Tag: cross-stitch

Term of the Week: FFO

Term of the Week

Term of the Week FFO

This week’s Term of the Week is actually a request from a reader!

Let’s get right down to it: what does FFO mean, exactly? Unless you’re familiar with another popular cross stitch term, UFO, the acronym won’t mean much to you. But if you know what UFO means, then FFO makes a lot of sense!

FFO stands for Finally Finished Object. It is the term and acronym for when you finish a UFO, or really any piece that feels like it’s taken forever to finish. It’s a term that means success and achievement, because you finally got over that roadblock to finish something that’s been on the list for a long time.

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

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Progress Report: Native Wolf Dream Catcher, Part 2

Progress Report

Read The Previous Articles:

Native Wolf Dream Catcher: Part 1

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Oh man, it’s been quite a while since I did an update on my Native Wolf Dream Catcher piece! (Is it Dream Catcher or Dreamcatcher? Wikipedia tells me it can be either way, but my spellcheck gets upset when it’s all one word. I prefer it with a space anyway.)

After all the stitching I did initially on the piece in an attempt to get it done as fast as possible, I put it aside (as I do with all my pieces eventually) and have barely picked it up since. This is all the progress I’ve made in the last two years or so! Maybe posting my progress will get me in the mood to stitch on it again and I’ll finally finished it.

So here is where we left off last time:

» Read more

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Progress Report: Artiste’s Snail, Part 2 – A Finish!

Progress Report

Read The Previous Articles:

Artiste’s Snail: Part 1

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Months and months and months after the first was posted, here is the finale of my progress on the Artiste’s Snail piece!

All told, this piece took about a week to finish in total stitching time. In total amount of elapsed time from when I opened it to when I finished it, it was… about a year. I had the snail in my WIP pile for a very long time.

Anyway, here is where we left off:

» Read more

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Christmas 2015 – Projects Update!

Random Corner

Christmas 2015 Projects

It is December 13th, and we are now 12 days from Christmas! On November 2nd I posted an article called Planning For Christmas, where I went over the 14 Christmas projects I organized as gifts for this year. I started very late because I didn’t actually plan on making any Christmas gifts this year. My usual track record is to finish less than half the Christmas presents I start out making.

So! Now that we are 12 days from Christmas, where am I at on my progress?

This is what I started with:

My Christmas projects! Wish me luck!

My Christmas projects! Wish me luck!

  1. Owl By Janlynn
  2. Mothers Are Special by Janlynn
  3. Rock The ‘Stache by Bucilla
  4. Tractor by Janlynn
  5. Home Is Where Your Mom Is by Bucilla
  6. Owl Pillowcases by Janlynn
  7. Home Sweet Home Code by Happy Stitch
  8. HTML Welcome Sign By Happy Stitch
  9. Stop Hatin, Start Bakin by Daily Cross Stitch
  10. Baby Panda by Daily Cross Stitch
  11. Oh Deer by Daily Cross Stitch
  12. Deer Silhouette by Daily Cross Stitch
  13. Keep Calm And Game On by Daily Cross Stitch
  14. Stark Bookmark by Black Lupin (not pictured)

Wow, what a list! Considering last year I decided to stitch four projects and only finished two, this was quite an undertaking! Especially because I started so late. I fully expected that I wouldn’t finish half the list, so I planned two projects for each person I decided to make gifts for; if I could finish one for each, I would be happy.

Here is the list so far!

  1. Owl By Janlynn: Finished!
  2. Mothers Are Special by Janlynn: Finished!
  3. Rock The ‘Stache by Bucilla: Finished!
  4. Tractor by Janlynn: Finished!
  5. Home Is Where Your Mom Is by Bucilla: Started!
  6. Owl Pillowcases by Janlynn: Abandoned 🙁
  7. Home Sweet Home Code by Happy Stitch: Finished!
  8. – 14. Not Started

So I’ve finished 5 of the 14 projects as of today. I have #6 and #7 started – except I gave up on the pillowcases again this year. Stamped cross stitch just takes me too long, and I’ll run out of steam and not start any of the others unless I give it up and move on. I have projects #8 and #9 kitted up and ready to start, but I haven’t started them, nor any of the others on the list.

This is my finished pile, to be washed and framed:

This includes non-Christmas projects as well, I have a lot that need washed and frame!

