Where There Is Desire, There's Going To Be A Flame...

So the newest Pink song has been on the radio non stop and it's been in my head, but the chorus is just perfect for my beautiful Flames of Desire piece, so it had to be the title! I have to admit, I was so excited to get back to this piece and am really looking forward to making some good progress on it this week!

So when we last saw Flames of Desire, this was the progress I made:

Flames of Desire Start of Rotation Week - Last Touched 9/1/12

I got some definite progress in today and this is where I am as of tonight:

As of 9/30/12

Kinda ironic that the last time I touched this piece was the first day of this month, and now I've picked it up again on the last day! The bottom edge of this page and the right edge of this page have been reached with the titches I've made tonight, though I still haven't reached the top edge yet. We'll see how far I can go this week! Wish me luck!

Oh, on a side note, the reunion this weekend was a blast, I saw so many old friends from college and just had a really great time. It's too bad we don't do this every year! In fact, several of our friends that we have discovered are in the area agreed and we're going to try to get together more often. We'll see how that pans out, but regardless, it really was a wonderful weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy

Arrivederci!

So today is the last day of my work on Italian Vista this rotation, and I have to say, I'm pleased with my progress!

I started the week at this point:

Italian Vista - Start of Rotation Week

And I ended the week here:

Italian Vista End of Rotation Week 9/29/12

Tomorrow starts my week with Flames of Desire, my current HAED piece. I've missed working on this one and am eager to start and see how far I can get this week!

For now, I'm off to my class reception for my reunion...looking forward to another great night of old friends and good memories!

Until next time!
~Katy

Italian Surprise

So I had about an hour yesterday between the time I got home and the time we were going to go pick up the kids to bring them to my parents' house to babysit for the reunion. I was ready to go, so I picked up Italian Vista and got a few more stitches in!

As of 9/28/12

Today, we suspect my daughter may have a UTI that I need to bring her to urgent care for and rain has put a damper on all outdoor activities at our university, so we're not going to head back until this evening...which means some more stitching time, hopefully! We'll see how it goes!

Until next time!
~Katy

A Little More Italy...

So I was too tired last night to post, but I did get some stitching done! That's a good thing, because tonight and tomorrow are filled with my ten year college reunion activities, so I'm not sure if I'll get back to Italian Vista this week. We'll see!

As of 9/27/12

I fully expect to be reminiscing tonight about my college's own Italian vista and our campus right outside of Rome...I'm definitely looking forward to it!

TGIF!
~Katy

I Need A Vacation...

So there was no post from me yesterday because I kinda had a slight, minor stress episode....okay, let's be honest, it was an insane panic attack in the evening about work and I ended up working for about five and a half hours from home last night to help deal with said panic attack. On the plus side, I was able to complete a huge project that was the source of my stress at that moment. On the minus side, I didn't get a ton of sleep last night and no stitching was done. So I made up for that today and went back to Italian Vista tonight. If I can't take a trip to the Tuscan countryside, at least I can stitch it!

As of 9/26/12

I was getting a little bored with the left side so I decided to work a little on the right. What I'm really working on is the bottom half of the second page of the chart, hence the straight line of stitches starting at the left that heads to the houses. I think I'm going to just try to finish all the rows on the bottom half before moving to the top, so that also was partial reason why I worked on the right side tonight.

Work wise, I am feeling better today. I had a new employee start which will be a huge relief for me once she's trained, and I've already told my staff that the next two days are essentially closed door days for me. I never close my door to my staff, they're always welcome to come and talk to me about anything they need, so they know when I ask them for closed door days, it's serious and they really respect the request. I'm looking forward to getting some work done before the weekend!

Off to bed now, hopefully to get better, less stressed sleep tonight!

Until next time!
~Katy

Molto Bene!

I made some good progress on Italian Vista tonight!

As of 9/24/12

Sorry for the poor quality picture...the blue tinge on the bottom is the reflection of the flash off of my shadow. It's getting to be too big of a piece to hold up and shoot straight on anymore!

I'm having fun with this piece this week and find myself reminiscing more than normal about my semester in Italy when I was a sophomore in college. I think the fact that my ten year reunion is this weekend has something to do with that as well...

