A small finish

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 22

It is Monday morning and I am sitting and looking out the window before I start getting the work done that is on my to do list for today.

It was a good week for me with regards to my stitching as I was able to see some progress on one project.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 28

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - now this is the project that seems to have got all my attention in the last week and the reason for that is because I wanted to see that I could get the section finished before the August section is posted.  It was a lot of fun to work on but I have to admit that the unicorn did take quite a while for me to stitch it.  After the unicorn was finished the rest of the section went very quickly and now I am waiting for the August section to be posted.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next section includes because that is always a lot of fun to see the piece and then read everyone else's reaction to the section in the Facebook group.  I enjoy seeing all the different versions of this same pattern as well each month as people will do their own colour versions of it and sometimes will change little parts of the section as well.  


Besides working on this piece I really didn't do any crafting this week and part of it was being busy with work obligations meant that I didn't have as much time to stitch or do any knitting or crocheting.  I will see what this week has in store as it is month end for us so that also means a couple of busy days for me getting the month end work completed and getting ready for the next month.

I have some craft ideas that I hope to be able to work on over the next week or so and then I will show some pictures but until then I have work that needs my attention so I better get to getting it off the long list for today.

It is a long weekend for us in Ontario this coming weekend but as a small business owner we may have some time to ourselves but we may be working as well.  Work doesn't stop for us just because it is a weekend or even a long weekend but that is fine as we both enjoy the work that we are doing. I hope to be able to find some time to craft over the weekend and will show you what gets accomplished when I post again.

Moving forward again

The weather was a little cooler this week which also meant that I was able to spend some evenings stitching which made me feel so much better.  Just seeing the progress that I have been able to make feels nice and how to see what I can do over the next week.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - July 15th

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - now this is the project that I decided was going to be something that I focused on this week as I would really like to get this section done before the end of the month.  I have been focusing a lot of my stitching time which is the evenings after work to sit and see how much of this I could get done.  As you can see this week I have been able to finish the left side of the section and now I am working on the right side.  I hope to be able to get this section done before the end of this week so that I have a bit of a break before August is released.  I really do like this entire design and am looking forward to seeing the entire piece at some point.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - July 22nd

I decided that I was going to try to finish the outline of the unicorn last night as it means that I can see a lot of something finished up quickly when I can just sit and fill in an area instead of having to always be counting each row.

Temperature - July 9

Temperature -  I finally was able to pick up temperature again and get a few more rows done on it.  I am hoping to be able to spend some more time on it and maybe I will see more of it done before the end of the month as well.  I know that being able to get this moving forward would also help me feel like I am getting back to the level of stitching that I was able to do earlier in the year.

Temperature - July 19th

The colours that I am currently working with are also nice because they are the brighter colours so that has helped me want to pick up this piece and see how much of it I could get done.

All Dogs Go To Heaven - well as I have mentioned there was one pattern that I have wanted to start and finally on Friday I decided it was time to actually start this piece and see how much of it I could get done.  This is going to be around 18 inches x 14 inches when it is finished on 18 count Aida and it is a full coverage piece  (83,525 stitches) so yes it is going to be taking me a very long time to finish it.  

All Dogs Go To Heaven - July 20th

I know that I am going to be working on this piece a bit at a time or at least one page at a time so that I don't feel like it is as big as it really is.  I was happy with the progress that I was able to make on Friday on the piece so now to see when I can pick it up again and get some more work done on it.  I am going to try and finish one page at a time so that should help me see some progress and then maybe after a while I will start to see some of the clouds appear and that will also help.  I know that even on the first page that I am working on has the first dog in the cloud so maybe if I can focus on this piece I will start to see the dogs sooner than I really think.


I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on my pieces this week and will see how things go.  Work is keeping me busy so that means that I don't have a lot of time but when it is cooler in the evenings it means that I can sit and stitch and see some progress.

It is now time for me to try and get some of the work done that is on my plate for this week and then maybe in the evenings I will be able to pick up a project and see how much I can get done.  The Mystery SAL is the first project that will be getting attention this week to see if I can get it done and then I will see which project I pick up after that.  Hope everyone has a good week and if you are stitching hope you enjoy your time.

Progress again

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 7

Here it is another week and yes I was able to find a little bit of time to sit and stitch. Now to see what this coming week is going to be like as I would like to continue to see some progress on at least one of the projects if not more.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 15

Temperature - July 1

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - I have been able to get some stitching done on this piece and it makes me happy to see that the June/July section is finally starting to come together.  I finished the middle section and am now trying to focus on getting the lion finished up.  I had outlined some of the body of the lion so if I was outside and wanting to stitch I could work on it without needing the pattern.  Well, that didn't happen but I will be filling in the lion quickly and then see if I can get the head of it done.

Temperature - July 9

Temperature - now this piece got just a little bit of attention this week and it was to help me get more of the guide colours done in the center of the piece. I wanted to know which colour was each day because then it means that I can take this project outside when I want to stitch and don't need to take the paper with me just the floss.  I hope that this week I can get some of the stitching done on it because it would make me feel so much better seeing that I am starting to get this piece caught up.

