SFS 2014 July Update

Another month has passed and it is time for Stitch from Stash 2014 July Update.

Amount Spent: Balance $31.78 Spent: $0 Ending Balance $56.78

New Starts from Stash:

• None

WIPs or UFOs worked on: Cat Collage (Complete)

I have finally finished the cat collage that I have been working on (what seems like forever).

Mr. Allen Henning...This is for you. I made you a promise (okay so what if it was 14 years ago) that I would complete this piece. You never said I had to keep it.

For most of this project, I loved working on it. Towards the end I just wanted to get it done. Now it is time for it to find a new home. Sometime in August I will put it up for adoption. :)

I can't seem to gather my thoughts together tonight, so I am going to let you all go for now.

Good night,

Angela

Almost there!

Hi all,

What a shocker...I am posting before the end of the month.

I have been busy trying to get the Cat Collage finished. I am finally down to the last 4 squares.

I just went looking to see where I last posted pictures and I am so far behind.

Overall Progress as of 07/06/2014

Cat # 21

Can't really call them cats so...Box # 22

Cat # 23

Cat # 24

Cat # 25

Cat # 26

Cat # 27

Cat # 28

Cat # 29

Cat # 30

and finally Cat # 31 (work in progress).

 

 

I am hoping to get this last cat done tonight and start on the next one. My goal is to have this piece completed by the end of the month.

 

Then...it will be time to start the hunt for a good home for this piece. I love cats, just not up on my wall. :)

 

Time to get back to work...

 

Ta Ta for Now,

Angela

February's SFS2014 Update

Hello everyone,

Another month has passed us by and it is time to see how we did with our spending.

We were able to have a special buying weekend:

So the parameters of this exemption weekend has been set by my wonderful man. He has decided to be super nice to all of us, and has decided to give us a lot of money to spend (if you so choose!):
- Anything you want, it doesn't have market items or even new stuff. Essentially anything from anywhere, no exceptions (see how nice he is, lol!)

- Budget is $100 (US) not including shipping.

Mel's wonderful Husband has been very generous to us this month.

I was able to repurchase the HAED chart Boo that I wanted so desperately last month. I couldn't help myself, I continued to browse the shelves and found another beautiful pattern that I just couldn't pass up...

 

With our spending limit I was able to purchase the above pattern, the fabric for both Boo and Purple Dragon and all but a couple of threads to stitch P. Dragon.

  

Now, before I go into too much detail...let me get to the good stuff.

 



Amount Spend: Nashville Market: $96.34 Monthly Budget: $0.00

• HAED $20.15
• Fabric $42.17
• Floss $ 33.92

New Starts from Stash:

• Remember Me...
•  Flaming Heart
• April's Daisy

 WIPs or UFOs worked on:

• Spooky Welcome
• Cat Collage

Over all I think I did pretty good. I stayed within my limits on the exemption weekend and didn't need to spend into my monthly budget. (Which I will probably need to be able to pick up the fabric for the rest of the months of My Garden Journal).

 

Over this last weekend I was able to complete the two mini charts and one more cat on my cat collage.

Free chart from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe stitched in her hand dyed Blue with Brown floss (wonderful floss to work with by the way).

 

This little Flaming Heart was a freebie from my LNS that my daughter decided she didn't want to do. I might do this a couple more times in different colors.



After 4 tries to get the cat above this one stitched I put the cat collage away for the night and started one of the smalls above. I came back to this piece because I was determined to get at least one of the silly little kitties stitched before the weekend was up. This one was really pretty quick to stitch and I love the colors.

Over all a very successful month. 4 completed projects and a mini finish on my cat collage.

Let's see if I can do just as well next month. I know that for at least one week I might not get a chance for much stitching since we (DD and I) will be going to visit my father. We can't wait.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela CG in TX

Happy Dance!!

Just finished another project.

 

Spooky Welcome by Stoney Creek

I loved working on this and am sorry to see it finished, but on the other hand it is nice to have another finish so early in the year.

I plan on making this into a wall hanging (sometime in the future). Right now I just want to continue stitching. I have another couple of months before it needs to be finished finished.

I picked up my cat collage last night. After three tries, I am still one thread too high, but I refuse to take it out again. The cat will just have to walk on air in this box. :) Hopefully I will be able to get one or two more cats completed before I get distracted again.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela CG, otherwise known as the crazy cat lady by her daughter.

Cat Colage and 1st Finish of the Year

I was able to get a couple more cats done last month...

4 more cats completed

I needed to put this one down for a little bit. I enjoy being able to feel like I had a finish with each box but I wanted something bright to work on... So just before Christmas I picked up Ursula Michael's Trick or Treat.

My first finish of 2014

I tried to get it done on the first but I didn't make it. I was able to get all the back stitching done on the hat and the web done on the second.  I just loved these colors.

I am not yet ready to go back to the cats yet so onto another Halloween stitch. I picked up Spooky Welcome when Stoney Creek was giving it as a free chart. I just love that site!!

I am not a big orange fan so I decided I wanted a purple background. I figured that I could stay with the program of using black but why be normal? lol

I decided to stitch this using DMC 796.

I think the blue will look great with this piece. I figured that I will stitch the words "EEK" and "BOO" in black along with the spider web and the vine near the bottom of picture.

