Sea of Roses is......Finished!!!

Sea of Roses

Heaven and Earth Designs

stitched with 2 strands of DMC

Full crosses on 18 count Aida

Started January 20th, 2014, finished December 8th, 2016

Finished size: 8X10

My biggest goal this year was to finish this project....And!! I did it!!!
I was so happy to get it done.

So, I had made this my focus piece for most the year, so I could get it done this year. Now I am thinking I will bring Day Surrendering to Night back into my rotation, and try to get it done up soon-ish. So, now my focus piece will be Autumn Peace, since it's a gift for my mom, and I would like to give it to her for her birthday in April of 2018, my secondary piece will be DS2N, Then I will sprinkle my Christmas smalls in here and there, like I do, to break up the tediousness of full coverage stitching.

So, you will start seeing a lot more of Autumn Peace and Day Surrendering to night. I would like to finish DS2N in 2017, but I'm not counting on it, so if it doesn't happen, I won't be too disappointed. But, you never know what might happen!

Well, I'm off to go visit my family for Christmas. I am really excited about that! I am going to schedule a post to go up on the 30th, though so you will get to see what I've been working on, and also probably do an end of the year wrap up as well.

I hope all my readers have an amazing Christmas, and enjoy these last couple days of 2016! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments. I cherish them so much!


                       Merry Christmas!!

Autumn Peace....a page finish!!

I did it! I finished p. 3 and went back and started working on p. 1.
Here it is now:

Sorry, it's not the greatest picture. But, I was happy to get another page finish on this, and get started on p. 1. It's slow, but getting done.

Thank you all for reading, hope you have a great day!

Ornaments! Two finishes!!

I finished snowmen #'s 5 and 6. I've got a tiny start on #7, but didn't think I had enough progress to warrant a photo yet.

I've been busy so my stitch bug has taken flight, and not a whole lot of stitching has happened, but I took about a month away from this blog, so in a months time I guess more got done than I thought.

I have a fully finished object!!

I have been stitching for about 22 years now, and in all that time, I have never had a piece of my work hanging in my own home.

Well for my birthday (which was at the beginning of this month) I decided that it was high time for me to frame and hang one of my favorites.

Here is Howling at the Moon. I finished stitching in April of 2012, so it had been sitting in a drawer all this time, but now it is out and able to be enjoyed by me and all who enter my home. I love how it came out!!

Well, thank you for reading and if you are in America and celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving!! Have a safe and fun holiday!

Sea of Roses Progress

Last time I showed it:

Today:

I almost finished two whole columns! I REALLY want to try to finish this by my birthday, but, sadly, I just don't think it's gonna happen. But plug on I will, and see if I can at least get it done by Dec. 1st.  Wish me luck!

Thank you all for reading! Hope you have a great weekend! See yah in about 10 days!

Autumn Peace Progress

Last time I shared (sept.20):

As of Today:

I was able to get over a column and a half done between my last update, and now.  Just chugging along on this.

Well, my mom left yesterday.  We had a wonderful time, visiting. I'm a bit sad today that she's gone, but happy too, as I can spend more time stitching, and as most people know who have house guest, it can be a little stressful having someone invading your space. I'm a huge introvert, so having someone here talking and chatting and being in my space 24/7 kinda freaks me out. So, it's a bittersweet thing. I miss having her here, but I'm glad I'll be able to get back to stitching and my life.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I will probably be back in about 6 days with an update on Sea of Roses.

Thank you all for reading!

Ornie progress

He's looking pretty good! All that's left to do is to finish up the orange and yellow ornaments hanging off his sign on the right hand side, finish filling in the white, and finish up the backstitching.  I should have him done up pretty soon!

