Monday, December 30, 2019

Progress on some pieces

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 20
Here it is Monday morning, and I hope everyone had a great week.  For those that celebrated Christmas, I hope that you had a wonderful day. I was able to find a little bit of time to do some crafting this past week, and that makes me feel pretty good.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 28
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - I decided last week that I was going to sit and focus on trying to get one of the borders finished on the piece by the end of the month instead of trying to get it all done.  I still have to finish off the November section, which I am getting closer to doing, and then I will have the rest of the December section to go.

The November border is going pretty quickly as it is just three rounds of the piece, so hopefully, before the end of the month, I will have it done.  I will work on the December section a bit at a time, and I know it will be something that is on my list to complete early in 2020.

The next design is being released January 1st, so I will see what that looks like, and it will be a project that I will be hopefully starting early in January.

Mini The Forgotten - Dec 20

Mini the Forgotten - this piece got a little bit of attention as well this week but not as much as I had hoped.  I am slowly starting to fill in some of the areas at the bottom of the piece and will see how it goes.

Mini the Forgotten - Dec 28
I am going to see if I can try and focus on this project a bit more in 2020 as it would be nice to see at least one or two of my Heaven and Earth Designs get some love.

I know that it doesn't look like much right now, but hopefully, after a couple more months of stitching on it, we might be able to see a bit more of the detail of the entire piece.

Winter ornament - Dec 27
Ornaments - I ended up sitting and working on one more of the ornaments that I wanted to do after Christmas.  Winter was a project that I could sit and work on while watching some videos that I wanted to see.  The fabric that I used for this was what I found at Dollarama in the Christmas section, and I figured I should be able to get some ornaments stitched up on it quickly.  The snowflakes are printed on the piece, so it gives it a background, so that made the stitching a little easier.  I will be working on more of these ornaments over the next while, as it is nice having some quick stitch pieces around.


2020 - my goal for 2020 is to work on some more of my projects and see what I can get moved forward.  I hope to start the Linen and Threads Mystery SAL early in January, and I have some other projects that I will be pulling out and seeing what I can get done on them.  All my crafting goals will depend on how much time I have to work on them, so only time will tell.


This is my last blog for 2019, so I would like to thank everyone for reading my posts this last year and hope you will continue to read them.  I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and all the best in 2020.

May you find the time to do what you love each day, even if it is just for a few minutes.  See you in 2020.







Monday, December 23, 2019

A bit of progress

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 15
Here it is Monday morning and two days before Christmas. Things continue to be busy for us, so that means that I have been trying to juggle getting bits of crafting done when I can find a bit of time.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 20
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - here is one project that I have been trying to work on but have to admit that I haven't been able to get motivated to work on it.  I am not sure why this border is being such a challenge, but hopefully, soon, I will be able to pick up this piece and get it finished.

I am looking forward to getting it done and, I would like to possibly have it done by the end of the month, but that means that I have a lot of work ahead of me.

One thing that might motivate me is knowing that the new design will be released on January 1st, so I would like to have this done before then. I have the fabric for the next design, so that means that I need to get this one completed.

Mini The Forgotten - Dec 21
Mini The Forgotten - here is a new start for me and it a Heaven and Earth Design, so it is going to be around 14 inches square by the time it is finished.  I started this as I was looking at it, and it was a piece that I had loved for a while and finally got it kitted up and started.

I would like to see how much more of it I can get, but I also want to get a few little projects completed as well.

Let It Snow
Ornament - while shopping at Michael's one day, I found some wired ribbon that I thought that I could stitch on and make some little ornaments.  The fabric is sort of linen but more of burlap, so I grabbed a couple of rolls of the ribbon when it was on sale and yesterday decided it was time to try and stitch on it.

The "Let It Snow" ornament was a very quick stitch, and it was a lot of fun to do so now to see what other designs I can find that will fit onto this ribbon.

Oh, I have found some other materials that I am going to be trying to stitch on, so there may be other ornaments and such appearing throughout the year.

Table Runner - Dec 20
English Paper Piecing - I have continued to work on getting a bunch of motifs made, so I figured it was time to start to sew them together and get the runner started that I want to make.

I have a long way to go before this runner is finished, but at least getting a few of the motifs joined together makes me feel a little better.  This runner needs around 217 motifs, so I have a long way to go, but at least it is a start and now to continue to work on making sure that I can get more of the motifs joined onto this piece.


 I hope that everyone has a great week, and if you celebrate Christmas, I wish you and your family a Very Merry Christmas.

