Linda's Blogoversary Giveaway!

Linda is having a wonderful giveaway to celebrate her blogoversary. She will crochet a lapghan in the winner's favorite colors. There could be up to 4 winners if she gets lots of new followers. Enter here: http://bengalcatlover10.blogspot.com/2012/01/1-year-blogoverary-giveaway.html

Day #24 - Holiday Cheer

Day #24 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Holiday Cheer by Ursula Michael.  This chart is in the Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine, January 2012 issue.  I just started outlining the letter P.  I love the fun way that she designed the letters for this!  I also have a Thanksgiving one coming up by the same designer, and I still haven't finished the Halloween one, Trick or Treat, also by Ursula Michael.

Just one more week to go, then I will have 31 new starts to choose from.  I wonder which one will be my first finish!

Day #23 - Cut Thru' Pirate Ship

Day #23 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Cut Thru' Pirate Ship by Bothy Threads.  I was pretty pleased with my progress UNTIL I took it out of the Qsnaps and realized that I had the fabric turned the wrong way!  Aaaack!  The same thing happened to Ruth and I even commented on her blog that I would be careful not to make the same mistake, which is exactly what I did!  This mistake must be contagious, since I've been reading about it on blogs all over the place!  Boo hoo... I am not looking forward to ripping all these stitches out.  It's going to the bottom of my stitching pile for awhile.  Grrrrr!

On a more cheery note, here is my teeny-tiny progress on Santa's 12 Days of Christmas.  I stitched the brown wing of the Partridge in a Pear Tree.  This is a Sunday SAL with Linda and Kaye.

Day #22 - Universal Unity and TUSAL #1

Day #22 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Universal Unity, a kit from Dimensions Gold Collection.  I actually started this one in 1998 and stitched on it for 6 weeks, then I never touched it again until yesterday. You can see that I started on the gray squirrel next to the deer.  You can see a pic of what it will look like when it's finished on my UCJC 2012 page.

It's time for the first TUSAL with a pic of my new ORT dish for 2012!  I thought this star-shaped heavy glass dish was cuter than my jelly jar from last year.  This has all the floss bits from all my new starts in January.  I'll have to think of a more interesting place to take pics of it for next time!

Day #21 - Cackle

Day #21 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Cackle, from Raise the Roof Designs.  I am stitching it on 14 ct lavender Aida, so I think I will change the color of the moon to a pale yellow.  I bought this chart from the closeout sale at NeedleDelights.  She still has lots of patterns left!

Day #20 - Monkey Read, Monkey Do

Day #20 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is a bookmark called Monkey Read, Monkey Do.  I bought this pattern online from Funk & Weber Designs.  It will look like the Barrel of Monkeys toy with lots of bright colors.

Here is my little bit of progress on Halloween House on Friday.  I finished stitching the black witch in the doorway.

The reason that I didn't get a lot of stitching done was because I was gone all day on Friday at the J. Paul Getty Museum.  I saw lots of art including this amazing picture from 1390 (622 years old)!  The first thing I thought was how fun this would be to cross stitch!

Day #19 - Pac-Man

Day #19 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Pac-Man, an old chart from the 1980s by Millcraft.  I remember going to the video arcades when I was a kid and popping quarters in the Pac-Man game, but I liked Ms. Pac-Man better.  This will be a fun chart to stitch!

Day #18 - The Sorcerer

Day #18 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is The Sorcerer, a kit from Dimensions.  This is another leftover from the CJC 2011.  I had already stitched some of the gold and now I added some dark blue stitches.  This will be a gift for my best friend, who loves wizards and dragons and castles.  This will be just perfect for her!

On Tuesday, I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and saw these sharks!  This is the first time I posted a video to my blog.  I hope you can see it.  Watch out for the toothy guy!

Day #17 - Harley-Davidson

Day #17 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Harley-Davidson from PINN. This was one of my CJC 2011 starts, but I never got past the first 100 stitches on the first day. My goal is to have this done for my boyfriend's birthday in June or for Christmas.

Day #16 - Thai Dancer

Day #16 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Thai Dancer from PINN.  It came in a kit with a gorgeous full color chart and beautiful floss and pretty Aspen green 14 ct Aida with all the edges already serged.  I wish all kits were like this!  I actually started this for the CJC 2011 on the very first day, but only did about 30 stitches and never touched it again until now.  I really need to grid this fabric, since the design is full of confetti and I had to be very very careful and count again and again just to get this small amount completed.  It's a challenge!

Day #15 - Singing the Blues

Day #15 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Singing the Blues by Little House Needleworks.  I substituted variegated DMC floss instead of using Belle Soie or Crescent Colors as listed in the chart.  The bird didn't turn out the way I expected because I was stitching back and forth in rows.  Do you think I should rip it all out and start over and stitch diagonally instead?  I was also thinking of using variegated green floss for the branches and leaves, instead of leaving everything blue.  I am stitching on 28 ct platinum linen, 2 over 2.

Sunday is the SAL day with Linda and Kaye for Santa's 12 Days of Christmas.  I worked on the pear tree today (partridge to come next).

Day #14 - Gatitos (kittens)

Day #14 of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge is Gatitos (kittens), a free chart from nacaranta.com.  These adorable kitties will be 4"x12" on 16 ct Aida.  I might make it into some type of wall hanging instead of framing it.  I get so many wonderful ideas from visiting everyone's blogs.

I met five other stitchers in the SoCal Cross Stitchers Yahoo group on Saturday.  We sat and stitched and talked for hours about so many different things.  I made a lot of progress on the Happy Easter Snow Globe that I am stitching for World of Charity Stitching to be part of a quilt for a child at a domestic violence shelter or Ronald McDonald House.  Patterns for the snow globes were donated to the group by Vee and Co Cross Stitch Designs.