Slightly Obsessed

First of all Happy New Year dear readers!  I hope your New Year is off to a good start.  Mine is going well.

I have a couple of stitching New Year's Day rituals that I just look forward to every year.  Do you have any stitching related New Year's rituals?

My first one is always planned months in advance, its my New Year's new start/stitch along.  For many years now my best friend Christin and I start a stitch along, some years a few of our stitching friends join us and some years its just the two of us.  I start at midnight and Christin starts in the morning, I am always just too excited to wait until the morning after months of anticipation!  This year our stitching friends Bonnie joined us as well in starting Spring Quakers by Rosewood Manor, our friend Janice also joined us but she had already stitched Spring Quakers so she started Winter Quakers.

I had a bit of a panic moment with this piece, I had every intention to stitch this piece on 32 ct Queen Ann's Lace Joblean by Wichelt.  I had bought a 1/2 yard of it back in the fall.  In December I pulled out my fabric, cut a piece just the right size then I pulled out my little box of Valdani Threads.  That's when I totally panicked! This piece of Queen Ann's Lace was quite brown and muddy, several of my Spring Quaker colours just disappeared into it.  Total panic attack!  I knew I didn't have enough time to order a new piece of fabric.  Stash to the rescue!  I spent a good hour pulling out fabrics out of their bins to find a suitable replacement.  I started with my 32ct and had no success, oh no!  Next I was digging through my 28ct fabrics, I had really wanted to stitch this piece on 32ct ... oh well.  After a bit of digging I came across one of my last precious pieces of dyed fabric I got ages ago from Sugar Maple Fabrics which is no longer in business!  They had some of the best dyed fabrics I ever came across.  I mourned while I settled on this fabric, but its PERFECT for Spring Quakers and just the right size.

As you can see I was immediately obsessed by this piece!  Despite being obsessed I didn't have all the time I wanted to stitch it and I've had a hard time to settle lately getting easily distracted by things like Instagram (sigh, addict for sure).  When I have been able to sink my teeth into this it just goes!!!!  I'm now well into page 4 and hope to be into page 5 by the end of this weekend.

My second stitching New Year's ritual is the annual emptying of the ort jar!  I love seeing the wonderful layering of colours from projects throughout the year.  Its also a great measure of just how much or how little stitching I've done that year.

My final stitching New Year's ritual is turning a page on my stitching journal.  Well its not really a journal but a list of all the projects I finish that year.  I also keep a sticky note in there of projects that get carried over from one year to the next and cross them off as they become Happy Dances.  My ultimate goal would be to cross everything off and throw that note away but that hasn't happened yet.  In 2015 I had 54 Happy Dances!  A very productive year and some awesome big finishes in there too!

Cranberry Christmas

Prarie Schooler

Stitched on 40ct New Castle Linen, Mellow from Picture This Plus

Stitched with DMC

I did take a one day break last weekend from Spring Quakers to stitch up my January ornament, I am still sticking with this little goal of mine to stitch one ornament each month.  I've picked Pararie Schooler's Cranberry Christmas as this year's set to stitch up and I'm sure I'll stitch some random pieces through the year as well... when I'm finished with my current obsession.

One thing that has gotten put off to the side is my friend Julie's Round Robin.  In early December we had a stitching day at her place and we were going through her finished projects.  She showed us her Joan Elliott Round Robin, but there was one blank spot left.  I immediately offered to stitch it for her.  I did start stitching the silver Buddha she wanted in the last spot... but like I said I'm obsessed right now.  Once I get to it, I'm sure it'll whip up quickly!

In my last post I promised I'd share with you pictures of a few other items I had stitched last year.  Well I forgot, but I've made a copy of the list and hopefully I'll be back soon with those.  I also put some stitches into an old project, The Big Red by The Silver Lining  I hope to share that with you too.

Long Awaited Happy Dance

This is a long awaited Happy Dance!  Every New Year's Day a group of my "local" (Eastern Ontario) stitching friends and I start a new project and its always a stitch-a-long.  Sometimes its a paticular chart, sometimes a specific designer, and every now and then a theme.  We have a get together every Labour Day long weekend at Kathy's and this is where we discuss/decide/dictate what the SAL piece is going to be on New Year's Day.

 Stitching Row

c2010 Bent Creek

Stitched on: 28ct Moon Princess Jubilee

Stitched with: GAST, Carrie's Creations, WDW, and Kreinik

On January 1, 2014 many of the members of the "Travelling Stitcherhood" as we have dubbed ourselves started Bent Creek's Stitching Row.  I of course then got wrapped up in other projects and ignored it until this past weekend where I managed to finish it very quickly!

