YOTA for March 2014

I wasn't able to stitch on my YOTA project as much as I would have liked this weekend. I was really focused on getting my 'Something Old' project done (and I DID!!!) and between that and working on the house, I was only able to do just a bit of other stitching. But progress is progress and I just love how this is turning out. :)

So here is where I was before this weekend...

Bent Creek - Spring Snapperland

And here it is right now....

 

Yeah, not much more done on it. That little girl is super cute though!!! She will be holding a purple flower when I'm done with her. :) It's coming together and I'm really happy with this project, it's been a fun one.

 

Head over to 'Pull the Other Thread' to see others who have joined in on this SAL!! 

February 2014 YOTA

I'm having so much fun with my YOTA project this year!! It is such a cute and easy stitch, I'm not sure why I didn't finish it up a couple years ago when I started it. Anyway, I'm pretty confident that it'll get finished up this year and I can't wait to see how it turns out!!!

My progress as of last month...

 And as of today...

The fabric color is closer to the first picture than the second. Again this is Spring Snapperland from Bent Creek. The only one of the snapperland series I have completed is the Autumn Snapperland. It is actually the only piece of stitching I have hanging on my walls. I have now purchased all the charts and am hoping to get them all stitched up by the end of next year:) We will see!!

If you want to learn more about what YOTA is and how you can join, please visit Pull the Other Thread and get signed up!!

1st YOTA of the year!!

Actually yesterday was the first YOTA of the year, but my plans got changed, so I did a little stitching yesterday evening and did some more this morning:) I was going to get the groceries today and have yesterday as an ALL DAY STITCH fest!!! But, hmm, I checked the weather forecast for today and decided that I didn't really want to get out in it:) Not that it was warm yesterday, but at 32 yesterday and 15 today, I think I made the right choice. I know that's not near as bad as some of you are getting it right now, but it is plenty cold enough for me!! :0)

Last year I worked on Marjolein Bastin's 'The Four Seasons' as my YOTA project and I did get a ways on it, though not as far as I'd hoped. I knew I wouldn't come anywhere near finishing it and this year I would like to work on something I have a chance of getting finished. I shared on my 'Something Old/Something New' post a few days ago that I was starting Bent Creek's 'Winter Snapperland' as my new project, so I decided that as my YOTA project I would work on Bent Creek's 'Spring Snapperland' that I started a couple years ago. At least one of them should get done this way!!!

Here is where I started off...

And this is where I left off earlier today...

This will be a pretty easy project to stitch up, just need to put some time into it:)

For those who do not know, YOTA is a Sal found on 'Pull the Other Thread' blog. If you want to jump in and join along, please feel free:)

And for a list and quick explanation of all the Challenges and Sals that I'm participating in this year, visit my post 'A New Year with New Sals and Challenges!!!'.

A New Year with New Sals and Challenges!!!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe entrance into the New Year!! We are home-bodies so we all stayed home, watched a couple movies and ate snack foods to ring in the New Year. Then we promptly went to bed!!

I had meant to get a blog post out last week of the Sals (stitch-a-longs), Qals (quilt-a-longs) and challenges that I plan to participate in this year, but I was too 'busy' resting and relaxing to get it done:) So here it is now....

Like I said in a post last week, I've been looking around for sewing/crafting/stitching/quilting/crocheting etc, challenges and Sals to participate in this year. This is my favorite part of the year, going through my stash of patterns and fabric, yarn and material. Seeing what I have and what I still really want to work on. I LOVE planning, I'm not so good at following though on my plans, but it is fun to plan anyhow:)

So far, here are the events I'm going to try and keep up with this year...

 

1. 2014 NewFO Challenge - hosted by Barbara of Cat Patches. This is a new one for me, as well as a new-ish medium. The challenge is to start a new quilted project each month and post about it the last day of the month.

2. WIPocalypse - Measi over at Measi's Musings is once again hosting WIPocalypse. This challenge started out as a tounge-in-cheek way to help us get all our stitching done before the Apocalyse happens!!! Well, of course we have all survived, but we still have stitching to do:) So this challenge continues to help us along towards more stitchy finishes!! On the full moon we are to blog our progress on whatever we happen to be stitching and link back to Measi's blog:)

  3. IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) - This is hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings. This challenge is a wonderful excuse to skip the housework and busy running around for one weekend a month and just sit on your duff and stitch:) Okay, in the real world, that doesn't really happen - and my hubby isn't quite sold on the skipping housework:), so for most of us it is just a way to show off whatever work we may have gotten done over the 3rd weekend of the month.

