Whine and WIPs Week One and Let's Do Wine

For the last week, I've been working on my first project for the Whine and WIPs SAL in Stitch Maynia, Angel of Compassion from HAED.

I've been working one hour a day on the piece each day before I do any other stitching. This is where I started back on July 1st:

And here is where I ended up seven hours of work later:

Yes, it was seven hours entirely of Kreinik for this piece, but I'm really happy with the progress I made on it! I don't feel nearly as intimidated by this piece as I did when I started it for Whine and WIPs, even if I'm not done with the first page yet. There's a lot more there than there was before! I will be starting another Whine and WIPs piece today and will share what a week of working on it will bring next week!

I also worked on Let's Do Wine by Ursula Michael yesterday:

This piece goes very quickly and makes me think I will enjoy a blackwork piece if and when I delve into that. Here is where I stopped yesterday:

I'm doing this on 32 Lugana in Sorbet from Picture This Plus using silks from Mo's Sale. I really enjoyed working on this piece and am looking forward to it coming back up on the rotation!

Until next time!
~Katy

Angel of Compassion

Just a quick post today! I worked on the very Kreinik filled (over 40K stitches of it in the piece!) Angel of Compassion by Selina Fenech for Heaven and Earth Designs.

I love this piece, I think it's beautiful, but I could not get into it yesterday. I think the next time it comes up in the rotation, I'll need to do something other than the Krienik. But here is where I stopped yesterday:

Any progress is progress, right?

Until next time!
~Katy

So Much Kreinik!

Angel of Compassion from HAED was up in the rotation yesterday:

I put in several hundred stitches of Kreinik in this piece this time around. SO MUCH KREINIK! But it's going to look gorgeous when it's all said and done!

I've decided I'm going to do all the Kreinik on this page first before going back and working on other colors. I think it will be easier to stitch in the non-Krienik parts when it is already essentially outlined by the shiny sparkly thread.

And remember...this is just page one...out of a twenty page chart! I have a loooooooong way to go and lots more Kreinik to stitch!

Until next time!
~Katy

Floss Filled Fun (And A Little Stitching)!

This is going to be a very floss filled post, but like any avid stitcher, I'm happy to be showing off more stash!

I threw my back out yesterday bending over to pick something up off of the floor, which was less than pleasant. I'm moving better today, but I'm still really slow. Stash mail helped cheer me up, though!

First, I am an avid fan of Mo's Sale hand dyed flosses and silks. I have used several of them in various pieces, and I have an almost complete collection of all of her offerings. I'm playing catch up from a few months when I wasn't on her auto-order list, but I'm getting there! Yesterday, I got my latest stash of what we fans call "Mo Mail"!

Here are the stunning silks (they're even more gorgeous in person):

 

 Mo even had some extra silks available in the Golden Sun color I'm using for my Zodiac SAL, so now I'm not worried I'm going to run out this year. Yay!

And here are the amazing flosses (also more gorgeous in person):

If you are looking for a new, unique source of hand dyed floss and silk, I totally recommend Mo. She is an absolute doll, her products are of beautiful quality and her prices can't be beat!

This wasn't the only mail I got yesterday. I also got the missing floss for The Little Mermaid! Yay!

Today also happens to be the February TUSAL check-in day. Here are my pictures for the month!

You can definitely see the layers growing of the different colors from the different pieces. I've "squashed" the ORTs down for this month and am ready to add more!

Oh yeah! I did actually do some stitching yesterday. It wasn't as much as I would have liked because I was in so much pain yesterday, but I did put some time in on Angel of Compassion:

Here is where I was able to get to yesterday before the pain was just too much:

I completely finished the second column (so much kreinik!) and that top row now goes all the way across to the edge of the first page. I also put in a few stitches of the confetti on this page in the third column. I'm playing around with trying to do more cross country stitching in this rather than column by column. We'll see how it goes the next time I pick this one up.

Here's hoping for less pain and more stitching success today!

Until next time!
~Katy

Lots and Lots of Kreinik

I mean, really, LOTS AND LOTS of Kreinik in this piece! Angel of Compassion got some love last night. It doesn't look like much at this point - a blob of pinks and purples and oh, did I mention, lots of kreinik?

Like I said about HAED's, any progress is progress, especially on the background, and I'm happy with the progress I made. Even if it doesn't look like much yet! And I will say with as much kreinik as is in this piece, it's going to be beautiful when it's all done! Someday....

Until next time!
~Katy

TGIF!

Thank goodness it's Friday! It's been a very long week and I am looking forward to the weekend! I have to say that this March Madness has actually been a blessing for me. My time to stitch has been sporadic, at best, and I don't feel bad about wasting time during a rotation week - I just am working on different pieces each day as I can!

I have two updates from this week to show, and both of the pieces are from Heaven and Earth Designs. The first is Flames of Desire by Lee Ann Seed!

Here she was before:

And here she is after a bit of stitching on Tuesday night!

As of 3/5/13

Then Thursday night found me working on Angel of Compassion by Selina Fenech, one of my CJC pieces!

Here she was before:

And after!

As of 3/7/13

Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of Kreinik #4 braid on these two pieces, that's for sure!

I'm hoping to spend some good quality time stitching this weekend - can't wait to show you what I get done!

Until next time!
~Katy

Crazy January Challenge - Angel of Compassion

Welcome to another day of the CJC! I have to admit, I'm loving this starting a new piece every day thing...I'm already planning on doing the ultimate challenge next year - 31 starts in 31 days. It's official, I've become a addict to starting new projects! Ha!

This is one of the first HAED pieces I ever purchased, and I absolutely love it. It's Angel of Compassion by Selina Fenech. I have the other three in the series as well, but this is my favorite:

Isn't she pretty?

 And here is my progress after today:

Sparkly!

I almost completed the entire column - the line on the bottom is where the first column ends. The background of this piece has A LOT of Kreinik #4 braid, but really, it looks so pretty, even this early into the piece!

I'm very excited about tomorrow's piece as it's another one I've wanted to start for awhile, though it will likely need to contest a bit with some patches I need to sew onto my daughter's Daisy Scout vest...the next semester starts up again this coming Friday, and cookie season starts too, so we need all of her patches on the vest! Mommy's sewing to the rescue!

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