It’s getting pretty late here so time to do the update for the 30 Day Project for today!
So here’s where we finished off yesterday:
You can already see the sleeve on the dress taking shape, which is pretty neat!
Well… on the one hand, the stitching on this chart has gone well, from the thirty or so stitches I’ve done so far. On the other hand, the fact that these threads came unsorted was a total nightmare.
Here is a picture of how the threads all came:
Here we go!
Ooh boy, I picked a doozy for the month of November.
I had such a hard time choosing a project. I went through my kits over and over again, pulling some out, putting them back, starting over. I had so many good ones I didn’t know which one I wanted to do! And I have so many projects already started – not to mention Christmas presents to stitch (I don’t even want to think about Christmas) – I wondered whether I should even start a new one or work on one that’s already in my WIP pile?
Well I eventually settled on a Joan Elliot kit distributed by DesignWorks:
“A Good Thing” kit, distributed by DesignWorks, designed by Joan Elliot.
It’s a 5 x 7 so still manageable, it has some of my favorite themes of bears and food, and when it’s finished I can hang it on the wall of my kitchen.
I opened the kit and went to get everything started… switched out the packaged needle for a gold-plated one, got the fabric in a hoop, and then went to look at the chart.
The chart is not… fabulous. To be honest, it’s one of the worst-looking charts I’ve ever had come in a kit. I don’t mean that it’s hard to follow or badly-designed, it’s actually very well designed, but when DesignWorks went to package this kit I don’t know what they were thinking when it came to the chart? It looks like someone photo-copied the original chart and then scanned it into a computer and printed it out again from a regular printer. In other words, it looks like a very bad photocopy and not what I would expect from an official kit.
It’s not so horrible I can’t follow the chart… I’ll just definitely have to mark my place with my highlighter and a working copy is NOT an option – it’s only going to make the chart even harder to read. So I may have set myself up for failure on this one, but too late now! It’s in the hoop and ready to go and it’s already November 1st. No going back now!
It took me so long to pick a project I don’t really have that much time left to stitch today… expect the first real update to come tomorrow!
Here we go!
————————————————————————————–
Progress Report is an update on all my stitching habits, from the kits to the stitching to the finishing process and more! Right now I am featuring one of my cat-themed projects and several of the mini kits I’m currently working on, along with other pieces I like to pull out and work on at random.
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!
God Sent Special Things: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
My wrist is feeling pretty crummy today and I’ve got class tonight, so I really don’t feel like doing anything… since the chance of me doing any stitching to cheer myself up is low, I thought it might be nice to write some articles for the blog instead!
Funny story: when I first started this project I was about to go on vacation to Florida for a week… that was almost two years ago now! I took it with me to stitch on and ended up spending all my time in the ocean so I don’t think I got more than 10 stitches done on it? Fast forward two years later, I’m going on vacation to Florida, and having completely forgot that this was the project I took two years ago, I brought it with me to stitch on!
So this is where we left off last time:
The current progress, after forty some stitches.
Again, I spent more time in the ocean and on the beach than I did inside with my stitching so I didn’t get much done. But, we spent the night at my boyfriend’s grandpa’s house on the way back home and there was a nasty storm, so I stitched some while the power flickered, and I stitched some more as we finished the last half of the drive. I don’t know how many stitches I finished… but I feel like I made some progress!
This is the sum total of all the stitching I did on vacation:
The current progress!
I finished the stitches on the left kitten where I had run out of thread, and I started on the basket both kittens are sitting in. There are a lot of fractionals in that area! I seem to pick the projects with the maximum amount of fractionals in one area. It drives me crazy! I don’t mind doing fractionals but I do mind them on aida, and that’s all I seem to stitch on. I debated starting on the white on the right kitten so it didn’t look like a zombie ate part of its face, but my philosophy is always to save white on white for as close to the end as possible! I was happy to work with darker thread and different colors. I don’t like confetti stitching but working with the same colors can get so dull after awhile.
————————————————————————————–
Progress Report is an update on all my stitching habits, from the kits to the stitching to the finishing process and more! Right now I am featuring one of my cat-themed projects and several of the mini kits I’m currently working on, along with other pieces I like to pull out and work on at random.
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!
Progress Report: Cat Rotation #2, God Sent Special Things, Part 1
Progress Report: Cat Rotation #2, God Sent Special Things, Part 2
——————————————
THIS is an example of why I Don’t Like Large Projects!
So this is where I left off on my “God Sent Special Things” cross-stitch piece that was a part of my failed Cat Rotation:
Where I left off last.
It is now May, and I am only just now sorting through all my progress pictures and getting them ready for articles from Christmas. I am such a procrastinator.
Anyway, I thought I would start with the small kit I got for Christmas from my grandparents two Christmases ago, and made to hang on our little Christmas tree this past Christmas. It’s called “Beary Kissmas” and fits in great with my love of the teddy bear motif. I didn’t pack it away with the rest of my Christmas decorations. It will be a year-round decoration!
Out of the four Christmas projects I started, this and a present for my nephew were the only two I actually finished. You can read more about my dilemma in this article: A Christmas Gift Fiasco.
The first round of stitching on this piece!
A little further before putting it down for the day!
This was an incredibly fast piece to do. I worked for probably around two or three hours and got more than half the piece completed in one sitting. Then I set it aside for a little while (as I tend to do) and when I picked it back up, I finished it!
Here it is, all finished! Just needs washed, ironed, and framed.
There will be a Friday Finishes on this piece shortly, with it all pretty and in its frame. Until then, you can see it on display in my Mini Kits article: Displaying My Minis!
Salvaged Stash: Cross Stitch Pillow Cases
Since featuring my seashell pillow cases I’m remaking from my Salvaged Stash, I’ve got an update on the pillow cases!
The previous update.
Cat Rotation #2, God Sent Special Things, Part 1
So, remember the Cat Rotation I completely and utterly failed to stick to? I did an initial article on all three, but I never really gave an update on them afterwards. Mainly because I hadn’t stitched on them at all. Well I did do a little on my favorite of the three pieces, God Sent Special Things, that I thought I’d share with you all!
Here is where I got to during the actual rotation:
The current progress!
So remember that little thing that I called my Cat Rotation that I talked about a long, long time ago?
It was a complete and utter failure. Which is why this particular article is coming now rather than in February like it was supposed to.
I think I set myself up for failure with a scheduled routine. There was no way I was going to be able to find consistent time to stitch; the week I was supposed to be stitching on this, for example, I didn’t end up stitching at all that week. And then I went on vacation and was supposed to take my stitching with me to work on, which I did… but I never once picked up my needle. And then there’s the fact that large projects and I don’t agree with each other and yeah, this rotation went nowhere fast.
This is the second project in my Cat-Themed Rotation, “God Sent Special Things” by Janlynn.
I have had this kit for quite a while now, I don’t distinctly remember buying it but it must have been on one of my usual kit-buying sessions. I have always thought the kit was really pretty though! Before I decided on doing my rotation I was seriously considering doing this piece on its own. I love the cat motif and the colors are pretty and appealing and I only hesitated with not starting it before because of the size, 5″ by 7″, because I’m used to doing lots of little projects instead of one larger one.
