Progress on a few things

Here it is the start of another week and hard to believe that July is almost over. I know for me this month has been flying by and now to see what I have been able to accomplish.

This past week has been one of those weeks without a really focus so that means that there are quite a few projects work on instead of focusing on moving only a couple forward. The weather was also cooler than it has been so that meant being able to focus on things that I normally don't in the summer.

Wishful Thinking - this project did get a bit of attention, and I am finally getting closer to having the border completed. Getting the border completed would be nice and then I could focus on filling in the words and the rest of the design. The border is what is taking so long because there are lots of stitches in it, so getting it done would be great.

I am not certain if I will work on this piece this coming week, but we will see as I haven't put it away so that helps as it is available for some attention.

Star Touched Meadows - February - here is a piece that hasn't had any attention since early June, so I thought it was time for it to at least get a few stitches in on it.

I was able to work on it and my goal was to see if I could complete another colour on the piece and I accomplished that. It is an easy project to work on because as each quadrant is the same so once you do one section you know what you need in the next section.

Of course, this project didn't get a lot of attention as my brain wanted me to work on other things so we will see how things go in the next little while if this piece gets some more attention.

I am not certain what cross stitch is going to be getting the attention this week as there are a few that I would like to pick up and maybe work on but I guess we are going to have wait and see what gets attention and what is going to have to wait for another week.

Granny wrap - grey - here is one project that did get a bit of attention this week as it was a great project to work on while watching some videos. It doesn't look like a lot of progress, but I was able to get just over four rows completed so that was nice. The rows are getting longer so they do take more time to complete but I am enjoying this project and am still figuring out how large this wrap is going to be.

Other projects - this week I can say that I have been working quite a bit on my English Paper Piecing and it makes me happy. I have spent quite a bit of time moving some of those projects forward.

It has felt great seeing projects moved forward and I will write more when I write that blog at the end of the month.

I hope everyone has been having a good summer and you are finding that time to do the things that make you happy. Being able to at least do some things that make you happy is important. If you are dealing with storms or extreme heat, please try and stay safe. Before long we are going to be complaining that it's too cold and there is too much snow.

This week I am not certain what I will be working on as each day I just work on something that makes me happy. I hope to have something to show you next week and until then take care of yourself and I will be posting my English Paper Piecing blog on the 1st of the month and I will then be back next Monday with what else I have worked on this week.

 

A new start and a finish

It is hard to believe that another week has come and gone already. We were busy this last week so that meant that I didn't get as much done as I would have liked but at least I was able to move things forward which was good.

I think our summer weather is finally arriving and that was been nice so now to see if it is going to stay around or are we in for a roller coaster of weather over the next month. I know that we don't want the extremely hot and humid weather just yet but at least some warm weather where sitting outside can be enjoyable.

Star Touched Meadows SAL - February - this past week I decided it was time to pick up and start a project that was part of a stitch along a couple of years ago. The patterns came out monthly and I got the first three months completed (November, December and January) and then I put them down and didn't get the rest of the months completed. I decided it was time to get this series out again and see if I could make some progress on them. They aren't large in size as they are just 77x77 stitchesh but they are full coverage. I started February and am happy with the progress that I was able to make on it. I hope to be able to continue to move this forward as it would be nice to get more of the months completed. We will see how things go and hopefully this will continue to get some attention over the next little while.

Button Box Throw - here is the project that seemed to get most of my attention in the last week. The reason for that was I was on the last colour that I wanted to attach to the throw and then it was the cast off. The final colour didn't take long to get completed but then it was time to do the cast off and that is what took most of the time. I didn't count my stitches but at one point I know that I had around 750 stitches on the needle and that was before I finished the piece. 

Once the cast off was completed I wanted to see what the piece actually looked like given I hadn't seen it other than on the circular needle and only parts of it at a time. I am happy with how it turned out and all of these are scraps that were left over from other projects. It was nice to have it completed and now to finish sewing in all the ends and then block it. We did measure it and it is currently 42" square so it will be a bit bigger than that after I block it. I did enjoy this project and am looking forward to maybe starting another version of this throw in the very near future.

