Smalls SAL - April

The last Wednesday of the month is time for the April Smalls SAL post!

I finished this little owl for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL.  Each month is a different theme and April was owls.  This is one of the alphabet squares from the Rainbow Gallery freebies page.  The body of the owl is done with the oblong rice stitch and I used variegated DMC 111 for the letters.

"O" is for Owl - FINISHED!

"O" is for Owl
Designed by Erica Michaels
Rainbow Gallery
14 ct Fiddlers Lite Aida
Started 4/27/2014, Finished 4/30/2014

I also finished Happy Easter from Sewingseed and added it to my blog header this month!

Happy Easter - FINISHED!

Another small design that I finished was Katie Kitty, the first of 25 animals from Brooke's Books Advent Animals Collection.

Katie Kitty - FINISHED!

Now it's time to start my new Small cross stitch design for May!  Happy Stitching, everyone!

Stitch from Stash April

Mel from Epic Stitching started a Stitch From Stash group to encourage us to stay on a budget of $25 or less per month for cross stitching.  Click the link to see the list of blogs that are participating.

My carry over from March was $2 for a total budget of $27 this month.  Here is my check-in for April:

Amount Spent:  $27
$11 - More Starlite Aida cross stitch fabric from MCG Textiles for the Brooke's Books Advent Animals.

$13 - DMC floss on sale at Michael's for 27 cents and Hummingbird Quartet booklet. (I've been watching Preeti stitch one of these beautiful designs on her blog and was so excited to find this chart!)

$3 - Predator chart for my son.  I sent him the link to Pyrodogpins and asked him to pick one!

I spent my entire budget so now I have nothing left to carry over to May!

New Starts from Stash:  Katie Kitty.

WIPs or UFOs worked on:  Christmas Sampler, Easter Hang-Up, Disney Princesses, Fall Welcome, Remember the Alamo, Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Day 5), Uber Christmas Tree, Universal Unity, We're Off to See the Wizard, "99", Alice from Resident Evil, Happy Easter.

Finishes:  Katie Kitty, Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Day 5), Happy Easter.

I also bought this Wedding Tango kit by Riolis but it doesn't count in the budget since it is a gift I'm stitching for my daughter's friend who is getting married soon!

Wedding Tango kit by Riolis

Happy Easter, everyone!

Happy Easter to all my cross stitch friends!  I just finished this cute design from Sewingseed.

Happy Easter - FINISHED!

"Happy Easter"
Sewingseed.com
16 ct Angel Blush Aida
Started 1/4/2014, Finished 4/18/2014

April WIPocalypse update and a finish!

There's a full moon in the sky, a blood moon, an eclipse of the moon, and it's time for a WIPocalypse update!  I saw it last night from my front yard, but if you missed it, you can see the video here:
http://www.space.com/25507-moon-turns-red-lunar-eclipse-time-lapse-video.html

Since the last WIPocalypse post, I've had 3 more finishes; the Best Witches Halloween ornament, the first Advent Animals ornament, Katie Kitty, and another Santa!

On the 5th day of Christmas, Santa brought to me.... Five Golden Rings!

Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Day 5) FINISHED!

If we actually stitch on this every Sunday, Linda and I should be able to finish one Santa per month and have them all done before Christmas this year!

Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (Days 1-5)

"Santa's 12 Days of Christmas" (Day 5)
Book No. 126
Designed by Pamela Byrd Smith
The Prairie Schooler
28 ct mushroom evenweave
Started 11/17/2013, Finished 4/13/2014

I made good progress on Fall Welcome, my Saturday SAL with Linda.

Fall Welcome update #9

I've also been stitching on Alice from Resident Evil.  Does she look like Milla Jovovich yet?

Alice from Resident Evil update #3

This is how she will look when she is done:

Alice from Resident Evil

I also stitched more on The Sorcerer's cloak.  When I finish him, I'll stitch The Sorceress next!  These are gifts for my best friend who loves wizards and castles and dragons!

The Sorcerer update #12

My idea is to get them framed together, and my framer friend suggested that I find some charms so she could include them in separate cut-out parts of the mat, so I bought these pewter pendants on eBay:

The topic for this month is, "How do you keep your stash organized?"  I don't use bobbins and keep the floss skeins in small 3"x4" ziploc baggies in these plastic photo cases:

I keep all my WIPs in gallon size Ziploc bags with the fabric, chart, and floss for each project.  I put all my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge starts for 2012 in this sewing basket, and I have another sewing basket full of starts from the UCJC 2013.  The new starts from UCJC 2014 are just in a pile on top of my Rubbermaid tote where I keep all my future kits and charts.  

