First Finish!

Hey, it's small, but it's a finish!! I present Squirrel Fob by Heart's Content:

Well, it's not a fob yet. But I'm calling it a finish. I do have a whole stack of things I need to finish...mostly ornaments, but also some needlework accessories.

In my absence, I have also made progress on some of my other challenge pieces. I've been keeping up with my goals for Random Thoughts:

That blackwork border was fun! I thought it would be a pain, but it was so clever, I marveled at it the whole time I was stitching it.

I managed to get one of the corner gardens done on Chatelaine's Mystery II...but it's not looking good for me finishing this in 2011! This one corner took me so long, and there are 3 more to go...not to mention the rest of the thing!

That's a LOT of Jessica stitches!!

The Rest of the Challenge Pieces

Whoah, I let things get away from me a little bit...I had a trip out of town and I've been sick. I did manage to accomplish my goal of "touching" all 11 pieces during January.

First up was Shakespeare's Garden by Linda Reeves:

The fabric I'm working on was a Silkweaver Limited Edition, and boy, do I wish I could get more of it. It's so soft, and the color is so perfectly beigey-taupey with little swirls. By the way, does anyone have a spare skein of DMC flower thread in 2358? Whatever my plan was to substitute, it's clearly gone with the wind....

Next I started Darling of the World. I won't show you my progress, because it's just some pretty colored blobs at this point, but here's what the finished piece will look like, along with the MASSIVE pile of fibers needed:

And this would be why I haven't started this before now...I've been slowly collecting the fibers. But the colors are gorgeous.

My last Crazy Challenge start took place right before I left for Raleigh, NC, for training...Alpine Santa. I probably spent more time sorting the colors in the kit than stitching, though! You know, it was one of those "fabulous" kits where all the colors are in one hank and you have to try to distinguish twelve shades of brown with names like Lightest Brown, Very Light Honey Brown and Somewhat Light Golden Brown.

Also blobs, but vaguely reindeer-shaped. I do feel validated that the colors are the same as those I picked for Dasher when I thought his original colors were too yellow.

Right before I left, I also put in a little time on Bumblebee Stumpwork.

Those are turkey knots, which leave loops on the surface of the fabric. Once they're all stitched, you cut them and then trim the fringe to make a nice, fuzzy bee.

I'm working a bit on Mystery II...I want to get to a good stopping point before taking a progress pic!

One band down!

I did everything I needed to do this month on Random Thoughts to put me on a good pace for finishing this year:

That's the entire top row, with two of the borders done. The instructions say to wait to stitch the borders until you withdraw the threads for the hemstitching, but the way I figure it, I only need to wait on the borders around the four corners where the threads will be withdrawn. I redesigned the white house to look like the townhouse where we live...mainly because I thought I had counted wrong while stitching it and was looking for a way to reduce the amount of frogging! But now I'm happy that I did it. =)

Only one wrinkle...I noticed the large pine tree is one stitch too far to the right. *sigh* I've already cut it out so I can just start restitching next month.

Another Start and Progress

I made another start this weekend: Drawn Thread's Random Thoughts.

It's not a very good picture; it's been very dark the last few mornings (from rain clouds) and I had to use a flash. You would think that with being snowed in the whole week, and having a 3-day weekend, I would have gotten a lot more done. However, despite the snow, I still had to work (from home) the whole week, and the fabric didn't show up until Saturday afternoon. We also spent some time with friends, so that's not a bad thing. =)

I did make a little progress on Mystery II, as well, although it has a serious case of the frogs.

I even frogged a bit of the center (haven't restitched it yet), since I finally came to grips with the fact that I do not like the "new" Waterlilies Antique Brass and I never will! (Too orange--or "on-ange" as a friend's daughter used to say.)

The rest of the week I'm going to try and finish the top row of Random Thoughts and maybe a couple border pieces. You're supposed to wait until the end to stitch the border, but I think the withdrawing of the threads for the hemstitching will only affect the corner borders.

How's everyone else doing?

Start 2 and Progress

These aren't the best pictures, because it's looked like dusk around here pretty much all day! Last weekend I made my second start, Emie Bishop's Eight-Pointed Star, from the Just Cross Stitch 1997 Ornament Issue. I kitted this eons ago; that light blue thread is a cool Vicki Clayton thread that she doesn't even make anymore. It is overdyed with a metallic fabric paint! Kind of uneven in texture ("stiff" in places) but it creates a really neat effect.

That's 1/4 of the klosters and cross stitches done! Not bad for a start.

I also managed a little over-one stitching during the daylight hours on Saturday, in the midst of taking down Christmas decorations. Here is my Squirrel Fob:

Awwwwww. He's so cute, I can't wait until he's done!

In preparation for a snow day Monday, I decided to haul out Mystery 2 (Convents Herbal Garden). However, no snow day for me yesterday, or today...even though the building is now officially closed, we're all "strongly encouraged" to work from home. =( I did put in a few stitches last night while being mesmerized by the bright yellow socks of the Ducks.

This picture is very BLUE. I "need" to finish that upper-left garden this month to stay on track, I think.

How's everyone else doing?

A Start and Progress

Since January started off with a weekend (good start!), I started my first piece, Sapphire Star. It's meant to look like a stained glass window, and the "lead lines" are so nice and mindless that I kept working on it for a few days afterwards. Here's where it stands right now:

I have also managed some progress on Keep a Little Secret during stitch group...Sapphire Star is too big to easily transport (a very little progress, but I thought it'd be good to have a reference picture):

Finally, I thought I'd show a progress picture of Dasher. I worked on him before the New Year, but I haven't touched him this month. I might get back to him at the end of the month; I'd like to hit all the Challenge projects in January. I changed a lot of the colors--the deer itself from golds to browns, and all the greens, including the Waterlilies. I had stitched all the Waterlilies on the deer's wreath and then finally decided I wasn't going to be happy with them and frogged them.

Second start coming soon!

Heather (geeky Heather)

Hello! Thanks, Teresa, for inviting me to participate over here! I've never done a group blog before; so this is exciting. My personal blog is at It's Geek to Me. Mostly stitching/knitting...but also "the rest of my life" as well. =)

Brief introduction: I was born the same year as The Magic Kingdom, I live in downtown Atlanta with my husband and develop software for a living. I love to sing, travel and play games on my Xbox 360. I'd love to act as well, but there are no good community theaters close...plus there's only so much time in the day! I met Teresa wayyy back at a Spirit of Cross Stitch Festival. She and DF Jill took pity on my car-less state and let me tag along to eat "cow" at a buffet/steakhouse. The rest is history!

For my 2011 Challenge, I'm going to try to finish 11 projects this year. Six are current WIPs/UFOs; five I am starting in January...one each weekend. I'll keep this post short and post pictures later. Here are the five projects I'll be starting:

• Sapphire Star by Laura J. Perin
• Random Thoughts by Drawn Thread
• The Darling of the World by Lauren Sauer (ornament)
• Eight-Pointed Star by Emie Bishop (ornament)
• Lapland Santa by Mill Hill (ornament)

And those I want to finish:

• Dasher by Mirabilia
• Shakespeare's Garden by La Broderie
• Squirrel Fob by Heart's Content
• Keep a Secret by Just Nan
• Mystery II (now Convent's Herbal Garden) by Chatelaine
• Bumblebee Stumpwork by Liz Turner Diehl