WIPocalypse update for November

I was driving home last night under a gorgeous full moon and remembered it's WIPocalpyse time.  Most of November was spent stitching for Christmas with a little Adriana thrown in just for yucks.

First up is Adriana.  I back stitched the birds' legs, beaks and some of their wings.  It's almost finished but I may not make it for this year.

The big hurrah! for November was finishing the Advent Calender and picking out fabric for it.  I plan to make it into a small wall hanging.  I really want to get it done before Christmas but am not sure that will happen.  Doing this kind of finishing is new to me -- I only did it once before -- and need to be nice and calm and relaxed before attempting it.  Right now, that's not my mental state.

The other Christmas stuff I've been stitching are presents for various friends and family and are on the top burner right now.  I forgot to get the designer for the Santa with drum but he's from an old issue of Country Cross Stitch Magazine.  The Stitching Sisters isn't finished yet.  I may remove the gold thread and replace it with something darker.  I like the way the spools show up but the individual strands of it aren't so visible.  And what can I say -- I just love that little angel.  Last Christmas I stitched a forest of trees, this year I stitched a sky full of angels. 

Have a great weekend!

Sept WIPocalypse

I am happy to report that I've been a busy little stitcher this past month, albeit a little erratic -- hopping around from project to project like a honey bee bounces among the clover.  And it was FUN!

I'll begin with Adriana -- I am almost finished with this lovely (still more backstitching to go).  I should be able to have this finished by the next WIPocalypse update:

And since I was doing Christmas ornies for my nephews, I decided to pick up the Advent Calender, a Sticklounge SAL from December.  I stitched the lower, right two ornies this past week.  This one I want to have done in time for Christmas this year:

I found this next little cutie recently and just had to stitch it before the world ends.  I'll probably make it into a Christmas ornie.  I found it on the Freebie Gallery blog (great place):

And then another new start that just has to get done before the world obliterates itself is the Christmas SAL by Carole:

I also managed to get some finish-finishing in:

Wee Three

A Brittercup kitty

And some framing (though I didn't do it myself):

And to All A Good Night

Lily Pond

Sudoku

Rose Wreath Santa

I hope your month was just as productive.

Stitching has gone to the dogs

I haven't been doing much stitching since my last post.  The dogs have been taking up most of my time recently.  Spider has a new puppy foundation class once a week -- so that makes 3 nights a week of doggie classes.  And this past Sunday, I entered Stormy and River in a Teacup Agility Trial.  River needed 2 more Games 3 legs to finish his title and Stormy only needed 1 leg to finish his Teacup Agility Championship, aka, TACh.  River was successful and completed both of his games legs -- yay!  Stormy, however, was not.  Sigh.  Maybe next time .....

I took some time away from the dogs and Christmas stitching to complete the next part of the Heart Note Alley SAL ... plus I filled in the circles in the 3rd band from the bottom, making it more visible:

I also spent some stitchy time on the Advent Calendar SAL -- finishing 3 more parts:

And here's my whole Advent Calender sampler to date (the upper right ornie is still under construction):

It's coming along nicely --- I'm only 4.5 parts behind.

Last Saturday, my EGA chapter held our Christmas party.  I participated in the ornament exchange by stitching (what else!?) another tree -- don't you just love the little 'tree skirt'?    I think that's so funny.  What can I say, I'm a little odd.

Unfortunately (duh!) I forgot to take a picture of the ornie I received.  I will do that asap and post a pic -- it's really cute!

That's about it, except to say this weekend is a hermit kind of weekend.  The dogs, the laundry, my stitching and I will be spending some quiet, quality time together.  I'm planning on getting my 2012 Santa mostly finished and one final gift finished.  Wish me luck!

Another month gone by

It's hard to believe today is December 1.   It'll be Christmas in no time now . . . sigh . . .  and I'm not prepared at all.

Anyway, here's a brief update of my Sticklounge Advent Calendar SAL -- 3 more completed:

And here's a lousy picture of the whole thing so far:

I had such a good time decorating the little tree that I decided to stitch another one last night.  Only this time I'm stitching on 28 ct over 2 threads instead of over just one on my sampler.  Isn't it cute?  I may have to do a couple more . . . and add some beads and shiny threads.

Happy December!

Not much stitching ...

Well, I didn't get much stitching done over the holiday.  I planned to get more time in but unfortunately, it didn't happen.  I got 3 more of the ornaments done on the Sticklounge Advent Calendar SAL:

And now here's the whole thing so far:

I was hoping to get some more done on my 2011 Santa but no such luck.

On Sunday, the dogs and I went up to Edinboro for an AKC agility trial.  Stormy and Willow were entered while the other dogs just came for the ride.  Stormy ran okay, even though we didn't qualify.   He got all his contacts, held his stay at the start, and finished all the weave poles -- no problem.  I think his problem was me.  I wasn't feeling that great so he ran a little tentatively and we ended up with some refusals (mistakes that aren't allowed in his class - Excellent).  By the afternoon, when Willow ran, I was feeling better.  She did well in her runs also and actually qualified in both.  She finished her first AKC title -- Novice Agility -- and got her first Jumper With Weaves novice leg.  This is not her first title, just her first AKC title.  She (and Stormy, too) has titled in both TDAA and CPE agility.  For those of you that aren't dog agility people (probably most of you *grin*) , these are different organizations that also hold agility trials.  Anyway, all that matters is that we had a good time and the dogs did well.

Happy Monday!

My first International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

Last weekend was a stitchy-kind of weekend so I decided to join other stitchy hermits.  And here's what I worked on:

First I finished the Noel block on the bottom and the Holly block on the top of my Sticklounge Christmas Sampler.

Then I finished part 10 of the Heart Note Alley SAL.

The third project is my Santa for 2011.  I finished the chair legs, the calendar on the wall and his sack.

And the last project (Old European Sampler) involved lots of reverse stitching because I was off 1 row (ggrrrr!) on the hexagonal row.  After ripping it out I got some of it done ... again.

And there you have it, my first IHSW.

Back from the framer!

I picked up these pieces from the framer's the other day.

Friendship Heart
Can you believe it?  I forgot to sign and date this one -- duh!

Purple Garden
I'm going to call this my Sunshine Garden instead
Lotsa  P O P ! ! !

Tree of Stitches
Not only is black hard to stitch on, it's hard to get a good picture.
The original picture is awful, this has been photoshoped
 significantly to make it look better
(and it still doesn't look as good as real life)

And here is a new project.  It's a Sticklounge SAL with 24 tiny parts -- like an Advent Calendar.  Many of the stitchers are making ornaments.  That's too much finishing for me.  I'm making one large sampler with all the tiny ornies and calling it "A Sticklounge Christmas".   And as for finishing, I plan to make it into a banner.  This is the first installment -- isn't it sweet?

The pattern calls for traditional Christmas colors but I'm not going in that direction.  Mainly because I really dislike what happens when red and green are next to each other -- either you get brown or they visually fight each other, which drives me crazy!  So I'm going with burgundy, pink, teal, brown and gold -- a calmer color palette.

And now to totally change the subject, my Spider was officially 6 months old on Monday.   It doesn't take long for them to grow up.  Hmmmmm, maybe I should take a more recent photo of him?

Happy 6 Months, Spider!