Well, Apple did an update for my iPhone, and I am no longer able to use blogger on my phone, which means I have to blog once again from my computer. Which means, I am thinking about cutting back on how many posts I put up a month, I have to take the picture with my phone, then e-mail it to myself, then get on the computer, download the pic onto my computer then, go to Blogger and then put the picture and my post to Blogger. It just seems like so much work! LOL (Talk about lazy!) I just am so used to using my iPhone for EVERYTHING that going on the PC just seems so inconvenient....I don't know!  I think I've been spoiled with my iPhone. So! If anyone has any tips for how to post to blogger from an iPhone 5 without the Blogger app, maybe you could point me in the right direction. (Another app, perhaps?)
One thing for sure....I am NOT giving up this blog! Even if I am not able to post as much as normal, I will do what I can!! I love blogging. I have met so many great people with my same passion for stitching here in blogland, and I can't just close up shop and throw it all away,
Well, I hope you're all having a great weekend! I am enjoying having my mom here, she got here Thursday and not much stitching has happened, but we are having lots of fun, just visiting, and hanging out.
Thank you for stopping by! 'Til next time, Joyful stitching to you all!

Sea of Roses- she's got a face!

So! First off this morning, can I just say: Did anyone see that Stanford VS. UCLA game last night?! I'm all about UCLA, and I'm still seething this morning!! We had it.... And then, well... We just... Didn't. UCLA was up 13-9, there was 2 1/2 minutes left on the clock, and Stanford showed up and final score was 22-13, Stanford's win!!!

Sigh...

Ok! But enough about that ! You're here for stitching!

So this is how she looked last time:

And I am really excited to show this picture  because for the first time in a long time I actually unfolded the entire piece, and this is how she looks:

Her entire face is completely finished!! Isn't she gorgeous?! I am SO close to finishing her!!  I'm guessing (hoping) that I can get her finished by my birthday. (Nov.10). That would be an amazing birthday gift to myself! So keep your fingers crossed for me!

My mom will be coming out to spend 2 weeks with my daughter and I. She arrives on Thursday evening. So not sure how much stitching or blog posting will get done while she's here. But I'll do what I can to keep yah updated.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. 

Autumn Peace Progress

Last time I posted (Sept. 5th)

Today:

It's coming along. Got another column finished. I'm really enjoying this project, still, and now that we're almost into Autumn, it's making me excited for the season to change. I've had enough of this sticky, hot , humid summer. I'm ready for fall!!!  Anyone else feel this way too? 

Thankyou all for reading, hope you all have a lovely week!

Christmas Ornaments Finish and some progress !

I was able to finish up this little snow dude:

I finished him on September 3rd, and now I'm working on this one:

He's holding up a sign that says Merry Christmas over his head and looking up at it. And as I say with all these ornaments, I think he's super cute!!

That's about it for now! Hope you all have a great weekend, thankyou for stopping by! Until next time: Joyful stitching to you all!

SOR progress

Last time I posted: 

Today:

I finished the column I was working on and moved onto the next. Slow going, but at least it's going!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Thankyou for stopping by!

Autumn Peace progress

Last time I shared (Aug. 20th):

Today:

And! I started doing minimal parking. It's ok. I think part of it makes it go faster, but I still have to work around all those threads and that's tedious. So, my mind isn't totally made up on this. I think it'd be easier if I worked on a frame, but I work in hand, so... Yeah.

Still really enjoying this piece.

I have (yet again!) made a change to my rotation. 

It was looking like this:

Autumn Peace- focus project (work on everyday)

Sea of Roses- secondary piece(work on 4 days a week)

Ornies work 3 days a week 

But! I am SO close to a finish on SOR, that I just want to focus on it and see if I can't get it finished by years end. So, I'm just gonna switch SOR and AP so SOR is my focus piece, and AP gets worked on 4 days a week. Then focus on AP, and then bring in a different WIP near the beginning of next year (probably Day Surrendering to Night, as I Love that one so much!)

I really want to get a finish this year, and I think I can do it! So we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!

As always, thankyou for dropping in and reading. I really appreciate it! 

Little faceless snowman dude....

Here's where I am with my latest ornie:

Just got to finish up back stitching and he'll be done!

Sea of Roses Progress

Last time I posted: (Aug.12)

Now:

It's hard to see it, but I worked a lot on her forehead, there's a very light peachy color there, and that's what I worked on. 

Here's a close up maybe you can see better:

I hated working with this light color, I can't wait to get further down into the corals, and reds and pinks of her hair, and more rose petals. 

That's it for now. 

Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy stitching!!

Autum Peace: Progress!

