October WIPocalypse

Well September and soccer got the better of me and I missed check in last month. But last week was the last soccer Saturday and hopefully we will now be getting back to our regular schedule. Oh wait a sec, it’s almost November so make that holiday prep schedule. Good news is that I discovered my latest obsession/hobby at a time where it can be used for holiday gift making. Bad news is that means less cross stitch this year but overall probably more crafting in general so not all bad, right? Anyway, I do have a cross stitch finish to show for my time away. I finished Silver Creek Sampler’s My Christmas List recently.

 

Stitched on Silkweaver’s opalescent Chocolate Vanilla Swirl (evenweave not linen) with some color changes, mostly used subtly variegated threads for the words and added green to the red, blue, brown color scheme. Hoping to turn it into a bellpull before Christmas. On the beading front I’ve graduated to patterned stars and am adding some to my to-do list as Christmas gifts. Here are a few of the completed ones...

And the turkey star I’m currently working on. He’s going to be giant compared to the others and will be a November birthday gift for my mother in law as she was a Thanksgiving baby.

After I finish that one I have a few more in mind for Christmas presents, probably 2 fleece blankets to assemble for gifts, and then maybe some actual cross stitching again!

WIPocalypse 2018: The introduction

Hi all! In case you’re landing here for the first time I’m Sara and I’m a stitcher, wife, Mom to 3 little boys, and retail pharmacist (gotta pay the bills and buy the stash somehow). I am participating in Measi’s WIPocalypse SAL again because it’s fun and my goal is of course to stitch all the stash. I have a bit of a BAP problem and apparently have quite a few more projects kitted and started than I realized before I recently combed through them all, unkitted the ones I’m not interested in any longer, and organized what was left. It would take years to finish the current WIPs if I stitched nothing else and I’m mostly ok with that because I’m not on a time limit except for one that is a gift.

So let’s get started. First off, my helpers...



That’s Christopher, Joshua, and Benjamin (L-R). The twins are 3 and Josh is 9. They love that I stitch and are convinced that all pieces belong to them. They also love to help and are finally all old enough that I can stitch when they’re all awake though my progress is sometimes slower than I’d like.

The current favorites in the house also happen to be my two focus pieces for the year, Watergarden and Coppervein. Watergarden is a Chatelaine and was started forever ago. It is mine despite Christopher’s claim that it is going to live in his room. It is likely destined for my living room wall and I kind of fell in love with it again recently so I’d like to get it done and hung sooner rather than later. I’m stitching on opalescent white even weave with most of the called for fibers except I did swap out the NPI silk for DMC and am happy with the results. I am a little farther along on the right side now but this is the most recent pic of the full piece.



Coppervein is a HAED I’m working on as a gift for my little brother. I promised him I’d stitch him a big piece when he graduated high school and moved out on his own. He took some time and picked it off the HAED site and I’ve been slowly working on it. I’d like to make some good progress on it in 2018 but I know it’s not feasible to finish it.



And then there’s the bin.



It holds quite a variety of unfinished projects including but definitely not limited to...

The Jim Shore angel I started and really should finish for my MIL.



The Shepherd’s Bush ornaments I never finished for my tree.



The class projects from last year’s Celebration of Needlework.



And so many more which hopefully you will see in 2018. I’m not doing a strict stitch from stash year but I’m trying to work on WIPs more than new starts. That said, I do have a few new starts planned.



They are some of the Mill Hill sleds from last year and Russian Nights Sampler. These are actually for the kids. I try to stitch them an ornament each year so that they will have some of their own when they eventually leave and move out and this year they picked out the sleds. The sampler is an old, out of print design gifted to me by a dear stitchy friend (thank you Darla!) for my Josh who we adopted from Russia as a toddler. I have a few other Russian themed pieces I’d like to eventually stitch for him but at the moment he is fascinated with the look of the Cyrillic alphabet and St. Basil’s so this piece is perfect. I do have in stash Chatelaine’s White Nights of St. Petersburg, Terry Nolan’s Enchantment of Winter, a Thea Gouverneur (I think St. Basil’s), as well as a couple of kits we picked up while in Russia but please feel free to comment and point out any awesome pieces I may have missed. I hope to do a Russia wall someday and if Josh wants some of the pieces he will be welcome to take them when he moves out.

I think that’s a pretty good intro for today. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is up to and getting some work done on Watergarden so I ave new pics for you next time.

March WIPocalypse and TUSAL

So this month you get a double check-in since WIPocalypse, hosted by Measi, and TUSAL, hosted by Daffycat, fall right around the same time and it is highly unlikely I'll actually make it back for a second check-in in just a couple days. I finally got the TUSAL dates into my master calendar so hopefully I'll remember it more often now. 

