Progress Update: Day 12 & 13 of the Crazy Challenge

Yes, you read that right.  I have an update on the 13th day of progress, actually posted on the 13th!  That's because I managed to get today's start done at lunchtime and I know I won't be doing more on it today because I need to get back to Giraffe Mitten. 

Sadly, don't get too excited about the on time update because I can't actually show you much of today's (or yesterday's) progress.  This week I am planning on working on my patterns of the My Little Pony "mane six".  But they are for someone who occasionally reads this blog so I can only offer you a small sneak peek at my progress.

Here is a sample of what Rainbow Dash has so far

And here is a small bit of Rarity so far

Sorry for the kind of weird pictures, for some reason the lighting is a little wonky in these.  

Of course, if any of you are part of the CrossstichCrazy2015 or Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2015 (DUCJC2015) groups on Facebook, I've linked both group names above to my progress post in each group where I show the full pictures of my progress so far.  But you'll have to be members of the group to see them I think. 

Not that I've gotten a huge amount done on each one so far.  Just about 20-30 minutes each during my lunch break for the past two days.  Why do things always come up on the days I want to spend hours stitching?!?!?!?

So the plan for the rest of this week is to stick with the ponies, unless something else comes up in the meantime. 

Progress Update: Day 8-11 of Crazy Challenge (Long and Picture Heavy again, sorry!)

Sorry, this is going to be another picture heavy post for those who are on slow connections.  This whole not having internet at the house thing really puts a cramp in my updating abilities over the weekend, and I wasn't able to post my update from Thursday last Friday before I left the office.

So here's what's been going on in my stitching life lately.  Luckily I'm happy to report that I have still kept up totally with the challenge, even if it hasn't been a lot of stitching.

As I mentioned in my last post, my plan for January 8th, last Thursday, was to work on a WIP project.  I pulled out my Tree Frog Trio kit from Dimensions for this day, since it is also one of my Turtle Trot pieces for this year.  I started it back in July or August last year, and it's kind of fallen into the UFO pile.  So here's where I started on Thursday:

And here's where it ended up:

Not a lot of progress, but I'm starting to see some.  I started with that frog on the left because it is the one that has (gasp!) blended threads, which I've never done before, so I figured out with the difficult thing first.  If I can finish this one by Christmas, it will go to a friend who loves frogs and is back in California for a Christmas present.

January 9th was Friday, so I decided to pull out something a little less complicated since my brain was shot from the work week in general.  I decided to pull out this perfume bottle design that I'm doing for World of Charity Stitching.

I got a good block of color for the first stripe on the bottle done, which is more progress than I've been able to do on anything lately.  This was a freebie pattern I found off a french blog, and it's going to have a very pretty purple/pink old fashioned atomizer bottle with a couple of yellow flowers by it when it's done. 

I spent most of the morning of January 10th on Saturday unpacking boxes.  We've been in the new apartment since Thanksgiving, but I've kind of been putting off really unpacking most of my things other than the basic essentials of what I need all the time, so I figured it was time to work on that.  Then Saturday evening I had a sort-of-date, so I ended up getting back to the house and working on my stitching kind of late. Since it was late, I decided I needed another brain dead project, so I pulled out this Yin Yang Horse pattern.

The nice thing about this is that it's all one color, only black required.  This is another piece for WOCS, and it was charted by me based on an online clip art gallery I saw.  I actually got a good chunk of this done (for me anyway), but had to quit a little earlier than expected because I had a "helper" glue himself to my lap and keep trying to steal the thread as I pulled it through fabric:

 (Brownie you are so not being helpful right there)

Yesterday was the 11th, and due to the fact that I'm running out of Q-snaps to hold my projects, I decided to start a project that already had been put on the frame, although I hadn't started it yet.  This is a Gingerbread House Facebook SAL designed by Shannon Wasilieff that she hosted in her group last year.  My intention was to start it before Christmas last year, but presents pushed it out of the way and I was never able to get a start.  So I pulled on one of my Christmas Q-snap huggies and gave it a go.

