2014 Xmas Cross Stitches #3 & #4: Happy Elephants

The Bob Crochets family has always had a thing for elephants. Elephants with their trunks held upward are lucky, so when I found this third adorable pattern from Mini Stitches, I honestly couldn't resist. I stitched two of them over the course of day and I am extraordinarily happy with how they turned out. And they're so teeny weeny! I'm wondering if I should stitch up a whole army of lucky, rainbow-colored elephants this year! Even SO said that they were some of the most adorabe pieces that I've done in a while.

2014 Xmas Cross Stitch #2: Winter Fox

Last year, Frie loved her penguin ornament so much that it has been hanging up in her bedroom ever since. Because she likes them so much, I decided to go ahead and make her a second ornament to go along with this year's penguin (see last week's 2014 Xmas Stitch #1 post).

As part of her Christmas gift last year, SO and I bought her a really cute gift card to Michael's with a fox that looks almost exactly like the Mini Stitches pattern that I found when I was pulling patterns last week. Because of the similarities, I pretty much had to pull it and stitch it... so I did! And here's the result! I worked on him over the course of two evenings and I have to say that I'm really happy with how he turned out. Maybe next year I can find a pattern of a fox and a penguin together. Then Frie can be doubly happy!

2014 Xmas Cross Stitch #1: Cute Penguin

Last year, I stitched a really simple penguin Christmas ornament for my best friend Frie. I wasn't planning on stitching her another penguin this year, but when I found such a cute and easy pattern on ministitches.tumblr.com, I really couldn't resist. And I finished it so quickly! From start to finish, I had it done in less than an evening. It was a bit weird since I'm so accustomed to large pieces like Yoshi and Lissa, but it was a nice change of pace and I'm really looking forward to finishing up my other Christmas items over the next few weeks.

Site Updates, Christmas Planning, and October Goals

I think the only good thing about having contracted walking pneumonia last week was the fact that I had an excuse to stay home and rest. While I clearly did not get much done online, I was able to get some cross stitch work done and sleep as much as I could before my three exams. Let me just say for the record that I am very much looking forward to being done with my university in the next year.

In the crafting world, though, things are going well. Slowly, but surely, I am creating and adding patterns to the site and intend to have weekly pattern releases through March of next year. These patterns will be released on Sundays and posted to the Patterns page as well as the main page of this blog. Last week's release was Anna from Fire Emblem Awakening. This upcoming Sunday will be introducing two more FEA sprite patterns for Robin.

Yoshi is currently on the back burner due to a Size 28 tapestry needle shortage. I have looked for them at four different stores and still haven't been able to find them, so I've had to change gears and begin working on new projects that I can work on with my stash of Size 26 needles. Primarily, I have been focusing on my Sprite Stitch Charity Quilt Square and as silly as it sounds I feel like I'm working on it faster just because the X's are so much larger. So far, I'm about three days into it and plan on having a significant portion of it complete by the end of the year. I have also begun my annual pattern hunt for Christmas ornaments. So far, I have found five tiny patterns to complete and plan on having the cross stitch work done on them by the end of the month. (I'd tell you more on the subject, but that might ruin the surprise for the readers that are also on my Christmas list.)

All in all, life is moseying along at quite a nice speed. Because I'll be spending over two weeks at clients' homes this month, I'll have a considerable amount of free time on my hands, so I anticipate that I'll be able to complete all of my October goals which are listed below:

1. Stitch in significant portions of my SS Charity Square (500-1,000 stitches).
2. Cross stitch at least four Christmas pieces.

I'll be posting WIP pictures of my Lissa square as soon as I can get them typed up, so stay tuned!

Shiny Squirtle FO for Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope that this post reaches you in good health and high spirits. After weeks of toiling, twelve hours of work on the turtle himself, and a countless number of hours (twenty plus?) filling in the background, this little guy is finally complete!

I am also pleased to say that SO loved him more than I thought he would, too. In fact, this little squirtle was beloved that I was asked not to sew him into an ornament, but instead finish this piece so that it could be hung up on the wall all year round. I think I was more excited than SO when he said that!

