Sept 21 Monday Update

 Another lovely Monday. It's beautiful out this week and really acting like Fall finally here in Indiana. I worked on 4 pieces since the last update. Still working on ABCingo and loving every stitch. Here is my board right now...

 I have K and I to do and the 4 remaining calls. K will give me my first bingo Wohoo. So let's go over my week last week. 

Monday was No Stitch Day.

Tuesday I worked on Day 14 Letter L. Jeremiah picked Ragnarok since it's my Long Dog Sampler. I added 174 and then pulled it back out Sunday for Day 19 which was Letter R. Added 200 more. Trying to finish that leaf but so close not finished haha...

 Wednesday first up for #2 from Day 16. Jeremiah picked 2025 Advent Tree SAL from The Steady Thread. So added 2 more ornaments...

Day 15 was Letter S and no surprise Jeremiah picked Gnome Wars by Soda Stitch for that one. I added 235 to it... 

Thursday was Day 17 Letter F so a Full Coverage option was Star Wars by XCrossStitchDesigns was picked. Added 500 on Thursday and 356 on Friday for Letter M so works for Movie haha...

So that was it. I look forward to finishing ABCingo this week. Have a great one. Love yourself.
 

November WIPocalypse / Nov 27th Monday Update

Finally jumping back in with WIPocalypse. Which will include my last week for my normal Monday update. Since I'm jumping back in let's just see what I focused on so far in November then hopefully December will be a normal WIPocalypse update.

First what's WIPocalypse. Measi has a blog and setup this fun blog event for us to post. The last Sunday (or as soon as we can haha) we are to post an update for the WIPocalypse and then check in our her check in post. The idea of WIPocalypse is to finish all our WIPs before the apocalypse. I think we keep the world from ending because of our piles and piles of WIPs haha. I personally use this as an excuse to keep track of what I work on each day in a journal. Then I can report what I worked on since the last check in. I have missed checking in my last post was in January this year. Let's see if I can fix that. I did see she is hosting again next year which I'm thankful for.

So what have I focused on this month??

Season 2 by Hands on Design -- 4 Days I've been doing one a month this year. I've kept up even. 

Exchange Piece for a Private Exchange -- 3 Days Finished up this fun Durene Jones Freebie to exchange...

Hello Four Seasons Fall Gnome by Soda Stitch -- 9 Days. I wanted to finish this one up before December 1st. So I focused on it till finished...

Now I have the whole set of these finished. Love them!!!

Last week I worked on 2 pieces...

Dragon Eye by Eva's Design -- 2 Days

My Semi Sane FB group had a prompt for a challenge Near or Far. Since this is a closeup on the dragon's eye I used it for near. Any progress works I added 900 stitches.

Hedgehogs in the Snow by Stoney Creek -- 3 Days Worked on this one for the weekend. Added 776 in. Didn't seem to be able to get into it this time around but least I have some progress...

Measi also gives us a fun question each month Question of the Month: What is your favorite way to finish ornaments and/or smalls? I love to make a pillow ornament type finish like the exchange piece. Then you can sit it on a shelf. Either that way or with my sewing machine and fabric on the back. In hand is always better because don't need to wait for the sewing machine to be out haha. 

Fred had the week off and it was really nice. He went deer hunting in the morning and evening each day. No luck for him this year. My dad got one opening day. Then got another same day Bev got one on Saturday. So we have 3 done up in the freezer. We do the processing ourselves. It's a lot of work but so delicious when we can use the meat all winter. My dad has a large meat grinder so we make hamburger type meat out of all we can use. Dad said he thinks we could do it on our own we have learned pretty well. Of course I'm not as good as they are at doing it haha. Just a few years of experience over me. Thanksgiving went great. We were invited over to my Grandmother's since we don't have anywhere else to be. It was a nice time with my 2 sets of Aunts/Uncles, Dad and Step Mom, and Grandparents. 

I'm madly planning my stitching. My focus for December. My focus for next year. My LOVE for stitching is just going crazy! It's so fun to be so in love with it again. I'm trying not to jump in over my head too but it's hard because I want to STITCH all the THINGS!!! Haha. 

