Theme-A-Licious April Showers

The theme for last month was April Showers, "What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lies within)."  I was thrilled that Heather of It's Geek to Me used my theme suggestion and will send me a prize!

I had a lot of WIPs with water to choose from, but I only managed to stitch on one of them!  I finished the elephant and stitched a row of waves on Christmas Ark by The Prairie Schooler.

Christmas Ark update #3

I also started and finished this cute little Winter Witch freebie from The Snowflower Diaries for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL but she has "frozen water" snowflakes so this one can count, too!

Winter Witch - FINISHED!

"Winter Witch"
Designed by Maja Matyas Szilagyi
The Snowflower Diaries
18 ct green hand-dyed Aida
Started 4/30/2014, Finished 5/1/2014

The theme for this month is Menagerie May, "Is it a zoo in your stack of WIPs? How many projects can you find that include animals or birds?"

I have lots of those!  My WIPs with animals are Universal Unity, Bird Nest (No 2), Santa's 12 Days of Christmas, Gallinas, Gatitos, Thankful Critters, The 12 Days of Christmas, Boo! Club, Eeyore & Butterfly, Dance of the Geckos, Christmas Sampler, Feeding the Rabbits, Leo, Very Scary Mystery Sampler, Easter Hang-Up, Picnic Area, Fall Welcome, Halloween Happiness, Christmas Ark, Majestic Eagle, Shiver Me Timbers, All Hallows Eve, Circle of Songbirds, Black Cat Alphabet, Bear, We're Off to See the Wizard, Rudolph Wreath, Hungarian Peacock Sampler, Snow Bear and Sleigh, Nesting Season, Wolf, The Wizard of Oz, Cats in Hats - Samantha, October Witch Snowlady, Trick or Treat Greeting, Penguins at Play, and Heaven and Nature Sampler.

Hopefully I'll find time to stitch on some of these during May and post updates on June 1.  Happy Stitching, everyone!

Theme-A-Licious March Madness (week 4)

The theme for this month is March Madness, "Work on something different every day... it's madness... of the funnest possible kind."  I used the Random Number Generator to pick a number from 1-95 for a WIP from my WIPocalypse list to stitch on each day.  I'll post an update every weekend with the choices for the prior week.

March 22 - #51, Yo Ho Ho Ho:  I stitched the pirate Santa's hat.

Yo Ho Ho Ho update #3

March 23 - #46, Christmas Ark:  I stitched more of the elephant using Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe overdyed floss.

Christmas Ark update #2

Christmas Ark update #2

March 24 - #87, Best of Friends:  I stitched a little more in the lower left corner. This whole design is printed on the Aida so I don't have to look at a chart. It's so easy! The colors will all wash out with water when I am done.

Best of Friends update #1

Best of Friends update #1

This is how it will look when finished (some day):

Best of Friends

March 25 - #78, Spring Sampler:  I stitched a row using lemon-lime Perle cotton.  All the floss is from Dinky Dyes.

Spring Sampler update #1

March 26 - #85, Believe:  I stitched more of Santa's red coat.  This is on 28 ct black linen.

Believe update #1

Believe update #1

March 27 - #26, Christmas Sampler:  I stitched another reindeer on this Prairie Schooler design.

Christmas Sampler update #3

March 28 - #35, Easter Hang-Up:  I finished the basket and stitched the background using Dragonflylotus Handspun Handpainted wool thread in Sunlit Quackenbush, but the 5-yard skein (1 ply) wasn't enough with only 6 stitches left at the bottom to do, so I'll just change the border design a bit, unless anyone out there has a little 6-inch piece to spare?

Easter Hang-Up update #2

My final Theme-a-licious blog post will be on April 1, with the last 3 days of the month and all the March Madness links.  Happy Stitching, everyone!

My Prairie Schooler progress!

Several of my WIPs are from The Prairie Schooler.  Here are updates on some of them.

I decided to use Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe floss for Christmas Ark.  The animals and the ark are solid colors so I thought the softly changing colors of over-dyed floss would liven it up a bit.  I started stitching the elephant using Linda's Brown.

Christmas Ark update #1

This Saturday SAL has been neglected for too long!  Linda, Rosemary, and I are stitching the monthly designs from the Spring & Fall and Summer & Winter booklets on Saturdays.  I finally started July.  I had Aida fabric with a printed border which I cut into four pieces and decided to stitch right over the background design.

Summer & Winter (July)

It seemed like a great idea at the time, a good way to use up this printed fabric. Even though it looks kind of funny, I'm going to follow through with it and do all 12 months.  March, April, May, and June are finished.  On the April square, I stopped stitching on the printed fabric and did it on pale pink instead.

Spring & Fall (March, April, May) and Summer & Winter (June)

Linda, Kaye, and I are stitching Santa's 12 Days of Christmas on Sundays.  I started on the red of Santa's coat.

Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Day 4) update #2

Thank you for visiting my blog!  Happy Stitching!

Crazy January starts 13-15

Well, I'm halfway through the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge!  Some stitchers start 15 new designs for the first 15 days of January, but I'll do it all month long!

Day #13 is Christmas Ark by The Prairie Schooler.  The chart gives the option of stitching Santa or Noah, and I chose Noah.  I finished half of one wave, from the center to the left edge.  I'm stitching on 18 ct Pale Delft Blue Aida and the finished size will be 11" x 8.5".

Christmas Ark

Day #14 is Vinney Reindeer by Fresh Threads Studio.  The red blob is an ornament. There will be three ornaments hanging from his antlers.  It is stitched on 18 ct hand-dyed Aida in a greenish-bluish color with sparkles and will be 3" x 3-1/4".

Vinney Reindeer

Day #15 is Majestic Eagle, a kit by Sunset that I bought 14 years ago.  My son picked it out when he was 14 and now he's 28!  I started with the bald eagle's head.  There are lots of blended floss colors.  It is stitched on 16 ct Dove Grey Aida and will be 16" x 9".

Majestic Eagle

This is also one of my Turtle Trot SAL pieces, so I hope to post updates on it once a month.  It's not the usual bright colors I like to stitch, but I think it will look very realistic.