March's FINISH IT FRIDAY

 

It's time again for a 'FINISH IT FRIDAY'!!! For 'offical' rules click the button above, but really all you need to do is blog about a project - any project such as stitching, scrapbooking, crocheting, quilting, etc- that you put all the finishing touches on. As in it is completely finished:) After you blog about it, come back here and link up your blog post. I will pick out a winner for some random prize to be figured out and given away at the end of the year:) Really this is just about motivating us all - but mostly me- to dig through your piles of 'almost finished' project and get them completed!!

 

So here are my completed projects for the month...

 

 

This one is Prairie Schooler's Winter Ornie found in JCS 2006 ornie mag. I finished the stitching on this one last month for the Ornie SAL. All I did to finish this into an ornie is to line the back of the stitching with thin cardstock and then glue that onto a piece of felt. Easy finish!! :)

 

And this one is from Lizzy Kate. I finished it in the same way as the ornie, however I think this one will be used as a bookmark. We will see if it feels too thick or not.

 

It is really nice to get a few things out of my pile of 'stitched but waiting to be finished' projects, but even more fun is looking through all the pieces in the pile and remembering what I have already gotten stitched.

 

Okay, so if you are interested in joining me, go and blog about your finished project, then come back an link up here...

March WIPocalypse update

It's that time of the month again. No, not THAT time of the month, but rather time for a WIPocalypse update:) Since I had so many starts earlier this month and I've been working on them a bit here and there, it didn't seem as if I had much to show off. However I did just finish (as of this morning:), this block entitled 'Lovebirds' from Midsummer's Night Designs. This is a freebie and will be used for a bird themed block exchange. I have actually stitched this up before, I think this is the third time I've stitched this one, and so far I haven't kept even one of them. Maybe I'll need to stitch it up one more time, but for myself this time!!

 

 

This one is La D Da's 'Live, Laugh, Love' and a group of ladies and I, 5 of us in all, are doing this one as a round robin project. We each chose our own thread colors we wanted to use and stitched a section of our choice on our own project and then switched them out and stitched a section on the next persons' project. So this one belongs to my SIL, Marianne Meyer of Midnight Stitching, and the top section is what I stitched for her. It is now ready to be mail out to the next person. This is my first round robin to participate in and it has really been fun. I am hoping not to see a pic of my project until I get it in the mail and it is all finished. I want to be surprised!! 

 

 

 

 

And tomorrow is my 'Finish It Friday' Challenge. I've been looking through my stitching cabinet to find what I plan get get finished off so I can post on it tomorrow. I am hoping to get my March ornie done and if I can I think that the P.S. winter and spring ornies will be what gets finished off. Then the whole set will be completely finished!!! :) If you want information on what 'Finish It Friday' is and how to join in, click on the button above and it *should* take you to my page that give all the details:)

 

 

Finish It Friday

I am so excited to show of my finished project for the month!! I had hoped to get two framed up, but we had a rather rough week here - more on that in another post- and I just didn't get to the other. Here is what I did get done...

 

I started off wanting to work on these two projects. The one on the left is 'Heart of America' from Little House Needleworks. This is the one that I can't find the buttons for!!! I saw them a few weeks ago and I'm sure I put them somewhere 'safe', but I have no idea where!! The other project is 'Stealing Oats' from BritterCup. I love stitching her designs because they are so simple, but turn out so very cute. This project is for my dd and I stitched it a little over a year ago, but have never framed it.

 

I have a horrible time keeping white fabric clean, so I started things out by taking a wet wash cloth and spot cleaning a few areas. I couldn't wash the whole piece because the fibers I used were hand dyed and they would bleed onto the fabric. After washing it up a bit I ironed it. I had to be careful with the iron as there is a few beads on the flowers.

 



 

I already had this frame on hand set aside for this project - yes, that is how badly I put off finishing up my projects, I had everything I needed to get it done, and I just didn't do it. Since this was a regular frame and I had some beads on the piece, I didn't back it with anything very thick, so I wasn't able to stitch and stretch the back of it. I did use a bit of glue on the back to hold it in place - yes, I know, very bad!! But that was the best I could do on this one. Plus this was 18 ct Aida fabric, which means it was easy to center and didn't need a lot of stretching anyway.

