Another Month Gone…Wow Lots Has Happened

Well, hello everyone, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? A lot has happened in the world since I last wrote on here and actually that is the reason I haven’t been on here to write. I have done lots of stitching (well kind of) but my mindset to go on here and write something has not been in the right place. When I write to you guys I do it when I am feeling the best and just want to share my stitching and sometimes stuff that is going on in my life.

I am still working as I work in a care home so my life has not changed much with the pandemic going on. There is no sickness or COVID-19 at my place so we are trying to keep residents safe by having the building closed to all visitors and having the residents social distance the best we can and just with that it has been a little stressful. Also not being able to see my family has been a little hard and since I really don’t want to get the virus and then carry it into the building I have not gone anywhere but home and work. So because of that, I want to try not to talk about the pandemic or my work.

So with the pandemic and with social media encouraging everyone to stay home and stay safe, the cross stitching community has embraced this saying by designers to create free charts for people to stitching during this hard time. I have seen many posted through Facebook and found one I liked and with just how I have been feeling I put my WIP’s to the side and decided to start a new project.

It’s called: Stitch Well

It’s by: JBW DesignsThis is my first time stitching on 40 count one over one. While stitching it I thought it looked pixilated and uneven, but now seeing it in the photo I think it looks really good. I guess when you have it only a few inches from your face everything can look pixilated.

If you are wanted to get some of these free designs or even just look at them there is a Facebook group that has them all listed under files: https://www.facebook.com/Keepsakes513/

The next piece that I have done some stitching on is my March Bird of the MonthI’m really almost done this piece, just have a little bit of the beak to do and then the backstitching. I think though with just everything going on I just realized I needed a break from stitching all the birds.

The last piece that I did some stitching on since I last posted was actually my Christmas Time. Well, that is all the stitching I have done in the last month. It doesn’t really look like a lot, but I’m hoping that since I am now officially on vacation for 10 days that it will be a nice break from work and I will be wanting to do more stitching. If things are going well I might even post again before my vacation ends.

Stay home

Be well

Happy stitching!

 

 

 

 

The End of #LovetoStitch

Hi, everyone, so it has been a month since my last post. I wanted to make a post sooner, but the first two weeks were not going great for me personally, so writing was just not in it for me. Don’t worry though I did do lots of stitching. You may even be surprised to know that I have two more finishes since I last posted. A lot of that is due to my stitching every day in February(well besides two sick days where I couldn’t). Why did I stitch so much? Well that was because of the February #LovetoStitch challenge

So just like last year, there was the #LovetoStitch Challenge, which is a challenge to stitch for 30 minutes every day in February. Embroidery.com Facebook group is the place that organizes the challenge, you have to post before and after pictures each day to show that you did your 30 minutes and then the people at embroidery.com will see who stayed with the challenge and they will get a prize. Last year was scroll rods and this year I think she said was going to be a needle minder.

On February 1st I finished the November Bird of the Month.

It was started: January 18, 2020

Finished: February 1, 2020

I loved stitching this bird, it went faster than some of the other ones that I have stitched and I really enjoyed stitching this tiny bird.

I started it: February 1, 2020

Finished it: February 27, 2020

Even with me stitching on this every day for the challenge it still took me 27 days to finish this one. I think because all the white stitching on it made it take more time. I always seem to have problems with stitching with white thread. Takes me longer to make it look right and I seem to get my thread tangled up more than any other coloured thread of the DMC line.

I started the March Bird of the Month next and this is how far I have gotten so far. This is pretty good progress so far for only stitching on it for two days.

If you remember my other post where I talked about my goals for the year, one of them was to get all the Birds of the Month Series completed this year. So far I have seven of them finished, one is a WIP, and then only 4 more to start and finish. Right now as things stand I am feeling pretty confident to meeting this goal. Don’t Know yet how I feel about the other goals I set for myself this year, but then again we are only in March so there is lots of time still for everything else.

I just wanted to thank the challenge that was hosted again this year. Really got me to stitch on the February Bird when I was having to stitch all the white. Maybe if I didn’t stitch every day I wouldn’t have done as much as I did. I plan on trying to keep up with the challenge of stitching every day and see if I can continue it through March.

