2019 Temperature Blanket Complete

Last night as I waited for midnight I put the final stitches into my 2019 temperature blanket. When I woke up under it this morning, I already started to miss working on it every day. It had become a form of daily meditation as I spent about a half hour every morning recording the previous day.

The colors symbolize the high temperature each day in 2019 in my town. I used 14 colors, each one representing a four degree range of temperature. The yarns ranged from dark pink (the coldest) to the lightest pink, and then light purple to dark purple (the hottest).

The pattern can be found around the internet with various racist titles. I will point you to the Ravelry page with the free pattern that calls it "Retro Remake" here.

I have made temperature blankets two years in a row now, so I'm taking a break this year. I hope to put all those hours into other projects!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year! I would love it if you leave a comment.

Caturday Helper

 Hestia has been particularly "helpful" this week. Here she is sharing my lap with my Autumn Sampler cross stitch project.

 Here she is inspecting my sewing machine. You can see the shaved spot on her leg.  Poor thing had to go under anesthesia to get a tooth pulled last week.

I set my embroidery down for a minute and this happened.

Hard to decide who is cuter in this picture. This is the Boo! quilt sewalong I'm participating in.

Finished for Friday: Autumn Afghan

Whenever I binge a tv show, I create a crochet blanket. I can't just sit and stare at the television without doing something with my hands. This Autumn afghan was a lot of fun to make and used some specialty stitches and some fall-ish variegated yarn. It was a perfect project that didn't take a lot of time or attention. I love these colors and it goes on my stack of blankets that somehow gets smaller every time the kids come to visit. 

If you're wondering which show - it was Lucifer. Not very deep plots but plenty of eye candy!

Thanks for stopping by.

Finished for Friday: May weather

This is my current temperature blanket project, complete up through yesterday. I crochet a row each morning while I drink my coffee. January 1, 2019 is the first dark pink row on the left. May 30 is on the far right.

I have a different color for each 4 degree increment, for a total of 16 possible colors. White rows are snow days, and you can't see it well in this picture but I've added a silver thread for rainy days.

I thought it would be longer at this point. When it's done it's going to be a little bigger than a square I think. I'll trim up the fringe so it's even.

I did a temperature blanket last year and had a lot of fun. It's nice to remember that winter doesn't actually last forever, even if it seems it does at the time.

Stitching Endurance

I enjoy several active stitching and quilting groups on facebook.  I love to see the progress people make over time and as you know if you spend any time on social media, sometimes friends you meet through the internet can become real friends.

I am always amazed at the productivity of some women who do cross stitch.  I've come to realize that I just really have limits.  I make myself sit for one hour increments but after that, I have to get up and move and stretch and then sometimes I get pulled into other commitments for the day and I don't get back to it, however much I try.

I can quilt for hours and lose track of the time.  I can sit in front of the television and binge-watch a show and crochet miles of yarn.  But cross stitch is exhausting to me for some reason.

Tonight I only have a little bit left on this Autumn Harvest Festival, but I just don't think I can do it.  Ugh!  But it's supposed to be fun, so it's not worth working on it if it's going to seem like a chore.  It will just have to wait until tomorrow.  Then I'll probably get it done in about 15 minutes.

I'd love to hear if this happens to you with some kind of craft you work on.  Let me know in the comments.

Needlework Tuesday: Turkey Candle Mat

I started on this little project today.  I can't believe how long I spent fussing around with the feathers to try to get them "perfect."  I moved them each a million times.  Sort of silly how obsessed I can get with something like this. 

Right now I think they look like leaves, or peacocks, or flowers.  After I finish stitching them down I'll add some embroidery faces and feet and they'll look much more like turkeys.

All of the Halloween decorations are finally packed away and the house is enjoying a little breather until Christmas.  I clearly need to make some Thanksgiving quilts...

November Goals

This month I'd like to finish this Autumn Harvest Sampler.

I have six patterns to finish for the Animal Advent series from Brooks Books.  I think I can do three or four of them this month.

I'd like to baste up my Kaffe Fasset "Marmalade" quilt top and quilt it.

I want to make this little candle mat from Bare Roots

I hope to finish the blocks for my Project of Doom and start putting them together.

I have one last block to prep and applique for my Country Cottages quilt.  I hope to get that done and maybe I can start putting this quilt together too.

This should keep me busy.  I'm sure I'll work on some other things along the way.  What are you going to work on in November?

