Full Moon - Twelfth Month

Okay, let's get this last entry before the end of the world. The last couple of weeks have been consumed by Christmas crafting - I'll show pictures later.

Finished
Nothing new is done.

In Progress
1. Lily of the Valley
This one is so close, but I ran out of thread I needed for the border.
Last Month

This Month

2. Fairy Moon
No more blob - it's starting to look like something.
Last Month

This Month

No Progress
1. My Way
2. Happy Go Lucky
3. M is For Mother

Just Started
1. Seasonal Rays
Yep, I was bad, but I thought I would be done Lily of the Valley by now.

New Starts
1. Lost in the Garden - no change
2. Victorian Blooms - no change
3. Stars of the New Millennium

Oh, Look Shiny!
Nothing in this category this month, but I have plans for new January starts.

Until the next update, Happy Stitching!

Wordless Wednesday - On Thursday

Easy - Looking Good

Wordless Wednesday - Watching Movies

Stinker - Mexico 2010

What - this isn't the way you watch movies?

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Fall Day

Curly - October 2012

Stinker and Auntie At Home Depot

A few days before my brother and SIL came for Thanksgiving (a week late, but that's another story) mom found out about a kids activity at Home Depot to build a fire truck. She signed Stinker up and it fell to me to take him.

When we got to Home Depot there were tables set up with little kits to build a fire truck. We also found out that a real fire truck was coming and would be parked out front for us to check out after we were done the build. So Stinker and I got down to work.

Look how official we are with our orange apron

Time to get down to business - it's important to watch what you are doing when working with a hammer. My contribution was mostly to get the next block placed where it should go.

I'm not a big fan of using my camera for videos, but he was doing such a great job with the hammer, I just had to get the action too (note him playing the director and the actor).

The finished job - note at some point I wrote his name on his apron - he now looks official.

Now it was time to check out the fire truck parked outside.

He doesn't look small very often anymore, but he does here.

The fire truck even came with live firemen to talk to.

Auntie goes for the "artistic shot"

 Since I'm up here, I might as well check out the view from this side.

 Afterwards we picked up fruit smoothies at Tim's and we didn't forget about the littles - they got fire hats and smoothies too.

Full Moon - Eleventh Month

So let's chart the progress for the past month. Well more like three months. I could be saying that to make me feel better about the amount of progress this month, or lack thereof.

Finished
I took a stitching workshop one weekend this month that my stitching guild holds once a year. There were two different projects, a canvas piece and a Hardanger/blackwork piece. Right now I don't consider the Hardanger/blackwork piece a WIP since I don't have any immediate plans to work on it. However the canvas piece isn't WIP either, since it is done.

I will finish it as a scissor case (eventually). But for now it's done. It is designed by Carol Storie (who was our instructor for this workshop) and you can find here webpage here.

In Progress
1. Lily of the Valley
This one is coming along nicely, just the fill (started tonight) and outer border to complete.
Last Month:

This Month:

2. Happy Go Lucky
No real change, just a few more French Knots on the poodle. I didn't even take a new photo this month.

3. My Way
Filled in some more border. This piece has also been re stretched since something in the last month the frame came loose.
Last Month:

This Month

4. Fairy Moon
The only change is it went from being a one colour blog to a two colour blob.
Last Month

This Month

5. M is for Mother

Another one that didn't see any stitching this last month (and no new picture). The only change is that I had a friend serge the edges so that it no longer frayed.

New Starts
1. Lost in the Garden - no change
2. Victorian Blooms - no change

3. Stars of the New Millennium - I ordered another overdyed to see if I liked it for this project. I'm hoping to have it this week so I can take it with me on holidays next week.

Oh, Look Shiny!
Nothing this month, but I plan to do some shopping while on holidays next week.

I've mentioned my holidays. I'm going to spend the week with my cross stitch buddy and we plan to watch TV and stitch all week. Maybe the progress will be epic in next month's update.

Until then, happy stitching.

Full Moon - Tenth Month

I've got an old monitor hooked up to my computer so quickly before I finish setting up my new computer and de-commissioning this one I thought I would get my pictures uploaded and this update posted.

Finished

Nothing again this month. I mostly started things this month. When you consider everything that has been completed this year, it makes sense that at some point I would have to start things so that I would have things to stitch.

In Progress
1. Lily of the Valley
I continue to make progress with this one. The part I like about this is if I get stuck during the week working on it (mistake made, can't figure something out) I just put it aside knowing that I will take it to Thursday stitching and it will get jump started again. The boxes are also great for gratification while stitching these - a few hours and you have completed something.

Last month:

This month:

 Close up of the latest completed square (well, almost, this square gets beads on the centre of the pink stitches).

2. Happy Go Lucky

Once again slow progress as this is my take to meeting piece.

 Close up of latest square completed (I did this when I was sick of doing French Knots).

 Close up of Poodle still in progress.

3. My Way
Well, now my options on this piece are really easy and somewhat tedious or need to think a lot. I have to either complete the border (tedious) or the 2 squares I'm designing. You can see that I've made progress on both of these, but it will continue to be slow as they are both time consuming.

 Close up of completed square (maybe my favourite square on this piece -  I like the density).

 Close up of square that I'm designing. Don't get too attached to the blue bit in the centre, it's going to get ripped out.

 Closer up of the stitch I chose for the squares on this piece. Doing this made me happy - I've loved the stitch since I saw it somewhere on the Internet and it worked perfectly in the space I wanted it to go.