Until next time!
~Katy

Ciao Bella!

I must admit, I'm excited to be back at Italian Vista. This is the piece that I first picked up when I started stitching again after a year's plus hiatus, so it's always nice to go back to it!

In keeping with tradition, here is a reminder of where Italian Vista was when I last worked on it:

Italian Vista - Start of Rotation Week - Last Touched 8/25/12

And here is the progress today:

As of 9/23/12

We've reached the left and right edges of the page that I'm on with the progress I made tonight. I'll be interested to see where I go with this piece this week. See, this portion of the chart is the second of three pages, started in the middle. There is so much nature in this with the trees, the water, the sky and the mountains that it doesn't have an easily readable "set" way to go like something like European Bistro has with the distinct parts of the picture. Nature flows into nature flows into houses flows into nature, so I kind of just go where the needle takes me!

Thanks to everyone for your comments about the rotation. This really does work for me. A little background, my last big project that I finished was my son's Christmas stocking that I wanted done before his first Christmas in 2010 (you can see it here). Two kids, working full time, pregnant the first half of the year, mom of two and training to be promoted to manager of the department at work the second half (my son was born in May), stitching time was hard to come by. At the time, I was also of the philosophy that you do one project at a time and don't rotate so that you don't get yourself distracted by other pieces...oh, how silly that was!

Because I made myself this goal, as November and December rolled around, the only thing I did in my spare time was stitch. I stitched during lunch at work. I stitched constantly at home. It became a looming deadline and "work" rather than my fun hobby. Don't get me wrong, I loved the stocking and was thrilled to finish it less than a week before Christmas, but when I was done, my stitching mojo was completely gone. I tried to start a few ornaments in Christmas Countdown, but that failed miserably. I didn't pick up another needle until July of this year. That was over 18 months that I didn't touch a needle and thread.

I didn't want the burnout to start again, and at the time I was itching to start stitching again, I had kits for Italian Vista, European Bistro and Christmas Countdown in my collection. I wanted to work on Vista and Bistro immediately, but couldn't decide between which. I finally started Italian Vista, and was still a little hesitant about rotating, but quickly succumed to the urge and started the rotation. Throw in Flames of Desire for my friend and Beauty and the Beast for my daughter, plus the random WOCS project here and there, and the rotation became necessary! It helps keep me organized, and prevents me from getting bored with a piece. It's exciting to go back to pieces I haven't worked on in awhile, too!

There are lots of rotation methods out there...some people count number of hours (too specific/hard to keep track of for me and my schedule), some people do longer weeklong rotations (2-3 weeks or longer - I still fear burnout)), some people just go where the mood takes them. One week, Sunday to Saturday, has worked really well for me and I haven't lost my stitching mojo yet!

This week is going to be very busy for me with a Girl Scout service unit meeting one evening, PTA another evening, and my 10-year college reunion next weekend, plus deadlines at work. I may not get much stitching done, but we'll see what happens!

Until next time!
~Katy

Au Revoir European Bistro

Today wraps up another rotation week and marks the last day of European Bistro until the next time it comes up in the rotation. I'm rather pleased with the progress from this week!

I started the week with European Bistro looking like this:

European Bistro - Start of Rotation Week - 9/16/12

And ended the week looking like this:

European Bistro - End of Rotation Week - 9/22/12

Not bad for a week! I realized tonight as I was putting European Bistro away that this marks the end of my first, complete, full rotation of my five WIP's...we're back at the beginning tomorrow with Italian Vista, and I'm looking forward to it! Between church, Sunday School and a birthday party for one of my daughter's classmates, plus some laundry I've been neglecting, I'm not sure how much stitching will be done tomorrow, but I'll at least get a little bit in after the kids go to bed!

Oh, I forgot to mention in my post this morning that I treated myself to a new HAED yesterday...

Mini Fairy of the Changing Moons by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

I really don't need more pattern stash, but there are so many on the HAED website that call to me that I am going to try to keep building my stash, one pattern at a time!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy

Busy, busy....

