Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who signed up for my giveaway and for celebrating my blog followers and birthday all at once! My kids picked out the name from all those who entered and the winner is.....

FISCHY CRAFTS!!!

Congratulations! I'll touch base with you to find out where to send all of your goodies! Thanks again, everyone!

Until next time!
~Katy

Giveaway!

To celebrate reaching 200+ followers and my birthday this month, I'm having a giveaway!! Yay!

Giveaway goodies include two patterns (Edwardian Lady by Joan Elliott and Honey Bunny by Soda Stitch), a one of a kind jewel in 18 count Opal Aida from Under The Sea Fabrics and five flosses from Mo's Sale! All you have to do is be a follower of this blog and comment on this post that you're interested! I will draw the winner's name on May 22nd, which is my 35th birthday. Good luck!

Until next time!
~Katy

Stitch Maynia - Elf's Garden, Taurus Part Two, And Giveaway Preview!

Lots to talk about today! First, I had my second start for Stitch Maynia yesterday, which was Elf's Garden by Soda Stitch.

Regular followers of my blog will know that I'm a big fan of fairies, elves, all things magical creatures, so this was a must have. Just like when I worked on another piece by this designer, I fell in love with it just a few stitches in! Here is where I got to yesterday:

I don't know what it is about this designer, but I just love their patterns! I have quite a few in my stash now! I'm stitching this piece on 32 Belfast in Wildflower from Under The Sea Fabrics. It's a beautiful fabric with lots of wonderful colors that the elves will fade into brilliantly. I really didn't want to put it down!

Yesterday also saw the completion of the Taurus section of the Walking Through The Stars Zodiac Sampler:

And here is the completed piece to date:

As always, the designers included some interesting information about this sign! My son, sister and father are all Tauruses and I straddle the line between Taurus and Gemini, so I found this information insightful this month.

Taurus - April 21 to May 21

Taurus takes its name from the Greek Tauros, meaning "the Bull."  

Taurus thrives on stability, and being able to grow a garden (life's work, family, art) into a lush paradise buzzing with life. Taurus has a strong primal instinct, for big appetites with food, sensual love, and creature comforts.

Taurus follows the surges of Aries, and is the earth sign of catching hold, and growing where planted. That explains the heavy vibe (and sometimes physique), for a sign that struggles with weightedness, and stagnation.  The pressure to root in and consolidate, is what makes Taurus great at manifesting. It's what gives Taurus a solid bearing.

Taurus' love of stability sometimes leads to staying in dull jobs, that aren't inspiring. It's a happy Bull that finds a path that is both abundant and satisfying.

At the extreme edges, Taurus is bull-headed, self-absorbed, materialistic, greedy, hedonistic, a glutton.  

Constellation: Taurus, the Bull
Element: Heart
Ruling Planet: Venus
Stone: Emerald
Metal: Copper
Phrase: “I have”
Colors: earthy browns, shades of green, pastel colors (blues, pinks, greens), white
Animals: those with sturdy frames, like bull and cattle in general
Birth Flowers: Rose, Poppy and foxglove flowers . Taurus' personal flowers also include: Primulas, Violets, Columbines, Mallows, Sundews

Finally, this is a big month! I have officially hit 200 followers (yay!), I turn 35 later this month on the 22nd (yay!) and I've decided I'm going to do a giveaway. I have discovered going through my stash for Stitch Maynia that I have a few duplicate patterns in my collection and I want to find them a good home. So sometime next week, I will pull all the duplicate patterns and make a post announcing the official giveaway, but I know there will at least be a Soda Stitch and a Joan Elliott to give away! Stay tuned!

Until next time!
~Katy

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Giveaway

Nancy from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a Valentine's Day giveaway! If you're interested in entering, please follow this link and let her know Katy from Just A Little Stitchin' sent you!

Until next time!
~ Katy

A Lazy, Stitch Filled Day and Unexpected Giveaway

So I am off of work this week. I ended my old job this past Friday and start my new one a week from today and this week, I'm just relaxing...well, not just relaxing, I have a lot of personal things to do like get the house ready for the holidays, finish my shopping, get Christmas cards out, etc., but it's a definite respite to clear my mind from one job before I begin the next.

Today is the one day I had absolutely nothing planned, so once the hubby was off to work and the kids were off to school, I relaxed. I spent a couple of hours working on bobbinating my threads for the Crazy January Challenge (almost done!) and I also put some good time into Italian Vista today:

As of 12/3/12

I'm  loving the pinks in the flowers! I love the colors of this piece overall, but the pinks really stand out among the blues, greens and browns. I'm very pleased!

Also, I was contacted today by the winner of my Traveling Tribal Penguin giveaway. Come to find out, she had actually ordered the piece from overseas herself and had forgotten about it until it arrived today! Luckily, she contacted me before I made a trip to the post office so I am able to pick another person to receive the pattern, and that lucky person is....

Christine from The Alchymyst's Study!

Congratulations! I'll contact you for mailing information!

Until next time!
~Katy

Girl's Night!