This includes non-Christmas projects as well, I have a lot that need washed and framed!

Aaaand this is my pile of Christmas projects that I still need to finish:

It's a big pile...

It’s a big pile…

12 days to Christmas and I have 8 projects left to finish by December 20th, at the very latest. I doubt I can do it. But hey, I got a lot more done than I’ve gotten done in years past, so even if I don’t finish them all, I’m proud of myself! But wish me luck anyway, I’ll need it if I want to finish.

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“Random Corner” is a place for the articles related to all manners of cross-stitchery and the cross-stitch community that don’t fall under the topics covered in the regular segments.

By the way – to keep up on Little Thread Crafts stitching news and get pictures, updates, and more that don’t appear on the blog until much later, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! I would greatly appreciate it!

 

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Planning For Christmas

Random Corner

RCart22

Halloween is two days gone, and every crafter knows what that means: you should be halfway finished with all your Christmas presents you’re making right now! Unless you’re me. Then you always wait until November 1st to start planning who will get what, and then have a small panic when you realize you are a terribly slow stitcher and will never get finished in time.

Every year is the same: I tell myself I want to get a head start on my projects for Christmas, then I wait until November to get started. Come December 20th I’m always scrambling to finish. I owe a lot of people IOUs from previous Christmases. (They usually become birthday presents instead.)

This year is no different! Actually, it is a little different… I wasn’t originally going to stitch my Christmas presents this year as I have in years past. I haven’t picked up my needle in months (if the lack of articles on the blog over the last few months is any indication), and I was generally feeling down about my craftiness and whether I even wanted to make the effort this year when I knew I wouldn’t get it done.

Then I told myself, “You can do this! Everyone loves your gifts. So what if it’s November and everyone knows you won’t finish in time? At least you do finish them and give them out in the end!”

So here I am, spending today sorting through my stash and picking out projects. I even bought new charts! I’ve been on a stash diet for months now until my stitching bug came back. It feels like today was the day to splurge. I can almost guarantee I don’t have any of the colors I need for any of these new charts, because I never have the colors I need when I need them, but that means a shopping trip and more goodies for me!

The past two years I’ve only managed to complete 2 of my projects on time… this year, I’ll have 14. Some of them are back ups in case I run out of time and need something quicker to stitch, but I’ve been careful to keep all the projects under 7 inches. And you’ll notice the mini kits in here:

My Christmas projects! Wish me luck!

My Christmas projects! Wish me luck!

Some of them I’ve already started. Some I have to kit up still. But after all my planning today I feel like my stitching bug is finally back. I’m ready to pick up the needle again. I’m ready for Christmas!

What are your plans for the holidays? Got projects you need to finish?

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“Random Corner” is a place for the articles related to all manners of cross-stitchery and the cross-stitch community that don’t fall under the topics covered in the regular segments.

By the way – to keep up on Little Thread Crafts stitching news and get pictures, updates, and more that don’t appear on the blog until much later, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! I would greatly appreciate it!

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Where In The World Is Little Thread Crafts?

News

Hey guys! It’s been almost two months since anything new was posted to the blog so I thought it was time for a little update!

There’s really no big story behind it… Life sneaked up behind me and caught me up. I went on vacation in May, and happened to get a job offer while on the trip. I started the job the beginning of June and it’s been crazy ever since. I haven’t touched my stitching since June 5th, when I finished my Push Button Get Bacon piece. Now my boyfriend and I are about to move to a new place (again, I’m destined to move a lot apparently) so in less than a month I need to pack up my entire stash for an unknown period of time, as we don’t know whether we’ll have enough space in the new place for it.

Health wise I improved a lot in the last few months… still nowhere near perfect but I feel better than I have in a long time. I was at my lowest point in March so perhaps it’s less of an improvement and more that it could only go up from rock bottom. Still, between my health issues and this new job my energy levels are extremely low by the end of every day, and I haven’t touched my stitching in so long there’s not a lot to write about right now!

I miss you all and would love love love to get back into blogging sometime soon… and especially finish all my projects I’ve got going. Perhaps I can set some sort of goal while I’m packing for the move? Get out a travel tote for projects to work on during that time. Then I’ll have stuff to write about again!

Thank you to everyone who has been so patient with me while I vanish off the face of the web… I deeply appreciate it. Thank you for sticking with me! Hopefully I’ll be back soon. <3

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