A Basket of Bunnies

Hey everyone,

I've been gone for quite awhile, and I know that I said in my last post I would try to update more often.  December got really crazy with us having my soon to be sister-in-law come visit for Christmas, and I got sick with a cold at Christmas and then with flu and another cold in January, and things just got away from me.

The truth is, I've kind of been intimated by my own blogging goals, which made it even easier to just keep putting the updates off.  Despite not blogging, I have been stitching and keeping photo progress too, I just have been too intimated to come back and post here.

For the Crazy January challenge this year, I did 31 starts of those little free kits that come with the cross stitch magazines.  I have a lot hanging around and I figured it was time for me to do something about them.  But when I thought about coming on here to post my progress, it just seemed like more of a chore than anything else.  And then more and more progress has happened since then, and it only complicated things further.

So I've decided, it's time for a fresh start.  I'm not going to worry so much about showing each and every one of my past progress photos, but instead focus on sharing more current stitching (that frankly I'm more excited about.  The CJC projects I picked felt more tedious than anything else by the end of January).

The World of Charity Stitch group I'm a part of on Facebook recently did a Bunny themed challenge.  And looking through my patterns apparently the only thing I have more of than bunny charts is cat charts.  So I started 4 different squares (and planned to do many more!  But ran out of time...).  So my recent stitching is full of bunnies.

Here's the beginning of Woodland Bunny by Lucie Heaton:

I literally started this stitching and got this far while having a 100+ degree fever as a result of the flu!  Next is a cute little springtime themed bunny from Durene Jones:

The bonus thing is that this bunny also has several daffodils in it, which are one of my favorite flowers.  Next up is a Winter Bunny chart by Ursula Michael:

The other two bunnies were very stylized/cartoony, so I felt like this realistic bunny was a nice change.

And last up because I was sick of brown and white, I found a blue bunny from an old Carolyn Shores Wright leaflet called Snugglebunnies:

So that's mostly what I've been working on recently.  I'll try to do better about posting pictures of my progress.   I did also make some progress on two other things, but since they are presents I better wait to show pictures until after they have been gifted.

Happy stitching everyone!

Long Overdue Update (Picture Heavy)

Well, my last post here was apparently 3 months ago to the day.  Yikes.  I knew it had been a long time but hadn't realized it had been that long.  I've still been stitching over the last few months, but I kind of fell off the bandwagon with my Olympic stitching in my last update, so I just hadn't been coming back on the computer to actually post an update.  So here's a rundown of what I've been working on in the meantime...

First off, I did finish the Believe part of Lizzie Kate's Living with Charm series from the LK Round Robin I was in.  Here's how that one looked when it was finished:

Next up was the last round for the Lizzie Kate RR before getting my own project back.  I stitched the bottom of this pattern from the 3 Little Words series:

I don't know what kind of evenweave this project had, but it was a joy to stitch on.  So thick and creamy, if you can describe fabric that way.  My qsnap loved it too.

So after I sent this one on I got my project back.  Unfortunately my original project got lost somewhere in Canadian customs, by my fellow RR stitchers pitched together to get replacement fabric and threads.  It was a tiny bit disappointing getting it back, just because although the project hadn't been replaced, I couldn't help thinking it wasn't actually my project.  It still has several sections to complete before it's done, but I had to put it away for a bit because it just makes me a little sad to look at right now.

I also got some stitching done on my Etsy Round Robin projects.  The first one after the darling Disney project I showed last time was a block from the Spooky Halloween Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin:

I had actually stitched one block of this already in the Frosted Pumpkin RR I did last year, so it was nice to do a different part of it this time.  I did L is for Lollipop this time.

The next round in the Etsy RR I've actually lost photos of that project somewhere, so I don't have anything to show you.  It was a part of a subversive cross stitch called Welcome to My Hood, I think by Granny Panties?  It honestly wasn't my favorite thing to work on, so I'm actually not too torn up about losing the pictures, haha.

The next round project was another Halloween piece, this one is by Satsuma Street.

I did the two E blocks and the candy corn.  I have to say I've loved the couple of Satsuma Street patterns I've worked on, although this one gave me a bunch of trouble.  I had to frog and restitch the border twice, and the big E on the bottom once.  My scissors definitely got a workout on this one.