Just Started
1. Fairy Moon
I started this on my retreat last weekend. It's at the typical blob of stitching in the middle of the fabric stage right now.

 Close up

2. M is for Mother

I started this at a stitch in hosted in the common room of my condo for all the representatives from the western region of the national stitching guild I belong too. More progress was made at the stitching retreat. This one avoids the blob aspect by having small motifs that look like something after a couple hours of stitching.

 To give a sense of scale:

New Starts
1. Lost in the Garden - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
2. Victorian Blooms - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
3. Stars of the New Millennium - have the canvas. I have also made my overdyed thread selection. Now I need to pick all the colours/threads for this. I need to find a few hours where my head is in the right spot. This SAL (stitch-a-long) has started this month, so I will be a bit late, but I won't be the only one.

Oh, Look - Shiny!
A couple things may fall in this category. First of all is the project for my guild. It's a small canvas piece that should be fun and quick to do. The second is a pattern I've fallen in love with and hope to procure in the near future - Starburst Flag of Canada (you will have to scroll down - it's the 3rd one).

That's all for this month folks. Now I'm off to install more RAM in my new computer and get it set up.

Happy Stitching! 

Full Moon

As I said in my last post I was at a stitching retreat and I got this great picture of the full moon. It's not my WIPocalypse update, but it is a full moon post.
(sorry the picture is sideways, apparently I'm having technical difficulties with posting from my phone)

WIPocalypse Apologies

Normally I would be posting my monthly update, but my monitor on my computer is dead, so I don't have access to my normal computer. I have taken pictures, but need my computer to download them. I was really looking forward to this month's update because I just came back from a weekend stitching retreat and started some new things. So stay tune. Once I get a new computer and get it up and running, there will be pictures and a real update.

I'm still liking how well this WIPocalypse process has been for me. I've completed most of the WIP's I had at the beginning of the year and now I'm having fun starting new projects. Stay tune for more entries this month. Sorry for no pictures - I know I'm breaking the cardinal rule of blogging that requires having a pictures for every blog entry.

Full Moon - Ninth Moon (Blue Moon)

Wow - this has been the year of special moons - there was a Super Moon in May and now a Blue Moon. This is also the second time this blog has acknowledged a blue moon. The last time was in January 2010.

As always - enough blather onto the stitching update.

Finished
There is nothing in this category this month, the closest a came was a "mini" finish on one of my WIP's (more details below).

In Progress
1. Lily of the Valley
This one saw some ups and downs this month as it took some re-counting and ripping to get the squares in the right spot and the right size. I also spend an entire evening this week ripping out one colour of the left hand leaf as it was one stitch over. This will really come alive this month, because once the centre panel is done, the razzle dazzle starts and it comes together quickly

Last Month

This Month

2. Happy Go Lucky
This one saw very little attention this month - I worked on during one meeting this week. This is the perfect project for meetings as it doesn't require following a pattern and there is no counting.

Last Month

This Month

And close up on the square I'm currently working on

3. My Way
You have no idea how happy I am to be working on this. The colours make me happy. The silk thread make me happy. The stitches make me happy (mostly - right now I'm not too enthusiastic about the wrapped fan stitch that I've just started). This is the one that I just about had a mini finish on in that if I had done the wrapped fan stitch, I would be finish the last square designed by the designer. I have to design the final two squares.



Last Month (and last year)

This month

And close up on current square (and maybe my new favourite one)

New Starts
1. "M" is for Mother -  no change
2. Fairy Moon -  my fingers are starting to get itchy to start this, so it may be part of next month's update.
3. Lost in the Garden - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
4. Victorian Blooms - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
5. Stars of the New Millennium - have the canvas. My order arrived, the only thing missing was the overdyed thread I needed for this project. Need to call the store and find out what is going on (and why they are ignoring my e-mail)

Oh, Look - Shiny
  Nothing in this category this month - again. Which is good because I'm looking forward to starting the projects listed above.

Now I should go. I'm tired and there are "miles to go before I sleep"

Happy stitching.

Full Moon - Eighth Month

This month has been crazy busy. I've been out of town, all of my out of town friends have been in town.

I however did have some evenings of quiet to stitch and even a couple of opportunities to stitch with friends (hi Megan!)

Finished
1. Once Upon a Time
Well, I finished it on August 8th, but I finished it before I made my update so I'm counting this.
Last Month

This Month

In Progress
1. Lily of the Valley
I did spend some time outside of Thursday evening this month working on this. Mostly because I'm a bit behind my other co-horts who are stitching this at this time.
Last month

This Month

2. Happy Go Lucky
I didn't include this in my last month's update but I did spend a little bit of time on this in June. I spent some more time in early August while stitching with Megan. This is a great piece to take for social stitching since if the squares are ready (coloured, know what's going in them, etc.) they are quick and easy to stitch while chatting.
Last Month (well, minus the hair)

This month

No Progress
1. My Way - this is the last month this will see no progress. Last night I pulled out the pattern and the material. Today I hope to start stitching it again.

New Starts
1. "M" is for Mother -  no change
2. Fairy Moon -  no change
3. Lost in the Garden - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
4. Victorian Blooms - hope to have canvas ready for this soon
5. Stars of the New Millennium - have the canvas and have some more overdyed thread on the way to check out. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be putting together my threads to order for this project. October will be here soon.

Oh, Look - Shiny
Wow, nothing in this category this month. I've been too busy.

As usual, hoping you all happy stitching.