Flames of Desire

Happy Independence Day, everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful holiday weekend!

It has been a very long time since Flames of Desire came up in the rotation, between the A to Z challenge, all of my Stitch Maynia starts, and it's over all position in the alphabet! But it was definitely nice to get back to it yesterday.

If you may recall, I restarted this piece this year and changed the fabric to 32 Belfast in Mayan Apocalypse by Under The Sea Fabrics, switched from two over one full cross to one over one tent stitch, and started in the middle this time rather than at the wingtip. Here is where I stopped yesterday:

I know it's a powerful fabric and I know it's hard to envision now, but trust me when I say that red won't get lost in the fabric when it's all said and done. It's going to be a gorgeous firey background and I can't wait to have it finished, even if that day is a LONG way off!

Until next time!
~Katy

Flames of Desire and a Sneak Peek

Last night I got to work on Flames of Desire once more.

And here is where I got to last night:

The more I work on this piece, the happier I am that I restarted it. I felt like I was able to make a lot of progress tonight using the tent stitch rather than full crosses. To make my life easier on this page, I took a color that was used quite a bit in the page and just focused on it tonight. I've found that the confetti in the HAED pieces is much easier to deal with when you have big chunks of color to help measure around it. Everything that I've stitched thus far seems to fit together much more smoothly than it did the first time around. Most importantly, I'm still utterly in love with the fabric!

Today, we also got a sneak peek at March's installment of the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Story Time Sampler:

The general consensus is that March's block will be Sherlock Holmes! I love the BBC version of the show (and hello, Benedict Cumberbatch is just awesome, both as an actor and just to look at, hehe), and I have a beautiful volume of Sherlock Holmes stories here at home. I can't wait to stitch up this block!

Until next time!
~Katy

A New Start - Sort Of

So I have been working on my very first HAED, Flames of Desire by Lee Ann Seed, since 2012.

She was the first HAED I ever purchased because I fell in love with the beautiful firey fairy and I really wanted to stitch her. I actually had completed a page on her and was working on the second page, which is an accomplishment for HAED! So I had been plugging away on it here and there for awhile, but it's been several months since I picked her up. Yesterday it came up in my rotation and I was excited to pull it out at first. But when I started looking at it, I really was not happy.

 

I'm not entirely sure what it was. It could be that the 25 count Dublin Linen was really uneven. It could be that I was foolish enough to stitch two over one instead of one over one. It could have been that I was trying to do full crosses on such small fabric rather than tent stitching it. It could be that it was completely uneven when you laid it flat, with some parts buckling, other parts sinking. It could have been that though I love the color scheme with the fabric I chose to use for it, I no longer liked the specific fabric I had chosen to use. It was likely a combination of all of the above.

Now, I still absolutely adore this piece. I didn't want to stop working on it all together, but I did not want to continue with what I had already done. So what did I do? I started over, of course.

I changed the fabric to a 32-count Belfast linen (yes, still linen, and yes, smaller count) called Mayan Apocalypse from Under The Sea Fabrics. This linen seems to be woven more evenly and I have been DYING to find a piece that I could put on this gorgeous fabric and I think this will be perfect. I started in the middle of the piece this time rather than on page one. I'm doing tent stitch one over one instead of full crosses and two over one. Basically, I changed everything I was doing about this piece and already I am so, so happy that I did. Sure, it's disappointing to have to start entirely over on a piece, but I think I will be much happier with the result when all is said and done.

Today is a day I'm moving out of my standard rotation again because today, the February installment of the Story Time Sampler comes out! Yay! We've already been given a sneak peek of what is coming and all guesses point to The Secret Garden being the next installment!

I might have to raid my silks to see if there is another silk I can use for her hair so that I don't necessarily have two Golden Sun blondes next to each other, but we'll see what I can find! Can't wait to get started on it!

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

I Hate Being Sick

Thursday night, I didn't feel that great...Friday, the weather front completely settled over my house and made me miserable enough to go to the urgent care clinic after Girl Scouts, and yesterday I was resting off and on most of the day. It is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and so far, it's been primarily hermiting and not a lot of stitching. The only thing I really felt up to when I was awake was a few stitches here and there...I actually made more progress than I thought, but here is the final report on Flames of Desire for this rotation week.

I started here:

Flames of Desire - Start of Rotation Week - 12/9/12

And ended here:

Flames of Desire - End of Rotation Week - 12/15/12

I'm definitely into the second page now, and there is a lot more to work on in this second page, so I'm going to take the rest of the page by columns. I'm kind of sad to put it away because I don't think it got the love it deserved this week since I was sick, but it will come back again soon enough.

