My Sunday Stitchy Update 01/07/18

Hello all!

I hope your 2018 is off to a great start in every way. Mine seems to be as I have been busy stitching, organizing and planning!

My first finish for the new year is...

12 Days of Christmas

Day 12

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 11/28/17

Last Stitch 01/02/18

and here is another finish!

Well Hello There!
December 
Designer - Hands On Design

First Stitch 01/03/18
Last Stitch 01/07/18

I also organized my WIPs for the New Year and cut new fabric for what I plan on starting. Here is my WIP Box all nice and neat for the new year.

On the front of the box the "First Out, Last In" is a reminder to myself NOT to go digging thru the box for what I want to stitch. The only exception to that will be things that have a monthly goal like the Christmas Ornie SAL. I plan on stitching L*K's Christmas Rules which does not really fit neatly into the themes but Kaye has graciously allowed me to join again this year! Yay, hope that helps me stay on schedule with that piece!

If you are interested in joining the

Christmas Ornie SAL for 2018

please click on the icon below and join the fun!

Speaking of SALs, if any of you are still looking for an SAL

to join for 2018 Loretta has made a list here on her page. 

Stitching the Night Away SALs to Join!  

Good luck at only joining one. I am still looking over the list "just in case" I don't have enough in my WIP Box as it is!

Well now I am off to start Well Hello There! January.

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching
see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 12/31/17

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas and that Santa brought you all you wanted, provided you were on the "good" list!

Our Christmas was wonderful. Jacob was a very happy and surprised little boy and he must have been really good because he received tons of good stuff.

These are of Jacob and I even managed to sneak in one of Matt and Tia

Seems I was pretty good too!

I received new Eeyores, stitchy stuff,

puzzle stuff and new bedding!

 This is Jacob making us an

apple pie on Christmas Eve

Jacob took some of his Christmas money and bought

himself a ukulele and is teaching himself to play.

In other news... there has not been much stitching going on here. I was busy going through my fabric stash and made sure I had some pieces in the sizes I need to get a "few" more starts into the WIP pile.  I joined Stitch from Stash 2018 (Jan-June) on Facebook and wanted to see what pieces I could plan without buying any new fabric! I will have a budget of $20 per month which shouldn't be hard for me to accomplish since I have LOTS of stash! Hopefully I won't buy to many minders! LOL

I did manage to get the Xs all stitched on Day 12 except for the number 12. So tomorrow will be spent doing the stitching on the number and the back stitch on this piece and I guess it will be my first finish for 2018!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 12

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 11/27/17

Progress as of 12/31/17

I made my 2017 ORTament!

If you would like to see all my finishes

for the year you can do that here, 

2017 finishes. 

In closing I would like to wish you all a very

HAPPY AND BLESSED NEW YEAR!

May 2018 see all your dreams come true.

I would also like to thank you all for taking the time to read about my adventures and family and I hope to see you all again next year!

Thanks for stopping by,

see ya next time!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 12/03/17

I got a start on my last day ornament. Not as much stitching as I planned but it is  start!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 12

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 12/03/17

Can you tell what the animal is yet?

I hope to be able to find some time to stitch this week! 

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 11/26/17

Day 11 is a wrap, which means I have another finish!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 11

Eleven Pipers Piping

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 11/14/17

Last Stitch 11/26/17

I stitched this as part of the

2017 Christmas Ornie SAL

I think I am going to start right in on Day 12 while I also start the few plastic canvas ornaments I need to stitch for Christmas because can you believe it is DECEMBER already! The year really seems to move faster the closer it gets to the end.

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

Kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 11/19/17

Evening friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful stitchy week!

This weekend was the weekend to hermit and I did just that!

For those who don't know, IHSW has moved from Random Ramblings

to the Facebook group IHSW - International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. 

I hope if you are on FB that I will see you there!!

I managed to get in all the Xs on the piece I started this week which is Day 11 of the ornaments.

12 Days of Christmas

Day 11

Eleven Pipers Piping

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 11/19/17

Now to get the backstitching and words across the top stitched and that will be another one finished!

I am stitching this series as a part of  the

Christmas Ornie SAL 2017

that I am participating in.

I am planning on joining in next year as well as it has really helped to keep me on track with stitching some things for Christmas. Usually December gets here and I say darn it another year and nothing Christmasy stitched!

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

Kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 10/22/17

Welcome Friends!

This week I received an order of needle minders from The Everyday Stitcher! Yippee... I love them and even had to buy a new magnetic board since I have so many minders.

