Moyland Castle Update

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I finally worked on Moyland Castle. Yay! And I made some decent progress. I put off filling in some of the border on the top left corner. It has a lot of 3/4 stitches, and they are such a pain. So, I am saving that part for later.

Top left corner:

Top right corner:

Right now I am working on Fresh Watermelon, and I hope to have it finished off this week. After that, my plan is to finish When Witches Go Riding. I am trying to clear out some of my works in progress. Hopefully they will go quickly, so I can start Gigi by Nora Corbett. I love Halloween, and I was quite excited when I found out that she is releasing six witches :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A finish!

I finished Take me out to the Ballgame by Little House Needleworks this weekend. Yay! I started it two years ago, so I am glad it is done. It will be a birthday present for hubby who loves baseball :)

I started Fresh Watermelon also by Little House Needleworks because I wanted a small pattern to take with me when we go up to Boston to visit our friends later this month. In the meantime, I am going to continue working on Moyland Castle and Lady Hera, both of which I have not touched in ages! Below, you can see where I left off on each of them.

Thanks for stopping by!

July IHSW

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I spent a lot of time stitching, read a little, made vidalia onion jelly (tasted good out of the pot), and was a mosquito magnet at the dog park :(

For IHSW, I worked on Moyland Castle. I finished the left half-circle garden and started the top right triangle. The half-circle gardens are quite pretty with all the purples and greens. I can't wait to see how it looks when I finish all four of them. I better get stitching then :)

Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to seeing everyone's IHSW progress!

Progress

Mandy: 3   Me: 0

Mandy, our puppy, was quite the little monster last week. First she chewed off the end of a computer cable. Then a few days later, she chewed off the corner of my Halloween Rules pattern. Thankfully, I had already finished the part of the pattern she destroyed. And then she chewed off the end of our iron cable, so we could no longer plug it in. On Sunday, we went to the store to pick a new iron because I had fabric I needed to cut. What a monster!

This week, I worked on Halloween Rules and left the pattern sitting on the couch, which Mandy then attacked. I finished up 4 more rules, and now I have four left. The spiders in the last rule look kind of creepy and life-like to me :)

I also worked a little bit more on Moyland Castle, and finished the triangle. The unstitched holes are flowers and will be filled in with beads.

Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW June

Welcome to my new followers, and I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I did not get a lot of stitching done this weekend for IHSW. Saturday, I spent the day reading instead of stitching and made a coconut cream pie for Father's Day. On Sunday, hubby and I visited my parents for Father's Day. We had ribs, chicken wings, and corn on the cob for dinner and the pie for dessert. We also had fun chasing Mandy around my parents yard, and it was nice that she actually had room to run. 

For ISHW, I worked on part 3 of Moyland Castle. I made some progress on Friday night:

I will work on filling in this triangle from part 3 this week, and hopefully will have a nice picture to show next week.

I did not have a lot of progress to show for IHSW, but last Monday, I finished June by Little House Needleworks:

My thread pack for July/August by Little House Needleworks just came in, so I will probably start July soon. These months are so cute!

Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to seeing everyone's stitching progress for IHSW :)

Hillside Travelers Update

I hope everyone in the U.S. is having a good Memorial Day weekend! It has been sunny and hot here in Alabama. We are going to the botanical gardens today, and hopefully the daylilies are in bloom, and then I am going to make an apple upside down cake for dessert tonight. Yum!

Last week I worked on Hillside Travelers while house/pet sitting for my parents (they were on their cruise). I thought the horses in the meadow looked adorable! I am glad I finished up the bottom banner. All of that DMC 3371 was getting boring. First up, a close-up of the cute little horses:

All of my work so far:

The end is getting near : ) I plan to finish this one off sometime in June.

Lastly, a picture of Moyland Castle with all the outlining and Jessica flowers finished in the top garden:

Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW May

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

For IHSW, I worked on part 2 of Moyland Castle. I did not quite finish it (in part because I finished reading Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris). I still have to fill in the Jessica flowers (all the small open squares) and do some outlining. I loved the Algerian eyelets, which were stitched with Tulip Festival by Gloriana. It is such a pretty mix of colors :) This half-circle garden is repeated on all four sides, so I still have a lot left to do for this part.

