March Update

First off, Happy St Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish (or maybe I am for just today?) but I do have a table cloth that's got clovers on it, so I totally count that as holiday decor!

I haven't gotten much stitching done recently honestly. We've been busy making friends and going to the gym. Tonight we're headed out to a Meetup.com event for board games. It's being held at a local cider place. Maybe we'll make some friends there.

I finished the R I was working on for a friends wedding. I've just charted their last name for below, I'm not sure how I want to represent the date yet though.. write out the month or just use numbers? Thought?

I started the Dimensions Peacock kit (sorry it's sideways):

I switched out the fabric for a sky crystal linen that was a gift a Christmas or two ago:

I won't have to do all the background now! Which also means I'll have a ton of teal/blue thread left.

I also pulled out my Glendon Place Tiramisu pattern for a few nights:

It prompted me to order some fabric form CraftyKitten for the Cherries Jubilee pattern too (Tiramisu is also on a CraftyKitten piece, Plum Pudding is not) ... I still haven't finished one but I'm already planning on the third one to start. I make a mistake and it ticks me off so I stop stitching on them. Mostly because I have to fix the mistake in these patterns since they are so symmetrical.

Side note, I hate scroll frames. They just don't have enough tension in my opinion, but I did do some digging and trying different things and determined the best way for me to get tension was to do an S type roll, where it's over the top on the top and goes under on the bottom. I found the tension much better that way. Does anyone else have any suggestions for tension?! I have two of these frames that I never use because of the tension...

I also bought a magnifier/light! So here's a picture of my stitchy spot:

You can see my Lowery frame and my new light. It's great, I tried 3 other magnifiers before I bit the bullet and ordered this one. It's not the most attractive thing ever, but it allowed me to work on my Ink Circles Damask Square pattern so much more easily!

I also made those pillows this past month! They even have zippers. They go well with our sofa's blue velvet pillows that we had bought at Tuesday Mornings to go with the carpet we are now using in our living room. New place meant we had to rearrange our carpets to fit different spaces, our blue one is our largest and no longer fits in any of the bedrooms. I'm planning to make two more pillow covers at some point. I still need to buy two more pillows.

I worked on my Damask Square yesterday, it's on 40 ct crystal silkweavers fabric with Peacock Weeks Dye Works floss (1 over 2):

I've decided I love stitching with just one strand of thread, there's no worries about laying the threads right, they don't get tangled! It's so much easier with the magnifier though. I'm still young, but I'd like to be able to still see 40 years from now thanks! I also pulled out a hoop to use last night for this and I remembered why I hate hoops, those marks! It was only in the hoop for like an hour but left a nice ring... I'm going to have to find more random pieces of my q-snaps for this... I bought a 14in one but it's really just way too big. I should have bought another 9x9 instead.

How's everyone elses' stitching been going!? Is everyone ready for Spring? I sure am!

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Stitchy Project Bag!

Hi ya'll! Probably didn't expect to see me back so soon. :)  I have a couple things to show you (instead of my usual 0 progress).

First off is some stitchy progress:

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Pumpkin Passport

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Pumpkin Passport

I made a few changes to the pattern, nothing too serious though. I changed the girls hair to some Weeks Dye Works cocoa (I think) to match my own a bit better, I'm also a fan of purple so the shirt needed to be updated. I also think I'm going to make the bridge gray instead of the "sand-ish" color that is charted and maybe use con krenik in the Eiffel Tower.

I'm still behind, but that's okay it's not a contest and I have alllll year. :)

Also, I made that navy Q-Snap cover! It was my first one, my mom made the cream-ish ones for me, but I needed a weird size for the Pumpkin Passport project. I think it turned out super well, I'm going to have to make more of them! 

I have a friend getting married the first weekend of June so I'm stitching their initial:

I'll add their last name and date too at the bottom I think. I love how it's turning out. This is the second time I've used this alphabet and I still think I need to make one for myself.... One of these days.

I saw these cute project bags on a Facebook group and they were selling for $45! I like to spend money on stitchy things, but that was a little steep so I decided to try my hand at making one. While it's not perfect, I actually like my version better than the example I was working from (my zipper is hidden, quilted the front in a diamond pattern and added a binding all the way around are just a few of the things that I added).

I'm super excited about how it turned out. You can see that there's a pocket for your scissors (I added interfacing so it would hold up to throwing your scissors in there) along with the pattern and floss. The other side is for my q-snaps. It's currently holding an 6x9 frame. I have a couple changes I'd like to make for my next attempt (including buying a rotary cutter so I can cut in a straight line...). I'm definitely going to make another one and I'm debating making a tutorial as well. I'm by no means an expert but it was really not very difficult, and it only took two evenings (or prob a Saturday afternoon). Would you be interested in a tutorial?

Thoughts? Would you spend $45 for a stitchy project bag or would you rather make it yourself?!

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Monogram Framed!

It's been way too long since my last post. Sorry about that! Life keeps getting in the way. I did finally get my cousins' monogram framed for her wedding. I really hope she likes it!

I mean, I like it, but you never know with other people. :) Sorry the picture isn't of wonderful quality, but I was kinda rushing to get it framed and wrapped and everything. ;)

I'm still waiting for my Mother's Day gift to be finished. I am getting it custom framed and it's almost $90. :( It better be amazing! I've never had anything professionally framed. I usually buy a pre-made frame and order some mats and put it together myself, so I think I have super high expectations for this.