And I am very happy to report that I have finished Mr. Toad (I am still not calling him the dreaded "f" word) this week!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 10

Ten Lords A Leaping

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 10/09/17

Last Stitch 10/22/17

Now I am going to let my fingers do the walking thru my WIP / UFO box and see where they stop so I can see what I will be stitching next.

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 10/15/17

Who-hoo I received my order of new stash in the mail this week! I think this is the last of the things I need for the Stoney Creek Halloween pattern of the month series.

Then last week I found this great freebie!  Someone was giving this magnifying stitching lamp on Free Cycle and I was lucky enough to be the first person that contacted them and viola the lamp is mine!!

The on and off switch needs to be pushed in with a pencil or something similar but other than that it works great!

This week I started the next day in the 12 Days of Christmas series, 10 Lords A Leaping, I admit I was a bit nervous given all the trouble I have had with the last few charts in the series but (*knocking on wood*), so far the Frog has been cooperating with me!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 10

Ten Lords A Leaping

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 10/15/17

Now off to stitch more on that Frog!

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 10/01/17

Well it took me the entire month of September (less one day) to stitch up this little ornament, but she is finally finished!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

Nine Ladies Dancing

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 09/01/17

Last Stitch 09/29/17

I really don't know why these ornaments started giving me such a hard time every month but here is hoping that number 10 will be smooth sailing!

Now to take a little break from the ornaments, tonight I started on this one...

Well Hello There!

September

Hands On Design

Progress as of 10/01/17

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 09/24/17

Well lo and behold I am STILL working on Nine Ladies Dancing! I really do plan on finishing her up - soon, but I feel like I have been working on her forever... 😢

I finally got past her ballet slippers and skirt which was a humongous relief and don't look to close because you will definitely see some mistakes but I am making it work anyhow! I frogged it so many times and I just could not do it again. I had completely lost my spot to many times to count but hey...I have made LOTS of progress on her in spite of all that and hopefully once I finish her flowers and do the back stitching this week it won't be noticeable.

And now presenting this weeks progress...

12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

Nine Ladies Dancing

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 09/24/17

I hope that next week she will be finished and I can MOVE on to something else!!

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 09/17/17

Oh my how could I have ever forgotten an Etegami I received from my friend, Meari!

She recently learned how to draw these postcards and I was the lucky recipient of one!

The Japanese writing says

"Different is Beautiful"

and the saying and colors fit me perfectly!! 

Thank you once again Meari,

I love it!!

And then I had a surprise on Friday when I was reading Blogs. I always enjoy reading the Blogger of the Week which is one of Jo's (Serendipitous Stitching) creations. She recently ran a contest which I entered and the random number generator picked me as the winner of a gift certificate to an online stitchy store of my choice! I am still kitting up the Halloween piece from Stoney Creek that I spoke of a couple of weeks ago, so I asked for it to go there. Now I will be able to kit it up a bit sooner and get started stitching on it faster (ha ha ha). 

Thank you Jo!

Then came Saturday... and it was a happy mail day! Yay! I received another order of needle minder's from the Facebook store The Everyday Stitcher. A while ago I won a $25 gift card so I "had" to place another order! LOL 

These are the ones I received:

I even got one to stick to my ceramic tea cup that I recently purchased to use while I am stitching. I put the magnet on the inside of the cup and the minder on the outside. I am always misplacing things while I am stitching and thought that this might be a way to keep everything together.  You can see in the picture that in the cup part I keep my scissors (I am going to have to put a piece of material in the bottom), my 'get rid of that piece of dog hair' tweezers, my must have magnifying glass and what ever bobbin of floss I am using. In the teabag part I keep my needle threaders and thimble; makes it easy to find stuff. So far it is working perfectly and it takes up little space on my table, but time will tell.

Now for the stitching...

If they gave awards for the most stitching, ripping out, stitching, ripping out...again and again on one piece then surely I would win first place. I must have stitched the blue for the ballet slippers 5 times (please don't look to closely - LOL) but I think I finally have it! I feel like I am NEVER going to finish this ornament! 

12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

Nine Ladies Dancing

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 09/17/17

As I close out this week I would like to add a quote of kindness as fellow blogger Brigitte has done. She had a bad week with a couple of unpleasant people and wanted to remind people to be kind and I think that is a great idea. There is never to much kindness in the world and we can all use a reminder of that from time to time. 

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

And remember these words:

kindness is the greatest beauty that you

can have, so take some time to be kind!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 09/11/17

Well make that Monday rather than Sunday.

Sunday we went to see the movie IT and when I got home I was kinda to tired to blog. The movie was pretty good though and now to wait, wait, wait for the second part of it to come out! If you have seen the original or read the book than you know what the "Losers Club" is; either way this is not really a spoiler...this part only dealt with the "Losers Club" as children and the next will be them as the adults.

