Winter Flowers Ornament - Completed!

Well, I got the last of my beads in the mail yesterday and finished up the beading for Winter Flowers Ornament last night! Yay!

Winter Flowers Ornament by Turquoise Graphics & Designs

Started: 1/9/13

Finished: 4/17/14

Stitched on 32-ct. off white linen

While I was waiting for the beads to arrive, I picked up American Flag Quilt Sampler by Rosewood Manor. I love this piece and have seen it on several blogs and was inspired to pick it up again. When I last worked on it, the piece looked like this:

And after working on it for a few days this week, this is where it stands now:

I'm going to keep working on this piece for the rest of the month and may continue it next month too. We'll see!

Until next time!
~Katy

Ack! Out of Beads!

So I was right in that the beading was going to take more than one session to do, but I didn't think it would be because I was out of beads! The pattern called for one pack of each color beads, which I got, but apparently it wasn't enough for the plum. So, I am done with all beading except for what I'm missing:

So I've placed an order for the missing beads and as soon as they come in, I'll finish up that beading! I'm going to have to look through my WIP's to decide what to work on in the mean time and again after the beading is done. So many choices!

Until next time!
~Katy

Winter Flowers - Stitching Done

Today I finished up the stitching portion of Winter Flowers:

The beading is just left for this piece now. I don't think I'm going to finish it one sitting due to the sheer amount of beads that are left to put on this piece. As a matter of perspective, you see my piece above which is all the stitching. Here's the image from the magazine of the completed piece:

Like I said...lots of beading to go! Wish me luck!

Until next time!
~Katy

Winter Flowers Ornament

Since finishing Garden of Joy earlier this week, I started working on it's sibling, Winter Flowers, also by Turquoise Graphics and Designs. When I last worked on Winter Flowers in March last year, this is where I left it:

And here is where Winter Flowers is after working on it for a few days this week:

There will be even more beads on this piece when I finally get to that point. I can hardly wait!

Until next time!
~Katy

Garden of Joy - Complete!

Well that beading went a whole lot faster than I thought it would! I had never beaded a piece before and I thought it would take me a long time but it really went very quickly. So quickly that I got all of the beads done last night and completed the piece! I love how it turned out!

First, a close up of some of the beads:

And now the completed piece!

Garden of Joy Ornament by Turquoise Graphics & Designs

Started: 1/11/13

Finished: 4/6/14

Stitched on 32-ct off white linen

I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to finish this piece yet. I think I'll wait until I finish the next ornament, Winter Flowers, also by Turquoise Graphics and Designs, and decide what to do with both ornaments at that point. Speaking of, time to get started on that WIP. Let's see if I can finish it this month too! I'll post back this week with my progress!

Until next time!
~Katy

Happy April!

My goodness, this year just seems to be flying by! I can't believe we're a quarter through the year!

With it being the first of the month, the next installment of the Once Upon A Time Sampler has come out and I'm so excited, but first, an update on Garden of Joy:

I am very pleased to say that I met my goal on this ornament for the month after all and got all of the stitching done last night! That means beading is all that is left. I have decided, I think, that this is just too big for me to finish it into an ornament for my tree - it rivals the size of some of my blown glass Santa ornaments in size. I will probably end up finishing this in a frame of some sort instead of an ornament, but we'll see what I feel like doing when I actually am ready to finish it. I'm not exactly known for the finishing of my pieces once I'm done stitching them! Hah!

Garden of Joy has been put away for now, though, so I can work on the next installment of Once Upon A Time. This month, I'm working on Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

I have already decided that I'm making one new additional substitution for the flosses this month. Just like I did silk for the hair of the princess in the February block, I'm going to use one of the brand new silk colors I got from my latest batch of Mo's flosses for Goldilocks' hair. That will be two out of the three girls in the piece with silk for their hair - Snow White has all black hair and I don't have a coordinating silk to go with that!

I can't wait to get started! In fact, I think I'm going to go do that right now!

Until next time!
~Katy

My Weekly Update

Well I can definitely tell it's spring time because the rain has started as have my seasonal allergies/headaches. Fun fun! It's made stitching this week a slow going project, but I have made some more progress!

