Happy Dance - Little Bear

Started: 1/17/2017

Finished: 1/29/2017

This is one of six Little Bear Ornaments from a kit by Joan Elliott.  It's stitched as charted on the white plastic canvas included.  

The one issue I had is that I couldn't tell the three yellow DMC apart so I've substituted 725,726 and 727 from my stash.  There's also an unintentional customization in the ribbon, but I'd already backstitched that area and I think it looks okay so I'm leaving it.

This was stitched as part of the Christmas All Year Round SAL on Stitch Mania.

Happy Dance - Let's Go on an Adventure

Started: 12/5/2016

Finished: 12/8/2016

The December installment of the 2016 Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery SAL took us to Canada, but I'm not sure of most of the symbolism.

This is stitched on a piece of 32-count Jobelan that I found in my stash (I don't know the color) with the called for DMC threads.

This will be given to my granddaughter for Christmas.  I asked my daughter which of the two SALs she thought Kyleigh would like best and she chose this one since it reminds her of Small World at Disneyland which is one of Kyleigh's favorite rides.

Pumpkin Passport Update (November)

  Started: 11/9/2016

Finished: 11/12/2016

The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

This time we visited Peru.  One more month to go and I think it has to be the USA.

This is being stitched on a piece of 16-count Jobelan from my stash with the called for DMC threads.  Here is the whole thing so far.  The color is better on the picture above.

Pumpkin Passport Update (October)

 Started: 10/1/2016

Finished: 10/3/2016

The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

This is being stitched on a piece of 16-count Jobelan from my stash with the called for DMC threads.  Here is the whole thing so far--only two months left.  The color is better on the picture above.

Pumpkin Passport Update - September

This time we went to Japan.  I love the cherry tree.   This is the Pumpkin Passport from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  It's stitched on a piece of 32-count evenweave from my stash.  There was no label on it so I don't know the type or color.  I'm also using the called for DMC.

And here is the whole project so far.  The colors in the above picture are closer to real life

Pumpkin Passport Update - August

I'm now caught up with the Pumpkin Passport SAL.  Here is the August installment which took us to India and was finished last night.

And here is both Egypt and India together.

Pumpkin Passport Update

I finished the July installment of the Pumpkin Passport from The Frosted Pumpkin last night.  This time we went to Egypt.

There are a couple of changes, one intentional and one unintentional.  I accidentally left off the 224 in her cheeks, but I actually like it better this way.  I did intentionally leave the face off the sun, because I thought it didn't belong in this type of stitch.

Catch up Post - June (Stitching Recap)

I didn't do a lot of stitching in June, but I finished two squares and two installments.

 

Jasmine

Started: 6/10/2016 

Finished: 6/12/2016

Stitched for Sofia's quilt for Q4OC (chart provided by the group)

 Puppy Alphabet - K

Started: 6/25/2016

Finished: 6/27/2016

Stitched for 2016 Stitcher's Challenge in Q4OC

Chart provided by the group

 Clouds Factory - Postcards from the World (May - New Delhi)

Started: 6/13/2016

Finished: 6/24/2016

Finally, the June installment of the Pumpkin Passport which took us to Russia.  The upper row is now complete.

May Catch Up Post - Picture Heavy

My stitching plans and stitching and blogging mojo both flew out the window in mid-May.  The stitching plans have changed and the stitching mojo came back in July, but I've been trying to decide how to catch up.  I've finally decided just to do a monthly post or two rather than doing a weekly WIP and individual happy dance posts.

First the stitching:
I finished the May installment of the Pumpkin Passport which took us to Greece.

I restarted the Advent Animals on one piece of darker blue Aida.  I wasn't really happy with the way the white looked on the light blue fabric and a wall hanging made more sense to me than individual finishes.  I stitched #6 and #7 and then went back and stitched #1.  I've also stitched the number on #2.

 

I also finished the third Angelic Ornament (the praying angel).  This was my current UFO project, but it was set aside soon after the finish, because of frogging issues with the next angel.

The final finish for the month was an alphabet square for Quilts for Older Children and Adults as part of their 2016 Challenge.

Some miscellaneous pictures for the month:
Kyleigh found a hairstyle on Pinterest that she wanted Janice to try.

 

Janice worked from home one day and Bobby decided to help her by guarding the cable on her laptop and helping her find the right keys.

 

Kyleigh is now tall enough to go on all the rides at Disneyland and California Adventure, but there are certain rides she doesn't like.  This is what she does to show that she's not tall enough yet.

Bob is the good friend who shares his Angels season tickets with us.  He and Kyleigh have a lot of fun together. 

Kyleigh's 2nd grade class did a chapel in May and sang "I Want to be a Sheep".  The first picture is of some of the class leading the singing and the second is of most of the sheep sleeping while the shepherd is looking for one lost sheep.  Kyleigh is on the far right in the tan skirt.

 

Finally, Kyleigh's Brownie troop had their year-end party at one of the Brownie's grandparents' pool.  Yes, this pool is in their backyard.  That's Kyleigh sliding into the raft.

That's all for May.  Hopefully, I'll be back soon with June's update.

WIWO - 5/2/2016

I spent most of last week catching up on my monthly SALs for April.  I've already posted my April ornament for the Christmas Ornie SAL and Duncan Dog for the Brooke's Books SAL on Stitch Maynia, but here are the other two.