Other projects - I didn't work on any other projects this past week. The weather was nice and we did spend some time sitting outside in the evenings so that meant that I didn't work on anything outside and just enjoyed the relax time. 

I hope you are finding that time where you can relax and do something that makes you happy each day. Knowing that even taking those few minutes each day for yourself is important. Hope everyone has a good week and if things go well, I would like to have some progress on something to show you next week. 

English Paper Piecing - February Progress

Here it is the start of March so that means it is time to show that I was able to get done in February on my different projects. It feels good this month that I am say that I have been able to make some progress on two projects. One got very little attention and then the other one got more attention, and I am starting to feel better about my EPP again.

Popsy's throw - this is the project that got very little attention, and I was able to get one flower completed before I realized that I needed to work on something else for a little while. This project has a lot of memories attached to it and I felt that I needed a bit of a break from it to try and move something else forward.

Scrap throw - this is the project that got more attention this month as I was able to make some flowers for it. Being able to work on making flowers when I have those few minutes is wonderful so that is what I have been trying to do.

Another thing that I did this month was started to work on adding motifs to the actual throw. I hadn't touched the throw itself since August 2023, so it was a little different working on it again. I am happy to have at lest been able to start to add the border to the top and one side, so I now have an idea of where to add the flowers and motifs to the throw. 

Other projects - I haven't worked on any of the other EPP projects that I have on the go but at least I am starting to get back to making progress on things.

In March I hope to be able to continue to move at least one of the projects forward but will see how it goes. I know that being able to continue to move things forward does make me happy so we will see how things go. I hope to have some good progress to show you at the beginning of April.

 

A different week for me

Here it is, the start of another week and another year. I am going to say that given it was a holiday week I was able to spend some time stitching, so this is going to be a longer than normal post.

We did take some time this week to relax and enjoy the time to do some of the things that we enjoy doing. If I can look back at what I have been able to work on this week, I am happy.

New Doors - here is a project that I decided to see how much I could get done in the last week. It felt great seeing that I have been able to make some good progress on it. I still have quite a bit of stitching to do, but at least I have moved it from under 60% completed to now around 73%. 

My goal is to have this piece finished before the end of March, so will see how things go. It was nice to see that I am getting closer to getting all the inside completed, and it will just mean that I have the border left to go, so will see how things go with this project. Of course, there were some other things that I ended up working on as well, so now to see when I go back and pick up this and move it forward again.

Let's hope that this one will come back out in January, and I see how much more of it I can get done.

Elizabeth Wood 1850 - this is my New Year New Start for 2023 and this is what I was able to get done on January 1st. It is always fun to have a new start for the new year, and it is once again my aim to have this one finished early in the year. I would like to get more of this done before my new post, but will have to see what happens.

This isn't too big a piece, as I think it is around 7 x 8 inches, so will see how things go. It is going to be nice to have another red sampler finished, and I have now decided to work all my red samplers with DMC 816.

Joy - one of the things that I wanted to do in the last little while it was having a quick finish on something, so of course that meant it was time to start a project, so that is what I did. I found this ornament that was in my stash and figured it was time to get it stitched. 

It was a fun little thing to do and given this week was all about taking time and trying to relax, it was great. Now what I have to do is go through all the projects that I have finished and get them fully finished so that I can have things hung on the walls and other things ready for hanging on a tree next year.

Mini The Forgotten - here is the piece that has been my focus for a while, and the main thing I wanted to do before the end of the year was to get all the black finished on the entire piece. When I first thought about this idea, I wasn't sure if that was going to work too well, but then I sat down and started working on it and I have been able to get all the black done. Of course, there is still a lot of stitching to do on this piece, but at lest I have an idea of the entire size of it.

It felt good taking the picture of the entire piece as I haven't really seen the entire design as I have been working on the various sections and just quickly moving the q-snap when I needed to do that.  Currently not sure how I am going to move the stitching forward on this yet, but I am thinking that I might at least try and work on one colour for a while and see how much of it I can get done.

