C'est Fini

My last finish of 2010 - also my first start of 2010.



'Mermaid of the Deep'
HAED BB Freebie SAL
Started Jan 1st, 2010
Finished Dec 31st, 2010
appx. 3x10 on 18ct, with 88 colors.
She was a fun stitch!

Happy New Year, everyone! I'll be posting some goals tomorrow!

Any Number of Small Affections...

**This post is picture heavy!**

Today, I have small creations to show - some wee bitty cross stitches and more Christmas hats.

I have become utterly addicted to stitching the Sprites made by Missy at Dork Stitch.

See?




This is Flo from Diner Dash.




And this is Haku Yowane from Vocaloid Explosion (about whom I know next to nothing, except that I liked the Sprite XD )

I had two more patterns ready to start stitching when I saw the post she did today... now I have four more patterns ready to start and one already started. They're like Lay's chips or something - can't stitch just one!

Here is my last Bride's Tree SAL ornie done - a very creepy small Santa. He doesn't show up very well, but I needed to stitch him on off-white to make the finishing idea I have in mind work. If it doesn't work, then I'll do... um, something... to make him show up better. He was a freebie, but I forget where I got him.






And here are hats - lots of hats! These are what I was making in the last while when there were no stitching updates.

A black one for a niece:



A red & black for my BIL (yes, it's red, not pink!)



This pic shows its color better - and also why he loved it. (He's a bit odd, so is the hat. He wore it like this for half of the evening)




A soft brown one for another niece:



The smaller Jayne Cobb hat for my sister:



The hat I made myself to wear around on Christmas Day (one of the few things I think 'fun fur' is okay for is hat trim):



The Balaclava I made (and later corrupted the pattern to make Nephew a Ninja hat) for my father, who said his nose hair was freezing when he went outside. We have about 15 inches of snow here today.



I think that might be all the hats I made, but I'm not sure. I have to go back over my lists. I didn't get a good pic of the shawl I made for my Mum, so I'll have to get her to actually pose with it.

I hope to show off a finished Mermaid by tomorrow - that's if I can tear myself away from stitching those addictive, addictive little Sprites!

Three & Three

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was pretty fun!

I finished up three little stitch-y things after the presents opening and dinner and all were over - everyone was watching Dad's new wrestling DVD so I decided to stitch! Gotta grab the time when you can!

Here's Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy, and Scarlet from Farm Frenzy, by the talented DorkStitch!


And here's a wee Christmas Mousie.



He was orignally holding a peppermint cane but his arm (front leg?) was freakishly long so I redid it to look like he's leaning on his hands, maybe? He makes #24 for my ornament count this year (I think).

And since Christmas prezzies are all given, here are three of the things I made (I won't post everything I made in one post - tooooo many pictures!)

This is my SIL's shawl - my Mum is posing it for me - I called it 'Denim Days'. It's the one with the beaded fringe.



And this is my GrandMum's shawl. I called it 'Lady in Red'. I have a serious weakness for naming things!



And here is my nephew's Ninja Hat - shockingly unnamed! lol! I made him a whole Ninja costume, but mostly it was just buying the black sweatsuit, gloves, & socks.



I'm off to give my Mermaid a little attention and maybe stitch another Sprite this evening! Bye for now!

Non-Christmas Stitching!

Amazing... I'm done with my Christmas gift cross-stitching, and almost done with my crochet gift stitching! So last night I took a little break and worked on my Mermaid of the Deep. I want to get her done by Dec 31st.
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I think it may be possible - I still don't stitch any faster, but those three dark blue stitches in the bottom left hand corner are that actual bottom of the pattern. She has a very tiny bit of confetti left around her waist and the rest is fairly solid blocks, about six shades of blue. I still find it hard to believe there are 88 colors in there, even though I've used them all... I love HAED patterns.


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I also stitched a little sprite last night - this is Jill from the game Cake Mania!
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That's one of the first time-management games I ever played, so I wanted to stitch her! The pattern is from Dork Stitch - which is an absolutely awesome blog! :D I want to stitch mooooore!

