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!

Turtle Trot March 2015 Check-In

I'm a few days late with this since check in was on the 10th, which was Saturday.  Unfortunately, due to a sort of unplanned road trip this past weekend (just shy of 2000 miles of driving in 2.5 days) I did not have internet access on the actual check in day.  So better late than never.

After last month's non-existent Turtle Trot progress, and knowing that this check in was coming up soon, I sat down and gave my original Turtle Trot goals a lot of thought.  In reality, I think I bit off a little more than I could chew when I sat down and made my original goals for 2015 last December.  I've gotten way more stitching done than I ever have before, but being as I have just gotten back into the hobby after several years away, I really didn't have any idea about how much stitching I can do in a year.  And sadly, obligatory/deadline stitching has pushed back some of my other pieces.

So on that note, I've decided to modify my original Turtle Trot list.  This is because, in the end, I believe Turtle Trot is about celebrating the progress you make each month, and not to make me feel bad because I didn't get to work on certain projects.  The projects I chose originally had more to do with those that I thought/knew would take me more than a couple months to finish, and not so much with what I wanted/needed to work on. 

But I realized that having a project on my TT list that I finish even after a couple months is okay and great, because it's a celebration of the progress I've made throughout the months and year.  So I'm changing my list to include several projects that I know will need to be done before the year is up, and will rotate projects that are getting replaced back into their spots as I get done and cross things off the TT list.

So in no particular order, here is my new TT goals, which actually has 12 projects instead of only 10 now.  Oy.  The idea was to cut back, right?

1.  Halloween Quaker

(no 2015 progress yet)

Staying on the list, although I did not make any progress this past month on this particular project

    2.  Tree Frog Trio

Progress before

March 2015 progress

I did manage to make some progress on this one, which is one of the main reasons it is staying on the list. 

  3.  Gift of Christmas

 (no 2015 progress yet)

Staying on the list, although I did not make any progress this past month on this particular project.  This will hopefully be a Christmas present this year, so I'm hoping to make much more progress on it by the end of the year. 

4.  Singing Owl

First started in January 2015  

This was one of my Crazy January starts, and will eventually be donated to charity.  But I haven't gotten any further progress done on it yet, so I felt the need to add it to the list so that it gets a little more love and attention.  

5.  Silly Ladybug

First started in January 2015  

See explanation for Singing Owl above.  This project is pretty much in the exact same situation. 

6.  Brick Game

 (not yet started)

This was going to be a present for someone this month, but I haven't even had a chance to start it yet.  So it's been pushed back to being a Christmas present, which means I would like to get it done by December this time. 

7.  2015 Flower of the Month SAL

March 2015 progress on January, February, and March squares

 

One of my WIPocalypse goals was to keep up with my starts for this project for the whole year.  So I had the thought, why shouldn't I include in my Turtle Trot progress as well?  This is a project I know I will be working on throughout the whole year. 

8.  Mill Hill Ornaments (not all pictured)

March 2015 progress (not all shown above started, and some projects not pictured)

So this is actually a series of projects rather than just one.  But I have a set of Mill Hill kits I need to make up into ornaments for Christmas this year, so I would like to make consistent progress for this rest of the year on that. 

9.  Baby Tinkerbell

  (not yet started)

This is a project that will need to be finished fairly soon, as it is for a charity quilt and is due to arrive by June 1st.  However, it is by far the biggest square I have attempted so far, and it has TONS of fractional stitches, which will be a challenge since the fabric has to be aida for the quilt.  So I am adding this one to the list because it needs all the championing I can give it to make it through by the deadline!

10.  Silent Night

 (no 2015 progress yet)

Like #3 above, this is supposed to be a Christmas present this year.  I am actually really close to finishing the stitching on this one and starting on the beading.  I just need that last little push of motivation to get it done and completed before the holiday comes. 

11. Frosted Pumpkin Facebook Round Robin

 (rounds completed so far) 

This is another project I already know will be ongoing throughout the year.  So why not put it on the Turtle Trot list to help me have the motivation to keep up with it? 

