Crafting a bit more

For those of you wondering how my cross-stitching is going I have to admit that this week has not been that productive on the cross-stitching front.

as of April 23rd

As you can see I haven't had a lot of time to work on this project this week but considering I have been busy with other things I am not upset about it.  I don't think I will have it done in time for the next stitch night at Gitta's but I will have more done that I currently have done.

What has been keeping me busy this week is a request from a local charity.  The charity has a school readiness program that ends on May 6th and they were wondering if it was possible to have a knit hat for each of the children as a graduation gift.  I have to point out that I just started with this charity on April 21st so have been busy knitting.  Here is where I stand so far on the hat project.

completed hats

I so far have completed three hats of the 16 that they need.  I also have three more hats on the needles so hopefully can get at least one hat completed today and then will see how things go from there.

The hats are for children 4 - 5 years old so they don't take a lot of time to do but it's just the sitting and working on them which is different for me.  See I am one of those people that normally has lots of different projects on the go at once so focusing on hats is so very different for me.  Now you know why I have three hats on the needles currently.  At least they are different colours so it gives me a change.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and hopefully you don't eat too much chocolate.

Where did Sunday go?

I know that yesterday was Sunday but have to admit that I really don't know where the entire day went.

Crown of Squares - Saturday night

On Saturday I was able to get a bit more of the outline done which was making me feel good because I haven't been able to lose myself cross-stitching for quite a while.  I figured I wanted to finish the outline before I started any of the other colours.  Finishing the outline also ensured that it was all done correctly and I wouldn't find an error in the border after working hours on the inside colours.  Yes I had to "frog" the outline a few times due to miscounting.

Crown of Squares - Sunday night

Yesterday morning I got up and decided that I was going to spend my day stitching and that I did.  Thanks to my DH for making sure I ate, had my caffeine and stayed hydrated I sat and stitched and stitched.  I am really enjoying this pattern and can't wait to finish up my work for today so that I can pick it up again and see what I can get done tonight.  The blue in the middle of the outline is an overdyed blue and even the outline is an overdyed grey but the picture isn't showing either of the colours too well.  Also the stitching is straight, I am just having problems getting a straight on picture.

Now I better get to work so that I can spend my evening stitching again.

Stitching

Yesterday I went to the Creativ Festival at the International Centre here in Toronto.  I looked around and saw quite a few things that I would like but was good and only picked up a couple of items. 

When I got home a project was calling out to me so I decided it was time to sit down and stitch for a while.  I got Ink Circles "Celtic Quilts: Crown of Squares" but didn't like the colours it called for so this week when I was in Gitta's I picked the colours I wanted to use for the design.  So I sat down and started to work on it.

Ink Circles:  Crown of Squares

Now the fabric I am using is a hand dyed grey fabric which I picked up at the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace a couple of weeks ago.  So far the pattern is working up quickly but I am concentrating on the outline first and then I will work on filling in all the areas.  The main part of this pattern was pinks and rose colours and considering I am not into those colours too much I decided to use the greys and blues which I prefer.  I did keep one of the rose colours so will use it in one spot where they had called for a blue.

This week I also started working on the Round Robin piece from the Getaway so will have a picture of that in the next couple of days.

My goal this weekend is to work on Crown of Squares and see how much I am actually get completed.

My knitting needles and crochet hooks have been down for quite a while so hope that I can soon pick them up again and start seeing progress on that front as well.

Back to reality

I seem to have lost the last week but that is because I has busy working and not doing much crafting.  I did pick up my needles a couple of times but don't have anything to show yet.  I hope to have some pictures of progress in the next couple of days.

The getaway was wonderful and have to admit that after the weekend it did take a couple of days to recover and catch up on the sleep that I missed that weekend.  I didn't get much stitching done that weekend but enjoyed renewing all the friendships from last year and establishing new friendships.

The Gitta's getaway blog has a write up about the weekend so that if you are interested you can see what we were up to.

Now to get back into a routine of working on some of my projects so that I will be able to see progress on them.  Yes I picked up a couple more projects to do last weekend so now need to finish a couple that I have on the go first.

Finished name tag

Here is my completed name tag that I designed for the Gitta's Getaway which is this weekend.

The rules for the name tag were it couldn't be larger than 4x3 inch and our name had to be on it.  As you can see I was able to get my name on it and it measures just under the 4"x3" size.  

The entire name tag is petit pointed on 23ct cordova canvas so considering I did the front and back of it there were lots of stitches to do.  The name tag once again is a pocket that will hold my room key on the weekend.

Now the reason there are butterflies on it, is simple I love butterflies and what they represent.  Butterflies emerge from a cocoon and then fly around freely.  Oh the charms on it say "Dream" and "Believe".  Dream is for what everyone needs to do and believe for believe in yourself so that you can reach those dreams.

In the last couple of years I feel that I have emerged and started to show people what I do.  For so many years I just kept everything to myself and no one ever saw anything I did.  This blog has been part of my change and also now being a co-owner of a business I have had to be able to present myself a little differently.

There are still challenges that I want to achieve and hopefully over the next little while I will be able to start achieving them.  I am happy where I am currently heading and look forward to seeing what really happens.