Butterfly Rose Cross

Yesterday I worked on the Butterfly Rose Cross from HAED:

Lots and lots and lots and lots and LOTS AND LOTS of blue.....

I love this piece, I think it's going to look stunning when it's done, but the big blocks of blue are something I can only handle for so long before it has to be put back down. I do kind of regret not getting the background removed and just doing this on a dyed fabric, but I started this before I knew about the beauty of hand dyed fabrics! Oh well!

And just a little FYI, don't expect another post from me until Monday afternoon, most likely. I've got some plans this weekend that will likely prevent me from blogging, but don't worry, I'll be back with lots of pretties to show!

Until next time!
~Katy

Blue, Blue, Blue!

On a day where the theme color is supposed to be green for St. Patrick's Day, I focused instead on the very blue filled Butterfly Rose Cross:

The nice part about large blocks of blue background is that it's easy to just lose yourself in the rhythm of the stitching when you don't have to change colors a lot. That's why I was able to get several hundred more stitches in last night:

Still lots more blue to go, but progress is progress!

Until next time!
~Katy

Butterfly Rose Cross

Yesterday was dedicated to my second HAED in my rotation, Butterfly Rose Cross:

I was able to complete another column on the first page and start the next one. Lots and lots and lots of blue...

Soccer games for the day are done and I'm staying home to thaw out the rest of the day from the biting wind chill, so we will see how the stitching goes today!

Until next time!
~Katy

End of Rotation Week and Start of Another

So yesterday ended my rotation week on Butterfly Rose Cross, and I'm very pleased! As a reminder, this is where the piece was at the beginning of the week:

Butterfly Rose Cross - Start of Rotation Week - 1/27/13

And here is where it stands now:

Butterfly Rose Cross - End of Rotation Week - 2/2/13

I went from one column with the second started to three columns with the fourth started - that's good progress if you ask me!

Today starts a new rotation week! I'll be working My Witch's Brew from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I'm excited because I haven't been able to dedicate a full rotation week to this piece yet, as the last time I worked on it was over Thanksgiving week and I barely had any time to actually work on it. Here is where the piece is beginning today:

My Witch's Brew - Start of Rotation Week

This is one of my smaller WIP's, so I hope I can make lots of progress this week. I plan on doing lots of stitching during the Super Bowl this afternoon! Go commercials!

Until next time!
~Katy

Happy Groundhog Day!

I was super tired last night and just did not have the energy to blog, but I did work more on Butterfly Rose Cross:

As of 2/2/13

I've already made more progress today and can tell you I've finished the third column and started on the fourth! Yay! I'll post again tonight for my final post of the week for this rotation...

Yesterday was also the first of the month, and typically on the first, I review my goals from the past month and make new goals for the upcoming month. I'm a day late, but here we go!

At the beginning of January, I made the following goals for the year, which I'll be checking in on throughout the year:

1. Year of the Stash - I've made a lot of progress in this arena this month LOL! I have added several pieces of beautiful hand dyed fabrics to my collection as well as a couple of patterns through various RAK programs through groups I'm a member of on Facebook. I think fabric, though, is my weakness now! I mean, just look at this!

Beautiful Fabrics!!

I just love them all and definitely plan on adding more to my collection! My two favorite fabric companies are Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie and Under the Sea Fabrics, by far!

2. Crazy January Challenge - I want to successfully start all 15 projects in 15 days and will be very pleased if I can finish at least 1/3 of the projects in 2013. - The first part of this goal is done! I definitely did all 15 starts and am already making plans for 2014's CJC. This goal will be modified to just continue working on the pieces to try to get as many projects completed as I can!

3. Finish at least one of my 6 WIP's from 2012 - Can't mark this one off the list yet, but I'm working on it!

So goals specifically for February:

1. CJC 2014 - To get ready for the CJC in 2014, I am working on picking 2-3 patterns a month and determining shopping lists so I can spend the year getting ready. I have already picked a few charts for January's choices, but I want to pick February's choices as well, make a list of what I need, and review the stash I have to start making shopping lists. I have a $50 gift card from Michael's that I got for Christmas this year burning a hole in my pocket!

2. Keep up with my SAL's - I'm part of the TUSAL, WIPocalypse and Theme-a-licious SAL's this year, and I want to make sure I keep up with them!

Otherwise, I want to keep working on my projects and visiting your blogs - something I do almost every day already!

Will be back tonight to give the end of the week update report!

Until next time!
~Katy

Theme-A-Licious: Jardin January

 No new stitching tonight. My son was a very wriggly and fighting boy this morning when I dropped him off at daycare - to the point where I was physically carrying him against his will into the room which caused me to wrench my shoulder a bit, so stitching tonight wasn't very comfortable. Ah, the joys of the terrible two's...

But today is the last day of January (can you believe it?) and so here is this month's Theme-A-Licious Report! This month is Jardin January!

Jardin January

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

I made my mid-month report here. Since then, I've added progress to two pieces that fit in this theme. First is Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love, which I hadn't reported on mid-month:

As of 1/20/13

And the other piece is one I have reported on already and is my current rotation piece, Butterfly Rose Cross. Now granted, I haven't gotten to any of the flower portion of this picture yet, but I will eventually!

As of 1/30/13

Next month is Figural February:

Figural February

Who are the people in your neighborhood...your WIP neighborhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

People-populated projects...hmmm...I really don't have a lot of those coming up in my rotation anytime soon...though nearly all of my projects I will likely touch in February can all be related to people...this may be a month I stretch the theme a bit because I don't particularly wish to get out of my rotation, but we'll see what happens!