12.  Super Secret Magnet Project

 First started in January 2015

And last, but not least, this series of magnets I am making as a gift for someone who I suspect occasionally reads this blog.  So I can't reveal more of the actual project until after the gift is given.  But since I need to have these done by Christmas (again), they make a good candidate for inclusion on the Turtle Trot list. 

So, with those adjustments to my Turtle Trot list, I hope to have much more progress to report on for next check-in.  I suppose maybe I should be kicked out of the SAL for changing my mind mid-year, but in the end it's supposed to be for fun, so I had to do what I thought was best for my enjoyment of the hobby.  

Until next time Turtle Trotters!

No Turtle Trot and Things to Come

Today is the 10th of the month, so it's the day to check in for the Turtle Trot SAL.  For those of you who haven't heard of this before, Turtle Trot is a year long SAL hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack.  The idea is to pick 10 pieces you want to work on all year, and post your progress each month. 

So my update for March?  Nada!  I have been so busy with what I call "obligation stitching" (aka deadline stitching) that I haven't had a chance to pick up any of my Turtle Trot pieces since January.  Wah.  However, I do have a mini-update of sorts.  Thanks to the input from several of you on my last post, I did make some modifications to my Turtle Trot tracking page where I added finished photos of how all my projects will look when done.  But yes, no actual progress on the projects themselves. 

In other news, I'm leaving for a trip to California this week!  I'm bringing my stitching with me, and although I have a few posts scheduled while I'm gone, I probably won't have a lot of posts up while I'm gone.  I expect there will be plenty of updates when I get back though!

I am making progress on the February block of Frosted Pumpkin's Woodland Sampler.  I need to get this one done so I can send it out before we leave!  This block features a racoon and is taking much longer than the mushroom one, since it is 100% coverage.  But I think I'm finally getting the hang of stitching on linen.  I don't have an up to date picture to share, but here's where it was on Sunday:

The only change so far is that the rest of the sky is filled in.  So now I need to finish his head, face, and the stars and he'll be done.

Turtle Trot January 2015 Check-In

Turtle Trot is a year long SAL hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack.  You pick 10 pieces at the beginning of the year and post your progress on them once a month on the 10th.  You can join up at any time during the year.  

So, I was a dork and somehow didn't notice that yesterday was the 10th until today (the 11th).  Sheesh.  Where has my brain gone?  So I'm a day late in my Turtle Trot check-in, but as they say, better late than never. 

I did 7/10 projects this month, so not too bad.  Two of my WIPs that my goal is to finish through Turtle Trot didn't get worked on at all, and one of my new starts did not get started.  But here is what I managed to finish.

The WIP I did get to work on was Tree Frog Trio:

Start of 2015 progress

I managed to completely finish the light green on the left frog and start on some of the darker green in his legs:

 

 

Britannia Pillow was a completely new start.  This is going to be huge when it's finished, it's on 20 count evenweave, and it's also my first project on evenweave.  Yikes!  Here's what the start looks like so far:

First started Jan 2015
 

Gingerbread Houses is a SAL I joined last year on Facebook.  Despite my best intentions and completely kitting it up back in November, I didn't get anything done until January.  Here's where the start is so far:

First started Jan 2015

I can't remember the actual name for this project, but in my head I've dubbed it Purple Paisley.  This is my first time buying colored aida that didn't come from Charles Craft, and I have to say I love the texture of it so far.  I managed to get part of one chunk of purple done so far.  The thread looks variegated in this photo, but it's actually DMC 210 and is all one color. 

First started Jan 2015 

This is a gift I'm planning on stitching for my mother, one I've dubbed Polka Dot Bouquet.  I managed to get one color green on one long leaf done in January.  

