Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger these days. Ever since I came back from vacation, honestly. I'm sorry about that, I really am! I promise it's not intentional, and I'm going to try to do better!

Since my last update, I've worked on several pieces. First, I worked on Victorian Lady by Joan Elliott.

I was very tired the day I worked on this piece so didn't get a lot done, but progress is progress! Here is where I stopped this time around:

This picture is a bit dark, but I'm doing this on 28 Jazlyn in Strawberry Swirls from Under The Sea Fabrics.

The second piece I've worked on was my Wedding Sampler designed by Carolyn Manning.

I love this piece because it's one of a kind. It's going to come up again next week as part of my August ABC SAL for Stitch Maynia. Here is where I stopped this time around:

I'm almost done with the greens on the second page and then I'll be able to work on filling in the roses. This is being done on 14 Count Aida in Crystal Fresco from Picture This Plus.

The last piece I have to report is my second August ABC SAL piece, which was my Doctor Who Clock by Cloudsfactory.

I was able to put in nine hours of time in it for the SAL and was very pleased with my stopping point.

This is being done on a 32 Opal Lugana jewel from Under The Sea Fabrics using silks from Mo's Sale for everything except the white (B5200) and the skin tone, which is Mo's Flesh cotton floss. There really isn't a ton left to do beyond finishing Doctors Two through Twelve!

That's about it this time around! I am going to try to get better about blogging daily again. Never meant to get out of the routine in the first place!

Until next time!
~Katy

Doctor Who Clock

Just a quick post today, as I have plans to go to the movies with the kids to watch Inside Out! And I'm attempting to do this post on my phone - we will see how it works!

Yesterday I worked on the Doctor Who Clock from Cloudsfactory!

I was able to get more of the Gallifreyan text stitched yesterday. That should be done next time and then I can start on the daleks and words.

I'm stitching this on a 32 Opal Lugana jewel from Under The Sea Fabrics using all silks from Mo's Sale. I love how it looks so far!

Until next time!

~Katy

Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey, TUSAL Time!

I had a lot of fun working on last night's project - my son's Doctor Who Clock from Cloudsfactory!

This piece is just fun, and my son was so excited to see me pull it out which makes it even better! I was able to finish the TARDIS and start on the Gallifreyan symbols behind it yesterday:

I wish the picture could capture the really beautiful sparkle of this 32 count Opal Lugana jewel from Under The Sea Fabrics. Because I'm using 99% silks from Mo's Sale for this project and because of the fabric type I'm using, this piece definitely moves at a slower pace for me because I want to do it right and prevent frogging as much as possible (well, I always want that, but I'm even more focused on it for this piece!), but it really is a lot of fun to stitch!

Today is also the TUSAL reporting day for March! How time has flown! Here are my TUSAL pictures for this month (apologies for the crooked pics!):

I think I'm going to have to squish down my ORT's to make sure I don't run out of room in my jar before the end of the year!

Until next time!
~Katy

Doctor Who Clock

A year or two ago, some old friends of mine introduced me to the joy that was British television. Doctor Who and Sherlock quickly became two of my favorite shows and I eagerly binge watched both of them (gotta love Netflix) in order to get caught up. Sherlock is a show that is one of my personal guilty pleasures, but my four year old son quickly fell in love with Doctor Who and eagerly watches it with me. His Doctor is the Twelfth Doctor and his favorite companion is Clara. My friends and I nicknamed him the Wee Ginger Doctor (since he's little and finally, the Doctor would be a ginger!), and last Christmas, he had a very Whovian holiday filled with a play tent TARDIS, a sonic screwdriver, and even his own little plush Dalek to fight. So when he saw this clock when I was exploring the Cloudsfactory website, he quickly and insistently "asked" that I make this for him:

How could I refuse? I have seen this chart on other blogs too and I fell in love with it, so I bought it, found the perfect fabric in my stash, and was ready to go! Here is where I got to yesterday:

I tried to capture the sparkle in this picture, but it does not do the colors justice! I'm stitching this on a 32-count Opal Lugana blue and white jewel from Under The Sea Fabrics because "It looks like it's in the stars, Mommy!"