New Project: Acorn Hollow

Isn't this cute for Fall?  It's called Acorn Hollow.  I spent the morning cutting out the wool felt shapes and basting them in place.  Now I get to enjoy the stitching, which is a lot more fun than the preparation.  This should stitch up quickly, but there is a border to add that will probably take me as much time as the rest of it.

I modified the pattern by putting the window fabric in back and reverse appliqueing it.  I think it looks more like windows than sticking the yellow pieces on top.

We have oak trees in the back yard and the squirrels are very active this time of year.  They go out on the ends of the branches to get acorns and in the process the branches rain down acorns and leaves all over my back patio. 

The cats are bored with the nonstop squirrel show, but I think they're cute.  Of course, I think it's less cute when I go out and find acorns buried in all of my potted plants.

Come back tomorrow to see what I've Finished for Friday.

Needlework Tuesday: A Little Portlandia

This little blanket is going off to a very small person who could use a little blanket. Since I was watching Portlandia while I was making it, I will always think of it as my Portlandia blanket.  I hope the recipient likes the goofy scrappy look.

Hestia doesn't want me to put my basket of yarn away yet, so I started another blanket with the same design.  We'll see how big this gets.  Still watching Portlandia, so I guess this one will be called Portlandia II.

Slow Stitching Sunday: Autumn Harvest Sampler

This is my current work-in-progress.  It's a pattern from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and although it looks simple enough on paper, it actually is a little slow-going because of all the color changes.

On my timeline for getting projects done, this one is supposed to be finished after Halloween, so I have plenty of time to work on it.  As you may have guessed, I like to juggle a lot of different projects at the same time.  It keeps it all fun for me.

There is a method to my rotation, and I plan to do a few blog posts on it in the future.  I'm one of those people who is very organized about being very creative.  Stay tuned.

Linking up today to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Something Pink

I made this candle mat recently.  I love working with felt and this was a joy to make.

I do love candles.  I went into a shop today that had at least 10 different kinds of pumpkin-scented candles.  I stuck my nose in each one and I think after a while I just got confused by all of them.  Who thought up pumpkin coconut?  That one seemed particularly strange.

I left empty-handed.  I do better with fewer choices I think.  I also need to pull out the Fall candles from last year and see what still smells good.  I bet there are a few pumpkin ones that still have some life in them.

Then I will need to make a Fall-themed candle mat.  I'm all over this.

Linking up today with How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday.

Finished for Friday: Animal Advent 10

Here's the next in the series of free Advent Animals from Brooke's Books.  Isn't she cute?

As I make each one of these I decide that it's my favorite.  I just love everything about this one - her chair, her ball of yarn, her cute eyelashes.

It's been blistering hot here.  We're so used to mild weather that our house doesn't have air conditioning.  This is one of the few days I wish we did!  I can't fire up the iron and sew when it's this hot.  I'm looking forward to some cooler days next week.

I hope you're staying comfortable!  Is it Fall weather yet where you are?

Finished for Friday: Advent Animal 9

This little guy is the next in the series of Advent Animals.  I love that he has a bottle of suntan lotion in his stocking and a cocktail balanced on his tail.  The patterns for these animals are free from Brooks Books Publishing.

I'm having a lot of fun stitching these up but I'm not sure how I'm going to put them together when they're finished.  There will be 25 in all.  At the moment I think they will become individual ornaments.  Some people who are making them are creating little pockets out of them to stash Christmas candy, but my kids are getting a little old for that.

Add a comment if you have a recent finish to share for this Friday.  I'm going to start the linky party back up in the coming weeks.  I'm enjoying my return to blogging.  I look forward to visiting you, so please leave a comment. 

What I Learned While Starting 15 Projects in 15 Days

finish #1: freebie from Bent Creek

1. Starting a project is the hardest part.  Aristotle said "well begun is half done" (maybe without the rhyming). Just getting all of the fibers and fabric organized for each project took weeks of effort.  But the payoff to all the careful organizing was a palate of great colors to work with and the perfect fabric all ready to go.

   

   A Christmas Carol by Cross Stitch Collection Magazine

2. It's hard to make time for myself a priority.  I tried to get an hour of stitching in first thing in the morning after my routine chores were done.  I felt the pull of a dozen different things calling me all the time.  The payoff was huge though, in my sense of purpose and accomplishment each day.  

