Mini-Finish, New Start and Some Stash!

Hi everyone! I know it's been almost a month since I've posted on any progress but I have a lot to show and talk about!  So grab a warm beverage and a snack because we're off!

First off, I have made some progress on Santa in the Clouds.  The last time it looked like this:

And now I've filled in more of the top:

Next I get to put in some gray which will be a welcome change from blue.  That spot in the middle is where the star is.

I didn't stitch much on this because I got distracted with holiday stuff.

However, I do have a finish to show!

Yep Halloween Green is done!

Last time it was here:

I was surprised because the color on the bottom is 307 which is bright yellow and it's the same color as the windows but looks really different.  Now I only have Halloween Yellow to do and then I'm done with them all.  I haven't fully finished it yet but I'll probably wait to do that until I finish Yellow.

Finally, I have a new start!  I told myself I wouldn't start it until I finished Halloween Green which is what pushed me to finish it but ever since I have I've been a stitching machine!  Curious yet?  😈

It's Raven from Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixies series!  I stitched all of the black in the last two days and I think I'll have her finished in no time!  She's stitched on 14 ct opalescent Aida that I dyed a stormy gray with a touch of purple.  It's a tad darker than I was planning but I like it.  I chose the gray because it's something that all of them will look good on and with the sparkles it's like they're conjuring magic on a stormy night.  Each one will have a touch of the same color as in their dress.  The purple didn't come out super well but I still like it.  I'm excited to get into the purples in her dress and the moon.  I'm going to do the skin over one so that will take a while but I don't think it'll be too bad.  All of Halloween Green and Raven have been stitched since the weekend since I am now officially on break from work.

I also got a bit of new stash.  The first I'm not going to show but I finally finished my DMC collection after 3 trips to the store.  I only was short by 50 or so colors.

The second thing I got was the Dimensions Gold kit Woodland Enchantress.

It was on clearance at Michaels for $20 originally $45.  They had 2 other kits on clearance that I like which are Fall Fairy and Aurora.  I sent pictures of them to my mother-in-law with a 'very subtle' hint that I'd like them for Christmas and that they were on clearance 😀

Finally, I received a very generous gift from Keiley at Keebles World.  She got me a HAED!

This is After the Ball and I love it because not only is Cinderella a brunette with blue eyes (like me) but she's so pretty and has such a wistful look in her eyes.  I also like that it's not a blatant in-your-face fairy tale picture (although I like those too).

Whew that's a lot!  I'm still catching up on blogs but I'm only about a week behind now instead of over a month.  I haven't been reading a lot lately because I've been too busy stitching but I'm okay with that!

After the new year I won't be stitching much because I'll be starting student teaching which is going to eat up almost all of my time.  Luckily the school is less than ten minutes from me.  I'm hopefully going to have one day a week that I won't do any planning or anything and can just stitch but we'll see how things go.

Thanks for stopping by!  I probably won't be back (well depends on how Raven goes) so if I don't see you again have a Merry Christmas or happy whatever holiday you celebrate!  We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at my house.  I'll see you (hopefully) before the new year!

Christmas Advent Calendar!

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas!  Okay it's not here quite yet but I'm taking part in Jo's Christmas Advent Calendar blog hop!  The wonderful Jo from Serendipitous Stitching is hosting again this year and this is a great Christmas blog hop where we showcase some Christmas projects and talk about special Christmas things :).

First off here are my Christmas cross stitches that I've completed:

Please don't pay attention to the matting job.  My mat cutter didn't work like I was hoping so I need to get a better cutter.  I painted the mats so they matched well.  I love how they look except for the mats being uneven.

This is my current project:

 

And my progress:

This is my first 3 colors and is pretty true to color.  I was actually able to snap a pic while the sun was still out.

Our question to answer this year is:

Decorations - do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

 

I actually don't have my favorite decorations with me.  They're my mom's and she displays them at her house.  One is a giant stuffed snowman that we always display that my grandparents bought in (I think) the 50s.  It has a striped hat and scarf and a big red nose that squeaks when you squeeze it.  My other favorite is a music box in the shape of a house.  In order to make the music play you have to pull Santa out of the chimney (just like the old pull string see n says) and he slowly climbs back up again while the music plays.  I'll try to get pics of these when I finally get to go home for Christmas.  It'll be my first time back in 6 years I'm so excited!  I could never go before because of my job being the busiest on Christmas.

That being said, I do always have to have up my Christmas tree and stockings with my big jingle bell candy cane on the front door.  All of these can be seen above :)

Thanks for stopping by and for Jo for hosting another great hop!  Merry Christmas!

 

It's Christmas Time!

Hi everyone I'm back with another faithful update! And another new start! I didn't get any more done on Hocus Pocus because I've been feeling in more of a Christmas mood so I started Santa in the Clouds by Tilton Crafts. I'm doing this one on 28ct evenweave using pin stitch to start and finish and tenting.

Here's what the picture will look like:

And here's my progress so far:

Second color:

I'm really surprised at how dark the colors are. The picture looks a lot lighter but I'm trusting the pattern and I'm sure it'll be beautiful :)

not much else to report other than that I've finished my observation hours so now I just have to wait on finding my placement for student teaching in January.

