Some Photos I hope

At long last, I can share some photos. My brother allowed me to use his laptop and camera, so I can post.

The finishes are as follows:

Mouse by Hollie Designs.
Magic Hat by Sanman Originals
To the Moon and Back by Waxing Moon. I actually finished this right after it was released, but I found it in a box and I haven't shared a photo of it.
the first square of my cat afghan. This is SO much fun to work on.
Creepy by Samsarah--I pulled this out this weekend and realized I took one stitch on it when I first got it, so I worked on it while we were watching the tournaments yesterday.
Shores of Hawks Run Hollow. I think I am going to do some editing.
and Sanman By The Sea. Very fun to do, very cute

Progressing nicely

I have my little chicken at my desk at work, and it's coming along nicely. I think I worked on it maybe three hours yesterday and it's about a quarter finished. If I could get off here, I would have it done by the end of the day today.

My cat afghan is coming along really well. That first little corner, with Holly and Ivy
on it is really looking sharp. I wasn't sure that it would look as good because the model is stitched on white and I am doing it on cream, but it looks fine. I decided that I would pick the four cats who best represented the seasons and do them in the corners, so Holly and Ivy represents winter. Spring was hard to figure out, but Catch a Tail is going to be Autumn (I may fudge the colors a little--that is a very yellow yellow). Give Me a Kiss was my choice for spring, but I may change that. This is my choice for summer. It looked really patriotic, and that really is my idea of summer, patriotic.


Mom did ask what the cats were doing sitting on the quilts. I think she wanted to know what they were doing. I assume, based on years of cat ownership, that some fights are about to start. Cats, at least mine, usually don't do well with sharing.

OH, BTW, if anyone who reads this blog is looking for either the Olde Colonial Designs Rooster Pillow (Pumpkin?), Lizzie Kate Big Girl Panties, or Just Nan's LE Peter Cottontail, my LNS, The Stitching Post still had a lot of them left. They do mail order.

Gonna have another finish soon

I am hoping to have another small finished tonight. It's a San Man tuck banner, By The Sea. I worked at it yesterday at my part time job, and I just have a little bit left. I would have had it done sooner, but I managed to spill red Koolaid on my first attempt on Thursday, so I am a little behind. Let me tell you, it was beyond depressing to look down at my little Koolaid-stained WIP. I considered rinsing it out, but I pitched it. And I was more careful with this one.

I must pat myself on the back for not, in the two years I have had this little chart and charm, losing the charm. Losing the charm is pretty much Standard Operating Procedure for Me, so this is a big deal. I had to swap out some of the colors, but I think the floss I chose for the lettering goes really well with the tuck banner and the charm.

Next up is a chicken pillow for Mom. She tried to get me to buy the kit on Saturday, but it was $24 and I spent A LOT of money at my LNS. So she bought it, and requested I stitch it for her. It's a rooster with scissors; she doesn't understand why there are scissors on it, and, to be honest, I don't either. So I am going to center it and remove the scissors. It should look OK. It's a pretty pillow; it's sorta like toile, with tiny little chickens on it. I would love to know where places get these cool fabrics. It's not at Joanne's.

I took the plunge

OK, now I know I was supposed to be working on smalls this entire month. And I am trying very hard. BUT, the fabric for SOHRH came in the mail on Friday night, and I Had to start it. I finished the outline and the wording of Squares 6 and 7. I am not sure if I am happy with how I have laid out the wording--I have to take a look at it with fresh eyes--but I love the fabric. It's not yellowish, like the model, but it's a really creamy,peachy brown, which looks fine. I have already had to change the red used in the flag on the ship. The DMC conversion was for 3858, a berry red, but when you look at all the colors together, that didn't make sense, or look good, so I switched it to 815.

We went to my LNS, the Stitching Post, yesterday. I had my income tax refund, so it was like being a kid in a candy store. I tried to keep my purchases simple, but well . . . I did have a good time.

I do have to stop shopping. And I think I have reached saturation point. I got the skeins of threads I needed for the new L*K LE, and an older one I had all but one skein for. I found a really gorgeous piece of Heatherfield in White Birch for the Diane Grebner I kitted up the other day, Sharing with my Kits. I thought the little flecks of blue and brown would go really well with her dress. And the cow would stand out better. It is 26 count fabric, though, that could be fun. If I do it over one, and I probably will, I will need to use my magnifier. These eyes aren't as great as they used to be.

On a side note, it's spring, and time to take down the winter and holiday stitched pieces. I don't have a lot of large pieces, but I definitely want to put something up that is cheery and springy. Maybe Iris and Friends. I haven't actually had that up on the wall yet. And I have a bellpull by Sanman to put up as well. Most of my framed stuff is summery--how did that happen, LOL?

started a new afghan

I guess I should be smacked for starting a new afghan when my Hummingbird Trellis is not finished, barely started, but I decided that, since I had a spare afghan lying around, and an empty set of Q Snaps, and those charts are small, well they would be a great afghan.

I am combining the following charts:

Cats and Baskets
Catch a Tail
Cat and Mouse
Three's a Crowd
Give Me A Kiss
Holly and Ivy
and

Ready to Pounce

And then adding the little motifs from Kitty's Day to it as well.

I still consider to be a "smalls" project because these are small charts. They will just be finished as a large project. No different than a quilt. It should be tremendously cute, and WAY easier to get done than the Stoney Creek quilt.

And I realized, since I found that awesome quilt store, the Quilted Cat, last summer, I won't even have to stress about finding cat-themed fabric to back it, because they had so much and, being a quilt store, will probably be better able to help me choose the right fabric.

