Turtle Trot SAL - March

For the Turtle Trot SAL, we choose 13 WIPs to work on and post progress pics on the 13th of every month.  You can sign up at BAP-Attack.  Here is my progress since last month.  You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

Universal Unity:  I stitched more on the tiger, but he isn't finished yet (maybe next month).

(before)

Universal Unity update #5

The Sorcerer:  I finished the left side of the moon and started his purple cloak.

(before)

The Sorcerer update #3

Flaming June:  I did 800 more stitches in the sky, but still only 1% completed.

(before)

Flaming June update #2

All's Good in the 'Hood:  I stitched more border on the top and the words "GOOD IN."

(before)

All's Good in the Hood update #4

Disney Princess Birth Announcement:  Cinderella has a face!

(before)

Disney Princess Birth Announcement update #2

Day of the Dead:  The flowers on the other cheek are done, and I started on the mouth.

(before)

Day of the Dead update #5

Majestic Eagle:  I started stitching the wing.  There are lots of combined colors with 2 different colors of floss for each symbol.  Then there will be lots of backstitching to make the feathers come to life.

(before)

Majestic Eagle update #1

Orange Poppies:  I stitched more of the poppy.  There are so many different shades of orange!

(before)

Orange Poppies update #1

Canyon Waterfall:  I'm still stitching the tree in the corner.  Maybe I'm doing this the slowest way possible.  I pick one symbol at a time to stitch.  You can't really tell, but there are lots of shades of gray, black, dark blue, and dark green already!

(before)

Canyon Waterfall update #1

Thank you for looking at my progress pics.  I wonder how they will look by next month!

I bought all my Q-Snap covers from Christine's Q-Snap Huggies.

March TUSAL

Here is my TUSAL blog post for March!  Be sure to check in on Daffycat's blog with your TUSAL post, too!

TUSAL 2013 #3

On Halloween House, I finished the green roof on the left side and a ghost. Next time I'll do the backstitching on the ghosts and start the roof in the middle. You can see everyone else's updates HERE.

Halloween House update #27

I finished Spiders on Boo! Club by Lizzie*Kate.  Now I'm one-third done with this 12-part design.  I bought the tiny black and white buttons for the eyes and spider bodies, but I misplaced them!  I'm sure I'll find them before I finish this and will add them at the end.

Boo! Club (Spiders) - FINISHED!

I had a great time on Saturday, stitching all day with the SoCal Cross Stitchers Yahoo group.  We met at a mall and stitched outside from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  The patio had nice padded chairs and a waterfall and beautiful blue skies. We were steps away from the food court, too!  Here is the view from where I was sitting:

Now with Daylight Savings Time, it doesn't get dark until 7:00 p.m., so I can try stitching outside after work all week long, unless it gets too hot!

Happy Stitching, everyone!

Stitching bears!

Linda and I have a new Monday SAL, The Bear and the Bees by The Prairie Schooler. We started this last February 2012 and haven't touched it again until now.  I stitched the bees last year and now I'm starting on the bear.

The Bear and the Bees update #1

I've also been stitching on some other WIPs with bears.  I started Bear Hug in 1988, when I bought the kit at a Creative Circle home party.  I'm going to donate this to World of Charity Stitching and they can sew it onto a pillow or tote bag.  It's a great charity to stitch for, since you don't have to wait for a quilt theme to stitch something.  They make all kinds of things with cross stitch designs.  I finished stitching the bears and now all that is left is the border.  It will be great to get this old one finished!

Bear Hug update #2

Picnic Area by The Prairie Schooler was started in the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge this year.  I stitched two more letters and started stitching a bear. There will be bears on both sides, and a fox chasing a rabbit on the bottom.

Picnic Area update #1

Bear in the Janlynn Wildlife Series was another start in the UCJC this year.  He got the rest of his nose done but still only has one eye!  I have other kits from this series that I will stitch some day.