Have a great week. Love yourself. Smile. Find your happiness. We have a fun weekend ahead. I want to switch out Fall for Christmas. I want to stitch as much as possible too haha. I need more time!!!

Nov 20th Monday Update

Howdy again readers. We had a busy day getting groceries but I remembered to get my post posted. So let's see what I worked on last week.

I've been madly working on the Autumn Gnome. Every day but Wednesday. Wednesday was computer work, Jeremiah eye doctor, groceries day.

Anyway guess what?!?! Last night the final stitches were put in...

(23) November 19th

Hello Four Seasons (Autumn Gnome)

(Stitched Individually)

From Soda Stitch

Stitched on 32ct Light Blue Lugana

Using Suggested DMC Threads

Started Sept 27th, 2023. Took 11 Days.

Whole Set Took 49 Days

 

I love how each one turned out. The little piles in the wagon are perfect. The gnomes outfits. Just love them. So glad I did this set this year! I have a set picked out to do for next year. Need to get them kitted up.

 

My exchange piece was received so I can share it as well...

 This was what I decided to stitch for my partner...

(22) November 7th

Woodland Deer Freebie

From Durene Jones

Stitched on 14ct Aida

Using Suggested DMC Threads

Started Nov 5th, 2023. Took 3 Days.

 

I really liked it a lot (and almost kept it haha) but Elaine said she loved it too. So I'm happy to have parted with it. Maybe I'll stitch it again sometime. 

Over the weekend Fred has his radio event. He enjoyed it a lot. He was happy with the ticket sales and they hope to host it again next year. Saturday was opening season for deer hunting. My dad got a small doe. So we did up the meat for the freezer Sunday. 17 quart bags with probably 2 pounds each I think. Yum. Fred has off all week so hopefully we'll get a few more. Spike just wants the bones haha. 

Have a great week! Love yourself. Smile. Happy Turkey Day!!! We plan on eating ourselves miserable.

Nov 13th Monday Update

 Hello to my wonderful readers. Welcome to another Monday update. Let's look back and see what I worked on last week.

Monday and Tuesday I worked on a fun exchange piece. My first exchange in forever and a half. Loved working on it. I fully finished it Wednesday. I almost wanted to keep it but I hope my exchange partner loves it just as much. I will share when I can.

Wednesday after finishing that up I worked on the Fall Gnome. Thursday and Friday same thing. Here it is now...

It's a really bad photo but I was hurrying so I could finish this post and go stitch haha. I finished the words and made it to the gnome finally! They are fun to stitch up. Big blocks of the same color goes quickly which is always nice. So hopefully I'll be happy dancing soon.

Over the weekend we were busy. Hubby helped me get all the Halloween stuff put away in storage and I put out my fall decor. Love it!!! Then we pulled everything out of the storage under both beds. Swept all the dog hair! How does so much dog hair get stuck under and behind things?? Rearranged a lot of stuff. A whole van went to storage. A huge wagon load was burnt. Plus two big bags of trash. We sure had a lot of wasted stuff taking up space. So everything is clean and organized a lot better. 

Then we looked at the calendar and sat down and plan the rest of our weekends. Weekends just go too fast and we will blink and Christmas will be here. So we made plans of what we are doing and when. Now I'm excited for every weekend before Christmas. 

This coming weekend hubby is busy at a Amateur radio festival all weekend. It's IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend) too. So oh darn. Nothing planned other than stitching stitching and stitching. Then Fred has off a week but plans on deer hunting every moment he can. We have almost used up all our deer meat from last year's 4 deer. I know my dad is out of his meat too. So hopefully we'll catch some more this year. It's a lot of work to do up the meat but oh so worth it!!

Okay I'm off to stitch. I started rambling haha. Remember....Have a great week ahead. Love yourself. Smile. Stitch all the things!!

Nov 6th Monday Update

Hello everyone on this windy Monday. Let's see what I did last week.

Monday just in time for the Halloween Blog hop I finished the Mill Hill Kit Lunar Trick. It took me 5 days to stitch up. I really enjoyed stitching it.

Tuesday I put a day into the last Hello Four Seasons by Soda Stitch gnome I need to finish which is Autumn...

