Radio silence

Sorry for my lack of post as of late. I've had a lot of things hit all at once. I started school again this week. 2 years until I have my degree in hand. Geeze that looks depressing when its written out. I started paramedic school this week so I've been busy with that. If that wasn't enough a friend told me about the company she works for. Well I called in Tuesday, sent my app in Wednesday and was hired today! The big kicker of it all, the main reason for my lack of posting, I've been sick. I wish I could say I'm one of those stoic people who muster up and move on...but I'm not. I'm a lay in bed watching netflix while I attempt to have the dog grab me another water. (it never works fyi)

With starting the new job I'll have regular hours and only have to work every third weekend so I'll have more time to stitch (I hope) I should get some stitching in Saturday. I have to go babysit my mom who had surgery on her left hand. But I owe her, she sat and listened to me whine with every surgery or illness I've had (medical people make the biggest babies lol)

Testing...

Has anyone else had trouble posting lately? Half the time I try to post it gives me an error, the other half it just doesn't let me type! Not to much to update today. I'll try to post some pics when I get home. Stay tuned!

The wait is over!

On a totally unrelated stitching note...they have finally named the 12th doctor! Peter Capaldi is going to be taking over at the start of season 8. I am very interested to see how this will play out. He is older than the last 2 doctors and I don't know how that will go with the younger crowd, but personally I am excited. I think he is going to do a great job.

I'll post some cross stitch updates tomorrow. This has been a crazy week at work and at home. What little time I've been there I spent it sleeping!

Pics as promised

I didn't get a whole bunch of time this week to stitch. It was slow at work which helped. I managed to get a lot done on the Spring Chair. It's part of a kit from Janlynn of four seasonal chairs. I would post a picture but all the pictures of the finished project are either so tiny or so blurry you cant see. Even the picture on the actual project are tiny. These chairs remind me of Paula Vaughn designs. They are supposed to be one large cross stitch, but I cut the fabric in 4 and plan on sewing them together with fabric to make a nice wall hanging.

Spring Chair 1

Spring Chair 2

I did manage to get some work done on my Bothy Threads Cut Thru SAL. Not as much as I wanted but any stitching is better than no stitching right?

Bothy Threads update #2

When I came home this morning I noticed something odd with Bella

Do I have something on my face?

Either she has a new colorful goatee or she was eating stickers again. She is one weird cat. She is half bengal so I don't know if that has something to do with it or not. She loves eating tape, stickers..anything with a glue background. Weirdo.

Freebies: Check out Sullivans Floss . Under the projects tab you will find some nice seasonal charts. Some are even designed by Ursula Michaels! They have conversion charts to DMC as well.

Grrr...

Is there anything more annoying than having to frog a whole section because you miss counted! I am 28 years old now. You would think I would know how to count. I just spent 15 minutes pulling stitches out because I started 2 spots short of where I should have.

I'm sitting at work on a slow night, which is good for my stitching, but bad for blogging (can't upload pictures) So I'll post pics of my new start and some updates when I get home.

With a finish comes a new start

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Life has a way of getting in the way. I had 4 days off last week and managed to cram so much stuff into those 4 days I didn't have much time left for stitching or posting. I did however manage to get some stuff done. I finished the patchwork cow! I started this back in '07 and figured it would be a nice easy stitch. Yeah well it fell to the bottom of the UFO pile.

It doesn't look much like a cow yet does it?

This was the progress last wednesday night. The pattern called for a border of 4x4 squares in black. I did not like the look of this. So I thought why not try a satin stitch?

Patchwork Cow Finish

Started '07

Finished 7/20/2013

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I also did stars in the corner so the stitches would no look funky. I used a variegated thread and I think it makes it look very nice. The only weird thing is, and you cant see it on the picture, when I washed it with dish soap the color of the soap stained the fabric a bit! I had bright green loops all over my picture! I rinsed it really good and now that its dry you can hardly notice them. I have never had that happen before. I used Ajax soap last night and I usually use Dawn to wash my projects. Guess I'm sticking with Dawn from now on.

I also managed to start my Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed! I picked up some blue evenweave and started stitching away. I was a little worried about stitching on evenweave but I am loving it so far!