 

 

So that is it for me this month. I have so many projects that I want to be able to finish off next month!!!

 

If you participated, please leave a link to your blog post by next Monday and I'll count everyone's up at the end of the year for a prize of some sort:)

 

 

 

Finish It Friday Reminder

<a href="http://www.aroundthehomestead.blogspot.com/p/finish-it-friday.html"><img border="0" src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/Shannon_Meyer/8b75bf2c-1a38-41f7-8385-d7bc14dc0e77_zps6047e167.jpg"/></a>

 

 

I'm so excited that tomorrow is the first 'Finish It Friday'!!! I'm busy working on getting at least one project finished up. I was hoping to be able to get two projects all finished up, but alas, I cannot find the buttons that are needed to be able to do this. I KNOW they are around here somewhere!!! We have a nice snowy day here today, so it is a great excuse to just bunker down and get some crafting done:) I hope you are able to join me on this tomorrow!!! Oh, and I believe the button above - as well as the one on the side of my blog - is fixed. Please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

 

 

EDIT: I forgot to say that to learn about 'Finish It Friday', push the button above or the 'Finish It Friday' Tab at the top of my blog:) Sorry about that!!! 





Finish It Friday Challenge

I don't know about you, but I am terrible about finishing projects. I love the planning stage and then going through my stash of fabrics - either for stitching or sewing - and flosses or yarns, to find just the right color match. Actually starting a new project is great as well. Putting the first bits of color in a plain piece of fabric or making the first cuts into a quilting or sewing project and seeing a project come together. And I am fairly decent - though not perfect - at getting the stitching done, or getting the crocheting part done, but then comes the final finishing of the project. The taking a stitched piece and framing it, or making it into an ornament or whatever. Or putting the crochet pieces together and making a blanket or something else of it. Even just putting a simple boarder on my crocheting becomes a struggle as there are so many other projects to start:) So this Challenge is my contribution to keeping you and me (...well, mostly me!!) in line when it comes to actually finishing a project.

This Challenge or SAL or CAL or whatever works for you:) - is about completely finishing off a project. It's about taking all those small stitched projects that you've finished stitching, but haven't done anything with, and making them into something. Maybe a ornament, or a flat fold.

Maybe you are into crocheting or knitting and you have blocks done up everywhere that need pieced into a blanket or something else. This is the time and place to get to it.

Obviously I am mostly into stitching, but I want to open this up to all crafters/sewers/fiber artists. So if you are into quilting, knitting, stitching, scrapbooking, sewing, woodworking, jewelry making, etc, and you have a hard time doing the final finishing work before starting a new project, then this is the Challenge for you!!

The plan is that we will post our finishing progress on the last Friday of the month. You can work on it whenever you like, all month or just a day or two, but try to post right around that last Friday. Come back here and link up to your post and we can visit each other and encourage one another to get those projects done once and for all!! :)

You do not need to sign up ahead of time, just come and go as it works for you. I do plan to have some kind of prize and will draw a name at the end of the year for those who participate. You'll get your name in a drawing each time you come back here and link up to your blog posting.

The dates for this will be...

Feb 22nd
March 22nd
April 26th
May 31st
June 28th
July 26th
Aug 30th
Sept 27th
Oct 25th
Nov 29th
Dec 27th


And I made up a button to link back to here - yeah for me!!! as I have about zero computer skills!!

<a href="http://www.aroundthehomestead.blogspot.com/p/finish-it-friday.html"><img border="0" src="http://IMAGE WEB ADDRESS"/></a><a href="http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/Shannon_Meyer/media/8b75bf2c-1a38-41f7-8385-d7bc14dc0e77_zps6047e167.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/Shannon_Meyer/8b75bf2c-1a38-41f7-8385-d7bc14dc0e77_zps6047e167.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 8b75bf2c-1a38-41f7-8385-d7bc14dc0e77_zps6047e167.jpg"/></a>