I love seeing the colours that are now appearing more often on this design because yes as the temperature has been going up the colours have been getting brighter.  What is surprising me is how many days so far this year we have been over 30C and that is the colour I wasn't sure I would be using much this summer considering last year was a cooler one.


This week I am hoping to be able to spend some time working on getting some more stitching done but it will all depend on the work schedule.  I have a few things that I am in need of doing this week so those need to get done and then hopefully some evenings I will be able to sit and stitch.

If you are dealing with the heat and humidity like we are, I hope you are staying cool.  The forecast is for warm days this week but hopefully, after today, we won't be seeing temperatures feeling like 39C until at least next week.  Hope everyone has a great week and hopefully you will be able to find time to do the things that you love doing.

Some actual progress

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 2

Here it is the end or beginning of another week and I can at least say that I made some progress on one of my stitching projects.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL '18 - this is the project that got my stitching time this week.  It wasn't as much stitching time as I would have liked but with the heat and humidity that we were dealing with I am very happy with the progress that I was able to make on this piece.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 7

I was determined to get something done would make me happy so I decided to start working on the crest which is the center piece of this month and I think the entire design.  This crest is in the middle of the entire piece of fabric so I am happy with how it is turning out.  I still need to add the D to the crest but considering how busy we have been getting this amount of the crest done this week makes me happy.

The line below the crest is the bottom on this section so yes it is a rather large section that I am working on.  My goal is to still get this entire section done by the end of July so that means that I will have to make sure that I can continue to find time to work on it.


Other projects - I am crocheting and doing a bit of knitting but nothing worth taking a picture of yet.  I hope that after this week I might have something to show. I also have another cross-stitch or two that I would like to start but I am thinking that I need to get the June/July section of Mystery SAL finished first and then if there is time at the end of the month I can start working on another project.  Temperature also needs to have a lot of attention so that is something else that I am trying to fit in over the next couple of weeks.


Work has been keeping me busy so I really haven't had a lot of time to sit and craft and also the heat was something that was another impact last week.  I hope that this week I will be able to manage the late hours and maybe I will see a bit more crafting time but will have to see how the week goes.  I do know that the week is busy so crafting time is going to be down.

Hope everyone has a great week and you are able to get the crafting done that you would like to do.  If you can't find all the time you want but you get little bits of time, enjoy them as well.

Moving things forward and a finish

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - June 23

Here it is the beginning of another week and I actually have something to show.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - June 29

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - now this is a project that I was determined to work on in June as I wanted to get the May section of it done.  I finally was able to get the section finished on June 29th so that means that I could finally start working on the June/July section.

The June/July section is a big section so that is going to take me some time to get it done but I have at least been able to make a bit of a start on it.  I hope that over the rest of July that I can get close if not finished the section so that I am back being caught up on this piece.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 2

The other nice thing about this piece is knowing that I have been able to start close to being caught up so hopefully by the end of the I will have a finish either in December or early in January 2019.

Temperature - June 24

Temperature - this piece finally got some attention this week and it made me happy as I was finally able to get the April temperatures finished.  Yes, I am still way behind but I am thinking that now that I have figured out a method of stitching this piece it might go a little quicker or at least I am hoping that it will.

Temperature - July 1

The other thing about this piece is now that I am stitching into May the brighter colours are now starting to appear more often and that makes me feel so much better.  I know that even in May we had a couple of extremely warm days so the brightest colour will be appearing shortly.

I am hoping that in July I will be able to focus on getting this piece also worked on as I would like to see that I am getting closer to being caught up and not two months behind like I am currently.

Pink Shawl - finished

Pink Shawl - this is the project that I have been working on and didn't want to post a picture of until it was finished and gifted to the person.

Pink Shawl - close-up

The shawl was a Bernat pattern that was included on the ball of yarn and it knit up relatively quickly.  I didn't work on it as much as I had hoped when I first started it but I knew that I wanted it finished in June so that meant that after a few days of working around 2,000 stitches a day I was able to have a finish.

The shawl was gifted on Friday and hopefully, the person receiving it will enjoy wearing it.

I will be knitting this shawl again as I have a skein of the yarn in a Teal colour and I would like to get it finished so that I can wear my version of the same shawl when the temperature cools off some.  Right now, the weather is pretty hot and humid here so there isn't any need for a shawl as we are having days of 35C and with a humidex of around 42C and the evenings are still in the 20C's so it is still pretty warm out.


I have a bunch more projects that I would like to work on but right now I am going to be trying to focus on getting Temperature caught up and even the Linen and Threads Mystery SAL caught up.

I have work that needs my attention now so I am thinking that I will stop writing here for this week and see what work I can get done.  I also hope to be able to spend some time this week in the evenings working on a project as I would like to see some more progress on at least one of the designs before the end of next weekend.