I haven't had a chance to stitch today, though I'm hoping I might have a chance before I go to bed...but I do know that I won't get a chance to post again as I'm going to bring my kids over to see my siblings while they're in town and then me, my younger sister, my mom, my three aunts (Mom's sisters), my oldest female cousin and my grandmother are all getting together for a girl's night..my youngest aunt is only 9 years older than me, so she's more my big sister, and most of my younger cousins think I'm an aunt because of our age difference. We're a close knit family and I'm looking forward to getting all the girls together!

But because I did promise a drawing today for Tribal Penguin, I wanted to make sure I posted before I was taken away for the day! And the winner is....

Linda from Stitchin with my Furbabies!

Congrats, Linda! Can't wait to see your progress!

Oh, I did take advantage of the HAED Thanksgiving sale and bought the last Birthstone Fairy I needed for our family's birthstones - Citrine for my husband (whose birthday was yesterday!)

Citrine Birthstone Fairy by Rachel Anderson

 Any pictures of any stitching I get done today will be posted tomorrow. And I'm excited that I'll be back to European Bistro starting next week - it's been awhile!

Until next time!
~Katy

Another Finish and Another Giveaway

I did it! Two finishes in two weeks! That doesn't happen often and won't happen again for a long while, I don't imagine, but Tribal Penguin is finished!

Tribal Penguin - 10/28/12 - 11/17/12

I'm really pleased with how this piece turned out and loved working on it! But now, it's time for me to give it away and give the joy of this pattern to someone else! The rules for this giveaway are simple. Respond to this post indicating your interest to receive the traveling pattern and one week from today, I will draw a name to determine the lucky recipient! Easy peasy!

Until next time!
~Katy

We Have A Winner!

But first...a little summary of my day and a look at my stitching, as it is the end of the rotation week, after all!

Today, I took the train to the State Fair of Texas with a troop of excited Daisies (and lots of Texas/OU fans, as the Red River Rivalry was at the Cotton Bowl today). We saw Big Tex (and even more Texas/OU fans), had a picnic lunch outside the Hall of State, enjoyed the impressive Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Experience at the Fair, took part in a scavenger hunt all around the fair for a badge, talked to the Ford Automotive Robot (who talked to our troop and had everyone at the Auto Show cheer for our Girl Scouts), ate a delicious Deep Fried Samoa, navigated a lot of not too happy and rather intoxicated Texas fans spilling out of the Cotton Bowl while the game was going on, and then took the train home! We got lots of comments of admiration about our Daisies in their uniforms, and those bright blue vests and tunics were very visible in the sea of orange and maroon at the fair today. We had a wonderful time, though I must admit, I'm exhausted and hurting from all the walking tonight! I am out of shape. Don't get me wrong, stitching is my hobby to get me to relax, but it definitely doesn't keep me in shape!

Here are just a few pictures from today:

Girl Scouts Rule!

Inside the 100th Anniversary Experience

Ready to try some Deep Fried Samoas!

Deep Fried Samoas - YUMMY!!

After resting when we got home, having dinner, taking baths and putting the kids to bed, I sat down and did some more stitching tonight! Here is the progress I made tonight:

As of 10/13/12

 And here is how the frame looks in full as of tonight:

As of 10/13/12

 So since this is the end of the rotation week, let's look at how much progress I made this week! At the beginning of the week, Christmas Countdown looked like this:

Christmas Countdown - Start of Rotation Week

 And here is where I ended up this week:

Christmas Countdown - End of Rotation Week 11/13

Ornaments done, frame started - I think that's good progress this week! Tomorrow starts me working on my next WOCS contribution with May Lily of the Valley Teacup. I'm excited for the new start!

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. We put all of the entries into a bowl tonight and before bed, my daughter picked a name out of the bowl! Sorry for not taking pictures, but congratulations to the big winner!

hkittypink from Stitchy Sam

Please send me an email (the address is on my profile) with the best email address to send your gift certificate to, and let me know your choice between 123 Stitch! or Heaven and Earth Designs. Congratulations!

Now I am off to bed! I hope you're all having a wonderfully stitchy weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy

More Border, Girl Scouts, and Giveaway Reminder

So I had more time today than I anticipated to stitch! My son had an ENT checkup today (just following up on his tube surgery back in February), so I got home earlier than normal. After a brief nap, I was able to get several things accomplished today!

First, I was able to get all of the patches sewn onto my Daisy's uniform in anticipation of our field trip to the State Fair of Texas tomorrow where there will be a huge 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts exhibit and scavenger hunt. We're looking forward to it!

The Front of my Daughter's Daisy Vest as of 10/12/12

The Back of my Daughter's Daisy Vest as of 10/12/12

She's going to look great walking around Fair Park tomorrow with her uniform full of awards she's earned. Even if it is Texas/OU football weekend, which if you're not from Texas is a HUGE, annual game that always takes place during the State Fair, we should still have a blast with her troop! I am going to try to spend a few extra minutes in the exhibit hall that houses all of the arts and crafts entries to see what cross-stitch inspiration I can find! A few people who are members of various cross-stitching groups on Facebook have talked about having pieces entered, and I always enjoying seeing what won each year!

