Yes, I Still Stitch

I have not yet managed to rekindle my stitchy mojo ... I reach for my knitting far more often than I reach for my stitching. However, on occasion, progress is made.

I've done a little bit of work on my counted canvas piece - Stitchin' Pretty Waffles by Pattie Bennett.

I think this will be the last round of squares I do on this project. The pattern calls for more, but I'm about done with it. It's a decent size and I do think it's very pretty. I just need a finish so I can move on. There has definitely not been enough finishes in my crafty life lately.

Still Stitching?

I haven't totally abandoned cross stitching. Really! I haven't!

I just haven't had the time or focus to work on anything, plus I've been a little in love with knitting. Thanks to my stitchy friends though I am occasionally forced to stitch, which reminds me how much I do love it!

Over the course of a weekend retreat in February and a stitchy night in April, I made a little progress on a few things.

I've made a fair bit of progress on Stitchin' Pretty Waffles by Pattie Bennett:

And a tiny bit of progrss on my Welcome sign by Kincavel Krosses:

Even though I have barely stitched in the last year, I certainly haven't let that stop me from adding to my stash. I blame this on my friend Caroline. (Check out her blog here. She's full of crafty goodness!) She's been working on the pattern Amtrak by Sampler Cove Designs for a while and it is LOVELY! So I finally bought it and the floss I want to use (some gorgeous Dinky Dyes silk). Still need to decide on fabric though ... and a start date.

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!!

Thread & Eye Stitching Retreat

Last weekend I went to my LNS' stitching retreat. The first day and a half was spent just chillin and stitchin, and then on Saturday I spent the day (and most of the evening) working on the counted canvas class project. After a little extra work once I got home, I managed to finish it.

The design is by Needle Delights. The class was wonderfully organized and everyone was able to pick a colourway they liked with an array of different floss types. As an added bonus, a finishing method was provided too. It isn't simply a frame for the stitching, but it's actually a trivet/mug coaster. How cool is that?

An unexpected happy dance

I went to visit my parents briefly this weekend and of course I took a few projects along with me. Mostly I did schoolwork, but I did find a few late night hours to put into stitching. Lo and behold, I made progress. A lot of progress!

So much progress, in fact, that Birds of a Feather by From Nancy's Needle, my very first counted canvas piece, was finished!

I am delighted with how it turned out though. And yes, I will stitch another canvas piece, but I've decided not to start something right away. I'd like to make some more progress on the size of my WIP pile before I start more projects (and there are already a few new planned starts in the pipeline).

I'd like to frame it and put it on the wall, but I'm undecided how I want it framed and what colour mats to put with it. Any suggestions? I think this one might require some prolonged thought before it goes to visit the framer.

Lots of Swallows

Picked up my counted canvas piece for the first time in a while, and managed to get all of the flying swallow motifs stitched in the big border.

I see a happy dance in the fairly near future! End of September (or earlier) is what I'm aiming for.

Updates on progress, finishes, framing, and a new start

I have a bad habit of not updating on projects when I only do a tiny bit of work on them. Over the course of a month or so I might work on a project several times, but only minor progress occurs each time. However, that progress adds up. :)

Today's post is full of updates -- most of the work took place over the last month and not just since my last post. I sadly can't spend that much concentrated time on my crafting.

Alright, let's get on to the good stuff! Pictures coming up ...

Birds of a Feather got some zig zag added:

Elizabeth has more of her poofy pink skirt:

Rules for Life came home from the framers:

My granny square lapghan is finished!! It is currently being blocked. (This is my first time ever blocking something, so it isn't perfect, but it's a huge improvement from before I blocked it.)

And I started something new ... Metamorphosis (by Ink Circles) in a "fire" colourway (think yellow-orange-red ... eventually):

It always feels like I never have much time to craft, but looking at this post makes me think I manage just fine. Yay! :)

Adding borders

Over the past few weeks I haven't done nearly as much stitching as I'd like -- mostly because I've become preoccupied with other crafts! However, I have managed a little progress on my counted canvas piece (Birds of a Feather by Nancy's Needles).

Two of the five borders are now complete. I can see the beginning of the end of this piece and I am loving every stitch. I can confidently say I am addicted to counted canvas. Plans are in action for several new canvas starts later this year.

