Progress Update: Day 26 of the Crazy January Challenge

So, moving right along with the Crazy January Challenge, here's what I was able to get done yesterday.  This is a project I am calling Polar Bear Square, since I don't really know the original name of it.  It's a pattern from an old Christmas issue Enjoy Cross Stitch magazine, which I believe means it was originally published in either Cross Stitch Crazy or World of Cross Stitching, probably also several years ago. 

I do remember that the designer is Maria Diaz, and this is part of a set of 6 matching designs (polar bear, reindeer, snowman, angel, penguin and Santa I believe).  It will be fairly small, about 4 x 4 I think when finished, and 100% coverage with no fractionals or backstitch. 

Since there is no backstitching in this whole project, the outline of the characters is done entirely in black stitches.  So I decided to start with the black outlines first, and then fill in as I go.  So yesterday had the beginning's of the polar bear's head.  This is one of my Turtle Trot pieces, but it will probably go to the back of the rotation for now, since I have several projects with screaming deadlines approaching.

I didn't get much more done, mostly because at the moment I am trying to finish up two squares for World of Charity Stitching, the Perfume Bottle and Rainbow Mandala squares.  Here's the stitching I did on the mandala over the weekend:

Last night luckily was a nice relaxing night, so I was able to get quite a chunk of Perfume Bottle done while I was watching some of our DVRed programs. 

It's finally actually starting to look like something.  Now I just have 3 purple stripes to finish (one big and two small) and to fill in some of the shading, then do the sprayer and the two yellow flowers at the bottom of the bottle.  I can handle that, right?  Unfortunately, tonight through Thursday are going to be CRAZY so I don't know how much more progress I will be making with this one until Friday.  *sigh*

Well, at least I already know what today's new start will be.  It's going to be Reindeer Square, one of the companions to this piece.  Out of the six, the polar bear and reindeer were the two I really liked, so I will only be stitching those for now. 

Until tomorrow!

Progress Update: Day 24 & 25 of the Crazy January Challenge

First of all, to all the new readers who have joined me over the past weekend, welcome!

It's back to work on Monday, which means in my break times I now have internet access once again, so it's time for my January Challenge updates from this weekend.  So here's my two starts for the past couple days. 

First of all, I went through my stash of projects I had sat aside for this challenge and had a organizing moment (or two).  Because of some things that have come up over the course of the month, although I am keeping up with the challenge of working on something different every day I am not fully sticking to my original list.  So knowing there were only 8 days left in January at that point, I had to pick/choose what projects were the most important for me.  So I now have the rest of the month planned out.  My WIP projects have been put aside in favor for projects with closer deadlines, and I'm hoping I do get to pick them up again sometime in Februrary.  This is not to say I won't have new starts any longer in February, but I'm going to try and focus on finishing some of these things that have looming deadlines.  Best laid stitching plans and all that...

Anyway, Saturday I started a square I'm doing for Love Quilts.  It's called Silly Ladybug, and will be a (very) big ladybug with heart shaped spots.  I got half of one heart done.  Hoo boy, this is the one I'm worried about getting bored with because it has very large blocks of the same color.

My second piece for the weekend was also a Love Quilts project.  I call this one Singing Owl.  I just got a bit of purple between her eyes done, since I was focusing on the A-Team Mythbusters special we had DVRed from Saturday night.

We had company over both Saturday and Sunday night, so needless to say, the amount of stitching I got done either day wasn't very spectacular.  

I also made a bit of progress on Perfume Bottle and Rainbow Mandala, but sadly forgot to take pictures, so those will have to wait until tomorrow to post.  I really need to knuckle down and finish those, because they are due very soon.

Until tomorrow!

Stitch from Stash January 2015

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

Month: January
Spent: $32.30
 Earned: $8.00

So here's a breakdown of what happened this month.  I started out totally determined to not buy any more patterns and save my stash budget exclusively for items that I ran out of (threads/beads/fabric/etc).  

Unfortunately I did succumb to buying more stash despite my best intentions not to at least for the first month (hangs head in shame).  A friend and I split up several of the Brooke's Books overstock sale lots.  So luckily by only taking some of the charts, I managed to keep my spending lower.  So that's something, right?  Here's what I ended up with:

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy from Little Women - $6.80
Alice Dress Up - $1.70
Spirit of America - $1.70
Sugar Plum Fairy - $1.70
Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, Future - $5.10
Crystal Critters - $1.70
Spooky Critters I  - $1.70
Sweet Treat Angels of Peppermint, Gingerbread, Plum Pudding - $5.10
Spirits of Love, Hope, Peace, Joy - $6.80

Total: $32.30

Hey, I said the spending was lower, not that I didn't go over budget...

*sigh* so yes, I am technically over budget by $7.30 this month.  Not a good way to start off the year.  I'm a newbie at this whole, "not stashing" thing, and I couldn't resist the sale.  But I am determined to do better next month!

