Progress Update: Day 28 & 29 of the Crazy January Challenge

I'm back to the two day update post today, since I forgot to take pictures of the Day 28 project, and so I didn't have anything to post yesterday.  So I managed to take some pictures last night, but the lighting turned out kind of funny, so they will look a little wonky. 

Day 28 was Wednesday, which are always my very busy, very long days, so I purposely chose something smaller.  Plus, at this point, I pretty much had the rest of my challenge all planned out.  So Wednesday was a kit by Mill Hill called Lucky Day. 

This one only has 2 colors of stitching, as the gold thread it comes with is purely for attaching beads.  If you couldn't tell, it will be a four leaf clover when I get done.  The dark green thread I started with didn't show up too well on the green paper so far.  This will be a gift for a friend who loves all things Irish. 

Yesterday was Thursday, which mean it wasn't quite as long as Wednesday, but still busy, so I chose another small project to do, a Mill Hill kit called Kitty's Stocking:

Got the top of the stocking finished.  I'm really excited about this one, since I did the Tropical Kitty kit last year and loved it.  I have one other kitty Mill Hill in my stash to do eventually too.  The one thing I'm nervous about is this one has a lot of back stitching details in addition to the beading, so I hope I can get it done in time for my upcoming gift deadline. 

And since I didn't feel like working on Kitty when I got home yesterday, I pulled Perfume Bottle out again and worked on that while we watched the new TNT series The Librarians (which is kind of kooky, but I really liked, by the way). 

The bottle itself is now completely outlined, and you might be able to see the bit of gray at the top where I started on the sprayer.  I just have the metal and ball part of that to finish, the rest of the stripes to fill in, and a couple flowers at the bottom to finish.  Hopefully I'll be able to complete it this weekend and have something new to show you.  

So now we're heading into Saturday and my weekends-without-internet, so I will be back on Monday with the updates on my last two projects for the challenge.  It's kind of bittersweet.  I loved doing all these new starts, but it is a little tiring on some days, and I am itching to go back to some of the things I've started. 

Until Monday stitching friends!

Free Pattern Friday: Pirate Snowman

Today is the last Friday in January, so it's time to post another free cross stitch pattern.  I'm going back to snowman this week, since for reasons I explained earlier in the month, I always associate snowmen with January.

Today's pattern isn't just any snowman, no.  Today's pattern is for this super cute pirate snowman, complete with pet pirate on shoulder.  I love how he even has a peg leg.

You can get the chart and key from the blog Aliolka Designs, which happens to be in Russian, but it's worth it to pick up this free cross stitch pattern.

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.

January Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Hello Flower Stitch-A-Long participants! It's the end of January, so I guess it's time to put up a check in post for everyone.

We've been having some great photos posted over in the Facebook group over the last few days, so I know some of you are making good progress, and perhaps even finished the January Carnations pattern for this month. 

As for my progress... well....

... you can see there's not much going on.  I started this as my first day for the Crazy January Challenge, and haven't had a chance to pick it back up again yet.  So the 7 or so stitches I put in that day remain the only ones I have so far.  This is the first time I've worked on 18 count aida in awhile, and I was surprised at how much I missed the smaller count.  Hmm, something to think about for future projects.

BUT! I am still going to start February's design sometime early next month, as well as trying to bang out some more progress on this one in the meantime.  How about you?  What progress have you made this month?  Are you continuing on, or focusing on finishing the current WIP before moving on to the next month?

If you are currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, remember it's never too late to join us.  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing progress and not a finish like mine is).

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  

If you have chosen to post your progress in the Facebook group, please leave a link here on this post as well.  That just makes it easier for me to gather info and not miss/double count anyone.

If you're participating but using a different way to check in, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through the end of next week (Feb 7th) so please check in by that date.

Now, who's ready to start February?  :)

January D.E.S.I.G.N. - Shannon Wasilieff Designs

Just in the nick of time, I'm squeaking by at the end of this month with my DESIGN post for January.  For those of you who don't know what that is, DESIGN is a monthly feature hosted by Leonore Winterer of the blog Needle, Pen & Sword.  The acronym stands for Designer Everybody Should Instantly Get to Notice, and each month, different participants post a series of questions about a favorite/new needlework designer they've been working on.

