December Stitch from Stash, Reflections and Goals for Next Year

     First I want to thank Mel for her hosting this stitch a long. I can't imagine how much time she has devoted to it. Keeping track of how much everyone spent and reading everyone's blog post was a huge endeavor.

      As I mentioned in my last post, this is my skip month. I bought some fabric, threads and patterns for my stitching for next year. I haven't done much stitching this month, but I have spent time organizing my cross stitch supplies- not done yet- but progressing.

 

Reflections On Stitch From Stash for the year:

     My goal was to finish three projects- The Quiltmaker, Pretty Pumpkins, and Christmas Spirit, this I did. The other goal was to save money by stitching from stash- oops not so much. I learned that while I have plenty of patterns- I don't have much of a stash of fabrics or threads. I did spend more this year than I have in the past, however now I have some pretty fabrics to use.

     I visited many of the blogs of others who did Stitch from Stash and found a number that I enjoy following their stitching journeys. 

Goals for 2015: Finish Halloween House, start and work on the Disney Castle by Thomas Kinkade

(I finally found fabric I like) and start a new series by Stoney Creek- their Christmas block of the month from earlier this year. 

   After much thought and going back and forth I decided not to join Stitch From Stash for 2015. As I looked back on this year there was something missing- my quilting projects were put by the wayside. My sewing machine had hardly any use. While I plan to continue to work on my cross stitch projects- this year I will concentrate on finishing my quilting projects. Also in 2015 for the first time in a long time my quilting guild is having a teacher come who's classes I want to take. I need to practice my rusty quilting skills to be ready for her class.

Once again thank you Mel for the time you put into SFS. Although I won't officially be part of next year's group I will be following along and doing my own SFS for my quilting.

November Stitch From Stash

The year has passed so quickly- next week is Thanksgiving(U.S.) and then Christmas. Only one more month for SFS. I always planned for next month to be my splurge month because of all the sales (hopefully) that shops will have. I need to buy supplies for the projects for next year. First the accounting:

   Balance: $71.91

   Add:         25.00

   Minus:      82.35

  New balance: $14.56

  Bonus*=     $1,900.00 (*see previous post for explanation)

  Available for spending next month: $1,914.56

What I purchased this month: Patterns(Brooke's Books had a special on her Etsy site for 14 of her Spirit patterns for $25 (normally I think they cost $6 apiece)), a pattern for my Stay at Home Retreat(including some threads and beads), Just Cross Stitch 1991-2001 CD (bought from Amazon with a gift card), and 1 package of Mill Hill beads to finish Christmas Spirit. I also bought some patterns for gifts-to be started after threads and fabric purchases next month.

A finish!! Yes, Christmas Spirit (designed by Joan Elliott) is finally finished. Because I chose not to use the silver beads and use only the crystal ones I ran out of them. I had to wait until I got an order in. (There no longer a  LNS close.)

I have to say that the beaded snowflakes were a pain to do. Most of them I had to do parts of at least twice to get them right. The large one just above the purple ribbon in the picture above, I had to do 4 times to get it right. I don't know why they were so hard- none of the other beading was that difficult.

I did start Halloween House. 

Mel will be deciding what next year's SFS will look like. I will decide whether to join it for another year based on how she sets it up.

My IIWTL List

        Other people have bucket lists- but I call my list the IIWTL list- the "If I Won The Lottery" list. This year I've crossed two items off my list, not because I've done them, but because I'll never be able to do them. One is Elly Sienkiewicz's Applique Academy. One of the reason I decided to join Stitch From Stash was to save money to go in 2015 because it would be their 20th anniversary. Last year she put out that she would like to sell it- so I figured if I was going to go I should go soon. Unfortunately they decided to end it after this year's academy. There are two academies which have been started to take it's place- one in Texas and the other in Williamsburg, Va.- but they won't be the same. The other cross off is Martha Pullen's School of Art Fashion or perhaps one of her licensing schools. I mentioned in an earlier post that her company was sold and she is no longer with it. So again not the same.
          One want to do that is left on my list is Just Cross Stitch's Christmas in Williamsburg (although it is now called Annie's Needle Arts Festival). It is held the first weekend in December. I'd really like to do it, but it simply is not in the budget. So last year I decided to do a "Stay-at-Home Retreat".  One of the reasons for doing a retreat is to learn new things. For this reason I chose a design to do which had specialty stitches. Now, I know that there are somethings that I will miss- not getting to meet the designer and fellow stitchers, but  the internet and you tube will partially make up for that. They are also a great resource for how to do stitches. This is the design I selected to do:
         

