Gifted Gorgeousness and Turtle Trot

All I have worked on this month, and not very often as is seen by the pathetic progress I have made.
I have been trying to find a backstitch alphabet that will work with the design to personalise it for them.  I'm finding it quite tricky though as it only wants to be 4 stitches high and I don't want anything too fancy or too plain.  Let me know if you have any ideas?

On the way back into the house after archery today, I noticed how many flowers were already out in the garden.  We have daffodils showing a bit of colour too but not enough to make it worth a photo.

Can you see the little bee on this next one?

Turtle Trot...hmmm

Well there is not a lot to see on Turtle Trot pieces this month. I have worked on some of my TT pieces but as they are forming part of my DSDUCJFC none of them have seen much progress.

Halloween Town Mystery SAL - The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Henry VIII and his wives - DMC

Ye Olde Chocolate Shoppe - LHN

Honeysuckle Courtyard - Patricia Ann Designs

Turtle Trot - late again!

This month, for my Turtle Trot, I have worked on worked on every single one of my projects and finished 5 of them.  Yeah...as if!

I haven't worked on a single one in reality!  Sorry!  I am off to rectify that right now...see ya! :)

Turtle Trotting in July

A little bit of progress was made on my Turtle Trot pieces.

I finished the first part of Santa's Village and did a little on my Stable.  I have already posted photos but here they are again.

Turtle Trot update - 10th June

I have made progress!!!  How about that?  Me...making progress!! Whatever next?

I worked on Mary's Sampler and now have less than 2 sides of the green bit of the border to do and most of the red bit.  I did take a photo but can't find it!  I have a slight problem in that I have stitched about 2/3 of  the top bit of green border one stitch too high.  As I am running out of GAST Endive I will have to try and unpick it carefully and use some Thread Heaven to straighten it out a bit or something.  I wouldn't usually reuse threads but I really don't have enough otherwise.

I have also worked a few threads into my Cut Thru Stable, sadly not enough to warrant the effort of taking a photo of it though!  

Turtle Trot update

I have been busy studying (one more assignment to go and it's all done!!!!!!!) and have had very little stitching time.

I did stitch a little bit on Roses of Paris but as that was in my last post, I won't bore you again with the photo of it.

Apart from that, there has been no stitching on anything Turtle Trot related - sorry :(

Turtle Trot for March

Well this month I have made a bit of progress on the following projects...

A Place we call Home
CCN

On  A Place we call Home I have stitched the 'we' and 'ome' as well as the border to the bottom and right hand side.  I have also done the strange shape to the right of the house and the strange shape to the bottom left as well as the leaves also in the bottom left corner.  It's looking so pretty and I love the pastel colours too.

This is my progress on Midnight Unicorn.  I love stitching this as it is so quick not having to keep on dangling my thread as it doesn't twist like using 2 threads does.

Midnight Unicorn
Durene Jones

This is where Cinderella is at the moment.

Cinderella
Joan Elliott

Turtle Trot - February update (edited to add photos of Cinders)

Turtle Trot time again.  It comes round so fast.

This month I have worked mainly on Cinderella just because I want to get her finished and sent off to her new home as soon as possible so that I don't feel guilty every time I work on something else.  Here is where she is at the moment.  I have started adding the Kreinik and backstitching as I go, the thought of having to do it all at the end is just too much.  I will do the beading at the end however.

I have tried to catch the sparkly dress in the next two photos but it hasn't really worked too well.  Hopefully you will get the idea!

I did a tiny bit on Positive Thinking too - but not a lot!  Progress is progress though, however small :)

I even pulled out my Cut Thru Stable, but the progress on that wasn't even worth the effort of a photo. Approximately 15 pale pink stitches before I gave up and put it away.

Mary's Sampler got a little attention and I made a start on the border.  I got bored of that too though so not much progress.  Still if I did a little each month, it would be finished for Christmas this year!  I have changed the red of the flower in the border as the one I had was a little too strong and I felt it would overpower the actual design.  At one point I wasn't going to do the border but I felt that it needed something to 'finish it off' 

Turtle Trot for January

Well with all the new starts this month, there isn't a lot of progress on any of the projects on my Turtle Trot list.  However, there has been a bit on  Cinderella and Honeysuckle Courtyard.

First up is Cinderella.  I have finished the castle which looks better than I thought it would.  I have also started some of the backstitching on her dress as there is a fair bit and I am not over keen on backstitch.