If things are going well stitching wise and life wise I want to try and do a post either before my birthday and right after.

Happy Stitching everyone!

New Year, Two Finishes

Hello, everyone, hope everyone is having a great start to there weekend.

Since I have last posted I have been stitching like crazy, and I mean in a good way. I haven’t been forcing myself to stitch at all, just been enjoying coming home every day and stitching. Well, that is until Saturday.

See, you all know that I was going to have this up before the 20th as I knew I wouldn’t be able to write this on the 20th as it was our 5th anniversary and the 21st I went to see my sister before she goes on her trip, so that is why this post is coming up now.

So, what happened on the weekend? Well, Saturday we decided to do our house cleaning, taking down the Christmas, and cleaning out our fish tanks. We had gotten done the tree and cleaned up the living area and we had just gotten out the big white water buckets to start the fish cleaning when we started to hear running water from above. (side-note we live in a basement suite.) Then suddenly water started coming out of the light fixture and the air vent. Luckily we had the buckets and were able to get them under very quickly, however, we both still got soaked while getting the light fixture off and getting the buckets in the right spot. So the reason for this was that the upstairs neighbours got a plugged toilet and it flooded down to us. So, now the drywall of the ceiling is still wet so since then till now we have big construction fans and dehumidifier running, long story short it is very loud in the house.

The new year has just started and I have already had two new starts and two finishes. Which is just great!

My first finish of this year: September-Bird of the Month-Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Started: October 28th, 2019
Finished: January 4th, 2020

I now have five finishes out of the twelve patterns from the series, so only seven more to finish.

My next finish is also my new start for the year. I started this piece to help contribute in helping the fires that are happening in Australia. There are many designers that have been making designs and having the proceeds go to a charity that helps in some sort of way. I fell in love with the chart that Frosted Pumpkin designed.

First year start and second finish: With Love

Started: January 12th, 2020
Finished: January 17th, 2020

Please go to there site: https://www.thefrostedpumpkinstitchery.com/collections/new/products/with-love-pdf-cross-stitch-pattern

They are still donating money and also they have listed all the money they have donated so far.

My new start: November-Bird of the Month-Tufted Titmouse

Started: January 18th, 2020

I will be back with an update and a talk about the #ILovetoStitch Challenge for 2020.

Happy Stitching everyone!

My Stitching Plans for 2020

Happy Friday, everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week and has been getting lots of stitching done to start off the new year.

Now I always love making plans at the start of the year, do any of these plans really get started or finished, not always as life takes over, however, I seem to still love making plans.

2020 Plans:

1. I would like to have the rest of my monthly series all finished. So that is seven patterns to start and finish.

2. My Christmas Time pattern I also want to get finished and also framed so I can have it up for 2020 Christmas. 

3. One of my WIP’s that I haven’t touched in a long time is the: Love from Dad, that I want to give to my dad as a gift. This piece I would like to finish and frame this year and give it to him for Christmas. 

4. This plan isn’t as big as the finishes I have in my plans, but it is something that some would call: a mini finish. I would like this year to get a page finish on my Death by Cross Stitch pattern. 

5. My last plan is that I would like to finish the two Letters in my Winter Bell Pull pattern. They are both mostly stitched just have a little more full crosses to do and then the speciality stitching and backstitching to finish them off. 

So that’s all my plans for this year. Now, it really doesn’t seem like a lot, but this year I really wanted to try and be realistic on my goals and really think how much stitching I could do in a year. I really want to focus on making progress on my WIP’s each year, because as every stitcher knows there are always going to be days in the year when you just want to have a few new starts and forget about all your WIP’s. 

I will be coming back with an update post before the 20th, so look out for that.

Happy Stitching, everyone! 

All the WIP’s

If you have been reading here for a while you know that I don’t like having lots of WIP’s, in fact, I think the most WIP’s I have ever had has been nine. So my unannounced rule has been to not have more than ten WIP’s as when I had nine I found it very stressful and I do better having around five or six I have found.

Some of these WIP’s haven’t been stitched in over a year, but I still count them as a WIP and will be considered a WIP until they are finished or I decide I will never finish it and then I consider it as a UFO.

