Through my Window

Thanks for all the great comments about Winter Watergarden.  I really appreciate them!  And welcome to my new followers.

This is probably the last page finish I'll have for 2011.  There's page three of Window stitched with Sticklounge.

Merry Christmas and s finish!

Merry Christmas everybody!   I hope all your Christmas wishes come true!
As you can tell by my title I have a finish!   I finished the stitching yesterday and the last bead went on a little while ago. 
Winter Watergarden is finished!!

Ready for Christmas!

I finished the last of my stitched gifts last night and got them mounted and into frames.  We'll see this weekend what their recipients think.

Adriana

In the midst of Christmas preparations, I've been stitching on other things too.  I just finished page 3 of Adriana that I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group.  This one works really well for a travel piece since it is stitched on 28 ct.  I've found that I have problems stitching on higher counts in the car. 

Please ignore the tax forms in the background.  This time of the month is really slow for me so I'm getting ready for sending out 1099s next month.  I also take really long lunches and stitch....and my boss is fine with that.lol!

Merry Christmas Andie!!

Andie asked for a conversion for Swan Lake.  The conversion I worked out in the very last one under the conversions tab.  Let me know how it stitches up!

I made some changes to the Brooklyn piece last night, in part because a certain cat who shall remain nameless **cough Pita cough** decided the ribbon flower would be fun to play with.  After fixing the flower, I took off a couple of charms and moved a couple more around.  It's in the frame and ready to go.  Just need to take a picture and wrap it up.  It's for Ed's sister's could possibly be a step child some day.  Did you get that?  We'll just call her Josh's girlfriend to make it easier to understand lol!

I have one more to finish for Ed's youngest sister's daughter, Eden.  I did a different flower and stem last night.  Tonight, I just have to add the charms and whatever is going in the center of the flower.  I did learn my lesson though.  It is well protected from a curious little cat. 

One more to go

I just finished adding pretties to one of the final gifts I'm making.  I'm happy with my first attempt at ribbon embroidery.  My only debate now is mat or no mat?  If mat, should I change the color from white?  The frame started out black that got painted white then saw some pink and purple added.

A Christmas finish

One down and 2 more to go!

I finished this little stocking last night for my sitter.  She's really into Americana and decorates her house for every holiday so I thought this would really work for her.

It's got red white and blue beads in every stitch all the way around and a hanger of silk ribbon in Delphinium from HDF.  Josh asked me after it was done if I was going to stitch one for us too.  I guess that means he approves!

A little happy dancin'!

I know it's not a finish, but I just finished pages 11 and 12 of Lust!  She's got 77200 stitches completed to make 33%.  Now, I've got to full out some Christmas stitching so I can get onto a couple of finishes for 2011!

Oh, check out the conversions tab.  I think I've got Chatelaine's Deep Blue Sea worked out.

Butterfly Lace Manadala

I just added Butterfly Lace to my conversions.  Deep Blue Sea's materials list is out so I'm working on that one too.

Almost ...

I've almost gotten to the end of the second row of Lust!  With any luck I'll get there tomorrow night.
I've also made some progress with my stocking for my sitter.One side is done.  Ed saw it though and tried to hijack it for a gift for his niece.  So now I've got two more Christmas gifts to get stitched up.  Thankfully they are just the names of two little girls.  I bought the frames last week so with a little spray paint for the frames, a couple of charms, maybe some ribbon and glitter and voila Christmas gifts fit for any little princess :)

Winter's here!

I think winter has finally arrived.   It snowed enough that the boys started to build a snow man. 

I'm trying hard to finish the last two pages of the second row of Lust.  I might just make it.  I finished that last completed flame in about 4 days.

I started my Christmas gift for our sitter yesterday too.  These are both sides of a little stocking ornament that will include a ribbon hanger for a tree or cabinet knob, whatever our sitter decides.  The left one will have a patriotic theme and the right one will just have a simple winter theme. 

Winter Watergarden

Yeah!!  I'm finally caught up with SOMETHING!  I just finished part 11 of Winter Watergarden just in time for part 12 to come out next week.  Now, I'm either going to pull Adriana back oh to finish page 3 or I'm going to pull Lust out to try to finish the final two pages of the second row to meet another one of my full year goals on the HAED BB.

Winter Watergarden part 10

I don't know what it is about these little birds, but the first one takes forever and the second one is stitched up very quickly.  Here's the whole thing.  Sorry about the pic, it's a little blurry

 And a closeup of my little robin?

Stay tuned for pics of part 11.  I'm pushing for a finish by the end of the year!

I finished part 2 of Adriana last night and sent this pic to the Sticklounge mods for the next part.  This one already has four parts released so I need to get moving on it a whole lot faster! 

I 'm also going to be stitching a page of Chelsea's Gift with 19 other stitchers from a couple of BBs she belonged to at the time of her death earlier this year.  It will be assembled as a quilt and sent to her husband and mom.  Quite the labor of love for a very special stitcher.

