WIPoca-LATE

Why yes, I am posting my October WIPocalypse update in November!   What's the saying...better late than never!?


Before I post all my progress I wanted to share a beautiful little design I started recently from By the Bay Needleart.   They started a Fall Mystery SAL at the beginning of October, which came in 4 parts.

Here is my progress on parts 1 and 2:

All of the floss is from Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe (except the white) and the fabric came from a multi-pack/grab bag from www.dovestitch.com

This has stitched up quickly, so I hope to find little bits of time here and there and finish it before the year ends.


Now, onto my lateness.......  My WIPocalypse update!

Cathedral Before: 

Cathedral Now:

New Starts for October:

QS Seasons 2:

QS Dream of Dahlia:

Middle Earth Large:

I can't believe it's already November!!   I have so much to do to get ready for the holidays  :( 

I hope everyone out there is safe from Sandy, I've read some updates on blogs of those in the areas that were hit...thankfully they're all well.


I'll catch up on blogs through today, when I can!! 



-lesli

Hermitting..... and stashing....

I didn't think I'd get a chance to hermit much this past weekend because we had a ton going on.  My son had a karate clinic that was out of town on Saturday (but I sat and stitched while I was there!) and then a birthday skating party he attended on Sunday (I did not sit and stitch while I was there!).


I worked on 2 pieces, the first was Cathedral.  I started my weekend on the bottom half of page 4:

I was able to finish the page!   Here's a picture of all 4 pages:

I was also able to work on a piece that I'll be giving as a Christmas gift, so I'm only giving you a sneak peek:

This was my first use of silks, courtesy of Ewa.  I'm so loving silk!   The stitching part is finished, now I just need to decide how I'm going to put it together for the gift.   I'll post a picture of the finished product after the holidays.


I'm also so VERY happy to share some images of charts I was recently RAKd/given.   I've said it before and I'm sure I'll just keep saying it...but stitchers know how to spoil each other!!

A wonderful lady that I've met via FB, Karen, sent me QS Elfland Sleeping Fairy.  I just love how all the golden hues and greens meld together...and my favorite is the little lizard in the bottom corner and the flower with the blue center!

I also signed up with some FB fellow stitchers for an October RAK event, partially to help sales for Heaven and Earth Designs, but mostly because it's FUN!!   You are given the name of a participant to send a chart to, and then someone else is given your name (sort of like secret santa).  Kathy from the group sent me these two GORGEOUS charts from my wishlist:

Dragonfly Cottage - I love the watercolors of this piece...and who doesn't love dragonflies?

and Changing Seasons - Fall is my favorite season and I love the colors of the trees with the beautiful green of her dress

I don't know how I'm going to keep from starting all of these beauties!!   I need more than 24 hours in a day so I can work on all my charts!!


Finally....I just want to share that....the Lord of the Rings SAL that I'm participating in is starting in TWO  One and a half Days!!   I am SOOOOO EXCITED to start my Middle Earth Map!!


Thank you, as always...for stopping by and reading through my updates!  I just adore all of you!!


-lesli

August 31st WIPocalypse

I can't believe it's already that time of the month!  (not THAT time...but...you know what I mean!)


I just bought over 500 skeins of floss so I'm itching to get them all sorted out!!  
So here's my quick update for the past few months (I missed the first August update):


SK Seasons Spring by Nadia Strelkina - Heaven and Earth Designs:

I finished this piece for a very good friend of mine.  I didn't post any progress pictures, and really I finished it in July...but I've been waiting to put any pictures up until after I gave it to her.

Started 05/21/2012: Finished 07/14/2012:

Tamlin (new start) as of 08/19/2012:

Cathedral as of 08/23/2012:

Wings as of 08/29/2012:

I feel like I've left something out that I worked on since the last update...but my mind is drawing a blank!!


Before I run to play with floss....I wanted to give a BIG THANK YOU to Kim of Scully's Cross Stitching.  She was giving away some of her Teresa Wentzler stash and sent me the discontinued Best of Teresa Wentzler Sampler Collection.  

Here are just a few of the gorgeous samplers found inside:

Thank you again, Kim!   I'm still oggling and drooling over the book....I can't decide which to start first!!


Hope everyone has a fun filled weekend!!


-lesli

New "Olympic" Start

A fellow stitcher on the HAED BB shared that it was a tradition of hers to start a new piece for the Olympics.  I thought this was a brilliant idea!   Who doesn't love a new start!?  and this way, I have 4 years to finish until the next one comes around.

