Almost Finish Friday and Update

I hope everyone has had a good week and the hurricane in the southeastern U.S. hasn't done as much damage as predicted. 

I've managed to finish all the cross stitch and backstitch on my S! 

Letters From Nora - S

stitched 2 over 2 with charted threads

on 28 ct Jobelan Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

I'm still so much in love with my new stand! It made finishing off the stitched a breeze. I wasn't sure on beading or waiting until I finished all 3 letters on this one piece of fabric. DH convinced me I should wait since I am stitching this in Qsnaps, I'd rather it survives well. 

I did put a few stitches into "H" after I finished "S" since there was still a good hour or so of stitching time left while we finished watching some episodes of the old Incredible Hulk TV show. I'm surprised at how diverse this show is when I think of the time it was broadcast. There are some cringe-worthy bits of course, but there are a lot of professionals (doctors, police officers) that are women and people of minority descent. It's also fun to see actors you know in different roles show up, especially in completely different roles. Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame played a very mean heavy for a drug dealer in one of the last episodes we watched. 

Here's H from January:

and now:

It looks like there will be the right amount of space between each letter, at least between the first 2 letters. I'll know more once I get back to this one. Hopefully that won't be too long from now. 

I also had time to pull out The Princess and the Dragon last night and I'm so loving 2 handed stitching. I feel like this was a lot of progress compared to how fast it usually takes for me to feel like I've moved along at all on this one:

From April:

And now:

The little bit of stitching to the left is part of the farthest left, middle row. I hope to progress left, but I think I might have to finish off the awesome Princess first. I may just outline her once I get through all the hair, we'll see how it goes. I really hope to get at least part of the farthest left area done completely before I put this one away again next week. 

I also need to get out some Halloween stitching! I had promised Vicki I'd join her 31 days of October Halloween stitching and had completely forgotten! You should check out her excellent projects, she's been very good about posting every day. I will try and do so as well and get some of my Halloween projects out and put a thread or 2 in every day for the rest of the month. 

Stay safe everyone in the southeast U.S. and Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch 

Letter S - Speeding Along

I finally tried out my Qsnaps in my new stand, and I love how easy it's made stitching on Letter S! I had "S" out in August and I tried to stitch on it, but it really wasn't happening well. I left it here:

I had also made a mistake on the upper curl, so I had to frog all the purple there (CC Vintage Violet). So it was a little disheartening working on this one at that time. 

However, after trying it out with my new stand on September 25 (after finishing Ho Ho Ho), I really like it! 

After an hour or so on September 25th, I was really happy with my progress. Then I pulled it out again this weekend after Kate's visit. We had a blast btw, and photos at the end of this post. I wish it could have been longer. We did a lot of stash shopping, enabling each other, plus Kate was able to help me thin out my stash so I had room for more... Thanks Kate!

This was my progress after Thursday and Saturday:

And I had a little time Sunday after hockey to do quite a bit more:

Right now I'm hoping I can maybe get this finished by the end of the week! That would really give me a great sense of accomplishment since I'm stitching 3 of these on the same piece of fabric. Plus I'd know how far off my other 2 starts were. :) 

I think I'll hold off on beads since this will stay in Qsnaps for a while, but if I can get the rest of the cross stitch done I'll be very happy. 

My loose plan for October is to finish "S", then work on Princess and the Dragon:

for one week to join in the Burning Needle FB group's "There Can Be Only One" October SAL, and spend the 3rd week on Vermont, a Xmas gift for my business partner.  I left it here in January:

I don't think it will take too long, hopefully a couple weeks straight can get it finished. 

And now, for Kate's visit!

 Kate trying poutine! Not necessarily a fan. :)

 On top of Mont Royal in Montreal, QC

view of the Green Mountains from the Trapp Family Lodge

It was somewhat of a whirlwind visit, but we managed to hit 2 LNS' and Michaels for Kate to stock up on DMC and I had to add a few things as well, although I forgot to take photos. I'll try and remember to do that this week. I hope I can figure out a way to get over there, I really enjoyed her visit. 

I hope you've all had a good weekend!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Solo September Finish #2

I hope everyone has had a good month! I had a very busy month with a big birthday, an awesome new stand and 2 finishes for Solo September. Thank you again for hosting a great OAAT project month Justine!

