Another new start

I must have starteritis with how many projects I have going and I started yet another one two nights ago. Mini Kathleen and Summer, a Hannah Lynn design charted by HAED. This is far from my usual style but the colors are so bright and I love the mother mermaid snuggling with her daughter. Struck a chord with me of my relationship with my little girl. I love her to pieces so this is being made with her in mind. Here is a picture of the finished design 

I hope to catalog this one's progress each day it is worked on. So here are the first three days...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 Lot's of color changes so it didn't work up as much as the previous day.

Lots of stitching

It's been a very long time since I last posted. I haven't done any miniatures lately, although j did get some furniture for Christmas for my large dollhouse, but mostly I have been cross stitching. I finished 3 felt stockings before Christmas and almost got a 4th done. Besides those I have also gotten 3/4 of the way done on my daughter's afghan and worked a lot on my cross stitching. I have multiple projects on the go in the cross stitching department and have a loose rotation of working on whichever one is the loudest. Here is where I am at on these as of this morning.

Pansies is working up fast. I have a very small portion of the chart left that will fill in the vase and one flower and leaves at the bottom.

This is Boreas by John Waterhouse, a Heaven and Earth Design Pattern. I have lost count how many times I have started this one. This one is for my husband.

This one I hope to finish and hang in my office at work. It is titled Hit Any Key by Randall Spangler, another Heaven and Earth Design pattern.

I finished the first page of 12 dancing princesses. HAED, I absolutely love these patterns. I have another one I will be starting called Mini Kathleen and Summer by Hannah Lynn HAED. This one struck a chord with me and I will be stitching it with my daughter in mind. I have two projects that I am fighting becoming UFOs, Moonlit Waters and a SODA pattern that I started as a match to the one I finished of my kids. MoonLit Waters I still love but I have been unmotivated to work on it. The other one I haven't worked in in months, so I dragged out yesterday and put in about 20 or so stitches before setting it aside.

And finally, the embroidered phoenix. An Anchor freestyle embroidery kit that my husband got me for Christmas two years ago. This works up quick. In fact I have most of the stump done and the first section of the tail feathers completed but apparently forgot to take an updated photo. It only took me a few days to do this.

On an non stitchy or craft topic I bought myself a 19" TV for my bedroom so I now have my own TV to watch while stitching. Much better than fighting for the living room. As a birthday gift my parents bought me plugin speakers for it and a bluray player with built in wifi so I have access to all my favorites like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu and YouTube. He speakers are amazing, makes the sound so much better than the TV. I think my setup is now the best in the house. Plus my kids can come sit on the bed and play board games while I stitch. Very cozy. 

Another birthday present to me was a trip alone to Phoenix to spend the weekend with my sister-in-law. It was wonderful. Full of laughs and stitching and shopping. I had my very first professional pedicure and I now know what the draw is. That was relaxing. I also made my first trip to the Attic Needlework shop in Mesa. I have wanted to go for about 2 years now and finally had the opportunity. Oh my! It exceeded my expectations. We ended up spending hours there and I could have stayed all day. In fact we ended up at the checkout counter 11 minutes after their closing time. We didn't realize how late it had gotten and they were kind enough not to remind us of their closing time. I will be going back with a large allowance. So many wonderful things to see and patterns to buy. I bought quite a few things but I didn't take pictures to share yet. Untill next time, let's hope it's not as long a wait.

One block done

I finished my first quilt block, hand pieced. I love how it came out. There is definitly room for improvement but already my running stitches/back stitches are more uniform and tiny. There is a lot of learnin being done in this block. Already I have cut the pieces for the next block and I have the half square triangles sewn together. If anyone is interested where I am getting these from and why some of my blocks are split when normally they would be a single large piece of fabric, I am using a book called Jelly Roll Samplers. All of the blocks in this quilt can be made using one jelly roll and then additional fabric for sashing, border and binding. I just this because I figured all of these little pieces will give me plenty of practice before I attempt the quilt of my dreams. I am still embroidering the blocks for Elora's quilt but I wanted to try my hand at patchwork and quilting now, and because I am impatient I chose to do this one now. Here is the completed block and also a picture of the layout to the next block. All ready to start sewing the blocks into rows then the rows together.

(Please ignore the paint spattered table peeking out from beneath)

Progress!

Just a quick picture to show my progress for today.

I can see areas for improvement but I really like how it is coming along. Not too shabby for my first time.

Quilting, take one

I took a leap yesterday and bought the fabric and supplies for my first quilt and today I started piecing my first block. Since I don't feel as comfortable using a sewing machine as much I do using a sewing needle I have decided to hand make this quilt. I am loving how this is working up and so far have only had to redo two seams. I haven't completely given up on the sewing machine but for now I am happy doing it this way.

Three hours in today I have all the pieces cut for my first block and six half square triangle sets sewn together.

Another stocking front done

Another stocking front completed. I was going to do the liners and backing a to all the completed fronts but I misplaced the font I wanted to use for the names so I am stuck untill I can reprint it. In the meantime I cut liners and backs for two of the stockings. I need to buy some more red felt to do this one. I completed 55of the pieces over the past two days. 

Here are some detail photos:

Tonight I organized my box for another kit. This one is for myself and I love the color palette. Here are the threads. 

PC dollhouse

It has been awhile since I posted here. I have been working on miniatures a lot lately so my other blog has had frequent updates, while this one has fallen silent. I am posting this on both though because I have gotten the hallway to the plastic canvas dollhouse sewn together, all except attachin the front door. I was going to do it last night but i couldn't find my grey yarn or understand the instructions. I glanced at them this morning and I must really have been tired because they were no longer gibberish.

The view through the front door, of course the door isn't attached yet.

And that is Elora's favorite part, the stairs. It is amazing how sturdy this feels once it is all sewn together. You can see the  pattern book under this with it's pages all a mess. I haven't been rough with the book but all the pages I have finished have fallen out. The rest of the book is still held together. I did buy it used and the glue felt a bit brittle so I think that has more to do with it than me being destructive.

In a way I feel guilty about this project. My son watches me working on this, knowing it is for his sister. He oohs and ahs along with her over each new part and is excited to see it come together. The guilt part comes in that I have nothing to make him. When this is finished and I give it to her I would like to have something I can give to him that I made just for him. Any suggestions out there? I thought maybe a plastic canvas car carry case but I can't seem to find a pattern for one that I like and think he'd like. The one I did find hangs on the wall but I want one he can carry around with him. Or maybe something not plastic canvas, I'm not sure..