Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 039

Wednesdays have become my "half days" this semester. Since I'm only working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and my classes hadn't started yet on August 13th, I was able to stitch in 573 stitches that day, something that's almost been unheard of for me since starting this project last year. (573 stitches is over 2.5% of HSHY's totality if you were wondering.)

What amazes me is how incredible the fireplace looks now that it's all filled in, especially since the bricks are only stitched with three different colors. The hills on the right-hand side are really beginning to take shape, too, with only the upper area left to fill in now. Personally, I don't feel that the picture below does the shading on this project justice. I'm in love with HSHY now more than ever and I think that it may be why I got so much work done on the 13th. I just love how much life is coming to this piece as more and more details are added.

As of August 13, 2014, I've finished 31.14% of this project. I'd like ot have it done by Christmas of this year, so I can use Christmas gift cards (which have already been requested) to pay for framing. If I want to get it done by Christmas, though, I really need to hustle, but every day pf progress on this piece is a good thing, even if I don't hit my self imposed deadlines this year.

Total Time as of August 13, 2014: 2 days 4 hours 51 minutes

Total Stitches as of August 13, 2014: 6,727 / 21,600 (31.14%)

September Goals and...Where did August go?

I've decided that August is the fastest month of the year. All of a sudden, it's August, it's autumn, and then you turn around and 'Poof!' August is gone and it's September already. Now, that all being said, August was a really fun and busy month. I started my new job; SO and I went to see Into the Woods; we took a weekend trip up to La Mirada to visit some of SO's family; SO and I both headed back to University (it's his last semester as a student!); and this past weekend I did some animal sitting in my hometown to wrap it all up. It was a great way to bring summer to a close, but I think I'm in the same mindset as most individuals when I say that I wish it could have lasted just a little bit longer.

Individuals who have followed my crafting misadventures through summer already know that I blew my goals for August out of the water. My original goals were to finish one Pokemon ornament and sew 1,000 stitches into Home Sweet Home Yoshi. I ended up finishing two Pokemon ornaments, Charmander and Ditto, and sewed over 2,400 stitches--over 10% total progress--into Yoshi. If the saying "blown out of the water" doesn't apply here, then I don't know what does. August was a great month and I was able to get an extraordinary amount done on my current projects. I'd still like to complete Yoshi by the end of the year, but that's yet to be seen. I'll still be happy if I can work enough on it to have all of the black outline work done by December 31st.

As for this month, September 2014, I'd like to do the following:

1. Keep this blog updated for the entire month.
2. Add another 1,000 stitches to HSHY.
3. [BONUS] Finish another Pokemon ornament and post a tutorial on the entire process.

The good news is that I've already added ~200 stitches to Yoshi, and I've been bringing it to class with me during the week, so there's hope for me to work on it, but as for Pokemon, that's yet to be seen. Stay tuned because this much you know as much about my month as I do, but until something happens, all is well and headed in the right direction.

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 038

Clearly, it took less than a week for me to get derailed on blog posts even though I said it wouldn't happen. Since classes started, I haven't had very much time to breathe, let alone craft or blog. I did take this entire Labor Day weekend, though, to write up all the back-posts I've been promising. I think if I did my dates right, there are nearly a month's worth of posts scheduled and ready to post on their assigned days. So now, even if I get bogged down with other aspects of my life, I'll still have posts coming out on a regular basis (and I'll finally catch up on all of those HSHY WIP pictures that I've been promising from summer!)

In many ways I feel guilty for saying this, but WIP 038 is from almost thirty days ago, Thursday August 7th. It was the end of my first week at my new job and I came home, called my favorite bakery to confirm an order for Saturday, and then I curled up in my favorite chair and stitched for over three hours. It was wonderful, and Yoshi took on incredible new colors and details as a result.

The work I did on August 7th is by far the most fun bits that I've sewn in so far on this piece. I had a lot of color changes to make for the right-side hill/pillar, but the color patterns were really easy to follow and I think the picture really speaks for itself in terms of how neat everything turned out. I still hadn't gotten to working on that tree, yet, but even if it's the last thing I finish, it'll all get done in the end.

Total Time Through August 7, 2014: 2 days 0 hours 42 minutes
Total Stitches Through August 7, 2014: 6,154 (28.49%)

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 036 & 037

Apologies that Friday's post didn't go out as regularly planned. Between two separate trips to Disneyland, two (unrelated) migraines, work, and prep for my return to University, this post ended up falling through the cracks. Add that to the fact that I'm almost ten posts behind on progress pictures for this post and I'm in some trouble.

