Wow! On a roll! Patchwork Bears- FINISHED!!

"Patchwork Bears"

Designed by: Michele Johnson

Stitched on 16 count white aida

Started late 2005 (unsure of exact date)

Completed: April 19,2012

ANOTHER finish!!!?!?!?! Wow! I really love this one!! I love the colors! This one I am gonna frame and put in Alyssa's room. Sorry for the bit of a shadow in the lower left hand corner...I didn't notice it before.

And! The results of all your lovely votes on my posts asking for help on what to fill in my rotation with is.......The Abby!!!! I decided that I need to just get that one done with! It is also on my WIP challenge for the year so if I finish it then I can cross another one off that list! I have had 2 crossed off that list just this week! It's weird how at times you feel like you stitch and stitch and get no where then all of a sudden everything is getting finished!

Now I just gotta figure out what to put in it's place in my rotation...any thoughts? I decided to Fill "The Howlings" spot with Another WIP (The Abby) So don't I deserve a new start for the finish of this second one? I'm thinking the "Sweet Re-tweets",(birdhouses) they are smallish and have been in my stash for quite awhile. Thoughts please!!

Been stitching Beary Much!

I have really been working alot on these little bears!! A finish is so close!! Gosh I think I will have two pretty large finishes here very soon! This one and Howling at the Moon are neck-n-neck in the race to happy dances!! At this rate I will be happy dancing for a week! LOL...I am completely finished with the x's on the little bear, just have to back stitch him, and then all I have left is to finish Papa bear and Wa-la! Watch this space!!!

This weekend will be very busy as we have the March of dimes walk Saturday Morning then our p90 work out (Which we are on day 4 of, and it's going GREAT!), then lunch and then making dinner for our friends who lost their son in a tragic accident last month, who will be returning to the island after being in the States for the burial and such for the past 40 days. And we will be going to the Airport to pick them up in the evening as well. And! This weekend is my SAL weekend on Coming Home for the Holidays with Julie. So, a BUSY weekend is glaring me in the face!! And then of course the following weekend is Easter and we also get to go view our family portraits that we had done on the 20th of March so another pretty busy weekend!!! Wow! But I will try to keep needle to fabbie and stitch as much as possible.

I think in my next post I will ask your opinion on a new purchase, as I would like to reward myself with some new stash for finishing Howling at the Moon, and also ask your opinion about what I should work on next! So lots of stuff coming up here! Thank you to everyone who stops by to say hello and those silent lurkers as well! I appreciate every hit I get and especially all the lovely comments!!!

Have a great weekend! Joyful stitching!!!

IIIIII'm Baaaaack!!!

Hello all! I am back and I have progress to share!!! Go figure, been gone 5 weeks and I have progress? Who knew? Eh, anyone as addicted to the needle as I am you all should know that even though I may not have the time to blog, I am still gonna find time to stitch! So here is my progress on Patchwork bears!

Ok so I was gonna crop it and make it pretty, but I forgot! OOOps! I have completely finished the border, and worked quite a bit on the bears! I definitely see a finish on this one soon! Much sooner than I'd originally anticipated! (Which was June 1st)

I also have a little progress to show on "Howling at the Moon", but it's not much since I spent most my stitching time on this one. So I will work on Howling a bit this weekend and show progress on Monday! I am setting a goal to finish Howling by May 1st! We shall see!! Thank you to my new followers! And I will see yah Monday...have a great weekend!

Gosh it feels great to be back!

(Scroll down about three posts to see my last photo of this one if you wanna see how much progress has actually been done! )

Progress on SAL and Bears

For the most part I have only had time to work on Patchwork Teddy's here lately, a little bit when the baby goes down for her nap, we have been pretty busy lately. And my mom gets here tomorrow night, which I am really excited for, but I probably won't be back here for about 5 weeks! (That's how long she'll be visiting!) and I probably won't have much stitching to show then! But we plan on going on a few day trips around the island so I will have stuff to share, but probably not stitching stuff.

