December Smalls SAL

12/29/2017

Happy Almost New Year!  Where has the year gone?  Thanks to Heather at Stitching Lotus  as always for sponsoring this SAL.  I love to see what everyone is stitching.

Lots of stitching this month for me as I still have not found a job. I was laid off Nov. 17 and  it really is  a tough time to be looking for a job.  I'm hoping things pick up after the holidays are over.

A few more Christmas finishes to round out my holiday cards.  Several people gave me going away gifts, so in lieu of  a "Thank you " card, I sent them handmade Christmas cards with a "thank you" included.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of some of the finished cards,

 

 

 

This is an anniversary card for my sister and brother in law.  Their colors were green and black. 

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Lord, when did I get old enough to have contemporaries celebrating 25 years of marriage? 

Hootie, Hootie, who's got the Hootie?  I just love these owls from Pinoy Stitch. I'm working on several sets of Hooties for a variety of decorating ideas.  My ultimate goal, is to set up a seasonal tree  decorated with Hooties and switch them for every season/ holiday.

 

 

These two are part of my 2018 Valentine's cards.

 

I finished the Lizzie Kate  Spirit of Christmas mystery SAL.  I will get it framed in 2018.

I'm also working on the Stoney Creek Halloween patterns of the month from earlier this year. I have 4 sections done and two more to go.  I bought the wrought iron header  and will turn this into a wall hanging once the last two sections are complete.

 

And last, but not least, is Tigger. I start this in 2014 and took it to work. I only worked on it when I had nothing else to do at lunch and decided it was high time to finish this! I think I have three more of the Pooh characters in this set and will start at least one of them in 2018.

Plans for 2018 include finding a job and trying to finish some of my larger WIPs.  I'm still a member of the Debbie's Ultimate Crazy Jan/ Feb Challenge and it's a fun group of ladies which gives me even more stitching inspiration.

I hope to get a few more finishes in yet this year and will post a final update early next week.  In the meantime, I wish everyone the best  and hope that 2018 is better for everyone than 2017.

Hugs,

Michele

More November finishes

12/01/2017

A quick update with a couple more finishes. 

 


My progress for the year as of yesterday, is 267 finishes out of 334 starts.  Now I have 109 Christmas cards to make.  About half of which other people stitched.

Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

Happy Stitching,
Michele

2018 Smalls SAL

Yay, Heather is going to continue the Smalls SAL in 2018. It's always such fun to see what everyone is stitching.




Here's the link to her website if you'd like to join in the fun
2018 Smalls SAL

November Smalls SAL

11/26/2017

Happy end of Thanksgiving weekend!  I hope everyone had an enjoyable time with their families.

We spent the weekend in South Dakota visiting my dad and brother. My dad moved to an independent living facility in August and this was the first time I've seen his new place.  The facility is a remodeled building that was my middle school and his high school. We stayed in their guest suite and I can tell you it was very weird living in my old middle school.   Dad is settling in, while dealing with a variety of health issues.  This is a small facility, with only 40 residents, and they keep a close eye on Dad.  I spent time trying to remember which rooms I had classes in.   It was very interesting how they "re-purposed" this old building and it's a refreshing change to see an old building re-used, rather than torn down.

November was filled with lots of stitching as I hurried to finish pieces for Christmas cards. First, I want to give thanks to Heather at Stitching Lotus for sponsoring the monthly Smalls SAL.  If it weren't for her, I'd never post on my blog!

Before I show Christmas finishes, I wanted to show two non-Christmas finishes.  The cards for my co-worker that was expecting twins.  Two very healthy baby girls!

 

Ok, on to Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of finishes; now I have to make the cards.  I'm donating about 60 cards to WOCS, which is one of the reasons I make so many Christmas smalls. I also give hand-made cards to family and close friends.  I admit, I am happy to be done with this year's cards. With that said, I plan on continuing to stitch Christmas smalls at least one day a week to allow plenty of time to get next year's cards done!

I have also continued my "start a day for the year", even though this was only supposed to be a start a day for Jan-March through a Facebook group.  I had so many graduation cards to make and then Christmas cards, that I just continued the starts.  I think next year the starts will just be for the first three months as I REALLY want to spend more time finishing some larger projects.  My plan is to set a stitching schedule for each week, stitching a different project for each day. As I finish a project, I'll bring a new one in.  I did this in October, when I had a couple of special request projects for friends and it was amazing the progress I made when I was focused, rather than just stitching "whatever".  And because I worked on something different each day of the week, I didn't get bored with any one project.  Yes, I have a very short attention span when it comes to stitching!

Happy Stitching!

Michele