One More Trip Around the Sun

Well, it's that time of the year again...but first the pitiful update on An Open Heart.  Can't seem to get this last band finished to save my life, lol.

An Open Heart
The Drawn Thread

As you may have guessed, my birthday is this week.  The Birthday Fairy was quite good to me (helped tremendously by a little list) and I got some goodies.

That would be a ball winder, two sets of Harmony Wood DPN's (size 0 and 1) and a sock needle holder.  Of course, I had to dive right in and start a new sock since I finished Mom's.  And, yes, she liked them very much.

Red Heart Heart and Sole
Blackjack

And here's Mom's pair being modeled by the recipient.

So there's my week in review.  Hi to all of my new followers! 

Happy Stitching!
Tamara

IHSW Update

Here's my weekend's progress on An Open Heart.  I didn't get the last band completed, unfortunately, but did make some good progress.

I probably won't get much stitching done this upcoming week;  I want to get this current pair of socks done before Wednesday.  Work is getting really busy and I don't always have the time or energy to do needlework at night.  Right now, I'm trying to resist placing orders for sock yarn and cross stitch patterns I don't need.  Oh, but I want, want, want!  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's IHSW progress next week.

Happy Stitching,
Tamara

Snip, snip

A warm welcome to my new followers!  I'm thoroughly enjoying my hermiting day today and getting to see some progress on An Open Heart.  I dug in and finally got around to doing the drawn thread bands I had put off doing a while back.  The two bands took me 3-4 hours to complete.  Very tedious having to reweave all those threads.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it had only been one band.

Here it is after the cutting and reweaving:

And the end result with the honeycomb hemstitching completed:

I'm glad that ordeal is finally over!

January is treating us well this year...even the pansies agree.

I am not missing the snow we had in late December and January last year. 

I can't believe it's already so late in the day.  I don't think I will meet my goal of having the body of An Open Heart finished by tomorrow night, but it feels good to have the sections done that I had put off for so long.  I'm off to see what else I can accomplish.

Happy Stitching!
Tamara

January IHSW

I've signed up for the January IHSW over at Random Ramblings.  Today is my Friday, so I'm planning a little stitching marathon for tomorrow.  I'd really like to get the body of An Open Heart finished.  All I have to do is not get distracted by the computer or season 1 of CSI NY that I'm planning to start watching.  Here's my before picture:

An Open Heart
The Drawn Thread

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's progress. 

Happy Stitching!
Tamara

Enabling Alert

I've been more tired than usual this week so I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked.  Here are the upates:

A Rock Garden




A Rock Garden
de Brenski
The Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery


Only a couple hundred stitches, but the top of the arbor is starting to appear.

An Open Heart

The Drawn Thread
An Open Heart

Getting near the bottom, finally.

Socks

One complete and one with the leg almost done.

My startitis seems to have suddenly turned to buyitis.  After seeing some wonderful wip's and finishes on various blogs, I seem to want to add to the hoard collection.  Here's what I currently have my eye on. 

1.  Winter Holiday Sampler by The Victoria Sampler
2.  Snowflowers by Just Nan
3.  Winter Pals by Mill Hill
4.  Cooking By Candlelight  by HAED
5.  Hit Any Key by HAED
6.  Ta Da by HAED

There's a lot more (a lot more is a huge understatement, lol) on my wish list, but that's the new stuff I've found this week.  I wish I could stitch it as fast as they put it out sometimes.  But I'm going to try to resist a bit longer.  At least until HAED has another sale.  I'm going to go try to put a few more stitches in A Rock Garden. 

Happy Stitching!
Tamara

Four Stitches

I hope the New Year is starting off fabulously for everyone.  I'm enjoying my day off with my knitting, cross stitching, and crocheting on this cold day that has arrived with a cold front from our northwestern friends.  Thanks, guys.  At least the sun is shining. 

As I sit here contemplating how to tackle my growing mound of cross stitch projects, I find I like thinking about working on them more than actually picking them up and stitching on them.  I like the excitement of a new project and I love having a finished product.  It's just the in-between that's a bitch.  I still haven't decided whether to work on only one of my BAP WIP's or work on all of them as the mood strikes me.  I know I would see more progress and maybe even have a finish at the end of the year if I picked up one and only one, but there seem to be so many other things which I am obligated to do (such as work, housekeeping, cooking, etc) that it seems silly to deny myself the pleasure that my hobby can provide.  Which may include starting a new project (which I need like I need a new hole in my head).  But not today.  Today I am pulling out a WIP that I still love, but the chart drives me a little (okay, a lot) batty when working on it.  The chart is A Rock Garden by The Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery.  I started this in March 2008 and have completed 4 pages out of 12 (the last 3 of which are 1/2 pages).  So, I'm going to try to make a little headway on it this year.  It is the smallest of my BAP's and would be the quickest to finish, I think.  Maybe. 


A Rock Garden
Alfred de Breanski
The Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery



The sock is coming right along, I just started the gussets on the first sock.

And the Linus Project afghan is also showing progress, but no update picture.  And here I sit, avoiding that piece pictured above.  And it's sitting over there looking all innocent when I know as soon as I pick it up and try to decide on the first color to start, it will turn into some evil little imp and I'll end up sitting with it for the next three hours and have all of four stitches to show for it. 

Oh, and I also got a tiny bit done on An Open Heart, too. 

An Open Heart
The Drawn Thread

That band I'm working on should be an easy one.  As I still sit here procrastinating, I'm wondering if my stitching mojo might still be a little weak.  Oh, well, let me go get those four stitches in so I can move on to something else.

Happy stitching!
Tamara

Hello 2012!

And may she be a better year than the last. 

Stitching-wise, 2011 was the year of a lot of stitching and not much finishing.  I got obsessed with a couple  several too many HAED patterns.  I think I started two in addition to the two I already had going and bought too many more.  I did get several pages done on two of them, but getting nowhere near the finish line.  I used to be a one project at a time person and I think I overloaded the stitching circuits this year.  So, I will not be starting any new stitching for New Year's.  No matter how loudly that little dragon in Curl Up With A Good Book screams at me.  I will finish An Open Heart and Crystal Roses before starting any new non-HAED projects.  Now I just have to decide how to rotate the other BAP's or whether to just concentrate on one of them this year.  Stay tuned.

I made a little progress on An Open Heart this week. 




An Open Heart
The Drawn Thread



I think I now have about 3/4 of the center section done.  I'm planning on getting some more time on it this afternoon and Wednesday. 

I finally managed to get myself in the sewing room (funny I call it that since very little actual sewing ever takes place in there) and go through the bins of yarn.  And to get the two four bins from out of the attic.  There seems to be a plethora of primary colors in the collection and I want to use as much as possible without having to bring more yarn into the house.  So my first selection is a bit wild.  These afghans will be for Linus Quilts again, so I'm thinking bright, colorful afghans will be good.  And might do me some good in the upcoming dreary January days. 

I've affectionately nicknamed this one clown barf.  I think the orange might be burning a hole in my retina.  The orange is some that I inherited and is so old, it's from when Wintuk was made by Prestige (it's now made by Caron).  The label has 1985 on it.  It's about time it was put to good use, I'm thinking.

I never posted a picture of the last Linus Quilts finish, so here it is.



Summer Symphony
A Year of Afghans Book 3
Leisure Arts


There was another pair of socks done last week, but they look pretty much the same as the last, so I won't torture you with another picture of those.  The next pair is on the needles and I'm attempting to make these to fit my mom.  I'm planning on making this pair a surprise;  she's been oohing and aahing over the ones I've made so far.




plain socks
Paton's Kroy FX
cascade colors 57210


I think she's going to love them!

I'm off to get me a turkey sandwich (one of the absolute best things about this time of year!) and settle in with An Open Heart and TV Land's Murder She Wrote marathon. 

May your New Year be bright and prosperous.
Tamara