But for now - it's back to Christmas Hats for Family Members. I have one left to go, and two shawls to get finished. And one shawl that needs fringe... then I'm done with Christmas gifts! Yay!
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Hope everyone is warm and safe - it's cold and icy here.

My Lists Are Done!

I will NOT change them!

(y'know, probably...)

Up for a Challenge (15 WIPs) List:

1. Archangel - Mirabilia
2. Angel of Grace - Lavender & Lace
3. Dolphin Play - Dimensions Kit
4. Frederick the Literate - Dimensions Kit
5. Gingham Dog and Calico Cat - Carriage House Samplings
6. Father of Lights - Just Cross Stitch magazine
7. Chibi-Sev - my pattern
8. Lost in You - HAED
9. Lions Den - HAED (I'll actually be glad just to get a few pages of these done)
10. Brinkerhoff Home - Debbie Patrick Designs
11. Indian Maiden - Janlynn
12. Chang Wufei - my pattern
13. Nautical - ?
14. Gardener's Prayer - Dragon Dreams
15. Voice of Spring - Gloria & Pat


Crazy January Challenge (New Starts) List:
1. Chibi-Sheep - Pinn Stitch
2. Rapture - HAED
3. 1984 Santa - Prairie Schooler
4. Welcome Friends - ?
5. Blue House Sampler - The Sampler Girl
6. Little Red Hen - SaySews
7. Tiny Stockings - Bucilla
8. Bitter Flower Sampler - Birds of a Feather
9. God's Grace - Jeremiah Junction
10. Amish Quilted Wall Hanging - Just Cross Stitch
11. Mom - Bent Creek
12. Erestor - my pattern
13. Lo, How a Rose - Better Homes & Gardens
14. Eeyore - Leisure Arts
15. Indian Brave - Janlynn


OTHER CRAFTS (I changed my original lists to make them all cross stitch, but I still want to get these done):

WIPS:

Star Afghan (crochet)
Crochet-Along Afghan
Knit-Along Afghan
Pineapple Doily (crochet)
Cherry Apron (sewing)
Dr Who Scarf (knitting)

NEW STARTS:

Kittens in a Row Afghan (crochet)
Knitted Dishcloths
Braided Cabby Hat (crochet)
Retro Apron (sewing)

Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!

These are totally going to mess up my January Challenges... I just know it!

But... I somehow missed ever seeing much of Carriage House Samplings, I'm not sure how, until I managed to fall in love with the designs only to find they would soon be out of print and most places, online or otherwise, had them at prices I could no longer afford.

So I wistfully haunted eBay, and put some low bids on a few, and never ever won.

Until now.

These came in the mail, one today and one yesterday:



And this evening I came home to find that I had won The Village of Hawk Run Hollow and Shores of Hawk Run Hollow - for $40! (Together for $40, not $40 apiece!) They might be for sale cheaper somewhere, but I sure never found them.

The happy dance was very, very long. I am now exhausted.

Two Down, Lots to Go!

Two Christmas prezzies are finished - both are items my DB requested.


Exhibit A: One Demonhunter Logo



Quite... um, interesting to stitch. The colors are really bright!


Exhibit B: One hideous Jayne hat



It's far from being the best hat I ever made, but the whole point of Jayne hats is that they're misshapen and ugly. I also took this pic with the camera tilted down, which makes the long, wide earflaps look very small and stumpy. They're not.


That wraps up (ha! a punny!) his handmade Christmas gifts. Now on to my DSister's!

Here's more choices for the Challenges:

Crazy:


I love this little Blue Cottage!


I've been wanting to brush up on my Crewel & Embroidery skills.

Flip'N Crazy:

I will finish my Angel!


And I will finish turning this bag of yarn into an original-pattern afghan!



Man, I hope both these challenges work! Lol - but I'm not holding my breath!!!

A Few More Choices

Here are a few more pics for the two January Challenges I've joined.

Some new starts intended for the Crazy challenge:


I will be using these for my once-a-month ornament self-challenge, anyway - so I'd like to finish at least 15 of them to make it part of this challenge.



