Fun Adventures

Hi everyone! I know it's been a long time since I posted anything. December '16 was my last blog and cross-stitching related was Oct '15.

So what have I been up to?  Well hubby and I moved to Tennessee. He got out of the Army and got a new job. So it's been a new adventure for us with moving and unpacking stuff :)

As for stitching, we are running a Finish the WIP contest over at Stitching Pirates on DeviantArt (of which I'm a judge) so this has got me looking at my WIPs and trying to finish up some of the ones I have. The goal of the contest is to take one of your WIPs and finish it before the deadline. Since I'm a judge I can't participate but I actually have the desire to stitch again, so I wanted to work on one anyway.

The project was my Tribal Eevee Evolutions that I started back in '15. 

I had finished Glaceon in June '15 and still had Eevee, Flareon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon to finish.

I finally finished them all up. Total time was 53 day.

I kept track via days because I knew I had other projects I was bouncing between at the time and so I wasn't working on it consistently.

Breakdown per pokemon with photos:

Espeon - 3 days

Leafeon - 8 days

Umbreon - 7 days

Glaceon - 9 days

Eevee - 5 days

Flareon - 8 days

Vaporeon - 9 days

Jolteon - 4 days

As you can see, it took longer to some more than others.

I also went through all my WIPs or at least most of them to figure out which one I was going to work on next. A lot of them are ones that I have plans on for gifts so I don't like how long it's taken me to work on them. But each have their own reason for staying in a WIP state for so long.

DISNEY LITTLE MERMAID

Probably my oldest WIP. I started working on this in college....probably in 2010 or 2011. My sister's favorite Disney Princess is Arial so I decide to buy this kit to make up for her. But I got distracted by a different project, set this one off to the side and forgot about it. I was in the bottom of my stitching drawer in a zip-lock bag along with the next WIP.

 WELCOME - NEEDLEPOINT

This one is probably as old as Arial. It's actually really close to being finished. And I worked on it for a while before packing it up to move and just not getting it back out again. It's a printed kit so I'm not a huge fan of it. I'm probably going to keep this one when it's finished.

WEST HIGHLAND TERRIER - NEEDLEPOINT

My Mom always wanted a West Highland Terriers and I saw this kit. It (like the Welcome one above it) is needlepoint printed kit. The needlepoint part is just for the flowers, leaves, and a few added dimensions on the noses and collars. Again, not a huge fan. But I'll finish it eventually and give it to her.  

WIZARD AND DRAGON 

It's a toss up between this one and the next project on which one is older. I'm struggling with the black aida. I've read up on a few different tricks but I just haven't gotten around to working on any of them.  I plan on giving this to my little brother when it's done.

  ORCHIDS

So this one is from 2013 and I've worked on it a bit over the years but not much. This one is a keeper for me so I'm not too upset by it still being a WIP. At first I thought my fabric was discolored since I've been stitching on white fabric for so long. Then I remembered that this fabric is supposed to be a more antique white so it isn't as bright and has a yellowish/brown tint to it.

 ROMEO & JULIET

Oi! This one. Okay, so I needed to get a better handle on all the various color blends and set this one off to the side til I did so. I've got a better idea of what I'm doing now, I just haven't dug up the willpower to pick up this crazy project again.

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

I was planning on doing 1 day a month in an effort to have it finished for Christmas. Yeah....that didn't happen. I was doing pretty good keeping up with my 1 day a month goal. But then I decided I wanted to do the top banner part and that threw me off my goal. Then I focused on other projects. I'm going to work on the top banner and border this year and start up my 1 day a month next year to finish this up.

EMILY'S STOCKING

Oh this stocking. I really really wanted to get it done last year. But, after having my own issues I just had a hard time working on anything baby related. Hopefully I can pick it up and finish it this year.

WINE BOTTLE

I was wanting this to be done by Christmas of last year. Obviously that didn't happen. It's a gift for my Uncle Tom who owns a restaurant and knows a lot about wine. Since I want to get this one professionally framed, this is the one I picked up to work on. The back-stitching part for the bottle was VERY quick to do. The rest of it full stitches and I slowed down with all the random confetti color stitches in the grapes. I've been back-stitching as I go, which is what the random dark green thread is from. 

GIMLI

Not pictured because I couldn't find the picture of what the finished picture would look like. Confetti stitches in this one has slowed me down too. For Thomas when I get this one done. I've got the mat board signed by the actor (John Rhys-Davies) at Denver Comic Con last year and he knows it's going to take a while to finish.

Now, to keep track of all of these, and to keep them from getting waded up and thrown in a drawer again, I used skirt hangers after I ironed them out to hang them up in the spare closet in the guest bedroom. I kept all of the working patterns and floss in a zip-lock bag that I put with the patterns. 

The only ones not hanging up are the West Highland Terrier, Little Mermaid, and Welcome projects. Those are in zip-lock bags and are now sitting on a shelf. Gimli also isn't hanging up because I ran out of hangers. As soon as I pick up another one (or two) I'll hang it up and it can join my other WIP's.

So, off to working on the wine bottle project for my Uncle Tom.

Till next time, happy stitching everyone!