Just A Quick Post

I wasn't feeling that great last night when I was getting ready for bed, so I didn't stop to post my day's progress...I wanted to get it posted today before I forgot and started working again tonight!

As of 8/30/12

Off to work I go, but TGIF and yay for a long weekend!

Until later!
~Katy

It's Been A Long Week

Luckily only two more days left in the work week...school for the most part seems to be going okay for my daughter (save for her stepping in a red ant pile yesterday resulting in 15-20 bites on her left foot...ouch!), and we have open house tomorrow night. I need to finalize our Girl Scout plan for the year by the end of this weekend, as our first meeting of the year is a week from Friday, which I'm excited about!

I got some more stitching in on Flames of Desire tonight!

As of 8/29/12

I've really enjoyed working on this piece this week. Although there have been a few difficulties when the hours grow late and I'm not sure if what I'm looking at is a stitch or just the fabric that is almost identical in color, the more I add to the piece, the more and more I love the fabric I chose to stitch this on. I think it's going to be beautiful when it's done. I have a few more days to put into it before it goes back into the rotation and I start working on another piece.

I've decided that except for my WOCS pieces I do here and there, I won't start another new project until either I finish page one of my most recently started HAED piece (in this case, Flames of Desire) or I finish a project entirely. That way, I'm not starting on tons of pieces and ending up with a ton of UFO's. One of these days, I'm going to sit down with my stash thus far and map out what pieces I want to do for myself, what pieces I want to keep for future potential projects or gifts, and ones I know I won't ever do so I can organize myself appropriately. What I really need to do is clear out the fourth bedroom which is supposed to be my Mom Cave and set up my stitching goodies, my Girl Scout stuff, and my other "me" things, but considering we're about to have to replace a substantial part of our master bath, that project will just have to wait and I'll have to just work on organizing my charts for now...

Off to bed for me..two more days until the weekend!
~Katy

Is It Friday Yet?

I'm ready for the weekend...

I went and spent a little money tonight at HAED and purchased three more charts to go in my stash! Yay for shopping! All three are by Selina Fenech and go with the Angel of Compassion I already got!

Angel of Joy

Angel of Love

Angel of Truth

I think this is going to be a beautiful quartet when they're done someday!

I also worked more on Flames of Desire tonight! It's going relatively quickly, or more quickly than I thought it would!

As of 8/28/12

That's the start of the next wing on the left! I still have a ways to go on this first wing tip, but it's progress!

I hope you're having a great week! Until next time!
~Katy

Flames of Desire Progress and HAED Appreciation Week

Well first things first, my daughter had a wonderful first day of first grade today! That made me one happy mommy! The first thing she said to me today when I picked her up was "Mom! It was terrific!" I heard all about her getting to play with one of her friends from Girl Scouts during recess, how she made new friends in her class (but doesn't remember their names yet), how there is a "little library with three big pillows" in the classroom and how what she did today wasn't "boring work" and that they'll start more work on Wednesday "but that's okay, I'm ready for it"...I was so nervous about this first day for her, this just warmed a mother's heart! Of course, my two year old son hated leaving his big sister at a strange school and kept talking about her all day per his daycare teachers...he was more excited to see her after school than I was, I think!

I did make progress on Flames of Desire today! I'm loving how this is looking, but have definitely decided that I will not start another HAED piece until I'm done with page one of this one and all future ones. I'm loving stitching it, but it's going to take quite a bit of time!

As of 8/27/12

Speaking of Heaven and Earth Designs, there was a post on one of the Facebook groups that I'm a member of that due to copyright infringement and other issues with costs, there is a real risk that HAED is going to have to close it's doors. That would be a horrible loss to the stitching community! I absolutely love the work from HAED and have well over 100 charts on my wish list from the over 7000+ charts that are offered, and I've seen many of the blogs I follow have loyal HAED clients as well! The group has rallied, though, and there is going to be an HAED Appreciation Week beginning September 10th through September 14th, organized by fans of HAED, with encouragement to go out and purchase a chart during that week to help support the site and the owners. More details can be found here. If you have a blog and you enjoy HAED, please share the information and the link and invite your stitching friends to participate! I know I plan on buying one or two more charts for my collection!

