Sneaking One More In...

Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Parenting.
The 17th finish for 2019.  
On Light Gray jobelan, 28 count, one over one.
Using the suggested Classic Colorworks flosses.
Below is both the original suggested and the replacement Weeks Dye Works suggested versions. The biggest difference is that the letters are in a deep blue with the original, and more of a black / gray with the Weeks versions.   Weeks are just a bit more dull or flat. 

In the last month...

Official Snow Guide - Lizzie Kate
This was a new start and a finish.  It was one of the charts I got during the LNS closeout shopping.
Stitched on mushroom lugana 28 count, one over one, with most of the fancy flosses.
Finish number 16 for 2019.

This is called Scroll Pillow - it's in the same magazine as the other pattern I started.
It's on a Colour and Cotton evenweave called Lunar.  Using dmc 154, which is a wine purple, and the material has a hint of the same wine color - they just had to be tried together.  It's not a big design - this is side to side complete.

And as I pointed out, it was not only buy all the things, it was start lots of things.
So I started the Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Christmas on Dapple 28 count, one over one.
But was still buying more, and so this didn't hold my attention very long.  But the idea was stitch Christmas. 

We The People - Erica Michaels
This was a new pattern, new start.  I ended up trying fancy flosses, but the floss dyelots were not a good combo together.  So I went back to the four suggested dmc colors, and picked the two that were a great combo on the fabric.  3781 and 829.  Other colors were way off from the pattern cover photo.  Those two at least got me closer.  The fabric is Colour and Cotton - Treasure Map, I think.
It works really well together. 

Christmas Is Coming - Shakespeare's Peddler
New pattern, new start.  On Colour and Cotton - Sampler Gold, I think.  28 count, one over one, fancy flosses.  This ended up being the Christmas stitch.
And there was another small start, not worth bothering to show, cause this already shows I went off the rails.
I have stuff I want to order, but have made up my mind I need to finish something, or maybe a couple of somethings, before I order MORE.

And the blood bank plan went out the window.  My iron level failed, so I am deferred for 2 weeks.  So I got a total of 20 donations in for 2019.  There was only one more possible for my blood levels with their rules, and I failed.  Also banned me from the New Years day donation.  But I was having to wait till the one from a year ago dropped off to be able to give.... now I have two spares to start the year.

The Party is Over.

As I mentioned last time, the local needlework shop is going out of business.
I had bought some floss, a couple patterns.
Next, everything was 55% off.  That made fancy floss $1.19 each.
Made a list, went and got more... made a list, went and got more...  made a list, went and got more.
And I spent way too much.
Seriously.
Turns out I can live without most vices.   
But my downfall - floss on sale at 55% off. 

The party is over.
I am going back to stitching stuff I have started - stuff in my stash.
The floss is sorted and alphabetical on rings, or it's filed with the pattern it goes with.
It's time I try to get my life back on track.
This has pulled me off track in other areas too.  Everything was never enough.
The party is over.  It's the early hours of the next day, and I can consider today a new day.

I started the holiday blood donation plan.  Finished my 5 gallon mark last Monday.
At the moment - that maxed me at the limit allowed. I wondered if I would end up with a hitting that 24 donations in a calendar year.  But it will take me till January 8th to get to 24 - or three gallons in a single year.  I honestly keep picturing milk jugs - that's a lot in a year.  And that's not accurate - cause a skinny person and a fat person give different amounts, it's based on weight.  And different more math.  And if something goes wrong, then even the math thinking I might make it - that goes out the window.  It seems to be like fight club - it's blood math - and they don't talk about blood math...

Kinda Weird Looking

This is a new start.  Hands to Work Designs - This is the Day.
From Cross Stitch magazine.  Using fancy flosses.  
It suggests Autumn Gold linen - which would be all these oranges on golden yellow.
I changed it to Colour and Cotton - Haunted - 28 count lugana, one over one.  It's more of a mottled gray. 
My local needlework shop is closing soon.  I got fancy floss at 20% off to help them, and to help me while they still had most of the colors.  Today I went back thinking they would not have much left.  It's all 40% off now, and they still had lots.  Patterns were 55% off.  I got more fancy floss to retry the Blackbird pattern that I trashed last time.  I got a Blackbird Designs book and the the floss to do a couple of the patterns in that. 
I went and gave blood platelets.  The employees say the management is screwing with them, and also irking the donors by calling them constantly.  I cancelled a couple of appts at 3am, when I got up at noon, they had already called and left a message asking me to come and give blood.  It had not even been 12 hours since I cancelled.  When I was going weekly - they weren't happy.  And when I stopped going weekly, they called saying - can you give this week?  I can see where that irks people.
At this point - I just am just doing what works for me.  

Knowing when to quit...

