January 30, 2017

This mitten was finished today, my day off, and I moved onto a mitten that is essentially a study in blues. I misjudged one of the colours and its lack of contrast to some of the other colours I had chosen so there has just been some ripping out of stitches and stitching the area again in a different blue. More on that tomorrow. Happy stitching!

January 29, 2017

I had hoped to finish stitching this mitten today on what has been a most lazy Sunday. Some of my fingers are starting to hurt so it is time to put down the needle and thread. The pattern is from pinterest and is the third in my series of six. There are two things that I love about these mittens: they are adorable to stitch and they are using up so much of my scrap thread collection. Operation De-clutter continues on all levels in this house.

While I was in the spare room getting dressed today, I dragged out this tote of frames that I had purchased shortly after we moved into this house. A handful of the frames did get used for some projects that I had done for my fella's kids, but I did not use up near as many as I had thought would get used. There are easily 20-25 frames in that tote so I pulled out a few that I could see me using, gave a few to a friend who has recently rebuilt her home after a fire and the remainder are listed on a local yard sale site. The tote is just taking up room on my shelving and perhaps someone else will have a more immediate need for them.

January 28, 2017

And done. Nothing like a cold and wintry day to finish some stitching.

January 27, 2017

Thanks to a bug of some sort, the stitching has been slow going this week. I have been feeling crappy on a low grade scale for the past week, dragging my butt home at the end of the day and having little or no energy to stitch. Trying to focus or concentrate has been next to impossible so the stitching has suffered. This mitten has taken me 3 evenings to get this far and yet, still incomplete! The pattern can be found here on pinterest. Here is hoping that my immune system will clear this bug by tomorrow so that I can enjoy the weekend. Happy stitching!

January 24, 2017

My next series of six ornaments is mittens. I saw some beautifully stitched and finished mitten ornaments on a tree in a local doctors' office and have been mulling them over in the back of my mind as I stitch away. This pattern is from pinterest. I am using 14 count Aida cloth (brand long forgotten) because I hate this stuff and want to use it up with mitten patterns where the fabric will not show. Maybe "hate" may be a bit strong of an emotion to be expressed towards a fabric although I really dislike the finished look of projects done on 14 count Aida. Personal preference, I suppose. This pattern took a few evenings as I have been fighting off a virus of some sort with some vague, yet annoying, symptoms and we were invited out this evening for dinner at a friends' home. 

For the finishing, I am considering ironing interfacing onto the back, cutting out a mitten shape in felt and attaching the two pieces together. You know, for whenever I get around to doing the finishing work. Happy stitching!

January 22, 2017

This little tree was finished yesterday afternoon before friends descended on our house for a potluck last night. This one is the last of my tree series and now I will move on to stitching either mittens or bulbs. I am not yet inspired to do the finishing work for all of these pieces that I have been stitching, but that will have to start soon to make a dent in my craft supplies as part of my de-cluttering efforts. The potluck is part of my continuing efforts to meet our neighbours and to spend time with the friends we have made here. Our community is so transient that we have had three neighbours in the house beside us in the two years that we have lived here! We invite people in every couple of months to enjoy some good food (last night, we served up a huge pot of chili) and to hang out with some lovely people. The chili pot was almost empty and we fell into bed some time after midnight after the last guests left. All in all, a good night.

January 20, 2017

Here is tonight's stitching. I am stitching the tree in the middle with the bulbs from my dear friend pinterest. I had been feeling all wonky today at work and that feeling continued into this evening. My system is probably trying to ward off a virus or something, making my bones feel achy and a mild exhaustion making it difficult for me to get out of my own way. The brain fog resulted in a few curses and some ripping out of stitches when things did not meet up properly.

Well, the dog is staring at me from across the coffee and I am not eating anything so she must need to be let out. Happy stitching!

January 19, 2017

This picture shows the efforts of the past two evenings. Here is the pinterest link for the pattern. I started the pattern on Tuesday evening in that time between coming home from curling and dropping into bed. I walked the dog, went ice skating and went curling on Tuesday so I was worn out from all of the activity! A headache from new glasses did not allow much stitching last night as I was exhausted from my head killing me all afternoon at work. Work is enough of a headache on its own, let alone new glasses pinching my nose and ears! I hope to complete the piece this evening while I catch up on some tv shows, all curled up and cozy on the couch!



And a few hours later, this appears in my hands:

Christmas tree five of six.

January 16, 2017

Here is the fourth tree in my set of six. Of course, the pattern comes from pinterest. The pattern had what looks to be back stitched pine needles all over it which did not appeal to me so I skipped that part. I probably should start some finish work soon so that I can make more of a dent in my stash and make that one area of our house more manageable. The unspoken part of that last sentence is "to pack". I do not want to put the cart before the horse because orders can and do change without rhyme or reason. Decluttering is good for the mind and soul, looming move or no.

I joined a facebook group called All About Smalls to get some inspiration to keep stitching and to see what other people are stitching. They have finishing challenges going on so I may even join in to get some feedback on my work. There is a little dream in the back of my head that may never come to fruition but I would love be a vendor some day. More likely, I will stick to my day job and continue making ornaments as gifts for people.