That brings me up to my current project for the Etsy RR.  This is my progress so far on Sewing Room by Soda Stitch:

I have to say I've admired Soda Stitch's patterns for a long time and I even have a couple in my stash (2 I think?) but I have never actually done one yet.  I am loving this one so far though. I can tell this is a project where the back stitch will really make a difference though.

In addition to my round robin stitching, I have also stitched quite a bit more on Welcome Home than you last saw it:

Pretty much almost done except the roof and backstitch.  I've put it away for now though because I'm hitting Christmas present panic mode and need to focus on those projects over the next couple weeks.

I also started on a project that I am calling Summer Bouquet, from a Lucie Heaton booklet that came with one of the UK cross stitch magazines.  I got pretty far on it just a couple colors left to fill in:

Unfortunately I had a major accident and spilled applesauce all over this project.  Again, had to put it away for awhile because I can't look at it after that.  I'm pretty sure it will be okay because I just used DMC threads, but I haven't tried to deep clean it yet.

So that's what's been going on around here stitching-wise.  Hopefully it won't be so long before my next update!

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?

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.

Plans for the Weekend

Well, I'm planning on doing some stitching this weekend.  How about you?  I have about 5 projects that need to be completed and sent off by the end of the month.  Hmmm, I think I'm totally insane for signing up for so many things.  In fact, the other day my Mom saw me stitching, asked what I was working on, and when I told her, her response was "don't you ever stitch anything for yourself".  Guess I haven't much lately.  I will have to remedy that.  But in the meantime, I have deadlines to follow!

So I've got a bit more progress to show you on said projects.  I finished up the stitching on the N from Lucie Heaton's Buzzy Bees alphatbet for my intital exchange:

I actually kind of like it with the backstitching.  Actually, I've finished all the backstiching too, but I will be saving that finish photograph for the smalls check in at the end of the month.  I'm devious, I know.  But for once I'd like to show frequent readers some new photographs for my SAL check-ins. 

Anyway, I like it both this way and finished with all the detail, although I think if I stitch it again I might just backstitch the flower and bee and leave the letter un-outlined.  I plan to finish this up into a bookmark and get it sent off this weekend. 

Which brings me to the start of my newest project.  This is the Baby Tinkerbell pattern featured on my Turtle Trot list (Project 9). 

Just a bit of green so far.  This is strip of darker green on her dress caused by the shadow of her arm. This design has a TON of fractionals like the Friends for Life pattern did, and this particular aida is super stiff, so this one will present me with a bit of a challenge. Hopefully I will get much further as the weekend progresses. 

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!

A to Z Challenge: Z is for Zoo

Today is the last and final day of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  It's been a fun experience, but I am definitely read to think about more things to blog about than alphabet letters (haha).

Z is for Zoo

Although my normal Free Pattern Friday post isn't until tomorrow, I thought it might be fun to wrap up this challenge with some free patterns, and they even fit into my Z letter post too.

This is a zoo themed alphabet by Lucie Heaton.  She does a lot of alphabets for the British cross stitch magazines, but if you're not familiar with those, you may have not seen her work before.  She's definitely a cute and whimsical designer for most of her projects (although she does artistic well too). 

These cute little letters would be great for monogramming projects, or you could string them together to make a room sign or personalized tote bag.  They are free to download in three different formats from the Cyberstitchers site.  You do have to download them in sections though, so that's a bit of a bother, but not too much trouble.  Here's the links for A-F, G-L, M-R, S-V, and finally W-Z.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip through the alphabet with me this April.  It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun too.  I do plan on doing it again next year, although I'm not sure exactly what format it will take.  Guess I have a year left to decide those specifics.

Here's a link to all my past A to Z posts in case you missed any you would like to visit. 

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi 
L is for Lesley Teare
M is for Margaret Sherry 
N is for Noah's Ark
O is for Owls
P is for Pumpkins
Q is for Quaker
R is for Rules 
S is Sue Hillis
T is for Travel
U is for Ursula Michael
V is for Vermillion Stitchery 
W is for Wreath 
X is for X's and Oh's 
Y is for Year