SAL Check-Ins

I'm squeezing in my check-ins on a bunch of SALs today just in the nick of time. Not a whole lot of progress was made on anything, but every x counts!

Smalls SAL

This is being hosted by Heather of Stitching Lotus. I managed two for this month.

Treats by Lizzie Kate

 My second finish is for the Christmas Ornament SAL hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. It's one of the Mini Cards from Prairie Schooler. Sorry, I'm not sure of the year; I put the chart away in the wrong folder and have yet to find it again!

Kaye also hosts the Prairie Schooler SAL; I'm working on two Santas for this.

12 Days of Christmas Day 2: added a little more green

1984 Santa: finished the pant legs

It's been a while since I posted a progress pic on my Cinderella's Castle for A New Stitchy Start; this is being hosted by Tammy of I Want To Do One More Stitch. I'm still plugging away at it a few stitches at a time.

I've worked more on Pretty Little New York by Satsuma Street; I'm doing a SAL with Jo and Linda on Tuesdays. I finally finished one whole building!

I really like this designer; I'm planning on starting the rest of the cities as well as several more of her charts for the Super Duper Ultimate January February 2016 Challenge.

Here are a couple of my latest starts:

Trick or Treat by Ursula Michael

Sesame Street Group by Gloria and Pat adapted for Paragon Needlecraft

I bought my first silk flosses from Mo's Sale. They're so pretty and soft!

L-R: Peeta, Rue, Girl on Fire, Joanna, Cinna

And, finally, my sweet, wonderful, handy hubby made me a lapstand!

It's very lightweight and makes stitching the big projects easier. I was at 300 stitches on my Mini Owl Family chart when I took this pic; in two days time I was up to 800! I'm getting faster with my two-handed stitching.

That's all for me on the stitching front; I'll gather some crochet WIPs together for the next post.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Five on Friday: Five Things I'm Working On

I have been so flighty and indecisive today! I'm all over the place more than usual. But here are five things I've been working on this week:

1. Getting caught up on laundry, dishes, and other household chores. I was down most of last week with a bad fibro flare, and I was down most of this week with a bad cold. There are a lot of clean laundry piles around the house waiting to be folded and put away, more piles of dirty laundry, and so on.

2. Motifs for my mystery crochet projects. You can find the free pattern here at Signed With an Owl. 

So far, I'm using Dark Orchid, Spring Green, and Shocking Pink.

3. Printing charts, cutting fabric, and making lists for next years's SALs. 

4. More motifs for my mystery crochet projects. They look like eggs now, but I promise you they won't in the end! You can see what they'll look like at Color 'n Cream Crochet. So far, I'm using Bright Yellow and Soft White.

5. And, of course, I have more starts! I actually have more than this, but I had these out to photograph for a SAL. These are my first Heaven and Earth Designs, my first time parking, and my first time gridding. I'm having a blast!

I'm linking this up at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday. One of these days, I'll get caught up on my blog reading, too!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Summer Mystery SAL

Of course, I joined another SAL. I seem to be addicted to them! This one is being hosted by Natalia of With My Threads. Each week, we get three mini motifs emailed to us to add to a design. It's fun, fast, pretty stitching, and I'm really enjoying it. I didn't quite finish the first three, but I came close.

I just love the colors in this design. So bright and summery. And with temps in the triple digits all week here in North Texas, it's still very much summer!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

WIP Wednesday: Crochet and Cross Stitch

I've been working on various projects over the last week, both crochet and cross stitch.

I've added a double granny round in black to 21 of my rose squares and started attaching them with Panther Pink using the flat braid join. The pattern is designed by Astri of Apple Blossom Dreams and is available for sale in her Etsy shop.

I pulled out a poor neglected UFO and started assembling it. The pattern is designed by Kate of Signed With an Owl. I made the squares with Red Heart Super Saver in Zebra and Black, Loops and Threads Impeccable in Gray, and I'm joining them as I go with Red Heart Super Saver in Burgundy. Two rows done, four to go.

I started two "just because" stashbuster projects using the Diagonal Granny Stripe pattern from Zooty Owl's Crafty Blog. The first one is made with scraps and a J hook; the second is made with Lion Brand Homespun in Corinthian and an L hook.

And I'm working daily on several mystery crochet projects. Here are some of the motifs.

I'm very close to a finish on my Prairie Schooler Santa's 12 Days of Christmas Day 1. I still hope to completely finish it by the end of the month for the Christmas Ornament SAL hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching.

I did a couple more letter blocks in Summer Alphabet by Lizzie Kate; this was my rotation piece for the last five days.

And I started several more charts "just because". 

