Back with more stitchy progress

I guess my intentions to blog more than once a month have been in vain so far.  Work has been so busy: we got a new computer system a few weeks ago and things have been crazy and in turmoil since then.  Makes me just want to go home and sleep when I get off. 

But I have managed to do some stitching, mostly round robin progress again.  First off, I finished the last round for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  It's a little acorn to go with my night sky from last update:

After that, I worked on the next round in the Sampler Round Robin, which was this Tulip Sampler design by Rosewood Manor.  Since it's been so long since my last update, I actually completely finished it before I could post any updates:

And speaking of the sampler round, here is some progress to show on Halloween Quaker.  This is the project I'm sending around, so not all of the stitching is mine, but it gives you an idea of how it's coming so far. 

I also have a long overdue new start to show you.  This is for an ornament exchange, and is called Holiday Stamp by Mill Hill:

The stitching itself is almost done, then some petite beading and a few backstitch and french knots and it will be done.  I haven't really worked on one of these Mill Hill kits since last January, and I forgot how fun they are.  I have a few more of these to complete for various gifts over the next month or so until Christmas, so I need to stitch faster!

Progress: Mostly Round Robin stitching

Well, it's been almost another month since I posted, so I guess it's time for another update.  I haven't been getting too much stitching done lately, mostly round robin stuff.  Actually, now that I think about it, all round robin stuff.  Although I have my stitchy bug pretty much back all the way, I have had some health problems that have really slowed me down. 

If you don't enjoy reading about personal issues, you can skip down a few paragraphs.  But for anyone interested, I was diagnosed with Grave's Disease about a year and a half ago.  Graves is a form of hyperthyroidism, which means my body makes too much thyroid hormone.  It's sort of like my body's thermostat is permanently set too high. 

Anyway, long story short, I've tried a few different treatments, gone through a lot of tests, and my doctor and I came to the conclusion that either my thyroid needed to come out, or it needed to be killed.  So at the beginning of the month I took a large dose of radioactive Iodine 131 isotope, which left me in quarantine for 5 days.  I'm still kind of dealing with the after effects of that, which is why things have been slow in the stitching front. 

So personal issues over. 

In other (more happy) news, our little kitten is getting so big.  Her official name is Bitty (as in itty bitty) because she was so tiny when we found her and we decided that it will be ironic when she's full grown.  She and Brownie have finally decided they kind of like each other.  I snapped this pic of them being all sneaky and sleeping together in the same cat bed when I was in my 5 day isolation. 

On the stitching front, I finished my portion of the Gingerbread Lane project for the second to last round of the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin group on Facebook:

Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing as it looks so far before sending it off, but it was a super cute project that I might stitch myself one day. 

I also started on Autumn Sampler, which will be my last project for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin (except finishing my own project, of course).  This pattern was temporarily discontinued, although the designers brought it back after popular demand.  I bought the winter version of this in February or March, and I'm liking this one so much that if they also decide to re-release the spring version, I might just also purchase autumn, spring, and summer so I have a full set. 

For my piece I'm stitching 2 of the 25 boxes the sampler is divided into.  I've finished one, a night forest landscape with a big harvest moon, and have started on the second, an acorn with oak leaves.  Here's what the forest looked like when I finished with it:

I also finished my first project for the Sampler Round Robin that started in September.  This is what my portion of the Jane Austen sampler I showed last time looked like when done:

And here's what it looked like as a whole before sending it off.  It's really cute, I bet it will look great when it's all done. 

Next I need to start my second sampler project which I just got in the mail.  That one will be a quilt block style sampler if I remember correctly (still need to pull it out of the envelope).  The sad thing is, I still haven't started up my Christmas gift stitching, and I really need to get that done if I want to finish in time.  Hmmmm...

Latest Stitching Updates

Well, I kind of fell of the stitching bandwagon for awhile, didn't I?  I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted anything.  To be honest, I've kind of lost my stitching bug a bit in the last couple months as well.  I think I may have taken on a little to much this year, and it burned me out in the year.  Don't get me wrong, I love monthly SALs and everything, but I think I will lay aside all the obligation they present for the rest of the year and just focus on what I want to stitch.  Of course, I will be doing the Crazy January challenge (31 projects, one for each day in January) again this year, or at least I plan to right now.  But other than that for next year I'll just see where life takes me.

