More Filling

I did some more filling this week, all of it blue. It's actually getting pretty close to having all the cross stitches done in the garden area because of the number of specialty stitches and beads. I'm getting there. Slowly, but it's happening. Of course, tomorrow I'll be yet another month behind.

Another Golden Week

Another week where I only added gold, but now the golden seam around the quadrant is complete and it's easy to see that I've truly turned the corner on this one now. I'm pretty certain I'll get this quadrant done before Christmas. It's almost time for me to set my stitching goals for the next year. I think one of them will be to complete this.

Almost to the Edge

I feel like I made a lot of progress on the Lady this week because I almost got to the other edge of the design. True. I didn't fill in much, so I'm not -certain- it's all accurately counted, but that's what I'll be doing next.

Another Section Down

Another section done on this, and since this picture, the last sections on the ends of the cross arms are done. Next is a big woven stitch in each of the corners of the arms. It's getting there!

Another Ornament Done

I finished this one yesterday, and it's probably my last finish of the week. I got it all beaded and sewed it up. Even though every single fabric is the same as those used in the first one, it came out totally different due to the embellishing process. It counts as number eighteen on my project challenge. At this rate, I might even finish the challenge before the new year. W00t! This one's going for an exchange for Cyberstitchers. I hope whoever it ends up with likes it.

Squaring It Up

This square is going to become another ornament. I've got several of the seams done, but none of the beading. This one's not going to have a big central motif. Four more of these to go after this one!

This picture was taken Friday night, as usual. I completed the square into an ornament last night, and my husband will take a picture of the finished product tonight.

Putting My Heart Into It

The upper picture is the stitching, finished last night. The lower picture is where it was on Friday. I done good, getting yet another project done! The fabric was dyed by me and the pattern was a freebie from The Gift of Stitching magazine called "French Inspired Heart". Originally, I was going to make it into an ornament, but my husband - who's evidently desperate to frame something - told me he has some redwood already milled down that he wants to use on this. So, it's getting framed. I like that it was quick and easy to do and it let me play around yet again with variegated threads. The floss on this is one of the DMC variations. Oh, and it even counts as a project finish, bringing me to seventeen.

Boxed Up and Ready to Give

My husband spent about an hour lacing this up and putting it onto the box top last night. Doesn't it look great? I'm very happy to have it done and couldn't be more pleased with the results. I'll probably do the other two patterns that came with this one some time soon.

All Beaded Up

Here's the picture of Arabesque all beaded up. I think the beads add a LOT to the overall design and just make it pop. My husband has already started stretching it to put on the box top. It also counts as the sixteenth project on my project challenge.

Received in Exchange

I was lucky enough to receive this lovely ornament in an exchange! It'll definitely be going on my tree. I think I was even the first person to receive an ornament in the exchange. For a look at who made this one and some of the other ornaments going out, check out the blog.

All But the Beads

This picture was taken last night, when I was -so- close to being done. All the stitching was done, and only the beads need to be put in place. It's a very nice combination of colors and I hope the person who's getting it likes it.

I managed to put the beads on this morning and my husband will be taking a picture tonight of it completed.

Framed Frogs

My husband finished the framing today. I think they look great! Now to see if our son likes them. We already wrapped it up for Christmas, too, after the picture.

Even More Blue

If I didn't love blue so much, I'd be depressed, since I keep changing blue colors. But because I do love blue, it's fun watching them all interact with each other. One of the blues in the garden area was all done and there was some left in my thread, so I started on a second corner of part two. Maybe it means I'm making some progress. The fabric this is on really complements the blues well, too.

Fishy Finished

The sealife fish that I started last week is done! Yay, one more thing out the door. It's good because I'm behind on these round robins due to the chickens-who-are-no-more. I'll start today or tomorrow on one of the three calendar ones I have to do ... and if I finish them before anything else hits my door, I'll be all caught up. This one even counts toward my project challenge, meaning I'm 60% done with my 25 project challenge. Christen this one fifteen.

Gold Fill and Happy Thanksgiving

More gold this week, filling up the corner part. Slow progress, but steady. Sometimes I have to look at the pictures from week to week to show myself I've made progress.