Are you working on anything rush wise? Presents maybe!?

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Mondays!

Hello all, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The marathon was here this weekend which put a damper on anything we would normally do. I try to avoid everything when it's going on. We hung out at home and I got some stitching done instead!

I also got a package from Threads cross stitch store in Lancaster PA. I had visited back in September when my husbands' good friend got married out there and loved it so I "liked" them on Facebook. Well, as it turns out the owner of the store is moving to Maine and couldn't keep the store anymore (I guess no one wanted to buy it, and it was a side hobby of hers) so they were having a closing sale. 40% off everything (except DMC floss). I called and sent and email with a big list of things I would like and they were nice enough to kook around and make suggestions for other things if they didn't have something. I ended up getting 18 skeins of floss (Weeks, Crescent Colors & Gentle Arts), 5 patterns (3 LHN, 1 Drawn Thread, 1 baby pattern) and a huge piece of Belfast fabric for the Drawn Thread pattern for $57. Yes, this totally kills the budget.... again. I NEVER THOUGHT I HAD A PROBLEM... until now. But in my defense I only just started stitching again (I started at 10, but through college and beyond I didn't have time) and didn't have any stash as of June 2013. I'm making up for lost time! I didn't take a picture of the fabric, so here's a picture of my kitty with a bottle cap on her head!

I finished the monogram for my cousin!! I'm going to go get a frame & mat tonight!! I'm so glad I've finished, I started it back in January and it kept getting put off. At least it's done now! I realize I should have blurred more, but oh well. At least with the date hidden it will be slightly harder to figure out. ;)

And I decided I needed to make something for my mom for Mothers' Day. I was looking through Cross Stitch Collections past issues and I saw this in issue 220 and thought it would be great and at only 40x40 it should stitch up quickly. My parents own a house that was built in 1880, so while this isn't from that era, it is vaguely art nouveau, which my mom likes. I started around 2pm and here's where it was before I made dinner and then again before bed (around 10:30):

Everything was from stash too, you can't tell in these terrible quality pictures, but the fabric is actually a really pale pink, it's called Baby Lotion I think.  It was originally done in shades of purple, which is my favorite color, but I didn't want my mom to think I actually made it for myself and then just gave it to her because I had nothing better... Not that she would actually think that, but maybe! My mom's favorite color is red, so this kinda goes along with it. And their dining room and library are both shades of maroon so these could go well in either room if she wanted. I know she displays my December Faerie all year long so I am pretty sure she'll display this one too.

I had promised her a geisha years ago, which I still have yet to finish, it's like 3/4 done too!! It's on Aida though and it's a kit, both of which I hate. Maybe for her birthday, in September, in 2015. ;)

I'm hoping to get it finished today before I head out to get a frame for the monogram and pick up one for this too. =)

Hope everyone else was just as productive as I was this weekend! I'll take pictures of both pieces framed too!

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Head Cold

I don't know about you, but I swear ever time the weather starts to change I get sick. I seem to have caught my Aunt's cold and I've been sniffling since Saturday. Normally chilling at home would result in lots of stitching, but I just want to sleep. I'm even took a sick day today (and I never take sick days because I want that time for vacation time instead!)

A quick update on the stitch from stash challenge, total spent in April: $24! I bought two pairs of scissors ($9 & $4) and I joined Stephanie's Fabric of the Month Club ($11).

Onward for some pretties:

 I added their last name, now I'm trying to decide which to finishe it off with:

"Est. 2014"

or

"Established

May 17, 2014"

Which do you think would be nicer?

And a bit more work was done on m Glendon place, amazing desserts, tiramisu. =)

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Minor Updates and March SFS

Hope everyone is well. Our weather here has been bouncing back and forth between being in the 50s to being in the 20s. I'm ready for straight 50s and 60s thank you very much.

My husband & I are going to be escaping to sunny Mexico for a friends wedding quite soon and I am very ready to relax and soak in the rays (with plenty of sunscreen of course, I burn like no ones business).

A quick stitch from stash update before pictures of the pretties: I spent wayyy too much this month. As you may have read in my last post it has been a rough 2014 so I started off March by buying a pair of Gingher Designer Series scissors. I used a 40% off coupon, but that made them $23.99 anyway. I had let some money accumulate from January and February so that didn't bust the budget but the haul at 123stitch.com did. I spent $46.18. I had been doing so well too...

Month	Total Spent	Total - Monthly
January	$             37.85	(5.02)
February	$             19.02	(5.98)
March	$             --	--
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Total	$         56.87	0.00

(Yes, I know the math doesn't line up, I am making March my pass month, I'm going to start with a clean slate), I went a little crazy on ebay too. :(

I guess this is my pass month, unless I don't spend any more money (which might actually be possible since I bought 4 kits and a pattern!) and then it would even out.

Anyways, on to the updates:

 

My Tiramisu has seen a few more stitches.  Nothing earth shattering, but I'm about half way done with page 1! 

I finished up the H for my cousins' wedding. I still need to add their last name, but I haven't decided on the font I'm going to use. If anyone has some suggestions I'm all ears!

And this was a new start. I found a border pattern on the internet with these cute little snowflakes so I thought I would do it in a nice red color, make it look a bit Scandinavian. I was actually able to finish this last night, so look for an update later in the week!!

My husband has been asking about a Megaman cross stitch, so I started that last night as well. It's super small so that should be done this week too! =)

Anyone else out there working on Christmas ornaments & presents super early?

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