A finish, a new start, and a SAL update!

I finally finished this double light switch cover for my mom!  I bought the book, "Stitches and Switches" by Fond Memories way back in 1997, with the plan to have cross-stitched light switch covers all over the house!  Thanks to the Crazy January Challenge 2011, I finally made one!  This is for my mom's kitchen.

"Plymouth Rock Chickens"
Designed by Laura Doyle
Started 1/12/2011, Finished 11/16/2011

This Happy Easter Snow Globe is a new start for World of Charity Stitching as a quilt square.  They are making a quilt of Snow Globe designs by Vee and Co Cross Stitch.  Vee donated the designs for us to use.  She has lots of adorable patterns for sale on her website!

On the Dog House Sampler SAL with Linda, I finished the fence and a few more letters.  Linda is way ahead of me, so I have to hurry and catch up!  When we are finished, we will stitch on Trick or Treat on Wednesdays too.

Getting ready for 2012!

It's a busy time of year, as I'm trying to finish a few more projects from my Crazy January Challenge 2011, and get ready for the CJC 2012!  I'm also stitching some Christmas gifts and another square for a WOCS quilt.

I have joined the Crazy January Challenge 2012 Yahoo group and the CrosstitchCrazy 2012 Facebook group.  The challenge is to start a new cross stitch project each day for the first 15 days in January, then finish them in 2012.  Niina suggested an Ultimate Crazy January Challenge by starting a new project every day in January, for a total of 31.  Yes, I signed up for it and I have my list with pics on its own page, Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2012.

I bought several charts from Needle Delights, where Kathy is having a going-out-of-business sale.  She has hundreds of designer charts at rock-bottom prices.  There are no pictures, but you can Google the images or refer to 123-Stitch.

I also signed up for the Totally Useless Stitch-Along (TUSAL) for 2012 on Daffycat's blog.  We post a pic of our ORT (old ratty threads) jar every new moon in 2012.

I also signed up for the 2012 WIPocalypse on Measi's blog.  We post pics of all of our WIP every full moon in 2012.

I also signed up for the Oldest UFO SAL on Evalina's blog.  We post a pic of our oldest UFO (with hopefully some progress) on the last day of the month.

Linda (Stitchin' with My Furbabies) and I are stitching a lot of the same charts in the UCJC, so we will be having SALs all year long!  Feel free to join us if you are stitching any of the same charts.

Here is a glimpse into my everyday life!  I work at home; can you tell?

Chickens, Ant, and Dog House updates!

My mom's kitchen is decorated with chickens, so this will be a perfect gift!  This will be put into a clear plastic double light switch cover.  There will be a chicken coop and barn in the upper corners.  The bottom half is completely finished.  I'm using a hoop for this one since it's too small to fit in my Q-Snaps. It is stitched on 14ct Fiddler's cloth.

My mom's sister (my aunt) actually collects ants, so I'm stitching this one for her!  I found the pattern at http://cross-stitch-pattern.net/.  The rear and middle part of the ant are finished and now I'm starting on the head and front legs.  It is also stitched on 14ct Fiddler's cloth.

Linda (Stitchin' With My Furbabies) and I are both stitching Dog House Sampler on Wednesdays.  It looks like I have a couple more Wednesdays to go before this is finished.  It is my third project that is also stitched on 14ct Fiddler's cloth!

Here is a pic of Teddy all dressed up for Halloween!  He also greeted the trick-or-treaters at the front door!

Lamplight Bridge - update #3

Thomas Kinkade's Lamplight Bridge is one of my Crazy January Challenge 2011 kits.  Now that everyone is planning for 2012, I figured that I should hurry up and finish it!  This is an "embellished" cross stitch, where the picture is printed on the fabric, and I make cross stitches, half cross stitches, LOTS of French knots, and outlining in parts of the picture.  It is not a full coverage pattern.  The left side is almost finished.  Next, I will stitch the lamp posts, then do more French knots for flowers on the other side of the stream.  It also uses some metallic floss for accents in the water and the sky.  This is how the full picture looks now:

I am using 14"x17" Q-Snaps so no part of the picture is covered and I won't have to move the fabric (lazy me).  I'm also using a Q-Snap huggie, custom-made by Christine.

