Garden Verses and 2 FFO's

Over the last week, I've continued to make progress on Garden Verses.  Here's a picture from Saturday when I moved my qsnaps.

I've since almost finished the purple, but I don't have another picture.

I also decided to frame a couple of pieces.  I started out with four but didn't like the frames for two of them once I brought them upstairs.  But two is better than what I had.

So, here is FFO #1

A Stitcher's Heart from Sekas & Co

and FFO #2

FoF 79.  Artwork by Jasmine Becket-Griffith, charted by HAED

Both were frames purchased from Michaels, probably during a sale.  I tend to pick up square frames even if I don't know what I"m going to use them for.  The mat for FoF 79 started out white but I didn't like it with the stitching and the frame so I painted it black and speckled it with some silver.  I think it turned out pretty nice.

Finish!

I think you can tell by the title, I have a finish!!  Yay!

Wednesday night, I still had a way to go.

I didn't touch her Thursday.

Early yesterday afternoon, I finished page 5 of my FoF 79

And about 8pm, I had finished my first HAED!  

I've got several more HAEDs as WIPs and many more charts and all I can say is WOW!

After I put all the bobbins away, I pulled Lust back out for some love.  I didn't get very far last night though.  I don't know if I was just tired, just not feeling her or just needed to decompress a little but I din't get more than 25 stitches into her.

So I'll leave you with an approximate picture of page 20.

This year's progress on goals and page 5 progress

Recently, I was looking back at my goals for this year.  And you know what?  I realized I've done pretty darn good; especially since it's only the middle of September.  

1.  Here Comes Santa tree skirt 

goal:  finish

goal completed 1/3/15 - 2 pages

2.  Earth Song

goal:  finish page 2

goal completed 1/25/15 - 1 page

3.  Loneliness of Autumn

goal:  finish pages 1-2

goal completed 2/11/15 - 2 pages

4.  Rose Garden Mandala

goal:  finish

goal completed 3/10/15 - 4 pages

5.  Coat of Arms

goal:  pages 10-15

goal completed 5/31/15 - 5 pages

6.  5 Little Pumpkins

goal:  finish

goal completed 7/12/15 - 4 pages

7.  Nightshade

goal:  finish 4th stitched page

goal completed 7/24/15 - 1 page

There have also been the following new starts, which don't have any goals
DMC 16 color SAL
1 block completed

Chatelaine's May 2012 Consolation prize
Completed!  4 pages

Eclectic Bloke Designs Warrior Alice
1 page completed

HAED's Her Private Garden
1 page completed

Chatelaine's The Heritage Sampler
2 bands completed

I was curious how many pages I've stitched this year.  So far, including FoF 79, I've stitched a total of 31 pages.  I am including the block of the DMC SAL and each band of the new Chatelaine in that total.  Even without them, that is a really respectable total!!

The goals I have remaining are:

1.  Faces of Fairy 79

goal:  finish

I'm currently about half way through page 5 with only a very skinny page 6

2.  Lust

goal:  finish pages 19-20

Page 19 is done with page 20 about a quarter done

3.  Loara Standish

goal:  band 2

I really want to try to make some progress on poor Loara this year.  I started her as a reversable sampler.  I don't know if that is my problem or if it is the teeny tiny fabric.  

4.  The Master

goal:  page 1

I just need to pull him out and work on him.  All those grays are tough though.

I also have a goal on the HAED BB of starting SS Daybreak and finishing page 1.  Fabric is ready to go and I've purchased all the DMC I needed.

This weekend, I started working on my youngest son's bed.  I've made pretty good progress too. I just ran out of weekend.  Tomorrow, I need to find the flattest part of floor in the garage and unscrew and reattach the darker slats in the headboard since I'm not happy with how they are sitting in the frame but otherwise, I think I'm ready for polyurethane.  That will probably be later this week since there's football Tuesday afternoon.
Here's a current progress picture.  I is pretty much sitting like it will be when it's put together.  The outside rails just aren't attached to the outside of the feet yet.

My fairy has made pretty good progress this week too.
9/17/15

9/20/15

Page 4 and page 5 progress

One of my goals this year is to finish FoF 79.  Since I managed to get through the dreaded eye last month, I've been making a lot of progress.  