Now, in the past, I have taken liberties to substitute out flosses for the patterns I've purchased from Cloudsfactory and Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I wasn't going to do that this time because this was for my son and I wanted it to be recognizable to him - not so many variegated threads, stick to the solid colors, etc. But when I got started yesterday, my son asked if I could use "shiny thread for your stitching, Mommy?" Well, with a request like that...

We went through the silks in my collection from Mo's Sale, and this piece when I'm through with it will have the largest number of silks in it that I've used to date! We couldn't find good substitutes for all of the colors - those we didn't will just use the recommended DMC. Despite that, this piece will eventually have more silks in it than any other piece I have worked on to date. We pulled out 23 different silks to use before this piece is said and done: Almanzo, Beetee, Claudius, Coal, Cornucopia, Daisy Mason, Elphaba, Gale, Galinda, Haymitch, Hunger Games, Katniss, Kyle, LuAnn, Mona, Navy, Noah, Sea Breeze, Seneca, Tom Branson, Tribute, Tulip and Waterlily. This will definitely be a "shiny thread" piece!

It's an icy day here in North Texas. School was cancelled and Hubby stayed home to work from home today - we may not get much to fall from the sky compared to our friends up north, but what we do get is usually ice, not snow, and really dangerous as a result. I've got a few things to do around the house (around them, heh), but then I think I will settle down for some good stitching time. What better thing to do on a yucky day like today?

Until next time!
~Katy

Sweet Pea Fairy and Adding to the WIP List

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working one over one skin on my Sweet Pea Fairy:

She looks a little creepy right now with how the skin looks right now, but one over one is going to be worth it! Yes, it quadruples the number of stitches for the skin, but I think the effect looks so much nicer - the skin looks smooth and like skin rather than like a cross stitch. Now, this piece has a TON of skin in it, and I may go blind by the end of it, but I think it's going to look awesome when it's done!

Remember how at the beginning of the year I made my list of WIP's and added four new starts to it but said that was it for the year? I lied. I'm adding three more starts from Cloudsfactoryto the list that I absolutely could not resist after seeing them on several blogs and on FB:

1. The Doctor Who Clock - my four year old son is a huge Doctor Who fan like I am (12 is his favorite Doctor and he loves Clara the most of all the Companions). We jokingly call him the wee ginger Doctor, and he even has a TARDIS (tent) and (play) sonic screwdriver and a (stuffed) red Dalek he likes to defeat. He saw this as I was looking at the Cloudsfactory website and started begging for it. Considering how many pieces I have going on that my daughter asked for, I couldn't resist (pus, I love the design):

2. Magical Creatures Calendar - I believe this was the annual SAL from Cloudsfactory last year. I've talked before about my love of fairies and all things fantasy, and I think this will go well with the Once Upon a Time Sampler and the Story Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery when it's all said and done:

3. Walking Through the Stars Zodiac Sampler - This is this year's annual SAL from Cloudsfactory. Like the Story Time Sampler, a new section of this comes out once a month for the whole year. I'm a couple of months behind this one and I'm going to pause my standard rotation to get caught up in time for March's release, then I will be doing what I do with the Story Time Sampler and doing this piece as well each month when the new pattern comes out, no matter where I am in the rotation.

This will put my WIP count up to 25, and I think that's a good number to stop at. Doctor Who and Magical Creatures will just go into my normal alphabetical rotation, so they aren't going to come up quite yet. I do plan on using the recommended flosses for Doctor Who for my son's sake, but I'm going to be making substitutions using Mo's Floss for both Magical Creatures and the Zodiac Sampler. Time to go raid my floss and fabric stash!

Until next time!
~Katy