Happy Dance - Violin

Started: 3/26/2020

Finished: 3/29/2020

Stitching Time: 2 hours 58 minutes

This violin came from Cross Stitch Crazy #256 and was designed by Fiona Baker.  

It's stitched on white 14-count Aida.  I wanted to change it to normal violin colors, but my attempt failed so I started over with the called for colors.  It's stitched as charted, but I left off the border since none of Kyleigh's other squares have a border.

This square will be going on Kyleigh's quilt and I chose it because her grandfather took her to a garage sale and let her play with a violin.  She immediately signed up for Beginning Strings at school and has taken the class twice.

Next Up: Cheerleader

WIPacolypse - March 2020

It's the last Sunday of the month which means it's time for the WIPacolypse SAL where we post what we're doing to finish all of our WIPs by the end of the world.  This SAL is hosted by Measi at Measi's Musings Thank you Measi for hosting this SAL.  Click on the link for more information or to see what others have posted.

In my introduction post, I set some goals for this year.

1) Stitch Deer Scene from Dimensions - Progress = 10 hours in March

2) Finish Let's Learn from Out Cat - Finished in February

3) Finish Big Trees - No progress

4) Finish Advent Animals by Brooke's Books - No progress

5) Finish Tinkerbell - No progress

6) Finish Leslie Teare's 2019 Owl SAL - No progress

7) Complete the Peppermint Purple Year Long SAL on Facebook.  So far, so good!

 8) Complete the 2020 Stitcher's Challenge on Q4OC (Quilts for Older Children and Adults). - No progress

New Goal: Stitch 12 Furry Tales Female Mice to be sent to WOCS for a quilt. 

In addition to these, I'll be stitching smaller pieces for Christmas ornaments, Charity Quilts and Kyleigh's quilt which still needs a few more squares.

Kyleigh's Quilt:

 Christmas Ornaments:

Question of the Month:  Have you ever adopted a piece from someone else or gave up a piece to someone else? Which piece and why?  No, I haven't.

 

Happy Dance and Peppermint Purple Update

Started: 3/24/2020

Finished: 3/26/2020

Stitching Time: 2 1/2 hours

This Irish Fairy is from an old issue of Cross Stitch Crazy and was designed by Lucie Heaton for her Challenge Lucie column.  

It's stitched on white 14-count Aida as charted with the called for floss except that I substituted 744 for the 726 called for again, because I still can't find my 726.  (My daughter brought me a skein along with our groceries last night.)

This is another square for Kyleigh's quilt.  I chose this one because she's part Irish on her father's side and her name is spelled the Gaelic way.

Next Up: Violin

I also finished this week's block for the Peppermint Purple SAL.  Believe it or not, this is the 13th week of 2020 so this is the 13th block.  This time I used DMC Variations #4245 and it only took 40 minutes to stitch.

I also want to thank Jo (Serendipitous Stitching) who pointed out that I'd missed several stitches in block 12 and then sent me a picture with the errors circled so that they were easy to find and fix.  Here's the corrected block:

And here's the whole SAL so far:

Smalls SAL - March 2020

It's the last Friday in March so it's time again for participating in the Smalls SAL which is hosted by Mary at Mary's Thread.  For this SAL, we post the small projects we've stitched during the month.  Some people stitch a project just for this SAL and others stitch a monthly design.  Since I stitch a lot of smalls, I just post the ones I've stitched during the month. If you'd like to know more about the SAL and see what other stitchers are posting, click on the above link.

Because I'm concentrating on squares for Kyleigh's quilt, I have six smalls to report this month.

Irish Fairy - Lucie Heaton (Cross Stitch Crazy)

Christmas Bullfinch - Punochka (2019 JCS Ornament Issue)

Red Christmas - Nikyscreations (2019 JCS Ornament Issue)

Fireworks - Cross Stitch Crazy (Designer & Issue Unknown)

Follow Your Heart - Emma Congdon (Cross Stitch Crazy #266)

Musical Carrot - Lucie Heaton (Cross Stitch Crazy #261)

Happy Dance - Musical Carrot

Started: 3/23/2020

Finished: 3/24/2020

Stitching Time: 2 hours 58 minutes

This happy little guy was designed by Lucie Heaton in the Challenge Lucie section of Cross Stitch Crazy #261.

It's stitched as charted with the called for DMC floss on 14-count white Aida.

I chose this design for Kyleigh's quilt, partly because he looks so cute and when I first tried to teach Kyleigh to cross stitch, she wanted to stitch a carrot, why, I don't know.

Next Up: Irish Fairy 

Happy Dance - Fireworks

Started: 3/19/2020

Finished: 3/22/2020

Stitching Time: 4 hours 30 minutes

Fireworks is from an older issue of Cross Stitch Crazy.  I also don't know the designer, because I had torn out the chart, but didn't note any of the pertinent information on the chart.

It's stitched white 14-count Aida.  It was supposed to be stitched on black, but Kyleigh's quilt squares are all white. It's stitched mostly as charted with the called for DMC except that I had to substitute 744 for the called for 726, because I couldn't find my 726.  I said it was stitched mostly as charted, because there's at least one unintentional customization.

This is another square for Kyleigh's quilt, chosen because she likes watching fireworks.

Next Up: Musical Carrot (also for Kyleigh's Quilt)

Peppermint Purple Update - Week 12

So far I've done a good job of keeping up with this SAL so here's week 12.  This was a double sized block that took me one hour and 50 minutes to stitch.  It's stitched with DMC 602.

After the next row, there's a block that goes across the entire project and I've decided to stitch it in either black or dark gray and then repeat the colors in this section.   That will happen twice.  I've also decided not to do a border.