I have now moved this project from a q-snap to a scroll rod as I am thinking that this might because a focus for 2023 as I would like to see more of this done. I don't think it will be a finish, but at least getting more stitches done would make me happy. There is still 42,000-stitches left to go on this piece, so it will be a while before it's done.

A Year in Flowers - February - I had started this piece earlier in the year, and then I put it down and didn't get the February section done until this week. It was a lot more stitching that was left than I thought because there was quite a bit of back-stitching. It is a nice piece once it is done, but it was just sitting and making a point of moving it forward.

Of course, I still have the remaining months of this project to do, but I think for now I am going to be happy seeing that I have the first two of them done and later this year I will try and pick up some of the other month's and see how many of them I can get done. 

Cross stitch in general - this last week was nice as I was able to spend quite a bit of time working on the various projects and seeing what I can move forward. Yes, I did get a couple of small projects finished which is nice, so that means that I ended 2023 completing 19 cross stitch projects. It felt good seeing that I was able to make some good progress on things this week and now to see what I can get done in 2023. I haven't set any goals for myself this year, but instead I have given myself targets to aim for, so will see how it goes. My overall target has me trying to get more stitches completed than I did this year, but I will see how it goes.

If you have cross stitch goals/targets, do you set how many projects you are going to complete or how many stitches you are going to do? I do have both of these kind of figured out, but will see how things go.

Simple Scarf - this is the last project that I worked on in the last week. I was able to pick this up some days, and just being able to get a few rows done was nice. I have finished two out of the five balls of yarn, so will see how things go moving forward. I would like to see this scarf finished off quickly, so that means that I am going to have to work on getting more of it done. It's a fun, simple project, so that means that maybe spending bits of time on it will help me get more of it completed.

I do have other projects that I have started, and I need to get them completed, so they will come out and get some attention once this project is finished. I have found that I don't want too many projects out at once because then I just don't work on them, so focusing on once at a time seems to make me the happiest.

Other notes - now that 2023 is here, I am going to be working on moving things forward and seeing how things go. I may not reach everything that I want to achieve this year, but I know that I am at least going to try and do most of them.

I hope everyone had a good holiday, and now it's time to get back to work and see how much time we have for your crafts or how we relax each day. Have a good week, and hopefully I will have some progress on something next week to show you. There won't be as many projects worked on this week as work is calling me to get things done.

 

A bit of progress

Another week has gone by, and this time I can honestly say that I am not sure where the week went. Things here have been extremely busy, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit and work on much of my crafting. I am keeping with at least 15 minutes a day of some time to relax, and some days that was all that I was able to achieve.

A Year in Flowers - February - I was able to get the February design started this weekend, and it is coming along quickly. It felt good to see that I have been able to make some good progress on this piece. I love these little pieces as it lets me make some good progress quickly on things, and then it is another project off my growing list of things I want to do.

I have finished all of this green on the piece, so now I will start to add some other colours and will see when I can get this done. It would be nice to be able to focus on getting more of these months done quickly, so will see how that goes.

The flowers that are on this piece are violets and iris.

Toques - I am continuing to work on making toques when I have those few minutes. It is nice when I can sit and even get a couple of rows done in the evening, as it means that I am moving these projects forward a bit at a time.

I have decided that for a while I am going to have at least a toque on the go as it is something easy to pick up and work on and just get something done. Most of the toques will be given away to a charity in the fall so that children will have something warm. I am also going to be working on some headbands as again they are easy to work on and do work up quickly.

Other projects - of course I have other projects on the go, but the progress on them has been very limited, so nothing that is worth showing.  This week I hope to be able to find a bit of time to work on something. I am not sure how much I will get done as once again I have a busy week.

I hope everyone continues to find those few minutes each day to take time for yourself and do something that you enjoy. I know that I have found the importance of those few minutes after a very busy week. It is time to clear the mind and focus on something that makes me happy.  Next week, I hope to have some more progress on some projects to show you.