Italian Vista

Sorry for going quiet for a couple of days! Saturday and Sunday were both very busy days and I just didn't get a chance to post! I didn't get a chance to stitch much either, but I did work on Italian Vista from the Dimensions Gold Collection yesterday:

Here is where I got to yesterday:

I just added some more stitches tot he reflection in the lake. Slowly but surely it's coming along!

Until next time!
~Katy

Because I Need A New Start...

...like I need a hole in my head! I'm totally blaming Linda of Stitchin with my Furbabies for this. I'm joining in the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge!

Every day in April except on Sundays, you're supposed to make a post with the theme being that day's letter - A for April 1st, B for April 2nd, etc. I'm also going to follow Linda's example and pick an Alphabet themed piece to do for this challenge. I figure if I stick with the challenge, I can have a completely finished piece by the end of April! Plus, if I only do one letter a day, I should still be able to stay on top of the rest of my rotation too. 

Linda also turned me onto a new designer I hadn't heard of before - FangirlStitches! There are lots of adorable patterns on this site (yay! More Doctor Who!), and I've got plenty on my wishlist now. The pattern I've decided to do is the Once Upon A Time Themed Alphabet, based on one of my other favorite TV shows:

The pattern has been ordered and received (gotta love PDF patterns!), fabric has been picked out, threads have been pulled (I'm sticking with the DMC suggested threads for this) and whatever threads I didn't have, I've ordered. I'm also going to substitute out the french knots for beads so what beads I need are ordered too. Can't wait to start!

I did do some other stitching yesterday. Italian Vista was up on the agenda.

And here is where I got to yesterday:

I was a little tired of working on the blue in the water, so a few stitches of brown helped break it up a bit.

Until next time!
~Katy

Brrrr!

It snowed! No, it's not feet of snow like up north, but it's enough that my kids were thrilled and spent some time in the backyard playing after school.

Yes, that's a horse in the background between the trees. For all that I tell people that no, not all Texans ride horses and live on ranches and have oil wells in their backyard, there is a small farm property behind us that the horse belongs to. And I live very close to Southfork Ranch of Dallas fame. Anyway, enough of the Texas stereotypes for now! Ha!

All of our weekend activities have been cancelled (though my daughter said she thought playing soccer in the snow would have been fun!), and it's still snowy and icy today with freezing rain covering the metroplex. I don't plan on leaving the house at all, which is great since I have a new start today, and both Story Time Sampler and Walking Through The Stars Zodiac have their next parts coming out this weekend! Yay!

Yesterday, I spent some time working on Italian Vista.

I focused on the water again - the half stitches go quickly and I was very pleased with my progress.

Off to my lovely day full of stitching and staying warm and inside!

Until next time!

~Katy

Italian Vista

Well, my insomnia from Saturday night (more like super early Sunday morning) definitely caught up with me on Sunday with a massive migraine and exhaustion. I slept most of the day yesterday until it was time to get ready for the game. We had a party with my mom's side of the family and we had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the halftime show (I'm a Katy Perry fan), but the commercials disappointed me this year generally, which is really what I watch the Super Bowl for.

I wasn't able to do much stitching until we got home from the party, but I did put some time in on Italian Vista.

The nice thing is that I focused primarily on the water/reflection portion on the bottom half and that was mostly half stitches, which meant there was a lot more progress than there may have been with full crosses.I love the effect when you look at the piece from a distance like this. It really does look like there is a reflection growing in the water! I've already talked about how much I love Italy - this piece totally fits into that overall theme, clearly!

Until next time!
~Katy

A Little Progress

Because of how I do my rotation, Italian Vista was up again today for the second time this month, and I'm happy to say I actually made some progress! I went from this:

to this:

As of 3/23/13

That bottom most row of the blue stitching is actually the bottom boundary of the piece! Lots of half stitches here - when I actually am working on this for a full week's rotation next, I imagine I'll make a lot of progress on the bottom half of this piece!

I also have accumulated the vast majority of my pattern stash and made a pinterest board of the patterns in order to see them better. You can find the link here!

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

Last TUSAL of 2012

No stitching tonight - being far too tired with a sinus headache and an inability to concentrate did not lend itself to stitching tonight, but I did want to share my TUSAL for the month, especially since it's the last TUSAL of the year!

As always, I'll start off with my TUSAL jar from last month. Here is where we were in November:

TUSAL Jar - November 13, 2012

And here is my last TUSAL for the year:

TUSAL Jar - December 13, 2012

And from the top! Here is November:

TUSAL Jar - November 13, 2012

And December:

TUSAL Jar - December 13, 2012

I bet you know where all those pretty oranges and reds on the top are from! In fact, I added ORT's this month from not only Flames of Desire, but also Tribal Penguin, My Witch's Brew, European Bistro, and Italian Vista. So, now the question becomes, what to do with all of these ORT's...six months worth to be exact...and I knew the perfect answer!

My 2012 TUSAL ORT ornament! Isn't it pretty?? I got all those ORTs compacted into one ornament and I think it's just beautiful! I love seeing the colors of the threads, especially those from earlier projects that I haven't worked on because they were completed a long time ago. It's already hanging on my tree and this will definitely be a new tradition every year!

Thank you for all of your kind comments on my Advent Calendar Blog Post - I love those stockings and I'm glad you do too!

Until next time!
~Katy

End of the Rotation Week

I didn't get any more stitching done on Italian Vista yesterday because I was worn out after a wonderful family filled day, so here is the end of the week report!