I finished Rejoice Tree last week and I'm still in love with it. I forgot to mention I used that invisible thread for the beads and it was a bit of a pain, but I love the effect. 

Then I was debating about what to start, and I realized that with a few days of work I'd have LK's Ho Ho Ho complete. I was on the Fuzzy Stuff section for the beard, and it was much easier to work it while seated indoors than my while a passenger in the car. 

 The finish with similar to charted threads, and Fuzzy Stuff instead of Wisper for the beard

 Close-up of the Fuzzy Stuff and PTB for the lettering

Tried to get a closer view of the fuzzy look of the beard

I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to finish this one or if I'll keep it for myself. I like it a lot, and DH does too, but inspiration hasn't struck yet. Maybe this could be my first cube finish? It's maybe 5x7 ish in size. 

I've changed out my passenger project to Collect Moments by LK and it looked like this back in January:

I have a few more pink letters on it now, but I neglected to take a photo last time I worked on it. It shouldn't take too long to finish. 

I'm also thinking about what to work on for the rest of the year and what I may start for next year. I succumbed to the latest HAED sale, thanks for the tip Kate :)

My current idea is to try and stitch a page on a BAP once a month to try and move some of these along. There are others I'd like to stitch as well, so I'm going to see if having a set schedule might help me move along to finishing some of my 50+ WIPs. 

First I'll need to try and finish a few for this year, so I'll try and sort out my ideas over the weekend and post about it so I have a record of it. I always appreciate any advice too, so please feel free to chime in with any of your ideas for 2017 or thoughts. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

IHSW - September Conclusion

I delayed my IHSW post a day so I could show you another finish! Check out our wonderful host Joyce's blog for more info on IHSW and to cheer the other hermitters along. 

I managed to finish all the beading on Rejoice Tree so instead of just a little bit of progress here:

I can show you a finish!

Again, I stitched this 3 over 1 on 14 count Silkweaver's aida with Waterlilies Nefertiti. The trunk is DMC 938 since I ran out of the Waterlilies thread. The beads are Mill Hill gold petites and I love the effect. I made a star with beads instead of buying a star charm. So happy to have another finish!

Another WIP bites the dust, dun, dun, dun, another WIP bites the dust! And Another WIP gone and another WIP gone, another WIP bites the dust! Hey, gonna finish you too! Another WIP bites the dust!

In case you don't know the reference:

Also, if you noticed the unusual look of the first photo, I have a new stand! It was my family's birthday gift to me. It's the Artisan Design Ergo and I'm so happy it works well with my couch. Thank you again Suz for the recommendation! Here's a few more photos for you:

 the artsy photo :)

in place beside my stitching spot

Max is crazy...I don't understand how this is comfortable

Now that I've completed my Solo September piece, and I cannot say how awesome it was to bead with that new stand compared to beading while holding my Qsnaps, I put Spider Banner into the scroll frame attached to the stand. I had intended to pick up Princess and the Dragon, and I might still and try the stand with my Qsnaps like Suz mentioned. 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Jo's Big Birthday Blog Hop!! (So Sorry I'm Late!)

Starting September 17 U.K. time, everyone that signed up to be part of Jo's Big Birthday Blog Hop was supposed to have a post up! So everyone could enjoy it. I sincerely apologize to all of you and especially Jo that I am so ridiculously late getting this post up. Best laid plans, yadda yadda.. my sincere apologies!

Jo gave me the year of 1991 and her story goes like this:

1991 - Jo was 25.  Concert going continues to dominate Jo's life as her career continues on a steady upward trajectory.  Highlights of this year were the long awaited Guns 'n' Roses concerts at Wembley Stadium and a trip to Paris to see Alice Cooper one day and the Scorpions the next night.  While wandering around the streets of Paris soaking up the atmosphere Jo's friend spotted a familiar figure - "that guy looks just like Klaus Meine from the Scorpions".  It was!  He was quite taken aback to have four English rock fans stop to say Hello but very graciously posed for photos and then they let him continue shopping in peace.

