Quick Gifts

I was a tich under the weather this weekend, and I used my "down time" to create some stocking stuffers for the upcoming holidays. These were made from Kreinik kits...they took about 30 minutes each, start to finish.

Progress is being made!

I have been working on this piece since Sept. 29, 2010. It is my goal to finish it by Sept. 29, 2011...don't know if I'll make it, but I AM getting closer to the end. ;)

I decided to do the wildflowers in the foreground with beads to make them pop. So far I'm liking how it's turning out.

Grand Champion!

The Stellar's Jay piece pictured in the previous post won Grand Champion in my local county fair. :)

Stellar's Jay

I finally got this all framed the way I wanted it (and with some help from my friend Nancy, I now know how to do framing "from scratch").  The photo was taken in Rocky Mountain National Park in April 2010, the cross stitch is from a Fireside kit purchased at The Stitchin' Den in Estes Park, CO.

Now that I know how to do framing, there'll be no stopping me! 

Feeding the Stash

Most of us have way more kits/patterns/ideas than we will ever complete in one lifetime, but that doesn't stop us, does it?!

This week I'm visiting my mother and there's a LNS in her town that I love and I just *have* to visit each time I'm here. So of course, that's what I did yesterday...and I added all sorts of gorgeous colors of aida cloth to my stash, as well as a few new kits.

And, my sister surprised me with some little kits from Joann's Fabric that she found on sale for me.

Yep, the stash just keeps growing. I see it as a sort of "Audrey" (you know, that man-eating plant in "Little Shop of Horrors"?) that I just have to keep feeding before it devours ME. ;)

Keep on stitchin'!!!!

A Few Finishes to Share

I recently finished up a few "in the works" pieces (which really is quite an accomplishment for me...I'm a great "starter" but a rather lousy "finisher"....something I'm working to turn around this year):

Here is the finished, framed little dragon (top) I recently completed after letting it languish in the "unfinished" pile for 20 years...it is now hanging with its companion piece:

This piece is a Stellar's Jay from a Fireside kit purchased at The Stitchin' Den in Estes Park, CO, a year ago. It is my goal to frame it with a companion photo of a Stellar's Jay that I took in Rocky Mountain National Park during the same trip:

Here is a Jim Shore Mill Hill kit, The Southern Snowman:

And here's another finished piece - a poppy done with variegated floss and beads, all framed and ready to roll:

The Bigger Picture

Back in September, I spent five weeks with my mother helping her after she had shoulder replacement surgery. Since I had a little free time on my hands during those five weeks, I decided to start on a cross-stitch project I had purchased last summer during vacation. It is bigger than anything else, cross-stitch-wise, I've never done. I find myself working on it for long stretches of time, then drifting off to other, smaller, projects for a while, then back....it will likely take me the rest of this year (if not longer) to get it done, but I do enjoy working on it. Cheri Fulmer, the artist for this kit (and several others in the National Park series), has you use 4 strands of floss to give the finish product more richness and a bit of a "needlepoint" look. I'm doing this on 14-county Aida and the finished size will be 8.75 x 12 inches.

When this is finished, it will be a gorgeous rendition of The Cathedral Group in Teton National Park. I am deviating from the chart a bit in colors, and I plan to add beading to the wildflowers that will fill the bottom of the piece.

Going Back into the Fray

Recently my sister called me while she was shopping in our favorite LNS in her home town to tell me about all the Christmas kits on sale there. I wound up having her get me several new kits...like I need more things to do (or to pretend that I will do). ;)

That got me to thinking about how much stuff I have in my stash and how many unfinished projects there may be, so I headed into the fray (so to speak) to see where things stood. One of the first things I found was a little project I'd started on 20 or more years ago...a little 2-piece dragon set I wanted to make for my DH. I finished and framed one part, and that little guy has hung in our bedroom (no matter where we've lived) all that time. But the second little guy just never got done. I looked him over and realized that I could finish him up rather quickly, so I set aside my current big project and went back to work on the little dragon.

I completed him last night and am awaiting the little frame I ordered for him. Once framed, he will hang on the bedroom wall with his partner piece, home at last after all this time.

Now I need to wade back into that stash fray and see what else may be awaiting a finish. ;)

Sunshine Line

I love Brooke Nolan's work, especially her Sunshine Line kits. I made one for my grandson's birth:

and was so pleased with it that I made another for my son and daughter-in-law's wedding:

I have several other Sunshine Line kits in reserve, for possible future grandchildren, as well. ;)

The photograph used for my grandson's piece was taken by me; the photograph used for the wedding piece was taken by Splash of Color Photography (out of Hot Springs, SD). The framing for both pieces was done by Circa 1900 in Chadron, NE.

Dimensions Daydreams

I really like the Dimensions Daydreams kits...they are small, so they don't take long to do, and the finished project looks awesome! I've done a lot of these kits in the past year, and here's a sample:

I Love To Color

I love to color...still have coloring books and crayons around the house. But nowadays I color with thread more than crayons. I love to do needlework...used to do a little needlepoint and a bit of crewel back in the day, but my vice of choice now is cross-stitch. I started cross-stitching in earnest last year when I decided it was time to stop filling my "spare" time with eating. Now when I park my ample hinny in the living room to watch TV, I pick up a stitching project, rather than a bag of chips. I have done a lot of projects in the past year, and have even more waiting for me this year, all kits and books from awesome cross-stitch artists. It is my hope, and plan, to eventually try my hand at designing my own projects based on my photographs.

This blog is my way of sharing my cross-stitch projects, and of creating a record of what I've done for myself as well.