I look forward to seeing everyone's stitching progress! Have a great week :)

Moyland Castle Part 1

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I did. I finished Moyland Castle Part 1 :)

It is amazing how the backstitching really brought the castle to life. The border should be gorgeous too. All the empty spaces are for beads. Lot of bling!

Last week I also finished-finished a garden piece that I stitched last year. I love to garden and thought this piece turned out pretty cute. It was from a Cross-Stitch and Needlework magazine-maybe May 2010??

Lastly, a picture of our cute puppy on her back. She sleeps like this quite often and looks absolutely silly.

Have a great week!

IHSW April

I hope everyone had a great weekend and had some time to stitch!

I worked on Moyland Castle this weekend (and last weekend when we were in Charleston for vacation). The sky is such a vibrant, pretty blue, and I am almost done with the first part too! Yay!

I am going to continue working on this piece until I finish part 1, and then it will be time to work on Japanese Garden :)

Have a great week and I look forward to checking out everyone's work!

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!

IHSW February

I hope everyone had a great weekend and had fun stitching!

For this IHSW, I worked on Moyland Castle. I am happy to say I am almost done with the castle. It still needs backstitching, but I will work on that after I finish the greenery and sky in this part. Once the backstitching is in, the castle should be gorgeous and really come to life. I am quite relieved that now I get to stitch with greens and blues. Towards the end it was rough-going with all the grays and browns.

I also wanted to let everyone know that I am going to take a little break from blogging as I finish up work for my PhD. I plan to keep stitching as a way to take a break from writing, and I may have some time to check out your blogs, but I will not be updating. At the beginning of April or so, I should be back and hopefully have some great progress pics :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mermaid Finish!

I finished Mediterranean Mermaid by Mirabilia! Happy Dance time :)

She was done on Vintage Antique Green Belfast (The fabric is actually a light, minty green-not gray). Enjoy the pictures!

Last week, my kit for Moyland Castle finally arrived. Yay! Just in time for IHSW this coming weekend (I will be working on the castle). Hopefully, I will get a lot done since the next part will be released at the end of the month. A picture of the silks and beads (there are close-up shots of the silks and beads in the Moyland Castle album- clickable on the right)

Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW January

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I stitched (of course!), did a little clothes shopping with my mom, and took my new niece's baby sampler and Snowflake Serenade to the framers.

For IHSW, I worked on Moyland Castle. My silks have not arrived yet so there are a lot of random empty spots that will need to be filled in when they do arrive-I can't wait! The castle is coming along, but there are so many different shades of brown, gray, and gray-brown. I will be happy when this section is finished.

I would like to welcome my new followers, and I hope you enjoy my little corner of the universe :) Have a great week, and I look forward to reading everyone's IHSW posts!

2012 Stitching Plans

My stitching plans for the upcoming year-they may change too : )

I plan to finish:

Mediterranean Mermaid

Halloween Rules

Japanese Garden

 New Starts:

Moyland Castle by Chatelaine-already started! If you can't wait to see a pic, scroll down to the bottom : )

Melody by Nora Corbett (the fabric is more of a light aqua green-not the color in the picture)

Lady Hera by Mirabilia-or maybe Lady Alexandra or September Sapphire Fairy. I am having trouble deciding which one to start. I also can't figure out what fabric I should use for Lady Hera. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Hillside Travelers by Little House Needleworks

Autumn Band Sampler by Little House Needleworks

Little House Needleworks Christmas ornaments

And a few other starts too : )

Lastly, my start on Moyland Castle. I am stitching it on 28 count ivory jobelan. Fortunately, the castle has a lot of DMC in it, and I can work on those sections until my kit arrives from European Cross-Stitch Company. I am definitely looking forward to receiving all those beautiful silks and beads!

Thanks for stopping by!