TBT and a WIP Update

Since I forgot to take a photo of my WIP for a post yesterday, I thought I'd tag it on to something for TBT. 

Here's a fun little finish from a pattern by a Sprite Stitch forum member that was completed for Xmas 2010.

I stitched it on a towel and backed it with interface and it still survives to today. The pattern was monochrome, but I wanted to give it a little pizzazz and used some odd DMC colours, whatever seemed to work together to give it an 80s vibe. 

I gifted it to my SIL and that made her want to start cross stitching and then she completed this:

Epic Pokeom 1 also from Sprite Stitch. She even had to add fabric to the bottom, which she managed without it being obvious, so huge congrats to her on completing her second cross stitch project ever. It took her 2 years practically straight and she had to wash it a lot after, and had no bleeding of colours thankfully. 

Now on to my WIP of Mini Winter Magic:

I feel like I'm a really slow stitcher when it comes to HAEDs, although it may be the blending filament slowing me down. Also, with my tendency to anthropomorphize things all I see now is a kind of skull in profile. I'll be glad to get the rest of the blending filament filled in. 

You can see the tree branch outlines now on the left, and if I can get the blending filament complete over the weekend, I think there's a chance I can finish the challenge. There's another colour that will fill in a lot of the remaining space and then very little confetti. I have slightly less than 3 weeks to complete it. 

I'll have extra stitching time this weekend too if I can manage to stitch on this in the car. We're traveling to see my Grandma again this weekend. Since she's now in a nursing home it will be easier for DD to visit her as well. 

I hope you all have a great Memorial Weekend if you're in the USA, and otherwise, a great weekend!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

IHSW Part 2 May Conclusion

It's time again to report what I managed to stitch over IHSW hosted by the fantabulous Joyce of Random Ramblings. We lucked out this month and had 2 IHSWs and I managed a decent amount of stitching over the first, but not so much on this one. 

I did finish my owl #6 stitched with DMC 823 for the outline 4 over 2 and Jodyri Ruby Ringed Parakeet for the filling. I used 2 strands to give it the backstitch look:

And since this is number 6 I now have 2 rows complete:

I'm very happy with the look so far. Those of you with eagle eyes may notice that my second row is a little larger than the first row, and that my filling looks different than others. I managed to make a mistake so early on in the first owl that it wasn't worth fixing since I didn't notice it until I started the second owl. So I made them all the same in this row. I don't think it will be noticeable when I'm finished since the entire row looks the same size. 

I also had time to frame "Good Friend" by Sue Hillis and deliver it to my friend, who loves it!

I did stitch a little more on Mini Winter Magic, but I had planned on taking a photo after working on it yesterday evening. Turns out my other plan, to finish working on DH's Father's Day gift from DD and get it ordered crashed and burned spectacularly twice. So I lost 3 hours of time to do accomplish anything. 

Frustrating and I'll see what I can get done this week. I hope I can manage to at least get it ordered before we go see my Grandma again over this upcoming weekend. She was moved into a nursing home last Wednesday and seems to be doing well with it so far. She gets more care than she did in the hospital, and gets a daily rye and water, so that helps too I'm sure. :)

I hope you all had a less frustrating weekend!

Tiffstitch

IHSW May Part 2

This weekend we have IHSW Part 2, so sign up if you'd like to join in and hermit and stitch away all weekend! 

I lucked out in that I only had to work this morning, so I was able to get out KLT Charting Owl #6 and am well on the way to finishing:

As with the rest, I used DMC 823 4 over 1 and I'm using Jodyri thread Rose Ringed Parakeet 2 over 1 for the backstitch effect. The center cross stitches are 4 over 1 since I wanted them to have a little more definition. 

I really like the filling thread. I think it shows well and the colours compliment each other well. 

I hope you're all having a great weekend and I'll get a photo of the whole thing once I finish Owl #6 and have to move the Qsnaps. Speaking of the Qsnaps, do you like my new cover from Cirrus Creations? It fits perfectly and I love the little birds! Plus it's roomy enough for the afghan fabric I'm using to be rolled into it. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday

After finishing up Owl #5 over the weekend I went back to Mini Winter Magic. The HAED Challenge is due on June 15, and I still have a lot of stitching to get done by then. I've started the second colour, which is probably 50% or more of the entire page. 

It's Kreinik blending filament and doesn't show up well in my photo, but adds a nice bling to the page:

You can start to make out the structure of the page now, and the vertical blank spot on the left will be a tree branch, as will some of the blank spot on the upper right. The lower half is almost all blending filament! So it will take a bit. It hasn't been too fiddly, but I'm thinking this is a good couple weeks work to complete just that colour. 

Here's the finished piece again so you can compare:

I'm working on the upper right corner currently. 