I hope you all have a great week! See you next time!
~Katy

New Start - Flames of Desire

Well I woke up this morning in horrible pain...4:30 in the morning to be exact when I rolled over in bed and somehow pulled a muscle in my back. It's been killing me all day though my husband has been good about helping me take it easy and keeping me stocked on ibuprofen today. I did get started on Flames of Desire, though!

It was a bit intimating at first figuring out where to start. Unlike many of the other HAED patterns I've seen, this one doesn't have a solid first page of stitches where you can easily tell where to start because you just start in the upper left corner. I finally figured out where I was going to begin and got started, and here's the progress I made today!

Flames of Desire - Started 8/26/12

I started with the top 'feather' of her wings. Linen is interesting to work on. I can see what some of my followers were talking about regarding "even" stitches, but honestly, I kind of like how it is a bit uneven with the stitches. It makes it seem more alive to me, somehow. And the fabric itself is just so soft and easy to work with, and I love the color. I'm enjoying it thus far! The stitches are being done with two strands of thread over one, and I used probably a dozen different colors with this small section alone!

Tomorrow is my daughter's first day of first grade and I think I'm more nervous than she is! I know I'm definitely more nervous about this first day of school than I was with kindergarten, which surprises me! I'm glad I've taken the day off because I know I'd be too distracted to work...here's to hoping I'm not too distracted to stitch!

Until next time!
~Katy

Goodbye To The Italian Vista For Now...

Hello to all of my new followers! I have to admit, it makes me almost giddy to see when I gain a new follower! I started this blog just as a place for me to track the progress of my projects, but I'm thrilled to share the journey with all of you!

So I have finished this week's rotation on Italian Vista, and I'm very pleased with the progress I made this week!

I started the week at this point:

Italian Vista Rotation Week Starting Point - 8/19/12

And after doing some stitching tonight, I'm now at this point!

Italian Vista Rotation Week Ending Point - 8/25/12

I think that's good progress! I wanted to do more today, but I ended up school supply shopping, working on my plan for the upcoming Girl Scout year and having dinner with my parents, so it didn't work out, but that's okay.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start Flames of Desire! Yay! I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated by the size of the chart and that I'll be using the linen versus my traditional Aida, but I'm ready for the challenge! After church tomorrow, I'll map out where I'm going to start on the fabric and get underway! Come back tomorrow evening to see my progress!

I hope you're all having a great weekend! Until next time!
~Katy

Late Night Stitching and Goodies In The Mail!

TGIF! I absolutely lost track of time tonight...I just kept stitching away at Italian Vista and let my mind drift and my worries float away! Not a bad way to spend a Friday night!

As of 8/24/12

I have one more day of stitching on Italian Vista this rotation...which is okay because I got goodies in the mail today! Specifically, I got the fabric for Flames of Desire! I ended up going with the Lava fabric from Picture This Plus!

Fabric!

I'm so pleased with how it looks in person, and look at how great the threads look with it!

So Pretty!

I have all of my bobbins organized now, ready to go, and I'll start Flames of Desire on Sunday! 

All organized!

 And bonus, I took Monday off for my daughter's first day of school (first grade), so after I drop her off at school, my son at daycare and my husband heads to work...I'll have a whole day to stitch on her! Yay!

Until next time! Happy stitching!
~Katy

Thursday Night Update

It's been a long day in a long week...Meet the Teacher didn't go as well as I had hoped it would (long story short, the teacher didn't have my daughter's name from when she registered last week, so she didn't have anything prepared for her...), and we found out we have at least $8K worth of damage in our master bathroom from a leak, if not more...yay for home owner's insurance, boo for $2500 deductibles...so it's been a long day...

Stitching was definitely my relief tonight, though I didn't do as much as I would have liked because I did spend some time winding bobbins of thread. I'm about halfway done with that! Just waiting for the fabric at this point!

So here is my progress on Italian Vista as of tonight! Pardon the yellowing...I got my camera out just to discover the batteries are out and I need to pick up more. My phone died, so I tried taking a pic with my tablet. The color isn't great, but you can definitely see progress!

As of 8/23/12

All I can say is thank goodness tomorrow is Friday...I'm ready for this week to end!

Until next time!
~Katy

Thread!!!

I had a very full package in the mail waiting for me when I got home that made me very happy!

Thread!!

