Crazy 15 Challenge starts tomorrow!

I think I'm ready for it if there is such a thing..lol. I posted my list up on the group Yahoo page and I think it's good, maybe need to tweak a couple of choices. As it stands now I'm doing these projects:
1. Joan Elliott Green Goddess


2. Joan Elliott The Astrologer

3. Ink Circles Pizzazz

4. Ink Circles Love Letters Nouveau

5. Bent Creek Snowman

6. Bent Creek Four Trees

7. Bent Creek Peaceful Forest

8. Bent Creek Leaf Sampler (restart)

9. Bent Creek Home Sweet Home Sampler

10. Bent Creek Every Day Sampler

11. Cottage of the Month January Country Cottage Needleworks

11a. (Same as above for February depends when my auto ship comes)

12. Brighten the Corner by The Needle Notion

13. Butterflies on Nine Patches by Dimensions

14. Heartfelt Welcome Leisure Arts


15. Keep Calm and Cross Stitch MagicXStitch

I also need to get my WIPocalypse list done as well. I think I may move the Bent Creek Leaf Sampler redo from the Crazy 15 List to the WIP list because I already started it but I then abandoned it for a retweeked pattern I found on the internet. Just have to see.  I am also thinking of adding a couple of Bent Creek Stoneware kits I have to the list and swap out for the Dimensions kit and the Heartfelt Welcome. I'm so excited, seems like the last month I sort of dropped my stitchy bug in favor of playing too many online games. I need to get my focus back and I think this is just the way to do it.

I doubt I'll get around to starting the February Cottage SAL in January as I'm going to try to keep those starting in the months of the chart. My ABC Stitch Therapy auto ship is on it's way though so I can't wait to see it. I'm not much on pink but you can't help it for a Valentines' month.

Lovelies..

I have to say there are a lot of motifs that I just love, peacocks included. I saw this little gift card box made by a company called Punch Studio at our local bookstore. I saw it and of course having a peacock on it, said ok what can I use this for. It has a handy magnetic closure on it so it stays shut tight, and it fits my embroidery scissors plus whatever notions or needles I am using at the moment. I think it's pretty nifty...

Looking around the same store later I found this larger box that I now use to store my evenweave fabrics in. I think that is one of the things I love about needlework is that it sort of gives you an appreciation for lovely little things that maybe you'd miss.

While I was out with my husband during the holidays we went to a local antique store and they had some really neat old sewing supplies. I picked up this old packet of needles for embroidery and this great old paper needle book with plenty of needles still intact. They were as the cover said still rust proof after all these years.

New Year New Stash!

Happy Holidays and a soon to be Happy New Year to all! I got down to organizing my stash today for the Crazy 15 and WIPocalypse. I'm still not all the way done but whoo boy did I take a LOT of pics..lol. I still have to get out some charts to add to my bag of goodies I'll be starting and working on in the coming months but so far so good. I added to my Valdani thread stash earlier in the month with some holiday and woodsy colors. Those are pictured above. Below are some of the projects I'm ready to start for the Crazy 15. I'll try to get pics of all of the projects before the New Year.

I must be crazy...

I haven't even had a chance to finish up the Baby Sampler yet and here I go signing up for SAL's all over the place! It's too fun not to so here I go, so far I've signed up for and gotten the auto stash for the Cottage of the Month SAL of Country Cottage Needleworks. They are too dang cute not to do and they look to stitch up fast. I'm saving mine to start in January and I'll do them the first week of the month (hopefully hehe).  I think I signed up for the Tusal 2012 but I have to check the list to see if I did. I've been a total scatterbrain lately. I also just asked to be signed up for the 2012 WIPocalypse as well. If I get on it I'll post the info for those who are interested. I have heard of the Crazy 15 as well and if I find that one I may as well get on there too. Oh let's not forget I am on the Ink Circles SAL as well, in addition to starting to large Joan Elliot pieces too. I'm nuts, just plain crazy but it's fun. I hope my fingers don't fall off..hehe.
WIPocalypse Information

Totally Useless Stitch A Long Info

Cottage of the Month SAL

If anyone knows the origin or webpage for the Crazy 15 Challenge I can't seem to find it. Now I'm off to put my list together and have a couple of Dove chocolates..

