Wow I am terrible at blogging here this month. I've been extremely busy with the Holidays parties, dinner, shopping, etc. I haven't gotten any stitching done. I'm sure I will be back to it once it's all over in Jan. I'm so sorry I couldn't leave any comments on anyone site. I will sure work on catching up on them in Jan.

Hope everyone have a great Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I haven't done any stitching this weekend because I was busy shopping and looking at Christmas decorations at different Disney hotels.

I also have been reading a great book called "A Million Little Pieces." I am halfway thru this book and once I am done with it,I will go back to my stitches. I can't put this book down. I have to finish it.

I did start my Nautical project and I will post an update of my progress sometimes this week.

Thank you all for your kind comments on my Halloween project. It's always nice to hear from you. :)

I finally finish my Halloween project today! I'm so excited to finish it. It took me less than a month, but I don't care because it's finished and my third project to complete. I will make it into something for next year Halloween. I'm not in a Halloween mood anymore.

Started: October 23, 2005

Completed: November 18, 2005

I just ordered Winter Breeze fabric at Silkweaver today since they had a sale this week. While I am waiting for the fabric to arrive, I will start working on my Nautical project.

One of my Christmas project will be "Gentle Encounter" by Stoney Creek. I'm thinking about using a silkweaver fabric called Winter Breeze. Here is a picture to give you an idea what it will look like.



I thought maybe this fabric can give the background of this pattern a snowy scene with it. Then I'm not sure if a sparkly white fabric would be better. What do you think?

The pumpkins are a pain in the neck. The colors jump around all over the place instead of row by row. So it's taking me longer than I thought to do the pumpkins.

I was planning to do Donna Kooler Christmas Designs, but I changed my mind and decided to learn some new stitches. I was admiring the Victoria Sampler Christmas Ornament and I don't know how to stitch something like that.

I noticed that VS had a section where they teach different stitches as a beginner's project which is called Beyond X Stitch . So I decided I wanted to learn them and order the first one. The first project is about Rice Stitch. So I am eager to get it in the mail and start learning some new stitches.

Then someday I can make that Christmas Ornament on VS someday. :)

I am almost done with my Halloween project. I am working on the pumpkins now. Then I have to work on all of the backstitches. I'm getting really excited that it's almost done.

My daughter has been taking long naps for the past 2 days and I tend to do my stitches when she is sleeping. I hardly have time to do it when she is awake. I usually sit in my rocking chair when I stitch and when she sees me sitting there, she wants me to pick her up and rock her.

So I tend to clean the house, play with her, read a book, or watch a tv show. I got most of my stitches done during the day because last night, my husband and I were watching the Amazing Race. It's a tradition we started since we got married. We love to watch that show and see all the different places they travel to. Last night, they travel in Costa Rica to Pheonix Arizona. I would certainly love to visit those places someday.

Here is a progress on my Halloween project. As you can see, I am working on the third ghost now. I hope to start working on the bottom half. Hopefully I will be done this week.

I will post later about my christmas projects that I want to do. I'm not sure if I will get them all done by Dec. 31st. I highly doubt that since I am pretty slow. :)

I am still working on my Halloween project. I am slow since I've been interrupted by my 7 months old daughter quite often. I'm sure the moms out there understand what I mean.

I am halfway done with it and I've been thinking about making it into a flat fold. Once it's all done, I will post it here.

I'm keeping my October goals for this month.

I'm not doing any Thanksgiving project since I am not crazy about that Holiday, but I do have several Christmas project that I like to do in December.

I will come back here often and check out other blogs and leave comments.

This will be my sceond project once I am done with the Halloween one. I love nautical stuff and I chose a treasure trove fabric to give it a more nautical look. I hope it will look good with the fabric. I thought about framing it with a round tube similar to the one where it says welcome aboard. I don't know the name for it.

I also know this is one of my listings for October, I'm not sure if it will be done before Oct. 31 and I don't think it will be done by then. I will work on this and I have been meaning to work on some Christmas cross stitching. I'm getting into the Christmas mood now that Halloween is almost over.

Good news! I finally started my Halloween project Sunday night. My printer still needs to be fix, but I was able to print a smaller version of the chart. So I have to stitch alittle slower and carefully since the chart is small.

I noticed that I tend to make many errors with small charts. This is why I like to make them bigger.

I decided to use post it notes to keep track of where I'm stitching and it seems to be going along very well.

The design is coming out great on the fabric and I just can't wait to show it to everyone when it's done. :)

I was so frustrated last night with my printer. I wanted to start my new project since I received my fabric in the mail the other day.

My chart was being printed off from PC Stitch program which I like because I can make my chart bigger.

The printer was not leveling the chart right on the paper, so something is wrong with the printer.

My husband tried to fix it but had no luck. We looked at our receipt to see if we could return it but it was already pass 30 days, so we couldn't return it. We would have to call the company to get it fix.

I really wanted to start working on it last night, but I ended up reading a book and watching a movie instead.

This is what I wanted to work on last night.






I was planning to put the Halloween Design on that Autumn Sunrise fabric. The instruction said to try to use a pale orange color to help bring out the white in the ghost. When I got the fabric in the mail. The orange was alittle darker than what it showed on the internet.

Hopefully the printer will be fix soon, so I can start working on it. Meanwhile, I will be do some reading while I wait.

I went to Joann's last night to pick up more threads. I couldn't start my new project because I didn't have all of the threads I needed. It's mostly orange colors for Halloween, so I haven't done any orange before.