Remember I'm doing them individually and hoping to finish them into display pillows for the seasons. Wednesday was the 1st of November so I started on the Season 2 (Year of Celebrations) from Hands on Design. Sunday I put the final stitches in it...

(21) November 5th

November - A Year of Celebrations Season 2
from Hands on Design
Stitched on 32ct Dark Cobblestone Lugana
Using Suggested Classic Colorworks Threads
Started Nov 1st. Took 4 Days.

1,475 Stitches Total

 

Sunday after finishing I also started a new piece. But I can't share it. I joined a friend who is having a Winter/Christmas ornament exchange. So I won't share the picture till it's been received so she can't peek at it haha. I was so happy to join in an exchange again.

Saturday the weather was beautiful so we got to work enclosing our porch for the winter. We purchased heavy duty clear tarps last year. This year we did even better with putting them up. Dad suggested we add a door instead of just having the tarp loose for our opening. Works perfect too because we had replaced our storm door on the cabin so we had the old door laying around in storage. So we got busy and here is the finished project...

I forget the exact size of our deck but seriously we do all our cooking out here. So now we can be warm while cooking. We do have a nice propane heater out there when it's extra cold. Just perfect. Spike loves it because he can sit outside and we don't have to have him on a leash.

This week I want to finish up the exchange piece. Then who knows. I know I want to make progress on Beer Dragon and Dragon Eye. I would love to work on the Autumn Gnome and get it finished before December if possible. So much to do haha. I am still really in love with my stitching. I want to stitch on all the things NOW haha. Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Smile.

October 2nd Monday Update

Last week of September so last week of the Go Stitch Challenge. Let's see what I worked on...

Monday - Make up for 23rd Letter B - Boba Fett this time...

Few more stitches Monday on Make up for 24th Letter D Dragon Eye by Eva's Designs...

Tuesday -- More make up added 202 stitches to call Day 24 complete

 

Then Day 25 Letter T was a new start...

Taurus Mill Hill Kit. This is for Jeremiah and me both which is nice. 

205 added for the day to be complete

Day 26 Letter D was called so back to Dragon Eye for 202 more stitches...

Wednesday I was caught up again. Letters J which I don't have so a Go Stitch day...

Time for a start on the last Hello Four Seasons Gnome. The Autumn one...

Added 403 stitches

Thursday and Friday -- Day 28 Letter I but It's a Mermaid Life wasn't calling me at all. I heard loud screams from my WIP tote. Beer Dragon needed me so Go Stitch day instead. I put in 291 stitches Thursday. Friday I added 109 more to complete the 400 needed. Day 29 was B which was perfect I had 400 more to finish the page. So I did double my required amount to finish page 4...

Saturday the last day. Day 30 Letter S. So I pulled out Stitcher's Code SAL again to work on that part 6...

I got the front down to missing a backstitch kind of border and then backstitch outline to put it together.

So I completed the Go Stitch Challenge completely. I was so happy to have it done and even in the month. I did have a few days I had to make up but I did the makeup quickly. 

Sunday I worked on Season 2 from Hands on Design October piece...

Now for some Go Stitch stats. I worked on 17 different projects. The last week I got 2,235 stitches. Total for the month I got an amazing 10,563 stitches!! I had a blast. Of course I did nothing else at all well except for moving on the weekends which completely made up for the lazy weeks. The new Semi Sane challenge is just to keep track of stitches. We earn puzzle pieces for every 1,000 stitches. There is a team of 12 stitchers playing along. Right now we have a 20 piece puzzle. You get the puzzle piece when each 1,000 stitches is posted. Then you assemble the puzzle. If completed we can receive another puzzle to do. Yesterday was the first day and I was really busy but it seems fun. The team aspect is fun so far. Next month there is a solo one I seen. These are fun little pushes to stitch more. Like I need that haha. I'm so in love with my stitching.