In the home stretch with Baby Sampler!

And a good thing too because I am now a Great Aunt! Now if only I can spare a few minutes to finish this up I can get it off to the framers.

Oh Ebay why do you tempt me?

Made a recent purchase on Ebay and scored a bargain of 9 roll of 14ct Aida for. 99 (not including shipping). I have been more into evenweave lately but this was too good to pass up. The tubes were funky dirty but the fabric is fine. I love all the colors and as every craft horder says I'll use it for something! The colors are Antique White, Ivory, Platinum, Blush, Lt. Beige, Lt. Blue, Delft Blue, Black and Pine Mist.

Bent Creek Snappy Sampler finish

Shoo say that post title 3x fast..lol. This one was purely silly, too many mistakes but still came out ok. I used Carrie's Creations thread in Sunset on 28ct Jobelan (same fabric in Nov. Twirls._

Ornament Finish

Here it is all finished!

Tiny holiday finish

Just finished this small ornament and it came out pretty cute.

This is a test! I just got my first smartphone and I am testing out posting from my phone.

Timely Finish

In honor of it being November I thought I'd get this piece started (and finished). It is November Twirls by Bent Creek. I am still working on a few other things but this one was just too fun and timely so out it came. I used Valdani Golden Autumn for the border and for the lower left leaf and Valdani Orange Blossom for the lower right leaf. The rest of it besides the lettering is Weeks Dye Works with what the pattern called for except I swapped out the Maple for the lettering in GAST with WDW Molassas. I don't know what I'll make out of this or if I'll frame it but for the time being, it just gets to be cute..lol.

A Finish and a Start

Yay a finish! Bent Creek Peace Be With You is now finished. I have GOT to get on framing my finished cross stitches. I have over ten finished and I think I've framed maybe two. Here it is!

I had a really fun time as this was the first time I've ever worked on linen. Right after I finished I got another one ready to start. Bent Creek Leaf samper. I absolutely love fall as you can see from previous posts so this one I had to start now. My rotation is now this piece and the Baby Sampler which I need to get finished soon as the baby is due in early December. I have two smalls I want to get started on too as well in addition to a large piece during Chrismas break.

Bent Creek Peace Be With You start

Right after I finished Shy Violet I started this small Bent Creek kit Peace Be with You. It came with the pattern, fabric and three stoneware buttons to sew on once the piece is stitched. I LOVE this one. I went ahead and got the thread for this, which is GAST Dried Thyme which was for the leaves. The pattern is from 2004 and the colors I think have changed a bit since then. The skein I purchased at my LNS was almost pastel compared to the more olive color on the model. I swapped it out for Valdani Olives which is a nice compliment to the WDW Chesapeake and Teal Frost. I also used WDW Molasses which I got for another Bent Creek pattern I'll be doing later for the GAST Dark Chocolate since they were so similar and I already had the Molasses. Can you tell I'm thread happy?
I'm seriously in love with Valdani threads, they are so great to work with, really nice colors and the skein is twice the length of WDW and GAST for the same price. So far I've used three different colors in two projects and I'm going to get more in the future. I can't say enough good things about Valdani thread. I'm also hooked on Bent Creek as well. I found quite a few patterns that I love and got a good price. I have another one of these Bent Creek Stoneware kits on the way and I can't wait to get these done. They are really fun to stitch.

Shy Violet finish!

With help from my official lap warmer Sage. Isn't he cute? (Nose is not this large just too close with the camera..lol).

Decisions decisions...

I've completed the dark green portion of Ink Circles Shy Violet and now I'm debating on a few things. The model is stitched on Vintage River Willow linen from Lakeside Linens & Designs. I am stitching mine on a piece of cream aida which is either 18 or 16ct (bit of a mystery piece floating around my stash). The piece calls for a cream thread accent using GAST buttermilk, but instead because I used cream fabric I'm thinking of filling in the green with a green that matches the River Willow color much like the model. The color match is either DMC 522 or 523. I'd leave the cream accents unstitched so the cream fabric shows through. The other change I'm thinking of is the GAST Sugarplum changed out for Valdani Mauve Orchid. I really like that deep purple color. I still might use Sugarplum as I'm also thinking of stitching this three times in a row, maybe dark purple in the middle and the lighter on either side? Oh I always do this to myself instead of stitching what it calls for I play with the colors...Decisions decisions...

