Stitching My Little Heart Out

October 21, 2015October 21, 2015 My Time Stitching25 Comments

Yes, I have been stitching and stitching on my crocheted blanket and my Mermaid Trio and I am making great progress. First, here is my Spice of Life blanket:

It’s getting quite long and keeps me nice and warm while I am crocheting on it. I have about 20 rows to complete on section 5 and then I can start the border which was released yesterday. So I am not too far behind.

I have learned so much stitching on this blanket and have felt so close to my Step Mom who taught me to crochet when I was 12 years old. She taught me to do the basic stitches and the ripple afghan. I never really learned how to read a pattern or do complicated stitches. So I am doing this in honor of her. She passed away 4 years ago and I miss her dearly. The Spice of Life blanket reminds me of the “scrapghans” she would make from her left over yarns. If you would like to create this beautiful blanket, you can get the pattern at Sandra’s Cherry Heart Blog here. Sandra did a wonderful job.

I have also been stitching on Mermaid Trio. Hubby says if I get it finished by Friday, we can take it in to be framed on our way out of town on Saturday. I finished beading Mermaid Verde last week and she turned out so sweet!

I love how she turned out. Now I am working on beading Coral Charms and she has so many beads! I am hoping to finish her today so that I can get started on the last mermaid and get her finished by Friday night. I will keep you posted on my progress. For those that are not familiar with the patterns, they are La Petite Mermaids by Nora Corbett. I am stitching them on 16ct Aida Summer Showers by Sunny Dyes fabrics.

That is my update for today. What is on your needles today?

Afghans · cross stitch · Mermaids

Crocheting Again

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015 My Time Stitching12 Comments

In my last post I mentioned working on the baby blanket that wasn’t going so well. You’ll be happy to hear that I finished it!

I am actually pretty pleased at how it turned out, even with all the mistakes. The picot stitches were new to me. I really like the way they made the border lacey. Before finishing this blanket, I decided to participate in a Crochet A Long that I found on Cherry Heart’s blog. It is called the Spice of Life blanket and I immediately fell in love with the vintage look of it and all the different stitches that I will be learning 😉

If you want more information on this amazing blanket, you can click the button above. The first pattern section was just released this past Tuesday (September 22, 2015) so there is still time to catch up. I didn’t order my yarn until Sunday, and so far I have only received a partial shipment. I am using Stylecraft Special DK yarn that I ordered from Love Knitting. A lot of people are using this yarn, hence the backorder. But the rest of the yarn did ship the day after my original shipment, so hopefully it will be in this week so that I can continue. Yes, I did start already! Here are the colors I have received so far:

I made my swatch.

Not perfect, but will be ok for a blanket. Had to go down a hook size. And here is my start:

A lot of the gals were posting their starts rolled up like this, so I thought I would, too :). I am very pleased with my start. So far my edges are straight and I have the correct amount of stitches after 6 rows. I learned about those neat little holders (you can see a little of them in my picture, the greenish things poking out of the top) and they really helped me out a lot. I placed one at every 25 stitches on my chain and into the end stitch. I did that every row and I didn’t make any mistakes! So proud of myself. My next color is supposed to be a turquoise, which I don’t have yet. So while I wait, I will be working on cross stitching Mermaid Azure. Here is how she looks after last night:

She is taking me longer than Coral, but I had a vacation and all this crocheting. But I am loving stitching on here. She will be done in no time, I am sure.

So what are you spending your time on these days?

Crochet · cross stitch · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Mermaids · Mirabilia

Life is Changing…Everyday

September 10, 2015September 10, 2015 My Time Stitching29 Comments

Hi! I know, it’s been a while. As my title says, Life is changing. I am changing and just doing things differently. Nothing major, but there just comes a time, or times, when I just have to change it up a bit. I won’t bore you with details, but all is good. And I have been stitching. Always stitching. That is one wonderful constant in my life. I can’t imagine my life without stitching. So here is what I have been working on. First up, The Raven Queen, by Mirabilia.

This is where I left her a few weeks ago. From the middle down is finished and now I am working my way up to her sweet face. I am stitching her on 16ct Aida Twixt N Tween from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. Love the Queen on this fabric. I have put her away, for another new project; yes, another project. I can’t help it! I saw someone stitching 3 little mermaids on one piece of fabric and I just loved it! So here is my first mermaid:

It is Nora Corbett’s Coral Charms. I stitched her in 12 days. Just finished her last night, minus the beads which I will add when I finish stitching the other 2 mermaids. Mermaid Azure will be stitched on the left and Mermaid Verde will be on the right. I am stitching them on 16ct Aida Summer Showers from Sunny Dyes. Teri, over at Sunny Dyes, switched my fabric up a bit from her normal Summer Showers. She made it more blue for water and since 16ct Aida doesn’t come in opal, she added glitter and big glitter rain drops (or water bubbles in my case) and it shimmers and sparkles just perfectly! Sorry I couldn’t capture the sparkle in my photo, but trust me, it is sparkly! I love the idea of the mermaid trio and the Summer Showers fabric so much, that I ordered another piece so that I can do the other 3 La Petite mermaids to match this piece.

