A week with some progress

Temperature - April 20

Another week is now over and another month is about to be over. For us here in Canada the end of April also means that our personal tax returns are due so another deadline is about to be passed. This last week I was able to find bits of time to work on a bunch of projects which did make me feel a lot better.

Temperature - April 27

Temperature - how this project seems to have become a challenge for me and I am not really sure why.  Maybe part of the problem is I got behind on the stitching of it in March and now I am still trying to get caught up. I hope to be able to conotinue to get it moved forward and hopefully soon I will be able to see that I have it caught up and then maybe I will try and keep it up to date after this.

Key chain

Key chain - now after all of the things that I was trying to do last week I decided it was time to pull out a smal project and see how quickly I could get it completed.  The key chain was a flower on one side and my initial on the other side so it rally didn't take me long to get this stitched.  The picture doesn't look great as this is just after finishing it and doing the rough cutting out for the key chain.  I now just need to get it finished and then I will be able to start using it on one of my craft bags.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - April 30

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL 2018 - Sunday morning I woke up to find out that the May section of the stitch along had been posted so that meant that I had to print off the pattern and try and get a bit of start on the piece.  I was able to get two threads done on the May section so that makes me happy and now to see how long it will take me to get this section completed.  The May section is a lot larger than the April section so that means that I won't be getting it completed in a couple of days like I did last month.

I love this project and I do look forward to seeing what each month has because then it means that I have a small finish each month once I have finished stitching the month.  I am looking forward to seeing the completed design but that is still 7 months away but that is fine with me as it means that I have 7 more months of looking forward to seeing that that monthly design will be.

DLKs Crafts - April 28

DLKs Crafts - now this is a design that I did and I will be using it with my ETSY shop for when pictures are taken of the grime guards on the q-snap frames.  We have found that the camera doesn't always want to focus on the grime guards so we figured we would give it some help by having a stitched piece on the fabric.

I am going to be stitching two of these so that both of the q-snaps will have the same design on it.  I started this one on Saturday and got a bit of it done an dnow to see how quickly I can get the two of them stitched. 

Stitch Maynia - how for a lot of stitchers the beginning of May means Stitch Maynia but it isn't something that I am going to be doing.  What Stitch Maynia involves is starting 15 projects in the first 15 days of May.  For me having another 15 projects started doesn't sound like fun so I am going to continue stitching like I have been stitching and working on the projects that I want to work on each day when I can find the time to stitch.  I may try and work on a few of the other pieces for a little bit during the month of May but I won't be starting a bunch of them.  Sure, I have more than 15 projects currently on the go so I could work on a different one each day for the first 15 days but again I don't know what my schedule is going to be and also I just want to enjoy stitching and not feel the pressure of trying to do a different project each day.


I have how taken a few minutes as a break from the work items that need my attention this Monday morning so now to get back to doing them.  Hope everyone has a wonderful week and if you are participating in Stitch Maynia I hope you enjoy it.  I will be watching from the side lines and will work on my projects when I have the time.

Crafting challenges and completions

my yarn bowl

This week crafting was once again something that didn't get a lot of attention but at least over the weekend I was able to get some stuff done and that makes me feel very happy.

Here is a fun challenge that I encountered this week and it was a bowl that I was going to use as a yarn bowl.  As you can see the bowl wasn't big enough for my Caron Cakes - Big Cakes ball of yarn.  It was fun when I picked up the yarn and immediately realized that the yarn wasn't going to fit into what I was going to use.  Now to see if I can get it into the bowl after I spend some time working on a shawl.  Just having the yarn in the bowl will make moving it around so much easier as I don't normally sit in one spot to do all my stitching.

I think the ball of yarn will now fit into the yarn bowl because now that I have used some of it the cake is a lot smaller.

Spiral Shawl #2

Spiral Shawl #1

Some knitting - this week I decided it was time to try and get some knitting done as I haven't done any for a while.  I found a pattern that was simple and it was just garter stitch but it would turn into a spiral shawl.  I didn't think it would take me too long to get a shawl done so I started it and boy was I surprised.  What it ended up that it didn't take me long and before the end of the weekend I had two of these shawls knit.  I still have enough yarn left in the ball to maybe get a third shawl done which would be great.  I really enjoyed working on these shawls as they were quick to work up.  I used Caron Big Cakes to make these shawls and it was nice to see how they turned out and it was nice to see the colour transitions so that was nice.

I won't be working on the other shawl for a few days but I am happy with the progress that I have been able to get done.  I am thinking that I may try and get some of the next shawl done before the end of the week.

Mystery SAL - 2017 - February 21, 2018

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL 2017 - this is a project that I started last year and it didn't get a lot of attention and it is a project that I only pick up when I am waiting for this year's version of the design is released.  I know that just seeing that I have been able to get a bit of this piece done makes me feel better.  I am happy with the progress that I was able to get this week considering I didn't spend a lot of time actually working on it.

Mystery SAL - 2017 - April 18, 2018

This piece will have two colours in it and it makes me happy to see that both of the colours have been added and hopefully I can continue to get some more of this done before the end of next weekend.


This coming week I hope to be to get some crafting done as it makes me happy to see that in the evenings I can sit and spend some time doing that. I have Temperature to try and work on as it is behind once again so that needs some love and attention and I am thinking that there are other projects that I can work on this week.

I have things that I need to get completed for work so now I am off to try and get them done and will see how much time I have for crafting in the evenings this week.

Where did the week go?

Where did the last week go?  I have to admit that part of me is trying to figure out where the week really went. I know that I was busy so I know where the work days went but it is the evenings because I wasn't able to spend a lot of time stitching.  I know that there are going to be weeks like that and this was just one of those weeks.  Now to see what this week will be like as it looks like it might be another one of those weeks where stitching and relaxing time is going to be limited.