I now have some stuff that I need to finish up so that I can have a clean desk before Christmas.  So until I post again, I hope that you continue to find the little bits of time to do the things that you enjoy doing.





Monday, December 16, 2019

A little bit of progress

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 4

Yes, I am here, and it is Monday morning, and I am going to try and get two weeks caught up. This might be a bit longer than normal, but you will understand if you read to the end of the post to see why.   

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - I have been slowly working on this piece, and you can see that I haven't been able to get a lot of time to sit and work on this piece.  I am looking forward to seeing how much more of this I can get done before the end of the year.  I would love to see the rest of the border finished, but I am not sure if that is going to happen with only 2 weeks left in the year.
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 15

I am going to be working hard to see how much of it I can get done as the 2020 design size and the title have been released, so I will need to get prepared to start that project on January 1st.

If things so well, I should be able to see a bit more progress on this project during the week, but I will have to see how things go.

Everyday Shawl - Dec 14
Everyday Shawl - I have been getting bits of time to knit in the last couple of weeks, and I have been trying to move both the grey and teal shawls forward.  I am really glad that I put in the marker for the beginning of the month, as I can see how much I have been able to get completed since the beginning of the month. 

Everyday Shawl - Dec 14
On the grey shawl, the orange marker shows the beginning of December and the green is where I was on December 8th.  I like this shawl as it is simple knitting and something that I can work on when I just need something easy to work on and don't want to follow a pattern.

On the teal shawl, the green marker shows the beginning of December and the orange is where I was on December 8th.  I have been trying to work on this shawl a bit at a time as I am trying to get the chevrons completed so that I can get this shawl also to the point where it is easy to work on, and I don't need the pattern, but it is still going to be sometime before I do that.

Hex keychain
English Paper Piecing - This weekend, I had a bit of time to sit and try and figure out a couple of other ideas for using some of the motifs that I have been working on.  The first project was a keychain using the motifs, and that didn't take too long to complete as it was a simple and fun project.

Hex pincushion
The other project that I wanted to try and make was a Hexagon pincushion, so I sat down and worked on getting it made.  Sure there were some challenges making it as you have the cardstock in all the motifs until you get quite a bit of the pincushion sewn together.  I am happy with how it turned out, and now I am going to try and make a couple more of them.

I look forward to seeing all the different things that I can make using the motifs that I have.  I have some larger items on the go, but considering they are just a pile of motifs, I haven't taken any pictures of them.


QuickBooks Connect - Now, here is the reason why there was no blog last week.  I was at a three-day conference for QuickBooks, which is the accounting software that I use. The conference was wonderful and I learned quite a few new things about the software and other things.

Chris Hadfield at QuickBooks Connect
One of the keynotes at the conference was Col. Chris Hadfield, and it was wonderful to listen to his talk.  We were four rows from the stage, and it was a great spot to see him and also get a couple of pictures of him. The other highlight of his keynote was when, after completing his talk, he picked up his guitar and sang two songs to wrap up was a great day.

The conference was three extremely busy days, and now it is getting back to getting everything else done.


I hope everyone has a great week, and you find some time to do something that you enjoy doing most days.  It doesn't have to be for long, but at least a few minutes of doing something for yourself is important.







Monday, December 2, 2019

Bits of progress

Everyday Shawl - Nov 22
 Here it is Monday morning and the start of another week.  It is hard to believe it is now December, so that means we are one month until we have the start of a new year.

Everyday Shawl - I decided that this weekend that I would try and get a little bit of knitting done on this shawl.  It does take a little while to get across a row, but at least it is slowly starting to get a bit longer.  I am still a long way from getting this done, so I need to try and focus on getting a few more rows completed on this before the end of the year.  This weekend I decided to put in a marker at the end of the row that I completed in November.  I am going to see how much of the shawl that I can get done in December.
Everyday Shawl - Dec 1

I didn't work on the Teal shawl at all this past week, so I have also put a marker on it to see how much of it I can get completed in December.  I am looking forward to seeing what both of the shawls look like at the end of the month as the pictures that I take each week on the grey shawl don't look like I have done much.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - here it is the last month of the year and also the last month of this design.  The pattern was released on Friday, and I started to work on this over the weekend.  I haven't even finished the November section, so I will be trying to get both of these sections done at the same time.
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Dec 1

I am loving working on this piece, so I will see how much stitching I can get done this week on it.  I would like to see a couple more butterflies done this week so I will see what happens.  At least I have made a start, and I know that once I have finished the November and December sections, all that is left to do is do some embellishment on the piece.  The embellishment isn't part of the original design, so it will be something that I will figure out myself.

