12.30.2013
Happy almost New Year everyone!  After taking some time off for the holidays, I am back at it and motivated for 2014.  I stitched a cute little card for my niece's birthday and of course forgot to take a picture of the finished card.  Here's a picture of the cross stitch portion.

The card was orange and I put black cardstock behind the cross stitch to frame it.  She plays soccer and her club colors are orange and black.

I also spent some time on my Artecy project, Rainforest.  I had posted a picture back in October of my progress and below is updated as of 12/28/2013

I added quite a bit in the bottom left corner.  The finished project is 16 1/2 " (230 stitches) wide by 11" (153 stitches) high and I am roughly 20% done.  I'd like to finish it by the end of 2014...but there are still an awful lot of stitches to go.

Hope everyone has a great New Year.

Michele

12.20.2013

Tada!  The finished super secret project for my friend. We are doing our gift exchange in a couple of hours so I figured it was safe to post this today.  I have to say I am very proud of the way this turned out.

Michele

12.18.2013



Finally, after more years than I care to admit, the stockings for my family are complete. There's a story behind this in that my husband and I received beautiful needlepoint stockings from a friend of his mother's when we got married. Well, she spelled my name wrong, and since it was needlepoint, I really couldn't take it apart and fix it.  As a result, we never used those stockings. When our boys were about 2 and 4, I decided to make them cross stitch stockings. I stitched one fairly quickly, and then started on the second. I had the tops done and started on one for myself (with my name spelled correctly)...and then life got very busy and I kind of lost track of mine (and part of the pattern). Keep in mind I still hadn't assembled the boys. Two years ago, I found my incomplete top and missing pattern piece and decided that no matter what, our three stockings would be done and up for Christmas. Since our boys were 12 and 14, it was about time.  Somehow I did it, even though mine was a very complicated Dimensions pattern. Now, our three stockings were cross stitch and facing to the left and hubby's stocking was needlepoint and facing to the right...you guessed it, he wanted to know why his was so different.  I reminded him, about our wedding gifts and he seemed to shrug it off, but I decided to surprise him with his own stocking and set a goal of Christmas this year.   It was a good thing I did, because when I put our stocking ups, with his old one, he commented again.  As you know, I've been working on it off and on all year and last night, when he took our youngest to soccer, put it together. I need to give it a good press before I hang it up. Wonder how long it will take him to notice once it is up.  Below are all four of our stockings.

12.02.2013

Happy December.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and successful shopping if you ventured out over the holiday weekend.  We spent the holiday with my dad in South Dakota and now are back and in the holiday mood.  I finished the stitching portion of the stocking Saturday night

and now just have the assembly.  I always dread making the actual stocking for fear that I cut something wrong and ruin the stitched piece.

I also completed several cards and I think I have enough for immediate family.  I would like to make two more that are more religious in nature, but I don't think I will have time to stitch and assemble.  We'll see. In the meantime, below are the ones ready to go out.

I will also pick up the super secret project from the framer's tonight.  Can't wait to see the finished piece.

Michele

11.25.2013

Happy Monday and almost Thanksgiving. Had a great weekend  of stitching and am so close to finished Mike's stocking it hurts.
I finally finished the white portion of the beard and the last green area of the toe and moved on to the top.  After counting rows, I ascertained that I had enough space to finish the stocking without modifying. I had been quite worried about the spacing.

Here's my progress after Saturday, 11.23.  Doesn't look like much, but I'm not showing the bottom portion that I finished.

And here's after Sunday, 11.24.  Only one small section in the top to go and then I start the backstitching and gold metallic on the glasses. I always save the metallic threads for last because they tend to fray.  Hope to work on this during lunch at work and then finish the missing section tonight. If I'm really lucky, I'll start the backstitching...but we'll see.

Michele

11.20.2013

WooHoo!  The super secret project is done. I will take it for framing tonight after my orthodontist appointment and then back to the stocking.  In the meantime, I finished designing the purse birthday card a co-worker wants to give his wife.  So, my to do list (in order of priority) is
stocking
purse birthday card
January birthday card
boy baby cards-3


and this doesn't include any fun projects I may want to do, just for me. 
What's the saying?  No rest for the wicked?

michele

11.19.2013

Productive night last night as I put the finishes on three cards.  It amazes me how much time it takes to pick the paper and determine sizes of cuts, etc.

First was the card for my co-worker.  I had all the stitching done except for outlining the feet and adding the baby's details.

Then I put the finishes on the cards for another co-worker, the requests she had put in for her parents and grandma. I believe the Mary and Jesus card is for Grandma and the angel is for her parents, but I could have that reversed.  I  had trouble deciding what paper to use, until I found the antique-y looking paper in the middle. It really tied the other colors together and gave the card an elegant look.

Tonight I resume working on the super secret project for another co-worker.  I'm two-thirds done and I need to finish this week so I can take advantage of the Michael's fabulous framing special.

Michele