It is from Just Cross Stitch November/December 2012 issue.  I picked this design because it reminded me of Williamsburg and because of the specialty stitches- actually so far all the stitches are specialty stitches. According to the pattern the following stitches are in the design: smyrna cross stitch, rice stitch, framed upright stitch, upright stitch, horizontal cross stitch, two sided Italian cross stitch, vertical tied cross stitch, horizontal tied cross stitch and knotted cross stitch. In true retreat tradition I've not done very much.

Yep, another UFO. This will be on my to do list for next year.
Even though I called this a Stay at Home retreat - I didn't do this at home. I started it over Christmas last year down in Wilmington. My sister and brother-in-law rented a cottage and family gathered for the holidays. Some views I looked at while stitching and the room where I did some of the stitching:

I did splurge for the threads- buying the specialty threads suggested. I substituted 32ct Lugana instead of linen. I have also decided to do another Stay at Home Retreat for this year. I have chosen the pattern and have purchased most of the supplies needed. I'll post about them the first weekend in December.
The cost for the Annie's Needle Arts Festival this year in Williamsburg:
    Basic cost (includes 4 nights lodging, one class, 1 dinner, 1 lunch, 3 breakfasts and snacks and gifts)= $1,150.00, add early day class $125.00, add additional class $375.00, add additional night $130.00 (after all if I'm going to go I might as well do as much as I can) gives a total of $1,780.00. Add to that the meals that are not provided, the travel expenses and any stash and I figure that it would be over $2,000.00. The cost so far for this year's retreat= $74.64. I figure I'm saving at least $1,900.00. Do you think I can add that as a bonus to my Stitch from Stash challenge this year?

Stitch From Stash October

Just a short post to do the accounting for this month.

Previous Balance=$39.99
November Additions= $25.00
Bonus= $50.00
Total = $104.99
Spent $33.08
Balance= $71.91

I bought a couple of thread and beads for my new project. I did start Halloween House- but I have not taken a picture yet. No progress on Christmas Spirit.  I was doing very well spending wise until yesterday when I went to the library and again some books flew into my arms. I will take pictures of them later and post them.

Stitch From Stash September

It's hard to believe that the year is almost over. Only three months left to Stitch From Stash. It's a good thing that I have some budget from earlier this year. I have been spending lately. The accounting for this month:
       Budget from last month: $47.69
       Add                                  $25.00
       Total                                $72.69
       Spent                               $32.70
       Budget to carry over       $39.99

A Finish:  She's done!!"The Quiltmaker"

I tried to take an up close picture to show the gold thread but my camera wouldn't cooperate.
I haven't finished adding the beads to Christmas Spirit yet. I did remove the silver beads- I just wasn't happy with them. Hopefully it will be finished by the next Stitch From Stash report. I am happy with the finishes, but what I have spent is for my next starts.
Here they are:

First Halloween House by Ursula Michael for Imaginating and Stitcher's Days of Christmas (SDC) by Sue Hillis. I already had the fabric for Stitcher's Days of Christmas but not for Halloween House. I also needed to buy floss for Halloween House(HH). I did the gridding for SDC while I was waiting for the fabric for HH- and now I am about halfway through the gridding for HH.I think that these will be quicker stitches then the others I did this year. I've put the Disney one on hold- I'd like to find a lighter blue fabric for it.