Here's the whole thing so far:

Happy Dance - Follow Your Heart

Started: 3/11/2020

Finished: 3/18/2020

Stitching Time: 6 hours 47 minutes

Follow Your Heart is the free cover kit that came with Cross Stitch Crazy #266 and was designed by Emma Congdon.  It's stitched as charted with the materials in the kit except that I replaced the fabric with a larger piece so that I could use a hoop.  It took so long because there were several sections that had to be stitched twice.

I was planning to make up as the magazine did, but Kyleigh saw me stitching on it and said "I wonder whose quilt that's going on."  Fortunately, because I replaced the fabric, it will work for her quilt.  She also stated that she was getting tired of waiting for it, so I'm going to spend the rest of March working on squares for it.  

Next Up: Fireworks

Happy Dance - Red Christmas

Started: 3/13/2020

Finished: 3/16/2020

Stitching Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

This is Red Christmas by Nikyscreations from the  2019 JCS Ornament issue.  It's called Red Christmas because it was supposed to be stitched in red, but I used DMC Variations 4519 instead.  It's stitched as charted on 14-count gold dusted Aida.

This is my ornament for the JCS SAL on Facebook.  It's not the chosen ornament for the month, but I wanted something quicker and not on dark fabric.

Next Up: Follow Your Heart

Peppermint Purple Update - Weeks 10 and 11

I didn't get a chance to work on my Peppermint Purple SAL last week, because Deer Scene was on my floor stand, so I did both Weeks 10 and 11 this week.  These both looked hard when I first saw them, but thanks to the person who suggested doing one row at a time, they were fairly easy.

Week 10 is done in DMC 90 and took 53 minutes.  Week 11 was done in DMC Variations 4090 and also took 53 minutes.

Here's all eleven weeks:

End of Rotation - Deer Scene

This is Deer Scene, a kit from Dimensions after 10 hours.  It's being stitched as charted with the materials provided.  And here is what the finished project will look like.

I'm stitching this for the BJD Year Long Challenge on Cross Stitch Frog Busters.  (BJD stands for Bucilla, Jan Lynn or Dimensions)  You start a new project from one of these companies, the object being to finish it by December 31st.  This is the fourth year I've joined this challenge and so far I've only completed one of the projects.  I do plan to finish this one though since it could be a Christmas present for either my father-in-law or my brother-in-law.

Next Up:  Red Christmas (Nikyscreations - 2019 JCS Ornament Issue)

Happy Dance - Christmas Bullfinch

Started: 2/24/2020

Finished: 3/2/2020

Total Hours Stitched: 7 hours and 54 minutes

Christmas Bullfinch appeared in the 2019 JCS ornament issue and was designed by Punochka.  

It's stitched on beige 14-count Aida and stitched as charted with the called for DMC floss, except that I couldn't find my 3777 so used 355 on the bird instead.  I also substituted 347 for the 3777 in the ornaments and used black for the backstitching instead of white.  It looks like there should be another snowflake in the upper left corner, but it wasn't charted for one and I decided to leave it as is.

This is the February ornament for the JCS SAL on Facebook and  I will be making it into a small pillow.

February Recap

This post is more for my record than anything else, because I know you've seen all the pictures in other posts. 

I felt that I didn't accomplish as much in February as I did in January and my statistics proved me to be right.  In February, I stitched on five projects and finished three of them.

Valentine Mouse - finished 2/9/2020

Father Christmas - finished 2/23/2020

Let's Learn From Our Cat - Finished 2/28/2020

I also worked on the Peppermint Purple 52-Week SAL and have completed the first two rows.

I also worked on Christmas Bullfinch from the 2019 JCS Ornament Issue, but haven't completed it yet.

Statistics:

Days Stitched This Month (at least 1/2 hour) = 29

Days Stitched This Year (at least 1/2 hour) = 60
Total Hours Stitched This Month = 46 hours and 20 minutes

Total Hours Stitched This Year = 101 hours and 36 minutes
Number of Projects Worked on This Month = 5
Number of Projects Worked on This Year = 12

Number of Projects Started This Month = 3
Number of Projects Started This Year = 9
Number of Projects Finished This Month = 3 

Number of Projects Finished This Year = 8

February Happenings

One Friday a month, our church hosts KNO (Kids Night Out) where the parents can leave their children and go out for a date or just have some time to themselves.  So far, they've done Pac Man, Mario Brothers and on 1/31, they did Donkey Kong.  Janice is part of the committee that puts on the events and she is in charge of arts and crafts. 

Janice showing off her artwork

Janice, Joy (she's in charge of KNO) and Amorita ready for KNO

Kyleigh's school has an annual fundraiser called the Gala.  This year the theme is the  80's and they've been doing a lot of advertising.  One of the events included guessing how many gumballs were in a large jar and Kyleigh managed to guess the correct number.  For this, she got to keep them!

I go to a Bible Study Group that meets at the church on Wednesday mornings.  Every year, one of the male church members has a quartet come and sing to both our group and the ladies in the office.

I haven't shown any pictures of Taz lately, so I thought I'd include one here.  This is one of his favorite spots to hang out when I'm at my computer.  Look at those big eyes.

Kyleigh is now selling cookies at booth sales in front of various stores in the area.  Yesterday, she had two sales and was approached by a Mystery Shopper from Council at the first one.  Since she met all the requirements, she received a Blue Ribbon certificate.  Good News!  Kyleigh made her goal of selling 700 boxes this year.

Kyleigh's cheerleading group participated in a competition on February 22nd.  I had planned to go, but wasn't feeling well.  They won first place in their division and an Outstanding overall.

Kyleigh and Grace

Kyleigh and the Coaches

The Performance

The end of the performance

I usually stitch with a cat sitting beside me.  The other night I got up to get something and when I came back, he was holding my scissors.  David took the pictures while I was in the kitchen,