The last project I have to share is a crochet project I have been working on and I must say, it is a mess 😦

I only have 5 more rows to go on this Citrus Stripe Blanket. I will finish it, but I am not pleased with it. It seems that I still have an issue with turning and starting in the correct stitch. The first row of each color is a stitch that leaves big holes. I am still not sure I like them. I keep having visions of a baby getting their little toes stuck in them. Anyway, when I started, there were 25 of those holes across. After the first yellow stripe, somehow I did something wrong and only have 24 holes. Where I have stopped, I only have 22 or 23. So clearly, my crochet skills are not getting any better. And if I were to do another one of these (not saying I will, but I have lots of yarn left) I would not use the Taupe yarn again. The pattern called for Bernat Baby sport 300 grams and I barely used any! And the yarn is quite scratchy compared to all the other Knit Picks yarns that I used. They are so soft. I would definitely get another color in that yarn to replace the Taupe. I also have the border to do. We shall see how that goes.

So, that is what I have been spending my time stitching on. What are you stitching lately?

Crochet · cross stitch · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Passione Ricamo SAL · Uncategorized

Still Here and Still Stitching

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015 My Time Stitching18 Comments

So in between getting ready for and having a garage sale, going on vacation with my wonderful hubby and getting back to the real world, I have been stitching. In fact, I had a finish!

Yep, I finished her. This picture really doesn’t do her justice. She is beautiful and she sparkles when the light hits her just right. I absolutely love her and I am very proud of myself for keeping up with this one until the very end. I stitched her on 16ct Aida Nederland Sea from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. The pattern is “Under the Moonlight” SAL. If you would like to stitch this beauty up, you can purchase it at www.passionericamo.eu

I have also made some progress on my crochet baby blanket. Not sure I am liking how the pattern connects the rows. The holes seem a bit large. I keep imagining a baby’s foot pushing right through, LOL. I will continue on, though. Here it is so far.

It is nice to work on while in the car or when I have a few minutes here and there. And it is getting me reacquainted with crocheting.

I have also made great progress on Mirabilia’s Raven Queen.

She really is a wonderful stitch. I am enjoying every stitch of her. So relaxing. But I can’t wait to see her sweet face appear.

So that is what I have been spending my time stitching on. What have you been working on lately?

Crochet · cross stitch · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Queen

Cross Stitching, Beading and Crocheting, Oh My!

July 1, 2015July 1, 2015 My Time Stitching33 Comments

I have forced myself to put down Mirabilia‘s Raven Queen to get back to beading on mermaid. This is how she looked last night after 10 evenings of stitching:

I know it’s not much, but it is a pretty good start. I have enjoyed stitching on her and will get back to her real soon. Right now I am getting to the beading on PR Under the Moonlight. Here is what I did last night:

There are going to be a lot of beads on this project! I managed to make them fit along the top border by omitting a few and and then taking my needle through the entire length to try to get them as straight as I could. The corners were easy and look very cool.

I hope to get a lot of beads stitched on tonight. Over the weekend I started another project. I know, like I really need another project. But it’s not a cross stitch project. It’s a crochet project 🙂

I have been wanting to do a crochet project for quite some time now. After seeing the Citrus Stripe Blanket on Not Your Average Crochet, I knew it was time to get started. My Step-Mom taught me to crochet when I was 12. And I was pretty good at making ripple afghans and over the years, a lot of Bed dolls. But I wanted to get that hook out and do something current and have a “quick, go-to project, that can go anywhere”. The only problem is, I can’t remember a lot of how to connect rows and turning is the biggest problem for me. So, I started with the peach stripe, and decided to sign up for a crochet class. I go next week at a local yarn shop. By then the other colors of yarn that I ordered should be in and I can continue on with this baby blanket.

So, that is all of my stitchings for this week. What are you stitching on?

Hand Dyed Fabrics

Updated Fabric Stash

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 My Time Stitching25 Comments

I promised someone that I would do an updated post of my hand dyed fabric stash. So Diya, this is especially for you 🙂

Here are all of my beauties from Hand Dyed Fabrics By Stephanie. She is my favorite dyer and I love collecting her FOTM every month. Several of her fabrics are on scroll frames being stitched on. They are all so beautiful.

This is a smaller pile of prettiest. There are fabrics here from Polstitches, Picture This Plus, Sunny Dyes Fabrics and Under The Sea Fabrics. All are also very pretty.