What designer do you want to talk about this month?

So who to feature for January?  Well, that was a bit of a challenge for me, because due to the Crazy January event, I don't have a lot of consistent progress on much of anything right now.  But after some contemplation, I decided to feature Shannon Wasilieff.  She's the designer of the Gingerbread Houses SAL from Facebook last year that I'm working on as part of my Turtle Trot projects for this year. 

Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

Yes, this is my first project by Shannon, but I don't think it will be the last. I actually found out about the SAL and Shannon's designs through a post she made on the CrossStitchForum.com website.  I had never seen any of her stuff before, but I do love her designs.

Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again? Why/Why not?

Yes, I think I will. Her designs are so very cute, and they don't have a lot of fractionals (which always make me crazy).   In fact, I have a copy of 3 of her charts that were featured in World of Cross Stitching magazine, so I will probably do one of those next.  However, if I wasn't already doing a gingerbread house themed piece with the SAL pattern, I definitely would make this Gingerbread House Street design of hers my next project. 

What made you choose this particular design/designer?

As I mentioned, I found Shannon through the cross stitch forum I participate in, and that led me to her Facebook group, which lead me to the SAL. And I pretty much can't resist anything Gingerbread House themed. Hmmm... not sure why that is though.

Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

This is going to sound weird, but Shannon has a very "blocky" sense of shading. Not sure how else to describe it, but the way she creates the effect of shading by layering colors is very unique from what I've stitched before, and I like it. I like that it's not always just the next color down (DMC 605 to 604 or something like that) but she actually uses different and coordinating colors to make her shading stand out. Of course, she uses a lot of single stitches too, which drives me crazy a bit since I'm a bit of a neat back freak. But I can deal with the frustration of that because the outcome is so worth it.

So thank you Shannon for making so many wonderful designs!  You can follow Shannon on her blog or through her Facebook group.  She's got lots of designs coming up in the British cross stitch magazines soon, but you can also find her great patterns in her Etsy store too. 

Until next month!

Progress Update: Day 27 of the Crazy Challenge

Only a few more days to go of the January Crazy Challenge.  Wah.  It's kind of bittersweet.  While in some ways, a new project every day has been rather chaotic, I do like the excitement that comes with constantly starting something new. 

Yesterday's start was the companion piece to the Day 26.  I looked up the patterns and found out they are a series of 6 blocks called Christmas Cuties by Maria Diaz, although each pattern individually is not named.  Here's my start on the reindeer, which is the only one other than the polar bear I will be stitching. 

Got a good start on his head, and the little bell around his neck.  And although the polar bear I started the day before is also super cute, I'm rather partial to this reindeer of the two designs.  Looking forward to finishing him, as he is one of the pieces I've chosen for Turtle Trot this year. 

And of course because I have an impending deadline, I also made some headway on Perfume Bottle.  Are you getting sick of progress updates on this yet?  :)

Today's planned start is another Mill Hill kit, the first of the last two I have to start and finish before March. 

January 2015 Smalls SAL

Well, it's the last Wednesday in January (can you believe it, where did the time go?), so that means it's time for January's check-in post for Stitching Lotus' 2015 Smalls SAL. 

January has been kind of crazy, since I've been trying to work on a new project every day this month for the Crazy January Challenge I joined on Facebook.  However, with that in mind, I did actually have not only one, but two small finishes. 

Both of these are pieces for World of Charity Stitching, and since they are 43 x 43 stitches, I think I'll count them as a small project.  Here is Leopard Print Mitten

and Giraffe Print Mitten, in case anyone hasn't seen both of these already. 

Hmmm, just realized that these check in posts might get a little repetitive for those who read this blog frequently.  Sorry about that!

I got notice yesterday that both squares have been successfully received, so they'll be made up into a quilt for a deserving senior someday soon. 

Next month will probably either no finishes, or tons of Mill Hills, since I'm currently on a deadline for a gift deadline in March and have about 6 of them going on right now. 

If you'd like to participate with us in this SAL, check out the sign up post here. 

How do you do that?

Quick question for any of my fellow bloggers that know:

I've seen several blogs that have progress bars for their WIPs in the sidebars.  Does anyone know how to make one of those?  Is there an app, or a website you can use to generate the code, or do you have to code it yourself?

Just curious, thanks!