Then is another massive start...not!  This is the start of Band 3 of Honeysuckle Courtyard.  There is a good reason for starting on band 3 - I couldn't be bothered to walk upstairs to find the threads band 1 and 2 needed. Also I am still undecided as to whether to add my parents-in-law details to the finished project and where to add them if I do!

SAL's for 2014

2013 saw me joining up for several SAL's which did inspire me for the first few months until I got bogged down with my university module.  So hoping that at least the same will happen again, I am going to sign up for the following SAL's.

WIPocalypse 2014

Just Nan SAL 2014

 

This is run by Zeb and you can sign up here
I have borrowed the rules from Zeb - saves me making spelling mistakes or getting it wrong :)

Each month you stitch a Just Nan design. It can be big, it can be small, but it must be Just Nan. It’s ok if you’ve got a piece that you’re stretching out over several months too. At the end of the month post on your blog photos of your progress (or completed stitching) and a write up. Once you’ve done that come along to this site, find the latest SAL blog post by me (post date!), and comment that you’ve updated. Then, check out what other members have done, and enjoy in the Just Nan goodness.

Themes below are shamelessly stolen from here, which is where you can go to register your interest as well :) Heather is very kindly allowing us to send ideas for the mystery themes although Jo wants one where we all send our stitching to her...hmmm...no sure of that one!!

Jardin January

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

February

It's a Mystery...for now!

March Madness

Work on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

April

It's a Mystery...for now!

Menagerie May

Is it a zoo in your stack of WIPs? How many projects can you find that include animals or birds?

June 

It's a Mystery...for now!

Jubilee July

It's time to celebrate! What are you celebrating this year? Stitch on your holiday-related projects, OR find some WIPs you know you'll never finish and set them free.

August

It's a Mystery...for now!

Supersize September

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

October

It's a Mystery...for now!

No-Xs November

What can you make without making an X?? Blackwork, hardanger, embroidery, needlelace, and the list goes on! Don't panic...you can even backstitch for the month!

December

It's a Mystery...for now!

Stitch From Stash

A year of stitching from stash with a £15 budget per month.  Hop over to Mel's blog Epic Stitching for more details and to sign up by 2nd January.

Turtle Trot 2014

I am going to shamelessly steal the rules from Bap Attack which is where you need to go to sign up.  

1. You must have a blog, because you'll be posting links to it. If you don't have a blog, you can still work on those old projects, lol. You just won't be eligible for the contest.

2. Pick 10 unfinished projects (why not 14 for 2014? I can't cope with where this will end up - 43 projects in 2043? Yikes)

3. Take a picture of them and make a blog post by the 10th of January.

4. Each month, by the 10th, post whatever progress pics you have.

Turtle Trot pieces for 2014

There are some pieces that I really want to get stitched this year - I'm sure I said that last year too.

1. Progress must be made on Chatelaine's Roses of Paris.  I love this one so far and would love to see some serious progress on it this year.
2. The piece I have been asked to stitch for my cousin.  I want Cinderella finished and sent.
3. Santa's Village - I have all the charts, threads and buttons so would like to stitch them all this year ready for next Christmas.
4. Honeysuckle Courtyard which is a gift for my parents-in-law Golden anniversary but this will also be one of my Crazy January Challenge starts.
5. Positive Thinking SAL.  I have positioned part 2 slightly wrongly which has resulted in a loss of mojo with the project.
6. Henry VIII and his 6 wives.  This is a Tuesday SAL on Facebook with Kaye.
7. Cut Thru Stable - Bothy Threads.  Monday night SAL with Linda and Debbie.
8. Mary's Sampler or it could end up a UFO and there is no reason for it to.
9. Papillon Creations Around the World SAL.  I am so far behind on this one but it is really pretty and deserves to be stitched.
10. CCN - A Place We Call Home.  Lovely design and it stitches up quickly and would be lovely if it actually got finished...lol.

Progress on the pieces as of December 2013.

Belated (for a change) Turtle Trot update

These are the pieces I have worked on for my Turtle Trotting this month.  First up is LK's 6 Fat Men.  The new bit is the blue for his scarf in the top left picture and the writing in the box next to it.

A little bit of progress has been made on Santa's House.

I think that the outline for ATW is new since my last update but I should have checked first really.

A little progress for John Clayton's Racing one.  I ran out of DMC928 though which is a pain - I will just have to put an order in with sewandso.co.uk now ;)

TUSAL, Turtle Trot, bad news and a mystery

Well the title is summing up this post quite nicely.

For my Turtle Trot update for January - please have a look at the page dedicated to it.  There is not a lot of progress.