January 15, 2017

We had an exciting day here. I was out for a walk on the trails this morning with our dog Maggie and a friend who had her four dogs with us. Maggie tends  to range and rove through the woods, checking in with me every 5-10 minutes before running off to sniff before the next check-in. Well, something must have been a really amazing smell because Maggie did not come back and I could not hear her in the woods along the path when I backtracked to find her. My fella' came running to the trail and we set off to look for her. Friends, a co-worker and a complete stranger helped us walk the trails until the co-worker spotted her, digging a hole by a shrub. Funnily enough, his dog's name is Maggie as well so he had a chuckle about how he did double duty by calling out his dog's name. He said Maggie looked a little scared when he called out to her, but she ran up to him and stuck to him like glue until he found my fella'. I was so relieved to get the text that she had been found because my greatest fear was that she was hurt somewhere in the woods and finding her would not have been easy. She was worn out from her adventures and has spent the day in a deep sleep on her couch.

The set of Christmas trees grew by one this evening. Yet another pinterest find. I started out using some threads from my odds and ends bag:

that has accumulated over the years from kits that I have done. Sadly, I greatly underestimated how much thread I was going to need to complete the project so then I had to spend some time trying to match the colour on my colour chart and going through my stash to find the 1 skein of DMC 319 in my possession to finish this project. For a short while, I thought that DMC 890 was the match, but realized after a few stitches that I had misjudged the colour. Here is the final result:

January 14, 2017

Sorry for the craptastic photo taken with my webcam. My cell phone ran out of juice earlier and I could not be arsed to charge it just yet. Most of my day was spent in bed, doped up on muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories to release a huge knot at the base of my neck that triggered a migraine. My evening was spent on the couch with a hot water bottle on my shoulder to release the remnants of the knot. It was beginning to look like no stitching was going to get done today at all as I limped back to feeling normal and human again. Around 10pm, I pulled out my needle and thread to stitch up this little cutie from my recent obsession for patterns, pinterest. If you click over to the pattern, you will see that I made one small modification by adding a brown stump at the bottom. The piece just seemed a bit incomplete and unbalanced to me as well as maybe not being as obvious as I had thought that it was a Christmas tree. The stump completes the tree for me.

My current plan is to stitch in groups of six. So far, there have been the 6 filigree snowflakes (and ornament) and now I will stitch 6 trees before stitching 6 mittens and 6 ornament balls. Why the rush to stitch Christmas ornaments when Christmas has just passed? Well, there is a strong chance that we will be posted to another base this year so a good part of my time will be taken up with moving, getting established in a new town and getting licensed in another province to start a new job there. Also, I am slowly starting to de-clutter our house and using up my stash is one way to de-clutter. Having many of my Christmas gifts done early will be a bonus, as long as the movers do not lose them for us during the move!!

January 13, 2017

I had a small piece of fabric that I was not sure how to use as it was only 4 inches wide and then I found this pattern on my saved patterns on  pinterest. It took two episodes of "Sons of Anarchy" to stitch. The hardest, and most time consuming, part was untangling the threads that knotted up several times. Scandinavian redwork is a style that I have long admired. There is a warmth to the red and a beauty to the patterns that draws me in.

The weather forecast for the weekend includes phrases like "-30C windchill" so there may be a whole lot more stitching going on this weekend as I stay cozy on my couch.

January 12, 2017

The sixth, and last, piece in this series is now complete. Stitching did not happen last night because I went shopping for a new dog harness. Maggie has stretched out her old harness to the point where the harness has to be adjusted constantly and she has managed to slip out of it a couple of times recently. To avoid bitching and complaining about work stuff tonight, I picked up my needle and thread to finish this piece. Perhaps some beauty can come of stress and ugliness. Just perhaps.

You can see this pattern here on pinterest.

January 10, 2017

The piece on the left was finished on the 9th and I started and finished the piece on the right today while, yet again, watching "Sons of Anarchy".

Since my team had the bye tonight in curling, I settled in to stitch this piece from pinterest to finish out my series of snowflakes. My muscles are aching from snowshoeing with the dog twice this week and from a massage this afternoon (so many knots, so little time) so it was a relief to be brain dead in front of the TV with some thread and fabric. The colour of the fabric in this photo is probably about the closest that I could get my camera to take with its cellphone limitations.

Well, I am back to work tomorrow for the next three days so there may not be much stitching done as work has been busy recently with the cold and flu season bearing down on us. The way my muscles are starting to make me aware of their presence, moving easily tomorrow may be a challenge. Happy stitching!

January 9, 2017

We had over 40cm of snow between Saturday afternoon and Sunday night. I was knee deep out on the walk way when we went out to shovel out our vehicles and Maggie would not leave the deck to go pee until we had shovelled some of the walkway! For such a transient neighbourhood where sometimes it seems almost like we get new neighbours on a weekly basis, we have a great bunch of people who help each other out. We have shared driveways here and our new neighbour was surprised when she looked out to see us clearing the driveway with another neighbour who has a snowblower. She could not come out to help as her two little kids were napping so we cleared the driveway and dug out her vehicle. My fella' went on to help another neighbour before the snowblower moved onto that driveway.

