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. 

Weekend Update: Finishes, exchanges, kitting up and more!

Hello everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend.  Even though Mondays are totally my enemy, I had a great stitching weekend, so I'm excited to share my progress with you. 

First of all, my Buzzy Bees N bookmark was received by my partner in the Lucie Heaton Facebook Group Initial Exchange.  Since I forgot to take a picture of it after I finished the bookmark itself, here's the picture she posted on FB so that you can get an idea of what it looks like. 

I also got my package from the same exchange.  In addition to the adorable framed initial, my partner also sent 5 colors of DMC floss in my favorite pastel shades, 3 packages of various trims that will come in handy for finishing future projects, a monogrammed journal, and a bar of mango coconut dark chocolate.  Whew!  It was such a nice surprise to come home to on Friday. 

Here's a close up of the stitching itself:

I love the frame she used, and doing the initial in beads was a genius idea.  It makes it look so elegant and totally matches the feel of the whole piece. The fabric appears to be some sort of opalescent hand dyed evenweave, and I love the colors!

And my other big news from the weekend.... Baby Tinkerbell is finished!!!!!

This ended up kind of being a love/hate piece.  I love the pattern, and I loved working on it, but in the end it wasn't as fun as it could have been because of the deadline I was up against.  Also, I wayyyyyyyyyy underestimated how long it would take to stitch and backstitch this whole thing.  But I'm happy with the result.  I might even stitch it again someday, though if I get the chance I will definitely be doing it on evenweave because the fractionals were everywhere!

This is a freebie pattern I got off an Italian blog, and was stitched for the Love Quilts charity.  It was done on white 16 count aida (which was a nightmare for fractionals!) with charted DMC threads in 2 over 1.  I started it on May 15th and finished on May 31st, so not bad for a fairly large complicated pattern.  I think the stitch count is around 120 x 80-something (I have it written down somewhere, but not in front of me at the moment).  This was one of my Turtle Trot pieces, so I can now put that down as complete. 

So now that that's done, I have two more charity projects in the pipeline, and then no more deadline stitching for me this year!  At least, that's the plan now.  I need to get serious about finishing up some of the Christmas projects I have planned.  Now that the year is almost to the halfway point, I'm starting to realize how behind I am on those. 

I spent a couple hours last night kitting up said charity projects, and my latest exchange swap project.  There's something so satisfying about starting/preparing to start a new project, isn't there?  The exchange will be a summer themed one this time.  I also need to stitch up my Round Robin block and get that mailed off.  So I guess that's a sneak peek at what you'll be seeing here over the next month!

May 2015 Smalls SAL Check-In and some Tinkerbell Progress

Whew, May has just flown by for me.  This month has been so crazy, I can't  believe it.  But it's already the last Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for my monthly check in for Stitching Lotus' 2015 Smalls SAL.

Most of my stitching this month has been pretty big projects.  My Frosted Pumpkin entry for the month was a little on the larger size, so I won't count it for this.  But I do have one finish I know counts as a small.  I feel like my monthly check-in posts can get repetitive picture-wise for those of you who are regular readers, so I purposely left off posting this picture before.  Here's the complete finish (with backstitching) of my Buzzy Bee N by Lucie Heaton:

This was for an initial exchange as part of a Lucie Heaton Facebook Fan Group I'm in.  It was stitched on a scrap of 14 count white aida I had around, 2 over 1 with charted DMC threads.  I started it on May 12th and finished it on May 15th.

After taking this picture, I finished it up as a bookmark, since my partner said she loved to read, and sent it on its way to Canada.  Sadly I forgot to take a picture before I put it in the envelope and sealed it up.  *facepalm* So hopefully my partner will let me borrow her picture when she receives it. 

So that's it for smalls this time around.  Mostly I've been working like mad on Baby Tinkerbell.  Only 2 days left to finish her!  I'm almost done with the stitching and ready to start backstitching (which will take forever I expect).  Sadly I don't have an updated picture (I thought I did, but I don't) but here's a peek at least at what she looked like Monday morning, which is almost recent. 

This project has been fun, but is totally tiring me out.  No more deadline stitching for awhile for me after this one!

May TUSAL and a Little Progress

Well, as usual I'm a few days late for Daffycat's Totally Useless SAL since the official check in day was Monday.  But at least I'm only a little late this month, instead of forgetting it together. 

Of course, I forgot Monday, so I had to snap a hurried pic that night, so it is kind of blurry, sorry:

I finally got a new ort jar, and I also found my "traveling" ort bag, so I was finally able to add all those bits and pieces I lost back in February to my jar.  Sad that that kind of makes me really happy.  Anyway, that's why my current green is more towards the middle, and a bunch of purple is on top.  That green is from my actual recent stitching, mostly from Baby Tinkerbell. 

And speaking of Tinkerbell, here's how she's looking today. 

Not much progress since this weekend.  Just finished up her bloomers and have started on her wings.  It's discouraging how much my progress slows during the work week.  I keep listing in my head all the things I have left to do (2 wings, 2 legs, 2 slippers, face, hair, ladybug...) and keep thinking that's not that much, right?  Then when I actually stitch it, it takes forever. 

I would so love to just stay at home and get paid for stitching.  Guess that's what retirement is for.  Of course, by then I probably will be half blind and arthritic and be unable to stitch!  Oh, and it's like 40 years away for me.  There's that too. 

Anyway, hope everyone is having great stitching progress!

Baby Tinkerbell Progress 5.18.15

I stitched like a madwoman all weekend, so I got quite a bit of progress done on Baby Tinkerbell:

With the exception of her slippers, I'm completely done with the green, and you can see the place where she'll be eventually holding a ladybug at the end of that arm.  That random green blob above her collar is a pacifier.  This design is definitely one that will change much when the backstitching (of which there is A LOT) is completed.

Sadly, I didn't have time to finish the white on her bloomers last night, and was an idiot and forgot my scissors this morning, so couldn't work on them at lunch today either.  Grr.  

I'm very pleased with the progress, but at this rate, I need like 4 more straight stitching days in order to make my deadline for this piece (it needs to go out day after Memorial Day).  I feel like there is many late nights in my future...

On another note, I hate how stiff this 16 count aida is!  I've never had fabric that felt this way before, it's driving me bonkers. 

Also on another completely random note, I broke 4 needles this weekend.  4!!!!  That's a record for me.  I don't think I've ever broken more than 1 in like a month before, and this was over just 2 days.

Also, also, etc.... I hate quarter stitches.  Just saying. 

April Finishes

So as promised, here's a round up of the finishes I mentioned in my Stitch From Stash check in yesterday. 

First off, Friends for Life which is from an old issue of CrossStitcher magazine. This is the one I posted about at the end of last week, frantic because I needed to finish it no later than Monday.  I spent Thursday and Friday nights furiously stitching, got up super early Saturday to work on it some more, and then had a brainstorm.  The pattern originally called for some grass and sky detailing around the cat and dog, but by eliminating that it was still big enough for what I needed it for, and I was able to get it done much quicker.

This is definitely a pattern that benefitted greatly from the backstitch.  Here's where it was on Sunday night after all the main stitching and just a little backstitch was done:

 And here's where it ended up Monday after being completed:

Stitching details are 61 x 41 stitches (modified size) with charted DMC colors, done on 14 count aida, 3 over 1.  Stitched for a Love Quilts project (and I really hope it arrives in time, because it was down to the wire).   I started this on April 17th and finished in record time on April 27th. 

This was definitely one of those most challenging pieces I've done in a long time.  So. Many. Color. Changes.   So many fractionals (which are challenging at best on Aida).   Several french knots (which I'm terrible at).  And I made a TON of mistakes.  Hopefully despite all that it turned out okay.  I think if I had known starting at the beginning I was going to leave off the background, I would have stitched it with 2 strands instead of 3.  The pattern calls for 3 because some of the sky/grass are stitched with 1 strand to give it a varying thickness/shading effect, but it was a moot point since I didn't stitch those parts in the end. 

Anyway, I also finished up my latest WOCS piece last weekend, the one I'm calling Egg Topiary:

The green egg has pink dots in it, although the photo on my phone was a little funky and didn't pick them up very well.  This was stitched on 14 count white aida as a project for a spring quilt for World of Charity Stitching.  It was stitched with the recommended DMC threads, and is a free pattern from Stickeule.  I can't find the link at the moment, but I will post it later if I come across it. 

So now those are over, I need to work on my latest round of the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin I'm participating in through Facebook, as this will be due at the end of next week.  Here's my latest start:

This is Woodland Sampler again, but I'm working on the October block this time (and owl).  Working with linen again, yikes...

Stitch from Stash March 2015

It's time for another 2015-A Stitch From Stash Check In!

Month: March
Spent: $26.75
Earned: $8

March should have been an easy SFS month, since it was my birthday so I shouldn't have needed to buy anything.  Alas, I did make several purchases this month. 

First of all, I had run out/was missing several DMC threads for the next few projects I was planning, and I also needed some 16 count aida for an upcoming Love Quilts project.  So armed with a 20% off entire purchase coupon from Joann's I got what I needed on my birthday, along with some needles (I lost a few on the plane) and some finishing fabric.  Since both needles and finishing fabric are exempt, the total spent was $6.77.  I then had to hop over to Hobby Lobby to pick up the few colors Joann's had been out of, so that was another $2.20.

I've been telling myself to stay away from eBay lately, but I found this really great deal that I couldn't resist.  I've been trying and trying to find a copy of the Joan Elliott calendar that was released with World of Cross Stitching magazine this year.  Most of the ones you see on eBay are the abbreviated 2-chart version that was sold in US stores, and I can't afford shipping from the UK most times.  Well, I lucked out and won an auction that had not only the Joan Elliott charts, but some Margaret Sherry charts from 2012 as well (score!) with UK to US shipping less than $6.  Total spent - $2.78 US for both.  A steal!

My last purchase is where most of my budget went this month.  After posting in my March WIPocalypse update that I was wishing for a copy of Mirabilia's discontinued Lady of the Flag pattern, I had one of my blog readers approach me and offer to sell me her copy for $15.  Since I haven't been able to find it on eBay for cheaper than $20 lately, I took her up on it.  It isn't here yet, but I can't wait to see it.  It will be my first Mirabilia design.

So now I've detailed how I was naughty, time to show off my latest finish.  I did finish two small pieces as part of the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin I'm doing, but since I didn't pay for the pattern or threads/fabric on those projects, I'm not counting those towards earnings for SFS.

But I did finish the project I am calling Sparrow On Vine:

 Ta-da!  It's really finished this time. 

This is for a quilt being made by Love Quilts.  The theme for this quilt was religous sayings, so I took this pattern of a pink bird on a green vine and added the text from a scripture in Matthew.  The bird part of the pattern is a freebie from the French blog Passion Broderie 77 and can be found here if you'd like to stitch it yourself.  This project is done on 14 count plain white aida with DMC threads, was started on January 30th as part of the Crazy January Challenge and I finished it on March 26th.  At approximately 92 x 87 stitches, it earns me $8 this month for SFS.

So that's my update for the month.  Here's where I am now:

Starting balance from February: $5.30
March budget: $25
Finish bonuses: $8   
Total:  $38.30 to spend in March
- Total stash purchases: $26.75

Ending balance: $11.55

Well, at least the ending balance number is going up...

I thought I might have another finish this month, but didn't quite finsih it before I had to get this update up.  This is the start of my latest project, which I'm calling "Hoppy Spring".  It's a bunny looking over his shoulder at some pink tulips.  It's a slightly modified Tiny Modernist design.  Here's the progress so far:

Just a cotton tail (which doesn't show up much) and a bit of bunny right now.  But it's stitching up pretty quick, so I'm hoping I can get it done this weekend.  Hopefully back with a progress update on that Monday!   

I Have a Finish!

Back from the trip with a finish:

Haha just kidding.  Did you see it?  It's not really finished, although from far away it looks kind of like it.  I worked really hard on this on the car drive down to southern CA and back, and managed to get most of it done.  Problem was, I ran out of thread and didn't bring any with me beyond what was on the thread organizer already.  Hence the unfinished bird bootie and halfway done vine. 