Since I only added 40 stitches in on WIP 036 (August 5th), I forgot to take a picture of it the next day, so this photograph includes work from WIP 037 (August 6th), as well.

Apologies for all of the wrinkles. I haven't been able to press this piece in a while and it's clearly showing.

Over the course of August 5th & 6th I was able to add 223 stitches the project, which isn't a ton, but it did mean adding over 1% to the project as a whole. And oddly enough, the stitches that were added over these two days were mostly invisible--small areas of fill on Yoshi himself that were green and white.

Total Time through August 6, 2014: 1 day 21 hours 19 minutes

Total Stitches through August 6, 2014: 5,651/21,600 (26.16%)

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 035

I know that I'm crazy for saying this, but I feel like it's been ages since I've updated everyone on HSHY. As usual, the title says it all. Here is Day 035's progress toward completion. Will Yoshi ever get finished at this rate? For once, I'm thinking a strong and positive 'Yes!' (It's a miracle.)

And looking back at my time/stitch log, the reason it feels like so long ago for this WIP is because it's from July 30th... So much for getting up to date on everything this month. I didn't add a ton to this piece today, but as you can tell on Yoshi, he's actually starting to get some color on him. It took seven months, but I imagine that he'll be filled in completely within a few more photos.

I took this picture outside of my HR Office in the car, so I had to hold it up with one hand and quickly snap  a picture with the other. The color is good, though, and so far I'm really happy with how everything is turning out. I'm starting to imagine how it will look as I begin work on the tree now. Should be awesome. =)

Total Time Through July 30, 2014: 1 day 19 hours 23 minutes

Total Stitched Through July 30, 2014: 5,428 (25.13%)

I Got A Box!

Well, it's definitely that time of the year again and the school year is rapidly setting in again. I have no idea where summer has come and gone to, but I'm extraordinarily grateful for all the incredible things that have happened since mid-May. There were a lot of hospital visits for SO's dad, some incredible concerts, and many dog sitting jobs, but at the end of it all this was one of the most packed, fun summers that I've had in years.

On the flip side of the coin, however, is the fact that as summer ends, school and work take its place. Last semester I took my cross stitching with me a lot to campus and work, but I was already worried that the way I was transporting it would lead to tragedy if I didn't constantly tote my supplies around with me in my hands (meaning that if I needed to carry anything outside of my backpack I was screwed beyond all description), so I decided to buck up and figure out a way to solve my problems. This is what I came up with:

You're seeing it all loaded up, but this box even fits my Pako floss organizer. I was pretty impressed by that, I must admit. The box is actually from the scrap booking supplies section of Michael's and I think I got it for something like $4 after a 40% Off coupon. Killer deal, right? I'm thinking of going and grabbing a second one for work, to be honest. It's just a great little box and it meets all my safety requirements for toting around all my cross stitching crap stuff when I want to bring it with me on campus.


Now I'll never be without my aida, patterns, pen, snips, needles, floss threader (bane of my existence), hoops, etc!

Spreading the Cross Stitch Love

So, I think I may have finally converted Frie to cross stitching! Ever since I made her that penguin last Christmas, she's been really curious to see how difficult (easy, if you ask me) it is to make something and she finally broke down and decided to try it with me the other day.

I decided to start her on a Makibird pattern since they're super user friendly and as soon as Frie saw Vicky's Harvest Moon cow, she fell in love. We were at the craft store within the hour to pick up supplies for her. Here's the pattern:

Since this pattern was on my to-do list anyway, I decided to do a sort of stitch along with Frie as she got accustomed to reading a pattern and stitching things in accordingly. Frie kept getting frustrated that my cow was coming together faster than hers, but she kept persisting and managed to get quite a bit done by the end of the evening. Look at how hard she was focusing!

Now, I will be the first to say that Frie hasn't finished her cow yet because I haven't been able to swing by her house and help her finish up the bits of her pattern that she still has questions with, but I think that her cow will be done within the next few weeks. I feel lucky to have finished mine on Saturday. Granted, this wasn't a large project by any means, but this was my first big week at work and I haven't been able to get much done on my various projects. I have no idea what I'm going to do with Bessie, but I'm hoping that she'll stay with me forever, either in a picture frame or as an ornament or something else fun.

Meet Bessie!