Turtle Trot - December Edition

Here we are, the last TT of the year! I'm sure our host Claudette will be glad when this year is over and I hope she hosts Turtle Trot again next year if she feels up to it. 

I managed a few more small finishes on my Song of the Weather afghan:

August:

Caron Abalone

September:

Caron Terra Cotta

October:

WDW Sophia's Pink and Sweet Pea, Caron 2035 and neutral, Dinky Dyes 4mm sweet pea ribbon

and November is almost done:

Caron Black Cherry

I also have some progress on my restart of DD's stocking:

And WW Tribal Dragon:

And Jodyri's Butterfly quote:

I hope you all had fun Turtle Trotting this year and I'm ready for next year!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday

I managed to finish October! But I'm going to save that for tomorrow and my Turtle Trot post. Today being WIP Wednesday I'll show you my November, which is coming along pretty quickly.

Day 1

with Caron Watercolours and Wildflowers in Black Cherry

first woven picot ever

Day 2

over half of the woven bars complete

Considering how much wrapping and cutting November has entailed it hasn't been too difficult. The woven picots weren't really difficult, although they don't seem to want to stay up in an arch like the instructions say they should. Possibly I didn't use enough thread? Or too much? 

Once I finish the wrapping I need to do 5 filling stitches as well. Right now I'm debating about using a neutral colour or doing them in the darker Black Cherry. I think neutral might be a nice pop with this one, so that may be what I decide on. 

I hope I can finish tonight and maybe even start December. I've given myself a deadline of finishing by Dec. 17 including backing this as well because we're sending a package to my parents, so I could include this. It's not a big deal if I don't get it done though. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Movies to Watch at Christmas Time

Top 10 Tuesday time! Make sure you check out Keeb's and Kate's blogs for their posts and ideas on this week's topic:

TOP 10 MOVIES TO WATCH AT CHRISTMAS TIME

1. Scrooged

This is one of my favourite movies of all time. If you haven't seen this one, you really, really, really need to. It's a great retelling of A Christmas Carol. 

2. Gremlins

I bet you forgot this one is a Christmas movie too? It's a fun little parody horror movie and very classic cheesy B movie effects. It's a lot of fun to watch as a teenager or adult. The basic premise is a failed inventor buys a strange animal from a Chinese boy even though the boy's grandfather said the animal was not for sale. The animal has very specific rules for its upbringing, never get it wet, never feed it after midnight and no bright light. Of course during the course of the movie accidents happen and the Gremlins result. 

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas

This movie isn't nearly as scary as Gremlins, and the stop motion animation holds up very well. These are classic characters and I love watching this one any time of year. Jack, the Pumpkin King is bored of Halloween and tries giving gifts out for Halloween. It might have worked if he didn't have his fellow Halloween town residents make the toys. 

4. The Muppet Christmas Carol

Another great re-telling of the classic Dickens story. Michael Caine is fantastic as the crochety Mr. Scrooge and the narrators Gonzo and Rizzo are hilarious as usual. 

5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original)

I have the audio recording of this and will listen to it every Christmas a few times. I can't get enough of Boris Karloff's narration. 

6. Die Hard

This start of the whole series that still hasn't ended as far as I know. I realize that Bruce Willis is supposed to be the big star, but has there ever been a better villain than Alan Rickman? I'll watch this one any time of the year. 

7. Trading Places

I often forget this one takes place at Christmas as well, but it definitely has a great Christmas vibe to it by the end. I hope you've seen this movie, and if you haven't, it's worth watching. It also tells a lot about how crooked the stock market used to be, if it isn't still. 

8. It's a Wonderful Life

Oddly, I never saw this movie in its entirety until I was in my late 20s and now I know why this is on everyone's list. It's not an overly sweet, saccharine movie at all, it has a great plot and gives you a wonderful feeling when you watch it all the way through. 

9. A Christmas Story

I watched this every Christmas when I was a child, I loved watching this movie! I don't watch it much now since I know it so well, but I look forward to introducing it to DD in a few years. 