Once the vest was finished and after dinner was eaten and kids put to bed, I was able to settle down with Christmas Countdown. Not only did I get the red border finished in the space available in the hoop:

Look at all that red!

 But I also went ahead and moved the hoop over and extended the red of the middle divider of the frame out on the right side all the way to where the right hand border will begin.

Even More Red!

Depending on how tired I am tomorrow after wrangling nine first graders at the fair, I will try to make some more progress on this piece before putting it away for this rotation week.

Also, one last reminder that tomorrow is the drawing for my Fifty Follower Giveaway! Amazingly, I've gone well over fifty followers since the giveaway was announced, which I think is awesome! If you haven't entered yet, now's your chance, as my daughter will be drawing the winner's name tomorrow after we get home from the fair. Check back tomorrow to see if you win!

Until next time!
~Katy

Breaking New Ground

Because I finished the ornament portion of Christmas Countdown yesterday, I was able to start stitching the calendar today! It reminded me just how much I prefer stitching on fabric to plastic, which the ornaments were on! I have a feeling the updates for this piece aren't going to be as exciting as my other pieces for awhile simply because I think I've decided to stitch all of the outer frame first before working on Santa and his workshop on the top and the numbers of the calendar on the bottom. We'll see if I change my mind once I start getting into the red which dominates the frame!

I was busy watching the Texans on Monday Night Football tonight, so I didn't get as much done as I'd like, but it's a definite start!

Calendar Portion - Started 10/8/12

Welcome to all of my new followers! The count has just exploded of late, and I'm thrilled to have you all here! If you haven't signed up for my giveaway yet, there is still time! Just go here to sign up! Sign-ups close on Friday and I'll have my daughter pick a name out of the hat after we come home from our Girl Scout field trip to the State Fair of Texas, where I plan on trying to see as many cross-stitch entries in the fair as I can!

Until next time!
~Katy

It's Getting Hot In Here!

Welcome to all of my new followers! So glad to have you here! If you haven't signed up for my fifty follower giveaway, go here to sign up for a shot to win!

Here is the latest progress pic of Flames of Desire as of tonight. I was getting a little frustrated just because I did a lot of confetti stitching at various points in the piece and it didn't really look like I had made progress, so I went ahead and started some of the tendril pieces that extend above the moon tonight as well to really make it look like I made progress!

As of 10/4/12

I also have a new addition to my left sidebar - a link to the most updated pictures of my WIP's! I will update it at the end of each rotation week with the most recent picture of my progress so it's easy to see where I am at with each piece!

Tomorrow is another Girl Scout night, so I'm not sure I'll get much stitching done. I'm beat after meeting with all those little girls at my house! We'll see, though! I'd like to finish the tendril on the left and all of the moon portion before this rotation week ends...we'll see how it goes!

Until next time!
~Katy

More Flames, WOCS, Halloween and Fifty Followers!

Hi everyone!

I have to admit, today didn't start so great. I woke up feeling horrible, so I went into work long enough to finish one project that had to be done today and then came home and crashed. After sleeping about five more hours, I was feeling good enough to go to my daughter's first grade show tonight. They were so cute!

I did a little bit of stitching on Flames of Desire tonight after we got home and put the kids to bed:

As of 10/2/12

I also decided on two new starts as part of my October goals! First, I signed up for the WOCS Tea Cup quilt and selected the May Lily of the Valley Teacup from The Vermillion Stitchery for my contribution. May is my birth month, as well as my son's birth month, so I thought it would be a great choice!

May Lily of the Valley Teacup by The Vermillion Stitchery

I'm going to put this in my rotation after Christmas Countdown to give time for my order of thread and fabric to be delivered. Because this isn't due until December, I may vary my rotation schedule a bit depending on how much I get done in a week. I usually work a WOCS piece until it's done, but I may do a week on this, a week in normal rotation, then a week back on this. We'll see!

I also decided that the Halloween piece I will start this month is My Witch's Brew by Nancy Turner from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I won this piece a few weeks back and I think it will be a great first piece for my Halloween collection!

My Witch's Brew by Nancy Turner

I ordered fabric from Picture This Plus today! I saw this and fell in love with it! It's called Crystal Eek! What better fabric could there be for a Halloween piece!

Crystal EEK! From Picture This Plus

I decided that I'm going to do this in 16-count Aida and I can't wait for the fabric and threads to arrive!

Also, I'm so excited to announce I'm up to 50 followers! Yay!! In honor of this milestone, I'll be hosting my first giveaway! The winner will have their choice between a $20 gift certificate to either Heaven and Earth Designs or 1-2-3 Stitch!, winner's choice! The rules are simple. You must be a follower of this blog and must comment on this post to enter. If you post about this giveaway on your blog, you will get three more entries, and if you refer a friend and they list you as their referral, you will get an additional entry each! The giveaway will be open until October 12th, and I'll have my daughter draw the winner on October 13th! Thank you to all of you followers, I really appreciate you coming along for the ride!

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