HAED QS Red Hearts Progress - September 2015

On Monday, July 6th, I shared my progress on my Heaven and Earth Designs QS Red Hearts cross-stitch. 

In August, I had no progress to share, but I did manage to add about 16 hours of work this past month. 

Page 1 was 25.73% complete in this photo and the full chart was 4.29% complete.

After adding 1055 stitches, Page 1 is now 39.18% complete.

The first two columns of Page 1 are finished in this photo and the third column is almost done.

As you can see, I have a long journey in front of me. The full chart is 6.54% complete.

On the first Monday in October, I will share my next update. There are fewer sections of "confetti" in the next columns, so I hope to see faster progress.

There is a picture of the completed chart on the sidebar to the right.

I am linking this post with Monday Stitchery Link Party #22 at Super Mom - No Cape! I encourage you to check out the free embroidery pattern offered and to see what others have shared this week. If you have done any hand stitching and have a blog, you are welcome to join the party! Check it out here.


Thank you for stopping by!
Renee

CQI Under the Sea Round Robin #2 - Nicki Lee's Bare Blocks

Yesterday, these gorgeous blocks arrived in my mailbox! Barbara Nicki Lee Seavey created these beauties and the instructions for embellishing them are to have fun. That should not be a problem!

She plans to incorporate these 6 blocks into a crazy quilt with the 6 blocks she mailed out in our first Crazy Quilting International Under the Sea Do-Your-Own-Block Round Robin (CQI UTS DYOB RR) this year. 

You may see her first set of bare blocks here and the block I embellished from that set is here.

The fabrics she selected for these blocks are absolutely gorgeous! (This is not surprising. Her work is gorgeous, too! If you love lace, you should check out her Etsy shop - Raviolee Dreams. I am not affiliated with the shop, just a fan!)

One of the things I love about round robins is being forced to step outside of my comfort zone. Some of you may remember me saying I find working on printed fabrics particularly challenging. These are gorgeous prints, so I hope to do them justice!

My first challenge will be deciding which of these beauties to embellish! I have a few ideas percolating and have my choice narrowed down to two blocks. We'll see which one I choose and if I go with the idea pictured in my head. 

For those of you wondering what a round robin is, this post may help. 

Crazy Quilting International (CQI) is a group that meets on Facebook and on Yahoo! (The majority of activity tends to be on the Facebook group at this time. I am hoping to see more on the Yahoo! group soon.) You may see some of the work members have done at the CQI blog.

Thank you for stopping by!
Renee

Work in Progress Wednesday 09/2/2015

Wow! I have been posting pictures of my Santa and the Mouse progress for so long, I had to stop and think about my next WIP to share.

Over the past few weeks, I have been adding Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) stitches to these two Christmas stockings. My goal is to complete them both before Christmas, so they make great WIP Wednesday projects.

Over ten years ago, I cross-stitched the Santa in the first stocking following a pattern by Alma Lynne. I believe it was in the book Alma Lynne's Country Cross-Stitch. (Note: The link will take you to the book at Amazaon.com. I am not associated with the book, but do receive a small credit from Amazon for purchases made from visitors from my blog.) At the time, I attempted to make it into a wall quilt for my husband, but my sewing skills were not up to the challenge. I set it aside to deal with in the future. My seam ripper and I had a date earlier this year, and I worked the piece into this stocking instead.

The second stocking was pieced featuring snowmen from the Daisy Kingdom Christmas is for Families #5223 fabric I purchased years ago. When it is complete, I will probably use a coordinating Daisy Kingdom Christmas is for Families #5239 fabric for the lining.

I did begin working on the Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED) Twilight Duel cross-stitch chart based on artwork by Ruth Thompson. (You may see a picture on the sidebar to the right.) However, that project is going to take me ages to finish. I will probably give a monthly update in a Monday Stitchery Link Party post so I can share noticeable progress.

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Renee

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.) It is done! 