I'm happy, though, that I have a life that allows me to stitch at all and such wonderful things TO stitch! What would life be without a needle and thread?

Here Fishy Fishy

Since I finished my chickens, the next round robin I'm concentrating on is the sealife one. I did some this week and changed my fish's pattern some, substituting DMC variations thread. I think it's coming out pretty well.

Brown Again

I added more to the skirt this week. It's coming along slowly, but will get a boost once the Christmas blitz is over and this takes top priority. In the meantime, slow but steady...

A Hill and a Half

The yellow hill's done. I used the diagonal oblong upright cross on it, and I really like the texture it made. The next hill I'm doing is in DMC 368 and it's a plain reversed scotch stitch. I should have it done by the end of the week.

An Ornament Heart Start

I started this at the EGA meeting just over a week ago. It's coming along pretty quickly and I should have it done in the next week or so. Another one done will be good! I'm getting there on what needs to be done. The pattern is a French inspired heart from The Gift of Stitching magazine.

Knocking Out Another Pattern

I started the pattern at the bottoms of the blocks this week, and since this picture was taken, have finished it. All four sides have the upright and slanted cross stitches done. Now on to the next bit! I might get this done before the end of the year.

Sampler for a Friend

I made this sampler last spring and my husband finished framing it last night. It'll be heading out to my best friend next week. He picked out the colors, so he'd better like it! I think my husband did a great job framing it, as usual. He's also saying he's nearly caught up on framing so I have to stitch more.

Foundations Pieced

These are the other five foundations pieced for making ornaments. Since this picture was taken, I've started embroidering one (the middle left). The embroidery goes fairly quickly, so expect to see one or two done this week.

Some Borders and Leaves

I'm almost ready to put in the specialty stitches and the beads on this. I washed it and one of the colors bled, so I'll be washing it again to let that out of the fabric before putting those in. I should have this done in the coming week.

Diamond Ornament Completed

I managed to put this together into ornament form today, too. I think it came out pretty well. My husband says it's one we're keeping, that I'm not allowed to give it away. I think that means he likes it.

Another Ornament Complete

I got my first crazy quilt ornament done today! I'm feeling proud of myself because I'm mailing it out to an ornament exchange EARLY. Go me! This is the first of six I've started - the foundations are pieced on all the others. The exchange is made up of cross stitchers, so I hope this person likes getting something completely different. My husband took a picture of the back, too, so here it is. I think I need to add more decoration to the back on the next one. Oh, and it counts as number 14 of my project challenge!

Chessboard Framed

I finished this chessboard before I started the blog, so there aren't any work in progress pictures of it. My husband completed the frame last night. It took him so long because he did something special with it - it will drop into place as an insert on a table to make a game table. So the frame's in two pieces. I think he did a very good job.

Scaffolding

Dark, dark blue this week that added more to the scaffold of the little garden area. Like on all the Chatelaines, I feel I'm moving so slowly on this. I doubt I'll speed up, though, since I have so many other projects going. I still can't believe how many different blues are involved in this little area. Now, on to making more ornaments.

Ornament Abandoned

When I started this, I used a skein of a discontinued Vikki Clayton silk. I've realized now that I don't have enough to finish it in this color, so I'm abandoning this one and will use the fragment in a crazy quilt patch. I'll restart this in a new color with enough thread soon.

An Ornament Finish

You haven't seen this before because I started and finished the ornament all this week. See my next post as to why I had to abandon the red and white one. This was from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue, and from a design company called Loopy Lou. I hadn't seen any of her designs before this. Being me, I changed the floss and the beads. I'll hopefully be mounting it into a real ornament today. It even counts toward my project challenge, being number thirteen!

More Blues

I filled in more of the darker blues on the corner. Looks like I'm close to only doing the vertical leg on this second quarter. Maybe I'll get the whole quarter done before Christmas. I still love this and enjoy working on it every time I do. Now I just need to make more time to work on it.

Adding to the Skirt

I got more of the skirt done this week, extending the edge of the skirt toward the right. It's getting closer to the right edge of the piece. The stitching's pretty simple and is still in fairly large blocks.