 First started Jan 2015 

Reindeer Square and it's companion piece Polar Bear Square are new starts for 2015 as well.  These are part of the six Christmas Cuties designs Maria Diaz did for Enjoy Cross Stitch many years ago.  I only really liked the Reindeer and Polar Bear designs, so I will only be doing these two for now. 

 First started Jan 2015  

First started Jan 2015

So that's it for Turtle Trot this month!  We'll see how things look come March 10th.  You can keep you with my progress throughout the year by checking the Turtle Trot page. 

Side question for those of you who blog and are doing the Turtle Trot yourself.  Specifically if you have a Turtle Trot page set up.  Are you updating the page with your progress once a month, or as you go along?  Are you keeping your beginning 2015 pictures up, or just showing the new progress?  Still trying to decide what to do with my page, and I could use the advice...

2015 Stitching Goals: More and More SALs

Well, I had the epiphany today that it's actually getting pretty close to 2015 now, so I better finish up my 2015 goals series of posts.  So rather than do an introduction post for all of these, I'm going to put them all in one post (so I can actually focus on stitching things for them, haha).

So in addition to the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL I'm hosting, the Crazy January Challenge, and BAP Attack's Turtle Trot, here's what I have planned for the new year.

Daffycat has plans to continue her Totally Useless SAL (TUSAL) into the new year.  I've already emptied my ort jar in anticipation of starting that one.   She hasn't posted (as of this writing) the new info for 2015 yet, but this is the link to her 2014 post explaining this SAL. 

Heather from Stitching Lotus is doing her Smalls SAL again this year.  I think this will be kind of like the MMMM I did in October and November, so I'm excited for this one.  I know I will be able to work on smalls for every month of this year, it will just be a question of finishing them or not...

Measi is hosting WIPocalypse again this year.  This is a very low key SAL that is essentially all about sharing your stitching goals and progress for the year.  It will go along very nicely with Turtle Trot this year I expect.

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting her Stitch from Stash challenge again.  This year, it will be divided into two parts.  The idea is to spend $25 (or your equivalent currency) or less on stitching stash supplies per month.   When I first heard about this back in May, I was kind of like "who is crazy enough to sign up for something like that?".  And then I spent all summer stashing wayyyyy too much, so I signed up so that I could try to keep control of it next year.  With the cut in pay that came from moving out here to Mississippi, my budget is much, much tighter than it used to be, so I will have to think careful about each and every stitchy purchase I make from now on. 

And last but not least is the D.E.S.I.G.N. of the Month, which stands for Designer Everybody Should Instantly Get to Notice. This is a series of posts that will be done by participants throughout the year showing off a current WIP from a different designer each month, with a series of reoccurring questions answered about said design/designer each month.  The idea is to introduce everyone to new designers we may not have run into/tried on our own that we think others should try (or stay away from I suppose).  I'm super excited about this one; I'm already brainstorm ideas on what to feature. 

Phew!  That's a lot.  Think I bit off more than I can chew?  Maybe so, guess we'll just have to see.

2015 Stitching Goals: Turtle Trot 2015

Well, after seeing all these posts this year labelled "turtle trot" I of course had to find out what they are.  Which leads me to yet another 2015 stitching goals post.

Turtle Trot is a year long SAL hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack.  The idea is that you pick 10 projects (or so) to work on throughout the year, and to post before/after progress pics each month so that everyone can help cheer on your progress.  The rules can be found on the 2015 signups page if you want to join me in signing up to participate. 

I believe we post progress on the 10th of each month, so I will have another post about this coming up in a couple weeks that will have actual pictures.  But since many of my TT pieces I haven't started yet, this post will be pretty boring.

As of right now, I have chosen these for my Turtle Trot 2015 projects:

1. Halloween Quaker
2. Tree Frog Trio
3. Gift of Christmas
4. Britannia Pillow
5. Gingerbread Houses SAL
6. Purple Paisley
7. Polka Dot Bouquet
8. Merry and Bright Banner
9. Reindeer Square
10. Polar Bear Square

So, with that, come back to see progress pics and my "official" starting post on the 10th!