I may have gotten a little farther than this, but I was distracted by watching our DVR recordings of Agent Carter and Galavant and I totally messed up the spacing.  I had to frog a bit, and then decided to re-grid my pattern, rather than re-grid the fabric or frog everything I had done to make it match.  The joys of stitching, huh?

And in addition to my new starts, I am also hard at work on trying to finish my Giraffe Print Mitten for WOCS.  I've made some good progress on that, I figure I'm about 1/3 way done by now.  Hopefully it won't take much longer. 

Well, that's how things are right now.  I'm hoping to do more daily updates this week (instead of these huge block of updates), so stay tuned for those!

Animal Print Mittens: New Start and Progress 12.9.14

I recently discovered something that is both good and bad for my stitching progress: stitching for charity.  I've recently joined two groups that use squares stitched and donated from members to sew up quilts for disadvantaged/sick children and seniors.  I just love the idea of my stitching going to a good cause!  Not that stitching for friends/family isn't a good cause (LOL).

This is a project for one of those groups, World of Charity Stitching.   We are using a free cross stitch mitten pattern with lots of different motifs using the same shape.  I actually wasn't signed up for this project originally because the deadline was shortly after I joined the group, but they posted a couple weeks ago that they needed more squares to finish the quilt, so here I went. 

Since so many of the free patterns had been done already, even though duplicates are allowed I decided to create my own patterns.  There's a cute cow print one that's already been done, so I figured to go along with that we needed something leopard print.  And of course I picked pink leopard print.  :)  Here's the progress so far:

Not much to look at yet.  When I asked my brother what he thought, he said my cloth looked like it had cancer.  Gee, thanks.

I'm still trying to finish up a few Christmas presents left over from MMMM, so I haven't been working too hard on this one yet.  Which in some ways is bad because I only have until the end of the year to finish!  I'm going to be doing a giraffe print after this one is done if I can manage it. 

Anyway, I've signed up for several other charity projects, so you'll probably see several of those popping up here in the next few weeks, especially with the Ultimate Crazy 2015 Challenge coming up next month. 

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 3

So, it's a little early for a normal MMMM update, but since this week looks like it might be really busy, I figured I would do an update today anyway, and maybe a supplemental one later in the week if I can wrangle it.

I'm still busy on those Christmas gifts, so today's update is from the western beading front.  I did start on beading Teton Santa, and have got about halfway done on the amber beads:

This is definitely going faster than Victorian Tree so far, although I think that might partly be because the petite seed beads are supposed to have full crosses and regular seed beads only have half crosses, and so far, I've only done regular beads.

Then since a certain person wasn't home during the weekend, I took the oppertunity to switch out Teton Santa for Be Merry in my WIP list of the day, so I could get started on that.  Here's the progress so far:

That's actually only one kind of bead left, can you believe it?  Of course, that one bead takes up all those spaces in the lettering, so it will probably take awhile.

So now, it's back to beading!  I still have to finish these two, Provencal Rooster, Tropical Kitty, and Hot Stuff before Christmas.  My goal is to get them stitched by the end of the month at least, so I can focus on finishing them up into ornaments in December.  Which, we're moving again (at least only across town this time) so things will be crazy for the first part of December anyway.

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 2

MMMM is a SAL created by Pull The Other Thread and taken over hosting for November by Justine's Cross Stitch. 

So this week, the big news is....

I have a finish!!!!!

Victorian Tree is done, done, done.  Okay, well, I need to do the actual finishing up into an ornament still (backing it and adding a string) but other than that, the stitching is all done.

The coloring is a little weird in the photo (the light was wonky yesterday) but you get the general idea.

My first time beading any project, and I think it went okay.  I don't think I'll be winning any technique prizes any time soon, but there you go.  So now I'm off to work on Teton Santa, which will be the next beading project.  Hopefully that one will bead up a lot quicker, since there won't be so many random placement of assorted beads (they're more colorblocked).

I should also mention this is my first finish of the year.  Yikes.... : /

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 1

Well, you may be wondering if MMMM concluded at the end of October, why you're seeing another post for it.  The original SAL hosted by Pull The Other Thread did conclude at the end of October, but Justine of Justine's Cross Stitch blog has taken over hosting for November.  So that gives me another chance to finish up those minis I worked on all last month!  Which is good, because they're all Christmas presents anyway...