The plan now that I'm home is to finish stitching off those two areas and then mail this off to Love Quilts where it is due on April 1st. 

I also made quite a bit of progress on the super secret birthday present I started on the plane flight home.  But alas, I can't show you pictures of that just yet. 

The trip was really fun, but I am totally exhausted since it was really more of a "working vacation" than an actual vacation.  A Disneyland trip and 4 classes taught later, it was back to work bright and early Monday morning.  Ugh. 

Actually, getting back was quite a bit of a challenge.  My plane leaving Sacramento Saturday afternoon was delayed over an hour, so my 50 minute layover in Dallas turned into a 5 minute layover, and since the departing plane I needed to be on was 2 (huge) terminals over, I naturally missed it.  Luckily, once I finally found someone to help me reschedule the flight, they did put me up at the airport's hotel for the night, as there were no remaining planes to Mississippi that night. 

It was a Grand Hyatt, which is probably the absolute fanciest hotel I've ever been in (seeing as Hampton Inns are normally fancy to me, being used to your generic La Quinta and Best Western type motels).  I wish I hadn't gotten there so late though (about 11:30 pm by the time I checked in) because I would have liked to sit and stitch in the room a bit and enjoy all that luxury before I had to go to sleep.  Oh well.  Maybe someday.  Can I just say though, that even though I did get helped eventually, American Airlines has THE WORST customer service I have ever experienced on any airline in my lifetime.  Anyway, rant over now, I promise.  Back to stitching. 

Sadly I don't have any additional progress to show at the moment, but the end of the month is coming up, so that means check ins for several of my SALs are imminent.  I also got the latest round of the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin in the mail while I was gone.  This round's pattern is Dessert of the Month, so I'm excited to get started on that soon.  And I have a spring exchange pattern due at the end of March too, so I will need to get hurrying on that soon as well. 

So, more progress pics to come soon hopefully!

Trip Update

I have a bit of time in the hotel room this morning before getting going, so I figured I post a few updates.

California has been great so far, it's been really nice to see many of the friends and family that we moved away from 9 months ago when we left for Mississippi.  Thank you for all of your birthday well wishes too; it was a good day with some nice surprises.  I'm at the point where I don't really like a big fuss made over my birthday anymore (too close to breaking 30) but hanging out with good friends was really nice.

I've managed to get some stitching done this trip too, despite fate's best efforts to not let me do so.  I was able to bring some of my projects in my carry on personal item in the plane, and was totally prepared for a nice long stitching session.  Well, about 20 minutes after takeoff I lost the needle and didn't have a spare.  Rats.   However, before that I did make some progress on the pony magnet I'm working on.  Sorry, no pictures yet though since it's for a gift next month.

Then Thursday (the first full day of the trip) I totally smashed my finger in the car door.  Like completely.  I will spare you the picture, but suffice it to say it was very sore and hard to stitch for a few days, since it's the middle finger on my dominant hand.  It's still sensitive, and the nail is completely blue/purple, but at least I can stitch again.

I did manage a bit of progress on both Autumn Circle by Mill Hill:

and my Sparrow square for a Love Quilts project that's due next month.

Actually, both of these pictures are a little old; I've gotten farther on both of them now, but my camera is not cooperating at the moment.

I mentioned my birthday a bit above, and it was nice, but I got one gift in particular I really want to share with all of you.  One of my fellow cross stitching buddies back home (actually we didn't meet through cross stitch, just kind of figured out that we actually enjoy doing the same thing once we were already friends) gave me a wonderful present for my birthday.  Knowing that I love reading, she made me this wonderful bag:

Isn't it great?  Look at the detail on this thing:

And it's fully and beautifully lined too:

(just ignore my knee in the bottom right corner)

It's almost too pretty to use, haha.  Not sure if I will use it as my work bag (I really need a new one) or maybe as a project bag.  I will have to think about that for a bit.  Thank you again Kathy.  I bow to your awesomeness in sewing ability.  :)  

Inside the bag were a multitude of other surprises:

Pretty much a do it yourself kit inside.  Some lovely 16 count aida and 28 count evenweave, plus one of Ursula Michael's wonderful word art patterns.  This is called Let's Be Wicked (obviously for Halloween) and there is also all the thread needed to complete it, along with some Thread Heaven and some new needles.  The needles were especially good since as I mentioned above, I had lost my last one on the plane.  I'm so happy I've got such a wonderful Halloween project to work on this year.

