Gifted Gorgeousness - August 2020 Edition

I missed last month and am almost missing this month too! So that means lots of photos, hopefully no one minds. :) Please check out the list at Jo's amazing blog if you haven't already, and see what everyone else has stitched.

1) for DD

 Loved You Yesterday by Cherry Hill Stitchery

stitched with stash threads on 14count damask aida

2) for DD

 Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

3) for parents

 Woodland Santa by Mill Hill 

stitched as charted with kit threads and beads

4) for DD

 mini Faery Tales by HAED

stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct aida as charted

5) for DD

 Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen with Gloriana silks

6) for Clare-Aimetu 

 free flower from Durene Jones FB page

stitched as charted to send to Clare for her flower tree

7) for DD

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy 

8) for DD

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched as charted with kit threads and aida

9) for Dad

Siberian Forest QS by HAED

stitched as charted 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

I was debating about putting the last one as its own post because it's so exciting to have finished it! My first ever HAED finish! But I'll put it in here and work on FFO'ing it for Rachel's FFO post next month. My dad is having a big birthday this year, so I think it will be a good gift. He does love tigers. I also debated keeping it, but I think I'd like to pass it on. I have others I want to finish and put up in our house too. I swear Pattern Keeper is amazing. This never would have been finished without that app. 

I hope you've all had good months! I plan on getting another post up soon with plans for the rest of the year now that we're almost out of August and I feel that I've caught up on some things I wanted to work on. 

Happy Stitching! and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Stitching Friends Summer Blog Hop 2020

Here we are friends, at a sort of meet and greet or "guess who's coming to dinner?" although since we're all social distancing, it will be more of a virtual guess who.

Jo very kindly is hosting this hop as well. Someday I'd like to be as organized as she is; thank you again Jo! Please check out her blog here for the list of all the participants and see if you can guess which stitcher we're talking about before you get to the end!

My stitching friend has been having a rough year, but she fortunately enjoys a drop of wine and a good book to ease the days toils. She lives in the UK and is a very generous person, giving a lot of time to her church, including some amazing ornament trees. This might be giving it away already, but just in case, here are a few designs I thought she might like. And because she's such a prolific stitcher of smalls, I'm trying to find new ones she may not have seen yet.


Perhaps a freebie from Mabel Figworthy's Fancies?

Or a new Fireside Originals?

Or a GPA Designs pinball, since she's quite talented at finishing as well, injured wing or no. ;)

Or a brightly coloured pincushion from Lindy Stitches?

Last one, I promise, perhaps this Jardin Prive? She's definitely got some French inclinations as well. 

If you're still not sure which stitcher I'm talking about, raise a glass and toast this amazing stitcher!



Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge Round-Up!

 And here we are, over a week later and no scheduled new starts. It's an odd feeling after so many, but also nice to concentrate on some other WIPs for a while. I had hoped to have one more finish before posting, because it's so close to completion, but I'm still not quite finished the Dimensions bird/Wish kit.

Here's the rundown, let's start with finishes and I'll link to the original post if you'd like more details on any of the projects.

Punkin Heart by Flowers 2 Flowers

Love You to the Moon by Waxing Moon Designs

Wrapped Bars and Dove's Eyes by Victorian Sampler

Ode to Snowflakes by Glendon Place

Ballet Silhouette #2 by Lanarte 

Wings and Things by Ink Circles

Just Breathe by Fiddlesticksau 

Woodland Santa by Mill Hill as charted

Celtic Ice by Ink Circles 

Squirrelly by Mill Hill stitched as charted

And that means I managed to finish 10 of the new projects, and that's pretty good out of 17. I had intended to stick with smaller projects, but got drawn into some bigger new starts. Here are the remaining 7:

Visit Mordor by Country Magic Stitches

Loved You Yesterday by Cherry Hill Stitches

Magical Arrival SK by HAED

Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

In the Gloaming by Whispered by the Wind

Witch's Gate by WBTW

Wish Ornament by Dimensions

And there we have it! All the new starts and some finishes and a few lingering WIPs. I'll get the Wish ornament finished soon, there's a postmark I have to backstitch at the bottom, otherwise it's pretty much complete. The other charts will take a bit longer. The WBTW ones might be good for Dark October stitching and see if I can get them to progress a bit. The 2 with words should be fairly quick once I let myself concentrate on them as well. 

I'm still working a lot on Siberian Tiger right now and have less than 4K stitches till a finish, so I'm working on it as much as I can. I'll try and get a post up about my WIPs in a week or so and sort of a mid-year round up. I love round up posts, they're so much fun to read. 

Hope you're having a good week and stay safe! 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge - Moon and Back

We made it! Here we are, what would have been the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and this is the end of the 17 weekend starts. I'm okay with it being done for now since I'd like to work on my older WIPs and the newer WIPs for a while without necessarily adding anything new for a bit. I still have about 6K stitches left on the tiger face, so it will be exciting to finish that one!

Please check out Rachel and Annie's new starts as well on their blogs.

But now, here was my start:

It's a bit of a departure from Jolly July/Christmas starts, unless I get this done for an Xmas present maybe? I don't know if I want to frame it, maybe a long pillow? Anyways, need to finish it first. 

Here's the floss toss: 

I purchased the chart, fabric and floss at my closest LNS, and decided to go with silks to support her shop. I only get there once a year or less, so I do what I can. I'm not even sure if she's open currently.

And my small start:

I'm using the purple/blue for the words instead of brown and it's a fun stitch so far. I'll likely use DMC or stash hand-dyeds for the other bits.