The following year Jo was lucky enough to get tickets to the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium.  Her friend lived only a few miles from Wembley and as soon as the show was announced she jumped in her car and drove straight to the box office (this was pre-internet days remember!).  Another mind-blowing and unforgettable concert.

---

My life in 1991 was a little bit different. I was still in high school and 1991 was the year I met Kory, who was to become my best friend for the rest of high school and still continues to be a great friend. She lives in the UK now, although her family and mine mostly still live near the small town in Ontario where we grew up. We were in different towns, but went to the same high school. 

I met Kory when we were seated next to each other in grade 10 science class. I will never forget how well she could dissect our frog. It was like an instruction manual. Kory and I shared a love of The Princess Bride that continues through today of course, because how could it not? And I think I currently own 2 copies of the movie, having given my 3rd copy to my brother, who didn't have one. They're all different editions, so it's normal. :)

We also bonded over Pirates of Penzance, which no one else seemed to have heard of, and one memorable night when a grade 11 biology project was due, at 3am we decided we would test our teacher and see if she actually read our project. In the middle of the essay we wrote "Hello, my name is Joe, I have a wife and a job and family". It was never marked out... it was never read. We got a B+ I think? That night we also decided that instead of getting 2 hours of sleep before school we'd watch the Princess Bride again. :D

---

The next part of Jo's Blog Hop is to describe what happened to me at 25 years old. I had yet to graduate from optometry school, and I had a major life event. My Grandpa, who all of the grandchildren were pretty close to, became very ill and eventually died that year. This was the first major loss I had experienced. Other distant relatives that I didn't see often had passed over the years, but this was the first person that I saw on a weekly or more basis that I would not see again. 

I also started clinic rotations that year and started seeing patients. If you can imagine, an exam by an optometry student takes about 2 hours. By the end of the semester it was maybe closer to 90 minutes, but still, a long time. There are a few patients I remember from then, it was an excellent learning experience. 

---

Lastly, we're to post some stitching Jo might like. I don't believe I've posted this on my blog before, and Jo, I hope you like it, and again, I am so sorry to be late. 

12 Days of Christmas table runner - stitched for Xmas 2012 and given to my parents:

Close-ups

 

 

 

 

And the whole thing:

 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness and Solo September Update

It's taken me a lot longer than intended to get my Solo September progress up. This one-at-a-time month is hosted by Justine and lots of us joined in this month. We're halfway through and I had intended to be finished by now, but lots of visitors and a big birthday celebration over the weekend slowed things down a little. It was really great to see everyone and everyone seemed to have a great time. 

Rejoice Tree was here last week:

And now almost all the cross stitch is done!

I'm fairly certain I don't have enough thread to do all the curlicues on the R's, so I will likely leave the left one identical to how the right is now. Otherwise I'll be playing thread chicken stitching a little bit here and there. 

On to Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by the jovial Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. This is where we share anything remotely related to gift-giving or receiving. The sign-up link is there if you want to join in this month!

Rejoice Tree - above, for my Grandma

Letters from Nora - S - for DD

I didn't get as much done on this as I hoped, I was having some trouble getting into this one. Maybe next time.

Rainbow Butterfly by Climbing Goat Designs for victims of the Orlando massacre

A Kiss for a Snowman - DD

Linus and Snoopy - stunt stitching and mailed off!

Next month let's hope for at least one more finish and if I'm lucky there will be more finishes to add to Rejoice Tree. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Solo September Progress

Thank you everyone for your nice comments about my Grandma. She seems to be doing well and has had an x-ray now and there hasn't been any bad news, so hopefully she will continue to recover. 

We had a busy Labour Day weekend, but since September 1st, there has definitely been progress on the Rejoice Tree. I had left it here:

And now it's all the way to the 'O' on one side and the 'I' on the other:

The upper photo has a better photo of the fabric. I forgot to mention in my last post that this is stitched 3 over 1 on 14 count aida. It has a nice blue/white mottled pattern. The thread is Waterlilies Nefertiti. 

My parents are coming tonight and staying for a few days since I have a big birthday coming up this weekend. I'm not sure how much more I will get done. Maybe expecting to finish this in September was optimistic? 

I hope everyone else is doing well with their September projects and stitching in general.

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch