Weekend finishes

I've had a busy stitching weekend having to rest my foot as much as I can has it's advantages :)

First off I finished my January ornament and it's for Mel.

Dragon Dreams

Not a Creature was stirring

Then I finished off the Needle case part of Travelling Stitcher.

We won't talk about the 3 new starts in one day as well

Updates

Yesterday I worked on Legends of the Dragons for the SAL but made hardly any progress at all thanks to the flipping frogs that payed a visit to the same area twice. I kinda lost the heart to work on it after that and ended up playing Jewel Quest on my DS.

And I got about 1 1/2 hours in on my UFO today and after noting but white the last couple of times I picked it up I decided to add a spalsh of colour and filled in a couple of the spots. I'm going to try and finish the white off next week and maybe start filling in the spots.

What I did over the weekend

I spent most of Saturday day time at Spinning Guild working on the second pic but in the evening I worked on Kaleidoscope some more.

I worked on this most of last week and have to say I really enjoyed it, the colours are so much brighter than I thought but I'm loving it. I was a little sad to put it down but if I didn't then I would never get the other things stitched this month that I want to.

As I said above I spent most of the Saturday day working on these socks and I finished them off on Sunday morning. Today at darts practice I handed them over to their new owner, one of the girls on the bowling team that's also in the WI.

They are just a basic sock in an Opal yarn from stash

And Sunday I started my ornament for this month.
I owe Mel ornaments from the last 3 years so this one is for her and she knows all about which is why I can post it here

Mary Busby update

I didn't get much time in on her on Friday between going to the Doc's and doing the weekly shop but I did make a bit of progress on the pale yellow motif.

My reason for going to the Docs was to find out what is wrong with my left foot. On and off for a while now I've had a little pain in my heel when walking and sometimes in the arch of my foot as well. On Monday night it started again and I didn't really think much of it but it was still bad on Tuesday morning and if anything it was worse, this carryed on for the next few days so off to the Doc I went. Turns out I've got a case of Planter Fasciitis ouch!

WIP updates

I'm taking part in the Travelling Stitcher SAL even though I only have the needlecase left to do (I finished the main piece last year). I'm trying hard to resist finishing it in one day and so hopefully make it last for most of the SAL.

I'm also taking part in the Legends SAL over on the TWBB rather unsurprisingly I'm stitching on Legend of the Dragons. Apologies for the really bad pic but it was taken late at night under my stitching lamp and the ones with the flash were even worse! My fabric is actually white but the bad pic does show the sparkle off :)

And lastly I got into the swing of things today while working on my Bear afghan UFO and got a fair bit done

P.S. Legend of the Dragon was my Jan 1st start but with being out most of the day I only got one length in so it wasn't worth a pic

Mary Busby update

I spent my time on her this week working on finishing off the light brown motif in the centre of the pic and then realised that it uses the really pale yellow and I still have a large motif to do in that so that's next week's job. I'm hoping there's enough of it so I don't have to buy a new skein for the last little bits.

First TUSAL of 2010

It's the new moon today so that means it's time to share the first TUSAL of the year.

I have a new container this year and it's the second one, the first had a little accident when it was a few hours old and is now sitting in the recycling box waiting to be taken away and given a new lease of life.

We have Orts from blanket stitching the edge of a couple of new starts, Legend of the Dragons, Mary Busby, UFO RR, Bear Afghan, an exchange project (that's all the red/pink orts on the top) and of course Fire Dragon.

I decided to go with a new container this year because although the huge wine glass last year was fun and held huge amounts it did tend to get knocked over very easily. However you've not seen the last of it because I'm going to use it for all the other bits and pieces, you know the floss wrappers, off cuts of fabric etc and stuff that can't be recycled because I can't bring myself to put them in with my floss orts.

Pets

I don't know if I've every mentioned the little obsession Miliie has with cardboard boxes or not but she has a new favourite.

Mel got a new printer for Christmas and Millie claimed the box even before Mel sorted her desk out to to fit it on but becasue Millie seemed to love this box so much it got taped up and put back in the same spot it had been. However that wasn't good enough for Millie and she slowly moved the box towards the radiator and quite a few times now we've caught her doing this.

What I can't help but wonder is is she warming her paws or making sure the radiator doesn't run away, lol.

Toby complained he's not made an apperance for a while so I got him to pose on his fountain for a pic

Bear Afghan

Here's my progress on the afghan for this week between Sunday evening at my Parents and yesterday he's had about 2 1/2 hours on him and if it wasn't for my needing to get an exchange project done I probably would of done a little on him today as well.

Thank you for your comments on Fire Dragon I do appricate them and I always think I should reply by email to any I get but never seem to get round it so in answer to a couple of them.....

Measi - he's charted over one and it's been a while since I've done any any so I figured why not and the fabric is 28 count

Blu - that's right he has no backstitch and there's none charted for him because he's designed to be stitched over one

Fire Dragon finish

I ended 2009 finished with a TW and I'm starting off my 2010 finishes with a TW.

He's over one on an unknown piece of evenweave that was just the right size from my stash and I used the called for DMC and Krenick.

He measures 2 1/2" wide and 1 3/4 tall

I loved every stitch of him and may well do him again some time over 2

UFO RR

I finally got this in the post today, with the weather having been so bad the last week I've hardly been out the door (thankfully Dad is home as well so I've not had to make the trip to Mum's).

Kristin's Cinderella as she arrived

And as she leaves to go to Canada

An update and a new UFO

I've been plodding on with Fire Dragon and here he is at about 15 hours, I'm really enjoying him and fingers crossed he'll be finished in the next day or two.

This evening I've been down to my Parents for tea and as the light there isn't very good for stitching I left Fire Dragon at home and took a different UFO with me to work on.

I started this afghan many, many, many moons ago for a friend who was expecting but before I finished it she moved out of the area and we lost touch. It ended up just sat there adding to my PHD count so in keeping with getting that number down (and the fact that it keeps my lap warm while it's so cold) I've decided to get it done.

I'm going to try and spend an hour or so with him on a Tuesday until he's done, anyone care to join me?

Mary Busby update

I've not touched Mary since the end of November between Christmas and finishing Fantasy Sampler and when I picked her up yesterday I realised that I'd really missed her.

Last progress pic of her is here

I've done the flower heads on the pot, the small brown motif, the R above it that you can't really see and started the larger brown motif.

OMG!!!!!!!

Not long after breakfast this morning there's a bang on the door so I answer it and get handed this huge grey plastic bag and I mean huge , it came up to my hip!

I signed for it and started to wonder what it was as I knew I had nothing ordered and that I hadn't entered in any magazine giveaways lately so was clueless.

Turns out I've won the subscriber prize from a magazine.

Here's the contents of the bag all together

The books, Mel has already put her order for several of the designs in the safari one

The kits, there's one I definately won't stitch so look out for a giveaway soon

The light out of it's box and the little box of needles etc

And the pink bag that goes from this

to this

To say I'm gobsmacked is a bit of an understatement

Fire Dragon

I found out a few days ago that TW had a couple of new designs at Patterns Online and since I had a Gift Certificate to use there I just had to get him.

I started him on Saturday and here he is after about 10 hours.

He's over one on a piece of white something or other that I had sat in my stash.

Before you start asking the frame measure's 5" X 4" and I have no idea where I bought it so please don't ask :)

I also want to Thank you for all your comments on Fantasy Sampler, I do appreciate them

Help me decide

As you know one of my goals for this year is to finish a TW but I can't quite make my mind up so I thought I'd ask what others think.

So in no particular order we have.......

Enchanter

Castle with a conversion to a purple dragon

Mermaid

2009 Goals report & 2010 Goals

1, Reduce the number of WIPs I have to less than 40 (I know I said that for last year but I'm more determined this time) I'm starting with 43 I'm ending the year with 39 but only because I feel like I cheated. I decided a few months ago that I was going to retire a couple of things completely and recaputure the stash but wasn't going to do that until I reached 40 WIP's however that didn't work as FS took longer than I thought so no other WIP's got finished.
2, Finish Fantasy Sampler (life got in the way last year) Yes on New Year's Eve
3, Make good progress on another TW No, failed
4, Finish a Silver Lining I did mean one already started but I did the Rose for Mel so it still counts in my book
5, No huge new start unless I get a good amount of WIPs finished first (except for my Birthday Start if I feel like doing a huge one) Yes
6, Do at least one SOLAK sqaure each month No, don't think I even made it to 6 months.

2009 was a good year stitching wise for me with a total of 1200 hours 83 mins of stitching time.
I made 27 new starts and had 30 finishes and 2 payed projects as well.

For 2010 I'd love to

Finish a TW - which one has yet to be decided
Finish a Silver Lining - again to be decided
Get my PHD's to below 35
Stitch an ornament a month
Stitch a SOLAK sqaure a month
Finish 2 PHD's before I start a new one but with exceptions (Birthday start, ornaments and SOLAK squares are excluded but any other new start in the year is fair game. All Guilt Free Jan start are also fair game once they are underway)

December Progress & January Goals

For December I said

Finish Fantasy Sampler Done on New Year's Eve, Yay
Finish as many other WIPs as I can Only the one

For January I would like to
Get the UFO RR done and mailed
Get an ornament done
No more than 5 Guilt free starts

I stitched for a total of 125 hours 53 mins with 69 hours 18 mins of it going on Fantasy Sampler.
I had 2 new starts and 4 finishes so a good month for me