Seeing the fabrics standing was a much better way of organizing them, rather than having them stacked, which is how I had them before I pulled them out to do this post. So I have put them back into my trunk so that I can see them all at a glance. How pretty! And now it will be much easier to see what I have when looking for a fabric for a design 🙂

This is my biggest stash bin. These are all from Silkweaver fabrics. Some are smaller pieces, but it is nice to have a piece in Aida so I can see how it takes the dye. Most dyers don’t show their dyed fabrics on Aida, which is what I like to use.

So there you have it. I guess you could say that I have a bit of a fabric hoarding problem 😉 Oh well. I could do worse things. Fabric and color make me happy. What is in your favorite stash?

Cross Stitch Patterns · Fabric · Mermaids · Mirabilia

So Much Stitching in My Head!

June 22, 2015June 22, 2015 My Time Stitching27 Comments

I know, weird title. But it’s true. I have so many projects I want to do and in my head I can see myself stitching on all of them. But in reality I can only stitch on one project at a time. So, what have I been stitching on? Well, I finished the last section of Under The Moonlight SAL by Passione RicamoRicamo and have started the beading.

It is a very small bead start as there are a lot of beads on this project. I love beading and couldn’t wait to get to this point, but then I was distracted! By this:

Yep! Miss Nora did again. Another gorgeous design! This one is The Raven Queen by Mirabilia and was released on June 15. I ordered her and all her pretties right away from Stitches N Things and picked her up on Saturday! I played in the Viewer on Monday and Tuesday, so I already had my fabric picked out from my stash. I decided on Twixt N Tween 16ct Aida from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanhie Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. Here is my layover:

I LOVE it! I think she will look fabulous! Here is my floss toss:

I was so excited to get her and all her goodies, that I started her on Saturday night. Here is my progress after last night:

Not much, but a start. I will stitch on her for a few days and then force myself to put her down and work on beading the mermaid. I also picked up this sweet pattern by Hinzeit; She Sells Sea Shells.

It came with a little package of real seashells and a little blue star fish, but somehow the bag was open and the embellishment package fell out at the cross stitch store. LouAnn knew it must have been mine, so she called to let me know she has it for me and I will pick it up when I go back to pick up the little Nimue fairy framing, which has to be sent back. There was a little piece of plastic behind the glass at the bottom of the framing. It looks like it might be a broken piece of a spacer. So I will show pictures of her when I pick her up next time.

So… what projects are calling your name these days?

Mermaids

Mermaid Stitch A Longs

May 27, 2015 My Time Stitching13 Comments

I finished section 15 of the PR SAL#4 on Saturday night. So excited because the new and last section came out on Monday morning. I will probably pull her out tonight to start stitching the last section. On Sunday I pulled out this one to stitch on:

This one is PR SAL#2. I didn’t get to put too many stitches on her because I was so tired both Saturday and Sunday nights. I even tried last night and just so tired. I’m hoping It’s just my body still recovering from surgery. This week will be 6 weeks, and I was told it would take my internal body about 6 weeks to recover. So hopefully soon I can get back to my late night stitching 😉 I didn’t realize how much I missed this project until I started stitching on it. Even though it is 28ct, it seems like a breeze stitching on it. It must be the lighter fabric. We shall see if I put this one away to stitch on the other or if I continue on with this one…

What are you stitching on these days?

Mermaids

Siren and The Shipwreck All Framed Up!

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015 My Time Stitching20 Comments

I picked this beauty up from the framer’s a couple of weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to taking pictures and posting. But she is already hanging in my dining room. She now resides in the place that Galatea used to hang and Galatea is on another wall in the dining room, in place of a piece of art that hubby did not like. I have to say, his choices are perfect! Siren looks great where she is and Galatea is perfect in her new spot. This piece turned out so wonderfully!

Just look at the sparkle on that chandelier!

LOVE all the beads! This is an awesome chandelier!

And just look at that marvelous fin!!

And such a sweet, sweet face!

The frame was actually behind the counter at Stitches N Things. After looking at several frames, LouAnn whipped this one out and I knew it was the one! So perfect! I love the black in between the 2 different moldings; it really brings out her hair and makes the blue of the fabric pop! So happy with this one and so glad she is hanging on the wall for me to enjoy every time I walk through the dining room.

Stats: Siren and the Shipwreck by Mirabilia.

Fabric is Under The Sea by Sunny Dyes and is 16ct Aida

Framing done by Juanita from Way Cool Mats through Stitches N Things.

So…what is your happy finish?

Crochet · Floss

What a Tail!

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 My Time Stitching16 Comments

Section 14 is finished! And just look at that mermaid tail! Wow! Just gorgeous. I have just started section 15, and I am hoping to get it finished before section 16 comes out on May 23rd. That section will finally reveal her face! So excited!

So what are you up to on this Monday?

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