2. Link up with the Monday Stitchery Link Party #21 at Super Mom No Cape on August 31st. (If you missed the party on the 24th, you may check it out here!) Nope! As I sat down to write this post, my mom called and needed my help. Maybe next week!

3. Finish a project to add inventory to my Etsy shop. Not yet...

4. Share progress with the ICQC 102 course from Shawkl Designs.  Hopefully soon...

5. Share a TAST Week 8 post on September 1st. Done! The post is here if you missed it. 

6. Share a 1 Xmas Item a Month Post. Done! You may view it here.

This Week's Goals:

1. Link up with the Monday Stitchery Link Party #22 at Super Mom No Cape on September 7th. (If you missed the party on the 31st, you may check it out here!) It will be the first Monday of the month, so I will share progress on my HAED QS Red Hearts cross-stitch.

2. Finish a project to add inventory to my Etsy shop. 

3. Share progress with the ICQC 102 course from Shawkl Designs.

4. Share a TAST Week 9 post on September 8th.

TAST Week 8: Chain Stitch

TAST Week 8: Chain Stitch

Using size 8 red perle cotton, I chain stitched half circles. (I need more practice... Even tracing them, I never seem to make them all consistent.) Next, I added 5 red straight stitches to each half circle. Then, I added size 12 green perle cotton straight stitches in the center of each section that the red straight stitches had created. Sets of 3 green straight stitches created small stems for 3 red seed beads. Gold seed beads added the finishing touch.

A few of my favorite chain stitches are below.

Some of the letters in the quilt I made for the We Support You Blog Hop were chain stitched.

Snow drifts were created with a chain stitch on this snowball I made for Lori F.

This winter tree I stitched on a block for Kathy S. was created with a chain stitch and couched branches.

Chain stitch was used for the tree branch and for the flower vine in this block I embellished for Flora.

This is such a versatile stitch!

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal stitching challenge offered by Sharon B. on Facebook and on her blog, pintangle.com. You may read more about it here. This week, the detached chain stitch was introduced. If you follow the TAST Facebook group, you know there are some incredibly inspiring examples of these stitches being shared. Thank you, Sharon, for offering TAST!

Thank you for stopping by!

Renee

HAED Santa and the Mouse Ornament Completed!

In 2014, I discovered Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED) and fell in love with their cross-stitch charts. I was intrigued by the fact that back stitching was not required. The temptation to buy a chart was huge, but I opted to try out a smaller chart first. I wanted to see how similar the completed cross-stitch compared to the photo on the chart. I also wanted to see if a small ornament-sized project would hold my interest before embarking on a larger project. (There are enough UFOs in a drawer awaiting my attention without adding more!) 

On May 2, 2014, I opted to try the Santa and the Mouse Ornament that was offered as a freebie on the HAED website and I just loved watching it come together. (The free charts are updated periodically.)

Last night, the final stitches were added. Now, I just need to decide exactly how I want to finish the piece off. (There is a very high chance crazy quilting may be involved!)

The project took me roughly 15 months. However, there were some weeks (and sometimes months) that not a single stitch was added. 

My youngest son is quite happy this project is complete because it means I will be starting the Twilight Duel chart based on artwork by Ruth Thompson next. (This 24-page project will be just for him and I am thankful he is happy to watch it grow over the next 5-6 years. He is even encouraging me to take breaks from it to work on something with more than blues, black, and white.)

Hmmm... I will also need another small travel-sized project to work on and there is a 35% off Labor Day sale at HAED right now...

Thank you so much for following me on this long, slow journey! And I would love to thank the readers that took the time to comment, encouraging me to make a post as soon as it was complete.  It is done!

I am linking today's post with the 1 Xmas Item a Month blog.

Thank you for stopping by!
Renee

Updated: I discovered there is a Quick Stitch ornament of Santa and the Mouse that includes more of the original picture. There is a link to it here.