she had moved to not hit the person in front of her and only inadvertently got in the way of the racer behind her. But I'm not a judge, and it took them so long to decide, they were really trying to get it right for everyone. 

Day 15 - More excitement today with men's ski cross and women's freeski halfpipe. That is still amazing to watch and terrifying at the same time. The tricks they can manage on skis are almost as scary to watch as the snowboard tricks. There was also an exciting long track speed skating event in the mens' 1000m. The athlete from the Netherlands that won gold had missed out on winning recently because of different issues during races and yet was still ranked #1. It was a very fast race for the top 3 and we watched the medal ceremony after as well. 

Day 16 - Both long track speed skating and cross country skiing had mass start events today. There is quite the confusion with both, especially at the start as everyone tries to jockey for position. The speed skating race has certain times skaters can sprint and they get points for winning the sprint. The highest points earned are winning the entire race though. I think the points for sprint might only come in if maybe you were 4th for the entire race, but won all the sprints, etc. I doubt that happens very often though. In both the men's and women's races it seemed like different skaters won each sprint. The women's race was particularly exciting because a Canadian athlete was leading almost the whole time and just got beat at the end when she had no legs left. You could see she was giving it all, but couldn't make it. So fun to watch and she was a great sport too. That's mostly what I've seen from all the athletes in events I've watched. 

Day 17 - It's the end! They had some fun events today, the figure skating gala is always fun to watch and the women's curling finish, go GB! Also big news in men's hockey when Finland won the gold! I haven't even had time to watch the closing ceremonies, and I think I don't make time sometimes because it's a little sad. I do love the Winter Olympics. The below video is from 2018, I had trouble finding anything that would play. 

And now, to show how far along Mini Winter Magic made it! I did get to just 60% complete, and I'm very happy with that progress. There's a definite difference and I think I managed over 4K stitches over the 17 days. That's pretty decent progress for me. 

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco as charted

And now to try and put this one down and catch up on Triumphant Ride! I will try and post before we start the Paralympics where it's a rush to get all the dragons complete, if possible. And March Madness! Have I done a final choice of which 4 projects to start? Of course not. I'll winnow those down this week as well. 

I hope you're all staying well and enjoying your stitching. Like Cathy mentioned, it will maybe be faster stitching from me now that the Olympics are over. I do tend to watch, especially the exciting events and my stitch counts aren't great. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Olympics Days 9-12

Time again for another Olympics post! I'm stealing borrowing Rachel's idea of putting my previous finish spot on the top of the post and the update on the bottom. 

I hope if you've been watching the Olympics you've enjoyed all the new sports and the classic ones as well. I haven't watched much of the cross-country skiing yet, but I'll have a chance in a day or two. I'm very interested in the cross country relay since it seems like it would be quite different than traditional quick relays. 

Day 9  - There were lots of medal events today. We spent a lot of today watching the mixed teams snowboard cross finals and DD was really excited to watch some skeleton. They've been learning about the Olympics in school and having an Olympics event there as well. She didn't remember the skeleton event so was excited to watch. We were cheering for everyone to do well and she was so excited for the Australian athlete to win a silver!

The sliding events, luge, skeleton and bobsleigh always seem like the hardest to me because you need to do well in every single run. Your total time is what counts. A lot of other events you can knock out a bad run, like Big Air or aerials. 

Day 10 - There were more short track speed skating events today, a lot of which are terrifying and intense to watch, even if you're not cheering for any particular country. There were also long track events, which seem an entirely different sport. Have any of you watched the short track relay? So confusing to try and follow them. 

This is an old video, but the only one I could find that actually shows how the relay works. 

Day 11 - Aerials today and this is another terrifying event for me. The perspective is interesting when you watch them come down the hill as well. There's a spot where it dips a fair bit to help the athlete gain speed, but it almost looks as if they slow down before they come to the vertical jump. Incredible athleticism in this one!

Today was monobob as well and I learned from Rachel's post how each athlete has the same sled manufacturer, that's a great way to level the playing field. Again, the amount of training that must go into pushing a close to 200kilo sled to race at over 100km per hour on pure ice, and the adrenaline. It was fun to watch!

