Overdue Update Post

Hey, back again. Life happened and kind of blind-sided me, so here we are 2 months later. Obviously, stitching time went down to almost none, but some stitching was completed. I didn't really progress any more on Snowball Fight, and there's kind of a theme in the projects I have picked up since my last post. 

First, some very minor progress on Do Not Meddle, from here:

to here:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched as charted 1 over 1

on 28ct Monaco

It's still possible I might actually finish this one this year, so I'll keep it available if the mood strikes. What helps with this one is it's only a few colours, even if 7 or 8 of them are green. 

I pulled out another single colour project to work on since my mental state meant easier stitching was required. Although maybe not everyone finds blackwork easy? I enjoy the fact it's only one thread length and the pattern repeats, so it's soothing in some ways. Here's where I was last on Bibilophile in the red/black colourway:

and now, another finish!

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with Flamenco by Jodyri Designs

And I'm sure you'll all be surprised to hear that I changed up my plans and ended up picking up a project not on my list of 12 focus pieces. There's a good reason, I wasn't up to following anything on Pattern Keeper, and I needed something with minimal colours, so I picked up this one, which looked like this last time I picked it up:

and now looks like this:

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 1 over 1 with kit threads on kit fabric

The first photo is more colour correct for the fabric. I'm pretty happy with how much I accomplished on this one. You may have noticed that the rhino on the left looks a little raggedy. I had stitched that one with 2 over 1 and  it was too thick. I've done the rest 1 over 1 and that's been easier and I like the look better. There are several more animals, but they're all smaller than these ones, so it will likely feel easier to get them completed. I will put this one away for a while though. 

I also finished the Wiglaf scarf! This was a good one to work on while I was dealing with everything. It's a very simple all knit pattern with an easy colour change pattern. You carry the other colour up the side, so there's only a few ends to weave in at the end. 

Wiglaf scarf by Lizi Lowe

knit with Fiber Me This You and the Stars 80/10/10 MCN 

and Sassy Black Yarns Connecticut Snow 100% baby alpaca

Here we are almost through July and the Olympics/Paralympics start on Friday. I don't have any new starts planned. I had possibly thought of picking up a different WIP every day, so I might attempt that. I certainly still have enough! We'll have to watch Rachel for her plans as well. 

I hope you've all had a less hectic time over the past couple months and I'll see what I can do to catch up with everyone!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

End of December Wrap-Up

 You know what they say about the best-laid plans right? I had some hopes of finishing at least a few projects this month, but the universe decided differently. The day after my last post I tested positive for COVID-19. So, a mandatory week off, but my energy was so low I didn't manage any stitching. I tried knitting one day when I was feeling a bit better and ended up in bed all the next day! So I didn't try that again. 

It took a good 2 weeks to get any kind of energy back, so that was a long time without crafting. I had COVID-19 in 2022 and that took months to recover from. I'm grateful it didn't hit me as hard this time. 

My parents were going to visit earlier in December, but canceled of course because of me being sick. They ended up coming close to Christmas and stayed for Christmas for the first time ever. We had invited them many times, but most of my family is still close to where they live, so they tend to spend holidays with the rest of my relatives there. Santa brought them stockings and DD had some gifts using her art, so they had a nice time as well I think. They headed back to their home on Boxing Day/December 26 and we spent that day mostly vegging and relaxing. I did get a little stitching and knitting in on the days my parents were here, so without further ado, here's where my December crafting ended up. 

You last saw the Bibliophile bookmark here:    

and now:

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with Flamenco by Jodyri Designs

Fortunately I don't need more than a skein for this one because Jodyri Designs has closed up shop. I also needed a break from blackwork, which I never thought I'd actually say, but I just needed something a little simpler, so I pulled out a Mill Hill kit, which last looked like this:

and now it looks like this:

I'm tempted to leave it like this without any explanation of what it is, but maybe some of you remember this little kit I started in 2021?

Skating Snowman by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 3 as charted with kit threads and perforated paper

And that's it for stitching this month. I did do some knitting, as I mentioned. First a sort of completion?

Vanilla sock (meaning no special pattern)

with West Yorkshire Spinners yarn in colour Robin

Only one sock is complete, so that's why it's only sort of complete. I still need to knit the other one for the pair. I went a little nuts on WYS Christmas yarn this year since my local yarn shop had a lot of their colours this year. Especially the Candy Cane one that tends to sell out immediately. One year it sold out in hours and I never got any. This year I might have picked up 4 skeins or so of just that red/green/white colour. 

