January UFO Report

 Sometime last year (September I think) I started stitching this chart. The chart is Autumn Cardinals #1903 by Imagnating.  I lost my place so finally gave up and put it away deciding to pick it back up this month.  Not a new years resolution because I don't make them any longer.

This is where I stopped today.  I'm not quite half finished.  Close I think.  I figure it will take me another month of stitching to finish it. I'll take it and have it framed when finished.  I also have 3 more charts that go with this one.  A spring, summer and winter chart.  All have birds and baskets.

This is my friends Chihuahua DeeDee. I'm watching her and the chi-weenie that we have both fostered.  The coke can is taped shut with dried beans or peas in it.  When the dogs get to barking I will shake the can to break there concentration.  I've also caught DeeDee sleeping in the pantry on a bag of plastic grocery bag tied shut.  She's pretty funny.

I was trying to put this final picture at the top as my second photo so you could see about where I began.  I actually didn't have any of the cardinal started. The little Chi in this picture is my first Belle!  She's a sweet little girl. . . . . .                            I'm also getting the yearly series of Santa's Village.  I cannot decide if I should stitch them all together as one picture or stitch them separate and finish them off as cubes.  I've only finished one cube but I sure like the way it turned out. So before I start that (I still need to buy fabric if I'm stitching them all together) I'll be thinking about it even longer.  I'm also doing the new Lizzie Kate series Jingle.  I'm going to stitch it as one picture.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .I hope we have a short winter this year.  The grey, gloomy, wet, cold weather is really getting to me this year.  Maybe because I know in 4 years we will be moving back to sunny California.  .  .  .  .  .  .  Hope you are all stitching and making great progress on your stitching projects.  Stay warm and safe.

 

 

2013 Christmas Ornament SAL

I was invited to join the 2013 Christmas Ornament SAL.  We stitch an ornament each month for ourselves.  Every other month we stitch whatever ornament we want and the other
months we have an assigned theme.  January was a free
month and since I didn't get any gingerbread men stitched this year.  That's why I picked this one.  I'm taking the pattern out of Cross Stitch Crazy December 2011which I got on eBay.  There are 7 different gingerbread men and women to choose from.  I think I'll stitch them all. 

I also started my second Valentine chart today.  I hope by the first of February to have at least one more stitched so I have a few for my mantel.  I like to decorate my mantel for different holidays.  I've always had things for Halloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This year for January I have my snowmen up but they all seem to be the same size.  Its not like I don't have others to mix in!

Hoping everyone is having a great start to 2013.  We're almost half way through the month of January.  Why does the time have to fly by so fast?

Its A New Year - 2013

I can remember thinking 2000 was a long way off and now its 2013!  Where has the time gone.  Well for one thing I know I'm 13 years older.  I have 3 additional grand kids.  I really can't complain!    First picture is the first start and finish of 2013.  Okay it was a very fast stitch but it still counts.  This year I have signed up for several monthly series.  Lizzie Kate is one.  The second is from Blue Ribbon.  And the 3rd is Santa's Village.  I can't remember the name of the Blue Ribbon  series or the designer of Santa's Village.  I notice from the many yahoo groups I'm on that many stitchers make a list of the things they want to stitch in the new year.  And some stitchers start 13 or more new things, one each for a set amount of days.  I would just have a mountain of starts.  I just stitch what appeals to me at the time.  My only real goal is to finish 2013 without a bunch of UFO!!!

 

While at my sisters and daughters over Christmas it was fun to see all the things I've stitched and quilted over the years and given to them as gifts.  I didn't get any pictures from my sister's house but I did get a few from my daughters.  This is a Santa I stitched in the 1990's.  Its stitched on 8 count fabric.  I actually have a couple pieces left from the 90's.  If she would send it back to me I would refinish it better.  It has been stored for quite a long time in a box though.

Heather, my daughter collects penguins.  But only the ones she can display at Christmas.  I stitched this for her personally.  I'm not sure if she was married at the time or not.  I think the Santa above was stitched and she took it when I didn't have it out.  I'm sure I wasn't happy with the way it was finished. 

This is another chart that I stitched back in the 1990's sometime.  I hae another one similar to this one or I stitched it twice which isn't very likely.

I was invited to join the 2013 Ornament SAL this year.  It will be fun stitching some ornaments again.  I did stitch several this year but didn't get them finished into ornaments yet.  Now if I could just figure out how to get this moved over to the right side of my blog page.

For Christmas every year its either held at my house or my sisters in California.  This year we went to her house.  What a trip that was.  Our normal day and a half trip took us 3 long days.  I couldn't figure out why Cal Trans kept closing the roads.  If these people lived in South Dakota they would be in big trouble.