So let's start with TUSAL since it's the quicker one (show off your orts for fun) and kind of leads into the other check-in. Here's my collection of orts for the moment. This is the whole year's worth as I only empty the jar on January 1. I've been stitching a lot of HAED lately so I don't exactly have a need to empty more often since I'm stitching 1x1 on 28 count most of the time. 

Not too impressive so far but we'll get there. Not sure I'll be adding much this month as we've got bunches of things packed in- Spring break which doesn't mean much to my 2nd grader except that we're planning a museum day trip, Easter, the beginning of soccer season, 3 big family birthdays and a First Communion and party. May should be more stitchy as I'm attending Celebration of Needlework in Nashua and plan on making the most of my kid free crafty time. 

So moving on to WIPocalypse, where I'm attempting to stitch the everything before the world ends. Here's what's been making all those orts. 

First up is Coppervein and I finally finished my page for the HAED Facebook challenge. One down and 52 1/2 to go!

Made a little progress on the Jim Shore angel but really just spent most of my time frogging it back out. Hoping to get farther on those wings this month. 

And finally my soon to be WIP- Long Dog Sampler's Castles in the Air. I've got a bit of prep work to do on this one but I think it will be worth the effort. I'll be stitching on 32 count Lupine linen from Picture This Plus with DMC 712. I'm working on recharging the words at the bottom right now. I'm not loving them so I'm replacing them with a quote from Thoreau instead. I think to do it properly so the words all fit in a reasonable space and have a good amount of detail I'll be doing a little over 1 stitching in this section and maybe add a few small motifs in some of the empty space so it looks more like part of the original. I'm hoping to get this going and take it to Celebration since it's just one color and should be pretty easy going outside the quote area. 

And let's not forget my helpers while taking pictures this morning. Apparently we're in the clothes optional phase of toddlerdom.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has been stitching!

Happy 2017!

New year, fresh start. Time to empty out the 2016 orts and start over. 2016 wasn't the best year for me but not the absolute worst either. We lost some family members, dealt with some illness (extended family), but also took some fun trips, spent good times with friends and had a little more free time for hobbies. My 2016 ort jar is definitely more full than the last couple despite being shook up and dumped a few times by my favorite helpers. The boys are all a year older and have grown so much since last January.

I'm excited for so many things in 2017- more soccer for Josh, a trip to Celebration of Needlework for me in May, and of course another year of Measi's WIPocalypse SAL. My blogging and stitching has been spotty over the last couple years with babies in the house but I'm hoping to improve on that this year. 

So welcome if this is your first visit and here's a short intro- I'm Sara, wife, Mom of 3 boys, retail pharmacist and stitcher of BAPs (note that does not read finisher!). I love the big pieces but I stitch
plenty of smaller things too. My taste in designers ranges from tiny Mill Hill kits to Teresa Wentzler
and Heaven and Earth designs and lots in between. 

My goal for 2017 is simple- stitch. As I said, I have 3 boys in the house, an 8 year old and twin 2 year olds, so my stitching time has been limited to nap time and after bedtime. The twins will sometimes
allow me to stitch on something simple while they play and watch cartoons lately though I am getting lots of "help" while I do. I guess I will have to organize my stitching by complexity this year- ornaments and small pieces during the day and HAED and other larger pieces at night. As far as specific pieces I don't have a solid list for 2017 but there are 3 main HAED pieces I'd like to make progress on...

Coppervein, my main focus as it is a gift for my brother-

Space Traveler, pretty equally for me and my husband-

Dragon Master, definitely for me-

There are a number of smaller pieces I'd like to work in as well. The only must is the Vervaco birth announcement I'm working on for my cousin who has a baby boy due in February. Here's my current starting spot on that...

The rest of my very fluid list includes but is in no way limited to

-a yet to be determined block from CCN's Frosty Forest set for my Mom

-a Mill Hill Christmas village kit

-maybe some of the chalkboard ornaments from Hands On Designs

-a possible start on Death By Cross Stitch from Long Dog Samplers

-some things I haven't even thought of yet but will see at Celebration

I'm off to a good start at the very least since this should be posted on time (writing on 12/31). I'm also excited to be part of Measi's Facebook group this year. I'm on FB every day anyway so it's a great quick place to check in though I love the idea of keeping the blog for goals and longer check ins. See you all at the end of the month for the first check in! 

June WIPocalypse

Long time, no post! Sorry about that, the end of the school year and vacation got the better of me for a bit there. So what's been going on? Well, Josh finished up first grade and is a happy kiddo on summer break until mid-August. Soccer is over now too and we're beginning to consider a fall league at the suggestion of some of the coaches. The twins are looking and sounding much more like toddlers than babies as we approach the terrible twos. And we went on vacation:) We spent a fun week with my parents in beautiful Mackinaw City, MI and introduced the kiddos to the best fudge I've ever had. Josh can't wait to go back on a camping trip up there and neither can I!