Oh, by the way, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I'm waiting for my mom to give me a ride to the store so I can buy some candy for the trick-or-treaters!  I still don't have a car since my accident last December! :-(

Trick or Treat SAL - update #5

I started on another witch hat with a black cat hiding underneath it. I've been doing some backstitching too, so I don't have it all waiting for me when I'm finished.  Linda, my SAL partner, has most of the second hat finished already. We plan to keep doing SAL's on Fridays. After we finish Trick or Treat, we will start Halloween House, also designed by Ursula Michael. Linda is having a giveaway on her blog for 2 Halloween House charts.  Feel free to join us, whether you win a chart or not!

I have a small update on the Plymouth Rock Chickens double light switch cover.  I stitched the chicken's legs and one baby chick. This will go under a clear plastic light switch cover for my mom's kitchen.

Since I finished the Violets Teacup, I started something new! This is called "Ant" by Ann Logan, a freebie on her website, cross-stitch-pattern.net. My aunt collects ants, and she lives in the same city as my grandma. So when we go to visit, I will have gifts for both of them!  I'm stitching on 14ct Fiddler's cloth.  This chart has 17 different colors.  I'm having fun stitching it, even though it gives my daughter the creeps!  She hates bugs.

TUSAL #10 and two updates!

It's time for a new update on my ORT jar! You can see some shimmery threads from the Fairies. I have so many projects planned for next year that I think I'll need a bigger jar for the 2012 TUSAL!

The is the Plymouth Rock Chickens light switch cover that I am making for my mom. The little square in the chicken is where one of the screws goes to attach the light switch cover to the wall. This is a straggler from the Crazy January Challenge. I'm using a new hoop that came in a box of stash goodies on eBay. Thanks to Sarah Beth for explaining to me how to use it! (It has a metal ring in back with handles that you squeeze together, and a red plastic/rubber ring in front.)

My next update is the Violets Teacup, a freebie from Vermillion Stitchery. It has 7 different shades of purple and lots of quarter-stitches, so I'm going very slowly on this one and changing threads a lot! Now I wish I had started it on 28ct linen and stitched over 2, so the quarter-stitches wouldn't be so difficult. This will be for my grandma, but I don't want to wait until her birthday in December to give it to her. Hopefully we will visit her next month.

Has everyone joined the Crazy January Challenge for 2012 yet? Minna and Niina started a Crazy January 2012 Yahoo group, and now I hear they have an Ultimate CJC, where you start 31 projects, one for each day in January! Wow!

New Stash, New Start, New Update!

What a bargain I found!  I got all this on eBay for only $8.50.  There are 9 new pieces of 14ct Aida cloth in green, red, black, yellow, and blue, 4 new packages of waste cloth, and 100 skeins of floss (DMC, Anchor, and JP Coats).  There were also a couple of hoops, embroidery scissors, a floss sorter, and 2 Christmas ornament kits.  I also sold some things on eBay this week, so I actually came out ahead!

My new start is the February Violets of the Teacup Posies 2011 series by Vermillion Stitchery.  It has 7 different shades of purple.  I am stitching on mint parfait 14ct Aida.  This is a gift for my grandma.  She will be 99 in December!

This is the Plymouth Rock Chickens double light switch cover I am stitching for my mom on 14ct fiddlers cloth (she collects chickens).  I started this last January as one of the Crazy January Challenge projects and never got back to it.  Well, I'm not too late yet!  The piece of fabric is too small for a Q-Snap, so I'm using a hoop.

I joined the Facebook CrosstitchCrazy2012 group and also the Yahoo CrazyJanuary2012 group.  I have posted pics of some of my 15 new projects to start each day for the first 15 days of January in albums in both of those groups, and I will make a new page on my blog with a list of them too.  Everyone is so excited about choosing new projects for January, that it reminded me that I should finish some WIP from this year first!

To finish off this posting, I am including a pic of my sweet old dogs taken a year before they both died of old age.  Brandy, the Golden Retriever, was 14 in this pic and died at 15 years old.  Norman, the Cocker Spaniel, was 15 in this pic and died at 16 years old in his sleep.  We had the dogs since they were puppies, and they were inseparable.  We have lots of pics of them growing up with my kids.  After a few months, my daughter and I visited two different animal shelters and adopted two more dogs.  Thanks for sharing this memory with me! (I'm crying now...)

A Paris Kiss - big birthday smile!

She loved her birthday present! Happy birthday, Christina!

A Paris Kiss - framed!

Ooohhh, I'm so happy with how this turned out, exactly what I wanted! I will give it to my daughter for her birthday when she gets home from work. She is 23 today!

Beth (the framer) suggested rounding the top corners of the mat to match the picture. I used a frame and glass from an old Home Interiors picture that I had. What a bargain!