Unfortunately though I fell off the wagon of being healthier. I've gained all the weight I lost back. It's very frustrating but I've been letting myself be stressed with the emptying of the house. So that's done now. I'm ready to get back on track. Even though the exercising takes away from my endless hours of stitching. I want to be around to stitch for as long as possible. So back active I go. I really have to focus on eating better so I'm definitely going to work on that better. Plus better house keeping haha. My mom never had good house cleaning skills. We have promised each other we are never living like we did so I've decided to start now with better cleaning skills. We bought an awesome new sweeper. I am going to do some things I've not done like clean the windows. Found out how easy it is to pop the screens out. So tomorrow I have a new skill to learn. It's sad I was just never taught that stuff. Never a priority. 

Fred put up 4 shelves my Grandpa made. I LOVE them. I got out all the Halloween decorations and excited sorted through them...

I literally cried happy tears. As if our happy place couldn't get any better. I just can't wait to decorate for all the holidays. Plus I can display a lot more of my stitching. Shelf space was very limited before. My dad was the one who suggested shelves. Duh. Love them!!!! Plus I have my favorite Halloween things and Mom's favorite things. She has a lot more fall stuff so after Halloween I'll have a completely new decoration theme. Then ohhhh Christmas!!! Love it!!!

Okay I need to get off this computer. Thanks for reading my crazy updates haha. I love this blog. I love my readers. I love life. So have a great week. Love yourself. Smile. Find happiness. I have and am!

Sept 18th Monday HUGE Update

It was another week full of stitching. Still joining in the Go Stitch challenge with the Semi Sane Stitchers Facebook group. Having a blast. It is just the push I needed. So let's see what I've been working on...

Monday Day 11 - Letter M. I was very surprised I don't have a M title chart. That's okay I wanted to finish up Summer Gnome so perfect. Needed 400 stitches got 268 added...

Tuesday 

First up last 132 for Day 11 on Summer Gnome...

Day 12 - Letter Q No Q for me. So another 400 Go Stitch Day. Hoping to finish Summer Gnome...

378 stitches and it was complete!!! Wohoo! Happy Dance. Still needed more stitches for my total for the day so grabbed Camping Out Mill Hill Kit...

252 stitches and it was finished!!! Major happy dancing. 2 fantastic finishes in one day. 

Wednesday -- Day 13 Letter B Finally one I had several choices for the letter. 4 choices. We picked Beer Dragon because I want at least 500 stitches this month in him...

Added 400 stitches even though I needed 200.

Thursday - Day 14 Letter S Another 4 choice kind of day. Jeremiah picked an old WIP...

This is Stitcher's Code SAL from Stitchingly it was a SAL in 2019/2020. I am doing them individually and I finished Part 4 in 2020. Jeremiah picked #6 this time because the cute little frog of course...

Another great stitching day so 600 stitches added. This is exactly why I love this challenge. Made me pick up this old WIP. I promised it I will be back soon. I have a 2nd SAL from them too. Plus they make adorable little pillow type finishes to display. #4 is on display here at our tiny house.

Friday - Day 15 Letter Y No Y for me. So Beer Dragon came back out...

Added 400 more stitches. So goal met for this month.

Saturday No stitching day. We ran up to Fort Wayne to the old house. We picked up a trailer to haul furniture again. 2 HUGE loads. One to help the home owner. One for our last big stuff. Of course all this stuff was upstairs. So OUCH. It was hard hard work but it's done. My poor left lower leg still hurts today from all the work. This is all the big stuff now though. Just hodge podge stuff left. We are crossing all fingers we just might actually be done this coming weekend with what we want out. Ohhh I hope so...

Sunday I planned on not moving. Hurried to do a few things like put out bird seed. We had a delicious breakfast and sit I did...

Makeup for Saturday Day 16 - Letter W Another older WIP Wish Upon a Starfish by Designs by Lisa...

Added 207 (oops extra 7 haha) to complete Saturday

Day 17 Letter O No O for me so why not keep that beautiful Starfish loaded on the Q-Snap...

651 stitches!!!! Told you I wasn't moving all day. WOW. Only one symbol left. I was so tired. I would have loved to keep my eyes open just probably an hour more to finish but no luck. Trust me....soon.

So I'm curious again...Last Monday I reported 3,039 stitches and was proud of myself.....this week....3,288!! Wohoo! Still loving every stitch. 

I wonder what I will work on this week. Can't wait to report it to you. Smile. Love yourself. Have an amazing week.