This week is going to be filled with the hustle and bustle of finalizing things for Christmas...I plan on working on Christmas cards today (I usually have them out WELL before this, but oh well, I've been sick), ordering the last gifts I need to get, and start wrapping what I have. We have a big family party scheduled for a week from today, so I want to make sure I have everything ready to go!

It is appropriate, then, that the piece I'm working on this week is Christmas Countdown! And luckily, right now, I'm really working on mindless border stitching. I think that's actually a good thing this week - between my already packed meeting schedule at work and getting ready for Christmas, I think mindless stitching is just the kind of stitching I'll need! Here is where Christmas Countdown stands as of this morning:

Christmas Countdown - Start of Rotation Week

Ornaments are done, so it's just the border I'll be working on this week. Maybe if I'm luckily I'll finish the border! We'll see! Mindless stitching can also be fast stitching!

Until next time!
~Katy

On To Page Two!

So I started working on page two tonight...I didn't get too far as I was completely exhausted after a nearly 12 hour work day today, but it's progress!

Start of Page Two!

Tomorrow is the last TUSAL for the year as well as my day in the Advent Calendar Blog Hop! I have a post all ready to go to be posted in the morning for the calendar and will come back tomorrow evening with the TUSAL update for the year, including my TUSAL ornament for 2012!

Until next time!
~Katy

Page Finish!

My first ever HAED page finish! Granted, I have 24 or so pages left in this piece, but I'm rather pleased just the same!

Page One Finished!

I have decided to work in numerical order, so page two to the right of this page will be next up - lots of sparkly moon in this page, but we'll also eventually see the head of the piece begin to form as well!

Until next time!
~Katy

Long Day...

Long and a bit overwhelming but good! I've definitely realized today I'm no longer a manager, I am a director, and I get all the perks and drawbacks that go with that title, haha! It was nice to unwind tonight with some stitching, though I'm exhausted and am about to crash!

Here is my progress for tonight:

As of 12/10/12

I also received a wonderful parcel from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie with pieces of fabric for my Crazy January Challenge!

Beautiful!

The top two (Fairy Dance and Isolde) and the bottom right (Lady of the Lake) are going to be used in the Crazy January Challenge. I had planned on using the bottom left one (Mulled Cider) too, and though I think it's absolutely gorgeous, it's going to be a bit too dark for the piece that I wanted it for after looking at the threads against the fabric, so I'm ordering another fabric and will put that beautiful piece to the side for another day! Nothing wrong with starting a hand dyed fabric collection - I've joined a couple Fabric of the Month clubs for next year, so I know this won't be the last fabric to add to the collection!

Off to bed for me!

Until next time!
~Katy

I Love the Flames

Truly, I think in my rotation at this point, this is my favorite piece. Yes, I nearly go blind with the 25 count linen fabric whose color blends in with some of the threads and whose stitches are done over one, but I just absolutely love this piece. Here is my progress as of today:

As of 12/9/12

I don't think it will be a problem to finish up the page this week. The main areas still left to stitch in the flame wings are primarily made up of only a few colors. Hopefully I'll be able to go through them quickly!

Off to bed for me - I feel like it's the night before the first day of school all over again with my new job starting tomorrow! I'm excited and nervous all at once!

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

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!

Dousing the Flames

So another rotation week has come to a close and I have to say, I am so happy with my progress this week! At the beginning of the week, Flames of Desire looked like this:

Flames of Desire - Start of Rotation Week

After a glorious day inside, away from the cold and enjoying family time and quality stitching time, I was able to close the week out with Flames of Desire looking like this!

Flames of Desire End of Rotation Week 10/6/12

I was able to meet my goals of finishing the moon and the portions of the tendrils on this page, so I moved on to filling in more of the flame feathers. One or two more days on this, and I should finish out the first page of my first HAED, which will mean I will start gearing up to start my next HAED!

Although I did receive my fabric today for my teacup design, I'm going to stick to my rotation this week and work on Christmas Countdown starting tomorrow. If I can finish out the ornaments tomorrow, I'll be thrilled. May Lily of the Valley Teacup will be started next week!

Until next time!
~Katy

Brrrrrr...

Cooler weather is definitely here in Texas! A cold front came through last night and I was actually chilly when I got up this morning! I'm not a huge fan of the cold, I'm a Texas girl born and raised so I'm used to heat, but it definitely means fall is here when the temperature falls!