Once we were done with the shovelling, we spent the day watching movies and I stitched. Here is another pinterest pattern in the series that I am stitching. I have been searching for more patterns in a similar style as I only have one more in the snowflake style and I was hoping to make a dozen.

Today we are back to normal although the schools are closed because of road conditions and there are delays all over the place. I just finished cleaning up the driveway from the plough going by this morning and from us cleaning off the roofs of our vehicles!

January 7, 2017

For some reason, my non-morning person brain went from 0 to 100 at 7am when I rolled over this morning so I came downstairs to have a coffee, stitch and watch the first episode of season 7 of "Sons of Anarchy", my current tv show obsession. I finished the backstitching on the piece on the right and started the piece on the left. My fella' woke up about one and a half episodes later and came downstairs at 8:30am which is sleeping in to his morning person brain. A nor'easter was forecast for later on today so I took advantage of the gorgeous morning to strap on my new snow shoes and to take Maggie out for a walk in the woods. A light flurry had started by the time we came home at noon and has slowly progressed to the blurring of the world through my window at midnight. All in all, it was a good day to relax and stitch, Tomorrow, we shovel!

January 6, 2017

Another pinterest pattern on the go this Friday night. I started it last night during the Junior World Hockey Championship gold medal game that saw Canada losing to the USA and continued stitching on it this lazy Friday night. The weather forecast this weekend is full of snow so the piece should be stitched up quickly along with a few others. I am loving the colour combination and the beauty of the filigree look, so much so that I have up to 10 different patterns pinned to my pinterest boards with the intention of doing a series of these designs. Happy stitching this weekend!

January 4, 2017

The stitching juggernaut continues! There are several similar designs pinned up on my pinterest board so you may see variations on a theme with these snowflakes and Christmas balls in future blog entries. I like the simplicity and elegance of these designs with the basic outline in cross stitches and the beautiful back stitching to bring the design to life. Pinterest has been an on and off thing for me with a recently renewed interest now that I am finding all kinds of interesting and beautiful ornament designs. I am like a kid in a candy store when I review my pins.....so many designs to stitch and so little time!

January 3, 2017

Today was my regular day off from work and because we have both been home since December 30th, we have been able to take care of several of those little projects around the house that only take a few minutes, but never seem to get done. The outside Christmas decorations and lights came down and were stored away. Christmas cards were put away because I keep cards that are sent to me although I did re-purpose one of them into the red gift tags seen here. I used the gift tag on the right as a template to cut out the shape and a hole punch to make the hole.

Then, I moved onto finishing this ornament wreath that I had made recently. I was going to put a ribbon through the wreath itself to better camouflage the wire, but I was not able to manipulate the wire ribbon in such a way that I was happy with the result so I re-positioned a few bulbs instead to hide the wire. Making bows is something that I have never attempted before so this bow is my first! I used a snowflake patterned white ribbon and a twist tie to make the bow along with several passes at plumping the ribbon to look full while hiding the twist tie.

This piece was finished late last night, too late for a blog update. I did not get around to washing it today or thinking any further about how it will be finished.

A Christmas ornament that I had stitched before Christmas was partially finished today. While I was waiting for the glue to set on part of it, I started stitching on this ornament that I found on pinterest recently. The fabric is a 28 count amber coloured linen and the threads are from my mystery thread box.

My computer is telling my that is 10:07pm and 6:30am is going to come early after being off for most of the Christmas break and such a productive day that also included a hike in the woods with our Maggie and a loss at curling tonight. Ciao!

January 2, 2017

The tail of the momma cat just needs a few more stitches that I was too tired last night to stitch. The back stitching on this piece is fairly minimal so hopefully the stitching on this piece will be completed this evening while we hunker down on the dark and cold January night. My Canadian version of the Danish hygge is to curl up on the couch with my guy and to wait for Maggie, our black Lab, to wiggle her way in between us. We usually have an herbal tea to ward off the chilly night while I stitch away and my guy watches TV.

I am still undecided as to whether I will make this into a quilted wall hanging or perhaps stretch it over a canvas or a piece of plywood to hang on the wall. More to follow!

January 1, 2017

Very little stitching was done today as we went to watch "Rogue One", the latest Star Wars movie. Instead, I present my ort jar for posterity and to ask what other people do with their scraps and bits while stitching. I like to keep my bits until either the current project is complete or the jar is full. Perhaps it is a sign of minor hoarding or a measure of accomplishment. I love emptying the jar and starting over. I also love to look over to see the colours and textures in the jar as it fills with the scraps.

I have almost completed the stitching on the three cats piece and will post my progress on that tomorrow. The final finishing is still undecided despite my determination to see projects through to completion. Completion is something I struggle with which has resulted in a box of stitched pieces that need finishing. My not-resolution to completely finish some pieces this year!