Bear update #1

This was fun to have a "bear" theme on my blog post today.  I have more ideas for future blog post themes by grouping some of my WIPs together.  Happy Stitching, everyone!

Another FINISH and Prairie Schooler SAL progress!

Please join me in my happy dance!  I finished Singing the Blues, just a week behind Linda.  I used DMC variegated blue, Anchor variegated green, J&P Coats variegated red, and Anchor white Marlitt floss for the border, since I didn't have the Crescent Colours or Belle Soie silk floss listed in the pattern. I'm passing the chart on to Ruth next.  I wonder which floss and colors she will use!

Singing the Blues - FINISHED!

Singing the Blues
Little House Needleworks
Started 1/15/2012, Finished 3/4/2013

Big thanks to Annette, who sent me some B5200 for my Prairie Schooler July design.  I'm lucky to live close to JoAnn's and Michael's and Hobby Lobby, but they always seem to be out of black and white floss.  I even checked at Wal-Mart too, with no luck.  One of these days I'll get lucky and stock up!

Summer & Winter (July) update #2

Isn't it fun to be in a SAL with someone else and they start the design in a completely different place than you?  Linda started Santa at the top and I started at the bottom and am working my way up.

Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Day 4) update #3

I told my kids that I'll display these 12 Santas every year for Christmas, so when my "future grandkids" come over, they can sing the 12 Days of Christmas song and follow along with each Santa square!

My first YOTA post and lots of non-stitchy photos!

I just joined a new stitch-along, YOTA (Year of the Acronym), which is a UFO SAL on the Pull the Other Thread blog.  We will post update pics on a UFO on the first Saturday of each month.  I have chosen my oldest cross stitch UFO, Universal Unity, to use for this challenge.  It's also in my Turtle Trot SAL so I'll post update pics on this one twice a month.  I started this in 1998 and then it sat for 15 years!  I finally stitched the squirrel and some grass and started the tiger.

Here is the before pic from last month:

(before)

And here is my first photo for the YOTA blog post:

Universal Unity update #4

I got about half of the green roof on the left side done on Halloween House, my Friday SAL.

Halloween House update #26

Last Friday the 22nd, I didn't stitch on anything at all because my son came to visit.  He lives far away in a different state.  My son, daughter, and I went to Los Angeles (an hour away) and saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour, then we saw costumes from the movies at FIDM (the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising), and then we went to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), then out to eat at a nice Mexican restaurant.  What a great non-stitchy day!

I really do enjoy seeing non-stitchy pics on other blogs too, just to see what you do for fun where you live.  I hope you like these photos!

DD Christina, DS Christopher, and me!

The California Science Center is a great science museum to visit and see the Space Shuttle and best of all, it's FREE!

Space Shuttle Endeavour

We saw a great 3D IMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope and I highly recommend it!

Model of the Hubble Space Telescope

I took my kids to JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in 1996 where we saw them building the Cassini space probe, which was sent to Saturn in 1997.  It's still orbiting Saturn today.

Model of the Cassini spacecraft

They had some of the actual space capsules to look at.  Oh boy, talk about a tight squeeze!

Mercury space capsule (the real thing!)

Gemini space capsule (the real thing!)

What a great idea to use the space shuttle over and over again, instead of the one-time use space capsules above.  The Endeavour flew 25 missions into space.  The 26th mission was to move it from the airport in Los Angeles to its new home at the museum.  Here is a photo of it going down the street.  You can see the Hollywood sign in the distance.

I took a video with my camera of the museum video of the actual trip of the space shuttle through the neighborhoods on the city streets.  You can see it here on YouTube.

Then we went to FIDM (the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising).  My daughter graduated from this college.  It was a beautiful February day in Los Angeles in the 70s, but today it's in the 80s!  There is a grassy park area behind the college, and the only wildlife you'll see are these statues! Haha!

There was a great view of some of the buildings nearby.

The FIDM museum displays the costumes from the movies every year.  This is also FREE admission!  We saw the costumes from the movies Argo, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Anna Karenina, The Hunger Games, and many more!