I knit on this intarsia blanket for DD while I had COVID, and although it's not complicated, apparently it was more than my body was up for since I needed the next few days to recover. It's over half way down now:

The pattern is Rainbow Days Blanket, but DD chose these colours from the LYS. They're all cotton, so it will be very cozy once it's complete. The top row is the center, then the pattern will repeat. I don't know if you've ever tried or know what intarsia is, but you use all those colours and knit across. Yes, the yarn gets tangled, no, I don't know how to make it not tangle. :)

And here we are, a less crafty December than hoped for, but still here and ready to ring in the New Year with a new start today, which is 12/31/23 in the US way, plus a new start for New Year's? We'll see. 

Hope you all have a had a great holiday season and Happy New Year!

Tiffstitch

Fully Finished Gallery - October (wait, what?)

That's right, I've actually managed to fully finish something this year! It's a small ornament, but some people are convinced size doesn't matter, so here it is in all its glory!

Noel by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 18ct scrap aida (Chromatic Alchemy Cirrus maybe?)

with stash threads

I backed it with red felt and a simple ribbon with a little triangle stitch to hold it in place on top. It's a different finish for me since I haven't attempted a shaped one like this before. Definitely more to it than a simple square/rectangle shape, but I'm fairly happy with it. 

I can't remember if I had described my plan on here, but I adjusted my hours so I work Tuesday through Saturday. That means I have Mondays sort of to myself after DD goes to school. Which means I actually have time to do things I'd like to get done, like fully finishing stitched pieces. My drawer of finishes is pretty full, so having some time to myself to work on them is kind of amazing. 

Of course a lot of Mondays have been full of running around, but at least I managed one finish so far. I hope you've all been staying well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

June? Where Did You Go?

Wow.. end of the month and this is my first post. Maybe it's the multiple posts from last month, but I just never seemed to have time. Even now I'm trying to get this done at work before the next thing happens. 

I do have a sort of plan for blogging when September comes. I'm adjusting my schedule again, this time I'll be working a set Tuesday through Saturday schedule and I'm thinking Mondays will be blogging days. We're hoping DD will be back in school, so that might be the perfect time to have a little time on my own to keep up with blogging again. We'll see how it goes since there always seems to be something that eats away at my time. I'm also wondering if I could attempt a fully finished object on Mondays, which would help with the fullness of the drawer of shame with all these smaller projects I'm going to have. 

Enough chit-chat though, here's where the month of stitching has landed me:

Universal Monsters SAL B&W version by The Witchy Stitcher

stitched as charted on 28ct Trick or Treat by BeStitchMe

There's still a long way to go on this one, but I'm starting to get close to one of the rooms. I think I was working on a FB challenge, so stitched a lot of black on this one to get some stitches in. It shows up in Pattern Keeper, so that's a nice bonus. 

Shamrock by Erica Michaels, found on Rainbow Gallery freebies

stitched 2 over 2 with Morning Glory (forget which company)

on 28ct white Monaco

And it's a finish! I ran out of the Morning Glory thread, so decided to add a little text on the top to finish it off and my initials. 

Easter Bunny and Moon by Chatelaine

stitched 2 over 1 with called for DMC 310 and subbed DMC 726 for 727

on 14ct Aida (Realgar I think) by Chromatic Alchemy

Another finish! This was an enjoyable stitch as well. I added the whiskers just for fun. I know it makes no logical sense to see white whiskers and a white tail on a silhouette, but the tail was charted, so I went with it. 

Patch Christmas Tree 1 by Angie Designer

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco with stash threads

 unknown Dinky Dyes, Caron Waterlilies parrot, Dinky Dyes Down Under Blues and Jodyri Oz the Great and Powerful, another unknown Dinky Dyes, DMC 3799 and Kreinik gold start, Etoile 699 for the lines

3 finishes, what? :) This one was pretty close, so just took a night to finish up the purple and the lines around the tree, the pot and star. Another fun one I'd like to try and fully finish before Christmas if possible. 

Christmas Assisi Sampler by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 with Crescent Colors Bejeweled

on 22ct white hardanger

There was quite a lot of stitching left on this one and it took 3 nights to finish I think, getting 400+ stitches in per night. I do really love the finish and I don't think the photo really captures how pretty that thread really is. I'm looking forward to finishing this one into an ornament I think. 