WIP #1:

Title: Christmas Time

By: DMC

Started: November 13th, 2019

Last Stitched On: Today

WIP #2:

Title: Winter Bell Pull

By: Stoney Creek Collection

Started: January 9th, 2019

Last Stitched On: March 19th, 2019

WIP #3:

Title: Love from Dad

By: Sue Hillis

Started: January 1st, 2018

Lasted Stitched On: April 20th, 2018

WIP #4

Title: Gift of the Eagle Feather

By: Dimensions

Started: my stitching is started sometime in 2015 my mom started it back when I was very young so it might be a 15 year or older WIP

Last Stitched On: Sometime before 2018

WIP #5:

Title: Death by Cross Stitch

By: Long Dog Samplers

Started: January 18th, 2018

Last Stitched On: June 19th, 2019

WIP #6:

Title: Birthday Needle-Roll Kit

By: Victoria Sampler

Started: June 5th, 2017

Last Stitched On: Sometime before 2018 

So there you have it, all my WIP’s. I will be planning on doing my next post that has all my plans for the new year that will be up some time during next week.

Happy Stitching Everyone! 

Finishes of 2019

Well, 2019 has ended and now that 2020 has started I would love to look back and show you all of my finishes I had last year.

I had wanted to have ten finishes, but I was only able to get to six finishes.

Finish #1:

This was the first finish that I had, I started it: October 26th, 2017 as part of a free Lakeside Needlecraft SAL, and I finished it: January 8th, 2019

Finish #2:

This was the first pattern that I started as part of the monthly series I started that is from: The Stoney Creek Collection, it is called: Birds of the Month-May-Eastern Blue Bird started: April 20th, 2019 and finished: July 29th, 2019.

Finish #3:

This one is titled: Birds of the Month-June-Baltimore Oriole, it was started: May 14th, 2019 and it was finished: August 17th, 2019.

Finish #4:

This is the only piece that I finished and also fully finished. This is called: Star Trek-Deep Space Nine from Clouds Factory. I started this piece: June 5th, 2019, finished it: July 24th, 2019, and got it framed: October 25, 2019.

Finish #5:

This one is titled: Birds of the Month-August-Summer Tanager, Started: August 18th, 2019, Finished: October 4th, 2019.

Finish #6:

This was the last finish I was able to get out before 2019 ended. It’s titled: Birds of the Month-October-Cedar Waxing, started: October 5th, 2019 and finished: October 27th, 2019.

So I know I didn’t write for almost the whole year of 2019 so there is a lot to get caught up on and a lot of stitching to share to everyone. My next post will be all my WIP’s. I am hoping if nothing happens I will have that up this week.

Happy New Year Everyone!

and

Happy Stitching!

Amazing Stitching Month

Wow, April will be over, by tomorrow it will be the first day of May. I still feel like the new year has just started and now I realize that the year is almost half over. Half over and I am still not used to writing in or seeing the year 2019. But I guess when you get older or maybe it is when you finish school that the year just seems to pass by so quickly.

So anyway in this month of April I have done so much stitching as my patterns finally arrived.

I got all the months (except the month of November which will come with my next month fabric piece). 

I decided to start with the month of “May” as I thought each piece wouldn’t take too long to finish and that maybe I could finish each piece before the month that it would be.

I’m not done with the piece of “May”, but I think I could finish it in about one more week and then I can go and start on the month of “June”.

This is where I am now: As for me, nothing much is going on. Thanks to going to physiotherapy twice a week for a month and then for two weeks just one a week my back is so much better, neck is still very stiff but it is not too bad at least it wasn’t till last night where I fell asleep on the couch and my neck and back was in so much pain after waking up. After taking some strong pain meds that didn’t help at all the only thing I have been able to do is do my stretches and put pain relief cream on my neck. That has happened, however even though my physiotherapist told me I could start coming once a month now I think I might have to come in for an appointment sooner than that.

So I actually don’t have much more to update you on at all. I should be back really soon as I plan to make a blog post as soon as I finish the “May” piece. I also will take about full finishing ideas once I get some of the stuff and once I have a more solid idea of how I plan of fully finishing all of the series.

Happy stitching everyone!