Permanent Stitchy Space

I think that one of the reasons I have barely stitched in the last year and a half is because it's such a pain to pull out all my stitchy stuff when my knitting is right beside me. I was often so tired I couldn't even reach to the side table to get that! I tend to like big projects, which means floor stand, light/magnifier, and lots of threads, needles, and patterns. So much stuff to get out and organize before I could even put a stitch in.

Now that school is finally finished, I have set up a permanent stitchy space again:

My dog Toka loves to steal my spot on the couch.

I have stitched more in the past 2 weeks than I have in the rest of 2015, I think. Even on the days I'm dead tired I can often bring myself to put in a few stitches at least. I'm starting to get excited by stitching again. I want to pull out some of my big, super complicated pieces and give them some love!

Before that happens though, I really want to finish Elizabeth by Mirabilia.

I still have a long way to go (that is a ridiculously big pink dress), but at least I am making progress on a more consistent basis. Woot!

Plan for 2015 - The Year of 3s

2014 was a disappointing crafting year.

I gave up papercrafting and donated all of my supplies to a friend's mother and her crafting cronies.

I did a little bit of English paper piecing, but no major progress and I haven't touched it in 4 months.

I barely cross stitched. I had one finish at the beginning of February and nothing else is even close to being done.

I taught myself to knit in March and got terribly, horribly, irrevocably addicted. :)  My stash went from 0 to 60 in less than 9 months. I have finished 3 wash cloths, a doggie blanket, a cowl, and 2 hitchhiker shawlettes. Okay -- so this area of my crafting wasn't so disappointing after all.

I tried to get back into SALs and blog events this past year to encourage and motivate progress. It didn't work so well.

I've decided to try a new approach. Since I have a billion and one WIPs and am always itching to have even more starts, I need to find a way to concentrate and have a few finishes. So I proclaim 2015 to be

THE YEAR OF 3s. 

What this means is that I will only have 3 projects on the go in each of my crafty areas (cross stitching, knitting, and English paper piecing). Once I finish a project, then I can add in either a WIP or a new start in that crafty area.

Below are the projects I plan to work on and a pic of where they currently are at progress-wise.


My cross stitch projects for 2015 are:

Elizabeth (Mirabilia)

32 ct Silvery Skies lugana (Enchanting Lair), 2 over 2

DMC thread and Mill Hill beads

Started: Jan 9, 2012

Finished: ?

Stitchin' Pretty Waffles (Pattie Bennett)

18 ct eggshell monocanvas

DMC perle #5 in 311, 472, 3052, and Watercolours by Caron in 244 Olive Grove 

Started: Nov 2014

Finished: ?

Welcome (Kincavel Krosses)

18 ct white aida

Carrie's Creations in Pizzazz (silk) and DMC 3810

Started: Jan 14, 2012

Finished: ?

My knitting projects for 2015 are:

2x2 Ribbed for Pleasure Hat

Cascade Heritage Silk Paints in 9789 (green)

Needles: US size 2.5 (3.00 mm)

Started: September 14, 2014

Finished: ?

Toe-up stockinette sock with afterthought heel (no pattern)

String Theory Colorworks' Continuum (MCN) in Atom

Needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm)

Started: December 27, 2014

Finished: ?

Vortex Shawl

Knit Pick's Stroll Tonal in Summer Blooms

Needles: US size 6 (4.00 mm)

Started: December 12, 2014

Finished: ?

My English paper piecing projects for 2015 are:

Grandma's Garden Throw (variation)

 

Select fabrics from Batik Paradise collection by ConnectingThreads.com and 

random white and white-on-white fabric

Expected blanket size: 63" x 61"

hexie size: 1 1/4"

diamond size: 1 1/4"

triangle size: 1 1/4"

Started: June 14, 2013

Restarted: June 1, 2014

Finished: ?

6-point Stars Blanket

Fusions Mist by Robert Kaufman in Pear, Forest, Sable, & Ivory

Expected star size: 24" x 24"

Expected blanket size: 5' x 5'

 diamond size: 2"

Started: July 29, 2013

Finished: ?

Arrowtail Quilt

Indigo Patchwork collection by ConnectingThreads.com

Expected blanket size: 72" x 78"

45 degree diamond size: 4"

Started: (still cutting fabric)

Finished: ?

I'm planning to do a monthly review of Yo3 progress every month on the 20th. If you want to join in, let me know and I'll add a linky thingy on those posts, if not, I'll do it on my own.

I think a narrower focus will allow me to make more significant progress. Honestly though -- I freaking love my crafty time in whatever shape, size, or amount it comes in. Here's to a great crafty year in 2015!!

Late Turtle Trot

I have been a particularly poor blogger lately. Sorry. :(  Life has been a bit nuts.

However, I do have progress to show on a few of the pieces from my Turtle Trot list. (For more info on Turtle Trot, go here.)

