November Check In

The other day I was cooking dinner and the Smidget, who is now two years old, decided to dig into the pantry and help, toting a variety of food over to the counter so I could assemble some

...banana tacos topped with mayonnaise and decaf coffee. Yum.

Alright, time for a Project Report.

 Autumn Lilliana has grown by a few more rounds.

The Castle as well has been advanced. I don't think I'm going to finish the Castle before year's end like I had hoped but I'm very happy with how much I was able to get done.

And I pulled out the very first HAED I ever started and did a ton of work on it. This  I don't remember if I've gushed about a new program called Pattern Keeper yet. It's currently in Beta and is Android only, but you can follow a tutorial to get it installed on a Kindle if you need to, which is what I did. It's a PDF cross-stitcher's dream. I've barely tapped into all the things it can do, but it makes working with PDF patterns so easy.

As a caution, it currently only works with some of the major pattern publishers, although the developer is working hard to add more. But if you've been  struggling, using ezPDF or a similar program to do your PDF based stitching, give this program a try. It's free for the first two weeks and there are tutorials on YouTube.

I've also done a fair bit on my Lord of the Rings Wreath.

And though I don't have a picture of it, Gnome Pheonix has made it to part 9. Only about 25 more rounds to go before I finish.

Thankgiving is coming up and with it, an insane holiday season. I hope you're all ready!

School is Getting in the Way

 Pic Dump!

I'm taking classes again so there is minimal time for any sort of crafty endeavor and pretty much no time for things like blogging. But really quickly...

Gnome Phoenix through round 80-something.

Add caption

 Lord of the Rings Wreath with a few of the half stitches filled in.

 

Autumn-themed Lilllana, which sat abandoned until today when I could master Round 20 without interruption.

 

Happy stitching all, whether it be cross-stitch, crochet, quilting, or the textile art of your choice. 

October Update

About two weeks ago, I acquired two inexpensive small parts hardware drawers from Walmart. After a couple of evenings work, I have deconstructed the majority of my cross-stitch projects into these drawers. Each drawer holds four different colors of DMC floss. They're all labeled and there is one skein for each number.

I don't have a complete set, but I worked off a DMC master floss list so I do have spaces for the colors I don't yet have.

The reason I went to all this trouble is because I felt like I was spending more and more time sorting through piles of floss to find the color I needed. Now I can easily find it for any one of my projects. This also makes starting new projects easier, because I no longer have to pop out to Joann's and drop $40 on floss every time. I will work from one skein of each color until it's gone and then replace just that skein.

All the duplicate floss colors were sorted by number into ziploc bags and stored in my drawer organizer. Projects that are silhouettes or that are using specialty floss were kept together.

Then I took an entire evening and completely cleaned out and sorted my craft closet.

I even managed to clear about 60% of the floor AND I was able to sweep, so win-win. The organizers are stacked on wood boards so they won't collapse the ones below them, and everything is labeled.

I totally found a ton of projects that I had forgotten about and that I'm dying to finish

The new floss system allowed me to make some amazing progress on my LOTR wreath.

And earlier in the month I put some dedicated time into the Castle Sampler.

I've also been making more purple hats here and there....

...making good progress on my Gnome Phoenix...

... and started a Liliana by Hooked on Sunshine. I'm attempting to make it in autumnal colors, which is a bit of a stretch for me and I'm not sure I like it yet but I'm going to keep going.

And that's about it, other than I'm starting accounting classes in 11 days and we're going to attempt to take the Smidget away overnight later this month which will be an adventure. Please leave me a link to your blog in the comments and I'll be sure to pop over and say hi!

One Ring

It's not officially fall but the weather turned the last week of August. We've had much cooler weather and even a couple of days of rain. I'm grateful that we're in Michigan, because at least we don't need to worry about getting hit with a category five hurricane this week. My Facebook feed is flooded back to school photos, so you know summer is over for sure.

I took advantage of the drive out to the in-laws for a Labor Day BBQ to finish up a couple more hats. They're all different sizes because I was experimenting with adding and subtracting rows in order to get the required size and I think I've finally got it figured out. So far my group has made almost 40 of these hats! I'm going to wait until I have several more done and weave all the ends in at the same time, probably during a movie night.

My stitchy bug abandoned me recently and I couldn't resist a new start to bring it back online. Pattern and fabric were in stash, so I honestly already consider this a WIP. It's how I sleep at night. The pattern is Lord of the Rings Wreath by Mandarinks Design on Etsy, fabric is Picture this Plus in 18 count Mystic.

A word of caution about patterns from Mandarinks: they have the same symbols for half cross and full cross, but you get two patterns. One with just full cross and one with half cross and back stitching included.

Happy Stitching All!

Purple Hats for ClickforBabies.org

Click for Babies is an organization that distributes purple hats to hospitals. These hats are then given to parents of newborns, to remind them that the colicky crying that may persist for several hours a day is perfectly normal and will end. This is called the Period of PURPLE Crying.

For more information on the Period of PURPLE Crying, please read the information on this website:

What is the Period of PURPLE Crying?

The goal of this charity is to reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths from shaken baby by supporting and educating parents.

This charity was brought to my attention by a friend who is running my LOTR stitchy group on Facebook. For the duration of September, we're attempting to make as many purple hats as possible to send to Click for Babies. Several dozen have already been made for donation by those intrepid knitters and crocheters who started a week or two ago.

Today, I threw in with them, taking advantage of the weekend to pop out for a coffee with pattern and yarn in hand.

Click for Babies has an excellent list of parameters for making hats. They can be found here: Crafting Guidelines for Purple Hats.

If you are interested if sending hats to Click for Babies, I used the Parker Hat pattern by Sewrella in the 0-3 months size, with Red Heart Baby Hugs yarn and a 6 mm hook. It came out to almost exactly 14" in circumference, with 5" from dome to edge, so I will be adding another round or two to the end to meet the 6" requirement.

A couple of things to note is that the hats MUST be soft and need to include either gender-neutral or both girl- and boy-friendly colors and styles. I'll be doing several with green, yellow, or blue brims.

This is a charity that speaks to my heart,  as my husband frequently handles cases where infants under a year old have been killed by chronic abuse or shaking. A common "defense" is the complaint that the baby would not stop crying. Please consider taking some time to make and send a few hats.