Over One Hill

This week I finished one of the hills on the landscape. I used the Medallions stitch from ANG's stitch of the month. Since I have a whole bunch of up and down going on at the moment, the next stitch I use will have a lot of diagonal to it. This is coming along pretty well, and I've decided to finish it off as a pouch instead of framed.

Crazy Quilt Ornaments Start

I got this idea when I got a huge number of silk scraps from Plumridge Silks. They came in strips and I wanted to make some ornaments for Christmas gifts. Voila! I know they're not as angled and such as a crazy quilt's supposed to be, but I've got an orderliness complex. I'm hoping the embroidery and embellishment will break it up some.

Bottom's Up

As I'm working on this area, I keep feeling like I'm filling a teacup up. As of this week, I got the bottom portion full, and am now on to the rest. Added yet another new color of blue to it, too.

Curlicues and Filigrees

This is coming along fairly quickly, I think. I'm almost done with the cross stitches on the inner area. There's a border on the outside, and then it gets put in a box. There's also a bunch of backstitching and beading in the middle. I should have it done by Thanksgiving. At least, that's my goal.

Chicken Out!

The chicken round robin is DONE! I'm mailing it today and hope to not stitch another chicken for a long, long time. Now that it's out of the way, I'm bumping the wheel of fortune ornament to a more prominent place on my rotation and getting some other things started. Sometimes the best part of a piece is finishing it with the knowledge you won't have to ever see it again. I hope the owner likes it.

Heirloom Embroideries Warning

As you know, the only designer I have a problem with business-wise is Carol Tinson. She did a flit on her mystery group for several months and did not communicate in any way that she would be gone and expected us to all be best buds or something after treating her customers so shoddily. If you want to read about the problems, you can search my blog for previous entries under the tag "Mystery Huswif". They're documented there.

Anyway, a warning. She is starting a different way to market her mysteries and such to stitchers - via yahoogroups. She has started a new group, the Heirloom Embroidery News Group, and expects to run the same kind of scam, I would expect. If you go to her current forums, you can see people complaining about her being AWOL. I just don't want people going to her as customers and actually expecting service. Yes, she does make lovely designs. It's why I signed up for her class. Unfortunately, her sense of responsibility to her customers is nonexistent.

A Baroque Curl

I got some more done on my ornament this week - a curl on the upper part. It's looking good. Now to get more time to finish it. And that will be coming very soon.

Another Stripe

I got another stripe done on the flag this week. Since this picture was taken, I extended things more to the right again and did some brown. Soon I'll have the middle from edge to edge and decide whether to work the top or bottom half first.

Stormy Sky

I got the sky done and the ground around the cottage, but then I had to do some frogging. The area that's partially stitched is now being done in a different color than at first. The first color was an overdyed also, but it had too much blue and looked like an extension of the sky or a lake. The current stitch being put in is called Medallions.

All Braided Up

The braids are done on all four sides now, and I get to start a new section this week! I might even be able to finish it during the Christmas blitz, which would be a good thing.

Down to the Border

Just two more rows of the background color and then the border to go. I -hope- I can finish it this week, since it's so close and I work on it daily. Since this picture was taken on Thursday night, I've finished with the background and am working on the top border.

Goldwork Flower Framed

My husband finished framing this today. I think he did a really good job and I'm still very proud of my very first piece of goldwork. We're definitely keeping it.

Adding Filigree to the Square

The box is coming along. It should progress faster now, since it took the place of the frogs on what I stitch on daily. I've got most of the stitching done on the top side, with the exception of a few stitches of gold, so it should come along fairly quickly. It's also my current "carry to appointments" project, which should help more. I'm beginning to feel the pressure to get things done.

Some Dark Blue and Gold

Added some shimmer to the mix this week with some gold streaks and a bit of really dark blue, almost black, to the inner part of the garden. It's getting there, building up at least. Progress is being made, even if I'm behind. I have no idea how some people actually keep up with the chart releases.

Ornamental Border

I almost have the top part of my ornament done. I like the way it looks, and hopefully I'll get it done quickly when it moves to the top of my blitz pile. I've gotten a bit more done since this picture, at least.