Anyway, I got my fabric in the mail yesterday from Peggy in Belgium (Thanks Peggy!) so I just need to go through my DMC and pull what I've got so I can see what I need to pick up.  I think Michaels has a 25% off entire coupon out and they just gave my $5 off my perchase with my rewards card.

I think for right now though, I'm going to pull Winter Watergarden back out today and see if I can get part 9 done.  Part 10 is easy too.  Then it would just be part 12 for a finish!

Almost a finish

I just finished part 3 of Petit Sampler! 

If I wanted to, I could probably see this little piece finished by the weekend. But dark blue 40 ct needs to be stitched on in little parts. Besides, I think I'm going to be using another piece of this fabric for a Christmas gift for my sitter. She's another stitcher/quilter/sewer who actually appreciates stitched gifts. So, that's what she's gotten every year since the boys started going to her house.



Today, a link was posted to a christmas tree freebie that I really like.  I'm thinking of stitching one in white, one in red (probably a pink to make is show up on the dark fabric) and sew them together (along with some stuffing) with some beads for the bling.  I'm thinking finding an old block with the letter J for my boys or D for her name.  If I buy a skinny dowel and drill a hole in the block, I can stand the whole thing up.  Shouldn't take too long to put together and be something she could display...she really likes to decorate her house and this would fit in with Christmas and the Americana theme she has running thru the house.

Later

Green!

Along with burning the sick days, I've had lots of stitching time.  Tonight, I finished page two of Widow I with Sticklounge.  This got me to the first part of the leaf to go along with the pretty flower.  I think the green could have been a little darker, but over all, I'm happy with the color.

Crud!

Last Friday, I had to pick Jakob up from school early.  He wasn't feeling good.  So what does any boy who loves his mom do?  He shares his crud.  Um...thanks?!  So, since I'm feeling really cruddy, I'm staying home today and possibly tomorrow.  We'll have to see how I feel in the morning. 

I thought I would share some pictures.  Window caused some problems.  I tried to get the next part without having the parts done that carry over into the next pages.  The list mom's wouldn't let me get away with that.  Don't know why.  It made me very unhappy for a couple of days and killed the fun I was having with it.  But finally, I did finish enough to make them happy and got the next part.  Here's part 1

Then I pulled out Spring Knotgarden.

Here's where you can really see the pink I changed in part one POP in the rhodes stitches that work around the corner.  I'm happy, but geez, this little bit repeats 8 times.  So it got put away again for a little while. 

Here's where Window is now.  I just finished all the "lead" in part 2 and will be stitching some red shortly.  I've got to pick out another movie first.  That's the problem with staying home sick and no cable.  You have to pick out new movies several times a day instead of just picking a channel. 

Lust and Window update

Last week, I showed you a picture of my Window I I'm stitching with Sticklounge. I couldn't decide at the time what I was going to do with it so I put it aside for a little while and pulled out Lust instead which had been screaming at me for some attention.  Today, I've decided I've had enough of the confetti and have switched back to Window I

I've gone through my minis from the custom color forum at HDF.  I've got two different varigated colors picked out for the outside of the flowers and a couple of reds and a green.  

Yesterday, we went to visit the Indian Caves Park in southeast Nebraska.  It's about an hour and a half drive from home so that isn't too bad.  Here's some pictures that we took during our hike. 

I tried to get this little flower into focus a couple of times, but theree was just enough breeze that it wasn't cooperating.

 Here's what we saw upon entering the park.  All the trees have put on their autumn colors and it was really very pretty.

The park is right on the Missouri river and was flooded for most of the summer.  This is right along the Missouri on top of one of the hills on our hike.

 Here you can see all the colors with the river running through the bluffs.

I just thought the roots of this huge old tree looked interesting.  Couldn't you just see some little fairies or something making this home?

Where we were standing for this picture was under water this summer.  You could see the high water marks up several feet.

And my favorite pictures of the entire day.  Both my boys worn out and sleeping on the way home.

There may be another update later tonight.  Since I'm using varigated colors for Window, I'm only going to finish each square when the "lead" is complete.  There are only so many of those right now.  Then I think, I'm going to pull 1900 ABC back out.  It's sitting on my end table taunting me

Later!

Input please!

Ok, this is my start to Window I.  Can you see any difference between the two blues at the top or the greens in the bottom right?  I'm still working out my colors and am having some difficulty deciding.

1900 ABC

Here's 1900 ABC that I'm stitching with Sticklounge.  Otherwise it would probably remain a WIP forever!  Over the last week, I've managed to stitch two pages of this monster and finally got to the right side.  Since I'd started stitching on a full yard of 36/40 ct fabric, I was able to measure out three inches and cut off the excess fabric on that side!  Yeah!!  It made it so much easier to deal with.  The excess on the bottom is going to be waiting a little while. 

I debated about starting the next page on this but I've had enough of the border for a while.  I'm sure it will come back out to play more often, but that border needs some time before I'm ready to tackle some more of it. 

