Harry Potter QAL

Okay, I don't know how I missed this one but somehow I did.

Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts is hosting a FREE Harry Potter QAL this year. It started on January 15.

HP-QAL-2019 by Sew Fresh Quilts (photo used with permission)

While I'm not able to take on such a project at this time, I am saving the information for later stitchy goodness.

I do personally have a couple of sewing projects that I've been putting off as they fall into the category of "have to" instead of "want to" but the deadline is fast approaching and I need to get them done. I plan to spend a lot of time the next couple of weeks in my sewing room in the hopes of just burning through them lickety-split.

And because it would be a shame to not share my most recent photo of a crafty project, here is my progress on Small Cuppa by Charting Creations.

Happy stitching!

Amethyst Project Bag Completion

After TWO YEARS of working on this on and off, I finally finished the gosh darn thing! Meet the Amethyst Project bag. Pattern by Sew Sweetness.

I'm happy to announce that I actually finished two of the three that I was working on and they have been transferred to the person for which they were intended. I did not think to get a photo of the second one before passing it along. I only have one more to go. This one is for me and it should only take me a couple of dedicated hours to complete. 

Is Spring Here Yet?

Happy Daylight Saving Time all and if you are as cranky as I am about it, check and see if your state legislature has a bill pending to remove the twice-yearly time change. Mine does - it seems like we get this going on every year and we've yet to have one pass - which means its probably time to send some nastygrams to the Capitol Building and demand that they pass it this time around. 

In case you're wondering what your hours of daylight would look like without DST, here's a really interesting article on the topic: Here's How Daylight Saving Time Affects Your Part of the Country by Michele Debczak

I personally would have happily done away with it years ago, but now that I've got a toddler who already doesn't sleep well, I'm even more militant about the need to abolish such an archaic and hazardous practice. For example, did you know that the number of car accidents skyrockets in the week following a time change?

Okay, give me a second to put my soapbox away... hang on...

Alrighty. On to the more interesting topics. For your viewing please, Tiger Chilling Out. This is an older picture but one that I hadn't remembered to share before now (I think). I'll be pulling this one out for this week's homework on my School of Magical Stitches SAL. The task is was to stitch on something with claws, because Buckbeak has claws. I'm hoping to polish off the tiger and make some headway on the half-stitches in the water this week.

The other half of the homework was to stitch something in brown, for the chocolate used to help heal from Dementor attacks, so I was able to actually start Hogwarts in a Bottle and I got quite a lot done! 

I am however, excited to hopefully fill on some of the other colors later this week so that it actually starts looking like something other than brown blobs.

Its been a month of "New Starts" as I was also able to tie the Camelot Sample into last week's homework and make a decent start on it. I wish I could show you the thread list for this (I won't, because of copyright). The colors and blends take up 1.5 three-column pages. It's a doozy and it doesn't look like much now but I think it'll be stunning once I fill it in a bit.

 I'd love to drop by your blog or Instagram and say hi, so please leave me a link in the comments if you are so inclined.

It's March!

Well, I've gotten back into a little crafting this week. We've been fighting a round of the stomach flu last week and any of you who've had a toddler with the stomach flu can imagine how miserable things have been. The Smidget is feeling pretty good again now and up to his usual pesty shenanigans, so as long as I don't catch it, I think we're good to go. 

I had a new start: The Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations. I'm stitching this 2 over 1 tent on 32 count. I'm not thrilled with the look of the sparser areas but I think the solid stitching is coming along very nicely. We've already had one section that I've exerted creative license on because its mostly impossible to frog on 32 count. I won't point it out and y'all pretend that you can't see it ;)

My newest crafty acquisition is my TARDIS mug. IT HOLDS HALF A POT OF COFFEE (30oz) and was a Christmas present from my niece. It is really super cool awesome, I love it, and I'm downing more coffee than ever...*twitch* Regular sized mug for scale.

I've made a start on Ultraviolet of Change by Frank O'Randle. You can find his pattern on Ravelry. Ultraviolet of Change is a paid pattern but there are several free ones available if you want to give them a try. I'd also recommend joining his Facebook group, as he's available to answer any questions you have about the patterns. I'm not going to have quite enough colored yarn for it so I think I'm just going to convert a color section to black and it will work great.

I'm now halfway done with Mini Cuppa by Charting Creations. This is one of my easiest projects to work on, because its just one color and doesn't require a lot of concentration. It is coming out wonderfully and I'm looking forward to actually finishing it at some point. 

Finally, with Easter coming up, I would like to remind you to stock up on those Cadbury eggs. I wish I knew who to credit this meme too but I'm afraid I couldn't find the original author.

We Have A Finish!

First off, an apology. At least one person has contacted me about the Harry Potter Stitch-And-Read-Along that I'm participated in and I'm afraid I didn't get the message until nearly two weeks after it was sent. If you are interested it joining up, we would be more than thrilled to have you along. The Facebook group is School of Magical Stitches and Literature. Please read the FAQ in the files section (it's also linked in the announcements at the top of the group page), as it will tell you how to get sorted into your house and give you a basic idea of how our admins are running things. 

The best way to contact me is through the comment form at the bottom of each post. Those comments go directly to my email and I check that on a regular basis. Again, I'm sorry for the delay. 

A baby afghan finish! This is my Mini Joy's Journey Motif afghan. 

Every project has a story and this one is that I cannibalized yarn from another project for it. I thought I was going to have enough to make twelve motifs but I was wrong and had just enough for nine plus three round of hdc border.

And then honest-to-goodness, not two days after I finished off the border on this project and relegate it to the baby blanket pile, I was cleaning up my crafty room and I found the missing two skeins of yarn. Of course.

Those skeins will get donated to the Hat and Scarf stash.

In other news, my hand dyed floss for my Ink Circles project arrived. I'm actually very disappointed in the color of the floss. Its really nothing like what the picture on the website looked like. Its missing a significant depth of color and there is really no variation. Instead of a deep blue and deep green with a lot of blending, I have more pastel colors that don't overlap at all. It looks okay I guess, just not what I was really looking for. I'm a fair chunk of the way into the pattern but I'm considering tearing it out and just going with a solid color instead.

I'm 2 for 2 on the hand dyed floss disappointment. Next time I go hunting for hand dyed floss, I think I'll make my own. I looked it up and I'm pretty sure I can handle it as long as I can keep the toddler from "helping."

I also just finished a Moss Stitch scarf using Lion Brand Ferris Wheel in Morning Java. Nothing but happy's here! It came out fantastic, although a bit narrower than I had planned, so I'm actually going to make a second one. It would seem that the starting chain for the moss stitch pull in quite a lot once you get several rows done. I lost about a third of the width. Good to know!

We're about to get hit with a series of winter storm over the next ten days or so. Please everyone, stay safe on the roads if you must venture out. They're predicting high winds and power outages with this next one, I hope its not as bad as they are suggesting.