A Little Bit of August by Lizzie Kate on 14 ct Aida in Sand

Boo Club Creepy by Lizzie Kate on 14 ct Aida in Smoketone

Boo Club Eek by Lizzie Kate on 14 ct Aida in Smoketone

It's Not Easy by Pixel Power (free) on 14 ct Aida in Light Blue

Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes-Attack from HornswoggleStore on 14 ct Aida in White

Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes-Attack from HornswoggleStore on 14 ct Aida in White

ABCs of Halloween by Lizzie Kate on 14 ct Aida in Smoketone

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Alphabet Club and How Many WIPs Winner!

Before I get to the winner of my How Many WIPs giveaway, I'd like to introduce you to 

The Alphabet Club

The Alphabet Club is an A-Z SAL created by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and Chiara of the Grey Tail.On the first Saturday of every month, we do an alphabet letter related post; we include stitching things, of course, but also any language or custom-related items or fun facts or jokes or anything that goes with the letter of the month.

This month, being the first, is all about the letter A. 
I love to stitch ALPHABETS!
Whether it's just the letters

Summer Alphabet by Lizzie Kate

or a single chart of letters with pictures

Disney Alphabet by Clouds Factory

Christmas Carol Alphabet by FanGirl Stitches

or an individual letter chart with a picture

Alphabet Girls I is for Ice Cream by Jeremiah Junction

I love stitching alphabets :-)

 

Alphabet Jokes

Q: What did A say to B?
A: C you later!

Q: What's the longest word in the English vocabulary?
A: "Smiles" because there is a mile between the first letter and the last!

English Alphabet Fun Facts

The most commonly used letter from the English alphabet is E

The dot over the letter “i” is called title.

About 100 languages use the same alphabet like in English which makes it one of the most widely used alphabets in the world. While some languages have a few more and others a few less, they all share the 23 core letters originally found in the Roman alphabet.

How many WIPs? 

 

So, the time has come! How many WIPs/starts do I have? (I say both because some have been worked on since I started them and some haven't). There were a lot of good guesses. 

The grand total as of Monday was....

147!

Yes, I'm crazy :-)

No one guessed the exact number, but one came close.
The winner of the summer issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine is

Kaye of Kitten Stitching!

She guessed 153. Pretty close! Congratulations, Kaye! When you get a chance, please email your mailing address to bookworm187@earthlink.net.
Thanks, everyone, for your guesses.
Thanks for reading and looking.
Blessings :-)

Smalls SAL and Pretty Little New York

It's the last Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Smalls SAL check-in, hosted by Heather of Stitching Lotus.

I had grand ideas of getting my stitching finished into an ornament this month, but it didn't happen. Oh, well; at least I got the stitching done! 

Noel Jingle by Lizzie Kate

The little peppermint candies are my favorite!

I also finally made some progress on Pretty Little New York from Satsuma Street. This is a Tuesday SAL I do with Jo and Linda. 

Where I was last time:

 Where I am now:

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

P.S. Don't forget! If you'd like a chance to win the Summer issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine, you have until Friday to enter my giveaway!

 

IHSW

I worked on two projects and started two new ones this weekend for IHSW.

Tama recently posted about her rotation schedule, so I've decided to give it a try. My first pick was the Book of Ink Circles free chart; I worked on that all last week and put the last stitches in on Friday.

Where I was on June 11:

Where I am now after four days of stitching (I skipped one):

After I put that away, my next rotation piece was Snow Belles by Lizzie Kate. I started this back in March but was unhappy with how it looked on the linen. So I restarted it Saturday on 14 count Aida in Smoketone. I'll be stitching all six of the charts in this series on this piece of fabric.

For my two starts, I tried to put a little extra time into them in honor of IHSW.

On Saturday, I started Q is for Quilting by Prairie Schooler.

On Sunday, I started Road Runner from The Official Looney Tunes Cross Stitch Book. There are seven more in this set that I want to start.

I hope everyone had a good weekend with friends and family, hook and yarn, needle and thread or all three!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Gifted Gorgeousness June

On the 15th of each month, I post my stitching for Gifted Gorgeousness, a year long SAL hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. There are lots of ways for things to qualify; the chart or the fabric or the floss can be a gift from or for someone, just to name a few.

If you saw yesterday's post, you saw I finished the Phineas and Ferb chart I was stitching as a gift for my daughter. I also finished the Pumpkin Boo Club chart given to me by my friend, Linda. This last month, I added a lot to my Santa's 12 Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler, another gift from Linda. This is a Sunday SAL I do with Linda and Kaye.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Thanks for reading and looking.
Blessings :-)