Halloween Freebie by Passione Ricamo

stitched 2 over 2 with DMC 310 

on 28ct Brittney evenweave Aries by Sparklies

I spent 2 nights on this one I think and got the moon complete in DMC Etoile white and added more of the haunted house and bats. I haven't decided about the word "BOO" near the bottom if I'll stitch that or leave it out, plus there's a witch's hat I'll probably leave out. Maybe BOO should be in Etoile as well, if they have a good orange one? Or purple? What would look good with this fabric I wonder?

Stormlight Archive quotes by Taylor and Cromwell

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct black Monaco

with DMC as charted

You may notice there's quite a lot done on this one. It's almost 50% complete according to Pattern Keeper and it was a little hard to put down for the last WIP I'm going to show, but I did manage it. I really love how it's coming together and how fantastic each section looks once I finish it. So excited about this one! Maybe it will be a birthday or Christmas present for the end of the year. 

Amazing Animal Kingdom by Aimee Stewart charted by HAED

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

I'm at 31,000+ stitches on this one, which is 2 full pages complete, plus almost 2 more pages done. I joined a Full Coverage Fanatics group for the Tour de France which has you adding 3400 stitches to your chosen project. I have a long way to go on this one, but I'll try and keep adding at least a few stitches per day for the Tour challenge. 

I hope you've all had a good month! I'm sorry I was so silent all month, it wasn't intentional and next month I'll be working on the Olympics at least half of the month, so it won't be so long again. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Stitch Maynia Start #23

And here we are again with a very similar start to yesterday, but this time I decided to stitch it in a different way. As a reminder, this is what it will eventually look like:

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with DMC variations

This time I'm using another friend's "house" colours from Harry Potter. She's a very proud Hufflepuff and this thread is perfect. 

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with Jodyri HunniBee

Perfect colours, right? So this will be fun to fill in. I think I'll have to do the lettering in DMC 310 because it might not show well enough in the yellow. 

That's all for today, and I hope you've all had enjoyable weekends! 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Stitch Maynia 2021 Start #22

 At first glance, this might look like it's not part of the seasonal theme, but there's a good way to shoe horn this into the theme. I hope to give this as a Christmas present to a friend, and I'm starting another one tomorrow, same design, but different colours. 

It will eventually look like this one I stitched way back in 2011:

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with DMC variations

There is a lot of stitching in these, as those who are familiar with blackwork will understand. I remember this one took quite a while to complete, and it might have been my first foray into blackwork at the time. I still enjoy it now too. 

Here's my start of around 450 stitches:

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with Flamenco by Jodyri Designs

This is for a friend that loves to read, obviously, but also loves red and black plaid/flannel, etc. I think this will turn out perfectly for her. 

I'm not being particularly fussy on colour placement in this one, just using the opposite colour from what I finished with when I start a new thread, etc. 

I hope you've all been staying well and thank you so much for your comments. I'm behind on replies, but I'm working on it!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Stitch Maynia 2021 Start #20

I'm impressed I've kept up so far, and now it seems like there's no reason I can't make it the whole 31 days. I think I did more days in a row back with the Crazy January/February challenges (2015/2016), so this wouldn't be a record for me. It is a lot more posts than I've made in a long time though!

I chose another ornament today, and another Kincavel Krosses pattern. She has a lot of fun seasonal designs, and most of them are free, although a few are for sale now too. 

Here's my start:

Noel Tree by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 18ct Nimbus Aida by Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with scrap threads, unknown if DMC

This is another easy one, lots of backstitch of course, and a chance to add beads. I might do that or might just do French knots. Beads are fun and sparkly and I definitely have a few left over from Mill Hill kits and Nora Corbett letters, so we'll see when I get to that point. This isn't a big project, but adding the bead component means I probably won't get back to this one for a while. 

I'll slightly modify the design to add the umlaut above the E in Noel to make it more French. I can't remember if it's called an umlaut in French, but it's the 2 dots above the E. :)

I hope you're all staying well. I feel like it's building up to be a doozy of a full moon next week, or I'm just not doing that well because of the constant sinus/allergy issues. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I'll enjoy the 25-30C weather for now since it's not humid. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Stitch Maynia 2021 Start #6

Hello again! When I pulled all the projects for this month, I thought I noticed a theme, but I realized you can't really tell from the first few projects I chose. This one and the next few might start to give it away. 