These are the costumes from the silent movie, The Artist, which won the Academy Award for best picture last year.  My daughter said we were lucky to be able to see the actual clothes in color, since the movie was in black & white! This was the poster outside the museum, since we couldn't take any photos inside.

Then we went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibition. He has directed lots of movies like The Shining, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, etc.  They had props and costumes from the movies and scripts all over the walls.  Here is the typewriter from The Shining, where Jack Nicholson typed "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Then we went into another building with a Pablo Picasso exhibit.  I took this picture of "Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" from 1937.

"Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" - Pablo Picasso

Other buildings had modern art, but I just don't understand why they devote one big room to something like this!

This outdoor exhibit of a bunch of light posts was a big hit.  Don't ask my why!

Now it's time to get back to cross stitching!  I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did on my day off!

February ornament and WIPocalypse update

I'm in the 2013 Ornament SAL, where we stitch a new ornament each month for any holiday.  My February ornament is Vinney Reindeer.  This chart is in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine.

Vinney Reindeer - FINISHED!

"Vinney Reindeer"
Designed by Lynda Watkins & Angie Williams
Fresh Threads Studio
Started 1/14/2013, Finished 2/25/2013

The WIPocalypse theme this month is designs by Little House Needleworks, love/family, and stitching in red and white.  Singing the Blues is a LHN design and I finished stitching the white border using Anchor Marlitt floss, which is so slippery!

Singing the Blues update #6

Since my last WIPocalypse update in January, I finished Hummingbird by Teresa Wentzler and made some progress on several other WIPs that I started in 2012.

Hummingbird - FINISHED!

On Boo! Club by Lizzie*Kate, I finished Treats and Black Cat and started on Spiders.

Boo Club (Spiders)

I'm making very slow progress on Very Scary by Lizzie*Kate.  I'm using Weeks Dye Works overdyed floss for the first time and trying to stitch each X one at a time so the color changes in the floss look right.  I finished the leaf motif.

Very Scary (Part 1) update #2

I finished the second flower eye of the Day of the Dead skull from the Twisted Stitches book.

Day of the Dead update #4

You can see current pics of all of my WIPs on my WIPocalypse page. Remember to check in on Measi's blog with a link to your WIPocalypse update, too!

Just a few SAL updates!

It's always fun to be in a stitch-along when you know someone else is stitching the same design!  My Friday SAL is Halloween House with 10 other stitchers. You can see their updates HERE.  I finished the green roof on the right side, but I still need to do the left and middle green roofs, too!  The Q-Snap cover is a perfect match for this design, isn't it?  It is from Christine's Q-Snap Huggies.

Halloween House update #25

My Saturday SAL is the Spring & Fall and Summer & Winter designs from The Prairie Schooler with Linda and Rosemary.  I finished the red and blue parts on July.  I'm still trying to find B5200 to use for the white, but Michael's, JoAnn's, and Wal-Mart are always out of this color!

Summer & Winter (July) update #1

My Monday SAL is Singing the Blues by Little House Needleworks with Linda. We're already planning what to stitch next when this is finished.  She is farther ahead than me.  I stitched the white border using Anchor Marlitt floss, which I bought a long time ago for a wedding design that I made for a coworker.

Singing the Blues update #5

I almost finished part 3 of Boo! Club by Lizzie*Kate, but I misplaced the orange floss for 4 little stitches in the middle between the words.  I suppose I could have used any color orange but I'm determined to find it!  This is a SAL with Linda, Lesleyanne, and Angela.

Boo! Club (Black Cat)

Teresa from At Willow Tree Pond is having a wonderful Third Blogoversary Giveaway!  Sunday the 24th is the last day to leave a comment on her blog to enter!

Two 100-Follower Giveaways!

Two more cross stitch bloggers are so happy to have reached the 100-follower mark that they're having wonderful giveaways!

Visit Emma at My Creative Corner and Meggie at Cross Stitch Cottage to enter.  Good luck!