  4. Whoop Whoop Fridays hosted by Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Sarah has a link up every Friday so you can show off what you've been working on for the week. She is mostly into quilting, but says that any kind of crafting can be shown off!!

5. YOTA - hosted by Pull the Other Thread, is another tongue-in-cheek way to make fun of all the acronyms floating about cyberspace:) It stands for 'Year-of-the-Acronym. Her stitch-a-long is geared for those 'UFOs' (officially stands for 'unfinished project', but usually refers to your oldest projects that have never been finished). On the first Saturday of the month you are to pull out an old project that you still want to get done at some point, and just work on it. Then post about and link up!! I did this one last year and while I still didn't get very far on my project, it was a whole lot more than what I would have gotten done on it!!

6. Smalls Sal can be found at Stitching Lotus. This sal is about working on smaller projects, biscornus, ornaments, bookmarks, etc. Last year this sal was all about ornaments, and I'll probably stick with that this year too as I will need to get some done for Christmas (ACK!! Thinking about Christmas already!!!).

7. Christmas Through the Year hosted by Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches. This year I had to make do at Christmas by homemaking almost all the gifts that we gave. While this was a bit stressful - it wasn't until the last min that I realized that this would be necessary this year - it did take me back a bit to my childhood Christmases. You see, my dad worked construction and winter was never good for business, so while we always had amazing Christmases, our main gifts were usually hand made. My dad was good at coming up with woodworking projects for us:) After this year I would like to continue to give handmade gifts, I just wish I hadn't been so rushed this year and could have put some real thought and time into the gifts I made. And that is what I plan to do for the coming year. Take some time out each month to work on Christmas gifts so that I am not so rushed by Dec!!! And that is what this Sal is all about, work on an item for Christmas, it can be a gift or decoration, for someone else or for yourself, and post/link up on the 25th of each month.

AND - just one more I promise!!!

8. Something Old, Something New - hosted by me!!! For a few years I participated in the January Crazy Challenge. The goal of this challenge was to start a new cross stitch project everyday for the first 15 days of January and blog about them. Then you were suppose to work on the projects all year long to see how many you could get done. I did that for 2 years and I still have around 20 of those projects unfinished - and I didn't do it last year, so you can see that I didn't do very well with it!! :) It was a lot of fun to have 15 new starts, but by day 10 or so I would start to feel overwhelmed (also the cost of getting materials for all 15 projects was a little much). I do LOVE starting new projects though, so not to feel left out I've decided to make up a challenge that is a bit more do-able for me, maybe it is for you too? My challenge is to post on the first of every month an OLD project that you want to work on - maybe one you started during a previous January Crazy Challenge?!?!?, and post a NEW project you want to work on. This way you still get to start lots of projects through out the year, but they will be more spread out AND you are working on some older projects that you have lying around (here and there and everywhere!!). I will get a button and link up posted along with my OLD/NEW projects later today. Join along if you are able and we'll have lots of fun cheering each other along!!!

Okay, that was a LONG list, and I'm sure I won't be able to keep up with all of them every month, but like I said.. I LOVE TO PLAN!! :) Oh, and if anyone knows of a crochet challenge or CAL (crochet-a-long?) that is going on, please let me know about it!!!

Hope you have some fun sals and challenges planned for your year too!!!

 

July YOTA update

I guess I'm not going to be posting everyday;0) I will be happy, though, if I get a post in every other day, so that is what I'm going to aim for. As for today, I have a YOTA update. YOTA stands for 'Year Of The Acronym' and is the creator's (over at Pull The Other Thread) way of making fun of all the acronyms we stitchers use:) The point is to take one of your WIPs (works in progress) or UFO (unfinished objects - usually an older project) and take the first Saturday of the month to work on it. I choose a project that I hadn't worked on in a long time and make tiny bits of progress on it through the year. And by the way this is going, I can plan on using this project for my YOTA piece for the next several years!!!

I haven't had a chance to work on my YOTA project for the past couple of months. This is where I was in April, I believe...

Four Seasons by Marjolein  Bastin

 

And a really bad pic of where I am tonight. I finished the shading around the bench and wanted to finish up the birds as well, but there are 2 thread colors that I am missing and need to buy before I can do that. Once the birds are done, the bench area is completely finished. I moved on to the mushroom that is under the bench so I could do something with some different colors in it. Turns out I am missing a couple of the colors for it as well, but I was able to get this far. I really love this design!! 