Can you tell it's a garden shed?

That's all for now, have to get ready for work. Good stitching everyone.

Another finish and a possible new start!

I finished the cardinal pair! I feel so silly that I set this down, when it only took me about an hour to finish it. Oh well Grandma will get a mid-summer present.

 Cardinal Pair

Dimensions

Started 2010

Finished 7/11/2013

A close up of the work

Now I just have to mount it and find a frame for it.

When I came home the other day I found Bella trapped in the window! She must have crawled in there then stepped on the window and closed it behind her. Needless to say she was not too happy with me that I stopped to take a picture.

No worries though, there is plenty of room in there for her fat butt.

She forgave me though and helped keep my threads safe on the chair as I worked on the Tardis.

"I've got this mom, no worries"

I really enjoy working on the Tardis. If I miss count it doesnt matter. I just move the stitches over a bit and no one will over know!

I added more yellow and some brown

Finally I found a pattern that I bought out in Boston when I visited my brother last October. I'm thinking about stitching this on linen. I've never stitched on anything but Aida and would appreciate any tips you savvy stitchers have for me.

I think the linen would give it more of an "aged" feel, which would fit with Boston.

Well I'll leave it there for now, I have to get ready for work. Although I would much rather stay home and stitch!

A small finish, some Wip's, a give away and my fur babies. (pic heavy)

Okay I think I have this whole blogger thing figured out and when you click on my name now it is much easier to get in contact with me. Plus I no longer have to look at my full name, which is great. First I finished the Sonic Screwdriver bookmark!

 Sonic Screwdriver

John Shirley

Finished 7/6/2013

I am having a date night tonight and will be able to give it to my boyfriend.

I went through my stitching bag after I finished the bookmark for other smaller projects to work on at work and found some old UFO's which are now WIP's

This is an old pattern my Grandma liked. I started it but quickly got annoyed by how short they cut the threads. It feels like constant changing. 

I got this for my Grandma as well. It is a non counted cross stitch. The pattern was stamped on aida with the background. You just have to fill in the missing parts (Like the leaves) I'm so close to finishing I think I'll work on this one first

I bought this last year to make the cardinal birdhouse for my Grandma for christmas. After I finished that one I started on the cat. The kit came with plastic but I had some green paper so I thought to try it on there.

I bought this pattern for my father. He used to be a dairy farmer before he hurt his back. I plan on getting this finished for christmas.

Marsha over at Everybody Loved Clark is having a giveaway. She is giving away Prairie Schooler charts for the 12 months! You can enter HERE and join her blog to help her get even more followers. 

My Bothy Threads pattern finally came in the mail today! Now I just have to wait for payday to buy the fabric so I can get started. sometimes I hate being broke lol.

I'll end this long post with pics of my fur babies.

This is Gerry the ferret. I had to put him to sleep this past year. He was such a great snuggler and will be greatly missed.

Bear is the orange marmie and Pippin is the orange tuxedo. I love this pic. It looks like Bear farted and is ashamed and Pippin thinks he smells and is trying to push him away!

Little miss Mcgee being cute.

Pippin and his spoon. He has allergies and is always itchy. It grabbed this spoon and spent most of the night rubbing his face on it.

Rylee was very tired after 4th of July. She is very nervous about everything and the fireworks wore her out. That and I have her Benadryl.

Bear, Pippin and Bella (my great marmie/bengal) snuggling. This is a rare photo. Bella is the newest addition (about 4 years now though) and Bear and Pippin tend to ignore her.

Bear playing with my prewrap.

Bella helping me organize my stitching bag. I have never had a cat before who likes to cross her paws while she is sleeping. Maybe its a bengal thing?

Thanks for sticking with me for this long post. I'm off to get ready to go see Man of Steele. Have a good week everyone!

New followers, some stitch and 4th of July

First off hello to all my new followers! It's been great reading all of your lovely comments. I am still new to using blogger and will figure out how to make it easier to find me. I did not get much stitching done this week. I was on my day week. Usually I work from 10 at night until 6 in the morning. 3 days out of the pay period how ever I have to work from 5 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon! I tend to fall asleep early during this week. Also happy 4th of July! I had a fantastic day today. Our town goes all out with a parade and a very nice firework show. I spend the day with my lovely boyfriend and family (and managed to get some stitching done as well.)