We started Italian Vista at this point:

Italian Vista - Start of Rotation Week - 12/2/12

And ended the week with Italian Vista looking like this:

Italian Vista - End of Rotation Week - 12/8/12

Definitely some good progress this week! I'm excited to be moving onto the next piece of the rotation though - Flames of Desire! This is where we last left this beautiful piece:

Flames of Desire - Start of Rotation Week

It's my hope that despite starting a new job this week that I can have my first page finish on my first HAED. Wish me luck!

Until next time!
~Katy

Another Late Night

I'm taking advantage of these last couple of evenings before I have to go back to work to stitch until my eyes can't stay open anymore, which means no posting until the morning!

Here's my progress as of last night:

As of 12/7/12

I'm not sure how much I'll get done today. The women on my mom's side of the family, from my grandmother down to my daughter (ten of us in all), are all going out today to celebrate my mom's birthday and to take the little girls on a holiday adventure at the American Girl's Store here in Dallas...my daughter is so excited! You know I love her when I spent three hours the other night washing and combing the tangled mess of hair her doll had so she can look nice and pretty for the outing today, haha!

I did complete one other goal of mine for this week off. The Crazy January Challenge is completely bobbinated, separated and ready to go! I went from this:

Floss Batch #1

Floss Batch #2

Beads!

Kreinik!

To this!

So pretty!

Each floss box holds between one to three sets of thread for a project, and all the beads are in the top left bead box! Yay! I also opened the kits and got them ready to go as well. All I need at this point is the last bits of hand dyed fabric I ordered (which I know are being worked on and will ship shortly!) and I need to copy the patterns from the various magazines for working copies, but that won't take long. I'm just very pleased that I'm pretty much ready to go! So excited!

Until next time!
~Katy

Late Night Stitching...

But it was too late for posting! I got on a roll last night and didn't stop until my eyes started getting dry and I realized it was WAY past my bedtime, haha. Here's the progress from last night!

As of 12/6/12

I'm not sure how much stitching I'll get done today, as it's my last day of vacation and I have Girl Scouts to prepare for tonight, but we'll see!

Until next time!
~Katy

Lounging in the Vista

So for the past couple of days, I've been spending my time shopping, cleaning, decorating, relaxing, getting a massage and pedicure, and just enjoying these days off. The activity yesterday was so much (primarily shopping) that by the time I had time to stitch, it was late, I was tired, so I didn't pick up a needle yesterday. I did, however, pick it up today and spent a little more time lounging in the vista.

As of 12/5/12

Sorry for the blurriness! Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a former coworker and preparing for Girl Scouts, but I also hope to finish the last of the bobbinating for the CJC, as I picked up a few bobbins today to complete the process! Here's hoping!

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

Picture Heavy Post!

A little bit of everything in today's post...first, Italian Vista!

Here's where we were at when we last saw Italian Vista:

Italian Vista - Start of Rotation Week

And here we are today after a bit of work:

As of 12/2/12

I also finally started cleaning out my mom cave. When we moved, I insisted I would get a room all to myself for my things that I can escape to, work on crafts, or at the very least, keep everything organized! Since we moved in back in June, this has been a catch all room for junk, but I started clearing some of it out. I have one corner organized for now...I won't dare show you the rest of the room, but here's what I have at this point!

This is the corner as a whole at this point:

A better shot of the bookshelf. The bottom row of books are filled with beautiful hard leather bound and gold edged classics that I inherited from my grandfather, plus a few other classics. The middle row are my  two favorite series of books that I wanted to keep in hard copy  even after downloading electronic versions. The top row is stash! From the blue binder to the right are all of my materials (at this point) for my Crazy January Challenge. The binders and magazines on the left are other patterns.

Top of the bookshelf with a lamp, one of my penguins, thread stash not being used in any other project right now, and some printed out and divided HAED patterns that need to be filed away:

My stash pot, haha! This pot holds fabrics, patterns, kits, etc., that I'm not currently working on that I can sort through when I'm looking for something.

A better shot of the pot. This is actually a flower pot that my daughter's kindergarten class mod podged last year as part of a school fundraiser entry in a silent auction. I had to have it!

One last thing! Tonight I went to my mom's for dinner, and she has her house nearly completely decorated for Christmas, which I love. Back when my husband and I got married in 2002, we were fresh out of college with basic entry level jobs and no real money for Christmas gifts, so I found an inexpensive plastic canvas kit and made this for my mother for Christmas that year:

Ho, ho, ho!

She has it displayed with her big Santa collection every year and told me again tonight how much she loves this piece. It's usually under glass and propped up on display. Add this to the list of old finishes with no other information, but I love it!

Until next time!
~Katy

October TUSAL and More May Flowers

Can't believe it's already time for another TUSAL update! How the month has flown! But first, I made some more progress on May Lily of the Valley Teacup tonight.

As of 10/15/12

I didn't make as much progress tonight as I wanted, but it's been a very long day. I was happy to get a few stitches in, though!

Now for my TUSAL report! Here is my TUSAL jar as of last month:

TUSAL Jar - September 16, 2012

And here it is today!

TUSAL Jar - October 15, 2012

Definitely some more progress this month, though I think there was more added than what appears to have been added. This got knocked over by one of my kids, and that unsettled a lot of the threads and pushed them down a bit, but still, definite progress! Here are the views from the top:

TUSAL Jar - September 16, 2012

And tonight:

TUSAL Jar - October 15, 2012

What filled my TUSAL jar this month? Lots of things! Besides this week's rotation, Flames of Desire, European Bistro, Italian Vista, Christmas Countdown and even my daughter's Daisy Vest all contributed some threads this month! Can't wait to see what next month's jar looks like!

Until next time!
~Katy

P.S. - Go sign up for the Halloween Blog Hop hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching! It should be a lot of fun!