Stitching Progress

I started a rotation (4 projects, 6 hours each = 24 hours of stitching time) in September and finally finished it on January 10th. I must have caught the stitching bug at that point because I just finished another rotation tonight - in 16 days! It helped that Peter had a stretch of night shifts in there, as I tend to stitch more (and stay up later) when he's working.

Here is what the pieces look like tonight. My last update is here.

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 206 hours completed)


I finally finished the horses!! I'm so excited about that. I got a small start on the bottom of the carousel but it will take a while. I'm already dreading the back stitching on this project ... ugh.

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 36 hours)


Still working on the dress. I think this piece will be my next finish. Not for a while, though. I still have an intricate border and the word 'Summer' to stitch after I finish the dress. Oh yes, and the beading.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 36 hours)


I worked totally on the ray from the star this rotation. It's coming, but it is slow going ... and I still have to do the rest of angel #1 and the complete angel #2 before I get to the manger scene! Have I mentioned this is all on panel #1 ... and that there are 5 panels?? This piece may go in my will ;)

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (?? + 36 hours)


Not much to say about this one. I am still working on her massive dress.

Back to stitching ...

It's fall ... back to stitching

I went looking for my last stitching update and found this. I am pleased that my stitching has picked up now that fall is back. Once the baby is born, though, I'm sure it will slow down considerably!

Here are updated progress pics ...

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 194 hours completed)

At least I can see progress between this picture and the last. I can't wait to be done the horses!

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 24 hours)

I finished the front swirly part of her dress. I still have to fill in the gold but I will do that near the end.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 24 hours)

This piece does not photograph well at all :( This was my second rotation working with a copy of the pattern so I could highlight as I finish sections. I worked on some of the star this rotation and can see that highlighting is going to be a huge help in the sections using blending filament.

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (?? + 24 hours)

I felt like I made good progress on this one this rotation. Having the rose ribbon as a delimiter really helps my motivation.

Stitching update ... finally!

My stitching progress has slowed down throughout the summer. Lately there has been a feeling of fall in the air and I can tell by my renewed desire to stitch! I finally finished this rotation so, without further ado, here are some updated pictures.

I feel like I'm moving very slowly on this one for some reason. This picture includes 2 hours of work for the next rotation, too, so the next picture will show less progress.

I am really enjoying working on Celtic Summer :)

This piece is much prettier in person. Still working on this tiny little piece of the overall puzzle.

The reason there are two extra hours on Carousel is because I got stalled on this one. Until this rotation I was still stitching this off the original pattern. When I got to it this time I was unwilling to do any more until I got a photocopy of the pattern so I stitched on Carousel until I was able to get it done. The reason I did the little ribbon on the dress is I like to work it in tiers. Next rotation I will be working on yellow, yellow, and a bit of brown ...

Stitching update!

I started this cycle on April 19th and finished on May 5th, so 16 days. Pretty consistent! Here is a link to my last stitching post.

Here are updated progress pics (sorry for the poor quality) ...

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 182 hours completed)


I think I will be able to finish the horse I'm working on in this next rotation, then only 3 more and on to the bottom of the carousel.

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 12 hours)

I spent most of my time on purple this rotation.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 12 hours)

This picture is really washed out compared to the actual colours. It keeps striking me that this angel is probably 3/4 the amount of work in some of the other complete projects I've done, and it's such a small part of the whole thing! lol.

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (?? + 12 hours)

So much yellow!!! I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through when I look at the pattern and see how massive her skirt is. I still don't have a photocopy of this pattern and would really like to get one.

Stitching update

I started my first cycle of this rotation on March 31st and finished tonight. 16 days and 24 hours of stitching ... not too shabby! I have really been in a stitching mood lately and am enjoying myself. Peter goes back in for his week of nights starting Monday, so that will contribute to my hours on this next cycle.

Here are updated progress pics ...

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 176 hours completed)

I am not looking forward to the backstitching on this picture!!

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 6 hours)

I have started highlighting my pictures as I go. I find it saves so much time trying to figure out what stitches have been done. Of course it means I have to copy all my patterns, but I like to do that anyway to avoid ruining the original.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (?? + 6 hours)


The more I work on this, the more I realize how huge it is! Thankfully this rotation I did mostly with DMC and avoided the Kreiniks.

I got a colour photocopy of this pattern at Staples with an hour left on this rotation. It is so much easier having an 8 1/2 x 11 to work with instead of the massive pattern! I can now highlight what I've finished ... and I don't have to flip over the pattern to read the symbol legend. Win, win!

