Fabulous Feather: So Many Colors!

I love all the colors in this piece! Unfortunately, I've now finished the most colorful portion, so I've decided to take a little break from this WIP. So say goodbye to Fabulous Feather for now!

Added to my list of audiobooks for my English class that I've listened to while stitching this is Anne of Green Gables. :)

Fabulous Feather

From the Jan. 2013 issue of Cross-stitch and Needlework Magazine

Started January 3, 2013

Happy stitching!

Fabulous Feather: The WIP Saga Continues

I continue to make progress on Fabulous Feather, which is looking a lot more like a feather now! I'm in a Young Adult Fiction course, so I've been listening to Ragged Dick, Little Women, and Tarzan of the Apes while stitching this. :) The relevant details: Fabulous Feather, from January 2013 issue of Cross-Stitch and Needlework Magazine, started January 3, 2013.

I've also joined the bandwagon with the adult coloring trend - I love coloring mandalas with colored pencils! Here's my first completed one. :)

Thank y'all for your well wishes and kind words regarding my grandmother's health - she's doing better now and continues to get stronger! Happy stitching!

Fabulous Feather: From UFO to WIP

It's been a whirlwind since I came back from camp. I had a bit of time at home - primarily spent unpacking from a summer at camp and packing for a semester of college. Then we drove up to New York to move my brother into college - he's a freshman this year! It took two days to drive each way, so it was a bit of a tiring trip. Then I moved into school, and I've finished my first week of classes! I've had some time to stitch, since I can listen to some of my school books as audiobooks while I stitch.

Here's the progress I've made since coming back from camp. I'm not sure why I was so drawn to work on this piece, which had been almost untouched since I started it as part of the Crazy January Challenge in 2013. I suspect it's because my grandmother, who is the intended recipient of this piece, has been sick lately, and she's been on my mind. Hopefully I can finish this piece up as a gift for her without many more years of delay!

It's called "Fabulous Feather," and it appeared in the January 2013 issue of the Cross-Stitch and Needlework Magazine.

Happy stitching!

Coming Down from the Mountain

I've returned from the mountain; I've left a "place apart," the real world, home. Here I am back at my permanent address after a summer that was more amazing and blessed than I could have imagined. I adored each and every camper, I was in God's beautiful creation all summer feeling closer to Him than ever, and I was awash in His joy and peace. I'm still trying to find ways to bring that world back with me from the mountain and let it seep into every part of my life here.

I've started and finished listening to The Old Maid, by Edith Wharton, while working on Love One Another, the famine relief chart. I've started reading The Giver, by Lois Lowry. I've also been singing camp songs, doing camp crafts, and engaging in vespers (evening worship) and praying out-loud. Thus go my attempts to blend my two lives now that I am (nominally) "home."

Here's Love One Another, before and after:

Happy stitching, and may God's peace wrap you up like a warm blanket!

A Quick Update

College has been wildly busy for me since Easter. Most days I wake up early and am in classes or the library (or outside studying, now that the weather is lovely) all day, until at least midnight, when I finally return to my dorm and get a bit of sleep. I love my classes and I'm passionate about my work, but it certainly doesn't leave any spare moments for stitching!

I've been writing long papers that involve huge stacks of source material, and I've been learning so many cool things in my research. Recently, I finished reading Aristophanes's Birds in ancient Greek, memorized and performed one of the choral odes from the play for my class in the original ancient Greek, read a lot of medieval Latin poetry and learned how it differs from classical Latin, and I've been working on two final papers: one is providing a ritual explanation for differences in the costumes of the chorus and the actors in Greek comedy, the other explores Augustus's Res Gestae Divi Augusti through monuments and other spaces in Rome.

Come May 14th, I will be done with the semester and be heading home for a bit before leaving for the camp where I'll be a counselor all summer. I'm sad my classes have to end, but I'm so excited for the summer!!

Happy stitching, y'all! I hope that you're not too busy to stitch, or if you are, that you're the good kind of busy! :)

2015 Turtle Trot: April Post

I've only made progress on one of my Turtle Trot pieces this month, but I managed to finish it! That's my second Turtle Trot finish this year (the first was the Love bookmark). I've decided not to replace the finished pieces with different ones in this list, so I can watch my original list of 10 shrink down and feel successful. :)

1. Tardis 3D: None

2. Blushing Rose: None

3. Santa's Village: None

4. Dream: None

6. Sing: None

7. Favorite Pony: Finished!!!

Before:

After:

8. Everything is Possible: None

9. Woodland Winter: None

10. Snowman and Friends: None

I bought a frame for Favorite Pony, which will be a gift for one of my best friends, over Easter break, but I didn't have time to frame it. Next time I'm home, I'll wash/iron/frame it and show y'all. I'm pretty happy with the $6.99 frame I found at Michael's. :)

Happy stitching!