I just love this piece and I had so much fun picking custom colours for this one as Bent Creek's version was just so ... ahem... my apologies... dull!

I of course needed to bling it up and the swirls were perfect for that!  I also love the touch of Krenik I used to sew on the button for the letter "O".

There's so many great little stitching details on this piece, from skeins of floss, needle and thread, and a lovely pair of scissors with a cute strawberry fob.  I also stitched the letter "D" in a different colour from the most of the letters for my first name "Danielle"

If you're thinking about stitching this piece, pull out the chart, don't be afraid to play with your stash of threads and be creative!  Though everyone accuses me of being a fast stitcher it is a great quick stitch!  When framed this is going to look great on my wall of stitching related pieces!

Crazy Challenge Day 7 or The Day I Conquered The Frogs!

First of all I'd like to retract a previous statement I may have made, that griding was a waste of perfectly good stitching time.  Well in my opinion it always was, I mean if you count and count carefully, double check yourself against your other stitches technically you don't need to grid.  Boy did the outlines on the Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas taught me otherwise!  I had frogs so many times that I finally gave in and pull out the thread I bought for griding years ago (and never used) and started griding.  Honestly that griding saved my life, saved my sanity!  The last two seasons went off without a hitch once I had my grids in place.

So here we are!  All four seasons, outlined!!!  Once this Crazy Challenge is done and I've finished Enchantment of Winter (which has had no love for a week now!) this will be my next focus piece starting with Winter.

Last night when I wrapped up my outline, it wasn't quite bedtime yet so I whipped out Eat, Sleep, Stitch and gave it a little more love, got a few more letters done.  I think I may take the time to wrap this one up today before I start my day 8 project.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon I went into the kitchen, and looked out into my backyard.  The weather had been a mixed bag, a little bit of rain, overcast, moments of sunshine, etc.  It seemed almost magical when I looked outside and saw the sunshine touching only the willow tree and nothing else.

On March 20, 2010 the PhotoHunt theme was "three"

Three stitching ladies with three new stitching bags... we all match and if you look closely we're in alphabetical order!

Photo Hunt & Crazy Challenge Day 6

First up, its PhotoHunt day (for real) and today's theme is "Bling".  It was a bit tricky to find the right shot, in the end this is what stood out the most.

This image isn't "bling-y" itself, but this mosaic certainly depicts bling.  This is one of the mosaics on the floor of the Cathedral at St. Anne-de-Beaupre just outside of Quebec City.  Why it was there, and exactly what it represents I'm not sure.  However, a treasure chest full of gold and money certainly is bling.

Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas - Winter, Spring, Summer

40ct Linen

Summer

Yesterday for day six of the Crazy Challenge I started Summer on my Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas, with the fabric already gridded and ready to go!  What a different that made, I didn't make one mistake or counting error!  I'll definitely be continuing the griding on for my last season, Autumn.

 JBW French Country Bear for Chelsey

 Me & Chelsey this September

JBW French Country Bear for Logan

Logan with "SantaBlaskie" in December

Not only did I stitch yesterday, but I did some framing.  I finally picked up a couple of ready-made frames at Michael's earlier this week.  Yesterday I took the time to stretch and pop these pieces into their new frames and they look great!

Crazy Challenge Day 1 Turns Crazy!

Yesterday, being New Years Day I followed my annual tradition of emptying the ort jar.  I had a little help as it is the Year of the Dragon coming up, I am a dragon baby does this mean I'm in for a good year???

A full year of orts!  Good bye 2011!!

Can you believe I filled this sucker (its actually a vase from the dollar store) almost to the top... without squishing mind you.  These orts would of overflowed out of my old mason jar!  My last orts of the year were beautiful purple silks from Enchantment of Winter.

My ort jar empty and ready to receive 2012 orts

Being January 1st it was the start of two stitching events for me!  First of all I was starting a SAL with good stitching friends Christin, Bonnie, Beatrice, Rebecca, Clare, Tracey and Trista!  There was a lot of smack talk going back and forth with text messages, e-mails and Facebook posts going on in the hours leading up to midnight.  Tracey kept bragging that she was getting to start an hour earlier than us because she was in Cape Breton!  I think in terms of midnight starts the only ones who stuck it out were Me, Bonnie and Beatrice, the others waited till morning.