Day 12 - This was a big day for Canada again when the women's team pursuit team won gold in the long oval speed skating. I feel a little bad because the Japanese skater fell and I don't know if Canada would have won otherwise. It was pretty close, but Canada had been trailing Japan for most of the event. Long track is less confusing than short track, and the skaters all bunch together so they get the most out of being in each other's drag. So the person at the back doesn't have to expend the same amount of energy as the person in front. The Canadian team also set an Olympic record, so they were skating their hearts out!

I really haven't watched many alpine events yet, but there were some exciting ones again today. I hope you've had a chance to watch some if you enjoy seeing those as well. 

And here's where I'm at now on Mini Winter Magic after about another 1K stitches:

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct white Monaco as charted

I have started filling in the top a bit as well. I find whatever confetti colour is farthest right and work on that one, and whatever fill-in colour is farthest right and start filling that in as well. It's filling in well, but with only a few more days I definitely am not going to finish this. Maybe I'll hit 60%? I'm close to 57% now, so it's still a lot of stitching to try and complete before then. 

I hope you're all staying well and enjoying the Olympics and stitching. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Olympics Days 5-8

Another few days of excellent competition at the Olympics! On Day 5 I watched some long track speed skating. The Canadian women's skater in the 3000m seems so tall compared to her teammates. They listed her height as 6'1"/1.87m, and I think 3/4 of that is her legs! She'll be competing in team pursuit and the 5000m as well. Can you believe they can skate 5km in about 7 minutes?!

Men's and women's moguls were also on Days 5 and 6 and DH always enjoys those since it tends to be French Canadians that compete for Canada. I just can't believe how their knees can take it!

 

Next we watched a lot of the snowboard events. It was sad to see Shaun White's last competition. I've watched him snowboard since I was a kid. There were some amazing young competitors looking to turn the sport into something new just like he did though. Hirano Ayumu was robbed of a great score on his second run, but did get a better judgement on the last run. The announcers were irate that he didn't get the score he deserved, it was interesting to listen to. Often the announcers don't say much about the judging or a mild "I was expecting more, etc."

I love watching snowboard cross as well, it's so entertaining, and it helps that there were some great Canadian athletes in the event too. The track was pretty difficult this year, I think they have to keep making it more difficult because the early tracks were pretty simple and short when it was a new sport. There's a men's single competitor event, a women's single competitor event and a mixed team event. In the mixed team, the men go first and whomever wins, their teammate gets that much advantage to start over the other racers. For example, in the qualifying run, the Canadian racer finished way ahead of his competition, so his teammate had almost 4 seconds headstart on her competition. Most of the races were closer than that. 

Did anyone else watch the mixed team's ski jump? That's a new event this year and had some controversy with some athletes being disqualified for their jumpsuits! I don't know all the details, but it included some of the favourites. There are 2 female and 2 male athletes that jump and the judges grade both the distance and the look in the air. It seems a little odd to me as always. Do any of you watch Jimmy Rees/Jimmy Giggle? He did a spoof of some Olympics events on how they were decided and I'll see if I can add that video. This is the link, you do need Facebook. 

Of course I've been keeping up with hockey and Team Canada women did beat Team USA, but on the men's side, Team USA beat Team Canada. It will be interesting to see if they get to the gold medal game for a rematch on the men's side. It seems very likely on the women's side. Both teams have won their quarter final games and their semi final games are coming up shortly. I still don't know if I can stay up to watch the gold medal game, it's on a weekday and I have to work the next day. But someone will inevitably tell me the result... I'll have to see if I can get lots of sleep every other day maybe? Judging sleep in our middle years is so difficult. 

But you're also here for the stitching, so this is where Mini Winter Magic was at the last check-in:

and after about another 1200 stitches, it looks like this:

I'm still moving along trying to fill in right to left and I think you can tell the branch is getting mostly complete now. Plus with changing one thread confetti to one thread filler, a lot of the bottom is getting filled in as well. I seem to have been a bit off on my focus on this shot, so I'll work on improving that for next time. I'm at almost 54% complete. It's been difficult getting a lot of stitching time in, but every little bit helps. I might even be able to start filling in near the top a bit more as I complete the bottom section. 

