Smalls SAL and WIPocalypse

Even though I'm on vacation I want to get my SAL updates in. First up is the September Smalls SAL. The idea of this fun SAL is to stitch up something each month. I've joined in for 2 years before this and I have decided to use this SAL as an excuse to stitch up a monthly design throughout the whole year. This year I'm stitching a Durene Jones Calendar project. So far I've only missed one by just a day. Not September though. I was excited about stitching up this cute hedgehog...

Now for the WIPocalypse update. The idea of this SAL is for us to finish our WIPs before the end of the world. I don't think this will ever happen. Especially after buying all the new stash I just did haha. So I think I'm helping with holding off the end of the world. I like to use this SAL as an excuse to keep track of what I've worked on during the time frame and how many days on each project. It's a fantastic way to look back and see how much progress I have made on my countless WIPs. So let's see what I've been working on since my last update...

You are Loved -- 1 Day and I had this one finished off

Dragon Moon -- 2 Days I was itching to work on HAEDs again
Here is where I got with it...

Dragon Skies -- 2 Days
Here is where she is...

 Durene Jones September -- 4 Days. The photo for this one is the top one for my Smalls SAL.

Sept Snapshot -- 6 Days. Started and finished this one. Just have October left to do now...

Frosted Pumpkin Halloween Sampler -- 6 Days
Here is where I was last WIPocalypse update...

Here is where I am now...

Halloween Mini - Vampire Face - 4 Days
Got started on this one before vacation and have got a little bit stitched while on vacation even...

October Snapshot -- 1 Day. Got started on this one at the retreat. But spent too much time chatting/shopping and not stitching.
Here I am now with it...

No stitching days -- 13. A camping trip, the cabin, and this vacation is stealing my time. But it's all good time to be spending so I'm okay with that. Looking back I have got a lot done and on a lot of different projects so I'm very happy.

Okay now back to my vacation posts. See ya next month for the next SAL updates.

Monday Update: A Finish and a HAED Week

Last Monday I was able to finish up You are Loved...

Finish # 21 August 27th, 2018

You are Loved by Hinzeit

Christmas 2017 Gift from Fred

Stitched on 28ct Beige Jobelan Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC Threads

Started Dec 30th, 2017. Took 14 Days.

I'm so happy to have it marked off my YOW (Year of WIPs) list. I just need two more things marked off the list and I will be entered into the end of the year drawing for the YOW group. I will definitely have the Durene Jones piece finished for then. So I just need one more marked off. Wonder which one it will be?

After I finished that one up I heard my HAEDs (Heaven and Earth Designs) screaming Remember Us? So I looked through them and ended up having Jeremiah pick a number for me. First one he picked was Dragon Moon. Here is what she will look like again...

The artwork is from Nene Thomas unfortunately her designs are now OOP at HAED or at least last I checked they were. I hadn't worked on it since March this year. I put two more days into it and here is the progress now after 12 Days on it...

I'm stitching it 1 thread over 1 complete X on 32ct taupe evenweave. The sparkle doesn't show up very well in this picture. There is a lot of Kreinik blending filament in this one. What a pain but it looks pretty when it's in.

After those two days I asked Jeremiah to pick another number from my HAEDs and he picked Dragon Skies from Selina Fenech...

I'm doing it 1 thread over 1 complete x on 32ct as well. This one was from the lovely Justine and I hadn't worked on it since March 2016! I worked on it Thursday and yesterday. Here it is now with 11 days of progress...

I was so glad to get away from the Kreinik in the other one and yep you can see it in this one....it's mostly Kreinik in the area I worked on the past two days. So frustrating but again it looks pretty after it's in the fabric. I got 6 columns finished up now on the first page. Looks like I'm almost to the top of the dragonfly according to the artwork photo so that's good. I glanced ahead and several of the pages are just B5200. What a boring page that will be. But I will LOVE it once I get to that beautiful fairy and dragon!

Over the weekend we went up to our friends house in Michigan. It was just the 4 of us (Jeremiah decided to stay home and have an Xbox weekend) and it was forecast to be HOT and rainy. So we asked them if we could stay in their old camper instead of bringing our tent. Boy I'm glad we did. The weather was horrible. We even had a tornado touch down 6 miles away from us. We had fun but so glad to be home in the AC again. We didn't do much at all. We spent Saturday shopping at several fun places and 2 breweries instead of kayaking which I'm glad we did with all the lightning that ended up being in the area. It was a fun relaxing weekend with great friends at least along the Kalamazoo River...

I hope everyone has a great week. As always I feel overwhelmed with all I need to do. Hopefully though I can squeeze in some X's. Hope you can too!

IHSW

This is the 3rd weekend of the month which means it's International Hermit Stitch Weekend (IHSW). It's time to settle down and get some major stitching done. Tell your chores they can wait till Monday. Let's stitch!! I'm going to blame IHSW for a perfect excuse for a new start. We all know I need another WIP haha. Here she is all ready to start...