First off we have my first ever TUSAL post.  It is causing great hilarity between Rachael, Luke and Colin.  They are rolling around at the mention of a TUSAL pot and the fact that I intend to gather my orts for a year rather than throw them in the bin next to me.  Just out of interest, how do you pronounce it?  In our house, it has become 'mum's toosall pot'.

As there wasn't a lot in it, I have done a shot looking down on it from above.  The blue is from frogging Cinderella, which was one stitch too far to the right.  The green/red is from the start of Santa's House which you can see on the left of the photo.

This brings me nicely on to the mystery.  I had a skein of DMC321 sat next to me.  It was a nice full skein and actually it wasn't DMC321 it was the smelly threads equivalent of it (and out of interest, I think it smells more like cherries than strawberry).  It has vanished...completely and utterly vanished.  How on earth does a whole skein of thread just get up and walk off?  I can't find it anywhere, the kids can't find it anywhere, it is a complete mystery.

And finally, the bad news, which a few people already know.  Colin (my hubby for new visitors), is being made redundant.  He was told about it before Christmas but only had his 'official' meeting on Tuesday. His finishing date will be 5th March so he has a reasonable amount of time to find another job.  Sadly medical underwriting jobs are not as common round here as they used to be so it could be hard for him to find something.  Please keep him (and us) in your thoughts and prayers.

Round up of 2012, 2013 goals

Well WIPocalypse didn't happen, we didn't all die...what a relief!

Thanks to the wonderful WIPocalypse I actually finished 8 designs that may otherwise still be languishing in my WIP/UFO box.  The one I really wanted done, got done - Cut Thru Garden Shed so that was good news.

I didn't start too many new projects that didn't get finished - also good news.

So for 2013 I am taking part in the following:

• Turtle Trot SAL
• 6 Fat Men/Snow Belles SAL (haven't got the Snow Belles yet)
• TUSAL (and my glass is all ready to go)
• WIPocalypse
• Theme-a-licious

So between them all I should stay on track - fingers crossed.

I also got the Santa's village series on autoship from The Patchwork Rabbit for Christmas so I want to keep up with that.  I have ordered a lovely piece of Chocolate Milk 28ct jobelan from Steph's Fabbys to stitch it on and am just waiting for that to arrive.  If you have never tried either company, I really would recommend them both.

The designs I am planning on focussing on for WIPocalypse and adding in to my Theme-a-licious months are the following.  3 of them a technically obligation stitches in so much as they will have a new home to go to when they are finished.  

1. Cinderella - Joan Elliott
2. Henry VIII and his 6 wives - DMC
3. Friends are like Angels - Lizzie Kate
4. Horse Racing - John Clayton
5. Garden Tools - Anchor
6. Around the World - Papillon Creations
7. Confetti of Hardanger - Abi Gurden
8. Maggie the Messmaker - Dimensions Gold Collection
9. Honeysuckle Court - Patricia Ann Designs
10. 6 Fat Men - Lizzie Kate
11. Football Cushion - Sheena Rogers
12. Tatty Teddy Bookmark - Anchor
13. She sells seashells - Country Cottage Needleworks

I would also like to be able to send birthday cards, maybe a small gift to people I have met through blogging.  Or maybe be able to RAK someone who is having a tough time of it during the year.  If you would be open to possibly receiving something from me (so far no one has said 'OMG, what did you send me that for?) then could you email me with your name, address, date of birth, any real likes/dislikes, and anything else you think is relevant.  I promise I am not some mad psycho who will stalk you and I will not sell your details to any third party organisations - or whatever it is companies always put when you sign up with them...lol.  My email is in my profile but just in case of any problems, it is sharonjstevens at msn dot com - with the usual changes of at and dot.

it is...

...The Turtle Trot SAL over at Bap Attack.  That's what I signed up for!!!!   Doh!!!!  A big thank you to Linda at Stitching with my Furbabies who is now my nominated replacement brain as she knows exactly what I should be doing!!  Thank you Linda!!

The Turtle Trot is for people like me who don't finish anything!  So all you have to do is pick 13 projects as it is 2013 and work on them as and when you want to through the month.  On the 13th of each month post your progress to your blog and of course post a link to it.  If you want to sign up, get yourself over there!!

Tomorrow (5th), is my day to post a piccie for Jo's Advent Calendar so feel free to jump over and have a look at it so far!

I had some good luck the other day.  I was lucky enough to win a prize in Nancy's 25 days of Christmas giveaway.  The chart I chose was Jolly Reindeer which is really cute, I think!

photo from Nancy's blog
victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.co.uk/