Last time I posted (Aug. 5th):

Today:

It's stitching up nicely! You can see the start of the trunk of the big tree. That was  (is) A boat load of black stitching!! Works for me! It goes fast, those huge chunks of the same color! 

I'm still really enjoying this piece so much! And I'm so excited to start seeing some of the branches and the trunk of the tree coming into play! 

Well I'm off to make some lunch. I think grilled cheese and tomato soup sounds so good today. So I'll make that and enjoy some CSI: Miami, then clean up lunch and stitch some more, either on this one, or my ornament. I've been on a big stitchy kick this past week, so I'm so happy about that. My stitchy bug bit me again!! Yay! 

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend! Thank you for dropping by! Also thank you for all the lovely comments you guys left with such kind words about my daughter starting kindergarten! She is really enjoying it! 

See yah again, in about 5 days! 

Ornament update

I started ornament #4 in this "Let it snow" series of snowmen. I'm late in posting because I really wanted to get a bit more progress on it so here he is:

He's wearing a little coat and hat and holding a sign that says "Let it snow". He's adorable and can't wait to have him finished up! I've still got quite a ways to go to get to that point. But he's a lot of fun to stitch, so I don't mind. 

Hope you're all having a great week! My daughter started kindergarten this week... She loves it! She comes home exhausted but happy everyday. So I'm Able to get a bit more stitching in lately with her gone for 7 hours a day.  

Thank you for stopping in! See yah again soon! 

Sea of Roses Progress

Last time I posted (July 27):

Now:

Still very little progress. I haven't been wanting to work on this much, I don't know why. I love this project, I just never seem to reach for it on its days of my rotation. I seem to just want to put all my time into Autumn Peace. Oh well, there's a little progress and a little is better than none! 

Thank you for stopping by, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Autumn Peace Progress

Last time I posted:

Where I got in the past 6 days or so:

I'm almost done with the first column. It's really only a partial column. If you can see where my needle is parked on the top  that's the beginning of the new page. 

Also! I think I've decided to crop this design and not stitch the whole thing. It's SO big (15 pages, over 75,000 stitches) and because I want this to be a gift for my mom, I want to finish it as quickly as I can. 

So here's the original picture:

Here's what I will be stitching:

So I've just chopped off the ends of both sides. I still think it's pretty, but less time consuming.  So! It's kind of a good thing now looking back, that I messed up and had to start on p. 2, because I'll be cutting off most of 1 anyway.  So it all works out! 

Thankyou for stopping by! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! See yah in about 5 days with an update on Sea of Roses. 

Conehead has a face!

It's a cute one too! 

I JUST finished it!! I think it's super cute!! 

Faceless Conehead...

SO close to a finish!! I really should have it done already, but I've been chasing that elusive stitchy bug all over the place....haven't caught him yet!! But it's close! I can tell!   Hope you're having s great weekend! 

Oh here's how he looked last time I posted:

Mini Happy Dance!!

I finished my first page of Autumn Peace!!! 

5,616 stitches done!!!! It only took me 2 months!! Approximately 50 hours!!! Wow!! Now I've only got 56,384 more stitches to go! And about 700 more hours!!! Lol. 

Wow!! When I put it that way it seems like it's gonna take me the rest of my life to get it done!! Next page I'm gonna TRY to get it done in less than 2 months! Good luck to me!! 

Thank you all for reading! Hope you have a great weekend, I'll be back tomorrow with an update on my ornament.

Sea of Roses Progress

Last time I posted (July 5th):

Today:

So! I was able to get some good progress in on it this time around. It could be better, but it's not bad. 

Thank you for reading!! 

Autum Peace update

Last time I showed it (June 21st)

Today (a month later):

I am SO close to a finish on this page!! Probably just a few more hours to go and I'll have my first page finish for this project. I can't believe it's taken over a month and a half! But! The ole' stitchy bug just was on summer vacation I guess! But I'm back at it, and I'm sure the next time I post an update on this I will have a page finish. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope the rest of your week goes well! 

"Let it Snow" ornament #3 progress

Here is the ornament I'm currently working on. It's an adorable snowman wearing  a tall, pointy hat.

So sorry I've not been around so consistently. My hubby deployed again last week, so been dealing with that. 