Oh, before I forget, I did get some wonderful stitchy stash in the mail today from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie:

Fabric Heaven!

Hi, my name is Katy, and I'm a hand dyed fabric addict...aren't they gorgeous?!?

Until next time!
~Katy

More Blue...

Lots more blue, though I'm almost done with this particular shade of blue in this column...

As of 1/30/13

What I would really like to do is finish up this column before I put this away in the rotation for a bit...do you think I can do it between now and Saturday night? I'm certainly going to try!

Tomorrow is the end of the month post for Theme-a-licious, so check back then!

Until next time!
~Katy

I Swear There Are Four Colors...

Alright, I'm the first to admit that as much as I LOVE getting comments on my blog, I'm absolutely the worst person about responding to them, though I eagerly read every one when my email notification goes off, haha! I saw several comments expressing surprise at the fact that yes, there are four colors in the area I've worked on for Butterfly Rose Cross so far - three blues and one green. So tonight, I took a picture without the flash that (at least in my phone) appeared to show more distinction between the colors...you tell me:

As of 1/29/13

I can at least see two colors easily...the three blues are so close together and the green has maybe five or six stitches so far total that they're easy to overlook. What do you think, can you see the colors?

P.S. - the blue part on the bottom of the third color is a different color than the blue on the top part of the color...I promise!

Until next time!
~Katy

Onto the Third Column!

Tonight I did not have as much stitching time, as I had a late meeting at work that led to drinks and appetizers afterwards, and the stitching bug has a hard time fighting through a margarita/sangria swirl, let me tell you! Haha!

I was able to finish the second column completely tonight, though, and moved onto the third column:

As of 1/28/13

I know it's hard to tell, but you're really looking at four colors in the columns thus far. This has actually been a very enjoyable mindless stitching of these colors in columns. I'm sure once I get to the actual cross and the non-background portions of this piece, I'll have to focus more intently, but it's been a very relaxing and enjoyable stitch thus far!

Until next time!
~Katy

Good Progress, Bad Picture

I've decided that I'm going to alternate every other week between a CJC and a non-CJC piece, and my CJC pieces will be done in the order in which they were started. Sunday is always the start of a new rotation week, so today I focused on my Crazy January Challenge piece Butterfly Rose Cross by Brigid Ashwood, a piece from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Here is where the piece stood when we last saw it:

Butterfly Rose Cross - Start of Rotation Week - Last Touched 1/1/13

Excuse the very poor quality of the picture, but here is where the piece stood after some work on it today:

As of 1/27/13

The colors are totally off in this picture, but if you look close, you can see some of the color differentiation in the stitches. All in all, despite the bad picture from my tablet (phone was dead and I need a better quality normal camera), I'm pleased with the work I did today! I made a lot of good progress. The second column should be done relatively quickly - hopefully tomorrow depending on what time I get home from a work function. And you can see I've already started the top of the third column! One page of this piece will count as a finish for the CJC, since HAED pieces are so huge. Wish me luck this week!

Until next time!
~Katy

Hello 2013...And Crazy January Challenge!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a safe and fun New Year's Eve! I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!

Today starts the Crazy January Challenge! Woo hoo! 15 starts in 15 days, though, I have to take a moment to admit that I cheated ~hanging my head in shame~...I couldn't wait to start the challenge that I actually started on my 1/1 piece on 12/30...oh the shame! But it is an HAED and every extra stitch can help, right?

So here it is! Start #1 for the Crazy January Challenge - Butterfly Rose Cross by Brigid Ashwood - Heaven and Earth Designs:

Butterfly Rose Cross by Brigid Ashwood

Progress as of 12/30/12:

It's a start!

Progress as of 12/31/12:

All the 3768 in the first column of the first page - there is lots of this color to go on this page!

And the progress as of 1/1/13:

First CJC Start!

Not a bad start! The first column of the first page is completely done and then some! For the CJC, I'm counting a single page finish as a finish instead of the entire piece for this one. That's the same thing I'm doing with my other HAED in this challenge which you'll see in a couple of days. Once I get one page done, it will go into my standard rotation. The other CJC WIP's will continue in the CJC rotation until they are done or until the end of 2013, whichever comes first!

Have a wonderfully stitchy new year!

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

Shopping at HAED

So I had a headache when I got home tonight...long week, not much sleep, that tends to catch up to me. I tried to start stitching on Birdhouse Neighborhood, but just couldn't focus well enough tonight and decided after the fourth or fifth time of ripping out stitches that tonight was just not the night to do it...so I went shopping at Heaven and Earth Designs instead!

I ended up buying four patterns...I couldn't resist the half price sale, and considering the size of these patterns, this is a huge bargain!

Angel of Compassion by Selina Fenech

This one is part of a set of four angels...this one was my favorite, though I think eventually I'll pick up all four.

Butterfly Rose Cross by Brigid Ashwood

This cross just spoke to me. Roses are my favorite flowers, my daughter loves butterflies, and I just adore the rustic feel and the colors on this piece.

Daisy by Selina Fenech

I chose this one to represent my two years of being my daughter's Daisy Scout leader! It's such a simple image, and I just love it!

Flames of Desire by Lee Anne Seed

This one I purchased as a gift for one of my good friends for me to stitch for her. She's admired my work for awhile and asked if I would stitch a piece for her, and this is the piece we picked out!

I know I'm not going to start any of these until I finish my WOCS project, but I'm very excited...even if these four didn't put a dent into the nearly 300 charts I've put on my wish list...ha! I am determined to look at all 7000+ charts to see what else there is to add to my wish list...a little bit at a time!

Until next time!
~Katy