Crazy January 2011 Challenge~Days 10 and 11

On Monday night I worked on Fancy Peacocks by Stacy Nash. I am stitching it on 32 ct. antique white Belfast, which I tea dyed to a nice creamy brown color. I am using 1 strand of DMC. This should be a quick fun stitch, and I should definitely be able to finish this one this year.

Last night I started Sarah Spurr. I can already tell I'm going to love this one, just by the floss colors.  I have recently been totally inspired by Nancy Sturgeon's work on the Prairie Schooler ABC series, where she has incorporated lots of needlepoint stitches into a cross stitch piece. If you haven't seen Nancy's beautiful piece be sure to go here to see it-you will be drooling. So I am going to try to do the same here with Sarah Spurr. Today I am off to the library to get a book on needlepoint stitches(I can't believe I don't have one!) and see what I can do with this idea.
 If I make it to the cross stitch store tonight, I will start another Birds of a Feather piece tomorrow-"No Bees, No Honey", but I need a lot of sampler threads for it that are not in my stash. Otherwise I will be working on one of my WIPs. I promise...I will.

Crazy January 2011 Challenge~Days 7,8, and 9

Well it was a busy weekend, so I only got a moderate amount of stitching time. My fabric for AED 1746 came on Friday, so I got started on that Friday night, when I was supposed to be taking down Christmas. :) I took my Christmas decorations down on Saturday instead. Here is what I did, not much at all:

AED 1746 by Scarlet Letter

DMC floss on 35 ct. Tea dyed linen

The reason I didn't get that much done is because I came across this piece in my stash, and I started it! It wasn't even on my list so I totally cheated!

Needlepoint Christmas Light Ornament

by Susan Porta

Various needlepoint threads on canvas

This was super fun and very fast moving. I enjoyed working on it.

  But then on Saturday I was busy most of the day so I didn't really work on anything at all. I think I did a tiny bit on Days of Advent.

 Sunday I went to the Lake Michigan Sampler guild meeting and I took Days of Advent to work on there, so that what I worked on the rest of the weekend. I signed up to take 2 workshops given by Joanne Harvey of The Examplerary in April. One is called Betsy Morgan, which is a little school girl piece by an 8 year old, who later stitched one of the Balsch samplers, and another repro called Elizabeth Taylor-which is gorgeous! There really are no pics online so I can't show you these gorgeous pieces, but later I am going to go through my Examplerary catalog and see if I can find them and then scan a picture. I am excited about these workshops, because I have never taken a class from Joanne Harvey and I have always heard such wonderful things about her.

 So back to the challenge, I think I am going to start a Stacy Nash piece today. I have my regular MMonday night meeting, so I'm not sure how much I will get sone. I am loving this challenge though-it has really got me motivated to stitch!

Crazy January 2011 Challenge~Day 6

 Yesterday my new start was actually a WIP. I pulled out "Days of Advent" by Mary Beale. I haven't worked on this for at least 2 years, maybe more. All I really had done on it is block 1 and a little of block 2. Here is my before picture:

And here is my after picture:

 All I really got done was the rest of the globe and the grapes on the left hand side. I had another meeting last night which lasted 3 hours! Wow that was a long one. By the time I got home I had a splitting headache, so I had to be content with what I had gotten done yesterday afternoon.
 Days of Advent was not originally on my list, but I decided to swap it out with Paradise Lost. I love Paradise Lost, but it is another huge one and I didn't want to start too many really big ones this year. I still have a lot of BAPs in progress, so I wanted to finish some of them first. I really want to finish Days for a Christmas gift for my brother next year. He is one of those "impossible to buy for" types and I know this will just touch his heart. He's the kind of guy who is generous to a fault, but isn't into "things", so its hard to find anything for him. You end up going the practical route, like socks, and then you just feel lame! But he is a catholic priest and one of the few things he does buy is classical religious art. I know he will love this piece.
 And the other big project that is really calling to me is AED 1746 by Scarlet Letter.

I am hoping the fabric for this one will arrive in the mail today, and if it does that will be my start for today. I could really continue happily on Days of Advent, I was really feeling it yesterday while I was working on it. Its so hard to stop and go to a meeting when I would rather cozy up with a good project!! But duty calls!  

Crazy January 2011 Challenge~Day 4 and 5

On Tuesday I was going to work on a WIP, but...I decided to pull out "A.Elizabeth" by The Goode Huswife and start that instead. (I haven't worked on a WIP yet. Hmmm...) I tea dyed a piece of 32ct. antique white linen for this and I'm stitching it with DMC. I love how primitive this piece is, and when it is finished I have the perfect spot for it!