A Paris Kiss - finished!

Hurray, hurray! I finished it with two days to spare! I'm taking it to the framer tonight. Yippee! I'm so relieved! No more brown sepia colors for awhile. I want color!  The first pic above is from my cell phone, and the second one is from the scanner.  I also have a picture from my camera, but I have a problem with transferring the pics from the camera to the computer.

"A Paris Kiss"
Vervaco
Started 1/6/2011, Finished 8/17/2011

I bought this kit from The Stitchery catalog. It was imported from Belgium. This was my first time stitching on linen (28 ct stitched over 2) and I loved it!

It was based on this painting by Migdalia Arellano:

I'm so glad that you followed me along in my progress on this! Now my next deadline is August 31, my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I am about one-third done with their cross stitch gift. I am also stitching squares for quilts for World of Charity Stitching. Those pretty little items cheer me up because they are quick to do and I know they will make someone happy!

A Paris Kiss update #12

The woman is all finished! Now all that is left to stitch is the railing. I would have had this done already, but my daughter was home all weekend, so I was working on the 50th anniversary gift and also a new start for WOCS (World of Charity Stitching).

I went to the framer on Friday (a friend of the family) and chose the mats and provided my own frame and glass from an old Home Interiors picture that I had. It looks like this will be my last update, and the next pic you see will be a FINISH, then the framed piece.

Happy Stitching!

A Paris Kiss update #11

Hurray! I finished the woman's dress! Now the only part left to do is her side, her arm, and the railing. I included photos with and without flash. My mom's neighbor works in a framing shop, so maybe I can bring it to her this weekend so we can choose a mat and frame. That's the plan!

I included a pic of the chart, all marked up with my pink highlighter. I didn't even make a working copy. I'm so glad I bought this kit when I had the chance, because it's hard to find now.

Happy Stitching!

A Paris Kiss update #10

I stitched about 6 hours today and just got part of her dress done. Oh boy, this is tedious! I hope my work week is pretty slow so I will have more time to stitch. Forget about housework until this is done!

A Paris Kiss update #9

My deadline is coming up in two weeks, so I hope to have it done by next week so I can get it framed. I'm going to tell my daughter to reenact this pose someday and send me a photo!

A Paris Kiss update #8

Look who's finally kissing! The woman's face is done, and I'll be stitching her hair next. I think I've passed the halfway point. I'm really happy with how it looks!

Starry Snowman ornament - finished!

This is another ornament from my Crazy January Challenge. I love how the kit came with the little plastic frame, but it sure was a pain to have 1/4 stitches on 18ct Aida!

"Starry Snowman"
Designs for the Needle
Started 2/26/2011, Finished 7/26/2011

My daughter just told me that she's going to Las Vegas this weekend, so the first thing I thought of was that I can get more stitching done on A Paris Kiss. It is a gift for her birthday in August. Now I'm counting down the days, 24 to go, but I should finish a week before so I can have it framed. Wish me luck!

Santa ornament - finished!

I finished this Santa ornament tonight. It was stitched on plastic canvas. One of my cats got to it and chewed up the star, which I fixed by adding a little piece of plastic canvas that I cut from the corner. Now I can mark one more finished from my Crazy January Challenge.

"Santa"
NeedleMagic
Started 2/26/2011, Finished 7/18/2011

Now I'll be trying to finish A Paris Kiss before my daughter's birthday on August 19, and also start a 50th anniversary cross stitch for my parents' anniversary on August 31. I seem to stitch must faster when I have a deadline!

A Paris Kiss update #7

I'm finally making some good progress! I'm almost done stitching the man, just a little bit in the corner and his hand. Then I'm going back to the top to stitch the woman's head.

You can also see one of the Q-Snap huggies that I bought from Christine. It has cats all over it and is very comfortable to hold. I'm using these on all my projects now!

I should know better! Santa ornament update #1

I should know better than to leave my cross stitch unattended when I leave the room! One of the cats or dog nibbled on my Santa ornament! Maybe it was the yummy plastic canvas that couldn't be resisted. Thank goodness the needle was still in the ornament and not in someone's throat! I'm going to finish it anyway, and the tree just won't have a star on top. Oh well.....

A Paris Kiss update #6

After a month, I finally picked this up and stitched for several hours today. It doesn't look like much since my last update, but the man's jacket is about 2 inches longer. When I finally get to the bottom, I will start stitching the woman's face so we can see them kissing!