For my weekly rotation I plan on picking up another owl at the end of the week and then going back to this. That way I can maybe catch up on the owl SAL and finish off this challenge. Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

IHSW May Conclusion and May Gifted Gorgeousness!

IHSW Part 1 is over for the weekend and I hope everyone had time to stitch. I had Saturday off and I managed to almost finish KLT Charting Owl #5:

I stitched until I ran out of my WDW Lavender thread. I wasn't sure if I had any more, but I found 2 more skeins, so I was able to finish off the Owl last night:

At least mostly. I just realized while looking at the photos that the tips of his wings need 2 stitches each! How annoying.. But I'll go back and fix it when I get this out again. My stripes might be different than everyone else's because I made an error on the owl outline on #4, but I stayed with it for this owl because otherwise it would look odd on the row. I don't think you'll notice it once I'm done the owls since the row will match and be close enough to the others. 

Also, this is the GG post for May! I'm a day late again, so I'll try and be brief. 

I finished Autumn Elegance, which will be a Christmas gift for a co-worker:

This was a lot of fun to stitch and try something new. I really enjoyed stitching on 22 count hardanger for this one with Caron Watercolours. 

KLT Charting Owl #4

The SAL was a gift and I stitched on 18 count afghan fabric with Caron Waterlilies Passion. 

KLT Charting Owl #5

WDW Lavender on 18 count afghan fabric

Handblessings Walk With Dad for Father's Day

And I think that's it! So shorter than the last few GG posts. I'll have to go check out everyone else's now and happy stitching everyone!

Tiffstitch

Friday for Finally Finishing a Colour!

Yes, it's true, I finally completed all the DMC 3756 on the 3rd page of Mini Winter Magic. I stitched some of the 4th page as well since it's only a couple of columns. 

I'm already starting the Kreinik blending filament which will take up a lot of the middle of this page. There's still hope I may finish this in another month, we'll see how it goes. 

This weekend is also IHSW Part 1 since we had a sort of half weekend to start the month, this way we get two IHSWs this month! I'm happy about that since I'm not working Saturday and it may rain, so what else can I do but stay in and stitch? :) 

I'm debating about keeping on with Mini Winter Magic for another week, or use it again as my fill-in piece to finish out the weekly rotation and pick up another owl first. I'm very tempted to start Owl #5 and finish it off as well and then go back to MWM for the end of the weekly rotation. 

We'll see what I feel like tonight. 

Happy Stitching and I hope everyone has a good weekend,

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday... Not!

Thank you for all your suggestions about hanging my Handblessings finish. I think for Father's Day I will attach it to the cabinet with some sort of double-sided tape or 3M strips, but also have a light frame on hand in case DH prefers that option. The comments about damage because it is in the kitchen are very good points, even if it's out of usual food prep area, I do have a toddler, so anything could happen!

I forgot to take a photo of my current WIP, HAED Mini Winter Magic, although I'm almost done the DMC 3756 on the page! I stayed up a little too late on Monday to finish off a big section and paid for it a bit on Tuesday with a mild headache, but I'm back to "normal" today. 

Over the weekend I picked up my KLT Charting Owl SAL to work on and I finished off Owl #4. He was part of DUCJFC, so that's 15/60 so far. My goal is 30/60 this year.

Owl #4 with DMC 823 4 over 2 and Caron Waterlilies Passion 3 over 2 on 19 count afghan fabric

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day! Here are a couple photos from my day:

Max, Max, the parrot cat

Tintin colouring book and pencil crayons!! so excited about this one 

and DD brought me some Tintin socks all wrapped up and helped me to open them and she finger-painted a canvas with a number 2 on it. 

I think I'll keep working on Mini Winter Magic to try and get the first colour complete and go on to the next large colour. I'm thinking if I can get the big parts done the confetti might be easier. We'll see how that goes. It's IHSW part 1 this weekend, so get your needles ready!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

A Finish and Some Opinions Please!

I managed to finish Handblessings A Walk With Dad on Thursday night and was able to fully finish it on Friday when DH was out of the house:

I've mounted it on some thin dark green felt and I like how it looks. I was debating about if I wanted to frame it, but I think I'd really like to attach it to one of the kitchen cabinets so DH and DD can see it easily. 

I'm thinking of putting it here:

and a close-up:

But I'm not sure the best way to attach it. I taped it in place for the photo, but that won't last, and I don't think I want to damage the cabinet if I can avoid it. I'm wondering about that putty stuff they advertise that doesn't damage walls? It's not a huge deal if it affects the felt as long as it doesn't penetrate to the stitching and I can make sure I keep any adhesive away from the stitched area even on the back side. 

So, thoughts? Anyone attempted this? I also wondered about thumb tacks in the felt, they wouldn't make large holes in the cabinet at least.. 

Happy Stitching, and I'd appreciate any help!