The sweet Heather was kind enough to host a giveaway for a Tilton Craft pattern. They are a lot like HAED so I figured I would enjoy them. I saw this pattern and just fell in love. Look at all those beautiful blues and purples. The fabric is a 32ct sage. We have just a few things to do tomorrow but other than that I should be able to stitch away.

Also I wanted to remind everyone I'm hosting a giveaway. The chart is a fun wordplay snowman. Go here to sign up please. I will announce the winner Monday. There are only 9 people participating so your chances are pretty high.

I have another WIP update on Dragon Skies before she goes away...

I ended with 5,126 stitches in. All white and Kreinik. I gotta admit I'm looking forward to color today haha. Enjoy your weekend!

Older WIPs

I decided to work on older WIPs this week to build up to my new start this weekend for IHSW. Last year for CJC 2015 I started a cute Mill Hill piece. This is what it will look like when finished...

I hadn't worked on it since May. I put another day of work into this one. Here is where I am now after 4 days of progress...

Then she stopped calling to be stitched on so she went back into my tub of WIPs. I was having a hard time hearing which one was yelling loudest and out popped another old WIP...

Justine RAKed me with this gorgeous HAED last year. I had totally forgotten about her. She quickly jumped onto my Q-Snaps. I only had 6 days of work into her last March! Here is my 7th day added in...

My white and Kreinik blob haha. It goes so fast though! I almost finished the next set of columns last night. I'm using 32ct taupe lugana on this one. She's still stuck on my Q-Snaps for now.

Dragon Skies Update

Well here is the start of my HAED March Madness. This is Dragon Skies by Selina Fenech. I started it on the Sunday March 1st and worked on it 6 days. I have 2,941 stitches in now. I'm doing this one on 32ct taupe lugana. Right now it's all B5200 and Kreinik 032. It went so fast since it was such large blocks of color.

Now I've started the second piece. Dragon Moon. It's by Nene Thomas and she has decided to not allow HAED to do her artwork anymore. It's got a lot more color changes so I know I won't make near as much progress in the time span. I will change Sunday to my last new HAED start.

See ya tomorrow for the Turtle Trot check in.

March WIPocalypse

Today is WIPocalypse so that means we do a check in post on what we've been working on since the last Full Moon. I like to tally up how many days I've been working on what projects. Here is the breakdown...

HAED Hold on to Hope - 2 Days
Christmas Pals Ornaments - 4 Days I finished 1 and started the next one.
Winter WordPlay - 3 Days I was able to finish this one.
HAED Selkie - 3 Days
MH Kits - 1 Day to start and finish my Feb pick
Cut Thru Pirate Ship - 2 Days
Dog Wisdom - 6 Days I was able to finish this one too.
HAED Dragon Skies - 4 Days Just started this one March 1st.
None - 4 Days Not bad at all!

I was able to work on a lot of different projects and Wow 4 finishes in this time span too!! You can find my finishes in the 2015 finishes tab at the top. Here is the progress on my new start HAED Dragon Skies...

There are only two colors so far. B5200 and Kreinik 032. I wish I could get the sparkle to show up better in that Kreinik part but for those who have worked with it you know what it looks like in person. This is 2,280 stitches in. With each WIPocalypse post we also get a neat question to answer...If money – and time – were not limiters, what projects would be on your stitching bucket list?

More Heaven and Earth Designs of course. They take so long. Not really money but the time is crazy. I do enjoy the journey of stitching them so much so that's why I work on them. I definitely would never be able to stitch all of them I would love to. Next check in is April 4th. See ya then!

My March HAED Madness

So my HAED insanity continues to grow. Sometime last year HAED announced that one of my favorite artists was pulling her artwork from the HAED site. So I was of course FORCED to buy two of her patterns that I just couldn't live without. The artists name is Nene Thomas. I bought two of the Storykeep patterns so at least they aren't that big (Yeah Right!)...

Storykeep Aquamarine

by Nene Thomas

125 x 392

90 Different Colors

Storykeep Dragon Moon

by Nene Thomas

100 x 309

90 Different Colors

Dragon Skies 

by Selina Fenech

400 x 562

90 Different Colors

Dragon Skies was RAKed to me by a lady whom I've enjoyed getting to know in the blog world Justine. When I originally received her I was thinking Oh I will wait until next year cause I already have so much going on.....Yeah Right! She has been haunting me ever since. So I figured might as well start all 3 right?! I got 32ct Taupe Lugana to do them all on. The piece for Dragon Skies is so HUGE! Funny part about Dragon Skies I was worried about it since Selkie is all blues on the first few pages. So I wondered what Dragon Skies would bring me and hoped it wasn't blues. It's all white! So at least it will be break from the blues. So I will have 6 HAEDS in my WIP pile. It's okay cause I just LOVE working on them.