A beautiful colour pallet for Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas

The piece for this year's SAL is Ink Circle's Seasonal Mandalas, I started with Winter which was my first Crazy Challenge start on January 1st!  My goal was to stitch the whole outer outline first so I could easily place/start Spring on the same piece of fabric (I am stitching the four seasons horizontally on 40ct linen) on January 2nd for my 2nd Crazy Challenge Start.  Each Mandala accounts as a new start right???  Right?

My progress after the clock struck midnight

I have a feeling I probably should of waited till morning to start... or perhaps ignored the text messaging going on during New Years Day as well amongst my SAL partners.  I didn't notice it until after 11PM last night when I was getting close to meeting up the outside edges that things didn't quite meet up properly!  Oh CRAP!  Well those aren't the exact words I used and we're in polite company here.  So I frogged and stitched some more!  This morning I picked Winter up with fresh eyes, determined to quickly finish off that outline then start Spring.  Crap, crappity, crap, CRAP!  It didn't meet up again!  I think I have frogged the outlining on this FIVE times in under 24 hours!  For some reason the outlining on this just was a major headache.  I couldn't just leave this not right, it had to be fixed before I start Spring.

Finally got that border right... took until dinner time on Jan 2nd to get right!

One strand over two on 40ct linen

Seeing as its the dinner hour as I type this I won't be starting Spring today, but tomorrow.  I think I'll go through my other Crazy Pieces and pick something small, simple, nice and colourful for the rest of the evening!  I'll pick up Spring for tomorrow, my 3rd Crazy Challenge Start!

December Stitching Goals

Gosh! I can't believe I let it get almost a week into December without updating you on what November goals I achieved and which ones were a bust! I also need to set out my plans for this month.

November Stitching Goal Review

Stitch 3 ornaments - I think I stitched too many to count!
Finish JBW bear - Yes!
Work on Enchantment of Winter - Yes!
Work on The Accolade - Yes!

December Stitching Goals

Stitch an Ornament
Finish or get close to finishing Enchantment of Winter
Work on the Accolade




As its December I'm also making plans for January and 2012 in general. On January 1st Christin, Bonnie, Tracey, Bonnie and I will be starting a SAL. This year's choice is Ink Circle's Four Seasons Mandalas. I'll be stitching mine over two on 40ct. I am also thinking of doing the 2012 Crazy Challenge! Yup crazy! I've been thinking about which pieces I want to start! I'm even thinking each of the Seasonal Mandalas should count as one start each. The rest will probably be smaller projects.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Paradigm Lost Week 9

Just a quick post tonight, I want to get to bed... um not so late as last night so I'll be fresh to hit the road tomorrow for my visit with Ann! I'm also quite excited because Sharon who I met through Ann and her retreats read my blog that I was coming down her way (I was planning on e-mailing her but she got to me first), so she's arranged to drop in at Ann's for Thursday stitching ... Yay! Can't wait to see you Sharon!

I didn't get in as much stitching as I would of liked today, but I spent a lot of it doing domestic goddess-like things so I can run away! The tree is down, the litter tray is done, groceries, laundry, beds made, wahootie I think its safe to go! At least Todd can't complain.

Today I finally got some stash in the mail that I ordered in the first week of December! I was really hoping to get it before the break so I could make cord (I jury rigged an old hand crank drill with a mug hook in the meantime), and so I could get Beatrice's Moonlight Guardian fabric to her on time for January 1st. With the Christmas mail and holidays it took until today to show up. So pictured here are my new cording drill (much more lighter and compact than my jury rigged one!), also the silk pack for Dimples Designs Enchantment of Winter (if you recall this is one of my 2008 goals), this is all photographed on Beatrice's fabric.

I also received a lovely surprise, one of Von's handmade cards. Thank you Von, its just so pretty!!!

Wahootie Brighton, here I come!

Paradigm Lost SAL Week 8

Here you go folks, my 8th week of working on Paradigm Lost! Its coming right along but I think the medallion I'm working on right now is one of the bigger ones and will take awhile to complete. So tonight's progress was the dragonfly (which I've been dying to stitch forever!) and two arms of the large medallion.

Tomorrow I'll settle in here at home while the snow flies (yet again) and I think I'll pull out Mini Cottages 5!

An Evening With Tour

Despite spending most of my day at work debating, do I pull Tour out like I should or keep working on Christmas Elf Fairy? Of course I really, really, really wanted to keep working on CEF, she's such a nice easy stitch! However I behaved and worked on Tour for a few hours. Once my eyes started getting a little tired of working over one I did pull out CEF. So I'd say it was a win-win situation all around!