I've put in a few more stitches on Welcome by Kincavel Krosses.

And I have been busily working on Elizabeth by Mirabilia for the last 2 weeks (and loving every stitch).

I think there's a chance my stitching mojo is back. Yay!

Turtle Trot SAL - January

Last year I didn't participate in any SALs (I think the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, the WIPocalypse SAL, and the TUSAL in 2012 burnt me out a little). This year I decided to ease myself back into the swing of things by participating in the Turtle Trot SAL hosted by BAP Attack.

I've chosen 10 projects, both older UFOs and newer WIPs, that I would like to make slow and steady progress on this year. These pics are the most up-to-date available for each project.

1. Baked Alaska (Glendon Place)

2. Catch a Falling Star (HAED)

3. Ciara Blue (Blackwork Journey)

4. Damask Square (Ink Circles)

Side note: Damask Square was my New Year's Day start for 2014. This is the first progress pic of it. It's stitched over 1 on 28 ct black lugana using white HDF silk.

5. Drama Queen (custom chart by Skitzzzzz)

6. Elizabeth (Mirabilia)

7. Home Sweet Home (HAED)

8. Lickle Bit Shy (DMC)

9. Welcome (Kincavel Krosses)

10. Wise Wisdom (Stoney Creek)

Not a good start to the year

… in terms of blogging, that is. Despite my good intentions, I somehow didn't find time to blog until a week into 2014! My apologies!

Better late than never though, right? And I do have pics for you this time. While I might have been remiss in my blogging duties, I have still been stitching whenever I can find a spare minute (usually between the hours of 10:00pm and 1:00am).

First up -- more pretty pink skirt for Elizabeth!

I still have a lot of pink skirt left, plus the double ruffle on the bottom, her chair, her arms, neck, and face, her hair, and a ton of beads. She's lovely but a much bigger endeavour than I had originally thought.

I also put a smidge more time into Blue Ciara by Blackwork Journey.

I have a ton of WIPs that I want to work on (and a new start or three), but I think for the time being I'm going to stick to these two as my main big projects, plus I have two littler ones that travel more easily. (One is a new start that I'll have pics of soon.)

Side note: I noticed during my final post of 2013 that 9 of the 13 stitchy finishes (and both of the crochet finishes) I had last year were gifts. I think this year I need to concentrate more on stitching for me.

A little more skirt

I've been working on Elizabeth again. She's very relaxing to work on. Big and blocky = easy peasy stitching!

There's still so much more skirt to go though.

A definite difference

I wasn't planning on it, but I ended up taking the weekend off. No schoolwork, no guilt, no nothing. It was WONDERFUL!!

So instead, I spent the weekend stitching, watching soccer, and napping. Glorious! I decided to work on Elizabeth again. Mostly I've been stitching stuff for other people during the last few months, and this piece is for me.

Here she is the last time I updated the blog:

I've put a few stitches in her on and off since then, so here she is before I started the weekend:

And here she is as of tonight:

It feels so good to see such progress on a piece for me.

The biggest dress ever

I've been working on Elizabeth by Mirabilia in spurts lately, but there has definitely been progress! The big black bow is mostly done and I've finally started adding to her skirt on the left-hand side. Knowing there are several more pages of pattern just of her skirt ... it blows my mind how big her dress is. Holy cow she's going to be huge!

Thankfully she's beautiful and fun to stitch. :)

Keep on stitching ...

School starts soon, so class prep has started and is taking up quite a bit of time, but the stitching keeps progressing.

Elizabeth (by Mirabilia) has really grown over the past few weeks. I'm excited that the black blob now actually looks like a bow!

Metamorphosis (by Ink Circles) has made huge progress! I forgot how quick this one stitches up. I'm already working on motif six, and there's only one more after this one!

Now, if I only stitched on these two pieces, progress would continue by leaps and bounds. Alas ... I have other projects that steal my attention at times. More on those next time.

A bit of a bender

Some insomnia plus a little extra "me" time means a good amount of progress!

Elizabeth got most of her bodice and more of her bow added:

I love this one more and more now that it actually almost looks like something. She is going to be huge though!

Metamorphosis had two motifs completed and a third started:

This is such a quick, easy stitch. I forgot how fast it can go. The fire colourway looks better than I had hoped - I like it!

A new start was made on my next crochet project - a stripey scarf:

I must admit that I struggled to get this one started (had to chain 432 ... twice!), mostly because I have fairly tight tension in my stitches and the first chain was just too tight to use. On the second try, I moved up two hook sizes to make the foundation chain, then went back to the called-for E hook and it is now going swimmingly! I really, really enjoy working on this. It's super simple as well, using either slip stitches or single crochets. I do appreciate the mindlessness. :P

And the quilting store received another visit from little ol' me (oops):

I just love the Robert Kaufman Fusions Mist fabrics -- great colours, awesome mottling, and subtle print. I keep thinking of things I want to make!