Totally Useless......

That's right....it is TUSAL time!  

My October-themed TUSAL jar:

Not too shabby if I say so myself!   I feel like I've been productive!


In other news.... I've been stressing out over my WIPs!   I keep starting new pieces and new SALs.....so my original rotation plans are shot.  A few of the new stitch-a-longs that I'm in run by time versus finishing a page (which I'm used to), so I've taken a shot at coming up with a plan that fits both timed stitching and finishing pages.  I think WIP planning is tougher than rocket science!!

I've also decided to put a few pieces on hold, which you'll see on my On Hold tab.   Once I get caught up on some other items, I'll put these back into rotation (I think!).
I've posted my updated plans in the right side bar (I left what I've finished so far this year and will delete those once 2012 is over). 


Now, I know I mentioned some new pieces I've started.....here's some pics!

QS Seasons 2 - I met a wonderful stitcher, Michelle, on the HAED FB Groups and she RAKd this chart to me a few months ago.  We decided it would be fun to stitch it together as a SAL, which we work on the first week of each month.   Here's my progress from our first week, in October:

Also, I purchased my first hand-dyed fabric from Silkweavers a bit ago, and once I recieved them I just had to get some floss in one of them!   I started QS Dream of Dahlia and here is my progress after 1 day:

I'll take a better picture for her next update...so you can see the gorgeous fabric better!


-lesli

September WIPocalypse

I'm a little late...but hey...that's the story of my life! :)


Thanks to everyone that wished me well during this darn cold....and yes...I still have it!   At this point I may be going for the World Record for longest cold, or possibly the most nose blowing!

Some quick pics of my WIPocalypse progress this past month  (I say quick, but after I loaded them all I was pleasantly surprised by how much progress I made these last 30 days!):


Lanterns Before:

and After:

Blue Moon Before:

and After:

Blue Butterly Before:

and After:

Moonlight Immersion Before:

and After:

Around the World Before:

and After:

Looking forward to checking out everyone's progress as well!



-lesli

July WIPocalypse

First off...I'd like to thank everyone that replied to my last post!  I've been so behind I haven't had a chance to respond to everyone.   I had a wonderful business trip to Charlotte....but I got ZERO stitching done (not a big surprise though, right?)  

My big project at work is picking up pace and I've been busy busy busy....so my blog posts will probably slow down a bit  :(    I'm still trying to get a little stitching in every day, but nothing like I've been used to!!

Anyway.....my WIPocalypse update....

I have a HAED piece I'm working on for a dear friend of mine, but she visits my blog so I'm not posting any pictures.  I'm currently about half way done, hoping to finish it before the next WIPocalypse update!  

Other than that WIP, here are my other updates (with a before and after pic)!

Moonlight Immersion

Before:

After:

Blue Moon

Before:

After:

Butterfly

Before:

After:

Around the World

Before:

After

Hoping to get a little bit of time today to catch up on blogs.....I feel horrible not getting to keep up on everyone's progress like I have been!   Looking forward to my work project slowing down...though that probably won't be for a few months.  :(

Hope everyone had a wonderful and save 4th of July!   Happy Summer stitching everyone!!


-lesli

June IHSW and TUSAL

A quick post before I take off to catch a plane to NC.  :)

My June IHSW from this weekend.

Before:

After the weekend:

I was able to get page 1 done on Moonlight!   Tent stitching really is quick!

And since I'll be traveling all this week, I figured I'd post an early TUSAL for June also:

I snapped a quick picture while I was packing up my toiletries...so this is on the edge of our tub, with my daughter's Hello Kitty bubble bath dispenser!


I'll be gone all week to Charlotte for business...but I'm taking some stitching in the hopes that I have some "me time" in the hotel at night!

Hope everyone has a great week....can't wait to come back and catch up on blogs!



-lesli

May IHSW & TUSAL and other updates

I'm such a slacker!  It has been over 2 weeks since my last post!   I've been busy with work and having to travel, as well as family stuff going on.   I have so much to update on, but I'll really try to keep it short and simple  :)

Here is my May Hermitting update:

I worked on two new pieces over the weekend, one was Moonlight Immersion.  This is my first attempt with 28 count, using tent stitches.  I've been wanting to try all the different ways people work their HAEDs, so here's on of them!

Here is the before the weekend pic:

And my after shot:

I also started working on QS Blue Butterly by HAED this weekend.  A good friend of mine chose this chart as her first HAED and I thought it would be fun to stitch together, to keep her motivated and help her through getting adjusted to HAEDs

My progress from the weekend:

I also did some gridding for other new starts, but I didn't take any pictures of those...kinda boring! :)

In other news.......

My QS Motherhood by HAED came back from the framers....I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out!

The piece itself has some light hues of purple floss used in it...so the purple matting really brings that out.

The outer matting is a linen fabric, which I thought looked great with the stitching.  Here's a close up, you can sort of see it:

I sat down and updated my rotation/task list (located on my right sidebar).  The list is long, and I'll probably change it as I go...but my mind needed to lay out all my current goals.  I'll be working on two pieces just a few hours per week (SK Blue Moon and QS Blue Butterfly) as those are stitch alongs and then I'll be working my other pieces a page at a time. 

Eventually I'll need to add in the SAL from Papillon....Around the World in 80 Stitches, but I'm still waiting on my fabric to get here <sigh>.
I've also listed a "secret stitch" in there....this is something I am stitching as a gift and the recipient sometimes checks my blog...so just to be safe I won't post pictures until it is finished and given.

I was also asked to do a review of one of Yiota's Cross Stitch charts....and it just arrived...so I'll be woking on that this week!

Finally....I just wanted to share how proud I am of my son Sebastian.  Over the past few weeks he tested for his Blue Belt in Karate (Tang Soo Do).  This was a big deal for him, because this is the belt where he had to test and pass on EVERYTHING he's ever learned since he started.  It is also the belt just before Junior Blackbelt. 

HE PASSED! :)  He worked so hard to remember everything and do everything correctly, over the past 3 months....for a 10 year old, that can be asking a lot!  I'm a proud momma!



(edited to add my TUSAL)
After typing this up and posting it, I realized it was also TUSAL time!  <another sigh>  I'm so behind!

I took a quick snapshot of my monthly TUSAL jar and the big vase I'm using to gather everything for the year.  Pardon the Tony Hawk skate toys...my son took over my dining room table!





Whew! Sorry for the long post!   Have a great week!


-lesli