As for stitching...

My friend Deb Haggerton gifted me with a belated birthday present! Whohooo I was so excited to receive it. It has been on my HaED wish list for a while and I was debating over it during the Labor Day Sale but decided I don't "need" another chart in my stash when I have so many already. Well it turns out that I did NEED another chart in my stash and she sent me this!

Moon Gazing Hare

Artist - Lisa Parker

Now I just NEED to shop thru my fabric so I can kit up some of these HaED charts AND get them started!!

Thank you Deb! I love it very much!!!

Now do you remember last week when I said that I thought I spotted a mistake? Well I did, so I had to end up frogging all the white that I stitched. Why does taking it out take so much longer than stitching it up? Well I finally got it all out and started over. Can't say I was excited about it one bit so I decided to change colors from the white to a pink and then back to the white and here is where I am at now.

12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

Nine Ladies Dancing

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 09/11/17

I think Margaret Sherry has a great imagination and that you will love which animal the Lady is!

Nine Ladies Dancing is being stitched as part of the

2017 Christmas Ornie SAL.

Continued prayers and good thoughts for all those affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 09/03/17

Well lookie there...

It seems that I had another birthday and my family has once again spoiled me - a lot!

I got a ton of stuff! I asked for and received some shelves for my bedroom so I can display all my pretty things! They are not up yet, so no picture of them. I also asked for some more puzzles and they did not disappoint in that department.

I think that 3,000 piece one may keep me busy for a LONG while.

An old friend of mine sent me some beautiful flowers to celebrate the day too.

The family also took me out to dinner. Birthday person picks and I chose a place called Serial Grillers. We are still trying out new (to us) restaurants here in Tucson and this one has been on my list and with IT coming out next weekend (I can't wait) I thought meals named after serial killers seemed appropriate. These were some of our dinner companions.

The food was good and I ordered the Red Dragon

calzone and it was bigger than humongous! 

It was very good and now I have leftovers to enjoy too!

Then over to the best ice cream place ever, Cold Stone Creamery to pick up ice cream for (much) later!! Sometimes I believe that Jacob (my grandson) enjoys the birthdays more than the person of honor! He loves the whole wrapping of the presents, then the unwrapping, dinner, dessert and everything else in between - he even likes doing the shopping for presents.

Then I thought, what the heck...no cross stitch stuff?  So I bought some as a gift for myself!  I always, well almost always get the current Free Pattern of the Month series over at Stoney Creek. There were a few (very few) that didn't "speak" to me so I skipped them. I usually just file them away with the million other things to stitch...someday in the future but the current one keeps saying "STITCH ME" so who am I not to listen? So I went ahead and purchased the fabric, fabric holder, and a couple of the button packs needed.

I still need a few more button packs and I need to look thru my Kreinik to see what colors I need and I will be all set. Oh yeah, I need to start it and then finish it too! ha ha I am SURE it won't be ready this Halloween but there is always another!

It was a great birthday weekend all-in-all!

But I guess you guys came here to see stitching and not my birthday!

I started another for the Christmas Ornament SAL. Haven't gotten very far yet but here it it...

12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

Nine Ladies Dancing

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of  09/03/17

But now that I am looking at it
I think there is a mistake in there,
oh well...that is what is tomorrow is for!

Thanks for bearing with me through this

long post and for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 08/27/17

I did it...

The clock was ticking down on the end of the week but

IT'S DONE!

So without any further

ado may I present

12 Days of Christmas

Day 8

Eight Maids A Milking

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 08/11/17

Last Stitch 08/27/17

This year I have been stitching this series of Christmas

ornaments for the Christmas Ornie SAL 2017 I joined.

It has been a terrific motivator helping

me get ornaments ready for this year's tree.

Now what to stitch next....
Pull something out of he WIP box or go for something new??
decisions, decisions, decisions

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching
see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 08/20/17

Well I WasThisClose to a finish but it just wasn't to be!

I got all of the Xs finished but I still need to do the back stitch. Oh well, I guess that is what tomorrow is for! I certainly hope it is really finished by next week

12 Days of Christmas

Day 8

Eight Maids A Milking

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 08/20/17

If you are in the path of the solar eclipse tomorrow, take care watching it! We don't want anyone to have any eye damage from looking at the sun. 

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 08/13/17

Hello there friends!

I actually got some stitching in this week and I have both a finish and a new start to show for it.

First up, the finished piece...

Well Hello There!