Other projects - I have continued to work on making the motifs for the English Paper Piecing, so I hope to start joining some of them together soon so that I can start to see the runner come together.


It looks like December is going to be a very busy month for us, so that means that I will be trying to get bits of crafting in when time allows.  I continue to try and spend a few minutes each day relaxing, so that is normally when I get a bit of stitching done.

I hope everyone has a great week, and you can also find a bit of time to do the things that you love to do each day.  It doesn't matter how long you spend doing something you enjoy; it is at least a bit of time to relax.

Monday, November 25, 2019

A few projects worked on

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL19 - Nov 13
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL19 - Nov 24
Here it is another Monday morning and, I have a few things to show that I was able to work on last week.  Life has been busy, so I haven't been able to get a lot done, but at least I can see a few projects moving forward a little bit at a time.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - here is the November border for this piece.  I am now trying to get the border done before November 30th when the final section will be released.  The final section will be the design that will fill in between the original part of the piece and the border that I am currently working on. 

This piece is coming together, and I am looking forward to seeing what the border is going to be like. I have loved completing all of this design so far.  It is hard to believe that the Peacock was the January design, and all the other sections came out one piece a month.

We have heard there is a new design for 2020, and that will be released on January 1st, 2020. I am looking forward to seeing that that design will be based on.
English Paper Piecing

Everyday Shawl - Teal - Nov 22

English Paper Piecing - it was time to start working on another project with the English Paper Piecing.  I have an idea that I would like to do with these motifs, but it also means that I have a lot more motifs to get done. 

English Paper Piecing for me seems very relaxing to be it making the individual motifs or sewing them all together.  The process for me is something that I enjoy. If I can get some more of the different colour motifs completed this week I, might even start to work out the overall design, but that will depend on how much time I have to work on this project.

Everyday Shawl - here is a project that I finally pieced up again and got a few more rows done on the grey version of it.  I still have a long way to go on this piece as it is just over 20 inches, and it needs to be around 30.5 inches before I am at the halfway mark.  I hope to find time each day to get a few rows done on this piece to continue to move it forward.

Everyday Shawl - Grey - Nov 22
I worked on the grey version of the shawl for a while, and then I decided it was time to start working on a teal version of the shawl as well.  I have now got around 12 rows on the next version of the shawl completed, so I will see how I can make progress on both of them over the next little while.  The teal version is the edge pattern, so that takes longer to knit than the body so that I will be using each of these projects for different times. 


Other projects didn't get any attention this last week, but at least I was able to see some progress on a few things.  Now it is time for me to get the word done that is sitting here on my desk. 

I hope everyone has a great week, and you find a bit of time to do something that you love, even if it is for only a few minutes a day.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Moving stuff forward

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Nov 6
 Here it is Tuesday morning and, I am getting to finally writing an update about what has been going on with my crafting in the last week.

I have been busy with a lot of other things, so there hasn't been a lot of progress on anything.  I hope to be able to get back to doing some of the stitching in the next couple of weeks but will have to see how things go.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Nov 13
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - I have finally been able to make a bit more progress on the border for the November section.  I would like to see this border done before the end of the month.  The border is three rounds of the piece so, hopefully, I  will be able to get it all completed before the December section is released at the end of the month.

I got at least some of the bottom border done and now to see if I can get the rest of it finished up quickly.

Unleash the Butterflies - Nov 3
Unleash the Butterflies - I was able to spend a bit of time working on this piece.  I continue to use Pattern Keeper as the method of tracking my stitches, and I am feeling a lot better about things.  I hope to continue to see bits of progress on the overall design before the end of the year.

Unleash the Butterflies - Nov 14
I know that there isn't a lot to see of the progress, but at least getting another 300 stitches done on the piece means it continues to move forward.    I am looking forward to seeing more of the piece come to life, but I know that it will only happen a little bit at a time.


I am not sure what I will be working on this week, so I will have to wait and see.  I would like to see some progress on at least one project, so I will see what happens.

I hope everyone has a good week, and you find the time to do something that you love even if it is just for a few minutes each day.

I now have some work that needs to be completed, so I will be off to work on that.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Crazy week

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Nov 6
Here it is Monday morning and the start of another week.  There isn't a lot to show for this past week as it is a little crazy.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - it makes me happy to see that I have at least been able to get some of the stitching done.  It makes me feel good to see some overall progress on this piece.  It would make me feel a little better to get more of it done, so I will see how it goes.

I hope that this coming week, I can spend a bit of time working on this piece and see if I can get some of the borders finished up.  This border is the second to last section of the design, and it is the outer frame.  I am looking forward to seeing that the middle section of the border looks like, but I have to wait until December 1st to see that.


