A Work In Progress and Completed Stitcheries

Clouds have lingered these past few days. Today the sun shined through, just for a bit before sunset, enough to take a few pictures of my projects ;-). 

Above is where I'm at on my Give Thanks project from Stitches from the Harvest book by Kathy Schmitz. Done with the chain stitch on the yellow pods, and practically 2/3 done with the brown stems/branches. Might work a bit more on it this weekend.

These, above, are all the completed stitcheries, and the WIP on the first picture.

Above is this month's One Stitch at a Time design. It was stitched by my daughter on a flour sack kitchen towel by Colonial Patterns. She used DMC threads.

From these ones, the Quilt on the Line and the Hop Along Stitches were also stitched by my daughter. She used Artiste variegated thread in Sugar Plum, and for the house with the quilt she used variegated Valdani 3ply thread in color M66. The other two were stitched by me. Fruit basket was August's One Stitch at a Time design, stitched with DMC Color Variations no.4129. For Skippy's Green Jumper I used DMC Color Variations no.4068, all these patterns are by Kathy Schmitz and available as PDFs on her shop (link at the end of post).
Last but not least is Mrs. Gardening Hen, my daughter stitched this towel as well!

Teaching her a bit about finances, I commissioned this towel from her. The colors were the ones requested and she did a nice job on it.... cash well earned! She did so much stitching this summer that it rekindled her interest in hand embroidery, even said that she was enjoying it! I thought to myself: "Mission Accomplished!" ;-) By the way the pattern for the hen is Aunt Martha's no.3942.
Maybe next time I have some cross stitch progress to show, also hoping to finished an English Paper Piecing project from last year's autumn. Enjoy the weekend! Until next time!

Notes:
Kathy Schmitz's Etsy Shop 

Setting Up a Crafting Space

Since we moved, I haven't been able or motivated to set up my new craft space. I've been missing my old space and how enjoyable the natural sunlight of that room used to be.

I'm adding a few pictures of my old craft space here. We had a very large home, beautiful custom home.... but it was challenging for me to keep up with (even with the help of my husband)... living with chronic illnesses makes things a bit challenging. We refocus and decided to downsize a bit.

 My new craft space will be craft room/guest room, so I'm lost as to how I'm going to set it up. The old one used to be in the kids playroom. So I had it set up to simply look like a craft space.

 New projects, books, work in progress projects, supplies, etc., used to sleep right on top of my desk. Waiting for me whenever I had free time to keep working on them, without having to dig them out.... or even worst, being forgotten. (By the way, I'm having to use see thru project bags lately to help me remember what things are in progress or new starts.) 

 Sometimes it was tidy just like the picture below, but that wasn't the norm. Every little crafty mess, was a happy mess ;-).

 Do you have to share your crafting space? If so, how do you make it work? I'm hoping to start setting up that craft/guest room this winter, if not sooner. Perhaps a sofa bed? Make it look like a lounging space? Really don't know.

We even thought of getting a bit of help from an interior designer, just to point us in the right direction and help us make the room multifunctional for a craft/guest room that looks put together and harmonizes with the rest of the house. If it can't be done in a satisfactory way, I may have to arrange a corner of the master bedroom for my hand embroidery, EPP, and cross stitch. In a way I'm already doing that, but may have to set it up in a more aesthetically functional way. 
Anyhow, today was a bit cloudy so didn't take pictures of some finished embroideries I wanted to blog about. Hopefully tomorrow we have some nice sunlight to take a few shots and post them here soon! Be well! Until next time!

Reminiscing

At some point I will continue to work on this quilt. The one that was meant for mom. There are a few older blog posts about this project. When mom's health started to rapidly decline it took us (my siblings and myself) by surprise, it happened so fast, like a ride down a playground slide. My grandmother (mom's mother) lived for many years with Alzheimer's, even her late stages were quite long. We thought it was going to be the same with mom. Not so. Perhaps the fact that mom also had Lupus accelerated everything? Can't know for sure, but it is a possibility. Perhaps, all was clear all along and we were somewhat in denial? Maybe. What if the natural disaster that hit the area had to do with it? No matter how many questions we may ask, what we do know for sure is that the 'unexpected events befall us all'. - Ec 9:11.
For safety reasons only certain things approved by the caregiving facility were allowed in her room, handmade quilts weren't part of that approved list. Below is the last block I got to finished awhile back.