Temperature - April 6

Temperature - well this is the only project that got any attention this past week and part of that is because I wanted to get it caught up through the end of the March.  Yes, I was way behind and figured it was time to just sit and work on it and get some of the stitching done.  I am now ready to work on April and see if I can get that caught up quickly.

Temperature - April 15

I love how the design is turning out as it is always fun to see what colour I will be stitching next.  I am hoping that I will soon be able to be adding more of the yellows to this design because I am missing the warmer weather.  This weekend we had an ice storm here in Toronto with ice pellets, freezing rain and now rain.  It isn't something that I was happy about but these things happen.


This past week I was able to get some of the other projects worked on that I have on the go so that is where part of the time went especially this weekend.  ETSY is something that I am really enjoying working on and getting more items up onto the site is what I am now working on so when we were home on Saturday I was sitting at the sewing machine trying to get some more items closer to being added to the store. It feels great seeing that I have been getting some sales and now to see what the sales are like when some of the new colours are added to the site.  I know that for me ETSY isn't something that I can spend a lot of time on so things get added when I have the time to sit and sew and get the items made.

There are projects that are now waiting for me to start to work on them so I better get them moved forward and then I will see what time I have left this week to actually sit and stitch on something.  If you were impacted by the ice storm I hope you were able to stay home and do some of the things you enjoy doing.  If you weren't impacted you were lucky as we are still trying to get back to normal after this weekend.

Things moved forward and a new start

Another week has come and gone and stitching once again wasn't something that I was able to do a lot of.  I was able to find a few minutes most days to get something done but again now as much as I would have liked.  Saturday was my big stitching day and I have progress on one project so that did make me feel good.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - April 4

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL -  the design was released on March 30th but I didn't pick it up until I had finished working on Squirrel so that meant that I didn't actually work on this piece until this week. The design wasn't very large so it also meant that once I was able to sit and focus on it I was able to get it completed.  Yes, I have already completed the April section of this piece and am looking forward to seeing that the May section is going to be.  I think it will be a large section but will have to wait until the end of the month to see what it is.

Temperature - March 23

Temperature - April 6

Temperature - now here is a project that was sort of forgotten in March so now to try and get most of March stitched as well as try and get caught up for April.  I have all the colours figured out for March so that means that I can just pick it up and stitch which is great.  I am thinking that I am going to focus on trying to get caught up quickly and then hopefully I will be able to keep caught up because having to do four weeks worth of stitching on this isn't something that I wanted to have to try and do.

This week I am thinking that this is going to be one of my focus pieces so that I can see that I have it all caught up and then I will feel a lot better about this again.

Grace Face 3 - as I write the title of this one I think about the size of it and how long it is going to take me to complete.  It isn't the large version of this piece but it is still around 7 x 9 inches and it is a full coverage piece.  I have always wanted to stitch a Heaven and Earth Designs so now I have a start on one of them.

Grace Faces 3 - April 7

I started stitching this piece on Friday evening and then spent quite a bit of Saturday working on it. It doesn't look like I got very much done but at least I have been able to get it started and now to see when I will be able to pick it up and focus on it again.  I am thinking that I am going to try and work on it a bit at a time to see how much of it I can get finished this year.  I am looking forward to seeing this project moved forward as I do love butterflies and I want to see how it turns out.


This week I have things that I need to work on so that means that they need to get done before I can try and focus on getting some stitching done.  I hope to try and stitch most evenings as I know that it makes me feel so much happier when I can even find an hour a day where I can sit and stitch.

A bit of progress

Linen and Threads - Squirrels - March 25

 Where did the week go?

I have to admit that as I look back on the last week one of my biggest questions was "Where did the week go?"  Yes, it was one of those weeks where I am now looking back and trying to figure out what I actually did most evenings.

Linen and Threads - Squirrels - March 30

Linen and Threads - Squirrels - now this is the project that got the attention this week and considering I didn't have a lot of time to stitch I am happy with the progress that I got on this piece.

The Squirrels are now finished and are going to be finished/framed but I am now sure how I am going to be doing that yet.  Just seeing it finished makes me happy because that is another project that is now on the completed list instead of the work-in-progress list.

This past week was a busy week for me and it meant that by the time dinner was over most evenings I really didn't have the energy to sit and do much of anything. Sure, it was the long weekend but that also meant that there were things that still needed to get completed even with it being a weekend.  Jobs don't always stop just because the calendar says it is a holiday or it's the weekend.


One thing that I have noticed is currently I don't have a project that is really catching my attention and wanting me to work on it.  I have projects, that yes, I am working on and I want to get them moved forward but nothing is calling me to sit for a few hours and just stitch.  I hope that through this coming week I will be able to find the project that makes me want to curl up and stitch in the evenings again. Temperature of one of those projects that now needs some attention so that I can get it caught up to the beginning of April.  Linen and Threads Mystery SAL is now ready for the April section which was released on the weekend. I know that I have lots of projects that I could be working on but want I would like is a project that when the day is over that I can say "I want to work on xx" and that is what I work on, and maybe I could mix in bits of some of the other projects.

I know that I will find a project that gets me to wanting to stitch it and right now I just need to make sure that I still find a bit of time each evening to try and put two threads into a project no matter what project it is.  Two threads isn't really a lot of stitching but at least it means that I don't look back at the end of the week or the month and say what did I really do.

It is now the beginning of a new month so that means that there are a lot of work things that need my attention today so that is what I better get to work on.  I hope that this evening I will be able to find a bit of time to stitch, even the two threads and then will see what the rest of the week is like.

Hope everyone has had a good stitching week and hopefully next week I will have a bit more to show for the next seven days.