The threads I ordered for Flames of Desire arrived today! Yay! I already had some of the threads in my stash, but needed a ton more, as you can see, haha! I also received word today that my fabric that I ordered was shipping! I can't wait! I am going to work on getting all of the DMC threads wound on bobbins and ready to go so that when the fabric gets here, I can add it to my rotation. I'm eager to get started!

I made more progress on Italian Vista tonight too!

As of 8/22/12

Tomorrow is Meet the Teacher night for my daughter, so I may not get to stitch much...we'll see what happens! I'm excited about meeting the teacher. This is a new school for T, so I'm very hopeful she transitions easily, and meeting the teacher will hopefully be the first step of that.

Thanks for all of the feedback on my last post. I'm going to be doing some more research and figuring out what works best, but you've all given me some great starting points! Thank you!

Until next time!
~Katy

Some More Progress

So last night, I didn't really get a chance to stitch much. I've been having pain off and on in my left elbow that goes down to my pinky and ring fingers on my left hand and makes them very tingly, as if they're waking up from being "asleep". I've had this pain off and on for awhile now and I'm in the process of scheduling a doctor's appointment to check it out, but last night, it just hurt too much to keep my elbow bent to hold the hoop for stitching, so I took the night off. It helped my hand feel better, but didn't help my urge to stitch any!

So today, with my arm feeling better and after dealing with leaking water issues with our master shower (another post for another day, I'm sure), I sat down and put some work into Italian Vista tonight.

As of 8/21/12

I do know where my camera is, but tonight I was lazy and didn't want to go upstairs to get it, so we have another phone pic. I'm pleased with the progress I made tonight! I also spent some time mapping out where I'm going to start stitching once I finish this building bundle. I traditionally start my projects in the middle, but this piece is unique in that so much of it is composed of the trees and sky and water, it's not easy little sections that you complete, back stitch and then move on from. But I think I know what my game plan is, and that's a good thing!

I do have a few questions out there for those of you who use something other than a hoop to hold the fabric while you're stitching. What do you use and how does it work? See, I typically like stitching in the evening in my reclining chair on the couch with my hubby, leaning back, feet up, stitching away. If holding the hoop for extended periods is exacerbating my elbow pain, I want to find an alternative, but I want it to be something that I can still lean back and recline on my couch with and that isn't too bulky. Any suggestions are welcome!

Off to bed for me! Until next time!
~Katy

International Hermit And Stitch Weekend - August

Well another IHSW has come to a close. I didn't get as much stitching done this weekend as I would have liked, as we had a big family party at our new home as a housewarming/meet my brother's girlfriend event that was a ton of fun, but it really ate into my stitching time! I do feel like the weekend was a success though, as I was able to finish Birdhouse Neighborhood as I mentioned in my last post. Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments about it - I'm rather proud of the piece and will be eager to see it in the enter quilt!

I ordered the fabric and threads I still needed for Flames of Desire. Once those come in, I'll organize and add that to my rotation! I've also decided on a personal rule that I will not begin another HAED design until I'm finished with page one of whatever design I've started most recently. Doesn't mean I won't buy more charts, it just means I'll have to make some progress on an HAED before I move to the next one!

With Birdhouse Neighborhood done, I got back to Italian Vista to start my rotations again. I've decided that I'm going to change which project I am working on during the week every Sunday so that all of my WIPs get into a good rotation. Any projects I do for WOCS will just be worked in as needed.

So I didn't make a ton of progress on Italian Vista tonight just because I was worn out from the party, but I did put a few stitches in! Sorry for the funny picture angle

As of 8/19/12

One of my goals this week is to find my better camera rather than just my cell phone camera so I can get better pictures! Anyway, I'll be happy to see where Italian Vista grows to over the next week! Stay tuned for the progress!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! It's the last week of summer vacation in our house, and we plan to enjoy it!

Until next time!
~Katy

Birdhouse Neighborhood - Complete!

Okay, so I lied. I said I wasn't going to post until the end of the weekend, but I finished Birdhouse Neighborhood tonight and wanted to share it!

Birdhouse Neighborhood - Complete!

I still need to pick out the fabric for it that I'll send with the piece for the quilt. I plan on doing that next weekend when I am out finalizing school supply shopping for the first day of school. I'm very happy with how this turned out, but I'm looking forward to getting back to my rotation of WIPs!

I hope you're all having a wonderful IHSW!