I knew the last couple of days would be super busy...I didn't get any stitching done Thursday night, and though I really wanted to stitch more last night, I was too tired to do much more than a few stitches last night, but here's the progress:

As of 9/21/12

I feel a little like I've cheated poor European Bistro the last couple of days, especially since this is the last day of the rotation week, but I think really, I've just missed not having my couple of hours in the evening after the kids are asleep to unwind with some cross-stitching. I will see what I can get done today because cheated or not, I think I've made a lot of great progress this week and I'm looking forward to picking up Italian Vista again tomorrow!

More later! Have a great Saturday!
~Katy

Lots of Navy

Just one color stitched tonight, but quite a few stitches of it!

As of 9/19/12

A few more columns of navy stitches and that bottom base of the wall will be set! We'll see how far I get over the next couple of days. Girl Scouts meets on Friday, and due to some issues with our previous meeting location, we are now meeting at my house...ack! I'll need to spend some of tomorrow evening getting ready for the meeting, and then the meeting is actually on Friday night. We'll see how much stitching I get done between now and then!

Two more days left in the work week...it seems to get harder every week to make it through, but I have a new employee starting Monday, a proposal for a new position being made to senior leadership in a couple of weeks, and hopefully relief on the horizon. I'm not sure I can take my work stress for much longer! Thank goodness for stitching to help me calm down and relax in the evenings!

Until next time!
~Katy

A Little Progress

So I was successful in meeting my goal tonight and then some. I finished the section of the ground that I was focusing on and have started back on the building again.

As of 9/18/12

I the building is going to be my focus the rest of this week. Let's see how far I can get...

I'm also debating on whether or not to sign up for the latest WOCS quilt. I haven't signed up for the last couple because the themes didn't really interest me, but the newest theme is Fruit and Berries, and I'm tempted to look in my stash and see if I have a pattern somewhere that will work for the theme. If I find something, I'll finish out this week's rotation and pause my rotation on Sunday to start the new project and will work on it until it's done...we'll see what happens. I may not find something I want to stitch, but I'm definitely going to look!

I'm ready for the weekend to be here already. It's been a long work week, and it's only Tuesday night! Ack!

I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Until next time!
~Katy

Oh La La...

More work on European Bistro tonight! I decided that I'm going to finish this section of the ground before I start stitching "up" and into the building...

As of 9/17/12

There is a lot of ground on this picture, so I just took a section of it for this go round and will do more later!

Thanks for all of the great comments on my last post! I love the feedback and I love sharing what I'm working on with all of you! And I love how many of you are interested in European Bistro! It seems to be one of the more popular pieces in my rotation!

Tomorrow's going to be a long day as I have my monthly late night after work hours meeting for my job, so I'm not sure how much stitching I will get done once I get home. Maybe I'll have time to finish the last remaining half stitches on this part of the ground. I think that's a reasonable goal....

I hope you all had a good Monday! I am a firm believer that work weeks should only last two days and weekends should be for five days...I'd definitely have less stress and more stitching time that way! Ha!

Until next time!
~Katy

IHSW, September TUSAL and European Bistro

Lots of stuff to blog about tonight! Where to begin...

Tonight wraps up this month's IHSW, and I have to say that this was probably my most productive stitching IHSW I've had! I was able to make a good amount of progress on Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love on Friday and Saturday, and then today I was able to get back into European Bistro!

I realized as I was gathering my materials and putting European Bistro back in the hoop that this is going to be the first real week I will dedicate to this piece. I had started it, worked on it a few days, got caught up with Birdhouse Neighborhood for WOCS, and after I finished it, European Bistro was put at the bottom of the rotation. It's going to be good to work on it this week!

When we last saw European Bistro, this is what it looked like:

European Bistro - Start of Rotation Week - Last Touched 8/6/12

Oh my goodness, it really has been a long time since I worked on this piece! After a few hours of working on it today, this is where I stand now:

As of 9/16/12

I found the bottom edge of the piece with the ground that is stitched thus far. Another large section of half stitches goes rather quickly. I think the piece looks like it's curving just a little bit on the left edge, but that's just how the fabric is in the hoop, not really the piece itself. The page I'm working on right now is the right half of the piece, so now we have the left edge and the bottom edge found! I will be interested to see how far along I'm able to get this week!

Today is also TUSAL report day! I've been working on a lot of pieces this month, and I think my TUSAL jar reflects that!