There are quite a few of us from some HAED Facebook groups that caught onto the idea and will be starting something new tomorrow.

This works perfectly with the fact that I'm also about to go on VACATION!!   So I'll take my new start along with me.

My new piece is the beautiful chart that Michele of HAED gifted to me....Tamlin.  I have all my floss kitted up and my fabric is mostly ready to go (need to add some gridding).

I know I've already posted pictures of it....but I can't help myself from posting them again because I think it is sublime!

This piece is made up of 3 seperate images and the chart has them all together as one.  I will be stitching them seperately, as I think I'll enjoy having them framed seperately a bit better.   There are better images of it in my last post, if you want to see them close up! 


I had high hopes of finishing page 3 of Cathedral before the Olympics began, but I just wasn't able to get enough time in to make my deadline :(

Here's my progress:

I've really enjoyed this page....the lighter colors of the branches in the sunlight are starting to begin.   I'll finish this page up when I get back.


This has been a super busy week for me...trying to tie up loose ends for work to ensure nothing blows up while I'm gone, trying to get some stitching time in and getting everything ready for our trip.   So what an absolute delight it was when the beautiful Liz (also known as Radidragon on the HAED BB) RAKd me this breathtaking gem:

This is Knock at the Door by Aimee Stewart.   The day it was released I fell in love with it.

Now...what you also need to know about this chart is it's the biggest one on the site.   It is 875 stitches by 875 stitches.   EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE! :)   

That is 765,625 little x's!   On 25 count fabric that measures to be a 35 inch x 35 inch beauty (not counting any border)!   I can only hope I can find fabric that is big enough!! 

My plan is to power through as many of my WIPs until December, and make this my year end shabang of a start!   I say this is my plan, because knowing my will power, it will end up being a new start much sooner than that.


So I'm off for my vacation on Saturday, and will most likely have to have a late WIPocalypse post.   I'll jump online to catch up on everyone's blogs and progress whenever I can!


So in the words of the Terminator.......  I'll Be Back!



-lesli

July IHSW and a Giftie

My IHSW time was incredibly tiny this month!   Hubs and I spent Saturday helping friends pack and move...I was so worn out at night that I barely got any stitching done!  Sunday was spent shopping .....and getting a pedicure (pedi vs. stiching....it was a difficult decision!)

I did get some time in, working on Cathedral -

Before the weekend:

After the weekend:

This is the top half of page 3...hopefully I can finish it off this week!



Now for the "Giftie" part of my title!

Friday after work I was catching up on emails and I noticed I had recieved one from Michele, the owner of Heaven and Earth Designs.  It was titled, "Giftie".    I opened it up and I just know I had a HUGE grin on my face at that moment......She had gifted me a chart I have been drooling over, Tamlin by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (SPML).  Michele gifted quite a few folks charts in the last little while....she is such an awe-inspiring woman!


Here's a picture of the chart:

Now the image of the chart doesn't do the artwork justice, because it's so small.....so here are pictures of the 3 images that make up this chart, from SPML's site.

The first image on the left is called The Rose:

The middle image is called The Faery Host:

And the last image is called The Knight:

"Tam Lin is about a young man who is the captive of the faeries, and the young woman who rescues him. The main character, depending on your viewpoint, is either the young woman, who becomes pregnant by her enchanted lover and must rescue him before the faeries can sacrifice him, or the young man who had been living with the faeries and wishes to escape to live in the human world. The story deals with transformations, courage, and the relationship between the faeries and the mortals" - Tam-Lin.org

There are so many 'versions' of the story you can find....as well as folksongs.  SPML refers to version Child 39A on her site, and it is such an interesting story/ballad to read!


I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend ....spent with friends, family and some floss!   :)



-lesli

May WIPocalypse

Heeeeeeeere's my update!


Nature's Beauty by LHN - I LOVED stitching this piece!!  I see many more LHN WIPs in my future!

Before:

After:

QS Motherhood by HAED   (My second HAED finish!)

I stitched this as a gift, so I didn't post any pictures of it on my blog until now (I haven't given it yet either, but I'm crossing my fingers that the recipient misses reading my blog for a bit!)

Cathedral by HAED - Finished page 2!   Hoping my next WIPocalypse update brings a few more pages of this piece!