I hope you're all staying healthy and getting lots of stitching time in!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Days 1-4

Here we are again! The Olympics are well underway and I do have to admit the Winter Olympics are my favourite. Don't forget to check out how Rachel is doing on her Winter Olympics focus piece as well! If you're joining, please let us know. 

If you've been a long-time follower you know I play hockey and watching this kind of hockey on the international stage is always exciting. Today in Beijing the US team and Canada played a round robin game, meaning this will see where they are set for the medal round. If you've watched women's hockey at the Olympics at all, you'll know that the USA and Canada teams are usually ranked 1 and 2. I think they've always played each other for the gold medal and I can't look at who's won more often right now because it will give me the results of today's game and I haven't watched it yet! I couldn't stay up last night because of work today, but I'll watch it as soon as I get this post up. 

And there's been plenty of other interesting things afoot, including controversy from China. I tend to avoid politics here, but a very small amount of effort will show you many articles of problems with these Olympics. 

Another competition I love watching is speed skating. It's so dangerous and tense to watch short track and there's lots of crazy things that can happen in any race. The men's 1000m final had some tense moments when they had a restart and a Hungarian skater finished first, but was ultimately disqualified for 2 faults. The live action looked like the Chinese skater was pulling him back, but if you watch the replay, the Hungarian skater deliberately skated into the Chinese skater's path and tried an arm bar on him. So the result was called well, as were most that I saw, women's and men's. I sure wouldn't want to be the judge though! 

I watched a few new events, both mixed doubles, curling and ski jumping. I don't know if they could be more different! Very entertaining and the surprising result is Canadians medaled in ski jumping and not in curling. Curling is huge in Canada. I've never actually tried it, but my mom used to and DH's step-dad curls and maintains the ice at his local rink. The ice is not smooth like on a skating rink, you have to use a fine spray with a hose to make tiny little bumps all over the ice. That's what the people using brooms are doing, trying to smooth those bumps so the rock will curl in the direction they want. 

I've been watching a lot of the snowboard and freestyle skiing events as well, so many amazing things happening! I hope you've all been enjoying it if you're watching. 

On to stitching though, I've managed almost 1500 more stitches into Mini Winter Magic so far:

I have passed the halfway point on this one, so only a little over 20K stitches to go. Not possible in these next few weeks, but hopefully another few thousand before the end. 

I hope you're all staying well and having good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

End of January Update and Olympics Intro

Here we go at the end of another month where the month seems to have sped by. I think I managed a fair amount of finishes, which feels pretty good. I managed one more before the end of the month as well:

Stocking ornament by Jane Henderson

stitched 2 over 2 DMC 600, 602 and 603

on 28ct scrap evenweave

This was the second of 3 ornaments, so only one more to go! 

And I have about 5000 stitches into Triumphant Ride:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC 310

A lot of February will be taken up by the Winter Olympics, and instead of a new start every day, Rachel and I are working on larger projects to get them moved along. She might even have a potential finish! I am going to work on Mini Winter Magic, which looks like this right now:

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct white Monaco

I'm not likely to get a finish on this one since there's still about 20K stitches left, but I am looking forward to getting it moved along quite a bit, with some idea of finishing it before the year is out. So this is the Olympics focus piece, but I will also try and keep on with Triumphant Ride and get 1000 stitches in per week. That might be a nice break from some of the confetti in this one too! I'm trying to stitch one strand of one colour in the confetti area, then one colour that has a lot of filler stitches to do so I don't get bogged down by the confetti. 

I hope you all enjoy the Olympics! It has my favourite sport in the Winter Olympics, and I even know someone that will be reffing the games, so that's a cool connection. I hope I can find a good way to watch them again. 

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

January Update

It's been a busy couple weeks since my last post, and I finally have time to get another one up! I hope you've all had good stitching successes, whether it be meeting goals or finishes or just being able to stitch as much as you want. 

I've managed some good progress on Triumphant Ride and 2 finishes of WIPs over the past 2 weeks. I'm quite happy with that, although I always wish I had more time to stitch. Fortunately it's been -10C most days, so it's a good excuse to stay in and get some stitching done. 

First up, here's how Triumphant Ride looks now:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy

This has been very enjoyable so far and it's nice to just use black sometimes. This is almost 4500 stitches into this one of slightly over 50K total. If I can manage 1000 stitches per week I'll actually finish this one this year. That almost never works out, so we'll see how it goes. 