Here is my TUSAL jar as of last month:

TUSAL Jar - August 17, 2012

And here it is today!

TUSAL Jar - September 16, 2012

Wow! Comparing the two side by side, I really have done a lot this month! Here are the views from the top:

Last month:

TUSAL Jar - August 17, 2012

And today:

TUSAL Jar - September 16, 2012

So pretty! At the end of the year after our last TUSAL report for 2012, I plan on taking all of my ORTs out of my TUSAL jar and filling a clear glass ornament with them for my Christmas tree. I think it would be great to start a collection of ORT filled Christmas ornaments to celebrate my hobby and to also provide unique, beautiful pieces for our tree!

What filled my TUSAL jar this month, you ask? Well...

I completed Birdhouse Neighborhood. Here is the status of it from the last TUSAL report:

Birdhouse Neighborhood as of 8/16/12 TUSAL Report

And here it is complete the very next day:

Birdhouse Neighborhood - Complete 8/17/12

I had two new starts whose ORTs were added this month as well.

Flames of Desire:

Flames of Desire as of 9/1/12

And Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love:

Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love as of 9/15/12

I started Christmas Countdown again, which hadn't yet been included in my TUSAL jar, so it was kind of like a new start this month:

Christmas Countdown - Ornaments as of 9/8/12

And of course, my other two big projects were included as well:

Italian Vista - from then:

Italian Vista as of 8/16/12 TUSAL Report

To now:

Italian Vista as of 8/25/12

And as already reported above, European Bistro got a few more ORTs in the TUSAL jar today as well. All in all, a very successful month, I think!


Whew, that was a long picture filled post! Congrats if you made it through all of it! I hope everyone has a great week ahead of them!

Until next time!
~Katy

Look There She Goes...

Well, another rotation week has come to a close. Beauty and the Beast Fall in Love has been put away until it's next visit in the rotation. I made some good progress today until an afternoon migraine got the better of me, but overall, I'm pleased with the progress this week!

Beauty and the Beast Fall In Love - End of Rotation Week

I swear, one of these days, I'll get some better pictures of my work done...I need to stop taking pictures at night with my phone...

IHSW continues tomorrow, and after church I plan on settling in with European Bistro again. I'm looking forward to picking it up again, it's been awhile! Tomorrow is also the next TUSAL report. My jar's looking pretty great, if I do say so myself!

Until tomorrow!
~Katy

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend - September

So yesterday began this month's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend! This post will be short because I shouldn't be blogging - I should be hermiting (is that even a word?) and stitching!

Here is my progress on Beauty and the Beast last night:

As of 9/14/12

 Today is my last day of Beauty and the Beast in this rotation, so I'm going to try to make some good progress today before moving on to European Bistro!

I did make two more purchases yesterday from HAED to round out my contributions during HAED Appreciation Week:

Mask of Colours I by Linda Ravenscroft

Mask of Colours II by Linda Ravenscroft

Aren't they beautiful? I love the colors and the movement of the skirts each one of the figures is wearing. They're clearly a pair, so I couldn't buy just one!

Off to hermiting and stitching! Have a wonderful Saturday!
~Katy

Oh, Isn't This Amazing?

Well Beauty and the Beast's castle definitely got taller tonight!

It's Growing!

As I'm sure you can tell, the castle's left side is all I'm really able to work on at this point, as the right side is all contained on the next page of this chart, but this side is definitely taking shape! It makes it feel like the piece got substantially bigger, even if it's just a few stitches up high!

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday and that this weekend is IHSW! I definitely need it!

Sorry for the short post...it's late, I'm tired, but I will say one fun thing about stitching this project is that I've been humming Disney songs constantly...it's amusing my kids in the car, to be sure!

Until next time!
~Katy

Through A Mist, Through A Wood...

...Where within a haunted castle something's lurking that you don't see everyday!

More progress was made last night on the castle and some of the woods surrounding it:

As of 9/12/12

And look! I received this beautiful chart as a RAK yesterday from a fellow member of the HAED Addiction group on Facebook. It completely brightened my day!

Earth's Harvest by Linda Ravenscroft

Isn't this beautiful! I had it on my HAED wishlist, and I was so thrilled to find it in my mailbox yesterday! I plan on paying it forward and finding someone to send a RAK to before the week is over too!