I don't know if it's me or what, but does it seem like people are stitching pretty fast these days? I feel like someone is posting a finish project each day that I feel so slow with mine. Maybe it's cuz I am a beginner? Or am I reading too many stitching blogs at once that it seems like everyone is finishing their project each day? Oh well.

I sure enjoy looking at all the neat project. Now I need to get back to mine, so everyone have something to look at when they come here. :)

I finally got my fabrics from Silkweaver. I am so excited to get them. I was out of town for 5 days and I didn't bring my stitching projects because I knew I wouldn't have enough time to do them. I was dead tired at night when I finally put my daughter down for the night.

I did bring my books and I did some reading at night.

Now I am ready to start using my new fabrics to start a new project.

I finally completed the second project on Sunday. Here are the 2 projects I worked on last month for the wedding keepsakes.





I had a hard time taking good pictures of it but this is the best I could do for now.

I'm happy to working on a different project now. It can get boring when you work on the same project 2 times in a row. Next time, I will work in advance to make 2 different keepsakes.

I was not able to finish the project on time. I wasn't feeling well this week, so I couldn't finish it as fast as I could. My headache made it difficult to do cross stitching, so I did alittle at a time. I will be able to give it to them when they come back from their honeymoon.

I haven't received my new materials yet from Silkweaver. So I will work on my old projects that are sitting in my bag until the new materials arrive. I can't wait for them to come in the mail. I'm eager to start using them.

I'm hoping that my cross stitching skills has improve since I know how to go in different directions by keeping the top layer at the same direction. I think once the new material arrives and I am done working on those projects. I might try a bigger challenge like HAED or Mirabilia. They are very beautiful design and I really want to work on them.

I saw other people in their blog working on them and it encourages me to work on them. There are so many projects I want to do now, but I keep reminding myself that I have the rest of my life to do cross stitching, so I don't need to do them in a hurry.

I also have been doing a lot of reading, so I am trying to figure out how to add them on my sidebar to show what I've been reading. I'm learning little by little on how to use this blogger. I really like it a lot. And most of all, it's free with a lot of options. :)

I did a lot of cross stitching yesterday all afternoon, then I had to stop in the evening because I had a bad headache. I try to avoid doing cross stitching when I have a bad headache because I tend to mess up easily. So I read my book and watch my tv shows to relax. I hope to finish the project today and that my daughter will take long naps today haha.

If she takes long naps, then I'm sure I can finish it today. If not, well I guess I will have to finish it tomorrow. It just has to be done before Thursday which is the wedding day.

I was looking through Nordic Needle website and I found a couple of things that I like to cross stitch in the future.

I saw several people lists their goals for the month on their website to finish projects. I thought it was a good idea, so I will do the same.

October:

Stitch
1) Happy Halloween Seasons Way
2) Nautical Clock
3) Winter Cat
4) Start on HAED or Mirabilia design

So that is my list for October. It should be interesting to see if I can accomplish all of them in one month. I hope so.

I'm still working on my second project. I need to have it finish by Monday, so I can frame it and give it to my friends on Thursday when they get marry. I'm starting to get bored of doing butterflies, so I am ready to move on to the next project.

I found a couple of cool cross stitch blogs with different ideas on how to decorate your cross stitch other than framing it. I like the idea of making it into a pillow. So I will do that for the next project.

I bought some new fabrics today for some new cross stitch projects. I am excited and can't wait to get them in the mail. The fabric is beautiful with the hand dyed colors from Silkweavers.

Then I brought some new charts from PatternsOnline to stitch on the new fabrics I bought.

Oh I bought some Qsnaps last week and I got them in the mail yesterday. I tried it on my current project and I love it! I love how it keeps the fabric tight when I don't have to keep stretching it like it did on the hoops.

I heard so much positive things about it from the reviews on Joann's. They were right, Qsnaps are better than the hoops.

My first completed CS project. 

I completed the first "Forever Lasting" for my cousin Keith and Olivia's wedding. It took me 2 weeks and 1 day to finish it. I started September 5th and finish today on the 20th. I was excited to finish it because it's actually the first cross stitch project that I completed. I have several others that I am working on but still not finish.

This Saturday, I plan to go to Joann and buy an iron, so I can iron my project to make it neater. I'm supposed to wash the fabric but I am scared that the color of the thread will start to fade or go all over the fabric. I hate to risk it.

Now I need to work on the second "Forever Lasting" for Mike and Elizabeth. I will need to hurry since their wedding is last than 3 weeks away!

One mistake I made with the first project is I didn't bother to whipstitch the ends and now I got all kinds of frays on the ends. The cloth become loose and I had a hard time cross stitching the project. Now I learned my lesson, I will whipstitch the second project to prevent fraying.

I will post a picture of it once the batteries in my digital camera are recharge.

Forever Lasting

I'm working on "Forever Lasting" for two couples that are getting marry in October. It's from The Stoney Creek Cross Stitch Collection Book Number 278 To Love & To Cherish. It's a special keepsake for the bride and groom.

I'm working on the first one and hope to be done by Monday, so I can start the second one.

I started using Glissen Gloss Threads and found that I hated it. I took them out and used only cotton floss which I liked much better. During the process, I realized I didn't like using the hoops because it keeps stretching out the aida cloth and the threads look too loose on the fabric. So I ordered a q snap and hope to get it soon. I hope it is good as the reviewers said in their comments on Joann.com.

I will post a picture of my completed project once I am done (hopefully by Monday).