Moving along with my WIPS Very picture heavy

I have so much stitching to share! I have made some time to get some stitching. I went on vacation and got a good bit done. First up is BBD monthly stocking March.

Next I had a piece that was actually the first project I stitched when I first moved to Alaska. I sent this out to be finished and I love it!

 

With My Needle My Favorite Basket by Ellen Chester

After months and months of looking for all of my patterns to finish LHN Sheep Virtues that I started back in 2013 (I think) I decided to just keep stitching in the hope the last two would turn up. FINALLY thy turned up in the black hole of my stitching room. I am so happy to be able to make some progress on this one. This was done by the folks at Shepherd’s Bush and they changed up the fabric and fibers. I am loving it. I am getting close to a finish and that is wonderful!!!!

This one is number 11 of 12 so getting close. 

I apologize but blogger would not let me edit this from my iPad so I had to wait for my ancient laptop to open to be able to correct this last bit. I had more to share but since it is so hard to upload the photos I will end here and start the next one with more updates to come. If I could do this on my iPad I could get so much more done. But at any rate I hope you have some stitchy time in your day. Marjo

Project progress and a very small new start

so excited to get some stitching done this year! No more finishes yet but finally doing some small things make me feel like progress is being made.
On the sock front I am making slow progress. I still love the yarn colors. My only big problem with knitting is fixing my mistakes. Fortunately my sweet friend has been oh so patient with me slowly knitting these socks!

Legendary Socks by Karin Gustafson

On the stitching front I have worked on the February BBD stockings. I love these little treasures. I have a couple of little trees I can decorate with these. Ideally someday I would like to make seasonal trees.i have collected patterns over time but I really need to get stitching! I have always wanted a Valentine tree, an Easter tree etc, my version of the bowl that I do not own and do not want to purchase.

BBD February stockings Violets 

I am starting a small Lizzie Kate design for two friends who recently lost their pets. My best friend found the perfect frame so I will get that from her in May but meanwhile really need to get started stitching on it. I don't have all the threads for it which with my stash is hard to believe but the color is not used a lot so I will just substitute DMC for as I have all but the newest colors of that. I have to pull some fabric so I can get started this next weekend.

I will leave you with a picture of the first sightings of bears that I have seen. I did not take this (I would not be even this close)

cannot find out currently who took this photo

Here's to hoping you have some stitchy time in your week. Marjo

Next up from the WIP basket

For the longest time I have wanted to pull out these small stockings from Blackbird Designs from quite a long time ago. I finished a couple of months of them and then moved onto something else. I had won this cute little bag from Stitches N things in Michigan and this project fits perfectly in it. 

 

I started back on the February set entitled  Love is in the Air. This is a fun stitch and I am enjoying it. It is my new Thursday night stitch project/travel stitch. 

Love is in the Air BBD

I also decided that I needed to do a piece on counted canvas. This is work from Nancy's Needle. It is a long languishing WIP. 

Two Cabins by From Nancy's Needle

The big piece is still Mary Wigham on my floor frame. It is a lovely piece. I love the Quaker designs.

Mary Wigham by Needleprint

I decided to move this to the scroll frame because I was afraid I would never get the hoop marks out. I am trying to stitch from my WIP pile or at least from stash. I did cave and buy a project bag by Sew Much 2 Luv. This is sized a little bit bigger than the regular sized bag. It is a little deeper and will it hold a larger q-snaps as well as all the threads. I love her bags. 

Beauty and the Beast bag from Sew Much 2 love from Etsy

Well that is my update for now. I hope to have more frequent small finishes now that the stockings are back in my workbasket. 

Hope you have plenty of stitchy time this week.

First finish 2018 photo heavy

A dear friend reminded me that I had not updated my blog in a while so I am pleased to finally have a few minutes to get that done. This where I left off as of the last posting in February. This is 6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate.

This is where I am now! Finally a finish of one of my long term WIP’s. This is so exciting to me because I have a huge WIP as well as a huge stash and I love it all. (Sorry the ironing isn’t better but iron was not working correctly and I didn’t want to ruin my piece)!

         

Here are some closer shots from along the journey just to show you the colors better. It was done on called for fabric and with threads as designed.