Diamond to a Square

Another stitchy day with my friend Caroline means progress on my counted canvas project - Birds of a Feather. (It also means more crafty addictions, but that's another story for another day.)

I love the symmetry of this design, and I can't leave it in a non-symmetrical state (which means I have to keeping stitching each part until it's done). As a result, the inner diamond is now a square:

Only the 5 borders left to go!

A little needle work

After not stitching for almost 5 whole days while I was away at a conference, I took my counted canvas project with me to visit my parents and gave it a little love.

It's a smidge blurry, sorry!

I have loved every stitch of this project and I wish I could spend more time with it. It's fun and easy and fast and fabulous!

Dribs and drabs of progress

I have not been stitching as much as I would like to lately, so progress is minimal. However, I've been trying to stifle my urge to jump around from project to project too much and I'm hoping that will help me get a finish sooner rather than later.

Today I have progress on two projects.

First, Rules For Life by Kincavel Krosses:

Second, Birds of a Feather by From Nancy's Needle:

Fingers crossed I can squeeze a little more stitchy time into my schedule soon.

Progress in stages

I've been rather busy lately with school, so I've been spending my few spare moments working on projects that don't require a huge amount of concentration. I'm quite taken with the canvas project I started a few weeks ago, so I've made a good bit of progress. I've also been trying to capture the "stages" as I finish them. (My apologies for the one blurry pic, but it's the only one I have at that point.)

It's kind of fun to see the project grow like this. :)

Bits of progress and a finish too!

My attention has been kind of scattered this week -- very busy with school, so I don't have big chunks of time to stitch. That tends to make me project hop!

First up, is my newest project Birds of a Feather by Nancy's Needle. I am really loving working on this piece, and the progress attests to that. I've managed to finish the inner octagon already!

I can't bring myself to work on Cirque des Carreaux again quite yet, so I pulled out another piece that is a simple, mindless stitch - Rules for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I think I made some great progress on this piece too. (Maybe doing a quick rotation is the way to go for me ... who knows?)

And finally, I started and finished the April design for the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL hosted by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

And the first pillowfront for my nieces is fully stitched. Now I just need to find the time, fabric, and motivation to make the actual pillow.

I'm a stitching addict (aka why I shouldn't try new things)

So, I did it. I tried counted canvas.

And of course, I love it.

I had a blast yesterday morning learning how at my friend's house. Thankfully I already have experience with hardanger, so the chart wasn't too difficult to figure out.

My problem is ... once I start, it's hard to stop.

I did the middle squares and 6 of the 8 "bird" motifs while at my friend's place. Once I got home, I just couldn't put it down! I just kept stitching and stitching! It took all my willpower to put it away once I was done the inner star. I can still hear it calling to me from its project bag.

I'm in trouble.

I've already started browsing websites for patterns. I am going to try to restrain from kitting up any more until I've finished this one. That's the rule -- only one counted canvas project on the go at a time. (We'll see how long that lasts ...)

Progress, progress, new start?

Lots to share today!!  I have made excellent progress on Cirque des Carreaux in the past week. I've now finished 4 1/2 + pages (don't you just love throwing away pages of a chart that are completely highlighted??!), and just 2 partially completed pages to go!

I also got a bee in my bonnet (no pun intended) and put in about 1000 stitches on Sunflower Bee - the project I started at the retreat for my dad. The colours aren't too exciting, but the subtle pattern emerging is kinda cool.

I'm not entirely sure I love stitching 1 over 1 full crosses on 28 ct. I picked up some more fabric from my LNS the other day to restart QS Blue Butterfly, so I might try tenting 2 over 1 on 28 ct for that and see how it goes.

I did mention a new start, didn't I? Well, it's not quite a new start, but I kitted up something new and will be starting it in the next few days. My dear stitching friends, who are INCREDIBLY enabling, have talked me into trying counted canvas. I was browsing my LNS the other day while I waited for help with fabric and saw this pattern:

Well, those are some of my favourite colours and I just fell head over heels for this pattern. Of course I bought it on the spot, and the next thing I know, I'm being told to kit it up so I can learn how to do it this Tuesday. More pics to come I guess.

Aren't these threads lovely? I havent stitch with the Caron Snow or the Rainbow Gallery Overture before, so this will be quite the adventure!