September WIPocalypse

Hello again! Can't believe it's already September!

Unfortunately, my stitching has slowed way down as I'm getting the house ready for a new roommate (my Aunt) and preparing for an eventual move. When I can, I've been slogging along on Scale, though progress is very slow, especially considering there's only one color I've been stitching. But I'll get there eventually (or at least I keep telling myself that):

So, about 30 rows done, another 30 to go. Lots and lots of pale skin. But I'll be so glad once it's finished. :)

In the mornings, I've been stitching on one of my Olympic Challenge starts. This one will be a gift for a friend, as her birthday is next month. This is He Holds Tomorrow by My Big Toe Designs:

I've changed the color of the lettering and flowers to the same dark blue (791, I think) as it's my friend's favorite color. The flowers are supposed to be monochrome, but I plan to go back and give them all yellow centers, just as soon as I sit down and pick out a good yellow. Hope to have this one done at the end of the month, as I want to try to frame it myself (gulp!). But I have lots of time to get this done.

I also managed a finish this month, my first of the year. I've already shown these off in a previous post, but here are my Tigers, all done!

This was finished Sept. 6th, and it's still awaiting my signature. Just haven't had time to really look at it and decide where I want it. But I'm in no rush.

This month, our topic is: Tell us a story about the journey you took through one of your completed pieces.
I guess I will talk a bit about my Tigers. This kit was given to me by my mother for my 18th birthday, back in 1998. At the time, this was the biggest chart I owned, and I knew it would take a long time, but I never thought it would be half a lifetime. :)

In '98, I was a senior in high school, and about to make the transition to college. I started this in May, and had a very short time with it before packing everything away and leaving for school. I remember starting with Mama tiger's stomach, in the center, then worked my way left. I had only just started her legs when I put her away.

I had every good intention of continuing once I got settled, but you know how college is. Lots to adapt to. So it was almost a year before I picked it up again. It was actually during a very stressful time, and I thought, "Isn't there something I could do to help me relax?" And I thought of my Tigers. There was a certain afternoon that is very vivid in my memory, when my roommate was gone, and even though I could have been studying, I chose to spend a couple hours stitching. It was the best thing I could have done. Afterward, I was so relaxed and refreshed, I promised myself not to neglect my stitching in the future. (Though of course, I did.)

Over the next two years, I gradually made my way to the left, finally finishing the lone leaf at the edge. That was a triumph! But making my way to the right was not so easy. Lots more confetti at this end. I was still working on the third baby tiger in the early 2000s, but I wasn't feeling the love. When I finally made it to the leaves, I was so tired of it, I felt I just had to put it down. So I did. For years. And years.

Last year, my mother asked me, whatever happened to my Tigers? It was a coincidence that I was thinking I needed to pick them up again, so I took it as a sign and made it my goal to finish this in 2016. And I've succeeded! Couldn't be happier with the results. Now, I just need to get it framed. :)

That's all for now. Happy stitching everyone!

It's a Finish!!

Hello again! It's been a while since I've updated (very sorry about that) but I'm back with a finish! It took 18 years, but finally my oldest wip is complete! Here are my Tigers, captured in full:

I finished them on Tuesday the 6th. The backstitching took a little over three hours, not including the other little baby's face near the tail. That bit was done somewhere around a decade ago, I really can't remember. (Sad, isn't it?) Close ups!

Two little darlings, curled up under Mama's tail

So cute! Those lazy daisy stitches turned out really well.

Tiger luv! :3

Perhaps this one shows just how much the whiskers interfered with proper chart reading. All those lines were just in the way! But I'm so glad it's done. :) I haven't signed it yet, though I plan to. It'll be my first, as I always seem to forget that part. Haven't decided just where to stitch my initials; probably around mama's right paw. Eventually, this will be washed and framed. (My mother insists.)

I haven't been stitching a whole lot lately, but I'll share a few things. First, I'm up to 10 days on Paris from Stitchery Stitch, and made some good progress last weekend:

I actually did all that green in one day. It kinda felt like I was stitching the emerald city for a while, but I just kept stitching. It's kind of hard to stop when it's all big chunks of color, and I kept thinking, "oh, just this one little bit here." Totally addictive stitching.

Another addictive one is Red Riding Hood from Prairie Schooler, which I worked on the last week of August. This is only 5 days of work, but it's coming along really well:

Just started on the house in the middle. Those trees have a nice rhythm to them, it makes for a very relaxing stitch.

And, because I can't resist, here's day 3's progress on Sampler Game Board from The Drawn Thread:

The first two houses are complete, three motifs are done, and the third house just needs the sky. This is such an awesome design. I'm really looking forward to stitching all the different little houses, each with a different landscape. There's a lot of detail packed into those little squares, so it's a lot of fun. All the motifs are upside down, for the "gameboard" effect. It's kind of strange to stitch things in that orientation, but I like it. :)

I am still stitching on Scale, trying for a page finish this month. I'm about halfway there. I'm also working on He Holds Tomorrow from My Big Toe Designs as a gift for a friend. That's about halfway done (why don't I have a picture of this?) and should be finished by the end of the month. (Pics then, I promise.) 

In other news, Life is about to get really hectic for me (though last month was no picnic). We are planning on moving later this year, hopefully late November if we find a good place. So I'm super busy cleaning, organizing, pretending to pack (why do I have so much stuff?). But to make it fun, my Aunt is moving in with us at the end of this month, so my craft room (aka the spare bedroom) needs cleaning out now. So, stitchy time is getting shorter, and I haven't been as good about reading and commenting on blogs (sorry about that!) but I'll keep trying. I don't know how the rest of the year will pan out, but hopefully I can keep stitching at work if nothing else. :)

As always, thanks for reading. Until next time!