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

Blog Clean-up, Leftovers From Crazy Challenges, and a Plan

I hope today is treating you well! I've been going through and trying to tidy up things with my blog. For example, I had kind of forgotten I had a DUCJFC progress tracker for both the 2015 and 2016 events I participated in. I updated the progress to show where I'm at currently, and it's not too bad really. I'm almost 3/4 of the way through 2015 and over halfway through 2016. Some of the projects are on both as I used it not just for starts, but also to make sure I kept working on some WIPs.

From the 2015 Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, I have these WIPs left:

1) Otto

self charted, 2 over 1 tent stitch 

Realistically, unless I can get the pdf into Pattern Keeper, this won't get much work done on it. 

2) Ladyfee Xmas SAL

This was a free online SAL and I just haven't gotten back to it. I'm not in love with it at this point, so not sure if I'll continue on. It's a UFO right now. 

3) Sleigh Ride stocking - Dimensions

Same story here, not really in love with this one, so haven't gotten back to it. 

4) Warbreaker

I do like this one, and it's from my favourite book. Again, if I could get this in PK, it would go faster. 

5) Twilight LeMans

I still like this one, and I did pull it out last year to get some more done. 

6) Skittzzzz Fractal

Again, PK would make this so much easier, so I'll have to see if I can import it. 

7) AAN Christmas Mystery SAL - I hated this one, so will repurpose the project. I didn't even finish the first part. 

From the 2016 Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January February Challenge, I have these WIPs left:

1) Letter S

This still needs beads because I have all 3 letters on one piece of fabric. 

2) Letter H

I'd like to get these finished this year maybe. 

3) Letter G

We'll see how it goes. :)

4) Princess and the Dragon

It would be amazing to finish this one, but I don't think it will happen this year. It did get a lot of progress last year, so we'll see. I have the conference coming up that I usually get a lot done, so if I get some outlining done, that will help. 

5) Monochrome Link (new start)

This is another one that would be more fun if I could add it to PK, I'll have to give it a try. It's got a long way to go. 

6) Fleur de Lys (new start)

I'm enjoying my restart of this one, but I will have to try and figure out what thread I'm using because I don't know if I have enough to finish the whole project. It is Caron Waterlilies I think, but it's a big project. 

7) December Mini Cat

Realistically, I just need to find this one and finish it, it's practically complete. 

8) Kiss for a Snowman (new start)

I've recently misplaced this one as well, so will have to do a search to figure out what I've done with it during one of my organizing binges. 

9) Butterfly Quote (new start)

I also managed a fair bit on this one last year. There's still a fairly big chunk with the word "butterfly"and the smaller word "over", but then it will be complete. 

10) Land of the Dinosaurs (new start)

I had somewhat ignored this one because of so many other projects going on, although I did manage some stitching last year. I think it will be handy for chunks of colour if that comes up in any of the challenges. 

11) Twilight LeMans (also in 2015) - see above

12) Day 4 Dragonlet

I don't love afghan fabric, and that's how I started these. I'll get back to it at some point. 

13) Frosty Friends

There's 6 of these and I haven't managed to finish a single one yet. Again there are chunks of colour, so they might work for some challenges. 

14) Frosty Friends

15) Frosty Friends

16) Frosty Friends

17) Frosty Friends

18) Frosty Friends

19) Sleigh Ride Stocking (also in 2015) - see above

20) Do Not Meddle (new start)

I would love to finish this one this year since I was given it years ago to finish for a friend that can't stitch any more. It's more difficult working 1 over 1 on 28ct than it was when I started, but still, I can do this! 

21) Savannah Birth Record (new start)

This project also suffers from dislike of the fabric. I like hardanger, but 2 over 2 is not working for me. Too clumpy and messy. So I can restart or give up and pass this one on. DD doesn't really need another birth sampler at this point, and soon she'll be too told for this one. 

22) HAED Basset (new start)

With PK I hope to either get more done this year, or possibly finish up one of the smaller ones, then get back to this one. 

23) See Ya Later Alligator (new start)

This needs maybe a week of work? So I think it's my next focus for a finish project. 

24) Ladyfee Xmas SAL (also in 2015) - see above

25) Vermont (new start)

I think this would be fun to finish, however I keep putting it off for more interesting projects. I haven't given up on it, but don't know if it will come out this year unless I get a lot of other things finished. 

26) Snow Guide

This should be a quick finish as well if I just sit down to work on it. For whatever reason, LK letters always seem to stitch up so quickly. 

27) Otto (also in 2015) - see above

As you can see, a lot of my current WIPs are leftover from these 2015/2016 challenges. There are quite a few that are small enough to finish this year if I make the choice to stitch on them. My top ten I'd like to finish this year are:

1) See Ya Later Alligator
2) Do Not Meddle
3) Snow Guide
4) Butterfly Quote
5) Letter S
6) Letter H
7) Letter G
8) Frosty Friend - 1 of them
9) Dragonlet #4
10) December Mini Cat

Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Stitchy Quest for the One Ring Catch-Up

Last time (May 30, yikes!) I left you with some choices still unstitched for the Meet the Dwarves Quest. The colours remaining were purple (x2), blue and yellow.

For the purple (Dori and Nori) I pulled out an old WIP, Land of the Dinosaurs. It was last here in May 2018:

and now:

Land of the Dinosaurs WOXS October 2015

stitched 2 over 2 on 32ct Jobelan Summer Sky as charted

Blue for Kili - I pulled out Dimensions Joy Snowglobe and had just enough blue! It's now here:

Yellow for Bofur - Evening in the Shire got some work again, very appropriately I think in this group, and is now here:

Evening in the Shire by Cute Patterns by Maria

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Moonscapes by Jodyri with charted DMC

I'm not a confetti stitcher by nature, so going this far away from the other stitching is always a little nerve-wracking for me. Hopefully I've counted correctly and don't have to pull the lower bit all out again. 

I managed to complete all the colours and the 1300+ stitches for this task. It was interesting to find all the different colours on projects and pull out something that hadn't been touched in a year.

Hobbit Quest 4 - A Musical Interlude

I think the group admin is a Dungeons and Dragons fan as well as a Tolkien fan because we've had more and more dice rolling challenges come up lately. This quest relates to the music in the books. I'm a fan of the music, especially given my long history of listening to the Hobbit TV show on tape before bed.

This is the story of how the dwarves lost the mountain to Smaug I think. Please let me know if you notice otherwise.

There were 2 options for this quest. If you like the music, first stitch 200 stitches on a project you don't want to end, then roll a six-sided die and if you get 3 or above, stitch 200 more stitches, if you get 1 or 2, you're done. If you have to stitch more, then you roll again, same rules, basically keep stitching 200 stitch segments until you roll a 1 or 2.

The second option, if you don't like the music, is to pick up something that is annoying or frustrating you in some way, stitch 300 stitches, and roll a six-sided die. If you get 3 or above, you're done, if you roll a 1 or 2, stitch another 300 stitches and continue until you roll the higher numbers.

I picked up Princess and the Dragon and managed to get here after 2 sets of 200 stitches:

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

I enjoy this project very much, and despite the size, it's never a drag to work on. It's always enjoyable, even the filling in bits.

Hobbit Quest 5 - A Tale of Loss

This is the current task, which ends tomorrow. It's the part of The Hobbit when Bilbo learns about the dwarves ancestral home in the Lonely Mountain and how Smaug stole it away from them. For this quest, we had to roll a twenty-sided die (see where the D&D is from?) and multiply that number by 100 to find out how many stitches we had to stitch. The interesting part this time was we could chose how many stitches on each project, but at least 20 on each.

The projects are:

1) The People of Dale - this was a town on Long Lake and many villagers lost their lives when Smaug invaded. We had to stitch something with a person on it. I worked on Universal Monsters and got a fair bit done, 736 stitches:

Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Al's Dark Magic by Chromatic Alchemy

2) For the dwarves that love dark places, stitch on dark thread or fabric. I stitched a little bit of this, the left border for 36 stitches:

3) Treasure lost for Smaug stealing the dwarves treasure is to stitch beads or metallics. I pulled out Letters from Nora L and got a finish! (70 beads)

Letters from Nora - L by Nora Corbett

stitched 2 over 2 on 32?ct linen as charted except a few changes for what was available in beads

4) The Secret Door - we learn of a secret door on a map so we needed to stitch on a project with a door. I had some trouble with this as apparently I don't have many projects with doors. I settled on Ocean Curiosity which has a tiny little door in the castle:

and put in 87 stitches:

stitched 2 over 1 on 16ct aida from Colour Cascade Fabrics

5) Map - because there is a map to get into Lonely Mountain. I struggled a bit, but the quest info said "any justification will be accepted", so I said that Universal Monsters was like a map of each room with the cut-thru appearance and put in another 81 stitches:

And that catches us up till the next quest! some of this might be repeated from my previous post, but it's in nice little bits now :) 

Happy Stitching! 

Tiffstitch

p.s. stay tuned for the School of Magical Stitches update too!