Recent finishes and a UFO turned WIP

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year. Mine seems good so far. Except for the lack of a good computer with blogger access, except when I work at the theatre, I'm good. I think I am going to spend the money and have my current laptop tuned up vs. buying a new one. It works, just slowly and not happily, but it was an anniversary gift and it would be better to not add another laptop to the landfill if I don't have to.


 I have been stitching merrily along. This was my first finish for 2015, a freebie (except you had to buy the buttons. 

O Holy Night

JABCO 

stitched with recommended Weeks and Gentle Art on a mystery linen from stash

It took me a while to find all the flosses in stash for this, but I knew I had them. I did have to rob another project for the Straw Bonnet, and it would have been easier to just buy another skein, but I chose to rob. After all, I don't know when I'll complete that project and I wanted to do this one NOW. And I love it. That Baby Jesus button is the sweetest thing EVER. This will be an ornament, but I'm still trying to decide on the backing fabric. Do I want to use a green to match the hills, or a purple for the inside of the stable? HMMM

Next finish was the Sampler Girl's 2012 JCS ornament issue contribution.

 Christmas with Jane Austen

Sampler Girl 

recommended DMC on mystery linen

 I have had this kitted up since May--there are several really pretty ornaments in that issue that I want to do, and this was a good start. I started it before Christmas, but got tied up with other things. She reminds me of my niece, with whom we spent a really nice day in November, watching her compete in an Irish dance competition. Kaydence was over the moon to spend time with her cousin,  and when we ask her to dance like Hannah, she twirls and leaps. We are planning on putting her in a class where they are introduced to Irish music, stories and dance, so this will be a nice way to integrate that.

 I have decided to spend 2015 either working on a few selected projects (that I keep in a box in the living room) or finishing UFOs. This one has been kicking around for so long, since 2004. I keep losing parts of it, so I have decided to man up, as it were, and finish it. I am using a Silkweaver Solo on  Tula, along with the recommended threads.

It's coming along, but the colors appear to have changed since the original pattern was done, because the frog was more blue on the cover chart, and the seaweed fronds are more green, but . . . I like it, and I'm tired of trying to keep the floss, fabric and chart together. I think this will be a wallhanging, but not sure.

I am almost finished with a project I started in the summer, that of reorganizing my thread stash. I've probably mentioned my lack of organization and how I never find the floss I need, because it's all wadded up in a box. Well, my friend Enid kept talking about how she keeps her floss in envelopes in photo storage boxes. Michaels was having a sale, and it sounded like a good idea, so I tried. First with sandwich bags, but those are too slippery, so I went back to the envelopes--lesson learned: sometimes, it's better to follow the crowd. It works really well. I am about 3/4 of the way though organizing, and it was not easy, but the DMC is, for the most part, in photo boxes. I still have to do envelopes for the 900 series and the 3000s, but it's closer than I was a month ago, and I can narrow my search. And know what I don't need to buy again . . . ever. It feels good.

I even managed to come up with an idea for how to use up some of the random strands of floss that I found that got separated from their skein or skeins that weren't marked what they were.  I have some of the Mosey N Me challenge charts. Well, why not take the random strands and use them to do one of those?  That way, I'm not wasting it. It's a good idea, I think

And the other thing I decided was that, while I love my super-fancy sewing machine, the fact that I took my last sewing class 18 years ago, I don't live near anyone who can really get me comfortable with it, and I am so intimidated by it is keeping me from using it, SOOOO, til I get enamored of it, I am buying one of those small sewing machines and using that to finish my stuff. I busted my butt at work last quarter--OK, I will pat myself on the back and say I did a great job last year--and I am getting a bonus, so kind of interested in seeing what that will be, but it's enough to get one of the small sewing machines. Let the girl get used to driving a Chevy before I get handed the keys to the Lamborghini. So, that should be in the next week or so.

I am so grateful for those of you who are sticking around while I work through the equipment issues I have. I found the Blogger app, so was able to post some pix. While my posts may not be as chatty, I'm still here, and still trying!