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

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

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

Crazy January Challenge - Garden of Joy Ornament and January TUSAL

Tonight, I started the final of three ornaments I am stitching for the CJC. This is another one from Turquoise Graphics and Designs that came out of Just CrossStitch this year, and I love how the colors vary from it's 'sibling' ornament:

Lots and lots and LOTS and lots and LOTS AND LOTS of beading to come on this later, but like the others, I'm going to do the crosses first and then go back and bead after. Here is my progress as of tonight:

Not too bad! Today is also the first TUSAL of 2013. I loved the ORT Ornament I made with my TUSAL bits last year, and that was after only really stitching for six months. I can't wait to see what I can do this year, and the year is already off to a good start. I'm using the same jar I did last year to collect my ORT's. It stays seated on the table right next to my stitching spot to collect my ORT's when they're ready:

First TUSAL of 2013!

Since I took a Christmas holiday from stitching very shortly after the last TUSAL of 2012, these threads are almost exclusively from the Crazy January Challenge pieces, with a few threads from stitching Girl Scout badges thrown in as well!

From the top!

I have lots of different pieces with lots of different color schemes this year. It will be interesting to see how this grows this year!

Four more starts left for the CJC! I can't wait!

Until next time!
~Katy

Crazy January Challange - Winter Flowers Ornament

The second of the three ornaments was started tonight. This is going to be a very bead heavy piece, but I'm definitely saving all beading for the end:

And here is my progress as of tonight:

I didn't get as much done tonight as I wanted as I spent about an hour and a half of my stitching time getting all of my daughter's new badges sewn on her Daisy vest before cookie sales start Saturday...that will teach me to be lazy and not add them on as soon as they come in!

Until next time!
~Katy

Crazy January Challenge - Celtic Christmas Ornament #4

This is one of three Christmas ornaments I'm working on as part of the Crazy January Challenge. I've never made an ornament before, but after getting the 2012 Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornament edition, I couldn't resist! This one is Celtic Christmas Ornament #4 by The Sunflower Seed:

Pretty!

Just three colors of thread in this ornament, including my first use of true overdyed floss. I'm using the same fabric as called for in the pattern, but mine is not nearly as yellow as this picture is for some reason. No matter, I'm having fun with the sparkly kreinik thread!

Sparkles!

I have a lot of pieces using a lot of kreinik with this challenge and on the whole, I like working with it and the pretty effects it creates! I have a feeling this should be another relatively quick stitch that I should be able to finish this year and hopefully I'll have it hanging on my tree this coming Christmas!

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