So here's my latest progress.  I didn't really get much done this week, mostly because I joined a book club last minute a few days before the meeting, so I was attempting to read the 500 page book before that happened Thursday night (I didn't make it, by the way, in case anyone was wondering.  But I tried. :)

All the main stitching on Teton Santa has been done:

And all I have left for stitches on Victorian Tree is to finish filling in the red background.  Sheesh, I never knew background could be so tedious!

So after that's done, it's onto beading, beading, beading (and a little backstitch) for my 6 Mill Hill projects.

Mini Mega Month Madness SAL Progress: Week 5 (Final Week)

It's weird to be at the last week of MMMM. First of all, like, where did October go? And secondly, I feel like I just got the hang of doing this mini thing.  Yes, there is technically 1 more day in October, and there's a possibility I might get more done between now and then, but just in case, I figured I better post my last official update today just in case. 

I am really, really close to a finish on Teton Santa.  Just his head left to finish.  Well, and then there's the beading of course, but that will be for later. 

Also coming along well on Victorian Tree.  Really need to finish this one soon as it's for an exchange and I need to send it off in a couple weeks.  So I guess the new experience of beading will happen with this one first.  Obviously I didn't finish the beading on my other MH kits yet either, which was one of my goals for this month, but I'm at least happy that I motivated myself to do as much stitching as I did. 

I think I need to resign myself to the fact that I don't stitch as quickly as I think I do.  :)

Mini Mega Month Madness SAL Progress: Week 4

So I'm a little later with this than my intended Thursday update but, well, let's just say it's been a really, really rough week.  In fact, if it weren't for stitching during my lunch hour, I would have no progress to show this week whatsoever.  But thankfully I do have some progress, so here we go. 

Teton Santa is moving along.  Got a little more done on his coat and arm.  The areas I have left involve lots of switching of colors, so I imagine progress will slow down on this quite a bit. 

I also started the last of the Mill Hill ornament kits I NEED to get done by this year, Victorian Tree.  I started this shortly before my last update, but hadn't taken a picture of the like 15 stitches I had started at that point. 

The tree on this one is actually being a bit of a challenge, because the three greens are quite mixed up, it's hard for me as a cross country stitcher to get a rhythm going.  I had to break out some markers and mark what stitches I've made, which is unusual for me, especially with a small piece.  But now that the tree is pretty much done, the background will hopefully go much faster.  Going on a road trip on Saturday, so might get some stitching done on the way up if the sun comes up at a decent time, but it will be too dark on the way home to do anything.

Obviously there is only one week left in the SAL, and I still haven't completed the beading on the other ornament kits I have finished the stitching on.  Bother.  But I will get it done in time for Christmas!  I don't have a choice really... 

So once Teton and Victorian are done with stitching, it will be beading, beading, beading, and then backing, cutting, hanging, and sewing.  And then when that's done, I'll either attempt to start on the kits that I didn't have to get done this year (but would be nice to finish) or I'll try to finish the nativity project I have going for a friend.  It kind of fell by the wayside when I realized I might not get it done before Christmas, but if I work really hard on it, I might get it done in time, guess we'll see. 

Mini Mega Month Madness SAL Progress: Week 3

Time for another MMMM update! And since I finally had some free time on my hands this week, with permission from a few of the participants I was able to put together this nifty banner to highlight the SAL.  If you're new to my blog and haven't heard of MMMM yet, click on the banner above to take you to the hosting blog, Pull The Other Thread, for full detail.

Anyway, this is kind of a late post, but better late than never I guess.  I still made it before the week was up at least!  After having a pretty productive week last week, I haven't made too much progress this past week.

I finished the basic cross stitching on Be Merry, now it's just waiting for backstitching and beads:

I also made a bit more progress on Teton Santa's shorts and mittens:

I also picked up Victorian Tree tonight, so that's the last project I'm hoping to finish by the end of the month(ish).  I don't have a picture of that yet since I've only put a few stitches in, but at least I'm on my way.