Here's tonight's progress on Tour

And my progress on CEF

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Well this morning started out very early, and very dark outside. I was up early to give myself extra time to get into work. Well mother nature worked against me... or would that be in my favour? This morning. As soon as my front wheels got off of the cement floor of the garage they just kept spinning! I tried for a few minutes and just gave up, managed to get my car back into the garage and called into work. If I can't easily get out of the garage (remember I'm rural!) chances are pretty good that I won't make it out of the top of the driveway either! Todd called me to let me know he had to put his truck into 4x4 to get out of the drive, I have a tiny 2 door Accent so I knew I wouldn't make it. Well at least I never got that far to try and get stuck up to my axles in snow! So its a snow day! Yay!

Which means I've been stitching since about 7am... and look what I just finished!!!!

The Castle

by Teresa Wentzler

c2000 Leisure Arts

From The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection

Stitched on 32 ct Opalescent Lugana - Heavenly Sky from Sugarmaple Fabrics

Stitched with DMC cotton floss

Now of course Happy Dances lead to thoughts of : "what's next" Well I'd rather look at what I've got on the go than what I can start new. I've got an ornament that's started and I really need to take inventory to make sure I have enough! I've got the Jeannette Douglas Pomegranate needlebook which I could easily finish in quick order, Pomegranates and Pares the large class piece, Mini Cottages 5, Tour Des Marques which I don't think my eyes can handle over one after all the stitching I did this weekend! I've also got round 4 of Fair & Square to stitch up. So there are no lack of options at all! We'll see what I end up pulling out!

Paradigm Lost SAL Week 5

Well I didn't meet my stitchy goal for tonight. I figured last week that I would be done the alpahbet on Paradigm Lost tonight. Well I'm one and a half letters shy! If I wasn't so keen to finish The Castle I'd probably wrap up that top line tomorrow. Alas it shall wait for next week!

Tomorrow I WILL finish my framing jobs. LOL watch, I've probably just jinxed myself!

PL Week 3

I didn't get in a lot of time with Paradigm Lost tonight. Its my Dad's 66th birthday today (Happy Birthday Dad!), and I went over for a lovely dinner of roast lamb, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, and veg. I did take PL with me but you don't get as much done when you're visiting and talking.

Paradigm Lost SAL Night

Sooooo tonight I pulled out Paradigm Lost and got some letters stitched up! This is such a nice piece to work on. I look forward to working on The Castle again tomorrow night!

Finish... Lines!

Well, the first thing on my agenda tonight wasn't to get stitching, but to get my monster pumpkin carved! It took a bit of agonizing over design... and the poor thing lost a tooth, but its done! I'll share that picture with you tomorrow! My next priority was to finish up Heather's Neighbourhood RR. It took me until after 9pm tonight but Heather's RR is done! I have to say it looks great!

Of Farm And Field

c2000 Dragon Dreams

I had about two hours to work on/start Paradigm Lost... I think I'll work on it again tomorrow. All I have to show you... lines. Yup border. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to tackle this piece yet... am I going to do as much border as possible? Work on one page at a time. We'll see where my next session with this piece takes me.

Stitching Updates

Alrighty, lets hope you all find this post much more interesting than my weekend report. Not up to my normal standard was it? Sorry about that!

Let's see what has been going on stitching wise, my Fair & Square round 3 was received by Pokua and I'm glad to see she's very happy with it! Mine is on its way and I can't wait to see it!

Full Moon (freebie)

c2000 Elizabeth's Designs

The Alphabet was added to increase the height of the design

Stitched on 32ct Natural Linen

Using GAST, WDW & Whisper

Earlier this week I finished the first panel on the Pomegranate Needlebook by Jeannette Douglas. I'm really looking forward to getting back to this and trying out her finishing instructions.

Also this week I started Heather's RR, her theme is Farm and I'm stitching up Dragon Dream's Of Farm and Field. I should be able to finish it up tomorrow night! (my part is bottom right)

Finally, on Tuesday of this week I'll be starting Paradigm Lost! Finally! Kathy says she'll be crossing into the US that day and I wasn't allowed to start until she crossed. You can follow our progress and that of our SAL mates (some are stitching Cirque des Cercles) at the Snowbird's SAL blog. If you'd like to stitch one of these two projects or have it started you're welcome to join us. Just send me an e-mail for an invite to the blog!