MMM Fall is here...

Been busy with putting up Fall decorations, finished a small cross stitch project and still working on the LK Birth Sampler. I also started Ink Circles Shy Violet to keep up with my Ink Circles SAL. Get ready, lots of pictures today... Here is our mantle before, aka the clutter shelf...

 Here it is now all prettied up for fall (my favorite time of year).

 These are some letters I'm working on, sneak peak of a project coming up...

This is a little project I finished up and isn't she cute? It's a little kit I got and spruced up with glitter, because glitter makes everything better right?

 I even glittered her feet with striped green and black socks...

Here is my start on Ink Circles Shy Violet. I'm using Valdani Evergreens right now, its such a rich green I LOVE their threads.

Sew Oregon Shop Hop

This past Saturday my best friend and I went on the Sew Oregon Shop Hop 2011 traveling from Southern Oregon up to Riddle, Roseburg, Sutherlin, Drain, Coos Bay and Bandon. We had so much fun and got some great stuff.

Birth Sampler update

Here is the latest update on the Lizze Kate Birth Sampler. I really like the evenweave fabric it's a lot easier than I thought to work with. This is 28 Ct Lugana in Miracle Mint color.  The design isn't large just 3.5x7 so I used what my local Needle shop calls Little Bits, this one being 13.5x17.5 so I'll have some fabric left over for smaller projects.

Birth announcement

My nephew is soon to be a proud Papa and so all other projects got set aside to do a birth announcement. I searched around and found Birth Sampler by Lizzie Kate. Here is my progress so far.

The baby is due in December and I'm hoping to have it done well before then except the date of birth. As soon as the baby is born I'll finish it up, frame it and send up to them in Washington state. I'm so excited to be a Great Aunt!

Namaste stitching finished!

I've finished the stitching on Ink Circles Namaste today, the red Root Chakra was last. Now to wash it, iron it and determine what size I'll cut them out (outside diameter) for sewing into a wall hanging. Now that these are done I'll finally get back to finishing my Dragonfly Pond project. I have the felt and the fabric for it, just have to finish the cross stitch and backstitching on the needlebook. I'm debating about doing a smaller Scissor Keep. The size called for in the kit is sort of huge for my scissors so I'm thinking I'll do a dragonfly and then a border and make a keep from that. After that is finished which should take till early next week I can FINALLY start on my secret project. All the stash has been gathered and I'm ready to start. I am so anxious to start although it'll be my first time using evenweave so I've thought about starting on something smaller to practice first.

I also found out recently that I'm going to be a great Aunt and so I am waiting for the mailman to bring a new chart as I'm stitching up a baby sampler for the new baby. As soon as the chart comes I'll post more on that.

Second to last Chakra finished...

One more to go and then the sewing begins! I still want to do this in a regular bellpull as it's been so much fun making this. The one thing I want to do is on the bellpull make the black the darkest color and then add a lighter color. I think it would look amazing like that.

Solar Chakra finished

I just am having a blast doing this pattern. The colors are so fun and bright. I finished the Solar Plexus Chakra a couple of nights ago.

Anniversary Present

My wonderful SO Steve got me a new sewing machine for our first anniversary. I have my mom's really nice older Necchi but I'm not really great at sewing or more importantly I don't know how to troubleshoot when something goes wonky. I wanted a really basic machine that I could play on and learn how to sew on with out worrying about messing up. Here it is, a Brother LS2250PRW Project Runway limited edition. I got a great deal on it online after some time shopping around. It arrived this morning from FedEx and I am stoked. I got it out of the box but haven't got it set up yet. Most of my sewing supplies are out in the garage behind all my other crafty stuff so I have to have my sweet husband go poke around for me.