February Smalls SAL

02/24/2017

Happy Late Valentine's Day and early St. Patrick's Day.    This time of year is always tough as you never know what to expect from the weather.  Tuesday in Denver we had 70 degree temperatures and then Thursday and today it's in the 30's and snowing.  Go figure.

Time for our SAL check in sponsored by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  This month has been a fun stitching month for me as I finally started the birthstone patterns from Shannon Christine Designs.  I purchased several of the patterns last year and never got around to stitching them.

Below are some finishes from this series

I finished this one in January and it's the February Amethyst birthstone. The original pattern called for purple and gold and I changed it to silver.

The rest of these are February finishes, with some yet to be made into cards.  

March Aquamarine, stitched as the pattern called for except I substituted DMC 783 for the Kreinik metallic.

April Diamond, substituted silver for gold

 This is actually the May Emerald, except the intended recipient does not like green. I substituted pink and purple as they are her favorite colors.

 And another May Emerald adaptation.  This time orange and gold for the recipients favorite colors

 This beauty is the June Pearl pattern, in turquoise and purple.

And August Peridot stitched as designed with the exception of the DMC substitution for the metallic.

Shannon's patterns are quick and fun to stitch and I love playing with the different colors.  Expect to see a few more of these next month.







Other finishes for the month include two pieces for World of Charity Stitching

 

A few Mill Hill kits

 

 

Two "thank you's" requested by my youngest son for teachers that wrote him letters of recommendations. He's a senior in high school and busy applying for scholarships.

 


And a last piece for WOCS.

That's it so far.  However, it's only the 24th and who knows what I might stitch this weeekend!

Happy Stitching,
Michele

2016 review

Just another quick post.  Last year I started 366 projects and finished 251 of them.  Of those 251 finishes, 150 of there were cards.

Ciao,
Michele

January 2017 Smalls SAL

01/29/2017

Happy New Year (a  month late)!

Hope everyone is doing well.  I realize that I never did my year in review for 2016 and will do so in another post, as this post is dedicated to 2017.

First, thanks to Heather at Stitching Lotus for continuing the smalls SAL.  I love to look at what everyone is working on.

My January was spent stitching away.  I'm still participating in Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January/ February Facebook Challenge; however, I am only committing to a start a day for January and February, as opposed to every day, like I did last year.  I know I will have more starts than just 59, but  I also want to try and finish some of my larger WIPs this year.

On to my Smalls, which, as you know, is what the majority of my stitching is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've decided that 2017 is the year of Mill Hill.  I have quite a few kits I've acquired over the years and decided I finally need to stitch them up.

Disclosure, a few of my finishes were starts from last year.

Happy stitching,
Michele

12.30.2016

12.30.2016

Ok, a couple more updates from yesterday's posts.

I finished another Mill Hill kit.

 

 

And here's the picture of the card from one of yesterday's posts.  Very simple finish, but it was a very last minute card.

 

Happy stitching!

 

Michele

December Smalls SAL

12.29.2016

Seriously, where has 2016 gone? I mean SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh wait, I know, it was spent stitching for my crazy challenge.  So, I still have a little over 2 days to finish whatever I can and I will post a final year in review on Sunday January 1, 2017( insert gasp of horror).  I'm still finishing holiday baking and still have a couple of presents to finish...ugh.

Let's move on to thanks to Heather at Stitching Lotus for sponsoring the 2016 Smalls SAL and continuing the fun into 2017. I really enjoy seeing everyone's creativity!

On to my finishes for the month. I was frantically trying to finish Christmas cards and gifts.
Below are two cards I stitched up. Ok, 1 card and 1 finish because I realized I forgot to take a picture of the finished card for Ho Ho Ho number 2. GRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

Front and back of an ornament for an ornament exchange. It really turned out well if I say so myself.

 

Mill Hill kit and birthday card for a niece who plays soccer and her club colors are, you guessed it, orange and black.

 

More Mill Hill Kits.  I tweaked the colors on two of the orange and blue snowmen to match the Denver Bronco colors and they were a present for a Bronco fan.

 

 

Ok, my computer is not letting me do what I want, but the two trees above were last minute cards.
and the two below were also last minute cards.  I made more personal cards this year and just ran out of time so far too many of them were last minute.  And I wonder why I have calluses on my fingers, not to mention an actual hole in one of them.  Does anyone else wear a hole in their needle pushing finger?  Thimbles just don't seem to work for me.

 

If anyone wants to know where patterns came from, or names and number of Mill Hill Kits, let me know and I'll supply.

And I truly hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend. If you do not celebrate Christmas, then I wish you whichever holiday greetings are appropriate for you.  It seems like 2016 was such a tough year for so many and I pray 2017 brings much health and happiness to everyone!

I'm looking forward to a 3 day New Year's weekend to finish out 2016, get organized for 2017 and maybe clean my house.  Nahhhhhhh, skip the house cleaning part!

Hugs,
Michele