I managed a finish on Simply Christmas!

Simply Christmas by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

with Soie Cristal green, WDW Turkish Red and Caron Snow Canary Yellow

This was a very pleasant, relaxing stitch. The repeated motifs and pattern made it a nice one to work on after long days at work. The Caron Snow isn't too difficult to work with either and adds a nice sparkle. The original pattern calls for more gold colour, but I thought the lighter colour worked here. 

The second project I finished is by Handblessings:

Soccer Player by Handblessings

stitched 1 over 1 on 22ct Sky by BeStitchMe

with WDW Lavender and Ultraviolet

Another nice, almost monochromatic finish. Hmm, I couldn't be trying to avoid anything complicated this month could I? I like that these often have the option to add longer hair to somewhat tailor them to the recipient. I haven't made a Valentine's gift for DD yet, so I'm wondering about using this if I get it finished. 

I worked on one other project so far, Mini Winter Magic. It used to look like this:

and I managed about 1000 stitches:

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

I'm working on filling in the right side first to try and get that whole side finished, then will continue on to the left. You'll see this fairly often in February because I'm going to try and work on it every day during the Olympics! It would be amazing to get another full coverage project finished this year. It's been a couple since the last one. 

I hope you're all staying well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

New Year, New Start(s)!

I hope you've all had a good start to the New Year and thank you for all your lovely comments throughout the year! A very big thanks to all the comments on my 2021 round-up post as well. 

As at least 2 of you guessed, that lovely fabric, Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy, is for another silhouette. It is the sequel of Princess and the Dragon, called Triumphant Ride:

It's charted by Charting Creations if you're interested and is a little over 50K stitches. It fortunately works in Pattern Keeper, which makes these so much easier to work on. I won't say frog-proof, but much less likely to make an error with how they're charted. 

Here's how much I managed, a little over 1K stitches:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 310

In case you're interested in the fabric, I don't believe Sam can make this any more because of how she had to change up her business over the last couple years. Perhaps sometime in the future. 

The needle minder is technically just a magnet that Santa brought and I put a strong magnet on the back to make it into a needle minder. 

I also started a 2nd new project on New Year's Day 2022 but don't have any progress photos yet!

A third new project I started for Jo's Facebook Ornament SAL from the JCS Ornament issue. I think the group is called JCS Stitch Along if you search for it, or use the link above. This is the January ornament:

The Robin's Gift by The Little Stitcher

stitched 2 over 1 on 18?ct Nimbus? by Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with stash threads, including Etoile (red gift) and DMC metallics (snow)

This was a fun little stitch. I changed up the colours to whatever I had hanging around in my stash threads box. Whenever I use any variegated or non-standard DMC threads I put them in a bobbin box and use them for these small ornaments. There are some leftover kit threads too in there sometimes. The green gift is one of the DMC variegated threads that had such wild shade changes, but I folded it in half and made it look more reasonable to my eyes. 

I haven't even posted this on FB yet, but I will Jo! :)

Lastly, I dug out a WIP that I started last year to work on till the end of the week:

Simply Christmas by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

with Soie Cristal and WDW Turkish Red

I have so many WIPs to choose from and have a sort of loose plan of working on 1000 stitches of Triumphant Ride per week, maybe the 2nd project too, and then spend the rest of the week on either a WIP or SAL. I have a lot of those to work on. I chose this one for a couple reasons. One, it was nearby on my stitching stand and not put away like some of the others, and two, it's a nice, simple repetitive pattern that is easy to get some progress into each evening. This is only a couple days of work and I didn't even have the top row done before. There are 5 total rows of the green "stars" with red ribbon between them, and lastly will be some gold accents. They will likely be with PTB if I have some around. That's a pretty easy metallic for me to work with. 

I think I start the new week on Saturday so I'll work on this again tonight and then likely put it away for a bit until I get at least another 1000 stitches into Triumphant Ride. I haven't decided if I'll pull out the same WIP each week until it's finished or switch it up. I wouldn't mind having some more of these finished this year because I have a big project planned for next year. 

And I'll leave you wondering there. :) I hope this New Year brings us all less stress and more stitching!

Happy Stitching and stay well,

Tiffstitch