I haven't had a lot of time to work on any of the projects, so I will see how things go this week.  It would be nice to find a bit of time to work on at least a project, so we will see how things go.

It is now time for me to get some work done that is currently sitting here on my desk.  I hope everyone has a good week, and you find a bit of time each day to do the things that you love doing.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Slow Progress this week

Unleash the Butterflies - Oct 27
Here it is Monday morning, and I have at least been able to make a bit of progress on a couple of projects this week.

Unleash the Butterflies - this is one of the projects that I wanted to try and make some progress this week.  I would like to see this project moved forward, so that means trying to spend some time working on getting little areas of the piece stitched.

Unleash the Butterflies - Nov 3
This week I decided to focus on working on smaller areas of the design to see if I could get some of it filled in.  I started with one of the colours closest to the side that was filled in and then continued to pick other colours that would help me fill in the various areas.  I still have a long way to go before I see the next section of her arm completed, but at least I was able to make a bit of progress this week.

Mouse Pincushion - Nov 3
English Paper Piecing - here is a project that I can work on a little bit at a time and see some progress on it.  I have started to make a mouse pincushion and, that has meant picking the colours for the body of the mouse and then laying them out so that I can get the two sections completed.  I have almost finished attaching all of the motifs for half of the body.

I am not sure how quickly I will get the mouse finished, but again I am enjoying working on the motifs and attaching them to make the designs that I want to do.  There are quite a few more projects waiting to be worked on, so make sure that one of them can get finished up quickly would be nice and then I can see which project I work on next.

Roses - Sept 28
Roses - I have continued to work on Roses as I would like to see this project finished up in the next 5 months.  I know that I can do it if I can focus on this project even for a little bit, so that is something that I am going to be trying to do.

Roses - Oct 29
I didn't get a lot of stitching done on this piece this week, but at least I moved it forward even if it was just a little bit.  I know that seeing that I can get some more of this project worked on would make me happy, so that is something that I am going to be trying to do over the next couple of weeks.  I hope that this week, I can continue to see little bits of progress on this design as it would be nice to see that I have a chance of getting it done by the end of March, which is my goal.


I continue to work on a bunch of other things, but I haven't focused on any of them long enough to see some good progress, so there are no pictures.  I like to have a couple of projects that are the main focus and then the other projects that I can pick up and work on when I feel like it.

So it is now time for me to get some work done as it is the beginning of the month, so there are tasks that I need to get done.  I hope everyone has a good week, and you find time to do things that are you enjoy doing even if it is only for a few minutes a day.


Monday, October 28, 2019

Some progress and a finish

Unleash the Butterflies - Oct 12
Here it is the start of another week and an update of what crafting I have been up to in the past week.  Of course, things have kept me busy, so I haven't had as much time to craft, but at least I was able to find some time to make some progress on a couple of projects.

Unleash the Butterflies - it was time again for this project to come out and get some attention this week.  I picked this piece up and focused on working on a couple of colours instead of one little section.  It made me feel a little better, seeing some progress on the overall piece instead of just one or two little areas. 

Unleash the Butterflies - Oct 27
I continue to use the Pattern Keeper (android app) to help me mark off my stitches on this full-coverage piece.  The app also helps me locate those single stitches of a colour that so often were missed when I was using the paper copy of the pattern.

The app also lets me see how many stitches I was able to get done and the percentage of the pattern that is complete.  So Unleash the Butterflies is 12% complete, so yes, there is still a long way to go on this project, but I love seeing some progress even if it was only .5%.

Simple Yet Effective Cowl - Oct 20
Simple Yet Effective Cowl - I said that I wanted to try and focus on getting this cowl done quickly and after spending some evenings working on the pattern, I was able to get it done this week.  I still need to block it, but the stitching is now done on this cowl.

Simple Yet Effective Cowl - Oct 25
The pattern was very simple, and it worked up quickly when you could sit and focus on it and not bounce around, trying to get a few other things accomplished.  I know that having a couple of evenings after dinner to sit and knit was great, and it means that I got this project finished and now will be able to start another project soon.

I have yarn to make another one of these cowls, so I think that will be cast on soon so that I can start working on it.  The next cowl that I make will probably with the bigger version of this pattern but will see once I start casting on the stitches.


I continue to work on a bunch of other projects, but nothing has advanced far enough for pictures.  I hope that before too long, I will have some pictures to show some of the other projects that I have been working on.

It is now time for me to get some work done that is sitting here waiting to be done.  I hope everyone has a great week, and you find some time to do the things that you love each day, even if it is just 20 minutes. 