First, I completed the Pumpkin Passport where we traveled to Switzerland.

And then the postcard from Moscow.  I finished this one at 10:58 Saturday night.

Since it was already on the Q-snaps, I went ahead and started the May installment on Sunday.  This time the postcard is from New Delhi. The photo above shows the truer color of the fabric.

And my current WIP/UFO went from here:

to here. 

 I would have finished the cross stitching yesterday, but there's a little reverse stitching needed so I put it away until later today.

WIWO - 3/21/2016

I did quite a bit of stitching this past week.  I had a finish, a mini-finish and worked on two other projects.  The finish was Mary Mouse which you can see below.

My first mini-finish was Amsterdam, which is the March edition of the Pumpkin Passport.  It's being stitched on an old piece of 28-count Jobelan, but I don't know the color name or who dyed it.  The only change I made was accidental.  In January, I accidentally stitched the top scalloped border in the same color as the bottom border, but it was supposed to be done in a light pink.  I discovered the mistake when I looked at other stitchers' work, but decided I liked it this way so didn't frog it.

Started: 3/13/16

Finished: 3/15/16

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Then I worked on the postcard for March which came from London this time.  I did make a couple of changes on this one.  I've changed the borders from white to blue (797) and the clouds from 828 to white.  I will most likely finish this one in the next couple of days.

Finally, I've been watching a few Floss tube videos and Katy (The Stash Queen) who works on multiple projects each day for a specific amount of time on each (usually 15 or 30 minutes) gave me the idea of doing this with my UFO/WIPs.  I have a large number of these, but keep finding new pieces I want to stitch.  A few years ago, I went through all my stash, pulled out all the UFO/WIPs and cataloged them in Excel, marking them with the approximate amount of stitching left and I've actually kept up with it.

Yesterday, I alphabetized and sorted them by size classification and is a very old UFO titled A Spot of Tea from Cherished Teddies for All Occasions.  This is where it was when I pulled it out of the drawer.

And here it is after 30 minutes of work:

For some reason, I stitched this in lavenders instead of the pinks on the chart, but it's so old, I don't have a clue as to why although I do think I like it better this way.

WIWO - 2/22/2016

It was a really good stitchy week this time.  In addition to the two finishes posted below, I also had two mini-finishes and one start.

My first mini-finish was Paris which is the February part of the Pumpkin Passport.  It's being stitched on an old piece of 28-count Jobelan, but I don't know the color name or who dyed it.  The only change I made was accidental.  In January, I accidentally stitched the top scalloped border in the same color as the bottom border, but it was supposed to be done in a light pink.  I discovered the mistake when I looked at other stitchers' work, but decided I liked it this way so didn't frog it.

Started: 2/17/16

Finished: 2/18/16

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

My second mini-finish is February's postcard.  It's also Paris this time.  It's being stitched on 16-count Aida in Haven from Picture this Plus.  I did make a few changes on this one.  I've changed the borders from white to blue (797) and added my initial to the cafe sign, changed the top of the Eiffel Tower, used two strands of black for the backstitching on the sign post, lamp pole and table and chairs to make them stand out more.  The backstitching around the lamp itself and the post mark is in one strand.  I also changed the stamp from 797 to 3760 because I didn't think the backstitching would show up on the darker color.

Started: 2/18/16

Finished: 2/21/16

Clouds Factory (Postcards from the World)

Finally, my start was enabled by a post on the Stitch Maynia Facebook page.  One of the members posted her started of Clouds Factory's Disney Princess Clock so  I looked up the pattern Disney Princess Clock. 

Since I have a princess loving granddaughter with a birthday coming up in March, I decided to stitch it for her.  I'm doing this on 25-count Lugana in Blue Diamonds from Silkweaver (2 over 2) that I found in my stash.  I started with the castle and so far has been an enjoyable stitch.

 

WIWO - 1/25/2016

I've mentioned that I've joined several SALs this year.  This week I worked on two of them.  First I finished the January portion (London) of the Pumpkin Passport from The Frosted Pumpkin.  It went from here

to here.

 It's being stitched on a piece of blue hand dyed 28-count Jobelan from my stash.  I don't know the actual color because there was no tag on it.  I'm also using the called for threads.

I also started and finished the January portion (Venice) of Postcards from the World from Clouds Factory.  I'm using a 16-count Aida in Haven from Picture This Plus.  I'm also using the called for threads, except that the frame is supposed to be white, but I'm stitching it in 797 to make it stand out more.

WIWO - 1/18/2016

The first stitching I did this week was on "Deck the Halls".  I got to from here

 to here after four days of stitching. As you can see, I didn't get a lot accomplished. 

 

I don't know if it was the fabric or the pattern, but I decided I was frogging way too much and no longer enjoying the journey so I trashed it before I completely lost my mojo.

I then replaced it with "Away in a Manger" (see my Happy Dance post on 1/17.)

I've joined two annual mystery SALs this year, one from Clouds Factory and one from Frosted Pumpkin.  Both have the same theme:  international travel.  I haven't been able to print the chart for the Clouds Factory SAL, but I did start the Pumpkin Passport yesterday.

I changed the fabric which was a brownish gray Aida for this hand dyed blue 28-count Jobelan.  It was a very old piece from my stash so I don't remember the color.