February Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day. Not much happened here. DB had to work and I'm not the biggest fan of going out to dinner when literally EVERYONE is out doing the same thing. We are planning on going out next weekend to Red Lobster since we still have an unused gift card from Christmas. Mmmm. Lobster and crab and all the other delicious little sea creatures.

So it is time for an update on our Gifted Gorgeousness SAL hosted by the dear Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. We're all stitching pieces that have either been gifted to us (all or in part) or are being stitched as gifts for someone else. It's a wonderful way to get through some of those goals we've all set out to complete this year! For more information click here.

I'm still plugging away at Hummingbird Welcome, gifted to me by my grandmother (partially finished). There has been a decent amount of progress this month, which makes me happy. I am still trying to get better at rotating projects...

The bottom half of this piece is FINISHED! Woo hoo! I even managed to figure out the stem stitch, that I've never done before, and I'm pleased with how it looks.

The top half should go much quicker as I believe the only thing left is backstitching the leaves, plus it's a bit smaller than the bottom!! I may even get this one done before my May goal. Might even wind up having this one framed as opposed to doing it myself?! Ya never know.

Until next time. :-)

January Gifted Gorgeousness

It's finally time for our first Gifted Gorgeousness update! This SAL is being hosted by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

For those who haven't joined or want to know all the little details about this wonderful SAL, check it out here! I'll give you a basic overview...

We're all stitching pieces that have either been gifted to us (all or in part) or are being stitched as gifts for someone else. It's a wonderful way to get through some of those goals we've all set out to complete this year!

My original plan was to start this SAL off with Fantasia, however for those of you that have been following my conundrums, this wasn't really a possibility. So instead I've decided to work on Hummingbird Welcome. This piece was gifted to me (3/4 of the way completed) by my Grandmother about 4 or so years ago. I've been focusing on the backstitching and getting the details filled in so I can FINALLY frame it.

This is the progress so far. Both hummingbirds are finished and I've begun working on the purple flowers near the top of the piece, you may have to click on the photo to see it closer. I'm hoping to have this one completed by May so I can have it framed for my birthday!!

Please be sure to check out all the other wonderful stitchers progress by checking out the January Link-up Post here.

I'll be back next month with, hopefully, some more progress on this beauty and a start on Fantasia!

Starting Off With a Bang

Dear Friends,

Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of 2015. I don't make new year's resolutions, but if you do I wish you all the best of luck. I'll happily be there cheering you on. :-)

We spent NYE with friends and DB's company Christmas party was Jan 2. A little late, but they throw an amazing party so it's well worth the wait. DB even managed to win a smart watch. Not sure what we're going to do with it since he's the total opposite of tech-savvy. (I'm lucky the man has a cell phone.)

A New Stitchy Start SAL began as of Jan 1. This brought about the beginning of my first ever HAED piece! For those that aren't following that blog, I shall recap my progress thus far.

Of course, I had to take a photo of the very first stitch going in, and the first 10x10 block that was completed. I'm stitching this one 2 over 1 on 25-count, with full crosses. So many threads in such tiny tiny holes!!

This is where I left off as of last night. I'm guesstimating that I've done about 1500 stitches. I'm still trying to decide exactly how to do this whole parking thing. I tried stitching one 10x10 at a time for the first 1000 stitches which worked quite well. Then I moved onto stitching the same color for 10 columns, basically the height of the page. That seems to work alright as well. Not sure how I'll continue, but parking (however I decide to do it) really is the way to go with this piece.

I also NEED, not want, a magnifying lens. The first night I gave myself a headache trying to see all those stitches. It doesn't really help that our living room has next to nothing for light and we don't have a lamp. Ugh. I've been looking at some of those Ottlite things, but good lord they must be gold-plated they're so expensive!!

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL also begins this month with our first post coming quicker than I'm ready for, though I'm thrilled to start. I've decided to begin this journey with Fantasia as my Mom bought it for me for Christmas and it's really the only thing gifted I have at the moment. I also plan on beginning Grumpy Owl as it is a gift for Mom, but as of this moment I don't have all the floss or fabric yet. I'm hoping to get that all together by March-ish.

I've also joined YOTA which was probably the best idea I've had. Maybe this will help me get through the pile of UFOs that I'm very quickly accumulating!!

The last (for now) that I plan to join will be TUSAL, but as of the moment the sign up page isn't quite ready yet.

I'm hoping all of these will keep me organized-ish in my blogging and stitching. Of course if another SAL pops up that I can't refuse I'm sure I'll add it to my ever-growing list. :-)

That's where I'll leave you for now. Please be patient with me as I do plan on revamping the look of my blog sometime this week (I hope). So it may look a wee bit strange from time to time. :-)