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (?? + 6 hours)


This is a pattern I still have to photocopy. I feel like the skirt on this girl will stitch up really quickly.

Enough typing ... back to stitching ...

Still stitching

Since my last cross-stitch progress post was over three years ago, I figure we're about due for another one! I just finished stitching a piece (can't post online at them moment ...) so I am ready for a new rotation. Despite the long time between updates, I have not given up stitching (I finally finished Village Skaters!! It's not framed, but still ...). Schoolwork often took precedence, but now that we are settled in our new house and Peter is working several night shifts a month, my stitching progress has picked up once again.

The last piece I finished I kept careful track of the hours I spent working on it. I really liked being able to go back and see how long it took me to complete. My new rotation is going to be based on the number of hours worked. I think 6 hours is a good amount of time to work on one project before switching to the next. On an average stitching night I will get around 2 hours in, while on a good stitching night I could manage 3. If I am close to 6 hours on one project when I sit down to stitch for a full evening I will go on to the next one and leave the last 15 minutes for the next round of the rotation. Confused yet? I made up a cool spreadsheet to help me keep track.

For my rotation I plan to have four projects (I think these are my only WIPs ... is that possible?). They are:

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 170 hours completed)

The original plan for this picture was to go in the nursery, but when Nathan turned out to be a boy I thought the picture was a bit girl-y for a boy's room (still do!). I think it's perfect for a little girl's room, though, so once it is finished it will go in Hannah's room.

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

For the longest time I was missing one of the specialty threads for this picture. It was on backorder and still hasn't arrived. Somehow in the past year I've managed to procure the missing thread (I don't remember getting it, but I have it now), so I am much more happy to work on it. I hate having to skip sections because of a missing thread. I finished Celtic Christmas a few years ago and can't wait to have the whole series for my wall! They are such a fun stitch.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

This is the centre panel of the large, 5-panel, Nativity scene by Marbek. I imagine it will be finished about the time the kids leave home. And then of course it will have to be framed. Oh well, it will be beautiful. Working with the metallic Kreiniks just might kill me, though.

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

I think this picture is very pretty, but I've kind of fallen out of love with it. We'll see if my sentiments change before I finish it. It's an easy stitch so I don't mind working on it, I just don't see it on my wall in the future.

And that's it for my progress pictures and my rotation schedule. Happy stitching!

Too tired to stitch?

I know, hard to believe, but that's been me the past few days. I have been so tired by the time I sit down at night that I don't even want to think about taking out my stitching. Thankfully I have gotten some things ready for Baby M at home as well as getting some miscellaneous tasks done that I want to have done before M arrives.

I've been doing well on my routines, although I forgot about them until I was on my way to bed on Monday night (we were away Sunday and Monday) . I did both morning and evening routines Tuesday and Wednesday, and did my morning one today already. To get my 5 in before Sunday I can't miss any this week because of being away two days, so I'm working hard to make sure I don't have to buy two cheeseburger meals next week ;)

Tuesday night I sat down and finally got the rest of the house-building receipts entered into a spreadsheet that we need to get a tax rebate for building a new house. That was a big job as each receipt had to be separated into what the supplies were used for (i.e. framing, drywalling, light fixtures, etc ...).

Last weekend I caulked all the trim in the baby's room, and last night I got half the baseboards painted. They look so nice! Next Sunday is my deadline to have the nursery ready to move stuff in, so I have to keep working on it.

I'm going to get my hair cut tonight and I'm going to splurge and get some highlights put in, too. I am so excited! I am going to try and convince Peter to take a picture when he gets home later tonight, so there should be a belly pic up by tomorrow (just for you Roxanne! ) ).

So close!

I got to stitch last night - yay! Peter is going to try taking my progress pics for last month since I can never seem to get the colour right. That's what I get for buying him a fancy camera - I have no clue how to use it! So ... hopefully those will be forthcoming in the next few days.

Anyway, I worked on Chestnut last night and got about two hours in. I am sooooo close to finishing it. I worked on backstitching all last night and probably have one more night to go. There is absolutely no way I'm going to finish all 6 (this is number 2) in the next 10 weeks, nor will I be finishing Carousel, but they'll get done eventually ;)

I could have possibly finished Chestnut last night, but I decided to be nice to Peter and make him a treat - chocolate chip cookies. They are his absolute favourite (followed closely by peanut butter squares) and I rarely make them. I don't know why - they're not exactly time or labour-intensive.