This is Blackbird Designs - Midnight Watch.
This is now a fail - and a tossed in the trash project.  I like the pattern.  I tried it on mushroom evenweave 28 count.  But some of the colors just crash on this fabric.  On the right side, there is a star that shows, and another that disappears.  The moon floss I changed three times?  It's just not working for me color wise, and I just keep beating my head.  I am done beating my head. 

Lizzie Kate - Wouldn't Life Be Great.
A Finish.  Stitched on 28 count Ivory jobelan.  Camera sucks once again. 
This was 15th finish for 2019.

Fun Stitching...

 Prairie Schooler - Christmas Sampler from Christmas Samplers 2.
A finish.  Changed the front of the house to the red - the floss called for matched my choice of fabrics.  The holly around the Christmas letters was supposed to be a mint green - which was just not good.  Used the same green as the rest.  Skipped back stitching the windows - over one - it would have been a blob because I stitch one over one on 28 count. The windows are three wide, needing two vertical threads, plus one cross thread.  Possible - but it would just blacken out the windows.   
I was excited that I had a finish, the first one since making my list of started things.  But on my list - I didn't write down this one.  And I knew the list wasn't a complete, live or die by it list.  I added it. 
And then wrote down a finished date.  But kinda sad, kinda funny, that even my list sucks.  At least I can laugh about it.

Lizzie Kate - Wouldn't Life Be Great.
Called for flosses.  This was the missing photo from my binge starting.  Need to finish just a couple of words in the lighter brown, and this half will be complete.  I am enjoying it. 

Progress then ....

 Plum Street - Friends of the Hart.
Above is where I picked it back up.  Below is what I got done before it went back in the pile again.

Then I just  grabbed other stuff to start...

Heartstring Samplery - Simple Living Sampler.
Fancy flosses.  But the colors are not my taste.  I like the sampler, I'm trying it in the suggested flosses, you never know.  Antique White jobelan 28 count.

Stacy Nash Primitives - Hallowe'en Jack Sewing Roll.
Colour and Cotton Jazlyn 28 count in Steel.  Dmc 310.

With Thy Needle and Thread - Fruit For a Song CS49.
Uses all dmc and nothing fancy.  Photo sucks.  On Colour and Cotton - Alabaster 32 ct jobelan.
Trying it 1 over 2 - which I rarely try.  But with the large grass area, and using dmc, I can try a hunk at a time.
** And I did see I also started another Lizzie Kate - Wouldn't It Be Nice....  forgot that one...
Today I switched and grabbed something from the stuff I have started.  I have started way too many new things lately.  I need a finish.  I was really happy with the top one and the progress, and then just went off the rails. 

Add it to the pile...

Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Parenting.
Doing it on a Light Gray jobelan, 28 count, one over one.  

This was my new start.  It came with the flosses.  But mine came with the alternate Weeks flosses, not the original Classic Colorworks suggested.  So I bought the original flosses too. 
Above is both versions side by side. 
I was only able to get two of the word color flosses, so I had wanted to start this and see if that was gonna be enough.  And I am more than halfway, so it should be.  
More than half in just a couple days - more than happy with that.  But also burnt out on it.

All over the Map...

With Thy Needle and Thread - Spring Fling.
This is that Rabbit head with flowers on a suggested pink fabric.
The first thing the instructions say is to dye the pink called for fabric darker with a red wine.
The short version is - I changed fabrics.  Color and Cotton, 28 count in Storm or Steel evenweave.
It's a blue/gray.  As usual, the camera flash makes it nothing like the photo.  White rabbits and pink flowers will pop off the darker gray nicely.  I bought wine and will try dyeing the suggested fabric in future.  But it was such a long story of re-starting this, that I am done for a while.  

Courtney Collection - Mermaid's Folly.
I tried to continue, even up to last night.  But my progress has slowed to almost nothing. 
Went along the bottom 4 pages to get me to the corner.  I finished the corner page. 
So 13 of 24 pages completed.  Planning on a different stash project start next. 

Half the pages - and sorting...

Courtney Collection - Mermaid's Folly.
12 of 24 pages completed.

With a skein of dmc floss to show scale.  I have seen people stitching this and it can be really big.  And it's lovely really big.  But mine isn't big.  Saying I have 12 of 24 pages completed gives no scale.

This year has been my - stitch on the stuff you already started - plan.  This is not a brag or anything like that.  It was MY mess, but I really had no clue the size of the mess.  The photos are after my sorting and organizing.  I would buy a tote bin and put stuff in it.  And then get another bin.  Buy stuff that seemed to be going out of print, or was out of print.  These photos are same stuff, different angles.  I counted my started things, I wanted an approximate number.   That number is 75.  It's not the real number, there are more started things on a sewing room table pile.  In the photo are a bunch of kitted but not started things.  Not 75 more, but I didn't count those.  It is not my other patterns, or finished patterns, or fabric stash.  That is in stackable plastic totes. There are not things with just a hundred stitches, or a dozen stitches.  They are real projects I have multiple stitching days on.  