Be Merry: New Start and Progress Update 10.7.14

Wow, I seem to be posting a lot lately.  Hmmm, don't know if I'll be able to sustain that all throughout this month, or if I'm just lucky on time at the moment.  Also, when you're doing mini projects I find I have to post progress pictures quick, lest they get finished and I have no in-between photos to share.  But in progress pics are cool.  :)

Here's the start of the second-to-last Mill Hill kit I have to get done this year for ornaments for family for Christmas.  I of course have like 13 more kits to do for friends and family period, but I have resigned myself to the fact that if they do not get done this year, that will be okay.

Although this one design is mostly red, for some reason I decided to start with green, so it's not much to look at yet.  Each one of those letters will be checkerboard with beads/not beads, so it's going to be a lot of work on this one I think.

Perhaps a new progress pic for this one to come Thursday in my Mini Mega Month Madness SAL update this week.

Teton Santa: Progress Update 10.6.14

As I mentioned in Saturday's post, I moved back onto Teton Santa for my Sunday conference stitching agenda.  So here's the progress I've made since last time:

Luckily this isn't turning out to be nearly as big as I thought it would be, so I no longer feel a little "iffy" about labeling it a mini for the Mega Mini Month Madness Challenge.  And it's also good that it's working up so fast, although that might change once I'm done with the fairly monochromatic goat and on to the multicolor/multibeaded Santa.  I'll be posting my progress since Sunday later on this week for the challenge.

Hot Stuff: New Start and Progress 10.4.14

So true to my Mega Mini Month Madness Challenge, I dutifully started a new mini project on Wednesday, since it was October 1st.  This one is a kit from Mill Hill called Hot Stuff, and I put down my Quaker project to work on it.

This week is the general conference broadcast for our church, which I love conference weekend because I can usually get a good amount of stitching done while I'm listening to the speakers (I'm not brave enough to stitch in church, but I'll do it when I'm siting at home on my couch).  So although I'd only worked on the piece for about 40 minutes total since Wednesday, I managed to get a good chunk done.  Here's where I'm at after the Saturday morning 2 hour session:

I managed to finish it completely except the beading during the afternoon session, so pictures of that to come later.  Now I'm moving back on to Teton Santa for tomorrow I think, which although it's bigger than this project, I'm still counting as a mini because I will eventually be making it into an ornament.

Teton Santa: Progress Update 9.24.14

So one of the things I'm planning on doing for Christmas this year is to make a Christmas ornament for each of my family members.  I finally picked out a Mill Hill kit for everyone on my list, my close family and extended family.

This one is for my uncle, it's a kit called Teton Santa.  It's done on neutral 14 count perforated paper.  This one is much larger than the other kits, so hopefully that won't look too weird when it's done.

So here's the progress:

Hopefully I'll find time with the busy new work schedule to get more of done soon!

Halloween Quaker: New Start 9.15.14

So here's my latest project.  I've been working on lots of Christmas things lately (progress updates to come on those later).  But I've been seeing lots of projects coming out lately in my stitching forum and it's made me want to focus on Halloween instead of Christmas.  Combine that with a cute little Halloween qsnap grime guard I made the other day, and I needed to find a Halloween project.

Unfortunately, since the new job has not actually had a paycheck yet, my budget is REALLY limited right now.  So although my dream Halloween wish list project would probably be Ursula Michaels' Let's Trick or Treat or Lizzie*Kate's Double Flip Boo Club series, I really don't have the money for it at the moment.

So I went searching for a free Halloween pattern, and come across a Quaker style Halloween sampler that I liked.  Which is weird for me, because I normally don't like that style of projects, so I've never done a Quaker before.  But something about this pattern drew me.  I didn't like a few of the elements, so I modified it a bit and made it my own, and adjusted the colors a bit, and now I've got something I'm really excited about.

Here's the progress so far:

Not really sure why I decided to start in the lower left corner, but hey. That spider is one of my least favorite elements (I hate spiders!) so maybe I was just trying to get it over with. But I think it will look great once the whole thing is done.