Luckily, I'll be able to warm up more working on Flames of Desire for one more day! I worked on it a bit last night after Girl Scouts but was too tired to post. Here's the progress I made last night:

As of 10/5/12

Today is the last day of Flames for this rotation. I told my husband that I don't want to go anywhere today - after weeks of constantly going and not relaxing, I want a day at home where I don't have to worry about going anywhere or doing anything. I plan on using that to the fullest to work more on Flames today and hopefully try to get the moon and the tendrils on this page done before I put it away for now.

Oh, I did get some more stitchy goodness in the mail yesterday!

Goodies!

The goodies included some fabric I was going to use for a project but am not now so it's just going to my statsh, the rest of the threads for my teacup and Halloween pieces and an awesome pattern called the American Flag Quilt Sampler by Rosewood Manor. I saw Sarah from Sarah in Stitches working on this pattern and just loved it, so I had to get it too! It will probably be my 4th of July start next year if I don't get started on it sooner!

I did spend some time yesterday putting my new thread into bobbins...it's the part of this hobby that I like the least, but it's one of those necessary evils. I haven't even touched the thread for my next two HAED's yet...but since I'm just waiting for the fabric to arrive to work on these two pieces, I wanted to go ahead and be prepared!

Pretty Threads!

So now all of my pretty threads for Flames of Desire, May Lily of the Valley Teacup and My Witches' Brew are wound up on bobbins, organized and ready for use! Yay!

Off to spend this cool, grey day relaxing with my needle and thread! See you tonight with the last update for Flames of Desire!

Until then!
~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

Sparkly Thread and Stitchy Goodies!

So I have entered the first part of the Kreinik thread on Flames of Desire tonight. The sparkly part of the moon is so pretty, even if the picture doesn't do it justice:

Pretty Sparkly Thread!

I haven't had as many problems working with it at this point as I hear about frequently, crossing my fingers it stays that way!

I had some great goodies in my mail when I got home tonight from Pickle Barrel Designs!

Some Great Patterns from Pickle Barrel Designs

Thank you so much for these awesome patterns! I love them!

I also won my first traveling pattern from Jan over at Stitching Cats! The pattern is The Tribal Penguin by White Willow Stitching. Penguins are a special thing for me and my husband, and have been since we started dating. I have several penguins I have collected over the years in Christmas ornaments, decorative figurines, even a painting from Florence when we visited in college. I can't wait until I get it! It will definitely go into my rotation right away so that I can stitch it and send the pattern on it's way to another lucky person!

I've ordered my thread and fabric for my next two starts, so hopefully I'll have more goodies in the mail soon! All in all a good stitchy day!

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

Flames of Desire, September Accomplishments and October Goals

Hi everyone! It's hard to believe it's the first of October! Where has 2012 gone??

Before getting into my accomplishments for September and my goals for October, I want to post my update for Flames of Desire as of tonight:

As of 10/1/12

Doesn't look like much, but it's slowly progressing!

Now, onto my accomplishments and goals...as a reminder, here were my goals for September:

September Goals
- Christmas Countdown - Finish all ornaments and move to the fabric piece (should be doable, as it's going to be my focus in my next rotation) - Not quite, but very close! This piece is up in my rotation again after this week and this goal will definitely be accomplished then. This is as far as I got this month:

Christmas Countdown - Ornaments as of 9/8/12

- Flames of Desire - Finish Page 1 - Not even close! I still have a ways to go on this first page and likely won't be done with it this rotation either!

- Purchase at least one chart during HAED Appreciation Week - Done! You can see what I purchased here and here!

- Decide on and kit up my next project to be started after I finish Page 1 of Flames of Desire - Done, but you're going to have to wait until I'm ready to start it to find out which one I picked!

- Work on European Bistro - Done! You can see the progress here!

- Work on Italian Vista - Done! You can see the progress here!

All in all, not a bad month goal wise! This month I'm going to keep my goals simple!

October Goals

- Continue working through my rotation
- Choose and complete one WOCS project
- Start a new Halloween themed piece no later than 10/31! - This is going to be a start of a tradition for me for the major holidays. I want to be able to display cross stitch pieces that correspond with the holidays and seasons. My way of doing this is starting a new holiday themed piece each time a holiday comes up. Since Halloween is this month, I'll start working on a Halloween piece this month so I can have it ready to display next year. Thanksgiving will be started in November, and though I'm working on one for Christmas already, another one will be started for Christmas...we'll just see what I pick out!

I also noticed that I'm up to 49 followers! Yay! When I get up to 50, I'll have a giveaway, so spread the word!