Until next time!
~Katy

August TUSAL

It's TUSAL time again! I love how the TUSAL posts and IHSW fall around the same time. It puts me in such a good mood for the weekend!

This month, I'm thrilled with my TUSAL Jar!

Lots of ORTs!

View From The Top!

This is comparison to last month and it's paltry beginnings!

July TUSAL

There are threads in there from my daughter's Daisy uniform and from the following projects I worked on and/or completed this month!

I was able to finish two projects since the last TUSAL post!

Purples from Knotted Hearts for World of Charity Stitching (WOCS)

Knotted Hearts

Pinks from Have a Heart, also for WOCS

And these are the projects I worked on that also have ORTs in my jar!

Italian Vista - As of July TUSAL

As of July TUSAL

And as of today:

Last Updated August 3, 2012

 European Bistro - A new start since the last TUSAL

Last Updated August 6, 2012

Birdhouse Neighborhood - Also a new start since the last TUSAL and a project for WOCS:

As of August 17, 2012

I also received my lovely prize from Karen at My Stitchy Ramblings today, and I'm so excited for these charts!

Yay for Charts!

And look at the lovely stitch counter she included as well! I've never had one before and I think it's just beautiful! It's so delicate and feminine and I love the colors. I fully plan on starting to use it from now on!

My Pretty Stitch Counter!

Thank you again, Karen!

Wow, this was a picture heavy post! I don't plan on posting much again until Sunday evening, most likely. I have family coming over Sunday afternoon for a house warming and meet my younger brother's girlfriend from Chicago party, so when I'm not stitching, I'll be getting the house ready for that. I fully plan on getting some stitching in, though, and hopefully finishing up Birdhouse Neighborhood. I'll be sure to come back and post my progress from the weekend!

I hope you all have a wonderfully stitchy weekend! Until next time!
~Katy

In The Home Stretch!

Yay! I'm on the last color for the cross stitches for Birdhouse Neighborhood! It's a lot of stitches for the color though and will take me a bit to get through. Once I'm finished with that color, I'll have the back and straight stitching to do to finish out the piece.

Down to the last color!

Tomorrow, the next TUSAL post is due. I'm excited to share, it's grown a lot this month! It's also the start of International Hermit And Stitch Weekend. I'm not sure how much stitching I'll get done this weekend, but I'd love to finish this piece out so I can get back to my other WIPs!

Counting down to the weekend!
~Katy

Quick Post and Thanks

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback about the fabric for my HAED project. I was leaning towards Lava myself, and that was the favorite! Can't wait for payday to order it and the threads I still need so I can get started!

Just a quick update post on Birdhouse Neighborhood tonight...leaves are done! Yay!

As of 8/15/12

The bottom row of stitches on the leaf's stem is as low as the pattern goes, and then it stops on the right and left edges as show in the picture. I think there are two more minor colors with a few stitches, and then lots and lots of stitches in a third color. I'm really happy with this piece, though, and can't wait to put together the finished product! I just need to find a good fabric to use for the square too!

Hope you all have had a wonderful day and a great evening! I may not get much stitching done in the next few days with some family functions I have going on, but here's hoping!

Until next time!
~Katy

Another Win, More Advice Needed, and Progress!

I'm so excited! I found out today that I was one of the winners of the giveaway from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe and I got to pick out one of Nancy's wonderful charts! After much hemming and hawing, I decided on her My Witch's Brew Halloween Sampler:

My Prize!

I think it's just adorable and will make a great addition to my growing group of Halloween themed projects I plan on working on! Thanks again, Nancy, for such a generous giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who gave their opinions about where to find fabrics for my HAED piece. I need your advice again! I took a look at various places and think I'm going to go with Picture This Plus for my fabric, but I need more advice! I have narrowed my choices for the background fabric to the four following fabrics. Which do you like best?

As a reminder, this is the HAED piece:

Flames of Desire by Lee Ann Seed

Although there was advice to stick with an Aida fabric, the pattern calls for 25-ct. Dublin linen, so I'm going to take the leap and try it on that. If I hate it and have issues, I'll just switch it out. Here are the three colors I'm looking at:

Aurora

Ember

Phoenix

Lava

So what do you think? And oh boy, that place is going to be dangerous when I'm looking for fabrics for other projects in the future...I'm not sure I'll be able to go back to plain white aida!