I didn't have much time to stitch because my hubby and I had a wonderful date night planned! We went out to dinner at The Melting Pot, which is a fondue restaurant. If you have never been, you should go-it is so much fun! The food was delicious and for two people it is actually very romantic! Then after dinner we drove into the city to see Wicked! It was wonderful and I loved every single minute of it. We had pretty good orchestra seats and the Cadillac Theatre is beautiful. I was only able to get one picture inside of the dragon over the stage, and I got yelled at for it!

  On Wednesday I started The Miniature Monogram Hornbook by Kelmscott, and I finished it! BUT... I am a complete idiot because for some reason I grabbed 28ct. instead of 32ct., so it doesn't fit on the little hornbook thingie!! Doh! And it turns out I don't have a piece of 32ct, in this color-which is like a mushroom color- and I really like the way the Brethren Blue sampler thread looks on this color, so I just finished it anyway. I will use it somewhere else. So I have a bonus finish, or and anti-finish, I don't know which. LOL! :^)

  And last but not least, I have a sneak peek of my new chart to be released very soon, hopefully in time for the Nashville Market. It is called "I will love you forever". I should be done stitching the model today.

  So today is another busy day. One of our cars(my car) has died an untimely death and that means I get to use the teenagers car AND drive everybody around again. I am not complaining (much), at least we have a third car. But it will be a couple of months before we can replace my car and its going to be a drag!
  Anyhow, today I think I will work on a WIP. Mary Beale's "Days of Advent" that has been neglected for far too long. I would love to finish this one this year.

Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 3

Well I had a meeting last night at church do I didn't get much done at all. I was going to work on a WIP, but I decided to start Noah's Garden by The Goode Huswife instead. So here is what I got accomplished-its a start anyway!

Today I need to work on dolls and do some model stitching. Tonight my hubby and I are going into Chicago to see Wicked at the Cadillac Palace! Whoo-who! It was a Christmas present from my hubby to me-I was totally suprised! He knows I have wanted to see Wicked forever. What a sweetie! First we are going to dinner at The Melting Pot, which is a fondue restaurant. I am excited to try it, we have never been there before. So, unless I am able to put a few stitches in late this afternoon, OR maybe in the car on the way into the city (which could be an hour or more depending on traffic), I may not have much to show tomorrow. I am thoroughly enjoying this challenge. Even though I may not get everything completed in a year, I feel good about getting things started that have just been languishing in my stash for so long.

Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 2 and I got something framed!!

First of all here is my start on Noah's Stocking by CHS. I am stitching it on 36 ct pearled barley using a Vickie Clayton HDF conversion. This is something I have had kitted up in my stash for quite some time. I am not sure about the HDF conversion-some of the silks may be too light for my taste. I may end up substituting some NPI as I continue to work on this. I WAS stitching right along at a good clip and then the family decided to watch Horatio Hornblower(which was a Christmas gift-the whole set of 6 movies!! Yippee!), and I got caught up in the action and kept catching myself not stitching at all! For shame! LOL!

And in other exciting news! I finally got around to finishing the framing on This is the Day!! I had the frame made at Joann with a 60% off coupon so it only cost me about 20 dollars. Then I followed the tutorial on framing by Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher and Ta-Daa!! It turned out great! Thank you Vonna for so generously posting your tutorial!

And this morning I hung it in my living room along with a punch needle piece done by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. I am so happy! These peices are hung directly across from where I sit in the morning with my coffee and Bible.

I bought this piece from Lori a couple of years ago on ebay. I just adore the way she did the frame! One of my goals for this year is to learn to make and paint my own primitive frames. It is a punch needle heart with the words "Wahre Liebe" in German, which means "true love". I adore this piece. My grandparents were both immigrants from Germany, and my father spoke fluent german. So whenever I look at this piece I think of my Dad, who I miss so much! Its a really special piece to me. And I just love Lori's work-she is so talented.

Today I will be picking up one of my WIPs for the challenge, not sure which one yet. Come back tomorrow to see which one and what progress I have made. Isn't this challenge fun!

Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 1

I started out with Happy Hearts by Birds of a Feather. I am stitching it on 35 ct. cappachino from Weekes Dye Workes, using my own conversion from GAST to Crescent Colors because I have a lot of CC threads in my stash.

This is what I was able to accomplish in one day. Not much but I was interrupted quite frequently. I really really love this design and would love to keep going on it. It might be the first one I come back to on Jan.16th! We'll see...

Now onto the next start, which for me is going to be Noah's Stocking by CHS. Tune in tomorrow for an update on that one!