This one is actually bigger than I had planned but I've had it kitted forever and a day and sometimes it makes me feel guilty.

Here are my next choices for the Flip'N Crazy challenge:



'Archangel' was actually on my to-finish list this year but then I got the new (soul-devouring) job.


Chibi-Sev. He deserves to be finished.

December Goals and another January Challenge

I met very few November goals.

Such is life.

At least currently for me XP
A job is nice, a life-sucking, soul-consuming job is not nice.
and there seems to be no end in sight unless I quit, which I do not want to do.

Anyway - December goals!

Finish the following presents:
1. My SIL's shawl (currently out of beads)
2. Finish my Mum's shawl (needs one row of beaded edging finished and some tassels or something made or bought)
3. Finish my Grandmother's shawl (almost done, but ran out of yarn - I'm seeing a trend with these shawls...)
4. Crochet 2 'Jayne' hats for my brother & sister.
5. Crochet some sort of hat for my BIL.
6. Crochet some sort of hat for my nephew.
7. Finish the Demonhunter logo for my brother (1 page done, 3 to go - 1 color completely done)
8. Finish my sister's green & black Jester hat (barely started)

I'm not adding any other goals - my regular monthly ornament and Mary motif will be added bonuses, but I have very little time and lots of hats to make. My family either love my hats or they're being very sweet to me, but they demand them at Christmas time.

Here are the next selected projects for the January challenge:


'Braided Cabbie Hat'
Pattern & Yarn ready to go!


I've had this sewing kit for awhile and I want to do it!

And there is another January challenge I'm joining - this one makes much more sense and probably should be the only one I join... but I like starting things XD
The second one is called the Flip'N Crazy January Challenge - it's to work on 15wips in January - also that you want to complete that year. Click on the name to join or for more info.

I chose these two WIPs so far:


My poor, permanently neglected dolphins - they have been in progress for a shamefully long time! Really, I blush just thinking about it. They're only a 5x7 kit!

And I want to finish the first page of Lost in You (I know there is no way I'd actually finish a whole HAED! but finishing a page is a good goal for me - I have stitching ADD)
Here's the pattern:

And how it looks:


I gots a long way to go, and a busy year ahead.
I'm really looking forward to January!!!

Not Missing Miss Mary

I came very, very close to forgetting about Mary Wigham's November motif - I realized today that I hadn't stitched one.
So I totally cheated :D



One tiny baby yellow motif for November. Normally I would have done this one and a big one, but at least she got some attention!

I finished my Bride's Tree ornament for the month, too.
It's one of the Lavender and Lace Christmas Angels, done up in brown to look more like an Autumn angel.



Have you guys heard about the Crazy January Challenge? Talk about something I totally do not need to join and did anyway!

Here's my first few choices for the challenge:


Already kitted and ready to go :D


I'm only stitching the Santa with the red box around him for the challenge. The others will be done later.

Two chosen, thirteen to go! I'm going to mix in some knitting, crochet, and other crafts, too.

I am so far behind...

My job - yes I'm thankful for it, but still! - has been murder lately.

I've been working six days a week, 10 hours or more a day.

Yes, the money is nice. The chance to put it in the bank and all would be nice, too. (My place of work doesn't offer direct deposit yet.)

So stitching has been really, really slow.

And there is no end in sight - my direct supervisor had carpal tunnel surgery on one wrist, and has to have the other done before the end of December so she won't have to pay her deductible next year.

Until she's back, my job will remain like this. I don't know if I'll be able to get my Christmas prezzies done, forget about my poor Angel of Grace. I haven't finished my SIL's shawl because I ran out of beads - I did start (and nearly finish!) my Mother's shawl. I've also barely started my grandmother's shawl. I have no pics of any of those yet.

But I do have some small amounts of stitching to show!

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For example:

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A very small Gingerbread Cottage as my November ornie. It was supposed to have French Knot snowflakes, but I like it better without them. It's busy enough as it is.
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When I asked my brother what he wanted stitched for his present, he actually had an answer!

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A very weird one...

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I'm stitching a logo from something that I don't even know what is, called Demonhunter? I think.