I was honestly wanting to order some pattern.  A bit like a junkie to be honest.  I was looking at something from market...  The first handful of stuff I grabbed out to sort - had the market pattern I was gonna order.  Meaning I do not know what I already have.  And exactly WHY I needed to sort and organize what I already have.  And I used to have an excel spreadsheet with designer and pattern names and stitch counts of all the patterns I have - but eventually, you don't update that anymore.  Seeing what I already have - I don't need MORE.  I want to stitch the things I have.  In all the patterns I handled while sorting, I did not reconsider a single one.  And I don't want to order more. 

Almost Half...

Back to Courtney Collection - Mermaid's Folly
Above photo is where I picked it back up.
28 count PTP Brash, dmc 310 black.  One over one.
The pattern is 24 pages, my goal was to fill in and to get to the point of half the pages completed. 
I had 9 pages completed.

Filled in the centers of two pages, giving me 11 pages completed now.  Some pages just have longer runs of stitches, and those grind on me.  I am trying to do just a grid block at a time, anything to make sure I don't count wrong.  Those long runs of thirty stitches, skip one, twenty more, skip one....
I just have to take smaller bites.  

It's Finished - Hooray.

Courtney Collection - Pelican.
On 28 count PTP Doubloon.  One over one, used 7 full skeins of DMC 938.
Finished at 13 x 10.5 inches.  20 pages.
This is sort of accurate for color.  Actually, it kind of changes with the lighting. 
I am glad to be done, and happy with the result. 

19 out of 20 completed

Pelican - Courtney Collection.
19 out of 20 pages completed.   So close. 
Under 3000 stitches to do now. 

18 of 20 pages completed

This was the weird new start - Escher - Heaven and Hell - Cross Stitch Collectibles. 
It's 12 pages - and I completed 5.  It's solid.  One over one on 25 count.  It should finish at 8 inches in diameter.  Haven't done an Escher in a while, it's not gonna be my favorite, but it fit on the scrap of 25 count that was in my stash, and I had the pattern.  It was certainly different from the other things I have been stitching.  The angels are a light gray, there is a bit of white, and a bit of black, but mostly gray scale. 

And I said after a break, I would come back to Pelican - Courtney Collection.
Finished the page in the second row.  Now just have the first two pages.  18 out of 20 completed so far.  Just finished the sixth skein of dmc.  One over one on 28 counts PTP Doubloon.
 

Just Three More Pages To Do

Courtney Collection - Pelican.
This has just three more pages to finish.  The top row first two, and the second row second page.  That first page in the second row is done, and I finished that bottom row second page. 
Those top two are pretty solid and gonna take a while. 
And yep, that big open are is exactly that - big and open.
So close.   I will probably need a break doing something else, but then I wanna try to come right back to this.   17 of 20 pages are done.  It is kind of a lovely thing. 

Five Pages yet to go

Pelican - Courtney Collection.
Five more pages yet to do.  Four in that corner, and one in the bottom row.
Five skeins of dmc used at this point.  Just started the sixth skein.

Can't Count...

Pelican - Courtney Collection.
Last time I said this was in the hoop again and that I had 7 pages left to do.
I can't count.  I had 9 pages left to do.  Not 7. 
So it's 20 pages total, I had 11 pages done, as of last May.  
I did the bird's eye page, and then the page below that, and the next page down too.
Three pages done now, so I can say - NOW I have 6 pages left to do. 
And the right side half is now complete.  This is all based on me counting, meaning it's probably wrong.  And below is what it looked like when I picked it back up again.

And I tossed in a few hours on a new start of an old pattern.

Prairie Schooler - Harvest Time.  Doing the Village pattern.
It's on 28 count Ivory jobelan, one over one, dmc floss. 
I like all these silly village versions.  Stitching this one, and the bigger Christmas version I also have started, hopefully will get it out of my system.  They are not all that big - but they are time consuming little suckers.  This was two days of working on it, and back in the bag it went.  A hefty gallon plastic bag, not a fancy bag. 
Since I talked about blood donations last time, I will add on that I went last Monday to give whole blood.  But once again, kinda weird.  They have been posting they wanted type O donors for months.  Sometimes with a second blood type they also wanted.  Last weekend they extended their hours on a couple days to allow more donors.  I went on Monday just to get it over with, rather than wait till Friday, since I have anxiety.  What he told me was - the distribution processing center had called and said - they were OUT of type O blood.  Completely out.  This is not good.  So I asked how the day was going so far?  He said out of 26 donors, about 20 had been type O so far that day. 
And you might think - oh, they have sent it off to weather problem areas.  I don't think so because they have been asking for extra donors for months and months on their home web pages.  Hours later I was telling this to a friend, and I decided to look up his area, he is a 6 hour drive - a totally different blood distribution service area.  The web page for his site opened up saying their supply was critically low.  So that was interesting, cause it is not just one area.  And I am not part of the weather area.  Mostly it means - try not to do something that you need blood or blood products.  They might be harder to get than you know, and if you can donate - you might wanna consider it.  It's nine minutes to have a needle in your arm.  I try to think of it as - I'd rather be on the giving end because I am healthy, than be the needing blood end of the needle.