Stitch From Stash August 2014

First the accounting for the month:
          Balance from last month: $69.85
          Allowance for this month + bonus: $25.00 + $25.00
          New Balance $119.85
          Spent this month $72.16
          Ending balance $47.69

What I bought this month is for a project that I will start in September. I'll blog about it when I receive the kit. I'll still have to buy the fabric for it- but I'll wait until next month to buy it.

Now to show some progress- I've been working exclusively on The Quiltmaker- and she's almost done.

The only thing left is the outlining of the quilt squares. The pattern calls for DMC metallic thread- which I bought and used for the buttons on the dress, the needle in the hand and the thread which she is using to quilt with. If you look closely on the second picture you will see it. I started to outline the quilt squares with the thread and it was awful- I was so frustrated with it fraying and knotting, so I stopped. I'm looking for another option. I was showing this at my quilting bee to other night and one of the ladies offered some of her
threads to try. They are Sulky metallic and rayon threads. I'm going to try them and see how they work, if they don't I will order some Petite Treasure Braid to try.

I thought I should show some of the items I bought with my "budget" this year. Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow I hope to start in December and do a block a month and have it done by next Christmas.  "Summer Splendor" will be a quick stitch- but I will wait to order the threads for it until some one has a sale on them. The Thomas Kinkade Disney kit- I've opened and will start soon. I'm going to substitute 28 count light blue Jobelan for the 14 count Aida that came in the kit. Lastly I bought a kit of one of my favorite Norman Rockwell paintings- "Stockbridge, Main Street at Christmas"- sorry no way to get a good picture of it.

Stitch from Stash July (No Pictures)

Well- just a quick post - no pictures. It's been a busy month. I went on vacation- so first getting ready to go, then the vacation, then getting back and catching up on everything- I didn't have a chance to take a decent picture of my cross stitching progress. I did however want to put in my accounting for the month.

I bought some floss for a future project, some metallic thread to do back stitching on The Quiltmaker and a new cross stitch kit. Total spent this month = 42.77. Balance from last month 87.62 +25=112.62. This leaves my balance at 69.85 for next month. I already have plans for it! This weekend after I get caught up I'll try to post pictures.

June Stitch From Stash

First the accounting:
      Yes, I did spend some money this month. As I've noted before, while I have plenty of patterns, I don't have a lot of fabric or threads. So this month I bought some fabrics and ok some patterns too.

So here's the math:
      Hold over from May: $102.63
              Spent this month $90.01
               Less the $25.00 for June and the $50.00 bonus
                Leaves $15.01 to be subtracted  from May's holdover
       Balance to carry forward   =87.62.

Here's the first purchase:
    Early in the month I went to my local library where I meet with a  stitching group. On the way out of the library they have a cart where there are books that people donate. Here I was innocently walking by the cart when this book jumped into my arms. It told me that I should support my library by buying it and taking it home with me.

 So home it came with me. It only cost $3.00.
I've just ordered the rest so I'll post about it later.

I've started adding the beads to Christmas Spirit- but I'm not happy with them. With the silver beads I've used grey thread to attach them- it looks like dirty snow- so I'm going to remove them and attach with white floss- if this doesn't look better I'll switch to the plain crystal beads. Not enough progress to post a picture.

Mostly I've worked on The Quiltmaker:

Yes, definitely some progress but still a long way to go. I figure it will still be about three more months of stitching before I finish it.

Stitch from Stash May 2014

First the accounting from last month:

Balance from last month :$ 77.63

            Spent this month: $0.00

            Balance to carry forward: $ 102.63

This month I worked on The Quiltmaker:

I completed all of the quilt part of it and some more of  the blue skirt. My plan for the next month is to continue to work on this.

I did also work on Christmas Spirit:

Yesterday my quilt group had a sew in day. I didn't have a quilt project ready to go so  I brought Christmas Spirit to work on. Between yesterday and this afternoon I finished all the backstitching. I took it out of the frame so that I could take pictures before I add all the beads. 

As I come to the end of these three projects that I wanted to finish this year I am planning what my next projects will be. This weekend Stoney Creek is having a Memorial Day sale. So next month I probably will have some spending to report!

