Final page finish of 2013

For some reason, my camera is not being very cooperative and is making my pictures look a little odd.  Anyway, I just finished page 16 of Lust.  She's now abou 45% complete.

Instead of starting the next page, I decided to pull out a Christmas tree skirt that I started in 2007 and push it along a little further.  It's a kit from Dimensions called Here Comes Santa.  I think it needs some love before my kids are too old to enjoy it.

Here's where it is right now.

It's stitched on 11ct Aida with three strands in many places which are a couple of the reasons it hasn't seen the light of day for a while.

Almost forgot!

I finished the stitching on my ornaments Sunday night.  Here are ornaments 2 and 3

Monday, night I added the back and some ribbon to hang them.  I think they turned out pretty well for my first attempt.

Here's my progress with Lust as of Monday night too.

Rose Garden update

Thank you for the kind comments about Cinnamon.  They're very much appreciated.

At my last stitching update, I showed you my new start, Rose Garden Mandala.  Stitching has been really slow between Thanksgiving and all the travel, but as of 12/1, here was my progress.

Yesterday, it looked like this

I've put it up for a bit while I work on some Christmas ornaments for a gift exhange at work.  I've finished the front of one of them.

I've got at least two more to go for work.  Then, I"m thinking of one or two for my tree and one for my sitter.  We'll see how ambitious I still am when the first three are done.

Cinnamon

My pretty girl died last Tuesday.  Miss you Mini!

New Start!

This weekend was a very quiet one with just me and one of my boys.  The other one is with his dad in Oklahoma.  So, we didn't do a lot.

I've started struggling with Lust, so Saturday night, I decided to put her away for a bit and start something new.  Here's where she is now.

Then, I went stash diving.  I pulled out Rose Garden Mandala from the September 2009 issue of The Gift of Stitching Magazine.  

photo from europeanxs.com

I've had it kitted forever!  Once I found a piece of fabric and zig-zagged the edges, I was ready to go.  Then I put the first couple of stitches in and decided I had to go stash diving because the color I was using was way to light on white.  Yesterday, I got a bit stitched.  

I'm using a LE color from HDF for the GLO Lavender Ice that doesn't have all the colors that the original does, but from some of the pictures I've seen online this will work just fine.  Now, I just have to go pick up four colors of DMC and I'm set.

Lust continues

On the 12th, I finished page 15.  According to the HAED BB when I updated my WIP it had only been a year since my last page finish.  The second picture is where I was this morning.

Progress

Last time I posted, I was making steady progress on Nightshade.  Last Wednesday night, I finished the second page (page11).  

Then, Thursday, I finished the third page (page 10) which was only the top of her broomstick.

Not bad for a week's worth of stitching.

Friday, I pulled Lust back out.  I was hoping to make a lot more progress this weekend, but I got sidetracked and finished one book of a series and started the next.  Anyway, here's where Lust was when I pulled her out today.

I'm hoping to finish page 15 tonight and get started on page 16.

October progress and November goals

For October, I just wanted to make some progress on my active WIPs.  Here's how I did...

Watergarden Before:

After:  

Dorothy Walpole Before:  

After:

Lust Before:

After:

Earth Song Before:

After:

I also had a new start.

I started HAED's Nightshade on Halloween.  After all, is there a better time to start stitching a witch?

I'm not stitching all those pages of black so here's the first page of actual stitching

and here's where I was last night

Not too bad hmmm?  Especially since there isn't really any block stitching yet.  

For November, I would like to see a couple of page finishes.  I want to finish page 15 of Lust and the current page of Nightshade and the page just to the left which will finish up the left edge of the hat and start the broom.  After that, just make more progress and possibly start Her Private Garden.

HAEDs versus everything else

Since the mojo seems to be pretty happy with HAEDs at the moment, I'm thinking about making some changes to my rotation.  I was hoping to see at least one more finish this year with Watergarden and/or Dorothy Walpole, but I really don't think that's going to happen.  My mojo goes on vacation when those two pieces come out.  I've even spent some time with some kitted Chatelaines and I'm just not feeling them.  So, I think I'm going to stick with HAEDs through the end of the year or until the mojo decides it's had enough.

I've made some great progress on Earth Song this week.  If I would have stuck with it for another night last month, I probably would have seen the second page finished them.  As it was, I finished it Thursday night.