Here is my progress on Coming Home for the Holidays...it's coming along slowly, and I realized we have a big counting mess up which we need to figure out how to fix, but that is way over on the right hand side, so I'll get there eventually, right now I'm pretending it doesn't exist, and just working on the left hand side!
Other than that, Alyssa seems to be taking up the majority of my time, lately. She will be turning 1 in less than 2 weeks, so she is in that needy "I want mommy by my side all the time" stage. So when she's awake I am usually hanging out with her. Which cuts into my stitching and reading BIG time. I am trying to be good and stay off the computer for the most part, but that doesn't seem to be working, I still go on frequently...UGH! I need like 5 more hours in a day! Oh well.

Well, friends, I will sign off here and see yah soon...or in 5 weeks! Happy Stitching!

Patchwork Bears progress!

Here is my progress on this one! I apologize for the "foggy" look in the center, my daughter got ahold of my camera and slobbered on it! LOL, then it dried on the lens, and hence the fogginess! But it didn't fog up the area where I've been working, the border on the left hand side!

Sorry for the late post...I know, you probably didn't even know this was a late post, but I am trying to keep myself to posting every Monday and Thursday, except the first week of the month when I will post Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, because that is my SAL weekend with Jules and so will use Monday's post to share my progress on THAT project! =) We'll see, maybe I will just replace my normal Monday post with my SAL project instead...

Well I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I will share my SAL progress tomorrow!!! It's coming along slowly!

Patchwork Bears- My "New" old WIP...

This is the project that I was talking about that will take place of my Christmas cards that will be for Alyssa you can find the rest of progress from this project here.

I am really hoping to finish this one in 2012, as it has been a WIP/UFO for waaaay tooo long! And now I have a wonderful person to give this to, so why not finish it?

Although I have been toying with the idea of working Christmas smalls all during the year next year, but then would I have time to put into larger more detailed pieces like I want? We shall see. I never know what will happen when it comes to my stitching! I just never know what will fit my fancy at any given time!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and a glorious New Year! See yah for lots more stitching in 2012!!!

Progress Photo Friday

This is a really bad photo/scan. But at least it shows all that I worked on since my last photo. I wrote the last time that I wanted to have lots of backstitching done, and I think I succeeded! i love how the backstitching in this piece really makes the colors stand out! Well, two things did not happen this week: 1) I didn't work on dad's train, and 2)didn't finish my March freebie! or start April for that matter either.
ps, Hazel: I am so glad you were able to find those freebies. She actually has quite a few I'd want to do, I want to do the others there too, the Alphabet ones and the squared month ones with the checkered backgrounds. But we shall see! And I am just converting to DMC with mine, because I don't have the called for fibers! I have changed a few colors here and there to make them a little different as well.

Well, this past weekend was nuts! On Friday we were on Tornado watch, Saturday dawned bright,clear and beautfiul, and Sunday also. I guess it is that time of year.



Well, I have been really bad about posting lately. I always mean to, but then I just read other's blogs and log out. Anyway, I do have some progress photos, of Dolphins and Teddies.









I don't even know if you can tell from the last post where I worked on this, I did some fill in here and there, tried to finish up the big pink ballon and fill in some of the patches. Like the yellow patch with the blue and orange triangles I finished filling in the orange, really not a lot just a little bit here and a little bit there. I want to try to get to the point here soon where I can seriously start backstitching the top part of the boarder and maybe start backstitch on the balloons. So hopefully next time I share a photo, there will be some serious backstitching done. We shall see. Next is Dolphins:



I have put some of the darker grey into the dolphin on top and the one on the left side. You'd think that with the big dolphin to the right being so close to being done that I'd spend all my time on it, but no, I don't know why, but I moved on to the others. I am itching to start working in some of the blues of the water, but I get going on the dolphins and I keep thinking, so close to seeing a whole dolphin, just keep stitching! So, I do, and they are getting there, again slow but steady. I really need to put these two away and pull out Snow Valley Express, as my dad's birthday is a month and a half away...whatyou wanna bet it isn't finished in time?