April's YOTA progress

I had lots of fun working on my YOTA project this month!! What is YOTA, you may ask? It stands for 'Year of the Acronym' and the idea is to work on an older project for at least the first Saturday of the month, and can be found at 'Pull the Other Thread'. The project I have chosen to work on is 'The Four Seasons' by Marjolein Bastin. I usually work on the project through the whole first weekend of the month though as I never do want to put it down:)

As I am doing this project over 1 on 28 ct fabric, it really never feels like I'm getting anywhere on it. The stitches are so tiny!!

My project as of March

 

As of April 8th



Can you see the difference? :) The only things I have left in this little section are a bit more on the shadowing and to finish up the birds on the bench. Next I will move over to a cute little hedgehog:)



March YOTA update

YOTA - Meaning Year Of The Acronym is the creation at Pull The Other Thread. The goal (at least for me) is to work on a UFO or WIP that you don't normally work on in your rotation. For me the piece that I am working on is one I started years ago, but because of it's size, I just put it away to work on something a bit smaller and easier to stitch. I really love this design though, so when I found the YOTA Challenge, I decided that I would set aside one weekend a month to get this back out and stitch on it. I'm so glad I did too, because it's becoming one of my favorite things to stitch on:)

 

This is where I was after January's YOTA. I fell behind on my ornie that month and was still stitching my Jan ornie during the time of the February YOTA, so I wasn't able to participate last month.

 

And here I am as of this morning. It is slow going, but I love the colors and the nature feel to it.

And here is a pic of the finished design. Yes, I'm just working on the little bench in the center. If worked over 2 like it calls for, this design would end up being around 18x22 in. I'm doing mine over one on 28 ct so it'll be around 9x11, much better in my mind:) There are a couple more that Marjolein Bastin has done that I would like to stitch as well, but that will have to be for another day - or year!!

January YOTA

I joined one more stitch-a-long. :0) I'd tell you that it's the last one I was going to join, but I just don't know if that's true or not. HA!! Actually this one confused me at first. It is called YOTA - which stands for Year Of The Acronym, and I couldn't figure out what was meant by that. When I finally took the time to read more into it, I realized the author of Pull the Other Thread was being funny and instead of calling this one a 'UFO SAL' she shortened it to YOTA. :) Cleaver!! The idea is to grab a project from your pile - a UFO project- and work on it for at least the first Saturday of the month (she had us do the second Saturday this month to make sure everyone had time to be ready), and then post your progress.

 

Okay, so how is this one different from WIPocalypse? Well for WIPocalypse I've been just working on whatever I have in my hands at the time and posting progress pics on the full moon. This one is to be UFOs which I've always seen as one and the same as my WIPs (WIPs - works in progress, UFOs unfinished object). I just saw all of my projects as works in progress, but in reality, most of them haven't been touched in quite a long time (some more than a year). So I guess that qualifies them as UFOs!!!

 

I decided, then, for this SAL (stitch-a-long, if you haven't caught on yet:), to grab a true UFO, one that has been sitting in my basket for a really long time, but that I still love and want to see finished at some point. I also wanted this to be a larger project, one that I wouldn't just pick up unless I felt I had a lot of time, which I may never have!! I will probably only be able to stitch on this for the one day a month, as I have other projects that need to get done on a time-line. My inspiration for the project I choose actually came from a Christmas gift I received from my in-laws. My mother-in-law always gives calendars as gifts and she is always trying to find just the right one for everyone. My daughter always receives a cat calendar, my hubby, a tractor one, and mine is usually garden themed. This year I was admiring a pocket calendar that my mother-in-law had that had Marjolein Bastin art work as it's theme. I love her nature art and so this is the calendar that I received this year. I made those 3 'bookmarks' by cutting out the preview pics from the back of this cover. 

 

 

The calendar had me thinking about a project I had started a couple years ago, also from Marjolein Bastin, called The Four Seasons. I'm doing this project using 28ct white evenweave, stitching over one with one strand of thread. That needle is a size 26 petite, to give you an idea of the size. So this is where I ended a year or two ago, the last time I held this in my hands.

 



 

 

And this was after a quiet afternoon alone at home with nothing to do but to watch a couple girly movies and stitch - okay, maybe the house should have been cleaned, and the laundry didn't get done, but I did get all the dishes done. :)

 



 

 

This pic actually shows the colors right, the other pic was taken in the evening, and my lamp light makes everything darker.

 

I'm really looking forward to stitching on this again next month and seeing how far I can get with it by the end of the year.