March IHSW

First of all, thanks for all of the compliments on Titania. She is currently resting in my drawer of finished pieces but will hopefully someday be up on a yet to be determined wall of my house.

Also, someone asked what fabric I'm stitching Skeleton Crew on- it's Silkweaver's Shadowbrook lugana and I love it. I wanted kind of an old map feel and it's got that and some of the green tones of the recommended fabric too. Very happy with the results on that one.

And one more thing from the comment section- I'll tell you my secret to lots of finishes. I know it looks impressive at the moment (for me at least) but it really and truly is the result of starting a bunch of projects and getting bored with them somewhere between half to three-quarters of the way through:) Problem is, I'm almost out of easily finished projects so enjoy the finishes this year as it's probably going to be a couple boring years until I cycle round again!

Internet is back up and running even faster than before so I will once again be participating in International Hermit and Stitch weekend.

Click, sign up, stitch away the weekend and post progress on Monday. Not sure how much stitching I'll get done this weekend as we're supposed to have some nice weather so outside yard work is on my to-do list but the evenings are free so we'll see. I'll save pics for Monday so at least I'll have the little progress I've made on Skeleton Crew's sail to show if the weather is too nice to come inside. Have a great weekend!

Titania- the missing pics

Taking advantage of free wi-fi to get those Titania pics I promised up. She was a lot of fun to stitch though I'm not sorry to be done with her beading. There wasn't really that much of it, the beads were just about exclusively in her wings but they seemed to drag on forever. Anyway, the pics...

And the details- Titania by Mirabilia. Started 1/11/07 and finished 2/29/12. I think she might have been part of a bunch of guilt free January starts gone crazy. She was stitched from a kit and I used all the provided fibers but switched out the fabric for Silkweaver 32ct lugana in Mountain Mist.

Now that she's done my plan is to finish Skeleton Crew which from the previous post you can see is almost there. Plan may be derailed by arrival of fibers for a counted canvaswork piece I've been contemplating but I will try to be strong and finish off those white sails. Stay tuned for more pics.

WIPocalypse- The March Edition

So the internet still doesn't work but new parts are on the way from our service provider and should be here in about the next week or so. I happen to be working an extra shift today (more money to the adoption fund, sorry no updates just getting ready for the big expenses to come) and had a few hours to kill between dropping Josh off for daycare this morning and work so the laptop has taken a field trip to the local bookstore that just happens to have free wi-fi. I'm going to try to get a couple of posts ready and post them over the next few days just so you have some pretties to look at until normal posting can resume. For now, please enjoy the March edition of WIPocalypse 2012-

I had two finishes this round and a third one is coming up soon. First up are Celtic Cross by TW and Titania by Mirabilia (Titania will be getting her own post with a few closeups soon)...







After finishing Titania I picked up Skeleton Crew since it seemed an easy finish. Poor thing hadn't been touched since October 2010. Not too much left to go now. Here's the before/after...






And that concludes my WIPocalypse progress for the month. So far I'm at 3 finishes and only 1 new start for the year cutting my active WIP list from January to 10 from a starting 12 (not counting the kitted projects waiting in the wings). Single digits are coming soon.

In other news, we found out yesterday that we are going to be godparents! Remember the birth announcement I finished last month for my little cousin Mason? He will be our godson in May:) Totally unexpected but we are very excited about it especially since his parents are Josh's godparents. And now I have a bit of a dilemma- I was going to wait to give the piece to his parents at the baptism but now I'm torn since it will be a bit later than I originally thought. I'm not sure I can wait that long but we'll see.

2012 Happy Dance #3!

And Titania is WIPocalypse finish number three! The beading took a deceptively long time but I finally put the last one on this afternoon. Only the wings are beaded but there's a lot more than I thought there. She is gorgeous and I would have pics but our home internet is out of commission for about a week so this is post is via my handy iPhone's internet plan. I promise to share pics as soon as I can along with pics of the framed birth announcement I picked up this afternoon. The framer did a very nice job and I can't wait to give it to my cousin. Off to decide what to work on next...

When TUSAL and IHSW collide

I didn't quite get around to a Monday post. Work called and I ended up going in early so not quite enough time for posting but tonight is much calmer. Here we go with a few updates...

First up, the weekend's progress- I took Witch's Pantry out of town with me and got some backstitch done as well as another jar of goodies...







I also spent a little time with Titania on Sunday night. No before pic since not all of my progress is from the weekend but I worked on the left wing and some of the backstitch for the skin/face while watching the last episode of Downton Abbey for awhile.




She's so close, mostly the rest of the left wing and beading left! I really love that she has a finished face now. I think another finish will be coming up soon though now I'm really itching for some new starts as well as a round on Watergarden especially since I've seen this contest over at the Chatelaine BB. Decisions, decisions.

Today is also TUSAL day so let's look at some orts next...




I can see mostly orts from Titania's wings but also some TW Celtic Cross greens/browns and birth announcement browns peeking out from beneath them this round.

And finally, since I haven't had a picture of him in awhile...




Leland's big pillow got ruined when we had some water leaking into the basement before Christmas so he has taken over Josh's little foam chair. Most of the time it's unfolded into a little bed so he has somewhere to lay but someone must have folded it back up. He doesn't seem to mind too much but then again this is the dog that curls up into the seats of recliners and wing back chairs any time he gets the chance. Not sure why but he seems to love to curl up in tight places.

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend is coming

Coming soon to a weekend near you:) Haven't heard of it? Click above and join us. I haven't decided exactly what I'll be stitching yet. Erich and I will be out of town for the weekend but I'll be sure to take something stitchy with me. Progress pics coming Monday. Happy stitching!

Celtic Cross HD

WIPocalypse finsh #2 and it's actually one from my list!




This is Celtic Cross, a TW that I believe was originally published as a magazine design but is also available as a freebie on her site here. I stitched it on an unknown scrap of linen from my fabric drawer with the recommended threads. Started it 9/22/10 and just couched the last of the gold braid this afternoon. I wish the camera would have picked up the gold braid celtic knots on the cross better, it really is very pretty and sparkly.

Thank you for all the compliments on the birth announcement and my other WIPocalypse stitching. I'm trying to make my way over to as many blogs as possible to see all of your lovely stitching as well. It may take awhile but I'm trying to read a few blogs on my phone every night before bed.

Josh and I did make it over to drop off the birth announcement for framing yesterday. A few skeins of silk and Mirabilia's Water Lily jumped into my hands before I could get back out of the store. I don't intend to kit the Mirabilia immediately but the silks are for my eventual start of Chatelaine's White Nights of St. Petersburg. I'm slowly acquiring the materials for this one and am planning to treat myself to starting it in 2013 after I finish a bunch of WIPs this year. So far so good on the finishing, here's hoping I can keep it up.