Hand Stitched Treasure

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

WIP Wednesday 04/15/2015

264 stitches were added to Santa and the Mouse this week.

This is a retired freebie chart from Heaven and Earth Designs.

It is a smaller portion of this chart.

It is stitched 2 over 1 on 28-count fabric (Monaco, I think...)

Above shows the section I worked on this week.

Below shows how it looked last week.

If I tallied them up correctly, there are 17,666 stitches in this chart.

I have completed 10,833 stitches; so, it is now 61.3% complete.

Note of interest:

Before I forget, I wanted to let you know that Kim at Wisdom with Needle and Thread is hostessing a Decorative Thimble Exchange. Details are HERE. You need to sign up by April 20th. It sounds fun!

I discovered several blogs last week featuring progress on Heaven and Earth Designs cross-stitch charts. (I really needed a break from writing at the time...) Several of the blogs featured little meters on the sidebar showing their progress. I loved the feature, so I added one for Santa and the Mouse and one for my Camp NaNoWriMo progress. They are on the right side bar. (Does that make it productive procrastination?!)

I have a confession. Ordinarily, I do not stress over my list of goals. I keep it as a reminder of projects I hope to complete soon. This week, with the exception of Santa and the Mouse and my BCQC block, everything has an impending deadline. And, I forgot about a snowball swap planned for this month. (Oops!) Below is the picture of the bare block. (It looks much different now - I even managed to balance out that white triangle at the top.)

I felt the pressure this week with all of that in addition to keeping up with my chores and spending time with my hubby and my boys. And, I spent 3 days helping my mom out this week.

Luckily for me, I enjoy everything I am working on! (Though I will admit some days the writing is work.) While my sewing machine was out, I also completed the gifts I will share at 1xmasitemamonth.blogspot.com on April twenty-fifth.

Last Week's Goals:

1. ~~Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart~~ (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.) 264 stitches completed - pictured above.

2. ~~Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures~~. Here is a peek at the seam I am working on:

3. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. Not this week. I worked on the snowball block instead.

4. Write at least 11632 words this week, for a total of 23,333 words for Camp NaNoWriMo. Sigh... I wish! What a rough, rough week for writing. My time has been pulled in so many directions that I decided to be thankful for the 6,645 words I did write. I am 37% done. (By the end of today that would need to be 50% done to be on track...)

5. ~~Complete another project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop~~. (I love this Clothworks fabric line!) Done! My post was written on Monday and it is scheduled to post on my blog at midnight Eastern Standard Time on the 16th (9 p.m. tonight, my time.)

View the full schedule HERE.

6. ~~Work on Kathy's CQI UTS RR block~~. Here is a tiny sneak peek at a base seam stitch:

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.)

2. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures.
3. Write at least 13,860 words this week, for a total of 32,206 words for Camp NaNoWriMo. (That is an average of 1,980 words per day. If I am closer to 35,000, all the better!)

4. Complete and mail out the snowball for Kathy S.
5. Complete and mail out Kathy's CQI UTS RR block.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape

A few of you may remember this purse. I made it in February of 2014, using my February Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) 2014 block. (You may see close-ups of the embroidery here.)

After roughly 14 months of daily use, I am happy to say the embroidery has held up pretty well. It is a tiny bit dingy. (I am gathering the courage to hand wash it.) There are few snags with some of the rayon floss. And, I lost one bead from a seam near the top-right corner. (Thankfully, I knot each bead off in the back so the whole string is not lost if one breaks!)

Why am I sharing this project with you today? This morning, I discovered a new Monday Stitchery Linky Party will be hosted at Super Mom - No Cape. Here is a link to the party, complete with rules if you would like to join in or just stop by to check out the posts that have been shared.

Today, I will be sharing a link to the original post for my February CQJP 2014 purse.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Renee

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Have A Latte Blog Hop Schedule

The Have a Latte Blog Hop offered by Mdm Samm begins tomorrow! This blog hop features the Have a Latte line of fabrics designed by Dan DiPaolo for Clothworks. Joan at Moosestash Quilting has been our amazing cheerleader.

I purchased 6 of the 19 fabrics and they are pictured above. However, I only used two of these for the blog hop. Can you guess which two? I will be sharing my projects on Thursday, April 16th. You can find out then!

I do hope you will join me each day as I hop on over to see what everyone else has created. The full schedule is below.

April 13

April 14

April 15

Life in the Scrapatch

April 16

April 17

Creatin' in the Sticks

April 20

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

April 21

Sunshine Reflections

Words & Stitches

It Seams to be Sew

April 22

Chitter Chatter Designs

Sew Peace to Peace

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Rainbows Bunnies Cupcakes

April 23

Cates Linens

Needled Mom

SewWeStitch

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

WIP Wednesday 04/08/2015

Over 250 stitches were added to Santa and the Mouse this week.

I filled in some of Santa's beard and the fur on his hat. Here are close-ups of this week (above) compared to last week (below).

Click any image for a larger view.

Last Week's Goals:

1. ~~Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart~~ (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.) I completed just over 250 stitches this week. Photos are above.

2. ~~Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures~~. I finished this seam and have the base stitches down for the next one.

3. ~~Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block~~. I only added 12 more beads to seam 5, but it is progress...

4. Write at least 11,670 words this week. My current word count is 11,701.

5. ~~Complete a project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop~~. (I love this Clothworks fabric line!) One project is done and another is almost finished. My day to present will be Thursday, April 16th.

6. Share pictures of the Crazy Quilt International Under the Sea Round Robin (CQI UTS RR) blocks I received last week. Kathy S. of MD made 6 gorgeous blocks and Nicki Lee of MA did a stunningly gorgeous job embellishing one. ~~I also need to choose a block and sketch out my plans~~. Here is a link to the post and below is a picture of the block embellished by Nicki Lee.

I decided to embellish this beautiful block. A friend asked how I could possibly choose which one to work on. I opted to go with the block I liked best with a piece of lovely lace I purchased from Nicki Lee.

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.)

2. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures.
3. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block.

4. Write at least 11632 words this week, for a total of 23,333 words for Camp NaNoWriMo.

5. Complete another project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop. (I love this Clothworks fabric line!)
6. Work on Kathy's CQI UTS RR block.