   

   Animal Advent # 9 by Brook's Books

3. Everybody starts small.  It has been a revelation to see the other stitchers display their work on our facebook page.  Most of us only got a few dozen stitches in each start.  Yet some of these projects will go on to be enormous and epic.  I think in my mind I imagined that the people who do these types of projects have some superhuman power that lets them do thousands of stitches a day.  No.  We're actually all the same.  It's about showing up and sticking to it.

   

   "Gift of Peace" by Lavender and Lace

4. New supplies are a lot of fun.  The multiple trips to the store for floss (I need to go again today!) has actually been as much fun as getting a new box of crayons used to be when I was a kid.  Luckily, it's a cheap thrill. 

   

   "Alice and the Mad Hatter" by The Floss Box

5. I have enough cross stitch patterns in my stash to probably last me the rest of my life.  All the free patterns on Pinterest haven't helped.  I am confident that I will never need to search far for some new project to do.

   

   "Poinsettia Elegance" by Dimensions

6. If I tell myself I'll take a break "just for a minute" I'll never get back to it.  Quick lunches turned into lunch/laundry/errand/read a book.  It takes a lot of self-discipline for me to sit back down and quiet my mind again once I've interrupted it.

   

   "Night Owl" by Prairie Schooler

7. There are patterns for everybody.  See my ground hog day project above.  I have loved watching other stitchers display their work and their goals.  We all have different tastes, and I respect everyone who devotes so many many hours to this hobby.  I'm pretty sure a lot of my choices fall in the range of very silly.  I also seem to have an obsession with Christmas.

   

   Animal Advent #10

8. I love my ott-light.  I could not live without it.  Some stitchers like to work by a sunny window, but I need bright, clear light to really see what I'm doing.  I also use the magnifier attachment a lot.  Some of these projects feel like doing brain surgery.
   

   

   "Bookseller" by Mill Hill

9. I cannot stitch without some coffee in me.  I'm a morning person, but I really can't get my brain around fine details before some caffeine has hit my system.  I will miss you holiday blend.  Hello French Roast!

   

   "Once Upon a Time" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
10. Facebook is my biggest distraction.  I can't even imagine how much I'd get done if I had the self-control to quit looking at everyone else's progress.  Also cat videos.  I'm an addict.

    

    "Give Thanks" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

11. Every stitch matters.  I tried to get as far as I could each day.  Some days this didn't look like very much at all.  Family needs, cleaning routines, life, and sadly facebook all took time.  But every stitch that got done brings me closer to finishing everything. I'm especially reminded of this looking at the people who started enormous projects. Every minute is worthwhile.

    

    "Bless our Home" by Country Cottage Needleworks

12. My quilting has fallen by the wayside.  Now that the initial 15 days are complete, I'm going to balance my work going forward and get back to doing some quilting.  It's fun to focus so much on one hobby, but I love my other pursuits too.

    

    "Haunted Hotel" by Mill Hill

13. Making my brain switch gears every day seems like good exercise for it.  I worked on many different types of fabric, different types of charts, different levels of difficulty.  This is so different from how I usually work on a project.  I will enjoy going back to working on something intensely for days at a time, but I think it will also be fun to mix it up a bit more in the future.

    

    "Autumn Harvest Festival" by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

14. Working on this challenge has helped me deal with missing my oldest daughter who is so very very far away in Scotland right now.  My hobbies have always been my therapy, and this particular challenge was so absorbing for my brain and my time that I couldn't dwell on missing her.

    

    "Story Time Sampler" by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

So now what's the plan?  I will work on whatever strikes my fancy that day, although at the moment I think I will get some of the smaller pieces done first so I don't actually have all of these in rotation at the same time.  It's nice to have one off the list already.  I'm a little behind on stitching up the Advent Animals.  If I want to finish it up this year, I have 17 more to complete.

More stitching starts and a reading challenge

Today's start is from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  A super cute small piece for Thanksgiving.  I almost finished it, but ended up going to the movies with Jungle Boy this evening.  It will be fun to pick this up next time and finish it up.

Yesterday was not as productive, but still a start:

It's just the door from a Country Cottage Needleworks piece called "Bless Our Home."  A nice patriotic little cottage to finish up before summer.

Now for a fun book challenge.  Go check out Bringing Up Burns for her 26 book challenge for 2015.  She has a fun list of prompts to help you pick books.  The first is "A book you own but haven't read" which is a LOT of the books on my Kindle, not to mention my big reading pile.

I picked 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.
This one will also fit the categories of "A book that was made into a movie," "A book by an author you've never read before" and "A book that was based on a true story."  See how fun the list is? 

