Tiffstitches a Blog!

Ack! I'm late! I'll quickly get this photo up since I have it on my computer and I'll get the rest up throughout the day.  Yesterday was the day to post for the Turtle Trot SAL run by Claudette over at BAP Attack. It's a great SAL in that you just do your best to stitch what you can on your 13 projects each month. This past month I managed to finish one! I also managed to start another project , but that can wait for a future post.  My finish is #6 Christmas Drop by AAN. I wasn't sure if...

I thought I might have a finish for this month, but I got distracted by a new project.  No one is more surprised than me..... But on to updates: 6. Christmas Drop by AAN. I decided to use some lovely gold silk thread from Soie Crystale for the embellishments and the writing. And I went with French knots instead of beads. I like the look overall. I had started stitching the ribbon at the top in the DMC satin, but I fell in love with a Waterlilies Holiday thread and am going to use that instead. I haven't quite picked out all...

For this IHSW, again hosted by the lovely Joyce of Random Ramblings, I dragged out one UFO and a WIP to work on.  This is AAN's Christmas Drop and I used up all my satin DMC. So I have to get some more. I had picked up some WDW in Whiskey and another golden yellow colour, but I might just get another silk for the contrasting colour. I'll have to have a look at what the Whistling Duck has. They have quite a few silk thread brands, so I might find the perfect one.  And this is a miniscule start on...

I touched on Mabel's Fancies A Song of the Weather Hardanger SAL in a January blog post, but I'd like to mention it more now that I've completed February and most of March.  For February I used a piece of 28 count white Monaco, and DMC variations perle #5 for the beaded edging and DMC perle#5 ecru for the kloster blocks. The woven bars are Caron Wildflowers (I think that's what the perle #8s are called?) Jade and the dove's eyes and French knots are Caron Wildflowers Blueberry.  I'd like to mention again how much I'm enjoying this SAL. The new...

Hello fellow hermitters! I hope you all had a great IHSW this weekend. Thanks to Joyce for getting everyone together to virtually stitch along with each other.  I'm taking a break from Warbreaker because I wasn't able to attend the author signing after all. I'm working on a thank you gift for a friend that is a big fan of these movies  This fantastic chart can be found at Pyro Dog's Etsy shop. The Evil Dead movies are a favourite of DH's as well, so I can see that I"ll be stitching this again sometime soon. I'm using 28 ct cashel...

For February's edition of the Turtle Trot SAL I only have one picture to share currently. I was really trying to motor to have this one finished by Saturday, but it's not going to happen. I got hit with a crazy case of vertigo on January 27th and that made it impossible to stitch for about a week. I've never had vertigo before, but wow, it is not fun. I couldn't even make it to work a few days when I really needed to. At least it's mostly gone now. I did some work on the HAED BB SAL Mystic Garden,...

I played hooky from Warbreaker this weekend to work a lot on my HAED BB Freebie SAL, the Mystic Garden QS. I didn't get much done since I've been recovering from a cold, but 500 stitches isn't too bad for one day's work.  I worked on Warbreaker throughout the week and I didn't get a lot done, but hopefully I'll be better off this week and be able to finish another page. There are 9, but the right-most page is only 20-30 stitches wide.  Wish me luck! Happy Stitching! Tiffstitch  ...

If you're like me, then you've started more projects lately than you've completed. So I've decided to join the Turtle Trot SAL over at BAP Attack. I don't have as many WIPs as she does, but I have more than I'd like. So in 2013 I'll try and work on these projects more than starting any new ones. Join in if you've got a pile of WIPs/UFOs you'd like to work on! Alright, so now I must decide for sure on 13 patterns to work on this year. My last post gave hints of what I'd like to work on, but...

I finished another one! The Geese-A-Laying is complete and only one more motif to finish, then another heart at the end.  I've started on the Drummer for the 12th day, but I don't think I'll finish this month since today is the last day! I should still finish in plenty of time for Xmas though.  I also participated in a Christmas ornament exchange on the Cross Stitch Forum. I forgot to take a picture of the ornament I sent, but my exchange recipient posted one. I stitched a Mill Hill kit, it was a lot of fun, and the beading, although...

I'm a little late getting this up as I've already stitched a fair bit of the 11th motif (6 Geese-a-laying), but it's not complete yet so I haven't taken a photo. I had hoped to get the 12 motifs done by the end of the month, but since that will be Saturday I don't think I'll quite make it. We'll see. The rings were a bit of a pain since they're all metallics, and then the red metallic hangers.. thankfully my LNS suggested Thread Heaven or I might still be working on this one. As it was the DMC still broke...

As usual, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to stitch, but I still accomplished by goal of finishing Day 5 of the 12 Days of Xmas. I didn't quite finish Day 11, but a fair amount of the cross stitch is done for him. So 2 1/2 to go, plus a heart at the end all in metallics, thankfully I have Thread Heaven to make it possible. I think I have a good chance of completing the stitching this month, and that would be a unique experience. I'm usually finishing stitching December 24! Hope everyone had...