Until next time!
~Katy

Little Town, It's a Quiet Village...

Maybe I should have left that title until I'm actually stitching the village, but I've been humming it tonight as I worked! Working was slow going tonight. I'm really tired today for some reason, so I didn't make a ton of progress and my picture is kinda blurry to boot, but here is the update as of today!

As of 9/11/12

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more energy by the time I get home and will be able to get a bit more accomplished! The nice thing is that this weekend is also International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and after having some rather busy and hectic weekends of late, I've told my husband that I don't want to go anywhere but church/Sunday School this weekend so hopefully I will be able to get lots of stitching on this piece on Saturday and hopefully a great jump on European Bistro on Sunday!

As an aside, I remember this day vividly from eleven years ago...I was a senior in college and was at my then fiance's (now husband) apartment when we found out about the first tower being hit and had the TV on when the second tower was hit. Our school was near DFW Airport, and I remember driving back to school and watching just dozens of planes landing one after another as I drove. Our school was also a Catholic university, so after I got home, I went straight to the chapel to pray before going to my parent's house to be with them and my siblings...not realizing that daily mass was supposed to start shortly after I got there. I wasn't the only one drawn to the church...it was filled to capacity and overflowing, and every priest that was on campus that day was up on the altar to say the mass and support our community. Lines formed throughout the edges of the chapel and out the doors of students organizing to go donate blood and figure out what else they could do to help. That day is burned into my memory and I have thought of it a lot today. God bless those who were killed, all those who have fought to defend our country and freedom, our leaders in government (both Republican and Democrat), and may we never forget that day and what it means to us now, no matter how many years pass.

Until next time,
~Katy

Be Our Guest!

Okay, so I have a strange feeling that my blog titles this week are going to all be references to songs from Beauty and the Beast....ha!

I made some more progress on Beauty and the Beast tonight!

As of 9/10/12

 Because I'm not one that likes to do just one or two stitches of a color before I put it away and would rather use an entire length of floss, I did do a bit of cross-country stitching tonight with a few colors, but I'm liking my progress so far! I'm really enjoying stitching this!

I also purchased two new charts from Heaven and Earth Designs tonight as part of HAED Appreciation Week. I am going to purchase a couple more at the end of the week too, but I haven't decided which ones yet. The ones tonight were easy, though!

Chakra Fae by Linda Ravenscroft

Chakra Fae  was a piece I had seen on someone else's blog that helped push me to explore HAED. The pattern is just beautiful and I absolutely love it!

Emerald Birthstone Fairy by Rachel Anderson

Emerald Birthstone Fairy is part of a stunning set of birthstone fairies by Rachel Anderson that I just love. Emerald is my birthstone as well as my son's. Eventually, I will get my husband and daughter's fairies, though truly, I love the whole set and would be thrilled to have them all!

Until next time!
~Katy

Tale As Old As Time...

When I was growing up, Belle from Beauty and the Beast was always my favorite Disney princess...she was the one brunette in the bunch, like me. She loved to read, like me. She was her own person who wasn't born to royalty and didn't mind being herself, also like me. Sure, Cinderella had the best shoes, Sleeping Beauty had the best looking guy, and I'd love to have Jasmine's flying carpet (okay, yes, I know it was Aladdin's, but still....).

So I was really excited when my daughter, who is incredibly princess obsessed, asked me to stitch Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love for her. She saw it one day while looking over my shoulder while I was doing some stitchy shopping online. When she asked if I could make this for her, I said yes without hesitation because not only is it a beautiful piece, it's something that I think she could keep and treasure even after she grows out of her princess phase because it's not your typical "young girl" piece.

I took advantage of Sunday football games to start the piece! It's a pretty large piece, so though I'm starting in the center, I'm going to somewhat use my HAED stitching techniques with working by blocks on each page. We'll see how it goes!

Here's my progress as of today!

Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love - Started 9/9/12

This is the start of the bottom left corner of the castle and the foliage and details around it. It's going to be quite awhile before I get to the characters, as they are primarily located on the fourth of four pages in this chart, though we'll see glimpses of part of the Beast when we get to page two. Now, I really did love stitching this piece today...except for the yellow in the windows. I hate metallic threads and blending filaments...wait, I take that back. I hate working with metallic threads and blending filaments. I absolutely love the effects they create on pieces, but it's a pain in the you-know-where to work with them. So those yellow, shimmery squares did give me a fit...and I have lots more filament pieces to do later on in the piece...but I will prevail over them!

By the way, tomorrow starts HAED Appreciation Week! If you love HAED, or if you have never done one of their pieces and would like to start, take part in this great event to show Michelle how much you appreciate her site and all of her work! It's not a sale, though. It's a week that was organized by HAED fans to show our support for this great stitching source! I personally plan on purchasing at least two charts this week. I haven't narrowed it completely down yet to which two, but I'll be sure to post them once I purchase them!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a wonderful week!

Until next time!
~Katy

Close But No Cigar...

Well, I didn't reach my goal of getting all the ornaments stitched this week, I'm sorry to say. Life just kept getting in the way. I'm very pleased with my progress this week, though, and will not have much left to do on the ornaments the next time Christmas Countdown comes up in my rotation!

Just as a reminder, at the beginning of the week, this is what I had completed:

Six Ornaments Stitched in 2010

And as of tonight, I have completed this much:

Ornaments as of 9/8/12 - End of Rotation Week

I must admit, the ornaments were getting tedious to stitch. I'm looking forward to working on the actual calendar when it comes up again next time! But in the mean time, I'm really looking forward to starting Beauty and the Beast tomorrow! I opened the kit tonight (I know, I'm shocked I waited this long too!) and looked at all of the already presorted threads (in a much better thread sorter than my recent Dimensions kits), and took a look at the chart to find the mid point and know where I'm going to start tomorrow. I only stitch my HAED pieces from the left corner, but all other pieces start in the middle!

Stay tuned this coming week to see my progress on my new piece!

Until next time!
~Katy

One Day More!

Great, now I want to sing along to Les Miserables...sounds like the perfect soundtrack to curl up with some stitching and listen to!

I had a very busy night tonight with our first Girl Scout meeting of the year. The highlight was working on the Daisy Safety Award, which included teaching my first graders the Heimlich maneuver. They all did really well! I asked my daughter after we got home to tell me what she would do if she saw someone choking, and she was able to give me the step by step instructions and demonstrated the actual movements. I was so proud! I hope none of these girls ever need to use what they learned tonight, but it made me very proud to pass that on! Add a lot of giggling with some crazy Stop, Drop and Roll demonstrations and working with their parents on their addresses and phone numbers, and I would call it a successful start to the Girl Scout year!

Because I didn't get home until late, I didn't do much tonight on Christmas Countdown. It's been a very long week, despite having Monday off...it felt like it should have been Friday days ago! I did finish the present I worked on yesterday and started another teddy bear:

More ornaments!

There are twenty-four ornaments in all. I have seventeen and a half done. I am going to do my best to finish the remaining six and a half ornaments tomorrow both because I'm too eager to start Beauty and the Beast that I don't want to have this roll over into Sunday, and because I would love to know that when this comes up in rotation next, I'll be working on the calendar rather than the ornaments. Wish me luck!

TGIF!
~Katy

TGIT

In college, we had a weekly "event" (read: excuse to go drink beer and listen to loud music) called TGIT...Thank Goodness It's Thursday! Why should the weekend celebrations start only with Friday? Thursday night meant that there was only one more day in the work/school week, and that was a reason to celebrate! This may have been a short work week this week, but I am so ready for the week to be over work wise, so with a glass of wine, I say TGIT it is!

I got home late tonight and had a 2-year old who has suddenly decided he doesn't want to sleep...at all...so I didn't get to stitch as much as I wanted to tonight, but I did finish one more ornament and made a lot of progress on another:

16.5 out of 24 Completed

Tomorrow is the first Girl Scout meeting of the year, and I won't get home until late, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done tomorrow...if I can finish the present ornament I started tonight, I'll consider it a success, because then I can focus Saturday on the last few ornaments before the rotation week is done. That way, when Christmas Countdown comes around again, I'll actually be able to start on the physical calendar all these pretty ornaments will go on!

So TGIT to you...and tomorrow, TGIF!

Until next time!
~Katy

Here Comes Santa Claus...

"Here Comes Santa Claus!

 Here Comes Santa Claus!

 Right Down Santa Claus Lane!"

This song was playing over and over in my head tonight as I added two more ornaments to Christmas Countdown, including jolly ol' St. Nick himself!

Lots of Little Ornaments!

Santa and the finished gingerbread man that I started last night puts me at 15 ornaments completed. Only nine more to go!

Until next time!
~Katy

More Than Halfway There!

I got another two and a half ornaments done tonight, which puts me at 13 1/2 ornaments out of 24 completed...woo hoo! I've passed the halfway mark!

Yay for Ornaments!

Tonight I added the lamb on wheels, the little soldier with a flag and about half of the gingerbread man. I have four more days of Christmas Countdown to go in this rotation. I think I can get all 24 done! That would be a very satisfying trip in this rotation!

Just a little plug...Take a peek at all of the great giveaways listed on my blog. There are some really generous and wonderful giveaways that other bloggers are doing. Go, sign up, follow some great new blogs, and tell them that Katy from Just A Little Stitchin' sent you!

Hope you're all having a great week! Until next time!
~Katy

Two More Ornaments

Just a very quick post because it's late...I wanted to do a lot more stitching today, but seriously hurting my upper back and neck really made stitching difficult, so I only got two more ornaments done today. If there's one thing you'll learn about me, I'm a klutz and can hurt myself just by sitting down...drives my husband crazy...

Added the Angel and the Train and the Berries on the Stocking

Here's hoping tomorrow after work is better. I'd really like to finish all of the ornaments this week while on the rotation so that I can start with the actual calendar next rotation.

Until next time!
~Katy

Christmas Countdown, Giveaway and More!

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a a great weekend! As I do every Sunday, I picked up the next piece in my rotation, which this week is the long neglected Christmas Countdown by Dimensions. I picked up this kit shortly after I finished my son's stocking in 2010, but I was in a stitching burnout, especially when it came to Christmas, so after completing just a few ornaments, I put it to the side...and didn't pick up a needle until a couple of months ago...

So this is where I started at today. The ornaments are all on plastic canvas, and I wanted to get them all done before starting the actual calendar because when we get through with the calendar, I'm going to work on figuring out the attachment method of the ornaments to the calendar and wanted to have them on hand!

Six Completed Ornaments

And here is where I am today!

Nine Completed Ornaments as of 9/2/12

I got a few more of the ornaments done but have a long way to go...there are 24 in all, after all! These take a little time because I also stop to do all backstitching and details in each ornament before I move on to the next one. Of course, as I'm looking at this picture, I'm realizing I forgot to do the french knot berries in the stocking...oh well, I'll do that tomorrow.

I also went out today and took advantage of the Joann's sale on DMC floss. I decided that the next two HAED's I'll eventually work on are Angel of Compassion and Butterfly Rose Cross (pictures of both are here), so I went through my stash, figured out what I had and what I needed and came home with this:

That's A Lot Of Floss!

There were still a few skeins I wasn't able to purchase, believe it or not, because the store was out of those colors, but I have 99% of the floss I'll need when I get to the point where I'm ready to start my next HAED. I also picked up several bobbins of Krenik floss for these patterns and was able to use a 40% off one item coupon and a 15% off your entire purchase coupon. I won't be working on these patterns for awhile, but who could pass up a deal like that? They are all now all divided up between each piece in a big plastic freezer bag.. I'm not even going to try to wind them on bobbins until I'm ready to start the projects!

I also bought the fabric while I was at Joann's today to go with Birdhouse Neighborhood for World of Charity Stitching. This piece is now in the mail and on it's way to become part of a beautiful quilt!

Birdhouse Neighborhood and Fabric

I noticed today that I'm up to 41 followers! Woo hoo! I love having you guys here and reading your comments and following your blogs! To follow in the tradition of so many blogs, when I reach 50 followers, I plan on having a giveaway! What's the prize? I haven't decided yet, but I do have an idea...just wait and see!

Tomorrow is Labor Day here in the states, and I plan on spending a lot of time stitching! Have to take advantage of the day off!

Until next time!
~Katy