Framed Japanese Garden and a Finish

I picked up Japanese Garden from the framer last week, and I thought it turned out amazing :) This piece was definitely worth the effort. Now, I need to start stitching on my other Chatelaines.

After Japanese Garden, I decided I needed something small, quick, and easy. I finished Blueberries by Little House Needleworks. It is perfect for the summer.

My two oldest nieces made a quick visit to my parent's house for the weekend, so I of course had to go see them too. Olivia had a great time playing tug-of-war with Molly.

Ava, after seeing a picture of Bluebeard's Princess by Mirabilia open on my iPad, decided she wanted Bluebeard's Princess instead of Elizabeth. I said ok (even though I had already started Elizabeth) and put in an order to 123 Stitch for supplies. My package should be here later this week, and I will start working on her. If I am really industrious these next several months, I will have her done for her birthday in December. We shall see :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Garden: Finished!

I finished Japanese Garden this week!!! Happy dance time :) I started this in April 2011 when hubby was in France for work training (lucky him), and I was home all alone. I decided I needed a little pick-me-up and started this beauty. It took a little over two years, but I am done.

I stitched Japanese Garden on 32 ct ivory jobelan and used most of the called for silk threads, except the NPI silk (I used the DMC substitution). For the bridges, I used Caron Waterlilies Espresso. Enjoy the pictures!

Close ups:

Thanks for stopping by :)

IHSW May

It has been a while since I last posted. The good news is that I started my new job at the beginning of May. The bad news is that I have not had much time to stitch. I have been coming home tired, but hopefully I will adjust to my new schedule and find time for more stitching.

For IHSW, I worked on Japanese Garden. Before I started work, I finished all the cross-stitching. Now I am working on the beading, and there are a lot of beads :) Below is some of the beading, and my goal is to finish this beauty up by the end of May. I am so excited :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Japanese Garden Update and a Finish

It is hard to believe I am turning 30 this week! In honor of my birthday, I kindly gifted myself with some cross-stitch stash :) I ordered Lilac and Evening Primrose by Nora Corbett, beads, and some fabric. I also signed up for Chatelaine's Japanese Moss Garden, meaning I need to finish Japanese Garden sooner rather than later.

So, here is my progress on Japanese Garden. I am getting there!

I also had a small finish last week: Berries by Little House Needleworks. I needed something that felt like spring, because it has not been warm here in Alabama. We actually had snow this weekend (it didn't stick).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Japanese Garden Update and a Finish

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We spent our weekend cleaning. Our old vacuum cleaner was not doing a good job picking up dog hair, so we ordered a new one (Dyson DC28). I was quite excited when it arrived, and even happier when I used it. Amazing! Then I used the little hand tools and cleaned the nooks and crannies in our apartment (This is how I know I am getting old-I was excited about a vacuum cleaner). Afterwards, hubby steam cleaned the carpet, and it looks so much nicer now.

On to stitching. I made some more progress on Japanese Garden. I'm getting there :)

 I also finished up February by Little House Needleworks. One more month to go :)

Thanks for stopping by!

November IHSW

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

For IHSW, I worked on Japanese Garden and finished part of the right bridge. I still need to fill in a bunch of bamboo leaves. They are fairly easy to stitch, but there are so many of them. Hopefully I will be able to finish this section off tonight.

For everyone in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! I am looking forward to eating the chocolate-almond cake balls I finished this morning on Thanksgiving. It is going to be hard resisting them. My favorite part of Thanksgiving is definitely the desserts :)

Japanese Garden Update

Last week I worked on Japanese Garden and finished another crane. Yay! Two more to go :)

And a close up of the crane

I am planning to finish my pixies (Melody, Poppy, and Tigerlily) like Joyce did. Check out her blog. I was having a little trouble deciding which fabric I liked better for Tigerlily. The left or the right?? The right one has gold glitter on it, which is kind of hard to see in the pic.

Please help me decide by voting! Thanks for stopping by :)

Which fabric to you like better for Tigerlily?

IHSW October

I hope everyone had a great weekend and found some time to stitch :)

This weekend I finished a small, little ornament from October by Prairie Schooler. It was fall-themed, and I wanted to stitch one more fall-themed piece :)

I also worked on the right border in Japanese Garden, but as you can see, I did not get much done. Every little bit counts though :) I will be working on this one during the week, so hopefully next week, I have a much better progress pic. Since the end is approaching, I am getting quite excited about finishing it and stitching more Chatelaines. After Japanese Garden I will finish up Moyland Castle, but in between these two, I might have to start a new one. I guess I better get stitching!

Thanks for stopping by, and I can't wait to see everyone's progress!

Japanese Garden Update

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last week I worked on Japanese Garden and finished off the top bridge. One down, three more to go. This piece is really starting to come together now that I am on the home stretch. I also changed the color of the bridge. It was supposed to be Mississippi Mud by Thread Gather, but my thread was crap (as in not dyed all the way through), so I used Espresso Waterlilies instead. The bridge has a bit more red to it which I like.

After working on all those bamboo leaves (which took longer than I thought they would), I decided I needed something a bit easier. So, I finished a Halloween ornament from Cats, Bats, and Witches by Prairie Schooler over the weekend. I also wanted another ornament for my Halloween tree :)

This week I will be working on Lady Hera and maybe another Halloween ornament. I like fall and Halloween, can you tell?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Cross stitch and a cute puppy

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We visited my parents this weekend to see their new little puppy, Molly. But first, I will show my cross-stitch progress for this week.

I worked on the crane in Japanese Garden this week. The crane was stitched over one and looks amazing, but it took forever. And my poor eyes... I really need to get new glasses as my prescription changed. I would work an hour and then take a break to let my eyes rest. Well, it is done, and now I have three more left to do.

Also this week, I finished Wine a Bit by Lizzie Kate. It was a quick, easy stitch, especially after working on the crane.

My parents brought home a new little puppy on Friday. Her name is Molly, and she is a tri-color Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She is adorable and full of energy. Molly was pretty cute when she would chase Mandy (our dog) from behind, but the second Mandy turned around, Molly would scamper away :) Enjoy the cute puppy pictures!

Japanese Garden Update and Fabric Stash

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last week I had jury duty. It was an interesting experience. Jury duty threw my schedule out of whack, and I did not get a chance to stitch until Friday. I worked a bit on Japanese Garden, and I have to say, I really love the blue and gold border. I also started working on the top crane medallion. The crane is stitched over-one, and I am not the biggest fan of over-one stitching, so we will see how it goes this week :)

While away on jury duty, my Picture This Plus Christmas in July Sale order arrived. I ordered three pieces of fabric.

Mystic Cashel- I plan to use this for Little House Needlework's Snow White. I like the fabric, but I wish it had a touch more color variation. The white spots are pieces of fuzz.

Earthen Belfast - I plan to use this one for Passione Ricamo's Medieval Enchantment. This is the first Passione Ricamo pattern I bought, and I was quite surprised at how big the pattern is :)

Fresco Cashel - I liked it :) It appears slightly washed out in this scan.

In the right side bar, I added a link to my photo album containing the PTP fabric I have in case if anyone is interested. The scans are fairly accurate (at least on my monitor) of the fabric color.

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Garden Update

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

This past week I worked on Japanese Garden. I finished up the last tree and the last corner ornament. Yay! The corner ornaments were getting a little boring, but I finished them, and now it is time for the border and the cute bridges :)

Tree

Whole thing so far

This week I will be working on Melody, and I hope to finish her wings, head, and arms. We will see...I have been a little distracted with reading :)

Have a great week!

Japanese Garden Update

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was pretty relaxing. We took Mandy to the dog park Saturday and Sunday so she could run around and play (and to tire her out). Just because I think she is a cute dog:  A picture of her and one of her many toys

Back to cross-stitch. I worked on Japanese Garden this past week and played Diablo 3. So, I didn't get that much done on Japanese Garden, just the bottom left-corner ornament. I think it is looking good so far!

This week I will be working on Hillside Travelers. Hopefully next week I will be posting a finish :)

Last week, we went to the botanical gardens. The roses and daylilies were in bloom, and they were gorgeous. So many different colors. Below are a few pics I took:

 Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed all the pictures :)

Japanese Garden

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I went shopping with my Mom yesterday and helped her spend a lot of money on new clothes and shoes for her upcoming cruise. I was good and did not buy anything : ) but that is also because I just per-ordered Diablo 3. Lol.

Here is my progress update on Japanese Garden. I finished the bottom fall tree and the bottom right corner ornament. It's coming along nicely.

This weekend I also made a bag to carry Mandy's (our puppy) stuff (toys and lots of treats!) in when we travel. We will be in Chicago this week for my sister-in-law's Law School graduation, so I finished the bag just in time. The bag is sitting on my just-vacuumed couch. Mandy is shedding quite a bit. Grr...now I am finding dog-hair on my cross-stitch projects. At least it is short and very fine hair.

 Have a great week!

Cross-stitch update!

I'm back with lots of cross-stitch pictures! So, pictures first:

Moyland Castle: The open areas in the front lawn are going to be filled with beads. It will be very sparkly!

Japanese Garden: I previously mentioned that my Mississippi Mud had the zebra stripe thing going on, and I then ordered replacement Mississippi Mud from two different places-no luck though : ( This bad thread was really disappointing me and ruining the pattern for me. Finally, I ordered Caron Waterlilies Kelp to replace Mississippi Mud, and I was quite pleased with the result. I used Kelp in the right tree. It's not a perfect match, but much better than the Mississippi Mud, and now I can't wait to get back to stitching on this one : )

I also worked on a couple of month patterns:

March by Little House Needleworks. I loved the little sheep in this pattern.

April by Lizzie Kate. I made several color substitutions using DMC variegated thread.

I also started Hillside Travelers by Little House Needleworks. I am stitching this on 32 count lambswool jobelan. Much to my chagrin, I found a dirty black spot on the fabric, slightly above the right tree in the last picture. Boo! I have not idea how it got there, but hopefully it will come out.

That was a lot of pictures!

My public defense went well last Thursday, and now I need to finish the corrections on my dissertation and tidy-up my lab notebook. Last week, I did not have time to stitch anything because of my defense, Mandy, and hubby's parents were also here visiting. Mandy is definitely better at housetraining. Now, she will go to the door when she needs to go out. Yay! This week should be much calmer, and hopefully I should be able to stitch more. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!