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So yeah.

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A cross-stitch demon...

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"Boys want the weirdest things," she said, ignoring the large pictures of Vash the Stampede and Spike from 'Buffy' that are hanging on her wall...

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Here are my last Crochet-Along afghan blocks:
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I'm about two blocks behind - the next one is super simple, a big granny square. I just haven't gotten around to it. Then the last blocks are a flower block. After my sister's wedding necklace, I shouldn't have trouble, but I've never crocheted a flower block before. I've got to catch up! I still need a few of those mitered squares, too.

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And I have decided to stop wishing I could knit, gather my books and needles, and make myself really do something besides a scarf.

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I'm going to try Bernat's Knit-Along afghan since I'm also doing the Crochet-Along.

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Here are the very badly knitted, in desperate need of blocking, three squares done to the first pattern:

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The middle one was the only one that showed the pattern in the picture. I decided to do every block in a different shade of blue - if my stash of blue yarns holds out!

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The crochet and knitting I can actually do at work, during lunch, but taking the cross stitch is tougher. It's so much smaller, and yet so much easier to get dirty... I dunno why.

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Thanks for visiting my blog!

~Tama

A Wee Pine Tree

This is my October Bride's Tree ornament - the theme was 'Pinecone, for motherhood, fruitfulness, or eternity.'

Patterns with pinecones are surprisingly hard to find; I cobbled this one together from bits and pieces of a freebie... I can't remember where I found it. I think it may have been on the Bride's Tree blog. The pic is not that great, but I think it's cute :D

And since it's Wednesday, here's my Mystery SAL blocks for the week:


Ugh. I hate this block. It looks okay, but 1. it's single crochets, 2. the sc3tog at the end looks messy, and 3. it refuses to be square, even though I tried about a dozen different things. I think blocking is going to be the only answer. I have to make ten more of these, but I'm spreading them out over the next two weeks because... I hate them XD

At least they look kinda neat. It's their only redeeming quality.

Two More Goals Down!

I finished two more projects!

Here's October's Christmas ornament - it's been done for a few days, actually, but I kept forgetting to take a pic of it:




And I started & finished 'She Sings' (I haven't washed or blocked it yet, obviously)



This is for my baby sister for Christmas. The pattern is from the last issue of The Cross Stitcher. I changed the dog's colors & stitched the moon in - rayon? Whatever the shiny (not sparkly) floss is called.

This is the sweetie I stitched it in memory of:



I changed the dog from speckled to as close to her coloring as I could without it looking odd. She was the first puppy my baby sister ever had as 'hers', even though she was really everyone's. My sister was 9, I think, and insisted on calling her Princess even though me & our brother held out for Annie - so her name ended up Princess Annie and quickly became Prin or Prin-Prin. She was a doll! She looks a little insane in the pic, doesn't she? Lol!

Here are my Clue #4 Afghan squares from Bernat's Mystery SAL:



I had to leave off the last TC row to keep my squares from being rectangles.

The next clue came out today so I thought I'd post these. I have to make 16 (!) of the next one. And it's all in single crochets... ugh! Not my favorite as they make my hand cramp. Oh well. I shall perservere! I'm already 2 down.

Mary and the Angel

Here is the motif for Mary Wigham that I stitched this month - this is the closest I have come in having this color of floss show up in the picture like it does in real life. It's still not quite this faded, but it's better than the other pics have been!



And here's the motif with the rest:



Color's still fairly good in this one; I wish wish wish I could get it right but oh, well. I can't get it with any of my camera settings... no matter what light it's in...

And here's my angel as she was last time I stopped working on her:


SIDE A

SIDE B (lol! I know the sides don't match but I hadn't worked on this part any more since.)

And as she is after 10 hours:



Ten more to go this month!

I've finished all the crocheting on my SIL's shawl, now I'm working on the beaded fringe... here's a not-very-good pic of it.



I'm only using pony beads because this shawl will see a lot of use and they're easily replaceable. The diamonds look oddly misshappen in this pic but they're not that bad for a first time trying this. They'll straighten out a bit more when I block it.