I had all day Sunday to stitch and an unexpected day off Wednesday, so I managed to finish off Days 3,4,9, and 10. Over halfway done now, so hopefully I'll have time to complete the entire design in time to get it finished completely for Xmas. Here are the photos: The French Hen and the Lady Dancing for Days 3 and 9 respectively were fairly lengthy to complete compared to Days 4 and 10. I do like the look of them though. The 4 Calling Birds look a little like fish to me, but oh well. I do like the enthusiastic...

I didn't have as much time as I wanted to stitch this weekend, despite it being IHSW, but that seems to be how it goes these days. I did get a fair bit completed on the next 2 motifs of 12 Days of Xmas though.  The Lady-Dancing is almost completely stitched and the French Hen is well on it's way. Hopefully I'll finish them up this week.  Earlier this past week I did spend some time on my sort-of secret gift for my DH. Any guesses on what it is?  And I was lucky enough to have a ride to work...

First, the update from 12 Days of Xmas, I managed to finish the first 4 motifs as of this afternoon! I was going to reward myself and stitch on my freebie HAED, but I'm updating here instead, good for me. Here's a shot of the entire piece so far: I'm still enjoying it, and it doesn't have many colours, so it's not terribly complicated. Lots of backstitch though, so if you dislike backstitch I definitely do not recommend this design. I don't mind it so far, I think it adds a little whimsy to the motifs. Here's a close-up of the...

Thank you for all your encouragement! Of course I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I pretty much met my main goal, which was to finish the top 4 rows on the HAED Siberian Forest QS. Even DH will admit it's starting to look like something now.  And I'm getting the hang of parking, so that has made this a lot easier to stitch. I think if I had a month to work on it I would be all caught up, but of course I have a million other WIPs to do! Here's a bit of...

I'm still not completely finishing my carnival piece, I must finish tonight! I'm slightly farther ahead as I'm maybe halfway done the big hot air balloon that goes above the roller coaster. I'm going to take it to work with me today and stay up late tonight if I need to. With luck I'll be done tonight! Here's another shot of the full piece, I have 3 1/2 more rows of the pink to complete in the hot air balloon and then all the top colour, plus the small balloon, which I could leave out if necessary. We'll see how it...

I didn't have as much time to stitch as usual this weekend, but I did accomplish one goal.  The ferris wheel is complete!! So now it's just a fair amount of cross stitch, tons more backstitch, and I'll have a roller coaster, 2 hot air balloons, and another tent topper. I think the end of August is still within the realm of possibility.  And here's another close-up. You can also see a bit of the carousel in the right corner. That also uses the Rainbow Gallery blending filament and it shines really nicely. I've had no issues working with it at...

I've been concentrating on the carnival piece to hopefully get it done within the next month. I think it's possible. I'm almost done the ferris wheel, just need to do a little more filling in of background before I can fill in the backstitch.  So there's still a ton to do on the right side, but just getting all the blending thread and backstitch done on the ferris wheel will be a huge job. That might be halfway really. There's a lot of backstitch for the roller coaster too, but not as much as there is on this ferris wheel. :)...

I know I just updated recently, but I have done a bit more work on this, especially with the Rainbow Blending thread. Here's an update of the entire piece. It will be as tall as the ferris wheel half again. And on the right side there will be a fair amount of stitching filled in. This side is more open, but still takes some time. I'm doing the pinhead stitch to start the coloured "flags" and they're all Rainbow Gallery blended with DMC. I modified the grey backstitch inside the ferris wheel from DMC 169 as charted to DMC 317. The...

Well, I've been working mostly on my carnival project, and it may be an Xmas present for someone since I'll be stitching it for several months, so here's an update of that piece. I had a bit of decreased stitching over the last week, but I received the GG Rainbow Blending Thread and I'm back at it with a passion. :) I'm slightly farther than this now, working more on the roller coaster on the left side. Lots of backstitch, but I never really minded backstitch. And this is an update of my 12 Days of Xmas piece. I finally have...

Well it was a beautiful weekend, so I wasn't inside stitiching as much as I might have normally. I still got a bit done on my carnvial piece though. First here's a better picture of the finished piece. I'm about halfway across the bottom and I'll finish the bottom before returning for the middle parts. Part of the reason is I'm waiting on the GlissenGloss thread, the other part is I think my fabric is a little too big, but I wanted to stitch everything first before making any cuts. And here's my progress so far. Not too bad, and I'm...

For whatever reason my heart hasn't been in stitching White Wolves, so I've started something new. This will be an Xmas gift this year I think. It's large, but not difficult, and there's large patches of colour, so it shouldn't take too long to complete. Certainly before Xmas. Here's a picture of what it will look like. It's from a 2011 Cross Stitch magazine. There's only about 10 colours total and 3 metallics. They call for DMC Light effects, and I already had one that I needed, but I need 2 more. Michael's was out of one colour and their LE...

I suffered a bit of ennui this weekend, so I didn't finish quite as much as I'd hoped. And I realized I'm not that fond of White Wolves as I thought. So it's been somewhat of a pain. At least I haven't made any mistakes as far as I know. I'll likely do White Wolves every other day as I did with Angelic Melody until it's finished. Hopefully that won't be too long.  The left most stitching is the very end of the chart, and I am much happier stiching in my Qsnap than that old scroll frame. It was pretty...