And there we are! 17 new starts, a few finishes and a few WIPs left over. I'm thinking a wrap up in a week or so would be good, so I'll follow Rachel's lead with that.

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #16 - Magical Arrival

Here we are at the penultimate weekend of starts! I was tempted to add last week that it was the antipenultimate weekend because that's one word I've never forgotten. Our high school music teacher used to use it because he wanted to show off our knowledge if the VP or Principal ever walked into our class to observe. He'd say "We'll start at the antipenultimate bar." It means the 3rd bar from the end, or 3rd last.

Rachel has her post up and I'm sure Annie will soon too, so please check out their new starts on their blogs as well. Only one more to go this weekend! It seems so short looking back at it now.

Once again I tossed out my sensible plans of sticking with small projects, unless you count this as a "small" HaED....

and I managed to get here:

that's almost 2K stitches into it already, of about 23K total needed. There's also something a little unusual about this chart. I noticed it when I looked at the thread list. Any guesses what it might be? I'll mention it in next week's post.

It felt really good to start this one. Life in general has been pretty stressful with everything and the decision on whether or not to homeschool this year for DD has just added a little more. A new start on something I've had in my stash for years felt nice, and I love that I had a long piece of 25ct Magic Guide to make it that much easier. I got this on clearance from Charting Creations, I think it was 10"x52"? Something odd, but I had a couple projects that I knew would fit, and this was my first purchase of pre-gridded fabric. The first project I started was Tiger Stare, which is what I purchased it for. I may be able to get that one out again soon now that the new start binge is almost over.

Also, a finish! Celtic Ice is complete:

Celtic Ice by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 on 28?ct linen 

with Carrie's Creations Night Storm and Blue Dreams

I hope you've all been staying healthy and not letting the stress get to you like I've been doing. It's hard, but it is good to have stitching and crafting and things to take a break from the rest.

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #15 - Celtic Ice

Can there really only be 2 more weekends of starts left? It's hard to believe. I've definitely enjoyed each new start, even when they have issues or need frogging. That is a theme again this week, and I'll get into that below.

Rachel and Annie have started new projects this weekend as well, so please check their posts to see which projects they decided to start and maybe there's a finish if you go look!

This weekend I chose to start Celtic Ice. I think I got this one from Michelle BendyStitchy on one of her destashes. It came kitted up.

I believe this is OOP now, so I don't know if it was a kind of special release. It also came with another celtic design bonus chart. I managed to get here:

and then I realized my stitch count was off for the top left "knot", so that had to be frogged. I did frog it all, but haven't restitched it yet. This should be an easy finish once I get back to it though.

Speaking of finishes, I purposely delayed my post by a day, instead of accidentally forgetting like most other weeks, to get another finish in:

Woodland Santa (#8?) is complete! This was a fun one, a lot of cross stitch compared to some of the other Mill Hill kits I've completed and maybe only 100 beads or less, and only 3 colours, so a very easy starter project if you've never used beads before. The beard is 4 strands knotted and tacked down, then you clip a couple for a mustache area and sort of spread the rest so he seems to be walking into wind.

One more finish for the books for this new start binge! It is exciting to have finished so many new things as well. I don't think it ever became a grind, and there's only 2 weekends left now, so the time to choose more projects is at hand. I have a few options I need to narrow down for the last 2. One may not be Xmas themed because I had a project all kitted up to start, but I'd forgotten about it, and only recently came across it again. We'll see what I decide. That might be the final project for this session.

I hope you've all had good stitchy weeks!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

People's Choice SAL - Most Stitched Designer

This week it's time to choose the designer we stitch the most. I think it's easy for some, but I tend to hop around and stitch on a lot of different things, so I have a lot of different WIPs/finishes from different designers. Also, does each part of a SAL count as a design? Because that will change things up as well.

I'll see if I can figure it out both ways. Make sure you check out Jo's post with everyone's links too!

List of most frequently stitched designers, with 5 or more finishes/WIPs:

Dimensions - 8 finishes, 8 WIPs
Mabel Figworthy's Fancies - 16 finishes
KLT Charting - 12 finishes, 1 WIP
Palko-lap - 12 finishes
Durene Jones - 10 finishes, 2 WIPs
Lizzie Kate - 10 finishes, 1 WIP
Mill Hill - 9 finishes, 1 WIP
HAED - 8 WIPs
Kincavel Krosses - 6 finishes
Circus Stitches and Ink Circles - 5 finishes
Jodyri - 3 finishes and 2 WIPS

So if we count SAL as 1 project, the list would change to putting Mabel, KLT, Palko-lap and Durene Jones down near the bottom since most of those finishes are from parts of the SALs.

Clearly I'm an eclectic stitcher and still stitch a lot of kits going by the amount of Dimensions and Mill Hill finishes. This is back from 2012, so the amount of stitching on non-kit projects has increased I think, but there are so many different designers I've stitched that it didn't amount to more than 5 projects finished or WIP status.

Dimensions clearly leads the pack no matter how you determine it, so I'll go with that as most-stitched designer, as odd as that seems. Since it's been a while, I'll try and post the other Dimensions WIPs I have besides the Wish ornament.

Kiss For a Snowman - active WIP

 Ballerina Dreams - last worked on 2019

 Frosty Friends - last worked on 2018

 Sleigh Ride Stocking - last worked on 2017?

 Savannah Birth Record - UFO

 In Harmony - UFO

Snowflake Ornaments - UFO

There's several in here I'd like to get back to, and hope to once I get a few more WIPs complete. 

Have a good week! 

Tiffstitch