10. Miracle on 34th Street

As a young child, this movie was so amazing. Santa was really real and he granted real-life wishes. I don't watch it much anymore, but I look forward to capturing the magic again with DD in a few years. 
-------

From my list I'm sure you can tell I don't really go for the "traditional" Christmas movies and in fact we don't really make a point of watching anything in particular near Christmas right now. That might change as DD gets older, but we'll watch any of the movies from 1-7 any time of year. The last 3 we both know so well that it's not as interesting as it was when we were younger. And I don't know if DH likes Miracle as much as I did when I was a child, but the little girl in it really made it special for me. I'd imagine myself in her place, and that was fun. 

What are your favourite Xmas movies?

Tiffstitch

Weekend Wrap-Up

My parents left on Saturday, then Sunday my in-laws dropped in, so again, not a heck of a lot of stitching time. I'm not quite finished with October's SOTW, although I did go back and finish September. 

If you compare the photos, the square is lined up a little differently in the last post. I think the part I had to finish is now the upper right and it was pictured as lower right in the last post. It's nice to be completely done!

And here's how far along I am with October:

I'm not sure why the above photo is so yellow, I used the same light and Google Photos doesn't let me edit it properly, so this is what we have. The same afghan looks like 3 different shades since it's a little off in each photo. 

Anyways, I'm almost done October, I only need to do the last 3 spiderweb filling stitches. I started off doing the wrong wrapped bars, they were supposed to be double woven, but I was too far along to stop once I'd noticed, so I continued on with what I was doing. I think they look okay. I'm really impressed with my first ribbon rose and spiderweb rose and I have close-ups on the next photo:

The pinks don't quite match, but the pink and white variegated thread has the same name as DD, so I had to use that one. :)

I hope everyone had a good weekend and fingers crossed this square will be complete tonight. November's square had a lot of cutting, so wish me luck on that one! 

Happy Stitching and please check out everyone else's stitching at the Stitchery Link-Up Party hosted by Super Mom-No Cape!

Tiffstitch

YOTA SAL - December Edition

I'm embarrassed to admit I forgot about November's YOTA post altogether. By the time I remembered, midway through the next week, it seemed a little silly to post. Remember to check out the link to see everyone else's progress!

Going all the way back to October *shamefacedly*, I talked about my Song of the Weather (SOTW) hardanger squares. I've done quite a bit more and have started September. The piece as a whole looks like this:

And since October's post I've finished June:

July:

August:

September:

kind of anyway, I forgot the bottom right couching, so I have to go back to that. I've also started October:

Other big news is a finish of Homeward Trail, a UFO from 2012:

My Grandma loves it! She was very impressed with the details and I'm so glad it turned out so well. It was supposed to be a 90th birthday gift, but I couldn't finish it or get to her 90th birthday because of having DD that year. 

I also mentioned Princess and the Dragon in the October post and I did finish the page plus and have moved the Qsnaps, plus I'm using the larger Qsnaps now that Homeward Trail is complete. 

I've had to put this one away until next year and I have the Dimensions stocking kit on it for now. 

This is the last YOTA post for the year and I hope our host at Pull The Other Thread will have this again next year. It has helped me organize my UFOs and progress on them. There will be more next year of course and if I'm able to progress on any of them, that will be nice. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday

I hope everyone's Wednesday is going well! We're halfway through the work week if you're a Mon-Fri worker and I'm on my 4th day out of 5, so it's looking good so far. 

My parents are visiting, so I haven't had a lot of time to stitch, but here's what I've managed so far:

Finished August SOTW:

with Caron Abalone in Watercolours and Wildflowers

and I've made a good start on September and have a few nights progress here:

with Caron Terra Cotta Watercolours and Wildflowers

September has been fun! I liked August too, but I'm really getting interested in how September is shaping up. I'm working on the couching for the satin stitch now and it's a little fiddly, but has a nice effect when complete. Then there's just a little cutting and wrapping in the center and I'll be done. Possibly I'll be able to finish tonight. 

There's no way I'll have the whole blanket complete before my parents leave on Saturday though, so I'm undecided if I want to continue on and try and get it mailed to my Grandma before Xmas or send something back with them. 

I'm also working on a coaster for a friend who likes a certain DC character:

This is 10 count plastic canvas and I'm using doubled 6strand DMC to make it nice and dark. The yellow will be 307 and I'm thinking I'll just do that as half stitch and then trim the coaster in black as well. I started the 307 and ran out, so I need to pick up another couple skeins. 

I hope you're all having a nice week, and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Things I Love/Hate About Winter

Top 10 Tuesday again! Please check out Keebles' and Kate's blogs for their lists as well. We're sure to be somewhat different since our locales are pretty disparate in climate and altitude. :)

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE/HATE ABOUT WINTER

This should be an easy one since I've always lived somewhere that has had 4 distinct seasons and there's something to like and dislike about each. 

1. Snow (when I don't have to drive in it)

A beautiful form of precipitation as long as all you have to do is look at it, not shovel it or drive in it. I have lots of good memories of snow forts, snowball fights, snowmen, all kinds of things and I'm looking forward to making new ones with DD this year. 

2. Snow (when I do have to drive in it)

My commute is a lot shorter than it used to be, but I'm still mostly on the highway which can be good and bad. They tend to clean it off faster, but there are still a lot of people that believe the faster they drive, the sooner they'll get there and the less chance of anything bad happening, but it's usually the opposite. 

3. Xmas

This was basically my happiest time all year when I was a kid, so I have a lot of good memories of Xmas. I won't say it soured, but things change when you grow up. I'd like to try and recapture some of what made me excited about Xmas with DD. 

4. Freezing Rain

This goes hand in hand with snow, but 1000 times I'd rather drive in snow than freezing rain. I've been on drives where you can only continue straight because you're following the path of the car ahead of you and if you veer off that path at all you could be in the ditch. 

I've had 2 accidents in a previous vehicle, fortunately both one-car accidents, but both due to ice on the road. 

5. Hot Chocolate

Let's face it, I will have hot chocolate any time, even in summer, but I can make more of an excuse for it in the winter. :)

6. Sledding

I don't know if DD is ready for sledding down hills yet, but maybe? It would be fun and again, that was a really fun thing to do when I was a kid. We'd all go to the high school where they had decent sized hills and sled and sled and sled until we had to go home. 

7. Xmas Lights

I love seeing Xmas lights! Especially with snow on top of them. I wish I had a photo of one of my favourite Xmas memories, the lights on my Grandma's bushes after a few inches of snow had fallen. There was a small cavity around each light where it had melted the snow and the multi-coloured lights all seemed to have small haloes around them. 

8. Hockey

Winter is the time for hockey! I realize that hockey exists in a lot of places, including my local area, in the summer, but it doesn't feel right to me. I've started back playing hockey and it will continue to be a winter sport for me. I love hockey. The only type of exercise that doesn't feel like exercise to me. 

9. Xmas music

This is a love/hate one. I do enjoy some Xmas music, but the vast majority is too saccharine. I'm glad that we have control over the music at work. My partner likes Xmas music, but he likes good Xmas music as well, so that's lucky. My MIL once sang "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" at a French concert! She had translated the words and many people had never heard the English song, so it went over well. 

10. Stitching

Okay, okay. I tried to leave it out, but it's true! The weather is cooler, so we're all wrapped up inside and there's more time to stitch. Plus, there are tons of great winter/Xmas patterns that can fit anyone. Look to a later Top 10 post for some favourite patterns. ;)

The second part of this one is the planning of next year's stitching. Of course planning only goes so far and there's likely something new that will come up that I'll want to stitch, but the planning is a lot of fun. 

I hope you enjoyed my list!

Tiffstitch