I chose a lot of projects that were printed out from designs that were available online. I've stitched a lot from this designer, Kincavel Krosses. This is her Christmas Assisi sampler and just click on the link to get to the pattern. 

Here's my start:

Christmas Assisi Sampler by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 with Crescent Colors Bejeweled

on 22ct white hardanger

I really liked the idea of how the variegated thread would work for this one, but every time I use CC I remember why I don't like them as much as most other variegated threads. I find these ones knot on me a lot more than others. No idea why. It's potentially worse with a single strand than double and I'm using a single strand for this one. 

This is another one I'd like to get in a few more thread lengths before the end of the month and try for a finish, but I don't know if that will happen if I keep adding projects onto that list! This is 2 in a row already. 

I hope you've been having a good day, stay well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

People's Choice SAL - May 2020 - Fire

It's the first weekend of the month, and that means it's time to post about the chosen topic. This month it's Fire, and please check out everyone's posts over at Jo's amazing blog!

I thought this might be difficult, but I found a few ways to shoe horn in some fire or heat related projects. 

Victorian Tree

 by Mill Hill, stitched as charted, with candles! 

Spooky Halloween

 by Durene Jones, stitched on Icarus - see what I did there? ;)

Finding Happiness

by Circus Stitches and isn't fire a type of light? 

Old Fashioned Tree

by Mill Hill, also candles on this one

Colin Firth

from one of the XS magazines, I forget which one does the portraits and this was sent to me as a single chart from the magazine. And obviously, including because he's hot! :) 

Wash Your Damn Hands

 

by Kincavel Krosses, modified to fit on a towel and including this as a "hot" topic right now

I hope you're all having a good Maynia if you've joined in and a good stitchy weekend all around. I enjoyed shoe horning in these ones, and hope you do too. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

People's Choice SAL - April 2020 - Modern Samplers

As many of us have seen, samplers and reproduction samplers have made somewhat of a resurgence in the last couple years. There are some designers that put a modern twist on theirs, so this month we're to show off a modern sampler and you can include anything you think that fits this description.

As always, please check out our gracious host's blog for more details and more really interesting samplers.

I will admit to not being that interested in reproduction style samplers, but I do like some of the modern designs and have stitched one or two ten or so I've come across.

 Welcome by Pine Glen Designs

stitched with DMC, not sure the colours

 One Drink Woman by Kincavel Krosses

stitched with DMC and I've stitched this twice, one with rose wine 

Mario Sampler by Daffycat?

I loved stitching this one!

 Don't Make Me Kill You by Kincavel Krosses

with DMC variegated threads

Pog mo thoin (look it up! ;) ) by Kincavel Krosses

with DMC variegated threads

 Dead by Dawn by Pyro Dog Pins (Etsy)

based on the Evil Dead movie

Specialty Stitch SAL by Durene Jones hosted by Lakeside Needlecraft

stitched with Chromatic Alchemy rainbow thread, no longer available

Hell is Other People by Subversive Cross Stitch

Turns out I like these a lot! There were a few others that I wasn't sure fit, but this is a pretty good list of what I'd call modern samplers. I hope you enjoyed it and check out everyone else's posts as well. 

Also, this weekend is the first weekend of the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, so feel free to join in with starts or WIPs! I started In the Gloaming by Whispered by the Wind last night:

stitched 2 over 2 on Mirage by PTP with DMC 310 so far

I hope you're all staying well and healthy!

Tiffstitch

Theme-tas-Stitch - No X November

On the 21st of the month it's time to post about anything relating to the month's theme as chosen by Kerry. Check out all the details here. 

This month's theme is No X, meaning no straight cross stitch. Turns out I have 2 medium size projects I'd like to finish, so that meant very little time to stitch anything else. I did take one evening to stitch up the Bah Humbug small by Kincavel Krosses. Find the link in this post.

I stitched it 1 over 1 on 28 ct Monaco with some stash threads. I wanted it to be somewhat useful, so I made it into a keychain:

and backed it with some shiny card stock I had on hand:

This was a gift for a friend that loves Christmas, so I enjoyed the irony. She was like, but what? ;) Until she got it. 

I hope you all had a fun month working on some different projects!

Happy Stitching and Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate it this week!

Tiffstitch