Stitching Away in Grey

Well, I have been stitching...and here is a photo of Dolphin's Paradise. This is a project I started in my college days, right aroung the time I started Holiday airing. I have almost one whole dolphin finished! I think this project is coming along pretty quickly, just get tired of working with all those greys!

I have not worked on Patchwork Teddies for a while, at least this whole week, but I didn't share a progress photo of it either the last time. I completely finished the upper right hand corner patch and started some of the backstitching! I have been a very lazy blogger lately. I haven't wanted to post photos, or even write at all. And I have no excuse, except for my reading, which is "getting in the way" of my stitching time LOL.

Yesterday, the weather was so awesome, that I actually laid out and suntanned for a bit, got a tiny bit of a sunburn. Today it is sorta sunny but it is really windy, so no tanning for me. Plus, today is Weds, and that means rolling newspaper day. I have them done and am just now relaxing for a bit. I have really been int he mood to do some cookie baking, I have been wanting cookies. and i think I am gonna go hog wild tomororw and make batches of chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter, maybe even peanut butter/oatmeal/ chocolate chip...and maybe sugar cookies too. I make cookies but they don't stick around for long, and this time I want to have plenty for me to meet my cookie cravings. Pretty soon that will really happen, as we ordered a case (Yes, that is 12 boxes!) of girl scout cookies from my nieces. My mouth has been watering for those thin mints, and shortbread cookies, and peanut butter sandwich cookies so I thought if I made some cookies to tide me over until they get here then I will be alright. I couldn't justify going out and BUYING them from the store, since we have already invested over 40$ in cookies already, but as long as I already have the ingredients here, why not? Well, I am off to relax for a bit before DH comes home and we have to go out and throw all these stinkin' papers to unsuspecting victims who think we are littering on their lawns!

Happy Sunday!

Well, it is a cool windy cloudy day out there today. At least we arent' having snow like some others I have been reading in their blogs. Yesterday I pulled out a project that hasn't seen the light of day in about 3 months..."Patchwork Teddy's". I love the colors int his one. And I am really enjoying working on it, but I realized that this is really not my type of project anymore. I used to be really into cutesy things, but lately, I am not. So, I guess this one will be tucked away into a drawer until me and DH start our family. I am sure it will look nice in a baby's nursery. but I will continue to work on it because I am enjoying it so much! I was looking at it today and in reality, I am really hoping I have enough fabric to finish the thing. I started this back when I was a new stitcher, and measuring fabbie wasn't a highlight so I would in my excitement to get started grab any old piece of fabric that looked big enough and get started on it! (I have since realized the importance of measuring before digging in with the stitching) but we shall see. I am really hoping it just looks off, and really isn't. Well, I am off to pop a DVD into the player and sit and stitch my Sunday away.

Sampler and Patchwork bears

Here they are! progress pictures of Patchwork Bears, and one you haven't seen for a long time, one I haven't even seen for a long time: Love, joy home. I worked on this one mostly yesterday. I think if I were to work on it soley for two or three weeks, I would have a happy dance, But I doubt that will happen. So, I am going to put a dead line of Oct 1st for it. My goal is to be finished with it by oct 1st. so, we shall see if I can do it! You know the one that seems to be nagging me the most right now, and it is totally off season, but it is my Easter bellpull. I could probably have it done in a few hours if I would just sit and work on it, but I have not, for a long time, and I should. Maybe that should be a primary goal for right now, to have that done by next Friday, Love Joy Home done by Oct. 1st, the top half of Patchwork Bears done by Nov. 1st, and my father's Snow Valley Express done by Dec. 10th. We shall see if I can actually do this! Yay! I have set stitching goals, maybe this will keep me on track. Wish me luck!

Here it is!

So, here you have it, my progress as of yesterday before I put 3 hours of progress in on it. It is coming along, slowly but I think I got my stitching thing back! I had lost it, it went out the window-whoosh! But it is back. Today I worked on Snow Valley Express, Not too much just about two or three lengths of floss, though, nothing to write home about. Maybe tomorrow I will work some more on Patchwork Bears or SVE and post another picture. Thank you Von for your comment!