Progress as of March 28, 2014

Unless I do a lot this weekend, I've pretty much resigned myself to not getting all the stitching done by April 1st, which is fine. Any progress I make will just mean less to do when I pick it up again after I finish the April block on the Once Upon A Time Sampler, which I'm very eager to get back to! I can't wait to see what the new pattern will be and will share it here as soon as I know!

I also wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to my favorite hand dyed floss supplier, Mo of Mo's Sale on Facebook. To say I'm hooked on her floss is an understatement. Her prices are reasonable for both her cotton and her silk floss, her colors are fantastic and unique, her quality is excellent, her customer service is wonderful, and she comes out with new colors nearly every week! She also dyes fabric once a month as well for unique fabric pieces. I just got my latest order from her in the mail (pre-bobbinated because Mo ROCKS like that) and the only thing I'm upset about is that some of these new colors weren't out sooner because I would have incorporated them into my Once Upon A Time Sampler, which is being done almost entirely in Mo's floss. Who knows, maybe I'll include some of these new colors anyway!

Pretty Floss!

Until next time!
~Katy

More Time In The Garden

I've been working on the Garden of Joy ornament off and on this week. It feels like I've had a lot going on as I haven't had a ton of time to work as much on this as I may like, but I am very much enjoying seeing it come to life!

None of the pictures I've taken of this piece really do the colors justice. They are just so beautiful in person! I'm really enjoying working on this ornament. I have a crazy weekend ahead of me potentially, but I'm going to try to get some dedicated time in to work on this and make some more progress. I would personally like to have all of the stitching done on this ornament before the April potion of the Once Upon A Time sampler comes out. That way I can get started on the beading when I finish April. Fingers crossed!

Until next time!

~Katy

Garden of Joy Ornament

So both of the Christmas ornaments I have left in my WIP list are rather bead heavy, but they're absolutely beautiful. Both are designed by Turquoise Graphics & Designs and are from the Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornaments 2012 edition. I ended up playing rock paper scissors and decided to start working on Garden of Joy next.

This is where I left Garden of Joy after I started it for the Crazy January Challenge last year.  I actually never picked it up again after the one day of starting it:

Garden of Joy - Started 1/11/13

Here is the progress I made yesterday:

This is being stitched over two on 32-count cream Belfast. I don't think this one is going to go nearly as quickly as the last ornament. As you can see, it's beautifully ornate and filled with beads, so I imagine it will likely be the project I work on the rest of the month while I wait for April's addition to the Once Upon A Time Sampler.

Until next time!
~Katy

Celtic Christmas Ornament #4 - Completed!

Yay for another WIP marked off the list! I finished stitching up Celtic Christmas Ornament #4 last night but waited to take a picture until this morning to get it in better light.

Celtic Christmas Ornament #4 by The Sunflower Seed
Started: 1/7/13
Finished: 3/11/14
Stitched on 30-count Antique Cotton Linen by R&R Reproductions

I'm going to wait likely until closer to Christmas to actually try to finish this out as an ornament when I can find Christmas related materials more easily in the craft stores. It'll be my first time to complete ornaments, so that'll be interesting when it happens. Hopefully (most likely) I'll have the other two ornaments on my WIP list ready to complete then as well!

I'm not sure which one I'm going to work on next, but I'll be sure to let you know when I do! Wish me luck!

Until next time!
~Katy

Christmas Ornaments

So when I went through my WIP box yesterday to decide what to work on next, I pulled out the three Christmas ornaments from the Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornaments 2012 magazine that I had started as part of the Crazy January Challenge in 2013. All three are small pieces stitch wise, but two of them have beads (my first time to use them) and these will be the first ornaments I have created ever. I'm focused on finishing the stitching and beading now, and at some point, probably closer to Christmas, I'll do the actual finishing.

The first ornament I started working on is  Celtic Christmas Ornament #4 by The Sunflower Seed, which is being done on 30 ct. antique cotton linen from R&R Reproductions. Here is where I left it when I last worked on it last year:

As of March 14, 2013

 And here is where it is as of this morning:

I finished all the silver in the piece and added more of the border. I know it looks a little crooked, but that's just the way the linen is resting in the hoop, the stitches are actually straight. There are only three different colors in this, so once the border is done, I'll add the last color. The beading for this one comes in the finishing, which is partially why I chose to do this one first. It'll be a quick stitch and one more knocked off of my WIP list and onto my finishing list!