This coming November will be a year. Finishing it and using it will definitely keep many memories, happy and sad, alive daily. One of my sisters and my niece encouraged me to finish it, they were the ones that helped me stitched two of the blocks. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the rollercoaster trip of emotions that will come to mind once I continue working on it. A totally different mind set from the one I started with. Maybe I'll continue where I left in November.... or not. Just going to wait and see.
Hoping your day is going well!

Skippy, August OSTC, Give Thanks, Harvest, and Count Your Blessings

Stopping briefly to add a better update on current projects.
Above is the actual progress (mentioned on previous post) on the Count Your Blessings by Country Cottage Needleworks cross stitch design. No current progress on that one. You can also see the Bitzy Bob 2 recently purchased from ThatsSoKelly on Etsy to keep my cross stitch project work in progress floss organized, handy and portable. Recently placed an order for the original Bitzy Bob for my small hand embroidery projects, like the Once Stitch at a Time Club monthly embroidery patterns by Kathy Schmitz. It fits in my purse or just in bare hands nicely, and it is very light.

Above, ready to go, is the Give Thanks design also by Kathy Schmitz, from her book Stitches from the Harvest. It is the project pictured on the book cover. Used a Sublime Stitching iron on transfer pen to traced the design after it was printed. Traced from the back in order to keep the same orientation as the original, then ironed onto Moda Crackle (color: Linen) fabric. Didn't need to use the light box or a window, just placed a white sheet of paper behind the printed one and it was easy to see for me to trace. Will be using the DMC conversion instead of the designer threads called for.

It's been stormy/rainy here these past few days, so the picture above and below don't show as well. Haven't been able to keep making progress in any of my embroidery WIPs or start new ones because my hands are a bit sore, but will show you these two littles, above, that were finished few days ago: Grateful Bounty (August 2018 One Stitch at a Time Club design), and Skippy's Green Jumper 3" design (PDF on Kathy's shop). Need to dissolve the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Hoping to start on Harvest (PDF on Kathy's shop) soon along with the Give Thanks, that's the one you can peek on my tablet. I guess preparing projects count as progress! ;-)

Also my daughter is helping me out with the stitching of the September's 2018 One Stitch at a Time Club design. Printed on Sticky Fabri-Solvy, now called Stick'n Stitch by Sulky. She's doing a great job, if I may say so myself ;-)... look only the squirrel left and she started it yesterday. This one is enlarged, printed onto Stick'n Stitch, and pasted onto a white flour sack kitchen towel by Colonial Patterns. My daughter is using DMC to embroider it.
As I have mentioned before, I do not stitch for holidays since we do not celebrate them, but totally love doing seasonal stitcheries... all these patterns are perfect for this upcoming Fall/Autumn months! What is best, I might be on schedule to finish all of them on time! Take care! Until next time!

A Finished Ruth and Count Your Blessings Progress

Last pool outing with my littles meant a finished Ruth... yes!!!

So glad that was able to complete the embroidery before the official end of summer. Love how it turned out! For a moment doubted my color choices, but glad that I kept going because I really really like how it looks. Used Sulky Petites which are a 12wt thread. More about Sulky Petites in this previous post, and on this post the beginnings of Ruth.

This cross stitch project is going slow, but I'm enjoying it and that's what really matters ;-). Actually the 2nd sheep is done too. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, tomorrow I might be able to work on it a bit more. Really not looking forward to stitching the grass... that's a lot of grass! May recruit my daughter to help me with it. Since my chosen fabric was 14 count aida instead of the one called for in the design, ended up using 3 strands instead of 2, which meant that ended up ordering two more skeins of that color just in case I ran out.

Have to go now. Until next time... be well!

Works In Progress

Still warm around here, but Fall is definitely in the air! Love how the sunlight changes when autumn is approaching, which is already happening!

I'm enjoying cross stitching, it's kind of neat to see a design growing stitch by stitch on the fabric without having a design transferred onto it, but all the counting is exhausting... so I took a break and went back to my freestyle embroidery! Especially in the postdrome of a migraine (aka: migraine hangover), yeah... no counting please, just give me some freestyle.

Little by little advancing on the various works in progress projects, plus added a couple new starts to the mix ;-). You know, got keep things interesting ;-)! It felt so good and so refreshing to just stitch away without having to count, LOL. Plus in the great company of my older daughter, we talked and stitched, moments to treasure indeed! Her stitches and technique have improved so much!

Will try to be back soon with pictures of completed stitcheries, and perhaps a bit of show & tell. Until next time! Be Well!