More Christmas in July

Well, I finished my first Christmas ornament last night.  How cool is that? And started the second one to boot.  These socks by Fresh Threads Studio are so cute and festive, I'm sure my nephews will  like them.

One down . . . . lots more to go.

Have a good weekend!

IHSW update

For this hermitting weekend,  I decided to take some of my unfinished raw ornies and finish-finish them -- does that make any sense??

The first ornament -- the sugar shocked reindeer -- was done before and I changed it a bit.  Originally, there were red beads throughout the surrounding cording but I didn't like that.  So I removed the beads and reattached them inside the cording -- making a red bead frame around the reindeer.  Much better.  The other three were assembled from scratch.  I also finished another ornament but you cannot see it just yet -- it's a surprise.  And that's it for hermitting.  It doesn't look like much but I'm pleased as punch with myself for getting them done.

Have you ever felt like you know you should be remembering something but can't for the life of you remember what needed remembering??  Well, I knew there was something I was supposed to do last Friday but didn't remember what it was until a little bit ago.  I forgot I was supposed to do Christmas in July updates on Fridays last Friday - duh.  There are only 4 Fridays in July, you would think I could remember this 4 times, wouldn't you.  Oh well, half a week later, here's my update (such that it is):

Sigh .... at this rate, it'll take me all of July just to do the one ornament.

In addition to the ornie stitching, I managed to get some of the Old European Sampler done last week (nothing so far this week):

Hopefully, I can get some stitching done on it tonight and tomorrow night.


Until Friday's Christmas in July update ....... have a good rest of the week.

A small Christmas update on Friday the 13th

I actually got more stitching done on my first Christsmas ornie of the year:

There is now a complete sock and trees growing out of it.  Of course, I made some adjustments to the original pattern.  I didn't have the colors the pattern called for so I improvised a little.  Plus you may (or may not) notice that the green band on the sock is larger than the original.  I'm going to add my nephew's name there.  Oh, and the diagonal band on the sock has some specialty stitches instead of all cross stitches.    Just a few changes ....

The majority of my stitching time went to the Old Eurpoean Sampler and I'm happy to announce that it's finished!

 -- NOT --   I did , however, round the corner:

I'm unhappy with the light blue horizontal borders in the first row.  As I was stitching over the weekend, I think I figured out why.  Everything is so cramped -- there's no breathing room -- no white space.  When I started this row, I used ecru thread and didn't like it, so out it came for the pale blue, and I still don't like it.  Maybe I should have left the ecru in?  Or at least given it more of a chance.  But, looking at the following picture, I still don't like it.

I think what I'm going to do is nothing right now. 

No, I'm going to continue stitching the next row and instead of putting the thin blue border in below it, I'll couch metallic gold (or maybe white) in that space instead.  And if I like it, I'm going to rip out the 2 claustrophobic causing light blue borders and couch more gold/white.  If I don't like the couching, I'll try to think of something else.  Any suggestions?

Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas In July

While surfing the blogosphere the other day I came across a couple geniuses (but being a non-genius myself, I forgot to copy their blog addresses) who are starting their Chrsitmas stitching in July.  I thought it a brilliant idea, so I'm going to do the same.  I believe they will be posting their updates on Sunday but I'm going to do mine on Friday. 

Last year I got such a late start with my Christmas stitching that it almost wasn't fun and I don't want the same to happen this year.  I have picked 3 ornies to make.  The Sock Hops are for my young nephews and the Santa drummer is for my brother:

TaDaa!  the beginning of Christmas Tree Sock Hop and my first 2012 Christmas stitching:

And since I was picking the Christmas ornies for my nephews, I also picked out their Halloween ones (aren't they cute?):

Wednesday was a momentous day for The Old Eurpoean Sampler -- yippeee! -- I turned the corner with the dark brown line and have been turning the corner with the other layers also:

Since it's going to be another scorcher this weekend I'll be staying in the A/C again and stitching, so with luck, the whole corner will be finished by Monday (and maybe a Christmas ornament).


Enjoy your weekend!

WIPocalypse -- July update

I spent alot of time stitching since my last WIPocalypse update.  Unfortunately I didn't do anything on White Christmas -- the hardanger piece.  Instead, I picked up the beagle puppy (started January 2011) and stitched lots on it.  All that's left to do is the collar, eggs, grass and backstitching:

I'm planning on making the grass green (instead of the original straw color) and adding a few small lazy daisy flowers in it.  This piece should definitely be done by the next update.

Another WIP from 2011 is the Tulip Sampler by Rosewood Manor.  Because of all the backstitching on this piece, I'm going slow on it so that I don't burn out from said backstitching.  Probably only stitching one or two squares a month.  I finished the 2 squares in the pink rectangle over the weekend:

The original plan was to finish one of the squares over the weekend but things went so smoothly, I finished them both.  I have to say that even though there is tons of backstitching, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Dare I say, I'm finding it almost relaxing.  I think it's because there is a pattern to it within each square -- making it almost mindless.  Imagine that!

And lastly, I worked on the Old European Sampler and am still making headway on it -- slowly but surely:

With a little luck, I should get around the corner in the near future (maybe by the weekend since this in my Mon-Fri stitching project).   I think once this is done, the piece will go faster -- or at least seem to go faster.

I hope everyone that celebrates it, has a safe and fun 4th of July!