Until next time!
~Katy

Where There Is Desire, There's Going To Be A Flame...

So the newest Pink song has been on the radio non stop and it's been in my head, but the chorus is just perfect for my beautiful Flames of Desire piece, so it had to be the title! I have to admit, I was so excited to get back to this piece and am really looking forward to making some good progress on it this week!

So when we last saw Flames of Desire, this was the progress I made:

Flames of Desire Start of Rotation Week - Last Touched 9/1/12

I got some definite progress in today and this is where I am as of tonight:

As of 9/30/12

Kinda ironic that the last time I touched this piece was the first day of this month, and now I've picked it up again on the last day! The bottom edge of this page and the right edge of this page have been reached with the titches I've made tonight, though I still haven't reached the top edge yet. We'll see how far I can go this week! Wish me luck!

Oh, on a side note, the reunion this weekend was a blast, I saw so many old friends from college and just had a really great time. It's too bad we don't do this every year! In fact, several of our friends that we have discovered are in the area agreed and we're going to try to get together more often. We'll see how that pans out, but regardless, it really was a wonderful weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy

End of Another Rotation Week

Well, today was my last day of working on Flames of Desire for this rotation. I'm really proud of the progress I made this week, especially since it was a new start!

As of 9/1/12

I didn't get as much done today as I had originally hoped namely because I spent the day with my husband driving all over the place to buy this:

My New Ride! A 2012 Mazda5 Grand Touring

My old 2004 Hyundai Sonata had 170K+ miles on it, a crumpled up front bumper from where I lost a battle with a wooden post when we were moving, and on Friday as I was driving home, suddenly it decided to shift into third gear on its own and got stuck there. It's just not a safe car to drive anymore and we've pretty much driven it to the ground, so now I have a nice, pretty car with more room for our family and I'm so excited! I think this was a good excuse to not be stitching today, though I do plan on driving this beauty to Joann's tomorrow to take advantage of the DMC sale if there is any left!

Tomorrow, I'm going to finally pick up my neglected Christmas Countdown once more...which was a hard decision to make because I got this treat in my mail today:

Temptation!

The piece is called Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love and the original painting that is the inspiration for this piece is by Thomas Kinkade. The piece itself is part of the Disney Dreams Collection by Candamar Designs, and there are some truly lovely pieces in there for the Disney fan. My daughter, the princess fanatic, picked this out as the piece she wants me to work on for her and I was sorely tempted to push Christmas Countdown off for another week and start this one tomorrow, but I'm going to be good and wait and put this in the rotation to start on after Christmas Countdown.

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday weekend!
~Katy

August Update and September Goals

TGIF...or is it Saturday Already? I'm dealing with a bout of insomnia tonight, so though this is my Friday update, it's already well into Saturday...I think my kids are going to make me pay for this in the morning!

First, I wanted to start with my progress on Flames of Desire. One more day on this piece and then it will go back into the rotation! I'm really enjoying this one, though, and it's really made me a huge fan of HAED!

As of 8/31/12

Depending on how long my husband and I are out unexpectedly car shopping tomorrow (my car started having major issues tonight), I hope to make some more good progress on the piece until I put it back in the rotation! Regardless, this has been a joy to work on this week and I'm already starting to think of what HAED I want to start next and have literally well over 300 charts in my wishlist!

It's also time once again to look at how I did on my goals for August and set goals for September!


August Goals
- Complete birdhouse project for WOCS that I've signed up for - Done! I just need to buy the fabric for it and ship it this weekend!

Birdhouse Neighborhood

- Pull out Christmas Countdown and complete at least half of the remaining ornaments - Not Done - I pulled it out, but did not stitch on it this month. It's next on my rotation, though!

- Start European Bistro - Done!

European Bistro as of August 6, 2012

- Make more progress with Italian Vista - Done!

Italian Vista As Of July 31, 2012

Italian Vista As Of 8/25/12

All in all, a rather successful month goal wise! So now it's time to set the goals for September!

September Goals
- Christmas Countdown - Finish all ornaments and move to the fabric piece (should be doable, as it's going to be my focus in my next rotation)
- Flames of Desire - Finish Page 1
- Purchase at least one chart during HAED Appreciation Week
- Decide on and kit up my next project to be started after I finish Page 1 of Flames of Desire
- Work on European Bistro
- Work on Italian Vista

Whew, that's a lot, but only a few of those goals are specific! We'll see what I do over the next month! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a safe holiday!

Until next time!
~Katy