2015 WIPocalypse: April Post

It's WIPocalypse time again! Or, it was a couple days ago, but I only just got back to school. I got to spend some wonderful time with my family and boyfriend, starting Good Friday evening up till today. It was so wonderful after a fairly hectic and draining week of projects, papers, and presentations to be with my loved ones. :)

The question for this edition of the WIPocalypse is this: "Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects?  Which do you dread?"

I don't have much experience with specialty stitches yet, but I normally feel excited to learn a new stitch. It's fun to look up a YouTube video of the stitch and practice it a couple times. I love learning stuff!

I wouldn't use the word "dread," but I certainly get a little anxious about French knots in contexts where they need to be even (eyes, mostly). It's so tricky to make two in a row that look the same!

I haven't made much progress on my WIPocalypse pieces this month, but let's review them:

1. Honor Restored: Untouched

2. Love One Another: Untouched

3. Shell Collection: Untouched

4. Margaret Sherry Christmas Mice: Untouched

5. Bookworm Fairy: Progress!

6. Irish Grace: I've had a new start, which will become a priority. I've been hunting for a pattern of a specific Irish blessing that my brother Matthew loves for a while now, and I finally found the perfect one. I want to finish it in time for it to be a going-away-to-college present for him come August, but it's 9 pages! Here's a picture of the pattern and the little start I made on it yesterday:

Happy stitching!

Irish Grace: A New Start

Over Easter Break (which was just Monday and today) I had a new start, which will be the piece I'll be focusing on for a while. It's called "Irish Grace" and is designed by Muffy of Mew Designs. It's pretty large - the pattern is nine pages - and my goal is to finish it in August, since I want it to be a going-away-to-college present for my little brother, Matthew (who's not so little anymore). I'll be a camp counselor with free time only on Saturday evenings for most of the summer, so we'll see if I can in fact finish this piece by August!

Irish Grace

Started April 6, 2015

I'm stitching it on 32 ct. overdyed linen, I think the color is Hoffman's Special Blend? I got the fabric from my awesome LNS back in South Carolina, The Needler. Stay tuned for lots of updates as I hopefully make speedy progress on this piece in between all my schoolwork! Happy stitching!

March's Successes and April's Goals

Hey y'all! Just a quick heads up, this post is primarily for me, and there are no pictures of crafty things. I'm excited for some accountability with my goals this month, which is mostly why I'm posting this here.

March was pretty awesome now that I look back on it, and I'm hoping for a successful April to follow it up! :)

March Successes!
1. Finished stitching Favorite Pony, started way back in 2013!
2. Went on an incredible, life-changing mission trip to Costa Rica!
3. Accepted my first real job, as a camp counselor for the summer!
4. Finished watching all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!
5. Did a whole lot of schoolwork!

April Goals!
1. Finish-finish Favorite Pony (wash, iron, frame, and gift it).
2. Finish stitching Love One Another - Famine Relief Chart.
3. Finish listening to Genesis and start listening to Exodus.
4. Do homework outside of my dorm room more often.
5. Start running again, now that I am finally healthy.

You know, new months are always so exciting for me. The beginning of a new year, month, day, hour - all these beginnings are fresh and full of potential. You can brush aside anything that needs changing and start again with a clean slate. I love making goals, and I love the feeling at the start of these new beginnings that anything can happen and everything is pure.

Favorite Pony: Finished!

Yes, that's right, I've had a finish - and just in time for a new month! Yay! Now I've had at least one finish each month so far this year, which is completely crazy. Let's see if I can keep it up in April!

In other news, I am officially going to be a counselor at a Christian camp, Lutheridge, this summer! Yay!! I really feel like this is what God is calling me to do this summer, and I am so excited! Only downside - I won't get to do any stitching. It'll be so worthwhile though!

But I'm digressing. Back to my finish -

Favorite Pony

Dimensions Kit

Started January 8, 2013

Finished March 31, 2015

If you take out all of the time I spent completely ignoring this piece, I think it took me less than a month to stitch. But I started it as part of the Crazy January Challenge in 2013 and did not touch it after that day until this year! Then I picked it up in January for a truly dedicated week before I went back to school, and then I worked on it for the second half of this month. It feels great to finish this piece!!

Happy stitching, and may finishes be in your future!

March 2015 TUSAL

Here are my ORTs for the month!

And here are all my ORTs from my 2.5 years of stitching! :) I'm going to need to start squishing them down soon!

And here are two of the pieces I've been working on!

Bookworm Fairy

Started January 22, 2015

Favorite Pony

Started January 8, 2013

I'm hoping to finish Favorite Pony by the end of the month. It'll be a little tough since I don't get all that much time to stitch, but I think there's hope! I've also gotten a little further than this picture shows.

Happy stitching!

2015 Turtle Trot: March Post

I made a bit of progress on my Turtle Trot pieces this month! School has gotten pretty crazy though, so I don't expect to make much progress on most of my pieces for the next couple months. And I might be a camp counselor this summer, in which case I wouldn't get to stitch all summer! And then the cycle of school begins again. I like to dream of a future where I can stitch every day, for at least 30 minutes. That would be something.