Then I have about 6 fabric tote bags with several WIPs in each one on Q-Snaps, so I can easily grab a tote bag when I meet my friends to stitch or to take in the car if I leave home.  I always say, you never know if there will be an earthquake and the ground will crack open and I won't be able to get home for awhile, so at least I'll have something to stitch!

I bought a pink plastic drawer cart like this one to store my cross stitch fabric, but it's still empty and all the fabric is in 2 cardboard boxes instead.     

Be sure to visit Measi's Musings blog to find links to everyone's WIPocalypse blog posts with their stash organization photos, too! 

I'm a winner and another giveaway!

Annette of California Stitcher blog had a giveaway for her 2nd blogoversary and I was the lucky winner!  She wrapped it up so nicely with a pretty handmade card!

Annette is so very talented!  She sewed this zippered project pouch and matching needle book.  It is also the perfect size for a tablet or Kindle and it's nicely padded and fully lined with contrasting fabric.  She also included the Topiary in Bloom chart with linen, Cosmo floss, backing fabric and trim!  What a wonderful prize!  Thank you so very much, Annette!

I was also a very lucky winner of this new chart, "Popsicles" from Nancy of Pickle Barrel Designs!

Nancy from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having another giveaway!  This time it is for a Custom Family Name Sampler chart.  Instead of giving you an alphabet, your family name and date will be printed onto the chart for you.  Enter HERE for a chance to win and tell Nancy that I sent you!  Drawing on April 30.

Turtle Trot SAL - April

Claudette of BAP Attack is hosting the Turtle Trot SAL, where we choose 10 WIPs and post before & after progress pics on the 10th of every month.  Here is my progress on three of them since last time:

Flaming June:  I finally got to stitch some orange and I'm still on page 1.

Flaming June (before)

Flaming June update #8

She will look like this (some day):

"99":  I stitched two more bottles.  Only 85 more to go!

"99" (before)

"99" update #9

Bottle #13 is Red Stripe, Desnoes & Geddes, Jamaica.

Bottle #14 is Bitburger Pils, Bitburger Brauerei, Bitburg, Germany.

We're Off to See the Wizard:  I decided I didn't like the parking method after all so I stitched up all the loose ends.  This is part of Dorothy's dress.

We're Off to See the Wizard (before)

We're Off to See the Wizard update #1

Here is what the finished picture will look like (some day).

YOTA update - April

The first Saturday of the month is time for the YOTA (Year of the Acronym) UFO SAL update hosted by Pull the Other Thread.  Universal Unity is a Dimensions Gold Collection kit that I started in 1998.

Here is the before pic from the March YOTA post:

Universal Unity (before)

I finished the fox and stitched more on the raccoon.

Universal Unity update #15

I should work on all the grass under the tiger next time.  Happy Stitching, everyone!

My first Advent Animals finish!

Brooke's Books has a new series of 25 free Advent Animals designs, with 1 or 2 coming out each month from March 2014 until October 2015.  The first one is Katie Kitty!  Isn't she cute?  Peter Polar Bear is coming next week!  Who wants to join me?

Katie Kitty - FINISHED!

"Katie Kitty"
Designed by Brooke Nolan
Brooke's Books Advent Animals Collection
14 ct Rainbow Starlite Aida
Started 4/1/2014, Finished 4/3/2014

There is a Facebook group for this Advent Animals Stitch-A-Long where you can see many other finishes of Katie Kitty, too!

Theme-A-Licious March Madness (final)

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 every day.  Instead of listing all 31 of them here, I posted updates every Saturday. See my prior blog posts:
March 1-7
March 8-14
March 15-21
March 22-28

March 29 - #83, Disney Princesses:  I stitched Pocahontas, now only 11 more to go!

Disney Princesses update #1

March 30 - #95, Remember the Alamo:  I stitched the T and started the Texas flag.

Remember the Alamo update #1

March 31 - #12, Uber Christmas Tree:  I stitched more green and some red balls and started the silver bell.

Uber Christmas Tree update #2

The theme for this month is 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)."

My water WIPs include Thomas Kinkade's Lamplight Bridge, Flaming June, Cut Thru' North Pole House, Canyon Waterfall, Christmas Ark, Christmas on the Beach, Cut Thru' Pirate Ship, and The Wave.  I'll try to stitch on some of these during April and post updates on May 1.  Happy Stitching, everyone!