Eleni and I have decided we each need a proverbial kick in the pants to establish some basic routines à la Flylady. So ... similar to her bet with her DH about the treadmill, we have decided to keep each other accountable for doing our basic morning and evening routines. The wager? Whoever doesn't do their routines at least 5 days per week has to buy the other a double cheeseburger meal at McDonalds. We usually end up there almost once a week for lunch anyway, so we figured that was a good setup.

So ... here are my new morning and evening routines!

Morning:

• Get up, showered, dressed to shoes
• Make bed
• Start load of laundry
• Eat or pack breakfast
• Empty dishwasher
• Devotions
  

Evening:

• Wash dishes & put away
• Shine sink
• Run dishwasher
• Fold any laundry in dryer
• Lay out clothes for next day
• Wash face (something I've gotten out of the habit of doing ... eeks!)
  

To me those look reasonable but also challenging. I'm planning to start tonight, although it doesn't *count* until Sunday.

Progress Pics

It's that time of the month again - time for some updated progress pics! I took these last night and I was talking on the phone at the time, so if they aren't the best pictures I apologize.

Carousel is really coming along this month. This represents 34.5 hours of work since I started. I think another month will take me to the left-hand side of the tent. The tent will be the most challenging part of the picture, I think, so I'm trying to finish that up before moving on to the 'fun' stuff.

Village Skaters continues to progress slowly. This picture has an extra 10 hours since last month. There's another girl skater to go beside the man in the brown coat and then I think I'm mostly down to finishing up the ice and snow in the bottom right corner. Still lots of work to do, but at least I'm seeing progress.

Chestnut is really coming along, and if I get a decent amount of stitching time this month I imagine I'll be able to finish it. This picture represents 22 hours of work so far.


And ... my new start of the month (Dance of the Roses) :) I am not pleased with how this progress pic turned out - it doesn't do the picture or the amount that's finished justice at all. The colours are much more vibrant in person. I have 7 hours into this one so far.

A new start!

I had picked up the pattern for L&L's Dance of the Roses last fall, and at the time our somewhat LNS (90 minutes away) said the fabric I wanted would be in in a week .... Well, I finally got a call last week that the fabric was in! Thankfully, Eleni was heading that way last weekend and picked it up for me. So ... I made a deal with myself last night. If I cleaned up the main part of the house and was sitting down by 8 I could start DOTR ... I cheated a bit (left the kitchen, since Peter's chop saw is still set up to finish up the baseboards tonight) but was sitting by 6:30! I decided to be a bit productive and started the paperwork to get our HST rebate on an owner-built house, but by 8:00 I had the floss pulled and was ready to start.

Let me say - when compared to the Teresa Wentzler and Stoney Creek projects I've been mired down in this is a walk in the park! I can't believe how much I accomplished in 3 hours! I am going to really enjoy this as a break from the more intense projects. Now I just have to make sure I stick to a rotation and don't spend all my time on DOTR! To make room for DOTR I removed Amethyst Snowflake for the time being. So, my new rotation is:

1. Carousel
2. DOTR
3. Chestnut (Rocking Horse)
4. Village Skaters

One night on each is how I'm doing it, although if I fall asleep after 15 minutes of stitching I give myself another night on the project :)

On another note - because my maternity leave starts at the end of May, I was entitled to 5 vacation days this year. I usually take my vacation through the summer and save some for Christmas, so this winter / spring I'm faced with 5 "free" days to use as I please. I made the decision last week that tomorrow I'm going to have a vacation day - Happy Valentine's to me ;) I am so excited! I should do some work on the house, but being home all day I should definitely be able to fit in some quality stitching time.

Peter and I have plans to drive to a favourite restaurant about 90 minutes away for supper tomorrow night, but with the winter storm watch in effect we may end up home for the evening ... which I wouldn't be too distraught about - I'm such a homebody. As long as I don't have to cook I'm good with whatever tomorrow night.

Not too much has been happening here this week except for working on the house (see our other blog).

Progress Pics!!

I've decided that once a month is a good frequency at which to take progress pictures. I'm a day or so early, but since we're out tomorrow night, I don't figure much will change between now and February 1st. I think I got about 32 hours in this month - still not bad! For more information on these WIPs, see this post or my flickr site.






Now to finish watching American Idol and House :)

WIPs

Here we go ... finally some pictures of what I'vebeen working on! I managed to get in about 35 hours during December - very impressive for me!


This first pic is of a new start called Amethyst Snowflake by Just Nan. This is instead of the gift I was planning on working on. That gift has been postponed indefinitely.