Stitch From Stash April 2014

     I'm posting this Stitch from Stash a little early this month because I have some other projects which will keep me from stitching for the next couple of weeks.

     First the accounting:

            Balance from last month : $52.63.

            Spent this month: $0.00

            Balance to carry forward: $77.63.

I did see something I want to get- the Just Cross Stitch  dvd for the years 1991-2000. Someday I probably will downsize to a smaller home and I'll have to downsize the number of magazines I'll be able to store. Also some of these magazines I don't have. 

Now for the pictures:

This is where The Quiltmaker was in February:

This is where she is now:

 She has a face! What is left is lots of blue skirt.
Pretty pumpkins was finished last month but I didn't have time to post the pictures:
Where I left it before the backstitch:

With the backstitch:

And finally Christmas Spirit- I'm in the middle of doing the backstitching and I'm too lazy to take it out of the frame so here is the bottom half: (Ignore the dates on the pictures- I had changed the batteries in the camera and didn't update the dates)

 I was a little worried that I would run out of the gold metallic thread and would have to order another- sadly there is no longer any LNS that I could run to to buy one- but it turned out- there was just enough.

What my projects will be for the next couple of weeks- my city has an e-cycling and paper shredding event coming up. I have an old computer and want to get a box of old papers to shred together. The other project is this: I also have an embroidery machine and have purchased from Martha Pullen her internet embroidery designs. She sold her company years ago to Hoffman Media- which also published Just Cross Stitch magazine. The Martha Pullen company has now been sold to F+W company. Sadly much of the company seems to be disappearing (including Martha-she and F+W couldn't agree on a contract)- so before these embroidery designs disappear- I need to download and organize all the designs I've purchased. Hopefully I will get a little stitching done before the next Stitch from Stash report.

 

Stitch From Stash March 2014

Just a quick post to update the Stitch from Stash for March. I just got back from vacation and I haven't had time to take any pictures of my projects- hopefully this weekend.

I actually spent some money this month:

      I brought Pretty Pumpkins with me on vacation and was finishing up the backstitching when I discovered that I was missing a floss. Since for me finishing was more important I went to Michaels and bought one skein of floss for $0.37. I also bought two Q Snap frames- which with the rules don't count(they're actually for a quilt project).

      I did splurge and buy a cross stitch kit. It is Disney's "A New Day" by Thomas Kinkade. It is only available at Disney. This has been on my wish list for a long time. I actually had been planning to buy it last fall when I was going down for the Food and Wine Festival. I had set aside money to purchase it, but I was sick and had to cancel the trip. This time I was able to go to EPCOT for the Flower and Garden Show. When I first when in to purchase it- I was surprised to find that it cost $80.00! I gulped- but I had wanted it for so long-so I took the plunge and bought it.

So here's the tally:

Balance for Jan., Feb.,March=$75

Spent this month= $22.37

 ($0.37 for floss+$80.00 for kit -$50.00 Gift Card-$8.00 passholder discount)

Balance to carry forward: 52.63.

Projects worked on:Pretty Pumpkins-Finished!! The Quiltmaker and Christmas Spirit. I will post pictures when I have light enough to take them.

I've interrupted my cross stitching

to do a little sewing. I've long admired Laura Martell's tote patterns. I've even bought a couple of them. When I've read the directions-well let's just say they are not for beginners. I've wanted to take a class with her - but it never worked out. A few weeks ago the stars lined up and I was able to sign up for one. When I went into my LQS to sign up for the class I wasn't sure if the class was already filled since the schedule had been out for awhile, but I was only the second person to sign up. I didn't think the class would go on- so I didn't buy anything for the class. The Friday before the class I got an email from Laura with a supply list and directions for "homework" for the class. I emailed her back and told her that the LQS didn't have the pattern either. Laura sent me enough info to get me started. The pattern we were making is called the Mini Professional Tote. Another complication- we'd been hit with one of our snow storms- so I had to rush to get all the supplies. Besides spending the time to get the supplies- our homework took several hours of ironing Decor-bond to fabric and cutting multiple pattern pieces- we had 2 classes 3 hours each. The tote was still not finished. I finally had time last night to finish it.