9/7/15

9/10/15

9/13/15 - page 4

9/13/15

I don't know how much the skull is going to slow me down, but it looks like there's still nice big blocks of color in it so hopefully another couple of weeks and this page will be done!

Page 4 in progress

It's amazing how much difference stitching solid blocks of color can make.  This is mostly 939.  I had to wait for a repair guy Friday morning so I pulled out my stitching.  When he left and I left for work, here's where I was.  

After a long weekend, I made some very nice progress.  This is where I ended up Monday night.

I also made 4 pints of elderberry jam and 5 pints of salsa verde.  That reminds me, I need to go out and check my tomatillos to see if they have another batch of salsa verde in them or if they're about done for the year.  I know the elderberries are ready to be picked again.  I'm thinking of making syrup this time.  Anybody else make anything with elderberries??

Page 3!

After what feels like an insanely busy weekend, I finished page 3 of Faces of Fairy 79

I started page 4 but didn't get enough done to take a picture.

All the better to see you with!!

So glad to be done with that other eye!  Love the way they turned out though.

I'm hoping to finish this page in the next couple of days and page three, which I've hit the outer edge, by the end of the week.  At that point, I'll have to make a decision.  Should I start page 4, pull out another WIP or start Daybreak??

Not a lot of progres

I don't know what it is about this project but I can't seem to get into it and make a lot of progress.  It could be that I've been pushing on other projects and this one came up when my mojo wants a break. 

On the other hand, I have read seven or eight books in the last week.  Thankfully most of them were free!

Heritage Sampler update

Saturday, I finished the first band of Chatelaine's Heritage Sampler.  I put a quarter on the fabric to give scale.

Yesterday, I finished the first vertical band on the left.  It is all blackwork and stitched up quickly.

And the overview picture.

Just because I really like those flowers, I took a close-up.

While I was downstairs Saturday night waiting for my son to shut his game off for bed, I pulled out my FOF 79.  I don't have much left on page 2 and page 3 is a maybe 15-20 stitches wide.  She hasn't gotten any attention since July 2014 so it's time.

Until next time.

Another new start!

Welcome to my new followers!

Last Monday, after I got to work, I printed off the chart for Embroidered Elegance 4.  This one has a pretty simple color scheme and I'm really enjoying it.  I've converted the charted silks to HDF like usual and so far so good.

Here are some pics from last week.

11/4/14

11/6/14

11/9/14

It's kind of hard to believe that it's already as big as it is and I only started a week ago.

I've been looking at some of my current WIPs and I'm debating about cropping one of my HAEDs and I'd like some input (just in case I'm crazy you know!)

The specific WIP is Faces of Faery 79.  I'm in the middle of the top row and am thinking about just stitching the top row or so of this one.  Or, I may just stitch to the bottom of her face.  I don't know.  Any thoughts?

Here's where she is now 

and here's the whole charted picture.

I guess I've just decided I don't know what the gray thing is next to the bird skull and I don't really care for it.  If I crop at the bottom of this row of pages, it looks like I get the bottom of her nose.  Help me decide!!

Later!

7/20 update

Wow!  Time flies!  Baseball tournaments, a couple of birthdays, a new puppy and some stitching is all in the last month somewhere.

Looking back at my last post, I had just started the alphabet on the Art Nouveau Sampler.  With stress at work I didn't make a whole lot of progress.  BUT on July 3, I had a job interview and they offered me the job on the spot.  I gave my two week notice to my then employer on July 7 and used 8 days of vacation as part of my two weeks.  Wednesday of that week, we had the roof of our house replaced so I would have been home anyway as the roofer had questions he needed answered and my being home made that process way easier than lots of phone calls or texting pictures.

Monday last week, I started the new job.  The change in atmosphere has been huge!  My boss is happy I'm there and have a clue of what needs to be done.  Since that interview my stitchy bug came back and I've got some updates.

Art Nouveau Sampler

I decided to take a break from just alphabet for a bit.

This last week has been a SAL week on a BB I belong to.  I didn't make a huge amount of progress on my FoF 79 but every bit is good.