It's Spring Break this week so I'll be doing lots of stuff with my kiddos. We'll see how much stitching time I get in!

Until next time!
~Katy

Stitchy Fairies!

Today I feel like I'm surrounded by stitchy fairies! Tonight, I worked on Fall Fairy from my CJC choices this year. I went from this:

To this:

I love the colors on this piece!

I also got visited by the stitchy fairy in the mail and had not one, not two, but THREE packages of wonderful stitchy goodies! I got my fabric of the month from Silkweaver's, my fabric of the month and some sale orders from Under the Sea Fabrics, and wonderful threads from Mo's Sale on Facebook! I'm a pretty happy girl!

In clockwise order starting from the top left, the fabrics are Seaside Melody from Silkweaver's, Lilypad FOTM, Vanilla Mist, Cosmos and Carribean Tides, all from Under the Sea Fabrics. All have been added to my Fabric Stash List!

Until next time!
~Katy

What a Week...

This has been a very long work week...and my severe lack of stitching is a testament to how tired I've been each evening - too tired to pick up a needle! I've only worked on one piece this week, which was the Winter Flowers Ornament that I worked on this past Monday. It started out here:

And ended here:

As of 3/18/13

There are a TON of beads on this piece which I will do at the end, but I think I made some decent progress on this piece, at least! I hope to get more progress in this weekend!

I have finalized a new page to my blog that I wanted to share with you all! My Fabric Stash List contains a list of all of my hand dyed fabric in my stash that is not currently in use with other pieces. It includes the names of the maker with links, the fabric name, the size, type and count of the fabric, and a scanned image of all of my actual fabrics that I can use when I'm looking to see what to add to my stash and what to use for a new piece! Take a look, there are some beauties!

Until next time!
~Katy

Not a Lot of Hermiting or Stitching

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch weekend...and I was far too busy to do much of either! I did however get some stitches in on two more March Madness pieces!

First, I worked on Stitching ABC's on Saturday and went from this:

to this:

As of 3/16/13

And then on Sunday, it was back to European Bistro, which went from this:

to this:

As of 3/17/13

A little progress is better than no progress! I'm going to make a dedicated effort this week to try to get at least a few stitches in each night...we'll see how it goes!

Until next time!
~Katy

Bad, Bad Blogger...

I've been such a bad blogger of late...not due to a lack of things to post about or a desire to post, but more a lack of energy! Of course, I'm saying that at 12:09 AM when I should be sound asleep in bed, but I'm wide awake...so time to get caught up!

I haven't been stitching every day, but I have been continuing with the March Madness theme this month (a full update on that to come on Friday, hopefully!), so I have lots of different pieces I've been working on!

Since my last update, I worked some more on the border for Christmas Countdown and went from this:

to this:

As of 3/9/13

Then I moved on to American Flag Quilt Sampler and went from this:

To this:

As of 3/12/13

Then it was on to Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love:

which grew to this:

As of 3/13/13

And then finally there is Celtic Christmas Ornament #4, which started here:

and ended here:

As of 3/14/13

Not a bad bit of stitching progress if I do say so myself! I've also discovered a new vendor on facebook who is making some really beautiful hand dyed floss for incredibly reasonable prices! I mean, look at all of these beauties!

Floss!

Really, this picture doesn't do these gorgeous threads justice! Do I have pieces for them right now? No, but I love having them for my stash! Head on over to Mo's Sale on facebook (you'll have to join a group) to see these colors and more!

I also late on posting my TUSAL this month, but here we go!

Last month:

This month:

Last month:

This month:

That's a lot of thread! I love seeing all of the colors build up bit by bit!

Whew, now that is a pretty extensive update! That's what I get for not blogging more regularly! Hopefully life will slow down a bit and I won't get this far behind again!

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

A Trip Through Italy

The past couple of days have been filled with trips through Italy!

On Sunday, I spent some time working on Italian Vista and went from this:

To this:


As of 3/3/1.3

And then yesterday, I worked on Tuscan Greeting from the CJC and went from this:

To this:

As of 3/4/13

I'm worried I might have miscounted on the inside portions of this and will need to do some frogging, but I was too tired last night and kept confusing myself, so I put it down and will look to see if I did indeed make a mistake or not the next time it comes up!

Until next time!
~Katy