It reminds me of the book bingo challenge my kids did back in middle school.  They had to get bingos by reading different genres.  This challenge lets you read whatever genre you like, and makes it a lot of fun to pick the next book.

The third day of stitching - getting ready for Halloween

This is the start I made on the third project of the year "Haunted Hotel" by Mill Hill.  It's a nice change to work on perforated paper.  I love the designs by this company.

I think the idea of starting 15 new projects the first 15 days of the year is starting to really reinvigorate my crafting.  It is exciting to begin something new.  It's sort of a relief to finally work on something that's been sitting in my stash for a long time.  These things will never get done if they never get started.

I'm also getting very organized, with a notebook of projects, when I start, how much time I put into each.  We'll see if I'm able to keep that up.

I will probably finish 15 cross stitch projects - just maybe not all 15 of these that I'm starting.  I plan to throw in a few small ones, and as they get done, I'll replace them with others.  The larger ones always take a lot of time.

Drama Girl is on the East Coast now.  Hanging out with friends for a few days before she flies overseas.  Where's my next project?  I need a distraction.

On the second day of stitching

Here is my next start for the year: "Autumn Harvest Festival" by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I already love the little slices of pumpkin pie on each end.  This is a band sampler and I've watched everyone on Instagram start from the top, but for some reason, I've decided to start from the bottom.  I love the Fall colors.

Last year I saved up all of my orts (scraps of embroidery floss) in a big vase.  Here it is in all of its final glory.

The top layer of floss papers are from all the floss I purchased for new projects this year.  There really is a lot of work represented in this jar and I'm very proud of it.

This year I'm saving my scraps in a plastic ornament.  One for each month.  To go on a sewing-themed tree next Christmas.  We'll see if I can keep this up.  It is fun to see the orts accumulate.

Not much stitching is going to happen today.  Drama Girl has torn apart the great room with her frenzy of last-minute packing.  We're getting everything ready to put her on the red-eye flight tonight.

Cross Stitch Crazy 2015

I'm looking forward to starting new projects and going on new creative adventures this year.  I've joined a facebook group that's challenging members to start new projects each day for the first 15 days of the year.  There are projects I've wanted to do, but they'll never get anywhere if I don't get them started.

So here is the January 1 start:  "Once Upon A Time" by Frosted Pumpkin.  This is a fairly big piece, with fairy tale scenes for each month.  January features Snow White.  Isn't she cute?

I have been busy with various other projects over the holidays. 

This is the latest in the Animal Advent series.  Isn't she adorable?  I'm behind on these, but I've included them in my 15 starts for the new year so I'll get back to them soon.

Drama Girl leaves for her semester in Scotland tomorrow.  I'll take down the Christmas decorations after she leaves.  Then the house will feel so empty!  I'm glad to have some projects to distract me so I don't get glum.  I will miss her so much.

Whacky Witches in Stitches - Finished!

Here it is.  My epic cross stitch completed.  I'm so happy to have this done for this year, even if there are only a few days left until Halloween.

The frame and bow is my idea.  I turned under the edges of the stitching and used Alene's permanent fabric glue to attach it to the purple fabric I had stretched on the background.  Then it obviously needed a bow.  Halloween tends to be more cute than scary at my house.

We used to have a huge Borders bookstore near my house.  It closed years ago and stood empty for a long time.  Yesterday I found that it's now a huge craft store!  Yay!  It will probably become my new home away from home.

As much as that store is tempting me with Christmas ideas, I'm stubborn about making sure Thanksgiving has it's season.  And I still might have one or two Halloween projects to finish up...

If you're interested in doing this project, you can find the pattern at Cloudsfactory.net.

Halloween Town is finished

I'm so happy that this one is finished.  I'm hoping to find a frame for it tomorrow. 

This has been a real joy to stitch!  The pattern can be found at Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I'm now thinking I might use some parts of the pattern to make some smaller pieces.  I love the bats and the owls and the little trick-or-treater.

I got my new Bosch dishwasher.  I thought my old dishwasher was quiet but this one is absolutely stealthy.  Also, it's  much more high-tech than my old one.  So many settings.  As usual, I'm the only one in the house who takes the time to read and understand the manual.  I think I'll make a power point presentation to teach the family how to use it. 

It's about 90 degrees here today.  This is usually a beautiful summery month for us - but this is a bit ridiculous.  I want to drink hot cider, not iced tea.  My life is so hard.