Monday, October 21, 2019

Projects moved forward

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Oct 14
 Here it is Monday morning, and yes, there was a bit of progress on a couple of projects this week.  With it being a shorter week for getting things done, there isn't as much to show.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Oct 16
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - the one project that I wanted to get finished up this past week was the October section of the Linen and Threads Mystery SAL.  I only need the squirrel to finish, so I sat down one evening, and that was my focus so that I knew that this project was completed for the month.
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Oct 16

The center of the piece is now finished, and November and December will be working on the border once it is released.  I am looking forward to seeing what the border looks like as I have enjoyed all the various sections that we have had on this piece.  The biggest challenge each month is figuring out which colour is going into what part of the design.   Once that decision is made, the actual stitching of the section is a lot of fun.

Cowl - Oct 14
Simple Yet Effective Cowl - here is a project that got the attention this week, and part of that is because we were busy, so being able to pick up something and work on it for a few minutes at a time worked great.

I have to continue to knit this until it is 9.75 inches long, so I haven't measured it yet, so not sure how much more I have to knit, but I know it is more than a couple of inches.  I love this cowl as it does work up quickly, even if you are only working on a few minutes at a time.

Cowl - Oct 20

This week I am not sure what I will be working on as I have a few things that need my attention.  I hope to see a bit more of the cowl worked on, and maybe I will even work on the shawl for a bit.

I hope everyone has a great week, and you find a bit of time each day to do something that you love.  Until next week hope you all have a good week and remember, as Jan always says, "Find your joy."

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Moving things forward

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Oct 2
Here it is the start of another week.  Of course, it is Tuesday, and there was no blog yesterday as it was a holiday here in Canada, so I took the day to relax.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - I was able to pick up this project and get some more of the October section completed.  I only need to finish off the second squirrel, and this project will be finished another month.  I am looking forward to working on the border next and will see what that looks like.  This project continues to be something that I enjoy working on.  I enjoy seeing each section and now, with only two months to go on it, I know that we will be getting the border, so that will take some time to get done.
Linen and Threads Mystery SAL'19 - Oct 14

This project is the one that I look forward to seeing what the next section will be at the beginning of each month.  I understand that there will be a 2020 Mystery SAL as well, so now we are all waiting to see what the size is going to be so that we can start to get things organized for a January 1st start.

I hope to finish the October section this week and then this project will be put away again until October 31st when the November section is released.

Unleash the Butterflies - July 30
Unleash the Butterflies - this week, I decided that it was time to pick up a project that hasn't had a lot of attention for the last few months. I kept looking at this project and thinking about working on it but never did until this past weekend.  I only worked on getting a couple of colours added to a section of the design, but at least I have moved the project forward a little more.

Unleash the Butterflies - Oct 12
Another reason for working on this project is I found an Android app that will assist with working on full coverage cross-stitch projects, and it is called "Pattern Keeper."  This app makes it easy to each for a symbol on your pdf pattern and then mark them off as you stitch them.  This makes working on full coverage projects so much easier and even a little faster.   This app has only been available for the last couple of months, and it is still in Beta testing, so sure there may be a few little challenges that we deal with, but the developer is a stitcher and is working quickly to resolve any issues that we discover.

I hope to continue to work on Unleash the Butterflies more this month as I would like to see if I can get a bit more of it done.

Everyday Shawl - Oct 6
Everyday Shawl - I continue to work on this shawl a bit most days.  This past week I didn't get as much time to knit, but at least now the shawl measures 17 inches.  I still have a long way to go until the shawl is finished, but I love how it is turning out.

Everyday Shawl - Oct 14
The section of the shawl that I am working on needs to be 30.5 inches before I start adding in some buttonholes, so until then, I have an area of the shawl that is simple and quick to work on.  I will see how much knitting I will get done this week, as I think that this shawl might be a project that I try and focus on for a while.

Simple Yet Effective Cowl - Here is another project that got started in the last week when I wanted something that I didn't need to focus on too much.  The Simple Yet Effective Cowl is a free pattern on Ravelry, and it works up quickly.  When I started this project, I wanted something that I could work on a bit at a time and didn't have a finish a row.  This cowl is knit on a circular needle, so that means that I can work on it a bit at a time and not worry about ensuring I have enough time to complete a row.
Simple Yet Effective Cowl - Oct 14



I am now going to try and get some work done that is sitting here.  I hope everyone has a good week, and you find a bit of time each day to do something that you love doing. We will see what projects get worked on this week and until next week have a great week.