Progress Report: Christmas Teddy Bear, Start to Finish

Remember my Christmas Gift Fiasco last year? Remember the pieces I talked about on the Beary Kissmas Progress Report? Now look at the calendar and realize with some growing panic that Christmas 2014 is a month and a half away.

Oh wait, no, I should be the one doing that.

All joking aside, here I am almost a year later with a Progress Report on one of the only two Christmas presents I finished in time to give as gifts last year. One was the Beary Kissmas, mentioned above – that was a gift to my boyfriend (and technically myself) to hang on our baby Christmas tree – and the other is the subject of this article!

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The 2013 Christmas Haul

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It may be March, but it’s never too late to talk abut Christmas presents!

At this point in my life, everyone in my family and my immediate friends circle knows that I cross-stitch and how passionate I am about it. That said, this year was the first year I got cross-stitch presents from family! Not too many, I mostly bought things for myself, but I thought I would share what I did get!

Christmas Present 1Okay, this was less a present from someone else and more a present I bought for myself from work! Stitching is definitely a stress reliever for me so this was so true, and I had to have it! So I bought it and gave it to my mom to give to me as a Christmas present. I haven’t hung it up yet… I need to hang up a lot of things! Need more space on my walls, lol.

Christmas Present 2My best friend bought me this very lovely Dimensions piece as a Christmas present! It’s a massive project and I’m not sure when I’ll ever get around to doing it, but I love the flowers and it’ll look fabulous when it’s finished!

Christmas Present 3My cousin’s family bought this for me, and it’s very cute! I like the fact that it has a frog on it! It looks rather complex to be a beginner’s piece, but I’m sure it won’t be hard to stitch. Anyone who loves frogs or hates them (because of frogging) should get this to do for themselves!

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“Random Corner” is a place for all articles related to all manners of cross-stitchery and the cross-stitch community that don’t fall into the topics covered in the regular segments. There is no set schedule for Random Corner articles, they’re just random!

My New Year’s Stitching Resolutions, Year 1, 2013

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I saw discussion going on in my Facebook groups about what people wanted to accomplish with stitching in 2013, and as 2013 will mark my second year fully devoted to the craft of cross-stitch I figured I should compile a list as well. I can come back to it throughout the year and hopefully I will have marked a few things off the list. (But New Year’s resolutions are notorious for being broken and renewed for the next year.)

  • Finish a friend’s wedding sampler
    • I had a close friend get married recently, but the wedding was so sudden I had less than a month to find and start my very first sampler. I’m hoping it have it done this year as a first anniversary present.
  • Complete all my mother’s UFOs
    • When I dug through my mom’s stash I found 5 well-started but unfinished pieces. One was so close to finished I took a few days and sat down and finished it, but the other 4 are sitting incomplete. Two have stains from one thing or another so I’m going to see if I can remove them or if the piece is a bust and I’ll have to re-start, but I’m looking forward to completing what my mom started.
  • Sort and organize my stash
    • My stash is tentatively organized into: bin full of the charts and kits and leftovers of finished pieces, the finished pieces, small kits, medium kits, large kits, magazines, and the materials (thread, aida, etc). But there is no storage or sense of organization. I’d like to develop a working system to get everything together with.
  • Learn to tolerate stamped cross-stitch kits
    • I’ve only done two stamped cross-stitch pieces, and I hated doing the two I did when it came to the actual stitches. I loved the backstitch and quarter stitches on the fabric, but I couldn’t keep the stitches even to save my life and I hated it. Still, stamped pieces are to get used to using linen fabric and there are several kits I love but refuse to do because they’re stamped, so I hope to get over my dislike in 2013.
  • Complete some projects from a magazine/chart and not a kit
    • I did design my own little project for my boyfriend and then a separate little present for his nephew from a lettering book, but other than that I’ve never done a solo chart. I favor kits with everything included already. I’d like to start expanding my horizons and buying all my own materials and learning how to grid and all that fun stuff.

This is just a small list of what I want to accomplish. What are you hoping to accomplish in 2013?

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“Random Corner” is a place for all articles related to all manners of cross-stitchery and the cross-stitch community that don’t fall into the topics covered in the regular segments. There is no set schedule for Random Corner articles, they’re just random!

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