A late update on Ornies- A big finish and a new start!

Well, I did it! I finished The second series of "Tiny Christmas Ornaments" in the book of Ornaments I am working on. These little guys were so fun to work on! They took me awhile, but they came out adorable, I think. So that was a finish! 

 A little bit of a close up on #'s 1-6:

 A little bit of a close up on 3's 7-12:

 And now I am working on the next set of 12.  I made a start on the first one in the series! The pattern is so easy to follow, and yet, somehow, I ended up having to frog and restitch TWICE now! I love the colors, they are so bright. This series has 12 in it, and they are full size ornaments (About twice as big as the little ones I just finished)  So I'm guessing they will be taking me awhile to get done. Which is good, because I only had enough fabric to cut for 5 of them. I am so glad to be returning to the States soon, I seem to be running out of materials quickly, here lately! I am desperately afraid that I will run out of stuff to stitch while I'm enroute. So, I am hoping between these ornaments, The Abbey, Snow Valley Express, and a new one I just kitted up, that I will be kept occupied during the move, until my stash shows up!! And I will be a nervous wreck until it does! Kinda feel the same way about my books as well. I have a huge library of books, both that have been read and have not been read. Ugh, the stresses of a move!!! So annoying!

Ok, off to get my work out in and maybe sit down and stitch a bit today, didn't get much in yesterday, so....hoping today will be better!

Joyful Stitching!  Thank you for reading!

Christmas Ornaments....On Easter?!

Well, I must be really mixed up! Or just really LOOOOVE Christmas! I stitched Christmas Cards on Halloween last year and this year I'm posting these guys:

 On Easter!!! Yup, that's how we roll here at the Joyful Stitcher! So, here is my progress I was able to finish #10, there in the lower left hand corner and get really GOOD starts on #'s 11 and 12! I can't believe this series is just about done, then it's onto the next!!! Which are about twice as large as these little guys so they should take me even longer! Woo hoo!

I have been realizing JUST how long it takes me to stitch ANYTHING anymore. It seems like FOREVER! Case in point: I have been stitching on page 8 of The Abbey since OCTOBER!!! That's nearly SIX MONTHS!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!? Ok, some of you out there, you all need to not be so greedy and either send me some of those turbo needles ya all seem to have, or at least tell me where to get 'em!  I swear, some times I think "If I were goin' any slower, I'd be froggin' this stuff not puttin' stitches in!"  It's crazy!!!  So, I have decided for the month of April to really try to focus and get alot more stitching done! I think I say that every month! But I really mean it this time! I do!! Honest! 

Well, I'm off to enjoy a rainy stormy Easter! Yesterday was beautiful out!!! Gorgeous blue skies as far as the eye could see. Today? When children want to run and play in parks and find Easter eggs and have picnics? Rainy with thunderstorms!  Oh well, it works for me! I can sit in and stitch! 

Happy Easter everyone! 

2 new finishes and 3 new starts!

Well, these past 5 days my needles have been smokin'!!! I finished all the x stitches in ornies #'s 8 and 9, did all the back stitching  AND got Great starts in on #'s 10-12!  I don't remember when I've done so much stitching!!! Well, this has started off as a great month with the stitching! I got alot in on The Abbey in my last post as well.

Starting tomorrow is my next round with Snow Valley Express, and I am hoping to,again get alot of progress in! I love feeling productive!!!

Ornies-A finish and a start

Well, I was able to finish Ornie #7 and start on #9, and put some work into #8, so I feel pretty accomplished on this round!

I like this project, but am getting a little tired of this particular set, I'm ready to move onto the next set in the book!

Not too much stitching going on, I am still on a huge reading kick! This year I cut back my reading goal from 75 books to 60, but I am already on #15 for the year! I probably could have stuck with the 75 book challenge, oh well. I don't know why. I tell myself I need to pick up my stitching, and instead I end up with my nose in a book! I'm hoping to concentrate more on stitching next month, since I am so far ahead in my reading, I can start to slow down and focus more on some other hobbies!  We'll see how that works out!

Tiny critters are coming along!

I am really enjoying these little Ornaments! Such easy finishes!! I don't know why I decided to do them all on one piece of Fabric, but I did.  I have now finished 6 and started 2 more! I am over half way finished with this series! My goal for this month on this one is to finish #'s 6-8, I finished #6, and I think I will be able to get #'s 7 and 8 finished. 

But for now this one will be set aside and I will move onto the next project in my rotation-Snow valley Express! Yup, the dreaded train! Lets hope I get more done on it that I did last month!

Joyful stitching all!

A tiny finish and a tiny start...

First here are my Tiny Christmas Critters Ornaments! I love these little guys! They are so much fun to stitch! I've finished #'s 1-3, and have a small start on #4.

 Here is #3 all by herself. I just finished her this morning! Look at her little sunglasses! That was my doing....a little deviation from the original pattern, because as I was backstitching, when I backstitched the eyes they just looked wrong! Just huge black spots! Like a zombie cow! So I added a few more backstitches to make it look like she is sportin' shades. Not sure I really love it this way, but I like it ALOT better than zombie cow!  Now if I could just change the wreath to look more colorful she could be an Hawaiian cow sportin' a lei of flowers!

So this series is just stitching up pretty quickly!

I am about ready to go settle down with a hot cup of tea and work on #4 some more, I really need it! I need to just relax....today has been....ugh, just one of those days! The child decided to act 2 years old (if you know what I mean!) I was "scheduled" for a 3-day in a row- walk in blood pressure monitoring , today being day two, only to get there and find that the clinic was closed, so now I think I have to start over on day one again next Tuesday! (It won't be open Monday for MLKing day!) and I finally got my child to lay down and nap and the neighbors kids are outside screaming like the end of the world is coming! SOOOOO loud, and woke her up, and now she is finally settled down again.

So, off to pour another cup of decaf tea, and try to stitch in some more white of the polar bear that I am working on!
I hope you are having a lovely stitchy day! And that it has been a better day than mine has been so far!

Happy stitching!

A new start, and a New Years Goal!

First up I want to share my "New Year's Goal"  This project ("Snow Valley Express") is one I started for my dad in Dec of 2004, as you can see, now over 8 years later, it's STILL not finished!  I will be returning to my parents house this summer and I would like to have it finished by the time we get there, so I can give it to him. It has sat in my UFO drawer for long enough, my dad loves trains, and it is time for this to be framed and grace the walls of his "computer room" at home, to go with his collection of other trains! 

And here is the New start on the next collection of Christmas Ornaments. As you can see I have finished one, and am working on 2 others. There are 12 in this series, just like the Tiny stockings, but this time I have decided to stitch them all on one piece of cream colored fabric!  So these are my "Tiny Christmas Critters" series!  We'll see how long it takes me to finish these guys! It took near to 4 months for me to finish the Tiny stockings, so I'm hoping to get a finish on these guys in alot less time! We shall see.

I hope you all had a lovely New Years and Christmas! Here's to lots of stitching, health and happiness in 2013!!!