So, instead of starting the next page of 1900 ABC, I started another Sticklounge piece.  It's called Window I from Kelly Searles of Suthern Stitchin and you can currently get it 25% off her regular price here  I'm trying to get my colors to work out so you can see the change from dark to light.  I'm working on blues and jade for the flower.  Hopefully, I'll have it where I'm happy with my colors sometime this week and post a pic.

Now, I have to work...Later!

1900 ABC

I haven't worked on this one at all since April.  But after finishing part 2 of Petit Sampler, I decided it was time to give it some love. 

Don't know why I waited so long.  I had the top squiggly the second border inside that on page 5 done last night and the second half of U, V, X, and Y done over lunch today with a start on the second squiggly border.  T and U of the larger alphabet was done by the time the boys went to bed.  So, I'm going to see if I have page 6 printed off ans start on the last page in the top row.  After the outer borders are done, this should start going really fast.  I may have to work on it more often!

If you're interested...I'm stitching this on 36/40 ct linen from HDF with Old Maid of the Heart also from Vikki.

Later!

Petit Sampler

Welcome to all of my new followers!

Last night I finished part 2 of Petit Sampler that I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group.  I know the chart is available from the original designer's blog, but I have to remember who that is before I can share it.  This is stitched on a custom color from HDF on 40 ct HDF Mermaid Blue linen.  I'm really liking the bright colors on the dark fabric!

Friday, I stopped by Michaels on my way home.  I've been debating the idea of making the boys new scarves to keep them warm this winter.  This is the color, I picked out for them.  It's a very soft yarn, called Simply Soft, I think.  I've pulled everything out twice since this is my first attempt with tunisian crochet.  I started out with single crochet which made this just curl terribly.  So I started again with double crochet and this is the result!  So, now I have two scarves to work on in this color and another one for me.  I bought an alpaca yarn for mine.  It was a more expensive than this but I wanted to try something different too.

Last night after I finished part 2 of Petit Sampler, I pulled out it's much bigger cousin.  I really like this one...just wish I had more patience for all the repeats in the border.  Once I get into the inside and away from the border, it should stitch up faster.

Later!

A WIP update and a finish!

I finally finished part 4 of Spring Knotgarden Sunday.  Almost didn't make it though...that last repeat almost did me in.  I persevered though and here's the result.

 Here's a closeup of the upper left corner.  I'm very happy with how the colors in the leaves blended together.

Tonight I finally finished the final part of Purple Garden stitched with the Sticklounge group.  To celebrate, I pulled out Petit Sampler which has not had any love for a while.

I almost forgot!  Welcome to my new followers!

Spring Knotgarden update

I finished the top half of Spring Knotgarden part four last night.  It is so sparkly in person!



I've also added Caribbean to my conversion page.

Winter Watergarden

I've added my Winter Watergarden conversion to my conversions page.  Thanks to Vikki for help on this one!

Frosty Happy Dance!

As of a couple hours ago Frosty Knotgarden is finished!!  Not only does this move it out of my WIP pile, it completes one of my projects from my 15 project challenge.  Only 14 more projects to go!

It took me about an hour to pick the next project out. I pulled out Petit Sampler and blah so I went back downstairs and dug around in the other WIPs and pulled out Spring Knotgarden. 

Monday night we saw this little guy in our back yard.  Joshua called him a leaf hopper.  Up close he does look like a little leaf. 

I've added most of the conversions I've done to my conversions page.  I'm only short a couple of the one's I've already kitted and I've been asked to do one for Caribbean.  That will probably be my project while I'm work tomorrow.  I've got to have something to keep me busy!

Andie asked if I'm planning on stitching the Big Mystery for 2012 and the answer to that is a resounding YES!  I signed up for that one just days after it was announced.

New Conversions

I just posted some more conversions on my conversions page.  They now include Summer Knotgarden, Persian Iris Garden, The Chinese Dragon and the Autumn Knotgarden.  More will probably follow later today, but I'm going to go back and finish beading Frosty Knotgarden so put on your dancing shoes!!

Hello

Wow!  For some reason I've been gaining followers.  Hi there!  I'm curious why you've decided to follow my blog.  Do you mind sharing.  If you don't want to, welcome anyway!

Andie asked if I would put all my Chat conversions on one page.  The ones I've posted are now there.  I just need to start digging through my Chat drawer (yes, they have their own drawer) and see what else is there that has been converted.  I know there's Hawaii, Persian Iris Garden, Pompei.  Convent Herbal Garden and Evening in the Park were kitted with the charted colors though.  Geez, I need to start stitching some of these up instead of getting the new ones.  The new Dragon Gate is also kitted and ready to go.  Maybe this weekend I'll get a couple more up.  Thanks Andie!

Frosty

Just took Frosty Knotgarden off the q-snaps and took a quick picture before I put it back on to work on the upper right border. 

I would really like to see this one finished this year so I have some time to pick a frame so it can go to the county and state fairs next year.  If the entries are like they were this year, Frosty should be a slam dunk winner!

The end is in sight!

This shows part 8 of Purple Garden.  Part 9, the final part, will be released October 1.

Next up is Frosty Knotgarden again.  It's getting close too, I just get burned out on the repeats so it takes way longer than it should.