This tote has five pockets on the outside, one larger one on the front with a smaller zippered one above it, one one each side  and a small one on the back. Inside there is a medium size pocket with a zipper, with a small pocket on one side, the other side has two small pockets. In the middle is a large pocket with zipper. This pocket has batting on both sides and is large enough to hold a tablet. Now that I've made this one I am going to try the original larger one- the Professional Tote. Laura markets her patterns under the label of "The Creative Thimble"

The Tsar's' Cabinet

Two posts in one day- it's a record. This afternoon I went to the Museum of History to see the exhibit of the Tsars'  Cabinet.

They had displays of the Tsars' dinner services, glassware, serving pieces from the Romanovs. There were explanations both of the pieces and how they were made and the history of the times they were made. This exhibit ends shortly and will be moving up to Massachusetts. They also had an exhibit of  Russian Icons in conjunction with it.

It is called "Windows into Heaven" and is from a private collection of a couple from Charlotte. The icons in this collection are amazing. This collection will not be going up to Massachusetts. I wish I could have taken pictures but as both collections are privately owned they prohibited it.

Stitch from Stash Report February 2014

Stitch from Stash Report for February-
 Amount allowed to be spent for the year $300.00
 Christmas GC $50.00
Total= $350.00
Spent this month  $0.00
Splurge Weekend= $80.73

I stitched a little on "The Quiltmaker"

With the snowstorms last week I didn't have much time to stitch. 
    One of the reasons that I wanted to do Stitch from Stash is to learn more about blogging and to become better at it. Last month when I tried to write a blog with IE as my browser I couldn't. I had to download Firefox. This month I couldn't do one in either IE or Firefox, and had to download Google Chrome. Pretty soon I'll go through all the browsers- then what will I do?
    I found I had comments to moderate and I did that today-I told you I was learning! I'll answer them as soon as I can.
    The other project that I decided to do this year was to go through my stash and organize it. As I was writing down patterns and what supplies I would need for them- I discovered that there was something missing for most- Fabric. I figure it will take me most of the year to finish The Quiltmaker, Pretty Pumpkins and Christmas Spirit. My plan was to make November my month to use my stash money and December my splurge month and buy whatever I needed for the next projects. Since Mel made last weekend a splurge weekend I decided that just in case a miracle should occur and I finish all three projects early I would order some fabric. I also ordered some specialty threads.

Stitch From Stash -January

Stitch from Stash Report for January-
 Amount allowed to be spent for the year $300.00
 Christmas GC $50.00
Total= $350.00
Spent this month 0.00
This month was easy- I have been working on two WIP's-
The Quiltmaker and Pretty Pumpkins.

Here is The Quiltmaker- I've added a few more stitches but haven't been able to take any 
more pictures.

The cross stitches for Pretty Pumpkins are done, I just have to do the back stitching. My plan is to work on The Quiltmaker Monday-Wednesday and Pretty Pumpkins on Thursday. I have also finished the cross stitches on Christmas Spirit- but I've put it in a scroll frame to do the back stitching and to add all the beads- so I don't have any current pictures of it.

      I think that this Stitch from Stash might just backfire- as I look at other blogs I see so many things I'd like to stitch.....

Stitch From Stash 2014

I have joined my first SAL with Mel from Epic Stitching- Stitch from Stash 2014. The idea is to stitch with what you have already. There is a monthly goal of not spending more than $25. I like the idea of being able to spend a little for floss, beads, etc. to finish a project- rather than to be strict about not spending any money. There are 130 people in the group- Mel will certainly be busy keeping up with everyone. I joined for two reasons- first I had some unexpected expenses this past year and need to save money this year. Second I want to be a better blogger- spend more time working on my blog- learning how to do things. My first challenge- putting the Stitch from Stash button on my blog- thanks to Karen at Sew Many Ways I did it. I will post later about my stitching goals this year- when I've had a chance to take some pictures.