1. Tardis 3D: None
2. Blushing Rose: None
3. Santa's Village: None (left it at home)
4. Dream: None (left it at home)

6. Sing: Progress!

Before:

After:

7. Favorite Pony: None

8. Everything is Possible: None

9. Woodland Winter: None (left it at home)

10. Snowman and Friends: Progress!

Before:

After:

2015 WIPocalypse: March Post

It's time for another WIPocalypse update! I admit, I'm actually writing this early and scheduling it to post on the proper date, because from February 28 until March 7 I'll be on a mission trip in Costa Rica! I couldn't be more thrilled at this amazing opportunity. I shall have to post about it when I'm back. :)

Anyway, on to the update! The topic for this post is: "If money – and time – were not limiters, what projects would be on your stitching bucket list?" Wow, what a question. Although I haven't been stitching for long, I already know I would probably say just about every Little House Needleworks and Country Cottage Needleworks pattern, almost every Dimensions Gold Collection kit, along with several other Dimensions kits, a bunch of Lizzie*Kate patterns, and some Heaven and Earth Designs pieces. If only money and time weren't such limiters!

Despite limited time (especially so this month, because of midterms), I feel like I've made good progress on my WIPocalypse pieces. I haven't touched most of them, but I finally finished two of them, which were close to being finished!

1. Honor Restored: Untouched
I still haven't decided for sure about this one. I really appreciate all the suggestions I got on my last WIPocalypse post! It seems the general consensus is I should go 1 over 1. I'd like to wait until I'm positive before I do anymore work on this piece though! Also, the Kreinik I've stitched with so far is already 1 over 1, and it's about as bulky as the 2 over 1 floss, so I'm not sure how it would look with 1 over 1 floss.

2. Love One Another: Progress!

Before:

After:

3. Flowers in Purple Vase: Finished!

Before:

After:

4. Shell Collection: At home and untouched

5. Hummingbird Duo: Finished!

Before:

After:

6. Margaret Sherry Christmas Mice: Untouched

7. Bookworm Fairy: Progress!

Before:

After:

Thanks for stopping by! I shall look forward to seeing my fellow WIPocalypse-ers' progress when I get back from Costa Rica! Happy stitching~

February 2015 TUSAL

I hope y'all had a lovely Valentine's Day! Unfortunately, the love of my life attends college in Florida and my college is in North Carolina, so we didn't get to see each other. We did Skype for over three hours though. :) This week I finally had a bit of snow for the first time this winter! Just a tiny bit of snow, and like an inch of ice. I'm envious of those of you who are getting multiple feet of snow and get to stay home and stitch!

Here's my TUSAL jar with the month's ORTs! I've been working a lot on Bookworm Fairy - that's all the blue. I also had two small finishes - an old WIP and a quick bookmark for my little, Anna Catherine. This week is Big/Little week for my eating house (kind of like a sorority). I'm a sophomore, and I was paired with a freshman. All week I shower her with anonymous love and gifts, and then there's a big reveal on Friday night!

Anna Catherine's Bookmark

Started February 13, 2015

Finished February 18, 2015

Flowers in Purple Vase

Started December 25, 2012

Finished February 7, 2015

Bookworm Fairy Update
Started January 22, 2015

Happy stitching!

2015 Turtle Trot: February Post

Here's my progress on my Turtle Trot pieces! It's been a bit of a crazy month what with college and all. I always let myself have a stitch-a-thon on Friday nights though! I haven't worked much on these pieces this month - I have a start from the end of January that's been my main focus, Bookworm Fairy. I've also had pneumonia, which has been taking away from my stitching time.

1. Tardis 3D: None

2. Blushing Rose

Before:

After:

3. Santa's Village: None (left it at home)

4. Dream: None (left it at home)

5. Love: Finished!

Before:

After:

6. Sing

Before:

After:

7. Favorite Pony: None

8. Everything is Possible: Some but the frog visited

9. Woodland Winter: None (left it at home)

10. Snowman and Friends: None

2015 WIPocalypse: February Post

It's WIPocalypse time again! :) The topic for this month is: How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project? I don't have tons of experience with that, since I've only been stitching for a couple years, but so far just putting the project aside for a while has been all I need. After working on other projects for a while, I always get out of the rut and am eager to return to whatever project I've put aside.

Here are my progress pics for the month:

1. Honor Restored (new start)

I'm a little unsure of this piece right now. It's going to be absolutely huge, so I want to make sure I feel good about doing it 2 over 1 on 25 ct. evenweave, full cross stitches. This project was a gift fully kitted up, so I'm definitely using this fabric, and I prefer full X's, but I'm mulling over switching to 1 over 1. I want good coverage though. I'll get back to this piece once I'm more sure of it.

2. Love One Another

6. Margaret Sherry Christmas Mice (new starts)

7. Bookworm Fairy (new start)

This has been the piece I've really been working on. I'm so glad I chose 2 over 1 on 18 ct. Aida for this, it's a lot less stressful for someone like me who's only been stitching for a couple years. I'm on my 6th shade of blue - it's a good thing that's one of my favorite colors!