And here is the progress for the night on Birdhouse Neighborhood:

As of 8/14/12

Until next time, keep stitching!
~Katy

The House Is Done!

I finished all of the stitching for the house tonight. That roof was a lot of turquoise!

The house is done!

I debated doing the backstitching for the house before moving on to the base, but I don't like back stitching if there are still stitches around it that need to be completed, I could do almost everything but the last couple of rows, where the bird's tail and the feet of the house are on the base for the picture. I'll just start on the base tomorrow and then go back and do the backstitching all at once. I'm really enjoying how this piece is turning out, and I think I'll be adding the entire piece to the wish list of projects to do in the future!

Off to bed! I hope everyone has some stitchy dreams!
~Katy

Need Opinions Please!

So I'm starting to look around to gather the materials I need to do my first HAED, and I would really like to use a hand dyed fabric for the piece. I'm going to be doing Flames of Desire first:

I am doing some looking around online for quality affordable vendors, preferably state side though I'm not stuck on that, that do the hand dyed fabric. Aida/Even weave is what I'm used to working with, but I'm willing to expand to linen. I'd like to find a red/orange fabric to compliment the figure as really, except for the portion within the halo/circle surrounding the figure, all of that cream in the image above is fabric, not stitches. Only the inner halo/circle has cream stitching.

So sell me on your favorite fabric vendor! All suggestions welcome and appreciated!
~Katy

Just A Quick Update

Just a quick update tonight......I didn't do much stitching today as life got in the way, but I did get a little in......the bird is done and I'm starting on the roof. Once that is done, I will do the base, then the back stitching and the straight stitching details. I am not working on any other projects until this one is done. Depending on how the week goes, maybe I can have it done by the end of the week. We'll see!

As of 8/12/12

Until next time, I hope everyone has a great week!
~Katy

The Next Generation

I have two children. My daughter is T and my son is D. They are the inspiration behind my blogger name, tadamama, as our last name begins with A...so TADAmama it is! So my daughter, T, is six years old. She's a sweet, imaginative, loving, creative, smart, stubborn and determined girl who will be entering first grade in a couple of weeks. At her kindergarten graduation this past year, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said she wanted to be an art teacher so she could teach children how to make beautiful art. Well, what is cross stitching but a form of art? So when my daughter expressed an enthusiastic interest in learning how to cross stitch, I certainly didn't mind having her pick out a couple of "My First Cross Stitch" kits. And even when her first question out of her mouth when she woke me up at 7 AM this morning was if she could "learn how to sew today, Mommy", I was happy to oblige...once I had my caffeine!

She didn't get far in the kit today...truly, though the kit is a 'beginners' kit, I think it's more aimed towards the tween age set. I even tried to get T to select one of the "larger" kits with the massively huge X's for her to learn on, but this is what she wanted. She wanted to stitch just like Mommy. So we spent the morning in our pj's with me teaching her how to organize a kit, how to thread a needle, how to read a chart and determine what each symbol meant for each color, how the needle went through the thread in the little holes on the fabric, and how to make those tiny little X's into a picture. We didn't make a ton of progress today, so I don't have a progress picture to show you. Instead, I thought I'd show the enthusiasm and the focus of a six year old little girl who, I hope, is developing a love for this craft that will last her a lifetime.

Pushing the needle through the fabric

Focus

Admiring her progress

Dedication

And this is my absolute favorite...

So happy and proud!

I was truly blessed when God chose me to be T's mother. I love her with every fiber of my being and I loved being able to share this with her today. Oh, and I made some progress on Birdhouse Neighborhood today too!

As Of 8/11/12

Until next time!
~Katy

Late Night Stitching

I cannot tell you how glad I am that it is the weekend. It's been a long week, both at work at home, so I'm very glad hubby is home from his work trip and I don't have to be at the office myself for a few days. I was able to pick up the needle again last night and made some progress on Birdhouse Neighborhood:

As of 8/10/12

You can definitely see more of the bird's outline more clearly at this point. The house still has some ways to go though. As I have with my other WOCS projects, I plan on this being my only project that I work on until it's done, so I'm sure I'll make more progress this weekend.

My daughter has also been begging me to teach her how to cross-stitch, so we will break out one of the kits she picked out and start working on it this weekend too. I'll definitely post pictures of her progress!

I hope you all have a great, stitchy weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy