My Witch's Brew

So I needed to pick something to work on for the next couple of days until the March installment of Once Upon A Time comes out. I was a good girl and looked through my WIP's rather than starting a new piece (and I have a TON I want to start). I have several smaller pieces in my WIP list from when I did the Crazy January Challenge last year, but I decided to pick up My Witch's Brew by Nancy Turner of The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe to try to finish it. All I have left to do on it is the border and it'll be done!

I'm stitching this on 16 ct. Aida (which I'm realizing I'm not a huge fan of working with anymore) in Crystal EEK! from Picture This Plus. Here is where the piece was the last time I worked on it:

Last worked on 12/8/13

And here is where it was after a little bit of work on the bottom part of the border last night:

I'm going to work on this today and tomorrow when I can and will post an update on Saturday after the March square has come out. I have the funeral for my grandmother tomorrow (part of my really bad week last week), and there is going to be a lot going on, but I'm going to keep this piece out so that when I finish the March square of OUAT, I can pick this up and try to get it done.

Until next time!
~Katy

February Done With Days To Spare

Yay! I finished February's block today with a couple of days to spare! This makes me excited since the next piece will come out on March 1st and this means I can stay on top of the sampler and hopefully get it finished on time by the time this year is done! Yay!

Here is the completed February block, whose theme was Princess and the Frog:

In addition to the flosses from Mo's Sale I had already used, I added Funny Raspberry and Coconut to this block. Coconut is actually part of Mo's silk floss collection and was my first time using silk floss. I thought it was only appropriate that the princess have silky hair!

Here is January and February together:

And this is the full sampler at this point, all of which was completed this month:

Since I don't expect that the March block will take me the full month, I'm going to go through my WIP's to find whichever one is closest to completion to see if maybe I can mark a WIP off my list in March as well. Wish me luck!

Until next time!
~Katy

OUAT - February Block

This week has been a very rough week in my household with just a lot of stresses and hard things to deal with so my stitching has been limited. Though, I definitely have found stitching to be a soothing outlet during these difficult times.

Here is my progress on the February block of the Once Upon A Time Sampler going into this weekend:

I added two more flosses from Mo's collection into this block. The princess' hair is stitched in Coconut silk (my first time using silk thread!) and I also added Funny Raspberry in as well (most prominently seen in Smooch!). The theme of this block is Princess and the Frog, and obviously I haven't gotten to the frog this yet. I hope to make some more substantial progress this weekend so that I can be ready for the March block on the first.

I've updated my fabric stash collections for Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie and Under The Sea Fabrics with a couple of months' worth of FOTM additions. Do I have more dyed fabric than I likely will ever use? Yes...but I love having the selection to pick from and each piece of fabric is it's own work of art!

Until next time!
~Katy

January is Done!

So the stitching went faster than I thought and I finished the January block this morning!

Here is the block close up:

And here is the entire sampler with this block now completed:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, color substitutions and all. I think this piece is going to be awesome when it's all done! I ended up making eighteen color substitutions with flosses from Mo's Sale and I know I'll be making a few more in the next block. For those interested, the full list of colors from Mo that I used for January includes the following:

Marine
Plum
Wonderland
Silver
Daiquiri
Darker Purple
Emerald
Danube
Ron Burgundy
Leaf
Apple Cider
Coffee Bean
Orangeade
Terracotta
Tin
Treetop
Candy Corn
Chocolate

I think the Sunset fabric from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie is just perfect too!

Onto February I go, and it's not too long before March will come out! Can't wait!

Until next time!
~Katy

Once Upon A Time - January Square

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with love of friends and family!

I made good progress on the January block this week. I've got a busy weekend ahead of me so I'm not sure how much progress I'm going to make on it this weekend, but we will see! Here is the January block, whose theme is Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as of today:

I'm loving how this is turning out so far! Because I am stitching this from my stash, I made a decision that except for black, white and skin colors I will try to use all my threads exclusively from my massive collection from Mo's Sale but to try to keep the threads I use as close to the chosen colors in the pattern as possible. I'm very happy with the result so far. Including the border, I have used thirteen unique hand dyed floss colors from Mo's selection and I'm just very pleased! The colors I have used up to this point include:

Marine
Plum
Wonderland (perfect floss name for this pattern!)
Tin
Terracotta
Silver
Danube
Leaf
Candy Corn
Daiquiri
Darker Purple
Treetop
Ron Burgundy

There are more colors to be used in this block, and I already have plans to use one of Mo's silk colors for the hair of the princess in the February block when I get to it. I've been very pleased with all of her flosses up to this point and can't wait to use more!

And can I just say that I'm so glad I used the Sunset fabric from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie? I'm loving it more and more as the piece comes to life on it!

Until next time!
~Katy

Once Upon A Time - Border Done!

Yay! The border is complete on the Once Upon A Time Sampler!

I love the way this is looking so far! Next I'm going to start on the January block. I may not have January and February done before March comes out on 3/1, but I have no doubt I'll be fully caught up by the end of March. Wish me luck!

Until next time!~
~ Katy

Lots of Border

So this week on my Once Upon A Time Sampler, I've been focused on the border. I finished all of the main outlining in Marine and am now going back with the Plum to fill in the details. I figure that should be done by the end of this weekend and then I can move onto January's square. Here's the progress for this week!

(Ignore the REALLY bad lighting on the first picture, please)

Fingers crossed I can finish the border this weekend. I am part of The Frosted Pumpkin SAL group on Facebook and seeing everyone's progress makes me super eager to get started on my blocks, but I know for my own sanity, I need the border done first!

Until next time!
~Katy

Once Upon A Time

So I got started on the 2014 Once Upon A Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery over the weekend. I'm working on the border first, then I will do January and February, hopefully before the month is over! I don't think it should be too much of a problem as the border is going pretty quickly. I also think that having the border done will make it much easier to focus each month on just stitching that portion of the sampler rather than building the border as I go.

I'm really enjoying this piece so far:

I had the recommended fabric in my stash for this piece, but it was too boring for me, so I decided to us 28 ct. Jobelan in Sunset from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie, which I'm just in love with. I also had made the promise to myself to not buy any floss for this piece since I have such a huge stash. Well, when I did a floss toss, I realized I only have maybe half of the called for DMC floss for this piece, so I'm making substitutions galore! Those floss changes are going to be my way, besides the fabric, of making this piece unique to me. For example, all three of the colors used for the border at this point are substitutions from Mo's Floss. Mo is a sweet woman who runs a one person shop with hand dying flosses and she sells them for fantastically reasonable prices in comparison to other dyed threads. The flosses used so far in this piece are her Tin, Plum and Marine flosses. Considering how many substitutions I'm going to need to make, I'm sure I'm going to be able to dive into my stash of Mo's floss to make the appropriate changes:

My Mo's Floss Collection!

Until next time!
~ Katy

Goodbye Rapunzel, Hello Once Upon A Time

So much for updating twice a week! Ha!

I've put a lot of work into Rapunzel this past week and I'm thrilled with the progress:

I'm still adoring stitching on her but I'm putting her away for a bit for a new start. Yes, I know, I said no new starts until I finished a WIP, but this is an annual sampler with a new portion released each month from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery called the 2014 Once Upon A Time Sampler. January and February have already been released and though I have the chart pieces, I haven't started them yet because I've been so enamored by Rapunzel! I'm going to put Rapunzel away for now, go through my stash (because I refuse to buy anything for this sampler, I have a ton of stash, substitutions always work!) and start working on the piece. I figure once I have each month's section done, I can pick up whatever else I want to work on that month until the next month's release comes out. With any luck, this will be a certain finish by the end of 2014 (and I'm really bad about finishes!)

More to come when there are progress pictures! Wish me luck!

Until next time!
~ Katy