I always tend to go in a funk for awhile right around the time he leaves. 

So, I've been zoning out in front of Netflix for a lot of the day, not really able to focus well on hobbies. I'll get there though. 

Thank you for your patience as I try to get it together. 

SOR a tiny bit of progress

The last time I posted:

Now:

I have it all rolled up but you can see the page break at 4 and 5 and the TINY little bit I've stitched in the upper left hand corner. That's just about 200 stitches!  So not a lot, I felt like I wanted to post today since I haven't for so long. I just feel like I didn't have enough progress to share. 

I thought maybe my stitchy bug was gonna play nice again, as between the first 2 days of July I stitched for almost 5 hours, but then the third day came and I only got half an hour in, and yesterday I never pulled anything out. Which, it being a holiday, is not surprising, but still...

I hope all my American readers had a great Independence Day weekend. Ours was a lot of fun!  

I will be back in 5 days to share progress on my ornaments. 

Thank you all for reading! See yah soon! 

Autumn peace more progress!

Last time I posted:

Now:

So! I've finished half of page 4, now onto the bottom half! I really wanted to finish this page this month, but that's not gonna happen, I'm sure. But oh well! My stitchy bug just has been so elusive lately. So... Anyway.

But I have decided to work in a rotation once again. Stitching on Autumn Peace, Sea of Roses, and ornaments. Autumn Peace will get an hour everyday. SOR will get 4 hours a week and ornies 3 hours a week. That way they are all moving forward. I hate thinking that any of them are just sitting, and not getting any progress on them at all while I'm finishing a whole page of a project before moving on. That also means there will be more to see on my blog, not just the same piece over and over for weeks. Change of scenery so to speak!  

Also! Is it just me, or is that brown splotch actually starting to look like trees? Like the dark branches, and areas of sunlight peaking through the leaves? I'm starting to see it, but maybe it's just me! 

Hope you have a great week! Thank you for stopping by!

Slow, but steady...Autumn Peace Progress

Last time I shared on Saturday:

Today:

I was able to finish column 4, and move onto five, so there's some progress. I hate that you can't tell what this picture even is! Just a big brown blob. 

I'm still enjoying this, my stitchy bug is still hit or miss, but I try to push through and stitch even on the days I really don't feel like it. I really would like to finish this page by the end of the month. We will see about that.

Hope you're all having a lovely week! Until next time- Happy stitching!

Autumn Peace Do- over!

Thank you everyone who commented with good advice on what to do with this project. So! What I decided to do was I started page two on 18 count off white Aida.  I am really enjoying working on this now! This is a little over 1200 stitches, I believe. 

Although I am truly enjoying working on this, I must admit I seem to have lost my stitchy bug, sooooo... I would really liked to have been so much further along with this but it's slow going. Not because the stitching is slow, when I work on it, it works up quickly, I just haven't been wanting to stitch much lately.  But every stitch is progress, so I keep chugging along, slow and steady.

Hope you all have a great stitch filled weekend! 

I did it!!

Page 4 of Sea of Roses is finished! So I've stitched 22,986 stitches and I have 9,519 more to go!! One more full page (7,315 stitches) and then 5 very partial pages. 

Now I will be bringing out Autumn Peace, the project I'm stitching for my mom. But I have a dilemma. 

I am currently working it on 22 count hardanger fabric two over one in tent stitch. I HATE the fabric! It's stiff and sometimes the stitches slip under the threads of the fabric, which I hate. 

I've been playing with the idea of just starting over on a piece of my beloved 18 count, but! I would need to recopy page one of the pattern for my working copy, and I'm out of ink in my printer. Grrrr.... So I don't know if I should just press on with the dreaded 22 count crapfabric which since it is 15 pages of full coverage that is A LONG time to put up with crappy fabric. And knowing me, if I'm not comfortable with what I'm stitching, I won't work on it.  What should I do? Please leave me any tips in my comments please! 

I hope those in the states are enjoying their long Memorial Day weekend. Which sounds dumb, considering this is a time of remembering and reflecting on those who died in service to my country. How do you "enjoy" that? It's sad... 

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who paid the ultimate price, and a heart of thanks is lifted to those who gave their lives.

Thank you for reading.