Sunday, January 31, 2016

January/February goals!

LET'S DO THIS

For January, I said:

- stitch/send Mirabilia RR on time - YES!
- get materials for hardanger SAL (I have no fabric in the right count!) - YES!
- stitch part one of hardanger SAL - YES!
- make visible progress on at least one of my 2016 goal projects - YES!
- no shopping (except for hardanger SAL materials) - no, bought two random small fabric cuts

Well, not too bad. One of the fabrics was a bit of raw Belfast that I needed to stitch another small, and the other was a pretty red that will make a great ornament. Not perfect, but everything works within the budget I've set for the year.

My budget is a bit of a normal budget and a bit of a game. My wife and I are playing together, so we each get $300 for the entire year (or $25/month, same as Stitch from Stash) and can earn extra by selling personal stuff on ebay, exercising, and avoiding snacks. It sounds like a lot, but the money earned gets split between savings and potential spending. Half goes to the savings account, then the remaining half is split again between our craft budgets. It's working pretty well so far!

And for February, I want to...

- stitch part two of hardanger SAL
- complete one "page" worth of stitching on Fatum
- complete the next Bride's Tree ornament
- start South Seas Mermaid!


I've actually finished two "pages" (the bottom left portion inside the border) this month, so next month I'm going to work on the part on the far left, where you can see the beginnings of some black hair and other colors. That will leave me with one big, solidly stitched page, and a little bit of the page to the right of that. 

Still a lot of stitching to do, but I finally feel like finishing this might not be so impossible afer all!

Friday, January 29, 2016

smalls SAL - January 2016

I've joined the smalls SAL this year over at Stitching Lotus because the hardanger SAL I'm working on fits perfectly! Every month, I'll be posting the hardanger motif I've finished. :3

This time was an easy warmup piece meant for practice with threads and motifs. The directions were great and had a lot of good detail and images showing what to do.


I'm not especially happy with the lightest blue for the "snowflakes" at the top and bottom, so I may end up picking up another thread or two to supplement the blue/green palette here. Still haven't decided if I want to do all the motifs in the same color scheme or not, since I do have a number of other perle cottons, but they don't really coordinate with each other.

Well, I have a few weeks to check out the next pattern and decide!

If you're interested in the SAL, you can still sign up!
Round in Circles SAL page :3

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

another little finish!

It's been a while! But I was away from home for a bit, attending my brother's wedding in NJ this weekend... and yes, got totally buried by the snowstorm! The wedding actually got delayed by one day since the original date was the day of the storm. All worked out great, though, everything was lovely and it was a small, intimate gathering.

And then my flight home got delayed by seven hours without warning... but hey, I did a lot of stitching at the airport. :p

Here's another little Mill Hill kit, Yellow Swallowtail:


This one was very heavy on the beading! I finished the stitching and kept looking over the chart to make sure I hadn't missed anything, because it was only about half stitched! I know it's a bit hard to tell in the photo but a lot of the black and yellow areas are solidly beaded.

I think this is the last MH butterfly I'll be doing... there are others but I'm not super fond of them. Now I just have to take the three I've finished and turn them into something. Not sure about the whole magnet idea. I don't like the idea of leaving a stitched piece, especially one that's done on paper, in the kitchen where I might touch it with wet/dirty hands by accident. Hmm.

I picked up Fatum again but since I just got home, there isn't much to show yet. Next time. :)

Monday, January 18, 2016

Fatum progress!

Wow, it's been quite a long time since I posted a picture of Fatum by Passione Ricamo! I think I mentioned finishing the border, but I've done a bit of work on the figure inside the border as well.


Sorry for the bad angle on this photo. :p

Honestly, this project is slow going and I'm not particularly fond of it. At this point, it's almost like I'm sticking it out because it's more than halfway done, sunk cost fallacy be damned. The hair is incredibly tedious and the color changes feel sketch-like rather than deliberately designed. Maybe a different portion of the project will be more fun.

If I could put in some solid time on this one, I know I could make good progress! Maybe I need to just suck it up and make a better effort. Seeing good progress, even on a project that's not my favorite, does wonders for my desire to complete it...

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Bride's Tree Ornament #1: Home

Here's my second finish of the year, the first Bride's Tree Ornament!


Any oddly bare spaces are meant for beads, but I'll be adding those later since I'm stitching several of the ornaments on the same piece of fabric before cutting them apart. The less handling beads get, the better! :)

All the confetti was a bit of a challenge, but I finally learned how to do a proper pinhead stitch, so that saved me a lot of irritation with those randomly placed bits of color in the vines!

Working on my hardanger SAL next... should have another finish very soon!

Thursday, January 07, 2016

first finish of the year!

Well, it's a round robin square, but it still counts! This is the tail of Siren's Song Mermaid by Mirabilia, all stitched and beaded! The empty spot in the bottom right is because the border was accidentally left unfinished by the owner, but I wasn't sure which color to use to fix it. :3


And with that, I'm completely done with the round robin! I'll be getting back to my personal goals starting today, probably more Bride's Tree stitching.

Though it would be fun to pick up a Chatelaine again too. Hmm. :)

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

January progress pics!

Well, since my last post was a bit boring, how about some pictures this time? :)

First up is the Brooke's Books Bride's Tree ornament... though I wonder if I'm just adding "ornament" to this in my own head. This is really too big for an ornament.

Anyway, this is #1 which represents home. Got the house and fence done, but there's quite a bit more to do on the surrounding gardens. These designs make good use of the fabric and fill in almost everything, so even though they're small, there's a lot going on!


Once I got the next (and final!) piece for the Mirabilia RR, I put the house aside to work on that. I'm adding the tail of Siren's Song Mermaid, which is REALLY ORANGE. And orange is my least favorite color. But I wanted to do this one because it seemed kinda cool. :3


I'm really pushing to get this one done as fast as possible so I can get the whole lovely piece back home to its owner. :) 

~~~

As far as the whole "using things up" plan, I think it's going well! I ended up taking about a third of my eyeliner collection and putting it aside, and I've started wearing a bit of makeup every day so I can either enjoy it or toss it if it doesn't work for me.

I'm also being mindful of using food that's been hanging out in the fridge too long, and keeping freshly brewed iced tea in there. That huge box of tea in the pantry isn't going to drink itself!