However, thanks to the two finishes I did this month for World of Charity Stitching (free patterns, yay!) I can count both Leopard Print Mitten and Giraffe Print Mitten towards my budget this month.  Both are 43 x 43 stitches, so they fall into the second earning category, which means I get an extra $8 to spend for finishing those.  So with this very generous bonus option (thank you Mel!) I actually didn't do too bad.

Here's the final tally:

Starting balance: $0
January budget: $25
Finish bonuses: $8   
Total:  $33 to spend in January
- Total stash purchases: $32.30

Ending balance: $0.70

Phew!  I just barely squeaked by.  So with renewed determination to do better next month, here's to February.  I know I will have some purchases, since I need to pick up 3 Mill Hill kits for presents, and I need to get some more threads for projects that I thought I had, but can't find anywhere.  Ugh.

So until next month!

Grow Your Blog 2015

Today is the day for Grow Your Blog 2015, a lovely event hosted by Vickie over at 2 Bags Full.  This is sort of a virtual blogging networking session, so if you're one of my current readers and you've never heard of this before, head over to Vickie's main post to meet some great new blogs to follow!

For those of you who are new, welcome to my blog!  My name is Alyssa I've actually been blogging for a really long time, just not here.  :)  I started my book review blog The Shady Glade over 8 years ago in 2006.  That blog focuses on mostly book related posts for children's, middle grade, and teen/young adult books. 

In February of 2014, I really got back into cross stitching, which although it's a habit I've always had, it kind of comes and goes.  Well, this time I really got back into it, mostly due to the discovery of the online stitching community.  By September, the idea of creating my own stitching focused blog was starting to circulate, and thus Brownie's Chair was born. 

I use this blog to help keep track of my progress for many of my WIP (works in progress) and I also participate in several SALs (stitch a longs) that have updates posted here.  In 2015, I am hosting one of my own SALs for a Flower of the Month set of freebie designs, so if you think you might like to join that, you can find details about that in my header.  I also do "Freebie Friday" posts, where I share links to freebie cross stitch designs that I have found in my travels around the internet. 

For current followers, thank you so much for visiting and your continued support, and to any new followers, welcome and enjoy the ride!

Progress Update: Day 23 of the Crazy January Challenge

Moving right along with the updates today, here's the progress I made yesterday on Friday.  It was another Mill Hill day, this time with Autumn Circle:

Got the veins of one of the leaves done (I think there's 4 main leaves in the circle).  I've been doing these Mill Hill kits a lot during the week, because they are easy to grab and take to work with me, which some days is the only stitching time I have (on my lunch break).  But I only have 1 left in my "have to stitch soon" pile now, so I need to figure out some other quick projects to take with me for the rest of the week. 

I also made quite a bit of progress on Perfume Bottle.  It's actually starting to look a little like a bottle now.  You can start to see a bit of the stripes forming. 

I always work with projects with large blocks of color like this that they won't look "blended" enough in the finished project, but I think this one might turn out okay.  Sorry for the not-so-great pictures on both of these, it was storming when I took them and the lighting was less than stellar. 

I'm going to have to sit down this weekend and go through the remaining projects I have kitted up and ready to go.  Because of a few projects that have interjected themselves into my original list, I have more projects in my "to start" box than I have days left in January.  But I can't really spill into February starting things every day too much because I have several things due in March that I will need to use February to work on.  Is it silly to just do like an extra week of starts into February?  

Progress Update: Day 22 of the Crazy January Challenge

Well, so far I'm keeping up well with the solo day progress reports.  Although I know that since the weekends I don't have internet, I will still have an awfully long update on Monday. 

Yesterday was Day 22, and as expected I did go with a Mill Hill start.  This is Mum Bouquet:

This is another one of the kits I mentioned like yesterday that weren't originally on my Crazy list, but got bumped there when we found out the dates for our trip.  The goal is to finish it in time to give for a present when we go, then I don't have to pay shipping later.  I got most of the stems done yesterday, which is pretty much all that will be there for that dark green color.  There will be a LOT of beading on this one, since most of the petals are made up of bead loops. 

I'm going to try and schedule my progress post for today's project later tonight before I go internet-less for the weekend, so that's one last update I have to lump into Monday's post.  Wish me luck!

Free Pattern Friday: February Violets

Today's free cross stitch pattern is another installment in the Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us, all the signup info can be found here.

With just over a week until January is over (yikes! how time flies...) it's time to post the link to the next flower featured for February in the SAL.  So you can start planning now if you're going to start it next month.  :)  For everyone who is still working on January (like me) don't forget to do your progress posts at the end of the month!

February's flower is violets, so there's lots of pretty purples to go with the green leaves this month.  In addition to being February's birth flower, according to Google violets signify faithfulness and humility, and are also the state flower for Illinois, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

Head over to the EMS Designs website to download February's free cross stitch pattern, and join our SAL if you're interested.  Look for March's pattern to be posted in a couple weeks.

Happy stitching!


If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.