I'll probably stick with Santa for the time being as I won't have much stitchy time and I'm liking this one so far. I'm going to try to get the Christmas star done before the end of the year. I realized I work much better with a deadline, even when I'm not too strict with it. I'm still catching up on blogs and probably will be for several weeks.

Oh oh I almost forgot! I was the featured blog in Cross Stitch Collection magazine so keep an eye out in the December issue ;)

Thsnks for stopping by I'll see you all next time!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone! I know I've been gone for a while but I'm happy to say that I'm back. I went on vacation after I finished paradise and the week in between was spent making my Halloween costume. I do have some nice updates on projects and a new start!

First up is Paradise! It is framed and on its way to the recipient.

Sorry for the glare this was really hard to photograph.

It it ended up being 39" long so shipping was quite expensive. I had to reframe it a few times too because I found a cat hair, then a piece in the back was sticking out and then I found a little black speck right next to the sun. Then I refused to look at it again lol.

my next update is that I have a color finish on Halloween Green.

Finally, my new start! I started Hocus Pocus by Tilton Crafts. I was going to do cross country across the whole piece but then I realized that there were no stitch counts in the pattern so in order to update my progress bar I've decided to stitch by page...kind of. I'm stitching the colors in sections to avoid the page lines I had in Paradise. I'll update my progress bar after I totally finish a page. The stitching in the picture is 939 and it is over 3 pages.

I'm loving the fabric I dyed and I'm not stitching the black on the sides so that the fabric shows through. I'm stitching the swirls though. That's what a lot of that stitching is.

I'm still trying to catch up on blogs but I'm still around 400 behind. I'll catch up though! Thanks for stopping by see you all next time! I'll probably have another new start I'm feeling the Christmas spirit ;)

Is This Right?

Am I actually finished?!  Yep!  Last night at 11:50 I put my last stitches in Paradise!

Here's last time:

 

Then I added the darker green:

 

And finally the light green!

 

Here's the grand reveal:

 

 

I finished the last color all in the same night.  Of course it took longer than I thought!

I also did a 5k for my school early Saturday morning

 

I finished on just under an hour because I walked the whole thing.  I definitely need to work out more.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to start next but I need to get some fabric for the bewitching pixies.  I really want to do them on an opalescent.  I have 3 large projects I've had on my mind so we'll see what I choose :). I'm sure I'll have many new starts in the next few months.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through this project and encouraging me to keep going!  I'll see you all next time!

So Close but So Frustrating!

Hello again!  This is the last post you'll see until I'm done but I feel like it'll never happen!  I keep thinking I'm close but when I actually stitch it feels like I'm getting nowhere.  When I look at the photos though I can tell it's making a difference.  Maybe it's because there are large areas of these last colors.

I was able to stay home all weekend and stitch which I thought would get it done but I still have 2 colors left.  I think.  If it's more than that, it's only a couple of stitches.  I've been binge watching flosstube and doctor who, of which I am on the last doctor but I just started his episodes.

Anyway onto pics!

Last time:

 

Now:

 

 

Only 3 more colors but a lot of stitching in them!  Sorry for the color differences.  I didn't want to wait for daylight to keep stitching :). I did go to the Halloween store so at least I got out a bit.  I'm still trying to decide on a Halloween costume but I'm leaning toward ghostly ballroom dancer.  They don't sell that so I'll probably hit thrift stores to look for a dress.  But I might go as Mario and Princess Peach, Zelda and Link or Jarrett and Sarah from Labyrinth but hubby isn't going for it ;).

Thanks for stopping in I hope to see you again REEEEEALLY soon.  And I promise to get the final pics in sunlight!

P.S.  I forgot I got some new needleminders!

 

Love them!

Many More Colors

Hey faithful readers I'm back from my stitching retreat and have a lot more to show!  The retreat was so much fun!  I really enjoyed meeting all of the ladies and the food was incredible.  The staff was super friendly as well.  I only took a couple of photos but the view was beautiful.

 

 

I got a lot of stitching done too since We had to be at breakfast at 8 and usually I'm a late sleeper but once I'm up, I'm up for the day so that's more stitchy hours!

This time I have another 24 colors!  And the lighting was great there so the pictures are better.  Some of the colors were only one stitch so you may not notice a difference but I took a pic anyway.  I also tried having the color I finished on the bottom of the pic so you can see I did.  The mountains are almost finished and will be tomorrow.  I actually have another color in in the ocean but couldn't get a good pic so that will wait until daylight tomorrow and the end :)

Here's the pics!  Last time:

And now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of pictures but I'm so pleased with how the mountains turned out!  The bright orange spot was the most interesting because each stitch was a different color:

 

Still quite a bit left but I think I only have like 4% more to do.  Probably less.  I updated my progress bar which now reads 94% done but I'm only counting completed roes of 10.  So all of those stitches in the middle aren't counted.  But I'm really hoping to have a finish by the end of the week.  I'm not doing anything this weekend until I finish it but I've been so tired I haven't stitched much during the week so far.  And rosh hashana dinners don't help since they've taken both nights Sunday and Monday what with driving.  So we will see but I'm feeling confident!

Hopefully I'll see you guys this weekend with a finish!

Thanks again to all of my readers and followers you guys mean a lot to me!

Oops I almost forgot!  Here's an updated pic of Halloween Green!