I completely missed the May WIPocalypse check in so I've got extra stitching to report. I'm coming close to another page finish on Space Traveler...

Also picked up another HAED, Dragon Moon, and have stitched a skein (yes, a whole skein!) of 939 into the sky as I reach for the top of the first column. 

I took my Sugar Skull along for the car ride and made good progress on the black background, I also managed to bobbin all the floss for my next HAED start (graduation gift for my brother) and found some new magnets I'm going to use as needle minders.

Measi asks a fun question this month- 

Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?

That's actually a hard one, kind of depends on the weather we're having so it's not really the same every year. The more extreme it gets outside, the more likely I am to hide inside and stitch. 

Sounds like there is at least one Olympic challenge in the works so I've been considering my stitching plans for the next couple months. I think I'm going to take July and make it "Christmas in July" so I can get a start on ornaments and gifts and probably go back to a HAED in August. We'll see how far I get! 

Some updates and a late WIPocalypse

So I skipped out on TUSAL again but only because the twins found my ort cup and emptied it all over the rug so it looked pretty sad and not very post worthy. I meant to get back for an on time WIPocalypse but I was so close to a page finish on Space Traveler I wanted to finish then post and of course everything else in the world got in the way of stitching for awhile including a little Spring Break trip but we're home now and here I am.

Stitching first! I finally made it to the end of the first column on Space Traveler! It only took about forever to get through the confetti but I made it. I'm so happy with it I've kept on going and am about halfway through the short page at the bottom of the next column but that was after I took the picture so it'll have to wait for next time.

I also managed to finish the stitching on Jack-Arachnid and the Santa ornaments for the boys.

I would love to get the finishing done for next time but we'll see how thing go on that. I'm hoping for at least a short page finish on Space Traveler and maybe a finish on the Mill Hill kit I started last week on our trip.

We took the kids to Indy for a few days last week while Josh was on Spring Break and hit the zoo and Children's Museum and got to spend some time with friends too.  The weather was perfect for seeing active animals...

Josh even got to see the coolest Darth Vader car ever at the museum.

And just to prove my kids do occasionally all face forward, this one's from Easter. The twins are only unhappy because their terrible mother is making them sit still instead of running around like the wild boys hopped upon Peeps and chocolate that they were.

So that's about it for now. Josh is back in school and soccer starts tonight so I'm sure we'll be running from now until the end of school. Hoping for a few rainy stitchy days!

February WIPocalypse

I meant to make it back in time for TUSAL but sadly missed this month.  Too much going on between work and school and Winter finally arriving. There are signs of Spring though- Spring Break is coming in about a month along with a short family trip in the works and Josh had soccer evals yesterday so we should be getting team info and practice schedule shortly. Can't wait to see him play again! We actually had a touch of warm weather before the snow last week and all the boys made it outside.

Thanks for the compliments on Snowy Friends from the last post. Mom did love it and is looking forward to more as she has a long and currently empty ledge along one wall of her family room. I'm trying to make her some non-holiday themed pieces she can display in between decorating for the holidays so this series should cover Winter nicely eventually.

I am in time for a slightly late WIPocalypse update. I did have a page finish on Dragon Master this month and now it looks like this...

So now I'm at a little over 3 pages finished out of 77. I've put it down for the moment to work on a few smalls but I'm debating whether to keep on stitching up or to start a second column and continue on stitching 2 pages wide. I guess it depends on my mood when I get back around to it and if I feel like stitching shades of yellow or grey. 

The smalls I'm working on are the  2015 Christmas ornaments for the kids and a Halloween ornament  I started and abandoned a while back.  I really want the ornaments done but I'm finding I need to alternate them with something else as I'm doing the backstitch as the needle is difficult to push through the plastic canvas with the cross stitches already in place and I'm getting some sore fingers but the end is in sight for all the smalls.

That's about it for now both crafty and otherwise. Can't wait to see what everyone else worked on this month!

August WIPocalypse

A few days late again for check in but we've been plenty busy with end of Summer fun and first days of school and some surgery for my Mom (all is ok, just recovering now at home).  Oh and preparations are starting for a birthday party- don't know where the time went but the twins are about to turn a year old in a bit over two weeks! 

But on to the stitching! I put Space Traveler away temporarily to hopefully blaze through two more birth announcements, probably the last two for awhile.  This round I chose another Vervavo kit. I believe it is called Sleeping Baby but I'll have to double check that.  Here's the first around half finished...

Hoping to be onto the second one by next check in but we'll see how much stitching time I can get in.  Some of my stitching time lately has been taken up by gaming with my brother and one of Erich's friends.  

I'll leave you with a couple kid pics until next time- first day of first grade and reading time for the little ones.

June WIPocalypse

Gone a little longer than I thought but with the end of school and a busy soccer season and mobile babies sometimes I've got energy to make it through a level of Candy Crush and that's about it! So here it is June and I haven't updated you on anything since April.  I'll try to type quickly before the babies crawling on me actually succeed in wrestling away my phone.  

Kids first- Josh finished his last day of kindergarten yesterday and is officially on Summer break which I think he plans to thoroughly enjoy. He's also been playing in his first real soccer league since the end of April and is having a blast. Coach says he shows some talent and he enjoys it so we'll probably repeat next year.  Ben and Chris are most definitely crawling and cruising furniture with frequent attempts to take unaided steps.

Here's all the boys of the house on Erich's birthday at the end of April...

As for stitching I'm pretty close to on time for WIPocalypse check in time and I happen to have been stitching on a WIPocalypse piece too.  Since the last check in I put Fish City away and have dusted off HAED's Space Traveler.  I've done about half a page and have managed to make a halfway decent TARDIS corner.

I'm feeling pretty good about the over one stitching and think I'll keep on going for awhile.  

And the check in question this month is- Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in the summer or winter months? 

I guess it depends as parts of winter are filled with family gatherings and holidays so not so much then but other parts of winter are perfect for snuggling under a blanket and stitching the hours away.  Same in summer- some parts are so busy with outside activities but we get such miserable hot and humid weather for part of the summer that there's not much to do but hide in the air conditioning and stitch while ignoring the housework.  

That's about it for now.  Off to enjoy a little sunshine and get some dinner on the grill.  Hope you're all enjoying some summer sunshine too!

April WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot

So I've been really bad at keeping up with the SAL's again and I think I'm blaming these guys...

 

They are kinda cute though so I guess I'll let them get away with it for now:)  They've all been busy growing up the past couple months. The twins sit up pretty well now and are very happy to be eating some mushy foods along with their bottles.  They're also threatening to crawl so I'm sure they'll really be keeping us on our toes soon.  Josh is enjoying his last few months of kindergarten and is getting ready to start his first real soccer league next week.  I can't wait to see him play his first game soon. 

 

Despite the lack of posting I have been getting a decent amount of time with my WIPocalypse/Turtle Trot piece. Fish City is really starting to grow...

 

 

You can't really see all of it but I've done quite a bit of backstitch to bring out a lot more detail than there was before and I think I'm going to try to continue to backstitch as I go otherwise it will be just way too much all at the end.  Things seem to be going pretty well so I think I'm going to keep on going with this piece for now.  I'm sure I'll get tired of it eventually but the bright colors and alternating between big blocks of color for the background and lots of color changes for the different fish are still keeping me interested for now. 

That's about it for now.  I hope to be back in about a week with another progress pic and maybe some kid pics from this weekend as the twins are being baptized and we're having a big family get together for them so hope to see you again a lot sooner than last time!

 

 

 

 



One last 2014 post

Many, many thanks for all the good thoughts and congrats on our family. It's been a whirlwind of a few months since the little ones were born but we're finally settling into a more normal routine as I get ready to head back to work next week. I can't believe how fast the time has gone and I'd love to extend my time off a little more but someone has to buy diapers and formula.

Being the last day of the year I was thinking of all that's happened to us in 2014. Not much blogging or stitching but lots of good family stuff for sure as we've welcomed not one but two babies and Josh has done so much growing up too- he started the year as a preschooler and is finishing as a big brother in kindergarten and missing a tooth. Ben and Chris have done quite a bit in 3 months as well. They've gone from sleepy newborns to smiley, interactive babies. I won't do the year in pictures but I did bring a few to get you up to date since my last post...












On the crafty side of things I didn't have many finishes but the little ones are starting to get close to sleeping through the night which is freeing up a little evening crafting time for me once again. I managed to finish 1 of 3 Christmas ornaments I planned for my boys and am hoping to finish the second tonight if everyone goes to bed on time. I chose the SamSarah snowmen from the JCS ornament preview and issue for the little ones and Josh chose a Santa ornament I haven't kitted yet so I don't have a pic of that but here are Snow Baby and First Star...





Looking toward to 2015 I'm not going to make specific goals because I know we're in for another crazy year but I'm hoping to get back into a regular stitching and blogging habit as well as getting around to some blog reading. I've really missed seeing everyone's projects! I'm also hoping to get my new crafting space cleaned and organized since we kind of threw everything in the office when it came time to swap rooms to make room for the twins. I had hoped to organize it when I was off work before the babies came but I just didn't end up having the time or energy for it so I think I'm going to try to take one evening a week in 2015 and work on it until it's done.

That's it for now. I'm off to spend the last few hours of the year making some dinner and hopefully getting that last finish in. Hope everyone has a fun and safe celebration tonight and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2015.