Some information on the pattern before I forget. This pattern was made by littlemojo. An archive of his Pokemon patterns can be found here. I'm not sure if all 718 species are posted on there, but if you're looking for a particular one and can't find it, I know that the Squirtle file included Wartortle and Blastoise, as well, so that might be a way for you to locate missing patterns.

Merry Christmas,
Bob

Oh, Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree!

This year, my mom and I have really been on the ball with Christmas. We had our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving (i.e. my birthday) and we've also been able to finish all the Christmas shopping within a reasonable time frame. It's the first time that we've ever been so on the ball and it's been absolutely wonderful.

Now, that all being said, we always procrastinate when it comes to gift wrapping. My guess is because my mom and I are the only ones who do the gift wrapping our entire family and group of friends (roughly 20 people total.) True to this year's form, however, TJ and I were on the ball this year and we powered through six hours of gift wrapping today. We only stopped once to get food around 2:00pm because neither of us had eaten for the day. Our library area was an absolute disaster for the day, but it was really fun to spend so much time with my mom and get all the remaining Christmas chores done. This is what the house looked like until about an hour ago when we cleaned everything up and finally stacked all the presents under the tree. As you can tell from my mom's face, we were a bit surprised by the state of cleanliness in the Bob Crochets household. (Please ignore my running shoes in the corner.)

My view.

Mom's view.

Overall, I think this Christmas season has been one of the better ones that I've experienced as an adult. It's been a pretty low stress, jolly few weeks and now we're just counting down the days left until the actual holiday arrives this year. It makes my other half happy, too. Christmas is his favorite time of year, so having the Christmas tree up and all the presents under the tree makes him a very happy grad student. Here's the before and after of our Christmas tree in terms of presents. If I don't post again before the 25th, have a very merry and relaxed holiday.

Snowflakes, Penguins, & Airplanes

Between finals and Christmas chaos, these last few weeks have been a tad bit nutty. I've been able to get some cross stitching done, though. Nothing is 100% done, yet, but I still have nine days until Christmas. I think I can get it all done, still. Here are some pictures of what's done for right now. The snowflake is from Cross Me Not, the plane is from the cross stitch portion of About.com, and the penguin came from a modified perler bead pattern found here.

 

I have about four more projects to get through before Christmas hits. Hopefully I can get a picture of the Christmas tree plus all of this year's gifts posted before the 25th. If for some reason, we don't cross paths until after the holidays, happy holidays and see you next year!

Christmas Ornaments WIP and FOs

With final exams rapidly approaching, crafting has become my main activity to de-stress since the final stretch has begun. I've completely finished four Christmas ornaments and finished an additional two cross stitching portions. I'm not exactly sure how many more I have left, but the number is definitely dwindling down.

The snowman, helicopter, gingerbread man, and candy cane are all done with the biplane and purple snowflake done and ready to be sewn.

My current WIP is a Squirtle for my boyfriend. I plan to be done with it and two more ornaments, a Wartortle and Blastoise, before Christmas, but at this rate, I have no idea if that will happen. He already has other gifts under the tree. I really need to prioritize my projects for the people that I don't have anything for yet!

Snowman WIP

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a very late night/early morning post, so pardon me if I seem a little tuckered out. I spent almost 4 hours with my new little snowman buddy this evening.

I started working on him last weekend and with about 8¾ hours under my belt, I'm almost done. I imagine that if all goes well, then he'll be finished by this afternoon. It's also my birthday today, so I'll have more leisure time than usual.

I'll post more projects soon!

Christmas Is Coming!

Last weekend, to say the least, was terrible. I haven't ever been that sick in my entire adult life. My apologies for being away for the last week or so.

I've been trying to get a leg up on Christmas gifts. So far I've gotten the main cross stitching portions of three ornaments done and I have about 8 to 12 more to get stitched up. The good news is, that these little projects are going very fast (1-2 days per piece), and once I hit the sewing machine to finish them off, these projects should be done lickity split. Below are images of the three pieces I have done so far*. All of the patterns are from Cross Me Not. Enjoy!

 The helicopter isn't technically finished because I'm still working on the background fill, but I finished up the pattern itself last night.