Here is the latest picture of Village Skaters. I think this picture is coming right along. I feel like I've been working on it forever, though, so I'll be glad to finish it. It should be finished this year :)






This is a start on Teresa Wentzler's Carousel. I'm hoping that doing it on the blue "cloud" fabric will help offset the pinks in the design since we need gender-neutral for the nursery! This is my first pattern I've worked on that's hand-written. It's definitely a challenge, but I'm getting the hang of it.










This is my start on Teresa Wentzler's Chestnut rocking horse. I really like the colours in this one so far. I find the rocking horses very relaxing to stitch as they're a manageable size.





So, that's what I've been working on over the past month. I didn't realize I had 3 new starts - wow!

In other exciting news, I felt the baby kick for sure last night! What an awesome experience. Since then I've noticed more activity several times today. It's very cool.

I've also developed a lovely cold in the last 24 hours. That, combined with my still-present (although lessening) morning sickness, made for a miserable day today. Hopefully tomorrow is better!

Sweetheart Finish!

Well, I wasn't able to finish the ornaments completely tonight. I wasn't well prepared and don't have the gold bristol board I needed. I did finish the rest of the steps, though ... the angels just need their wings and then I promise I'll post pictures :) I'll probably finish them on Friday night since we're tied up tomorrow evening.

But, until then ... here's what I finished up tonight!

This is Teresa Wentzler's Sweetheart rocking horse. Only 5 more to go! It's stitched on 28 ct Opalescent Jazlyn - Sweetheart Pink. Not that you can tell that from the picture!

I'm so excited to have another finish for 2006. It's been a pretty dismal year finishing-wise for me :)

My next finish (other than the ornaments) will probably be the second rocking horse! I don't see Village Skaters or Carousel being done anytime soon.

Stitching Rotation for the New Year

I spent some time this fall stitching for Christmas so my regular rotation kind of fell by the wayside. Now that the Little One is coming in June I have some nursery stitching to do! I had already picked the pieces I want ... Teresa Wentzler's Carousel along with her 6 rocking horses. I already finished one other piece I want to frame and put up in the nursery, but I will keep that a secret until I frame it and put a pic up (actually, it's just because I can't find a decent picture of it on the 'net).

I also have 2 fairly large gifts to stitch next year. I can't give any more details than that other than to say that Gift #1 must be done by mid-year and Gift #2 by the end of the year. 'Nuff said! So ... since I'd like to have the nursery ready by June for obvious reasons as well as check some WIPs off my list ... I'm thinking my first rotation will be:

1. TW Carousel
2. Stoney Creek - Village Skaters (I'm about 65% done this)
3. TW Rocking Horses (almost done Sweetheart ... just keep one in the rotation)
4. Gift #1

I'm waiting to get some fabric for Gift #1, so right now I'm doing a rotation of three elements. Hopefully I'll get to the nearest LNS over the Christmas break so I'll put that one in then.

For the second half of the year, my rotation will (might?) look like this:

1. Mini Mandalas (finish #1 then do #3; already finished #2)
2. Gift #2
3. God Has Prepared (magazine piece that's about 60% done - it will be finished quickly)
4. Celtic Ladies (I can't wait to get back to this! I'm currently working on Celtic Christmas and if I finish that would start on the next one ... etc ...)

I think once I finish GHP I'll just leave a rotation of 3 so I can get more in on the Celtic Ladies and Gift #2.

I took a few tips from Eleni's rotation - I'm going to do 1 night rotations and to keep everything organized I bought a zippered binder at WalMart that also has a front pocket big enough for my floss box! All the fabric for my first rotation set along with the patterns are in sheet protectors in the binder - very nifty!

I hope to post some actual pictures of my progress soon!

A little background ...

Well, since this is my first post on this blog I thought I should give a few details about myself. My name is Angela, married to Peter for ... well, a few years now :) About 2 years ago we got a crazy idea to build a house using our own 4 hands, some power tools, and lots of friends! You can read about our adventures in housebuilding here.

Thankfully, we are nearing the end of this long adventure, so I wanted a place to chat about the normal things of life ... like cross-stitching (my favourite hobby), flylady, and .... our expected new addition to the family! Yes, as of June 9th (or sometime thereabouts) Peter and I will become a family of 3 and we couldn't be happier about it. God has answered our prayers so faithfully!

So, if you don't like reading about any of those sorts of things listed above (cross-stitch, babies, and housekeeping ;) ) you may want to find somewhere else to be, as that's probably where my focus will be most of the time.

I hope to customize stuff a bit more as I become more familiar with the new blogger beta - it looks really neat!

If you need something to keep you busy, check out the blogs on the right. I think they're pretty neat!

Happy December 1st!