Time to change again...

Worked on Brick House Sampler for a little bit.
Below is where it was when I put it away last time.
There is a cream floss that runs up the building sides, the window frames, sheep.  But it's gonna just disappear into the fabric.  I did a bit of that on the building right side - in the zig-zag section.  Rather than be frustrated with that, time to change projects.

I grabbed the Pelican again.  Still have 7 pages to do on Pelican. 
This week was a test for my wanting to buy new charts.  So far I have resisted. 
I have been donating platelets, and I went 12 times in 15 weeks.  The guy that stabs me prefers my left arm, so it's all been in my left arm.  And I am left handed.  I should have maxed out my yearly amount of 24 times in a calendar year - somehow I didn't, but I can still give whole blood a few more times, so I am gonna do that - cause those women will stab my other arm.  My sleeping hours and my energy is crap, trying to change that.  I can't seem to lose weight and give platelets, although that was the plan.  Sometimes we all need to just try a different plan.

Fish and Christmas ???

Prairie Schooler continued for a while.
There was something else for a few days, but not worth showing.

Then I went back to a previous start - Prairie Schooler - Christmas Village.
Playing on the right side this round. All I had was the lower right tree on the right side.
The border and the left side little bit and that one right hand tree was round one.
Honestly, it all looks like it should just go so quickly.  And it doesn't.
This one is 6 x 7 3/4 inches - border to border.  Smaller than a sheet of paper.
And it's obvious that I get bored before I get a whole building done.

A Finish - Progress - New Starts

An old kit, but new to me.  Little House Needleworks - Giving Thanks ( w/ threads ).
Stitched on a scrap of 28 count evenweave jobelan.
A start and a finish.  Finish #13 for 2019.

 Above is where I was when I picked back up - Love Never Fails.
Worked on it just a bit, finished the heart, a bit on the man, a bit on the back ground of the diamonds under his feet.  Below is after and where is stands now.

 I picked up some older charts including an older Prairie Schooler.
The patterns all wanted the same fabric, and so I decided to start four patterns, all Prairie Schoolers from two charts.  So if I get bored, I just turn the fabric and flip the page to the other pattern.  It is just something weird or fun to try.  They are each postcard or half sheet of paper size when finished.  This is just a few days on it so far, and a little bit started on each pattern.  Two are right side up, two are sideways cause that is the way they fit to use the fabric with less waste.  So far, kinda fun.
Christmas Tree Farm, Picnic Area, All You Can Eat, Better A Small Fish.

Seeing Double

With Thy Needle and Thread - House of Blues & Browns Sampler.
Finished them both.  Finish #11 and #12 for 2019.
Not real accurate with the camera flash, but it really shows that on the right side example, the lightest color is very hard to see in the berries and border. 
It's not ever gonna be my favorite, but I did finish the original start, and even try it again on a white fabric, and managed to finish that one too.

Round One, and Let's Try That Again.

With Thy Needle and Thread - CS82 House of Blues & Browns Sampler.
I started this on a fabric from my stash, but it calls for 'cream'.  No clue why I picked the fabric from my stash that I did.  Maybe I felt the cream houses would disappear into a cream fabric.
And by the way, my Apple Cider and Heirloom Gold - might as well be the same dyelot.  The birds and the house roofs are supposed to be different.  They are, but only barely.
So picking this back up - I hated the fact that the border and the berries basically disappear.  It's only about 4 inches square - 101 x 101 stitched, and I had enough floss - so let me just grab a scrap of 28 count evenweave in white - let's see how different the same pattern with the same recommended flosses, feels on a much lighter or different fabric.  I am trying to finish the original start - I just have the right side row of border stitches to go, then it will be complete. 
Seemed like it might be an easy finish of something that I had started - and now I have two not quite finished instead of just one.  But I do like it on the white fabric - it all pops nicely.  
Below is the photo from where I picked it back up again. 

Slow Progress...

Slow progress on Quaker Christmas II - Songs of the Season from ByGone Stitches.

The color in the below / before photo is accurate.  I went with Christmas in July, but it's August, time to move to something else. 

Halfway to Christmas

Prairie Schooler - Happy Christmas.
Added a couple of days on this.  Below is where it was when I picked it back up again.
Time to pack it up and do a random grab on something else.  I make more progress if I just work on something a few days and keep switching.