I pulled out my Romantic Rose Garden Mandala a little bit ago so it can get some love to so look for an update next week.

My last bit of news is the new member of our family.  On June 27 Koda, an almost 8 week old German Shepherd became a member of our family.

She is definitely keeping us on our toes!

Baseball!

Baseball started a couple of weeks ago and holy cow does it suck up time between games and practices.  When we have games, DS#2 plays at 6 but has to be there at 5:45 to warm up and DS#1 plays at 8:30 and doesn't get done until 9:30.  We don't get home until after 10!!  Thankfully, school got out last week so at least they don't have to pretend to be learning anything the day after those late games. 

I hope everyone is going to have a great Memorial Day weekend!  I realize that not everyone who reads my little blog is an American but I hope you all have a great weekend!  I'm taking the boys to my mom's tomorrow.  They're going to stay with her all week since school is out but camp hasn't started yet.  We get the added bonus of picking out our new puppy tomorrow afternoon.  Yay!

Last time I posted, I was working on FOF 79.  I made some really nice progress while she was out.

Then, I was naughty and pulled out my kit for a new start.  It took me all Saturday evening to get my fabric cut and put a basic grid in so I could figure out where the corner was to start.  But by Sunday, I'd made some pretty nice progress

Yesterday, I had added some bling and there are a lot of beads in this one.

The little bit of pink you see in this picture is the first flower.  I'm almost done with those pink flowers and hope to get the rest of it stitched tonight which means I need to get off this infernal computer!!

Later!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I hope all the moms had a great mother's day!  Mine wasn't too bad.  Ended up with some severe weather but nothing we haven't seen before.

Lust was put up today for a while.  The confetti in those flames is just crazy! 

My Face came back out though.  The change of color palette is great!  The reds and purples are very intense sometimes.  The blues and greys of FOF 79 are very relaxing and I love the spped of tenting!

Until next time!

FoF April update

I've finished page 1!  Yay!

This seemed like a good stopping place so I put her away untill the SAL next month and I have Lust waiting for me.  Now, to finish some painting first...

Funny face...eye??

Before:

Tonight:  

Wow!  There are so many colors in just that little space!

Faces of Fairy

Just a quick update.  I've had my Faces of Fairy 79 out since I finished Dorothy and hit some big patches of single colors instead of all the confetti I seem to have found last month.  

Before:

After

I'm only about 12 stitches from the bottom of the page.  

I started filling in her eye Sunday night and I'm not sure how the colors are going to work in the "white" of her eye, but I suppose I'll just have to trust that it will work out...at least till it doesn't.

I'm slacking again...

I've thought about getting online on Sundays and giving you all an update.  I wish I could say I'm too busy stitching my little heart out to get it done, but that's not it.  I think it's because work is stressing me out, I just don't have the inclination.  

Last time, Watergarden was out.  I finished another 1/8th of the border.

Then it was time for a SAL with some lovely ladies from a BB I frequent.  We're all stitching a Face from HAED.

Last time Ginny was out, 

I made it all the way across the page this month.  I wanted to get to the fold of the page, but I didn't quite make it.  Here she is now

Watergarden started calling me again so I pulled it out to finish the border and start beading.  I'm hoping to get the border finished in the next couple of nights so I can start beading.  I'm hoping to have a finish this weekend.  

See you then!

Been gone for a bit...

Sorry about that.  It wasn't intentional.  I just didn't feel like blogging about my WIPs.

I guess we should start at the beginning.  So here we go!

I did have a New Year's Start with a bulletin board I'm a member of.  Everybody picked a Face and will be stitching it this year during the second weekend.  I picked Faces of Fairy 79 by JBG.  Definitely not my usual stitchy subject matter, but she's kinda cool.

Here was my start on January 1

January 7

and here she is after about a week's work during the SAL on January 17. 

I also had Rose Garden Mandala out for a few days

January 14th

When I put FoF 79 away, I pulled out an older WIP, Coat of Arms by Stickideen von der Wiehenburg and finished page 5

This one is stitched in BeLeaved by Hand Dyed Fibers on a piece of grab bag 36ct fabric.  I'm almost done with page 6 so I'll try to post a picture of that and whatever progress I make on this or something else this weekend.

Later!