The bookmark is coming along pretty well. Just have to finish the light grey, the bottom and the top and this will be ready to give to my boyfriend, who is also a big Dr. Who fan.

I was telling one of my coworkers to keep an eye out at garage sales for me to I can find more stitching things and another coworker told me that she has a whole basement filled with cross stitch supplies! She used to stitch a lot when she was younger, but has not stitched as much now. I am going to go to her house sometime in August and have a look! She did bring me two patterns the other day, one is a Precious Moments baby Ark and one is a flower picture (I'll take pics tomorrow, I left the patterns at work oops) I'm excited to stitch new things. I'm still waiting for my cut through pattern, hopefully that gets here this weekend.

Happy stitching to everyone!

Bookmark start and Tardis update

I didn't get as much work done in the bookmark yesterday as I had hoped. We have been having thunderstorms and rain the past few weeks. My minnie aussie is horribly scared of thunderstorms, so I spend most of the morning calming her down.

Rylee likes to hide behind the toilet during storms.

Here is my progress after yesterday.

Here is my progress after tonight. It was a slow night at work and I have able to get several things done.

I finished the white of the lower part of the screwdriver and started the outline. Is there anything more boring than stitching white on white?

I was able to make a bit of progress on the Tardis. There is a lot of single stitches so I've sort of been jumping around.

Bothy Threads Cut Thru

After looking at a few other bloggers pictures I have fallen in love with these designs. I have decided to start on the cut thru garden shed. This would be perfect for my step-mom

Give aways!

Lija at Stitching in Crosses and More is having a give away to celebrate passing her 100th follower mark. She is giving away some lovely gifts! Comment here to be entered in the drawing. She is willing to ship all over the world!

Kaye at Kitten Stitching is having a great give away to celebrate 2 years and 300 followers! Comment here to be entered in the drawing.

Bookmarks!

Doctor Who Bookmarks

John Shirley

I enjoy getting away from typical cross stitch on Aida and like to branch out to towels, bookmarks etc. I stumbled on these great Doctor Who bookmarks while looking at the Exploding Tardis and had to have them. I love looking for cross stitch patterns on Etsy. They are not very expensive, which is perfect for my budget! I had my boyfriend pick a design and after I found a "less girly" bookmark at Michael's I'm going to start on the Sonic Screwdriver when I get home from work.

Exploding Tardis

Exploding Tardis

KatsCrossStitchery

Started 6-21-2013

This is by far the largest project I have ever taken on. The pattern is 11x14 on 18 count Aida. There are 48 colors with multiple changes in each 10 block. I know this is going to take me a few years to finish. I don't have a lot of time to cross stitch during the school year, but I plan on getting it done before I am 30! It will be a birthday gift to myself.

I made a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics and used a 40% off coupon to buy scroll bars. I have never used them before and wanted to give them a try with this large project. I printed out a hard copy of the pattern to keep as a backup, but I usually use my iPad when stitching. I can enlarge the pattern as needed and it helps save my eyes.

I like to grid out my 10 squares with a washable marker. This helps me when stitching because I don't always count the best! Plus 18 count Aida is smaller than I normally use and is a bit hard to see.

As you can see I gave up on the 18 count! I was starting to get frustrated when stitching and that is no fun. My Mom had some 14 count Aida, but now my Tardis will be 14x18! My scroll bars are too short now, so I bought a Q-stitch frame. I am loving it so far!

This was my progress after an hour of stitching at work! I work night shift in the lab and sometimes we are very slow. 

First time for everything!

This is my first attempt at a blog of any sort. I thought I would incorporate my two favorite things, cross stitching and Doctor Who. I had the idea to start a blog while setting up my current WIP the exploding Tardis. I knew this was a project that was going to take me quite a while to finish and wanted some sort of journal to watch the progress. Well I googled cross stitch blogs and stumbled on to some fantastic blogs. Debbie at Debbie's Cross Stitch  was one of the firsts and a major inspiration for me. I plan on tweaking my blog over the next few days and get some pictures loaded of the Tardis.