Well, it didn't nag quite loud enough!

As you can probably tell, Snow Valley Express has not captured my attention as of yet, however, I am still working on Patchwork Bears, here's my progress in the past few days, so far. I had a really hard time getting into this one when I first started it, but now I just keep stitching along on it, and I think it is starting to look really good, I just can't wait to get some of the backstitching in, I think like some of the Micheal Powell pieces, it is the black backstitching that really makes the piece pop, you know? Although this piece is already VERY colorful.
Maybe on eof these days I will actually get awayf rom this piece and move onto something else. One day. I actually have had thoughts of starting something new, but then I also have some fall pieces I want to work on as well, But for now this piece has captured my undivided attention, and that is just fine with me, I need to work on Snow Valley though, maybe I will work on it for an hour today and reward myself with some Patchowrk bear stitching after that. hmmm...? the reward system! Yes! That is what I think I need to do!

finally a stitching update.

Well, as of late my obsession has been with Patchwork Bears. So, here is a progress photo of them. As you can see I have worked a bit more on them. They seem to be going quite slow. I can't wait until I can get more fill in on it so I can actually start some of the back stitching. Right now it just looks like blobs of random color spalshed about, but hopefully soon it will resemble something. I am enjoying the colors in this one quite a bit. Sorry about the lack of posting lately. For some reason, it seems like it is hard to get to blogging, and other reasons include my lack of stitching lately. However, this week I have made myself read other blogs, and you know how inspiring that can be! To see other people's WIP's and finishes, can be quite enabling, so I found that I couldn't keep from picking up my needle as well.
I am anxiously awaiting my DH's return, less than a month now! yippeee! So, I have been keeping busy with getting the house in some sort of order before he arrives. it's amazing how sloppy I have gotten, since he hasn't been here. Anyway, I just wanted to share this progress not much else is going on right now. Just waiting....

Photos! Well, photo.

Well, I have been trying to get into a rotation. Because everyday I have been trying to get at least two hours of stitching in while I watch my day time T.V shows, and Today was Patchwork Bears day, and here is my progress. I was aiming to complete the entire left side of the border, however, I keep skipping around, because when i am done with one color thread in one section and if I have some left over I look around the chart to see if that tail end of thread might be used elsewhere, so then I fill in some more other areas. But as you can see, it is coming along. tomorrow is Friday and I believe it is "Dare to Dream" day. which is one I worked on along time ago, in a land far far away, ok, maybe not that far away, but the last time I worked on it was in 2005, I think, like the end of last year. So, I will pull that one out of the drawer and put some work into it.
Right now, my rotation looks like this:

Mon- November Quilt
Tues- The Abbey
Wed- Snow Valley Express
Thurs- Patchwork Bears
Fri- Dare to Dream
Sat- Dolphins Domain
Sun- November Quilt

So as you can see November Quilt has two slots as it is my primary focus project. And as soon as it is done, which shouldn't be too long now, ( I know I probably just jinxed myself, by saying that) then I will put Snow Valley Express up as the primary focus piece. Because lets see? November Quilt was supposed to be my mother's b-day gift, and it was due April 23rd, (a month ago), and Snow Valley express was to be for my father who's b-day was May 14th, (11 days ago) Neither one is complete, Snow Valley is in worse shape. So, anyway, I am going to try to post more piccies of my daily progress. I just feel funny always showing the same piece over and over again, and so I thought by doing it this way I will actually be able to mix it up a bit. Alrighty, I am off to go outside and enjoy some sunshine. bye!

Pictures, updates.

Here is Patchwork bears. And I did scan one of Nov. Quilt, but it looks the same from last time, so I didn't post it. anyway, as you can see, I have been putting a bit of time into this piece, I am going to try to finish up the left hand part of the border this weekend. As you can tell, I have been really scattered with this one. just a stitch here and there, and yet it seems to be getting done, though. Not much else to write about. I think I will settle in with Nov. quilt for the afternoon, before I have to head off to work.