2013, a review

At the beginning of this year, I had a whole pile of WIPs I wanted to finish.  I think I did a pretty good job of meeting those goals.  I thought I would share a pictorial review of my progress this year.

1900 ABC  finished 1/20/13

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Iris B  finished 3/24/13

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Chatelaine's Deep Blue Sea finished 4/11/13

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Bygone Stitches One Nation finished 5/20/13

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Sticklounge mystery finished 6/23/13
since this was a new start this year, there are no before pics

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Chatelaine's Summer Knotgarden finished 7/19/13

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HAED's Lust

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Watergarden

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Dorothy Walpole

a new start so no before pictures

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Earth Song

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Loara Standish

a new start so no before pictures

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HAED's Nightshade

a new start so no before pictures

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Chatelaine's Rose Garden Mandala

a new start so no before pictures

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XMas ornaments

new starts so no pictures.  

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Here Comes Santa Tree Skirt

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July goals

At the beginning of July, I posted some goals.  I just thought I would share my progress.

1.  Finish Summer Knotgarden.  Before:  

After:  

2.  Dorothy Walpole - finish third row of pages.  Before:

After:

Pull Lust out and give her some love.  I haven't touched her since December.  

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Finish!

Summer Knotgarden had the last bicone stitched on this evening.  

Now, back to Dorothy!

Summer Knotgarden, an update

Last month, when Summer Knotgarden was put away, I had every intention of finishing early this month so I could get Dorothy that much closer to a finish.   This is a picture from 6/16.

Then, early on June 18, I submitted my application to another employer.  By 4pm, I had a phone call from the CFO of this company requesting to set up an interview.  We set that up for 10:30am on the 20th.  By 9am the next morning, I had another call from that CFO offering me a job.  Holy cow!  I've been looking off and on for over two years!  AND this was for about 6.5% more than I was making.  I asked for the weekend to decide.  Monday, June 24th, I accepted the offer.  Why do I tell you this?  Because my new job is so much different from the old one!  I started on July 8th.  Since my kids were in camp last week and I had to pick them up earlier than 5pm, I did not take a lunch break except to inhale something to eat.  So no stitching. :(  Even though they were at their grandma's the week of the 4th of July, I've made little progress on Summer Knotgarden.  Some of that can be blamed on a couple of books I've read too.

Anyway, progress as of July 5th was slow but there.  

And 7/11 had part three finished and I was starting to move to parts 4-6.

My husband is working all weekend so I'm hoping there is lots of time for stitching so I can finish sometime in the next week.  The boys are going to a friend's house during the day so I can get to work earlier.  I'm thinking I will eat while I'm working and stitch for a half hour or so and still be able to leave by 4:30 every day.  The best of both worlds I hope

Hi there!

Welcome to my new followers!  

I had Dorothy out again this week and almost managed to finish the bargello band.  I wasn't sure about the colors but they really work for me IRL.

I post goals on one of the BBs I belong to.  I thought maybe posting my goals here would give me a kick in the pants to get moving on these.

1.  Finish Summer Knotgarden.  Before:  

2.  Dorothy Walpole - finish third row of pages.  Before is the first picture!

Pull Lust out and give her some love.  I haven't touched her since December.  Before:  

Summer Knotgarden update

I just took it off the q-snaps to put it away until next month.  Look for a finish in July!  Yay!

Now my Sticklounge mystery!

Baseball is almost over!

This is my oldest son's 10 and under baseball team this year.  They ended up #9 in the league.  Tuesday, they played the #2 team and won 6-0.  They made a huge improvement from the beginning of the year.  

Handsome group of young men, don't you think?

Then there's my youngest son's 8 and under team.  All I can do is give kudos to the coaches.  As one of them put it, coaching this team is like herding cats.  Some of those kids do not listen.  But, the cute factor makes up for it.

Here's Summer Knotgarden the last time I had it off the q-snaps during one of the games at a baseball tournament last Sunday.

Then progress made Monday.  

And my other project which has been slow going between baseball games and practices.  It's the new chicken house.  I just need another sheet of plywood to build the roof, another sheet of insulation and it needs a door and some paint and it will be ready for wheels so I can move the chickens around the yard easier.

Tonight is the team picnic for the 10U team.  The plan is everybody bring a side dish and a dessert.  But there's been no communication about what everybody's bringing.  Could be interesting with lots and lots of potato salad.  Then the kids are playing their parents.  Yay!

New start and WIPs

I don't remember if I've mentioned here that the Sticklounge group is closing in June.  Before that happens, there is one last mystery.  I started it Monday night, I think.  With lots of stitching time today, I finished part 1.  Since part 2 was just released, I'm pretty current, but my guess is that this is a pretty symmetrical piece that wouldn't be difficult to complete without any further parts.

One of my goals for May on a BB was to finish page 6 of Dorothy.  Well, I didn't quite make it for May, but I have them done now.  I did goof on the scallops.  I misplaced a color when I started one of them but once I realized it, there was absolutely no way I was going to take all those eyelets back out.  So, this is my version and it is uniquely mine!

Last night I also made a start on the third corner of Summer Knotgarden.  This is all the further I made it before I called it a night, but for some reason this is the most monotonous part of part 3.  Now that it's done, the rest of it should be easy peasy.

I don't know how much stitching I'm going to manage today or the rest of the week.  I'm working on my new chicken coop and the boys have two baseball games.  Thankfully they're home games so there's no hour drive each way.  I really don't like not getting home till 9:30.  At least the boys don't have school that they have to get up for.  They just have to get up to go to a friends house, where one of the local teen agers is watching mine and the friends, or to camp at the university.

I used to be a OAATer

 Once upon a time, several years ago, I used to stitch projects one at a time and my stash wasn't threatening to take over my basement.  I'm only kidding, I think, but wow!  What a difference 6 years makes!

So lets' take a look see at this week's progress, shall we?  First up...Summer Knotgarden.  I finished the second corner.  I thought about just moving the q-snaps and starting on the third, but I don't want to burn out on Chatelaines and interrupt my progress on my current WIPs.  Especially since there's only this one and Watergarden.

For variety, I pulled out One Nation and corrected the star that I stitched wrong previously and made some progress on a couple more stars.  It even went to baseball practice with me tonight.

A week or so ago, I read a blog, that of course I can't find now so I can link to it, that had a chart from a company that I hadn't heard of before.  Tilton Crafts converts art work to cross stitch similarly to Heaven and Earth Designs  Tilton's big draw for me was a new release called The Master.

I was in love.  Since, at the time, there was a buy 2 get 1 sale, I had to pick out two other charts.  This is the one I had to have though!  During the course of last week,  I got the chart and printed off my floss list, dug through my floss boxes to see what I had and made a trip to Hobby Lobby for what I didn't have so I could start.  While I was downstairs doing laundry today, I zig zagged my fabric for a new start. I haven't been interested in a new start so far this year.  I mean, I've finished three projects and am so close on two more.  Why do I need a new start.  But, I guess Master Yoda was using the force cause I started tonight.  Here's where I'm at with under an hour into it.

stitched on Antique white 28 ct Monaco 1x1

Now, I'm going to go pull another color and get another half hour into it before bed.

Later!