The other things included in the bag were the two sweet Owlet kits from Mill Hill I posted about during the last Stitch from Stash.  Aren't they adorable?!?  Sadly, I will have to wait a bit on these, as I have a few more projects to finish first.

But despite that, the whole thing was pretty much the best stitchy birthday gift ever.  :)

It has been a lovely trip so far (filled with plenty of work and play).  I plan on posting an update on Monday showing off lots more stitching that I've gotten done during the days we have left!

Final Progress Update on Crazy January Challenge: Day 30 & 31

Hello stitching friends, how was your weekend? 

Mine was pretty good until the "almost mini tornado" hit late Sunday night.  That was interesting.  Some days I'm a little freaked out by the new weather patterns I'm getting used to since moving to the South. 

The other reason my weekend could have been better was this:

I had planned to have it completely done by Sunday night.  Yeah, as you can see that didn't happen.  I mean, if you look at just the missing stripes on the bottle it seems like I could almost be done.  But then there's that weird blob missing from the bottom; those are the flowers I still have to fill in.  *sigh*

Actually, this one gave me a bit of bother on Saturday night.  I was all prepared to start filling in the spray ball thing (don't know what it's called at the moment) on the right side of the bottle when I realized that somehow I miscalculated/measured my fabric wrong and the design was going to be a little too big.  So I had to re-chart it so it was not nearly as tall, which made it more oval instead of round.  I thought it was terrible at first, but I think it turned out okay in the end.  Sadly I ran out of thread 2 rows before I finished it.  Grrrrrrr!  I hate when that happens.  So I had to dig into my stash and cut some more, which wasn't really a big deal, but on top of everything else... but at least the frog didn't show up, so that's something to be thankful for. 

So anyway, with that rant over, it's time to show my last two projects for the Crazy January Challenge. 

January 30th was Friday, and although I had the whole weekend ahead of me, I didn't make much progress.  This is going to be another square for Love Quilts when it is finished.  I call it Sparrow on Vine. 

I got the top of the bird's head done.  I kind of like the two tone effect, but that's just because I haven't done the other half of part of the stitches in that section yet. 

January 31st was Saturday and as it was the last day, I saved the big project for last.  And this one qualifies as big in several ways.  It's an I Love Britannia design by Jan Constantine that appeared in an old issue of CrossStitcher magazine.  I'm stitching it up for my aunt, who loves all things British because of the 18 months she lived there while serving a mission for our church.  So I pulled it out and here's my progress so far. 

What?  That many stitches took an hour?

So here's the reason I refer to this project as "the big one".  In addition to being large in size (finished size of the cushion will be 18 x 18 inches I think), this is my very first time stitching on evenweave fabric other than aida.  Ahhhhh!  So it's my first time stitching over 2.  This is 20 count, so the weave is quite large, which means I'm stitching 4 over 2, so I'm a little weirded out not only by trying to get used to counting by two threads at a time, but also because the stitches seem so big and chunky to me so far.  I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually...

I'm kind of feeling bittersweet now the the challenge is over.  On the one hand, it will be nice not to have pressures to start something every single day, but on the other hand, it was kind of fun.  But my WIP list is outrageously long now, so I'm going to try and limit the new starts in the next few weeks. 

So what's on the list next?  Well, I do need to finish that silly bottle, and then it's time to finish Rainbow Mandala and Horse Yin Yang, as those are all squares due for World of Charity stitching.  Then it's off to try and finish those six Mill Hill kits before those are due as gifts in mid-March.  Then I need to finish the My Little Pony magnets by early April for a birthday gift.  And then on top of that, I have two Love Quilts squares that are due March 1st that I need to start working harder on too.  And I will of course be stitching my rounds for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin I'm participating in, in between all those other projects too. 

Phew!  No rest for the weary stitcher.  :)