So although I got burned out, I have been doing a little bit of stitching.  I finished the Cinderella/October block in my latest Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin piece, and got that sent off.  Here's a (kind of dark, sorry) photo of my finished portion:

Once that was sent off, it was time to pick up the next RR piece, since I'm a little behind.  The next one is Gingerbread Lane.  My part is to stitch the skaters on the pond below the middle house.  This is what I have so far:

I love this pattern so much, it's really fun to work on.  I'm ashamed to admit that I got burned out on the Once Upon a Time pieces, even though I love fairy tales.

Speaking of the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin, I got my piece back recently (yay!) but forgot to take a picture of it.  Darn!  So I guess I will save that for another post.  

The other project I've been working on is for the newest round robin I've joined.  This one is sampler themed.  I sent out my Halloween Quaker project that I've stalled on to be worked on, so when I get that back, it will be almost finished for me!

The first project I'm working on is Simply Jane Austen, a Motif Sampler by The Sampler Girl.  This blog has a picture of what it will look like when finished.  I love Jane Austen, so although my part in this piece is pretty small (4 words and key) I'm enjoying it a lot.  Here's the latest progress pic:

We're taking a road trip this weekend, so I'm hoping to get a lot done during that (at least the first leg of the trip).  I need to finish up these Round Robin projects because I'm down to crunch time on Christmas projects!

Back with more progress updates

Yikes!  I can't believe how quiet I've been around here lately.  That little kitten is still keeping us pretty busy.  I guess I underestimated how much time can be taken up by playing and cuddling and all those things kittens are good for.  She's still really active, so stitching with her around can be a little bit of a mess, but she did decide to settle down with me the other day. 

She squeezed herself into that tiny spot between my leg and the next couch cushion and fell completely asleep.  Little stinker. 

So despite my lack of blogging updates, I have been stitching some, although maybe not at the rate I was before.  I finally finished up the Rapunzel block of Once Upon a Time for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  Here's what it looks like finished:

This particular project had a lot of pattern modifications made by the project owner, and some of them are really neat, so here's a complete picture of the whole project as it looked before I packed it up and sent it on:

The sunlight really washed out the colors in this photo.  The fabric was a beautiful color, closer to the Rapunzel picture above.  But man, was it difficult for me to work with!  Between it being linen, which I am slowly getting used to but not used to completely yet, and the dark color, and almost only being able to work on it at night, this block definitely went slower. 

While I was finishing up that one, I also got the next project in the round robin, which also happened to be Once Upon a Time.  This will be my third and last time working on this particular pattern, since the RR is coming to a close with just a few more rounds.  This time I'm working on the Cinderella block.  Not much progress so far, just a bit of the elaborate border FP is famous for:

Sadly the terrible night lighting washed out all the beautiful Weeks Dye Works colors, so hopefully I'll get a better picture of this as it goes along so you can see those better. 

In other stitching, Sunshine by Satsuma Street is also coming along.  Just have the dark and light pink ring around the outside to finish, and then that yellow in the middle that I still need to pick up.  I just love how the colors on this one are turning out. 

Until next time, happy stitching to you all, and let's hope my next update isn't really far away this time!

Rapunzel Update

I know the blog has been really quiet lately, but I haven't been stitching as much the past two weeks, mostly for 2 reasons.  The first is another crafty project I've been working on but can't reveal yet, and the second reason is this:

Yes, somehow we ended up with a new kitten in the family.  She wandered up from the pasture about 2 weeks ago and just started rubbing our legs and purring all over.  Poor thing was skin and bones, so how could we not take her in?  It's been over 20 years since I had a kitten and I've forgotten how energetic they can be (and need to be watched CONSTANTLY!).  This little girl is especially a bit of a spitfire.  I had to take Brownie to the vet last Saturday (dislocated knee and feline asthma, but he's doing a lot better now fortunately), and so I figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone and take the kitten in for her first exam as well.  Well, since I only have 1 cat carrier, the kitten got relegated to a cardboard box with airholes cut in the sides, which she proceeded to rip open to get out of the box while on the drive to the vet.  Sheesh!

Anyway, despite the many challenges life has brought these past two weeks, I have managed to do a bit of stitching.  No new progress on Sunshine, mostly because I've been trying to finish this Rapunzel block for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin so I can send it off to the next person.  Last time I showed it, it just had a bunch of trees, but now it looks like this:

In case you can't tell, that lettering is done with 2 strands over 1, and it's black so it is HARD.  I've had to concentrate super hard on that section, so progress there especially is slow.  I just need to finish that, add another cloud, another bird, flag on the top of the tower, flower basket hanging out the window, stitch Rapunzel and her hair, and put in backstitching and details.  Not too much, right?  Hoping to have her done and ready to go out Monday...

Why I do what I do

For those of you who've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I do a lot of charity stitching.  Well, I thought it might be fun to show off some of the quilts that were recently finished with my contributed squares.

By the way, both charity organizations I stitch for are always looking for new stitchers and always have new themes coming up, so if you think you'd like to donate a square or two, check out their linked websites from this link.  The quilts go to such good causes (sick children and needy seniors) and it's kind of addicting searching for the right pattern to stitch for an active theme.

First up is a quilt featuring my Rainbow Mandala pattern and finished by World Of Charity Stitching.
This quilt featured the same pattern done in many color palettes by each stitcher. My block was a neon rainbow contribution, and you can see it here in the finished quilt top outlined in red.

Next up is another WOCS quilt.  This one featured the same mitten outline with different fill patterns.  (Incidentally, WOCS is currently doing another quilt along these lines, this time with butterflies.)  I contributed two squares to this one, Leopard Print Mitten and Giraffe Print Mitten .  These were actually my very first finishes for 2015.  Both of them made it into a single finished quilt, and you can see both here in red.

The other organization I usually send squares to is Love Quilts (the USA branch).  Unlike WOCS, which stitches by theme and then finds a recipient, Love Quilts takes signups for individual children whose parents have chosen a theme for the squares of their quilt.

That Baby Tinkerbell pattern I worked so hard on showed up nicely in this Disney princess themed quilt.  This is going to a 7-year-old girl who has already gone through surgery and chemo for a rare type of tumor 3 years ago, and is currently undergoing a second round of treatment for a baseball sized tumor in another area of her body.

The last quilt I have to show you today was the one I finished my Friends for Life square for.  The theme was realistic cats and dogs, and I admit my square is a little small next to a lot of the other contributions, but it ended up being a necessary evil due to time.  This is going to a teenage girl who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

By the way, you can click on all of the quilt pictures to see them larger if you wish.  

If you take a gander at my Finishes page you'll see several more finished squares for both organizations that have been sent in, but they haven't been made into finished quilts yet.  If you enjoyed reading this post though, I'll do another one when a few more quilts have popped up.

I've made a bit of progress on my newest WOCS stitching project too.  Here's where Sunshine by Satsuma Street is currently at:

It's coming along nicely.  The main sun is almost done, except for I still need to get more of the yellow I ran out of.  Once I finish the inner ring (that's what all the gaps in the rays is for) I'll start on the larger outer ring, and it will be ready to send off.

And I made a pitful bit of progress on my latest square for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  Still now tower for Rapunzel yet, but the forest below her is finished...

Well, I'm Back...

Hey everyone,

So I kind of disappeared for a lot of June, didn't I?  As I mentioned in my last stitching update post, things were a little difficult for me health-wise.  Add to that a crazy stressful month at work, and things have been sparse on the blogging front.  I even missed most of my check-ins for the last month including TUSAL, WIPocalypse, Smalls SAL, and Stitch From Stash.  I'm definitely feeling better from the almost-pneumonia, and although I have some additional health things I'm waiting to sort out, things are doing better than they were, so that's progress.  I'm hoping to get back on top of things this month.

Although I may not have been blogging much, I still have been doing some stitching, so I do have progress to share with you.

I finished my fish pond square and sent it off to Love Quilts in time for the end of the month deadline:

This ended up being a pretty quick and easy stitch.  It was done with charted DMC threads, 2 over 1 on white 14 count Aida.  It is a free pattern from Happy Stitch, which you can find over at that blog.  There's even a matching cat pattern as well. 

Moving right along, there is of course the always progressing Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin project I'm participating in via Facebook.  This month brought the Once Upon A Time sampler to my door.  This one will be interesting because the owner of the pattern actually made quite a few of her own conversions to the originally.  I'm stitching Rapunzel this time around, and here's my progress so far:

Yeah, so I haven't done much yet.  Mostly just the two borders, and then that bit of tree you can see over there on the left.  I'm actually struggling with this fabric.  Most of the other round robin pieces have more or less got me used to stitching on linen/evenweave, but I don't know if it's the color of this particular one or what, but I'm having a very hard time with the over 2.  I've had to pick out a lot of stuff so far.  The color is beautiful though, so I'm loving that. 
 
In other news, Sunshine by Satsuma Street is moving right along.  I almost finished the sun side of the face, but ran out of the yellow, so I moved on to starting some of the rays while I wait for a chance to obtain more of the yellow floss in the meantime. 

It's actually turning out a little smaller than I pictured it, but that's okay.  This will be a square for World of Charity Stitching, so although it's technically "deadline stitching" the due date is pretty flexible, so I'm taking my time and enjoying it. 

Some stitching updates

Well hello everyone.  I've been meaning to post this update all week long and for one reason and another I keep getting distracted.  Things have been a little crazy around here this week.  Monday I finally broke down and went to the doctor for this cough and cold that's been bothering me for almost 2 months now.  Diagnosis: sinus infection and/or bronchitis with the potential to become walking pneumonia.  Yuck.  I was given a steroid shot, (ouch!) an antibiotic, and told to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids.  But mostly I pretty much only have enough energy to get through the work day, so by the time I get home I don't do much. 

I do have a little bit of stitching to show though.  Over the weekend I did manage to finish off my part of the Halloween Sampler for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  This is "O is for Owls":

And here's a pic of what it looks like so far before I sent it off again:

This larger view gives you a better idea of the pretty color of this hand dyed fabric, although it's still way washed out when I took this pic on my phone.  This was the third round robin project that I've done over 2 (linen or evenweave) and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.  Once I was done with that, it was time to start a new project.  This is a Fish Pond pincushion design that I'm doing as a square for LoveQuilts:

Sorry for the wonky lighting, I didn't really have the energy to try and make it look better when I took the picture last night.  It's not going to be a very big design, so I expect to finish it fairly quickly.  Maybe this weekend hopefully, since it needs to be in by the end of the month and I didn't realize how quickly June was getting away from me.

I have Fish Pond on my 11 x 11 Q-snap, so it's a little big for travel, so I have a smaller project I'm working on during lunch.  This is Sunshine by Satsuma Street:

This will be one of those half sun/half moon combined motifs when it's complete, all done in the funky bright colors Satsuma Street patterns are known for.  It's not much to look at now, since I only have part of the off-white of the moon side of the face done so far. 

Turtle Trot June 2015 Check-In

Well, today is the 10th of the month, which means it's time to show progress on my Turtle Trot pieces of the year.  Sadly, this SAL seems to have fizzled out lately on the host blog BAP Attack, but since I'm forging onwards with my progress, I figured I'd share anyway. 

I didn't have a ton of progress on my pieces the past month, mostly because of Project 9: Baby Tinkerbell.  However, I did manage to completely finish that one (yay!) so although that was most of my progress for the past month, it did cross one thing off my TT list. 

Here a pic for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

I also have been making progress on the latest round in the Frosted Pumpkin Facebook Round Robin group I'm in.  This month I'm working on the "O" block of the Halloween Sampler:

Not much else except the border and most of the O done so far.  I really liked doing the border, as it was my first time working with Weeks Dye Works threads, which were fun to do.  Usually I can't afford the extra expense, so I just use regular DMC threads, but the WDW overdyed threads were a nice change to work with.

My setback with this project so far is I actually had to frog the entire border around the block stitched by the last member of the round robin.  It's the Witch one just o the right of mine, and unfortunately she didn't count correctly, so the entire bottom and side borders were 1 block off.  It would have thrown off the rest of the blocks, and the relation of blocks to the outside "lace" border, so I eventually decided to restitch both her and my own borders.  So that took awhile.

In other news, I do have a finish to show you too.  Sadly, I guess I haven't posted any progress pics of this one yet, but here's what it looks like finished:

This is a pattern from a booklet by Lucie Heaton, and it doesn't have an individual name, so I just call it Tropical Drink.  It's for a summer themed exchange I'm working on.  I stitched it with recommended DMC threads, 2 over 1 on white 14 count plastic canvas.  I'm planning on finishing it up as a magnet, hence the plastic canvas.   I started it on June 2nd and finished the stitching the night of June 8th, so it was a nice, quick stitch. 

Now back to that Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin project.

April Turtle Trot, May WIPocalypse and more!

Well, with the continued craziness that I posted about at the end of last week, still not having internet access at home (living in the country is just great sometimes), STILL being sick with this stupid cold, Mother's Day on Sunday, etc. I missed the check in dates for both WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot.  But better late than never!

First of all, thank you to everyone who left well wishes on my post last week.  They were much needed.  My boss's husband had a major heart attack last Wednesday, leading to my rough week at work in trying to fill in for her.  Sadly, her husband passed away on Saturday, so Sat/Sun/Mon were busy trying to get things ready and settled for the funeral.  So that's over with, but things are still a little crazy as we try to adjust to the "new normal".

Secondly, I hope everyone who celebrated Mother's Day had a great weekend, and you enjoyed the time you spent honoring your mothers/sisters/aunts/daughters/etc.  I cooked up a storm last weekend, which sadly cut into my stitching time, but oh well.

Now, onto the updates I suppose.  First off, the May WIPocalypse check in as hosted by Measi.

May's question is: I would like to know if you look for LNS’s when you travel. What is the favorite shop you’ve ever found?

Sadly, I seem to never live in an area that has a LNS around.  I did find one in Placerville when up at Apple Hill when I lived in California, and one in Boise when visiting my grandparents (which sadly had gone out of business when I went back to look for it last year).  Usually when traveling I don't have time to explore for an LNS, I have a time schedule I need to keep to, but I want to possibly do it more often in the future.  Sadly, I have not found one near me in Mississippi yet either.  Anyone know of a LNS around the Jackson area?

As far as progress, I'm going to combine this with my Turtle Trot progress check-in, since some of the things I worked on this month were TT pieces.

Project 1: Halloween Quaker

Previous Progress:

How it looks now:

Projects 2-6: No new progress

Project 7: Flower of the Month SAL

I made more progress on January, but I can't find the progress pic I took anywhere!  I will have to update this post when I find where my camera stashed it.

Projects 8-10: No new progress

Project 11: Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin

Here's my latest finish on the FP Round Robin.  This is for Round 4, where I once again had Woodland Sampler to work on.  I finished the October block:

Made a huge counting mistake on this one (several times) so I had to frog a bunch and modify the pattern a bit (or risk having to frog the entire pattern).  I think it turned out okay anyway. 

Project 12: No new progress

So sadly, not a whole lot of progress going on there with those pieces.  Hopefully after June things will settle down a bit stitching-wise though. 

In April I also had two other non-Turtle Trot progress finishes, Easter Egg Topiary and Friends for Life, both of which were charity stitching donations.

I also managed to get a bit of stitching on this new project last night:

I don't anticipate this taking very long.  As you can probably tell, this is an initial, specifically a N.  It's for an Initial Exchange swap I signed up for on Facebook.  This is from the Buzzy Bees Alphabet by Lucie Heaton, I think from an old CrossStitcher magazine I have lying around.  Sorry for the wonky lighting, the fabric is actually regular white aida.  It's so hard to get good pictures of my stitching at night. 

Well, that's it for progress shots today.  Hopefully your stitching is all going better than mine!

Latest Round Robin Progress

I guess I've been a little quiet lately compared to how busy I was in April.  Sadly, I've had a few personal issues going on the last few weeks, a rough week at work, and yet another cold, all of which have thrown a bit of a wrench in things lately.  In fact, I think this pretty much sums up the last two weeks:

This is from the wonderful Sandra Boynton's Facebook page by the way.

So yes, May Day, May Day, I'm going down...

I'm way behind on getting my stitching done for this month's Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  But I have made a little progress so far:

Just the owl to finish, 3 clouds, 3 leaves, 2 acorns, and the words to do left.  That's not much.  Right?  I really need to get started on my next Love Quilts square due at the end of this month too.  And I got a few other projects up in the air too.  I'm feeling a little stretch.  Hopefully I can find some time to myself this weekend, although I don't know how much that will happen, being Mother's Day for those of us in the USA and all. 

Since I don't have much in the way of stitching to show you, how about a photo of serendipitous timing.  We live out in the country, and there happens to be a barn cat that lives on the property we rent.  His name is Bella (yes, Bella is a fella, he was named by a 5 year old that didn't know better) and he is a sweetie who loves to talk.  He always comes over and greets me with lots of meows and loud purrs when I come home every day.  I love him almost as much as my Brownie baby.

Anyway, Bella found an earthworm on the ground on Saturday, and happened to look up and tell me all about it.  Well, I was trying to get a picture of him sniffing it, but snapped it a little too late, which meant he was already looking at me and in mid-meow.  Well, since he was in the middle of talking to me, it made him look like he has this disgusted look on his face.  Like "ooh, gross, it's a worm..."

I just thought it was a cute picture and had to share.