August

Hands On Design

First Stitch 08/05/17

Last Stitch 08/09/17

and the new start is for the...

Christmas Ornament SAL

12 Days of Christmas

Day 8

Eight Maids A Milking

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 08/13/17

with any luck this will be a finish next week!

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 07/18/17

though technically it is now Monday!

I seem to be running late on all things - stitching and blogging; but I guess we all have those days (or weeks)!

This week weather wise, we have broken our 100 degree streak and monsoon season has started! These are the rainiest months here in Arizona and they can also be very dangerous. The sky will just open up and rain will pour fiercely and then all of a sudden it just stops. Doesn't trickle or drizzle to a start or stop, it is almost like someone turns on or off a faucet. Yesterday tragedy struck a family that was having a birthday party at a swimming hole and nine members of the family were swept away to their death. I guess where they were they could not hear the warnings. Here in my city roads are constantly being closed due to flooding and the water gets as high as six feet! Luckily for us our neighborhood has not flooded like that since we have been here!

On the stitchy front I have a FINISH, finally!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 7

Seven Swans A Swimming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

First Stitch 07/03/17

Last Stitch 07/17/17

I think the Swan turned out pretty cute! Every ornament in this series is cuter than the previous one! 

I also have a puzzle finish!

Lost in the Woodies

Artist - Charles Wysocki

Buffalo Games

First Piece - 07/07/17

Last Piece - 07/14/17

Piece Count - 1,000

Size 27 x 20

This was a nice one. Jacob picked out this one to work on from the massive pile because it was Independence Day and it has all those flags in it. I always wanted to stitch a Charles Wysocki piece so I guess this is the next best thing!

Thank you to all what took time to suggest different editors. I have been "experimenting" with them and so far I think I am finding Pixlr the easiest to work with. If anyone else is looking for a quick and simple editor I suggest that you check it out! Don't even have to download anything which is nice; it is all done right online. Thanks Lili for this suggestion!! 

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 0/709/17

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all having a wonderful week. I am having a good week ;)

Today was the first day since June 14th that our temperature has fallen below 100F (38C)! The heat doesn't really bother me and I prefer it to the cold temperatures!  I lived in those cold conditions for far to long and couldn't wait to leave them behind and if I never experience them again it will be to soon! LOL

Thanks everyone for your comments on Alex! He is fitting in just fine and Scruffy is even settling down for the most part and accepting him as part of the family. He doesn't like it to much when Alex whistles and he will start barking at him; until they both can't  stand it anymore, then they will both be quiet again for a bit.

This week I started working the next ornament in the series which is the Swan!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 7

Seven Swans A Swimming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Progress as of 07/09/17

Now I have a question for all of you. I was using Google Picasa to edit my photos but a couple of weeks ago I had to get a new computer. I have been installing my programs and apps on the new laptop but when I went to download Picasa I was informed that it is no longer available...crud! My son suggested some different programs (Gimp, Paint 3D, Mocavi and Paint.net to name a few)  and I have not found one I really like yet. I am looking for something where I can write on my photos, crop them, make a simple collage of 2 or more pictures and all other simple things quickly and easily! What do you use to edit your photos?  Thanks for any suggestions! 

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!

My Sunday Stitchy Update 07/02/17

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you all had a wonderful week. We had a new addition to our family this week and I had great "Happy Snail Mail"!

First up is our new addition

Alex

White Faced Cockatiel

They are pretty sure that he is a he. It's a baby that is only about 5 weeks old so we will be teaching him to talk (we hope) and he is already whistling. One of our dogs, Scruffy (he will be 6 on the fourth of July) is having a lot of anxiety about the bird. He has been walking around the house whining loudly for two days now and it is driving us nuts! LOL He doesn't do well with change so we know it will just take him a few days to adjust!

As for Happy Mail...

I entered a drawing over at Abbie's Sewing and Stuff for a q-snap cover and... I won!!  But then so did everyone else who entered! She was so kind that she sewed one up for all the entrants and sent them out to us and here is mine

Thanks again Abbie,

I love it!

Then I received some new needle minders I ordered from

Molly at The Everyday Stitcher on Facebook.

This is half my order and the other half is on the way.

I also won a Golden Ticket from her

which is good for $25 off my next order

so it's time to go shopping again!

Now for the stitchy news!

I finally picked up my stitching and finished my June ornament!

12 Days of Christmas

Day 6

Six Geese A Laying

Designer - Margaret Sherry

Last Stitch 07/02/17

That is six ornaments down

and six to go for the year!

I am stitching this as part of the

Christmas Ornament SAL

Thanks for taking a peek at my stitching

see ya next week with another faithful update!