Hope you have some stitchy time in your week. Marjo

Down for the count

I got back from Chicago where I never made it to Inspired stitches, and promptly got sick! I have been too sick to be able to do anything for the last two weeks. Wednesday I finally was able to get some stitching in and even a start on my long neglected second sock. I took the yarn and pattern with me, never got to work on it put the pattern away for safe keeping and promptly forgot where I put it. I did manage to at least make a start on when my friend kindly supplied me with the pattern again and as the way is with things I came home and found the original. Sigh.

It’s not much but it is a start. 

On the cross stitch front I have made a lot of progress on my travel piece Six Fat Men by Lizzie Kate.  I have 4 completed and 2 left to go. Here are my progress pictures of how my work has gone. 

I have made lots of progress since this picture but will share this next time. I will not stitch snowmen again quickly! I must admit I am getting a little tired of white! Hope you find some stitchy time in your day. Marjo

On the road

I hope to do a post while I am visiting Chicago. I am traveling with my husband. I am so excited to be able to see all the new stuff, touch all the fabric and the walls of floss both cottons and silks at one of my favorite shops The Inspired needle.
 I am still stitching on Mary Wigham. I got the frogging all done. I haven’t put the squirrel back in because it took me so long to get it out. I moved onto one of the flowers which is more of just an outline. I will have something to post next time on her.
 I did make it stitch night before I left plus I was able to stitch on the second leg of our trip so I made some progress on Lizzie Kate’s Six Fat Men.

I go to my last installment of sock class tomorrow and get the toe cf my sock done! That will be the first one done. Hopefully number 2 will go faster. I am slower at knitting than I am at stitching and that is scary.

On the book front Crazy Like a Fox by Rita Mae Brown is almost done. There are just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  I will be able to get some reading done on our trip since my husband will be busy most of the time. I got two library books Body in the Casket by Katherine Hall Page and Witches Tree by M.C. Beaton. I also brought several from Amanda Lee who writes a cute Cozy series “an embroidery mystery”. I am lost in regards to which ones I have read and which ones I haven’t so will work on that this week. Will start my second sock! I have grand plans for this week. We will see how it goes. Back to Mary Wigham. Hope you find some stitchy time in your day. Marjo

Progress forward and back

Happy New Year!
This New Year I made the decision to try my best to stitch from stash and focus on my WIP’s. So I have had no new starts and no new purchases from Santa. My goal is to finally get my stitching room cleaned up and functional again. So Mary Wigham is still getting all my free time and 6 Fat Men my stitching group time. No progress on the Lizzie Kate piece as I was sick this week and had to miss stitch night.that particular project has not seen the light of day.

Being sick left me with no energy but I was able do a little knitting. I am working on my first pain of socks. I am so slow at it! My friend, who is trying to teach me is such a fast knitter. I am a trial to her I am sure. Almost to the toe and ready to learn the final challenge the toe of the sock. I am using Malibrugio yarn in color Anniversario.

I just recently started watching Floss tube. I must admit I stayed up really late last night watching several and am totally hooked. Spent today listening to an older Monica Ferris book, Sins and Needles while I frogged Mary Wigham and knitted.

Trying to work out a plan to divide and conquer the absolute mess of my stitching room. I have more stash than I will ever stitch. I have organized most of my fabric, my over dyed cottons and my Belle Soie silks. I still have the other silks, beads to finish. I have gotten a friend to make some bags for me with extra fabric I bought that I will never get around to using. That cleared up some space. I moved a book shelf in there that fit in a closet but it is too small to hold my Needlework books. That is a current challenge. The room is small and there is no wall space for a bigger book shelf. I have so many books and love them all!

I need to go through all the charts and sell off what I no longer love enough to stitch. My WIP list-listed at the bottom right corner of the blog - I still want to stitch all of those and they are rather loosely grouped in bags in the stitching room. So much to do yet!
Well I have been frogging Mary while I wait for blogger to let me load photos of my progress and I still can’t load them so off to bed. Will try again tomorrow. I have been fighting with blogger for a while! I have never had this much trouble before. First I couldn’t get the photos to load and then I could not edit my typos! Too much, blogger! Finally several days later and it can be posted. Hope there is some stitchy time in your day! Marjo