The First Turtle Trot Post

After a lot of planning and re-planning, here's my Turtle-Trot choices and what I have done on them so far!  Most I have not gotten to as of yet.

1. Chang Wufei - a pattern I made in PC Stitch.  I've not touched him yet; he's the same as he was last April:

2. Frederick the Literate - a Dimensions kit; he still only needs his backstitching.  Haven't touched him since April, either.

3. Snowing - a pattern from the old Witch Stitch and Bits site.  I'm not sure if this kitty is on the new Witchykitt site or not.  He looks just like my darling Audio except Audio had a white tip to his tail.  I plan to adjust when I reach his tail so he's a match.  I haven't touched him in almost two years.  (Last year, I had misplaced him.)

4. Yarr - a HAED.  Started last January, and another victim of my cross-stitch hiatus that began in April '14.

5. Princess Palace - a kit by Bothy Threads.  Yet another April victim, and not touched since then.

6.  Mary Wigham - this used to be a freebie pattern.  I don't know where to get it now.  Also not stitched on since April.  My goal for this month is to pull out the invisible motif and restitch it.

7. 30 Tiny Christmas Stockings - a Bucilla kit.  You can see the ones I've stitched if you click on my 'Christmas' tag.  This one I did work on some - I finished off one stocking and started another!  I also finished one last year that I don't think was ever posted. So I have three left to go, or two and a half, I guess.

Last years:

Lately:

Newly started:

8. QS Lovers - this was a HAED Freebie SAL piece, you can't buy it like this.  Also, the artist retired and you can't buy the big version, either.  I will be working on this one during the IHSW weekend so it has had no love yet.

9. I was going to work on a little kit called 'Oops' but I think I'm going to have to condense my SALs a bit due to longer hours at work.  So 'Unspoken' will be number 9.  I started it January 1st.  'Oops' will replace the Stockings kit when I finish those off.  He's had a bit more than this done, but I'm saving it for the SAL post at the end of the month.

10. Great Light - I have a bunch of these 5x7 Christmas kits - I used to finish one a year so that's the goal for this one.  I'm stitching in one color at a time.  I did the grey stitching a while back, I've worked on the first shade of blue this month.  It's not done yet.

I took a crooked, dark picture.  I need to quit waiting until the last minute to take pictures!!!

And that's that for the Turtle Trot!  Next month will be some progress, I hope!

A Bit of Yarr, A Bit of Love

Here's my teeny-tiny bit of Yarr, from yesterday.  I got about 300 stitches done, though it certainly doesn't look it! So tiny! Also, there are five shades of blue and grey in it!



Here's my project that I'm starting today - I found two of this brand-name of kits at a flea market last year. There was no date that I could find, but they were old enough that the needle had rusted to the fabric.  I'll show you however much I get done of it tomorrow, and the other kit I will start this month, too.



It makes me sing the Beatles song 'All You Need is Love' whenever I see it!  Also, the actual floss colors are very bright, bubble-gum style colors which makes me think it's probably an early-80's kit.

I got a $10 gift card from another friend, and I spent it at Witchykitt Designs, cleaning off the last of my wishlist.  The lady who owns it says she'll be putting new designs up at the end of January - but for now, I have all the charts I want from it because there was also a 50% off coupon!  Here's a few:

'Keeper of Time'


'Early Death'


'Fairy Pixie'


'Resting'


and 'Paradise Bird'


I got all of these and four more and ended up with a couple pennies on my card.  So that was a fun day!  I'll show you guys the four others later; they kind of go together.

Finishing Up February

Last post of the month - boy, did February go by fast around here!

I've caught a flu or virus or something, so I've been too sick to go in to work for the last few days.  In between naps, I managed to do this:


The last two books of Frederick the Literate!

And here's the whole thing, waiting for the next step - stitching in the metallic bits on the books.



I've also filled in a bit more on Nostlagy (the pic is a bit fuzzy, sorry!)



And I started my Mum's next afghan, even though Mosiac Stair-step isn't done yet.


Whew.  Maybe I should get sick more often?  ...nah.  It's still no fun.

Here's another HAED to show - this one is 'Sea Beacon' by Jasmine Becket Griffith.


She's not my usual style, despite all the Hannah Lynn's I've acquired lately, but I like this one.  A lot.  I can't really explain why - but between the blues and the eeriness and the tiny ship silhouette, she's just perfect for me.

And one of my siblings felt a bit sorry for me being sick, and bought me a design from WitchyKitt, which is the site that has replaced Witch Stitch and Bits (although they don't have all the patterns).

This is 'Gothic Red'.  Very pretty!

Kitten Projects

That's what I've been working on this week, but I've not made a lot of progress, as usual.

Someday, I'll not only have days to just stitch, I will prevent myself from being distracted by computer games and other flotsam and actually get some real progress :D

Anyway - Snowing!



I doubled what I had done.  Doesn't make it a lot.  It is tiny on this 28ct!

I'm still quite slow with parking, although I must admit I'm enjoying it a lot.  It's keeping things interesting.  I'll never know how some people can keep track of dozens of colors, though.  I'm having a bit of trouble with six needles getting all tangled up.

Here's a full-picture with a red square showing how much I've done so far.  I think it's going to pick up speed as I get more used to the parking method.



Today was my day to see how much I could get done on Fred, since I thought I was going to a very quiet job site.  Usually I have hours to work on a project there, but not today!  It was almost as busy as my other job sites!  Yech.  But I got a bit done.



All the light blue finished up on the one book, some of the black, and down a bit more on the other book.

He'll get another day or two this month.  Should be enough to finish his main crosses up.  Then it's on to the crosses that I have to use gold blending filament with.  There is also a lot of backstitching, french knots and couching in my future.

I got another HAED layaway paid off, but I'm not going to drown you guys in pics this time!  I'm sure you're tired after all those WSnB pics!  So I will show you the new pretties one at a time.  First - Glamour by Marta Dahlig.  I've wanted her for a while.  I love the way she makes you look twice.  I'm going to try and stitch her without the grey background to save a few years off my life.  She isn't in my immediate future plans, though.  Not even to buy floss for, at the moment.  I'm kitting up 'Amanda and Axel' and 'Asian Fantasy 3' first.  Then she might get her turn.

Two, Nine, One Hundred

Two!

I have two of seven diamond panels done!  (The baseball bat is full-sized, I put it there to show how long they are; I couldn't find my yardstick!)

Nine!

Nine of twenty squares for my baby nephew's afghan.  They've been crammed in a bag so they're all curly.  I'm having to change my color idea to just ten each of these colors - I've been unable to find the other two shades I wanted.  Oh, well.  This will work nice with the medium green I've found for all the borders.


One hundred!

I finally hit one hundred repeats on this dreadful but pretty afghan!  It's so small to look at but it weighs more than the king-sized granny square one I have!  All those singles make it very thick and very heavy.  It's hard to work on it even when its draped in my lap because my wrists start to ache.  Thirty repeats to go!


Today is the last day for Witch Stitch and Bits!  Here's the last of the charts that I know are not available on the other site.  The motorbike and the rose may be eventually, but they aren't right now.  The others are by the retiring pattern-maker, Angel.

White Tiger Cub - first pic is the cross stitch version, second is the tapestry.  I only bought the cross stitch version, but look at the difference in the nose!  I think it'll be pretty easy to fix it to the way I want, which is more like the tapestry version.


Then there's Pretty Pink Kimono, Dark Rose, Wheels, Carousel, Dew Drop Inn, and Elegant Fountain.