Happy Dance - Katie Kitty

Started: 1/6/2016

Finished: 1/9/2016

Brooke's Books - Advent Animals

This year I've decided to participate in a few SAL's, the first one being a Brooke's Books SAL on the Stitch Maynia Facebook group.  This is an annual SAL where you stitch  any Brooke's Books chart including any of her freebies each month.  Since I've been collecting these free charts for awhile, I decided to stitch them for the SAL.

The chart was stitched on 14-count Lt. Blue Aida with the called for DMC floss.  The only real changes I made were to do the border in two strands of floss and most of the backstitching became straight stitches.  

While I originally planned to stitch these on one piece of Aida, I've decided to stitch them individually, finish them as little pillows and display them in a basket.

Happy Birthday and Happy Dance (Twinkly Fairy)

First off, Happy Birthday to me!  I am 66 years old today and it's been a very quiet, gray, rainy day.  We celebrated on Monday with dinner at Red Lobster. Since Devin's birthday was on Sunday, we try to pick a day between the two birthdays.

Originally Started:  Unknown

Restarted: 1/3/2016

Finished: 1/6/2016

Cross Stitch Crazy (issue unknown)

 

This was stitched on white 14-count Aida with DMC floss.  The backstitching does not match the pattern much, especially around the hearts which I outlined with the same floss as the rest of the backstitching instead of following the chart which used two different colors and not only outlined the hearts, but had stitching on the interior of the hearts as well.

I had originally started this for Love Quilts a long time ago, but never finished it because the backstitching is very fiddly and I got frustrated with it. When Quilts for Older Children and Adults came up with the same theme, I decided to pull it out and see if I could finish it for them.

Happy Dance - Paisley Tree

Started: 12/26/2015

Finished: 1/3/2016

Mill Hill Paisley Tree

This was stitched with the materials provided in the kit, but I used two strands or the cross stitching instead of the three called for.  

 

It came with a magnet, but I added a hanger of leftover beads and it's ready to hang on next year's Christmas tree.

January Stitch from Stash

Another thing that Shared Crosses is doing is a Stitch from Stash Challenge where you promise not to buy any new charts (with a few exceptions stated at the beginning).  You can however purchase fabric, floss and accessories needed for a project already in your stash.  The only thing I purchased was a package of light blue Aida to stitch a free Olaf chart for Kyleigh's birthday.  I also purchased a pillow form and fabric for it as well.

I'm sort of following the Stitch from Stash Challenge on Mel's blog http://epicstitching.blogspot.com/ because it was closed when I first found out about it.

So here's my report:
I started with $25.00

I spent $4.99 for the package of light blue Aida.

I completed this giraffe on the first so I'm not counting it even though I've had the magazine long enough.

I also started and finished two other projects in my stash, but one was purchased in August and the other was in a November magazine so neither have been around long enough to count.

I also stitched on one more project for almost two weeks, but it's a large project and I won't count that until it's finished.

So my ending carry forward balance for January is $25.00 - 4.99 = $20.01..