Before:

After:

Now...off to check out all of your updates!!  :)

-lesli

Happy Hump Day!!

(For anyone who is thinking, "what the heck is Hump Day?"..... Definition:  The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.)

Only a few more days until the weekend....and it is an IHSW no less!  I also have a crafting "girl's day" planned for Saturday, so here's hoping I have some hard work to show on Monday!


I finally brought Coral home from being framed.  I was so quick to give it to my sister in law, I completely forgot to snap a good picture.  I snapped a quick one at her home, but it's not the greatest (ignore my reflection in the glass!).  I love how it turned out....the frame is so beautiful!

This past weekend was Prom for my step-son Brandon.   Here's a quick picture of him and his girlfriend.

They look so darn cute together, don't they?


I did manage to get some stitching in this weekend, but not nearly as much as I had hoped for!  I wanted to get task #4 done from my rotation schedule, which was to complete Page 2 of Cathedral.   Unfortunately, that didn't even come close to happening!  I did manage to finally complete it last night!   Here's a full picture, it's so HUGE!   (lighting was bad..it was 1am when I snapped this picture!):

 And here is a closer look at just pages 1 and 2 (in daylight!):

I'm fnally able to make out the tree!!  The first page felt like blobs of green and gray everywhere...I couldn't tell what I was stitching!

I had a few folks ask me about the charts I recently kitted up, when I went through my piles and piles of floss!  I completely forgot to share that information, so here are some pictures of what I have ready and waiting to go!


Heaven and Earth 2012

 

Checkmate - for my son Sebastian

 

A Princess is Born - for my daughter Kella

Moonlight Immersion - gift for someone special

Now...to figure out an updated rotation plan to get some of these started!


Hope everone is having a wonderful "middle of the week" and you have grand plans for this weekend!



-lesli


p.s. - Did I mention there is another floss sale this week?   $0.25 per DMC skein?  Why do they do this to me!?   <sigh>  I'll probably end up buying floss for yet another chart!!   :)

February WIPocalpyse Update

Hello?  Is it really already time for February's update?   I'm scared to blink.... it'll be Christmas before I know it!

I'm posting my most recent progress below, but if you want to see my full list of goals, just click here:  Lesli's 2012 WIPocalypse Page or you can click on each pieces title name, and it will take you to the history of that WIP!



Blue Moon - Officially have half of a page done

Cathedral -   First page complete

Coral - Started into the 2nd page

Can't wait to see everyone's progress! 
Have a great week!!


-lesli

First HAED page complete!

I've finally completed 1 full page of one of my HAED pieces! 

Page 1 of Cathedral:

It still resembles camouflage to me, but when I compare it to the real picture I can see the right images coming through.  So excited!!

I've never rotated so many projects in one month before....I'm so used to focusing on one piece at a time, but I have so many different things I want to work on!!   I've actually enjoyed the rotation, but I'm looking forward to finishing some items and focusing on just 2-3 instead.

Another project I've made some headway on is my Cathedral Windows Quilt.  My last update had me with all my circles cut out and ready to sew.  I've sewn them all, turned them all out and ironed them.   I've finally started sewing them together and hope to have a finish to post soon!!

My quilting progress:

Piles of my completed circles!

I taped my circles to my wall to figure out the best patterns to put them in.  Was trying to avoid having duplicate material too close together.  This took more time than I could have imagined!

And finally.....some rows of sewn circles!

This weekend is my first IHSW!!  I'm happy to finally participate  :)     


I'll be working on my Blue Moon piece.  I haven't touched it since my January WIPocalypse update, so hoping to make a good chunk of progress.

Here's my before picture:

I can't believe January only has about a week left!   I swear it was just Christmas!!!  
Work has kept me busy for this new year, so time has just been flying by!!   Hopefully things slow down in February and I can visit my blog-world more often.  I feel so disconnected from everyone's blogs because I haven't been reading them for a week or so! :(   I need to find an hour this weekend and play some catch up.

My quick weightloss update:  32 pounds lost so far!  It's been 9 weeks since I started my journey.  I'm hoping to lose 75 pounds in total....so I'm almost halfway there!  I have baggy clothes that sort of fit, but I don't want to go out spending money on new clothes if I'm going to lose more!  Guess I'll be using my box of safety pins for the next months!  :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2012 so far....I'll catch up on all your blogs this weekend!  I'm sorry I've missed out on your updates!


-lesli