It is time for me to check on my house full of teen aged girls (DD is having her birthday party/sleepover tonight) then make a start on Spooky Welcome.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela

Cat Collage Update, a Field Trip and a new Recepie

Hello all,

I was finally able to get all the brown outline completed on my cat collage. At first I was only going to do the box that I was working in, but after a while the cloth I am stitching it on would get heavy and cause my fingers to cramp. My thought was that if I could finally get the whole outline done, then I could safely cut the excess material away and make the whole project much easier to handle. So I stitched and stitched with the same drab DMC 610 until it was all finished. I actually did pretty good and only had to frog two sections. Now normally I won't wash a piece until I am completely done, but this piece has been sitting around for over a year and has survived a move. It was very dirty. So in the wash (in a lingerie (sp?) bag) on delicate, hung up to dry and ironed.

Thank goodness all the dirt came out. I was able to cut off the excess fabric and sew the edges. I also removed all the tape that I had on the edges. (I did that before I knew not to use tape). As you can see I still have aways to go, but I feel pretty good with my progress. I know I have enough material and I have each section ready for me to stitch it's occupant. Below is a close up shot of the completed occupants.

 

 

After getting everything cut down to size, I asked my little one which cat I should do next and she picked the box with the words. What is funny is that this little kitten is my 13th stitched cat and he is # 13 on the pattern. I was going to go back to the other side ( am am kinda near the right side of the project) I would continue where the hoop is so I did not have to move my hoop. (Being a little lazy :) So cat # 14 will be stitched in the box to the left of the kitten and under the words.

 

 

 

While I was finishing this one up and starting # 14, I had a stitching buddy.

 

 

Last weekend my brother really wanted to attend Mudfest again for his birthday and he wanted me there. Boy was it COLD!!!! We had some barrels set up so we could TRY (and I mean only try) to keep warm. In the picture the truck with the Rebel Flags is a friend who was with us. He has a great looking truck up close. I didn't think that I would really like attending this event but after my second experience, I think I will keep attending. With one exception...I will NOT EVER attend the winter event again. It is too cold!!!!

 

Below is a little video of a silly little jeep trying to pull out a stuck truck. He had the power but not the weight.

 

 

There have been some pretty nice looking recipes on Facebook lately. One for a Pepperoni Stromboli sounded easy enough to make. And with simple ingredients something even my little one would eat.

 

I like mushrooms on my pizza but the little one does not, so...we made two. I split the dough in half (pre-made pizza crust), put half the ingredients (pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, seasoning mix (two egg yolks, Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup oil) on mine and the other half on hers, then added mushrooms to mine. Rolled them up, pinched the ends closed, twisted a little bit of leftover dough into a ribbon to mark one of them, spread the egg whites on top and Ta Da!! Personal Stromboli. Delish! The little one ate all of hers and she is a picky eater. I am not sure where the original recipe came from so I can't post it.

 



Well, I've got to run and get some things done.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela

Quick update and a couple of Giveaways

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Good food, family, some laughs...and of course, some drama. I am very thankful that it stayed to minor verbal comments (that were not directed at me).  We are probably going to go back and spend Christmas there. Hopefully things will stay calm.

I was able to complete a couple more cats.

Cat # 10 is now complete. I tried four times to fix his eyes. This last time I left as is.

Cat # 11

Cat # 12

I have been working on stitching the boxes for the rest of the cats. I wanted to do this so I can cut some of the excess fabric off the ends. It is getting to be a little too cumbersome to hold as I am stitching. I currently have masking tape on the edges (I restarted this project about a year ago before I knew better). When I cut off the extra I am going to sew the ends. I'll take another picture of the full piece when I get the edges sewn. I need to put this aside for a couple of weeks so that I can get some presents for the kids of the family done.

I took a quick stitch with me to my Brother's but forgot to take a picture of it. I have not touched it since we came back. I think I am going to use this as my traveling piece. I might make a pillow out of it when done.

Now on to the Giveaway portion of our program today.

First is a wonderful pamphlet of snowmen give by the wonderful Parsley at Seasons of My Mind.

Next is another wonderful giveaway by Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe...


Fourth Day of Christmas Give-away....LOTS of FLOSS!

On the fourth Day of Christmas Nancy gave to Me:
25!!! yes 25 skeins (20 yards each!), 500 yards!
of floss from the 1795 Sampler Collection! One lucky winner. You pick the colors!

Stop by both these beautiful ladies pages and tell them I sent you.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela

Update - Cat Collage

After a week of little to no stitching, I was finally able to get some stitching done this weekend.

I finally finished cat # 8

Purple Cat W/Yarn Ball

and completed # 9

Calico Blue Cat

I have started cat #10

Green Check Cat

and closed in the box for cat # 11 Cat Playing with Ball. For some reason I seem to be on a roll with this one. I am about 2/3rds done. I am trying to get this one done soon. I promised someone when I purchased my stash start that I would finish this. It has taken 13 years but I will get it done yet.

I will update again soon.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela

Cat Collage Update

As promised I took a picture of Cat #5 after finishing #6.

I was able to get cat #7 started and completed as well this weekend.

I started cat #8 and will get a picture posted soon. Number 8 is at the bottom left so at least I finally know that I have enough fabric going from top to bottom. The next test is to see if I have enough to go from left to right.

Fought a sore throat this weekend but other than that a very quiet weekend. Really just the kind that I like. Plenty of time to stitch and just enough time out of the chair cooking or picking up to make sure that I don't get too stiff.

Ta Ta for now,
Angela