I'm hoping to have the third (partial) page finished tonight.  At this point, I'm planning on keeping this one out through the end of the month.

At this point, I'm thinking about a couple of new starts.  They're both part of the goals challenge on the HAED BB and totally doable if I change my rotation.

First one is Nightshade by Maxine Gadd

Since I'm not going to stitch the black, my goal was to do the first two pages of the rest of the chart.

Then is Her Private Garden by Boris Vallejo.

My goal for this one is half of page one. 

My kits for both of these have been upstairs for a while now, just waiting for a start.  Maybe on the first, I'll flip a coin or just have my kids pick one for a new start.

Mojo?

So, I might have found my mojo.  At least for a little while.  It just wanted to play with Dahlig's Lust and not Watergarden or Dorothy.  I've made some great progress since last Thursday.  While I'm not going to say I'll finish this page this week, I'll be fairly likely to finish it next month.

Has anybody seen my mojo?

Stitching has been kinda hit and miss lately which is why you haven't seen any updates here.  There just hasn't been that much going on.  

So, I guess I'll start at the beginning of the month.

Watergarden was out to participate in a Chatelaine SAL.  I stitched on it until the 9th and only got another 1/8th of the border done.  Here's what it looks like now.

I've just got that last side and the beading to do.

Next out was Dorothy Walpole.  I had her out until last night about 10pm.  I really don't know what it is about those flowers.  I'm just not feeling them so they take a really long time to stitch.

Sorry about the wrinkly Dorothy, but it was after 10 and I wasn't going to go heat up the iron.

Then I pulled out Lust while I watched a PBS program on Elizabeth I.  Before I knew it, it was after midnight and I'd made some pretty decent progress.  

September review and October goals

So, here are my September goals and how I did.

Watergarden:  Goal:  Another 3/8 of the border which is similar progress to last month.

 Before:  

After:

Dorothy Walpole:  Goal:  pages 11 and 12.  

Before:  

Yea.  Didn't manage a whole lot on Dorothy this month.  

After:  

And Lust.  I just want to see more progress made on her.  If I work two weeks on Watergarden again and it only takes a week and a half or so to meet my goal on Dorothy, then I'll have about a week with Lust again. 

 Before:

After:

And for something different and to prevent an attack of startitis

Earth Song

before:

After:

In October, I'm not going to make any firm goals.  I just want to make progress on all four of these projects.

The worst thing about driving...

Friday night, we left for 25 hours and 700 miles of driving excitement.  All for a car.  Can you feel my pain?  We survived and came home with this 

I guess it will be ok.  But man that car needs some work done.  Don't get me wrong, we'll do as much as we can, which is a lot, ourselves and I know this guy that does chrome, but dang!  I've also got a promise of things to change and the title is in my name so it will all work out.  One way or another.

This week I had Lust out and made some pretty decent progress.  I knew I wouldn't be able to stitch over one on 28 ct in the truck so here is where I took her off the q-snaps Friday before we left.

I tried to stitch over two on 36 ct fabric.  But the roads were really bumpy so I gave up and read a book instead.  Here's what I managed this weekend on Dorothy.  See those dozen or so stitches on the stem from the white flowers?  That's it.

Saturday, I tried over two on 28 ct with Watergarden.  Sadly, not much happened there either.

Today has been busy with an oil change, a new tire, groceries and laundry.  I haven't managed to put a single stitch into anything.  I did go through all my HAED charts and file them in a plastic filing box I bought this morning.  I have 27 different artists represented in that box.  I am NOT going to tell how many charts are in there and how many more aren't printed. Then, I filed most of the rest of my charts in another plastic box.  Found a couple that are probably going to work their way up the list.

I think part of my problem this weekend is I really don't want to stitch anything I have out right now.  So, I've pulled out HAED's Earth Song.  It was my very first HAED start and hasn't been touched for a while.  It's either that or I'm going to start something new.  I figured this was safer...for now.

Earth Song before:

3/8 to go

I didn't make the progress I wanted this month, but it's time to change projects and give this one a bit of a break.  So, I just have 3/8 of the border left and all the beading.  I'm hoping for a finish by November.

Onto Lust!

Another Sunday update

One would think since my husband went to visit his parents Thursday morning and just returned this afternoon, I would have accomplished way more than I've managed..

So, we have before:

September 5th

And this afternoon when I moved the q-snaps.  That corner gate has taken basically all day to stitch.  Don't know why.