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday and More Stash?

Time to update on my weekly rotation status! I continued on with the HAED Mini Winter Magic and I'm close to finishing the first colour. I have to get a move on if I'm going to complete this by June 15th, but I think it's possible. 

There's a lot of a couple other colours to go and then a little confetti to fill in, so there's a chance I can finish the challenge. 

I've been stitching on and off on my LK HoHoHo as well. This is the travel project I keep in my car for when DH is driving. There's a small chance this might get finished this year as well:

I'm stitching 2 over 1 on 18 count I think. So far I've used CC Desert Mesquite, WDW Whiskey, PTB and I'm currently using a Waterlilies I believe for the red, but I've forgotten what it's called. To the left of the "Ho/Ho" there will be a large Santa's head, so there's still a decent amount of stitching left. His beard uses Wisper and that will be my first attempt at using that thread. 

My current WIP in this week's rotation is Walk with Dad by Handblessings. I thought I might come close to finishing last night until I realized I had made a rather large mistake in the child:

This is how the child should look:

Also, somehow I managed to get off by one fabric thread as I moved across to the child from the father, so it's a little off. But I didn't feel like unpicking everything after I had just unpicked over half of my stitching on the child, so I'm going to leave it as is, even if it isn't perfect. 

I tried to add a little flip to the girl's hair, but I'm not sure if I like it yet. I'll know once I get the rest of her head completed. This should be finished within the next couple days if not tonight. It will depend on how well I can hide the stitching from DH. :)

My new stash is from Cirrus Creations and it's 2 needle keeps and a Qsnap cover for my 11x11 Qsnaps. 

Everything is so prettily wrapped and it got here in a few days from the UK, so that's pretty impressive as well. 

And a photo of my choices for Wings and Things:

The fabric is maybe a little more green than it's showing there, but it's fairly close. 

I think I need to go on a stash diet for a bit now!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

A New Start, New Stash and an Update - Long post!

Thank you for all your comments about my Grandma and for advice on what project to bring. I had some idea I might be able to sit with her awhile and stitch if she was sleepy, so I had a few ideas in mind. 

Grandma with DD in 2014

It turns out there wasn't really a chair to sit in Grandma's room, so I ended up visiting a lot instead. I saw her the night I arrived, but she had been having a sleepy day, so she wasn't awake then. I saw her three times the next day and she seemed to know what was going on and with my younger brother and my sister we all 4 of us managed to complete a crossword. She came up with some answers right away and others she had to think about. The morning I left she was wide awake and called me by my name and knew where she was, etc. so she seems to be improving. Unfortunately at this point she may still need to go into a nursing home, which she doesn't want, but we'll see. We're all hoping it doesn't come to that. 

Xmas 2010 with Pine Glen design Welcome Mat

I believe positive thoughts make a difference, so thank you all for thinking about my Grandma! She is a really kind and giving person and has always donated her time and effort to local charities and her Church. 

On to the new start and stash! My Mom and I drove to London, Ontario to Thread & Eye, a superlative needlework shop. I had in mind that I would kit up one design to support a brick and mortar LNS and instead I kitted up 2! I had thought I'd only pick up this Ink Circles mandala:

Wings and Things

And I found a fabric there that was pretty close, although I forgot to take a photo. I'm going to use Dinky Dyes Down Under Blues

since they have a lot of Dinky Dyes silks in stock and I really liked the look of this thread.

I also fell in love with Handblessings Walk With Dad:

And I started it right away so I hope to have it fully finished well before Father's Day. I'll justify my new start like Jo of Serendipitious Stitching, the 5th Friday of the month deserves a new start!

I had planned on stitching the entire piece in WDW Lucky, but when I started the Dad character it seemed too stripey, so:

I frogged that part and restitched with DMC 895. I think the green suits well and I like the look of solid colour better. I'm trying to stitch this one in the evenings and DH is around, but hopefully not paying attention to what I'm doing. I keep the chart kind of hidden from him so he can't tell and I hope to work on this when he's not around when the motifs take shape a little more. I also plan on adding a little more hair to the child like in the other Handblessings designs:

Girl Hanging Stocking

I will try and post a photo of the actual fabric and thread for Wings and Things as well as the awesome fabric I won in Shelly of An Arizona Stitcher's giveaway. She's been cleaning out her stash, so there may be more coming up. 

Also, Thread & Eye had their new arrivals posted on their website and I knew my Mom would like to get one of them. Crossed Wing Collection released a new bird design, a beautiful loon! It's called My Space:

Kathy at Thread & Eye pulled all the thread Mom needed, standard DMC to make it easy for her, and took a lot of time to go through her fabrics to find just the right one. It's a little more green than the model fabric, which is hand-painted, but I think it will look great. 

Thanks for reading all the way through this very long post and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch