An Explosion of Stitchy Progress

Well, somehow despite my best intentions I disappeared for a little over a month again. Oops.  Life has been super crazy and I've been working the equivalent of a second job during the weekends, so lately it seems like things like blogging get pushed out of the way.  Luckily though I haven't lost my stitchy bug, so I have A LOT of progress pics to show you. Here's what I've been working since my last overdue post.

It's been awhile since you've seen Mr. Let It Snowman.  Here's what he looked like the last time I took a photo of him:

I've actually gotten a bit farther with this, but I haven't worked on it in quite awhile. I got sick of all the white I guess.

Also, a lot of stitching has been done for my round robin projects lately.  On the sampler front, I finished my section of two rounds.  The first was a couple blocks in Frosted Pumpkins Spring Sampler:

I really do like Frosted Pumpkin's patterns, but for some reason I really struggled with this one and I'm not sure why.  But I got it done in the end, so there you go.

The next sampler round was the bottom-most part of this Strawberry Shortcake Sampler:

My section was the green cake plate and the little plaid stripe underneath it.  This one was a fun pattern, it went pretty fast for me and I ended up ahead in the round robin for the first time ever.

I also have a lot of progress to show for my Lizzie Kate Round Robin projects.  First is the finish of the February stamp that I showed progress in last time:

I wasn't sure how I was going to like the colors on this one together as I was stitching it up, but I decided once it was finished it wasn't too bad.  Those little blank spots in the flowers will eventually be covered up by little purple buttons when the owner gets the project back.

The next project I got in the mail were for Lizzie's Boxer seasonal patterns.  We could choose which part we wanted to stitch and I chose the top half of the winter pattern:

This one stitched up really quick, even with all that blue fill in.  Although I totally miscounted the snowflakes the first time and had to frog them all.  That's what I get for starting it on a road trip I guess.

My most recent Lizzie Kate finish is one of the Boo Club series of patterns.  The frog turned out a little weird because his black eye buttons won't be applied to the end:

The interesting thing about this pattern was that the owner asked us to do it in only 1 ply thread, which was new for me, but it kind of grew on me the way it turned out.  I personally don't like that kind of coverage, but I bet it makes your overdyed threads go much farther!

I've been digging through lots of my old magazine issues lately and even though I have tons of WIPs to work on, I couldn't help picking a couple patterns that stood out to me for World of Charity Stitching's friendship quilt theme.  These will probably get there a little late to be included in that, but I'm sure they'll be put to good use (or I might find another use for them in the meantime).

This one is a pattern from Lucie Heaton, and the individual pattern doesn't have a name, so I called it Dancing Divas in my head.

Not much to look at now but I stitched all I could with the colors I have on hand at the moment, so that's all there is for now.  This is definitely a pattern that will greatly benefit from the backstitching, which seems to be a common theme in Lucie's patterns.  But they're super fun to stitch and work up really quick!

The second pattern I pulled is a card design called Best Friends Share from a really old copy of Cross Stitch Card Shop.

I just started this one last night, so right now it's pretty much just an orange blur, but eventually this will be two cute little kitties curled up in a basket together.

I think that catches me up with everything for now, and of course I promise to try and update more frequently, although the way life has been lately, who knows?

A Long Overdue Update

Hello readers!  I hope you haven't all given up on me, LOL.  It's past time for a new stitching update from me, but I just have been so busy with work and personal issues over the past few weeks I haven't really found the time to blog much.

As I reported in my last post, I had some major carpal tunnel like flare ups in my wrists at the end of January the derailed my Crazy January plans.  I had hoped to pick it back up in February, but that didn't happen.  By the time I was feeling better enough to stitch, I had to get some projects for my round robins done, and well, there you go.  Best laid plans.  Hopefully next year's challenge will go better!

I did consider doing a new project a day type challenge in either April or May but I think at this point I don't think I will do that.  I really, really want to finish the stockings for myself and my family for Christmas this year, and if I want to get through all that, I'm really going to have to crack down to have them finished in time.

So since early February although I haven't been blogging, I have been stitching.  Thus I have A LOT of updates to share with you.

First of all, last check in I was working on Sweets to the Sweet for WOCS.  Well, that one was finished:

It was done on 14 count white aida with charted DMC threads.  Didn't make any changes on this one except I didn't attach the charm that came with the pattern.  I really like this one, and might do it again, but will probably do it in different colors because by the end I was really sick of that shade of red.

After that, it was time to finish up the motif I was working on in Ink Circle's Garden of Stars for the Sampler Round Robin I'm in:

The only thing I didn't like about working on this one was that I only got to work in one color.  Seriously though, the size of this project is MASSIVE.  I had no idea from looking at the model photo.  Even if you stitched it 1 over 1 I'm sure it would still be huge.  The linen on this project was a little fiddly too, which was a little frustrating (had to frog a few things).  Over the past year or so I've been doing round robins, I've really become comfortable with stitching over 2 now, but I have to say I think I prefer evenweave over linen because I just don't like the variances in thread thickness or the transparent quality that linen has in many cases. 

But, moving on.  I also finished up the next square for the WOCS "sweets" theme.  This is Chocolate Box by Little House Needleworks:

For various reasons, including time and convenience, I did this one much different than charted.  The original has a 2 part border surrounding the chocolates, complete with beads.  Since the deadline on this one was coming up, I decided to only do the chocolates themselves and I left off most of the lazy daisy, french knot, and backstitching embellishments.  This is also on 14 count white aida, and I used the DMC floss conversions in the chart.

The first project in my Lizzie Kate round robin came to me, so I finished up my section of that one.  I forget the name of it at the moment.

Overall it was a pretty quick stitch and nicely cheerful.  It was weird to completely start a new project for someone though, LOL.  Usually the project owner does a bit before they send it out into the world for the RR's I've participated in before. 

My section for February for the sampler round robin was also a really quick stitch:

This is part of Country Cottage Needleworks Snow Sampler, and surprisingly I actually got this done in all one night which is unusual for me.  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the whole thing before sending it on though.

So that's it for the finishes, which brings me to my current stitching.  First up is the next project in my Lizzie Kate Round Robin:

I'm doing the February Block of the Monthly Stamps Flip-It series.  The floss colors were a bit modified by the project owner, but I think it will still be very pretty when finished.  I'm actually a little farther along on it than this, but I haven't taken a new picture lately.

My work project is another WOCS square, this one for the Snowman theme.  Here's what Let it Snowman looks like lately:

He's much father progressed than the white blog I shared after his start during January.  I'm pleased with the way he's turning out, but I'm thinking I will skip a lot of the fussy backstitching on this one.  I just don't think he needs it really. I'm hoping to have him finished and on his way soon!

Progress Update: Crazy January Challenge Days 6-8

Time to share another update of my projects from the Crazy January Challenge.  You know how I said I was on a snowman pattern kick earlier?  Well, here's why...

After the 5th, I moved on from the "sweetie squares" to the "snowmen squares".  The first is Frosty Snowflake, a Needle Bling Designs pattern from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch ornaments special. 

I managed to get a bit of the brim on the snowman's top hat done.  He's not much to look at right now, that's for sure.  This is another WOCS piece, and they specifically asked for designs that were done on other colors of aida to offset the white of the snowman patterns.  I ended up sourcing two pieces of moss green aida, so that's what I'm stitching this and my other snowman square on.  The color really kind of bled out in this picture, but this next photo shows it more at it's actual color. 

Day 6 is also done on green aida and is a pattern from the (now gone) US magazine The Cross Stitcher (not to be confused with the UK publication CrossStitcher magazine which is still in print as of this post).  Anyway, my working copy unfortunately doesn't list the designer or the title of the pattern and since I don't know exactly where in the black hole that is my stitching magazine stash right now the original magazine is, I'm calling it Let it Snowman. 

Doesn't look like much yet either.  Just mostly a white blob. 

Which brings me to the last project start before my internet-less (and thus update-less weekend). Today's start was also a snowman.  This is a freebie chart from Plum Pudding Needleworks called Fa La La:

Although I got a decent start on his head at lunch today, without some of the facial details you can't see it much against the natural aida yet.  I'm hoping he will stand out better as his face and hat are added.  This is my selection for the 2016 Christmas Ornie SAL, since January's theme is music. 

In other stitching news, I finished up my part of the latest sampler round robin project:

So that's off in the mail.  I got the next round yesterday but I haven't had a chance to open it yet so I don't know what it is yet.  But I expect that will show up in my crazy challenge later on in the month (maybe even this weekend).