Not only all this, but I cut a strip off the afghan because it was too big, and I can use that as a bell pull. I thought about putting Pumpkin Pie, another wonderful freebie by Sanman, on it, but I won't do that, just because I think that needs a white afghan and this is cream. It's fine for the cats, but not Halloween. So I can probably find a set of three or four coordinating fall designs and use that to make the bellpull.

Waste not, want not, my mother always says.

Snoopy Style Happy Dancing-with Lights

Light Effects that is.

I finished Magic Hat. Woo hoo! Of course, it doesn't feel so much as I finished a project as that I won a battle. I did sustain an injury in this project. I was shoving the needle through the fabric with that crappy Light Effects thread and managed to jam the needle deep into the tip of my middle finger. OWWWWWW.

It's very cute. As crappy as those threads were, they really did make this project cute. I hope SO's mom likes it.

Bought the floss for SOHRH

I went out at lunch yesterday and bought the floss. I bought DMC floss, because, well, the fabric is expensive, I just bought a bunch of stuff, and, frankly, I am too cheap to spend for the silk floss. HOHRH turned out pretty darn great with the DMC, so I am not worried about this. I am just hoping I picked the right fabric. I bought something called French Vanilla Swirl: http://www.silkweaver.com/fabric/signature.html . It looked good in the picture. I am bummed that Dower Legacy Linen doesn't come in a good color for this piece, cause that was great linen. Oh, well, can't have it all.

I have a suspicion I will have to do a lot of custom converting on this. I know that CHS does a great job converting to DMC, but there are some that are a little "off". I know that DMC 927 was listed as a blue and a pale jade green. Hrrrh? So I pulled DMC 772 for that section. But I also got 469-472 as well, just in case. And they had another funky color as a dark blue. I pulled 924 as well. 924 is a dark blue, if nothing else, that is a dark Williamsburg blue.

I am really customizing this one. So far I have decided that I am switching the wording on the center square and the house square. It just makes sense. And then flipping 12 and 8, and 1 and 11. And then altering the wording on the memorial square. I guess if I am going to do that, I should start looking for some sort of appropriate quote, shouldn't I? I think it is going to look good like that. There should be a balance of color, the verse would flow as:

"Beneath the blue of Heaven's dome, Lies the sea that fish call home, The moon above will guide my love, while he's far away from me, I'll wait for thee, my love at sea, Light the way, come what may."

That would sound good, right.

Another finish and a UFO picked up again.

I finished my little snowman for the Bride's Tree SAL last night. He is absolutely DARLING. I wish I could get a pic of him to share, but we are still computerless, so this isn't happening for a while. I was worried about using the Impressions fabric in stripes, but it looks wonderful in it. I did change some of the colors on it. A snowman needs blue, after all.

This morning I picked up Sisters and Best Friends Over the Moon Fall Black Cat: http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-bin/itemdetail.pl?item=04-2275 . I started it sometime in the summer of 2006, and put it away because it has large areas of one color stitched in overdyeds, which is not my favorite way to do overdyed threads. I would like to get that finished this month. I have tomorrow off, so I think I can get a decent amount finished, maybe the cat and the pumpkin. The picture does not really do this chart justice. It uses some gorgeous colors: Weeks' Ocean, Sea Foam, and Peoria Purple, and GAST Spring Grass. They don't sound that pretty til you actually put them together. And then, beautiful. It is such a shame that S&BF is not designing together anymore. They really do have some wonderful, fun charts. But then, we can't have new designers succeed if older ones don't retire.

A finish and a much anticipated start

I finished my Autumn Acorn Sampler last night, and started my first ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL. I am already behind, but I think that I can get that finished and the February ornament done quickly.

My first major Hardanger finish turned out pretty good. There are some mistakes on it. I screwed up--geez, I don't even know how to describe it, but when you form your Kloster blocks, I didn't get the direction started right. I am not fixing it. It takes a lot for me to say that, being Miss Perfectionist. But I am not fixing it. It's done. It was not an easy project. I think I did OK on the needleweaving, and my dove's eyes are alright. I want to work on getting my tension a little better so I can wrap the bars tighter, because mine are bulky, but I need to find someone who does Hardanger to ask, and, for as helpful as my LNS staff is, I don't think they do a lot of hardanger, so are not the best to ask. I don't know who IS proficient at Hardanger, though, at least not around here. SO asked what I wanted to do with it. I told him I am not sure. Money is a little tight right now, and I haven't gotten my W-2s from my part-time job yet, so it's not gonna be done any time soon. I am leaning towards a pillow for the finishing. That is simple, it's fairly inexpensive, and I can store it when it's not autumn.

I think I was able to do this because the Super Bowl sucked right up until the end last night. Even the commercials for the most part stank. I liked the Clydesdale one, but the Careerbuilder ones were heinously disgusting. Especially the one where the woman's heart came out of her chest. WTF? It was so offensive that I am seriously considering taking my resume off their website. NONE of theirs were good. And the game went so slow . . . but it was good for me. I got stitching done.

I am enjoying the ornament I am stitching. It's from the 2007 ornament issue, by Julia Lucas (thank you Jennifer for pointing out that one). I found the perfect piece of linen in my stash, too. I am going to leave off the Welcome part. I am not giving it to anyone, so I don't need it. I don't think this should take that long to get done.

I also got my new stash from Marilyn's in the mail. The piece of linen I bought for half price to do Veggies on is PERFECT. The colors look gorgeous on it. I can not wait to start this project, but I am going to wait til at least March. I am resolving to get a couple great finishes this month on some UFOs. I have so many things in my stash that I could finish without a lot of effort if I just sat down, focused on finishing them and followed through. But there is something so alluring about playing with bright new floss that playing with something I already started doesn't give me. I should get over this. I could save so much money by just finishing stuff, LOL.