I suffered a bit of ennui this weekend, so I didn't finish quite as much as I'd hoped. And I realized I'm not that fond of White Wolves as I thought. So it's been somewhat of a pain. At least I haven't made any mistakes as far as I know. I'll likely do White Wolves every other day as I did with Angelic Melody until it's finished. Hopefully that won't be too long.  The left most stitching is the very end of the chart, and I am much happier stiching in my Qsnap than that old scroll frame. It was pretty...

 Hosted by Lady Kell at Diary of a Domestic Goddess No finishes this past month for Xmas X-stitching, but I did get a lot of work done on Angelic Melody. Let's start with her.  So she's well on her way to completion. It's possible even within a few weeks. The wing is all half cross-stitch and as you can see in the next picture, it's only the top banner that is practically untouched.  I've been backstitching and cording, etc. as I go so I don't have a ton left to do at the end. I'm going to leave the strings on the...

So I didn't get my pre-IHSW blog post written. We had some friends down this week and I hardly had any stitchy time! I had even forgotten it was IHSW until I saw Joysze's post this morning. I did have to work all weekend, but of course some stitching was done. I rented Tintin on Saturday and Cowboys and Aliens on Sunday. We'd seen them both in the theatre, but both worth another viewing. Saturday I worked on my HAED, this can be like a game since I don't feel I accomplished much. Can you see the difference?  I've decided to try and...

This month brings another finish! I was able to find another LNS, and I really need a separate post to gush about how exciting that is, but the important point is they had both WDW Ivy and Autumn Leaves to allow me to finish this piece.  as you can tell I haven't ironed it yet, but I did thumbtack it to the wall and it makes me happy to look at it completed. I was really feeling bogged down by the number of WIPs I had going, so having another completion feels really, really good. A friend mentioned since it's on...

As one of my friends on the Cross Stitch Forum mentioned, it's easy to blame the Crazy January Challenge for my startitis.  That's right, I have a new project started. In my defence, it will be part of Lady Kell's Xmas Xstitching Challenge and a gift for my Grandma (I think). Of course, I already had a couple other things in mind for her that are half started, but no matter!  This one is entitled Homeward Trail in Winter from the January edition of CrossStitch & Needlework. I'm using a 28 count fabric that I've lost the tag too. It might be Jobelan? It was a...

My wonderful DH was going to be near my new favourite LNS and was able to pick up some of the threads for my Xmas tree. Unfortunately they didn't have anything for my 2012 Sampler, and only 2 each of Ivy and Autumn Leaves by WDW. He was able to order WDW Bethlehem, but the clerk told him the horrifying news that this store would not be stocking WDW anymore!! NO!!! I finally found this place after searching the WDW website for a nearby place that carried their threads, and now they're not stocking them anymore.. argh! I've emailed the owners...

Time for this month's update on my Xmas challenge. I really hope I can actually meet this one, we'll see what comes up during the year. I was already slowed down a bit by another gift that was mentioned in the last post, but it maybe only took a week all told. In no particular order, here's what I've accomplished so far.  Xmas tree by skitzzzz I'm really loving this project, I just ran out of thread! Otherwise I think I would have finished it first. I'm using WDW Autumn Leaves and Ivy working 2 over 1 on 14 count gold...

As mentioned yesterday, I worked on the gift for my co-worker who's abandoning us next week. Again, the finished project will look like this. I'm stitching on 28 count white monaco, despite the fact the picture looks grey! I completely forgot to write down my colours again, but I believe it's DMC 57 and 67. The outside will be all in 57 and the inside will be 67. I didn't have a ton of time to stitch because of work (naturally) but I think I put a good 6-8 hours into this so far. I was watching DH play Zelda Skyward Sword,...

I did take that break from Angelic Melody to relax over the last few days before the New Year. I worked a bit on The Good Life kit but mostly I relaxed after the frantic stitching before Christmas.  Angelic Melody latest progress. The newest stitches are the cording on her dress and the green riboon and of course more filling and more backstitch!  The Good Life update And on to progress/plans for Kell's Xmas Xstitching Challenge 2012. I started her 2012 Band Sampler and I'm using WDW's holiday threads, I think Bethlehem by their colour guide, but I need to find where I put...

So I did not get Angelic Melody completed for my MIL this Xmas. I'm not sure if it will be for next year or just as I finish it. My progress to date as of December 24th will be below. I haven't worked on it since because I needed a break from it for a while!  DH says it will be a masterpiece when completed. He's the best. :D ...

This weekend I will finally join the Internation Hermit and Stitch Weekend. One of my few weekends off work and I need the time to try and finish my mother-in-law's Christmas gift, Angelic Melody. I've been following the IHSW all year, but I've never had the opportunity to participate until now. It's definitely needed since I still have over half of the stitching left to do on this project, not to mention all the backstitch. I think there are a few places I can skip the backstitch would should save me some time, but there is still a lot to get...