January Stitching and stuff

January stitching has been a bit slow so far this month.  I did complete a Shepherds Bush - Sunflower Summer before I started a new project - shocker there!  

This is Sunflower Summer by Shepherds Bush.  I decided to finish it before I started the new year long stitch a long - I work better on a reward basis... But, I have Spring at the framer now, Halloween is done and Autumn is on the floor stand rotation with winter and Christmas to follow.  I currently have three pieces in the floor stand rotation, they are each on scroll rods and we had bought a new pillow that came in a zipped, plastic on one side case/cover where I store the projects so I have them handy to switch out.  Since the other two projects are bigger, I like to have the smaller one to feel a sense of accomplishment. I have a spot next to the front door that is perfect for these small samplers so I plan on just rotating the seasons.  I like the challenge of the specialty stitches and I think they're cute too.

This is my progress on Serenity Harbour year long stitch a long by By the Bay Needlearts.  This is upside down but I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.  I opted to use only stash to stitch this and have added satin stitches for the sun... we'll see what other specialty stitches I add to it.

Miss Thing got a Red Heart Knitting machine for Christmas... as much as she loves it now, trying to figure out how to make it was a royal pain in the ...  The instructions were crap, all they said was to thread the machine and start cranking away... yeah, right!  I looked at what was coming out and it would have unraveled before we even took it off the machine.  So, off to youtube I went and found a video that explained that the first round you (the human machine) have to put the thread over and under the teeth for the first round.  

We finally figured it out but Miss Thing would stop to do something and rather than crank clockwise, she'd go counter clockwise... I think we pulled it out 4 times because its not easy to fix before she figured it out.  But then when she went home, I realized that she had done it again so this time (without the pressure to fix it NOW), I pulled out my crochet hook and fixed it so she doesn't have to start over.

Miss Thing is getting a pair of pajamas that matches her doll.  She picked out the flannel and I found the knit for leggings.  I've not sewn doll clothes before but I'm going to give it a shot.

I was hoping to get the old Disney Princess pattern when it was on sale but they were gone.  I will watch for it because I would like to make Snow White for her too.

Christmas Eve, I decided that the two projects I needed to finish were a stitching piece and a baby quilt.

The quilt won the race, however, its also been in process longer.  I started it before Jacob was born and have struggled to finish it much sooner than I did.  I guess part of the problem was that I decided that each of the different fabrics needed to quilted differently... yeah, that's not going to happen again!

I used my Singer 401a with a walking foot to quilt it and it sailed right through all the layers.  The 401a was made for this kind of work and she didn't let me down.

This is the front of the quilt with the requested numbers and planets fabric.  I found the planet fabric, then the gray, blue and peach star fabric and then, off to Fabric.com to find the number fabric.  I didn't have a pattern that spoke to me so I just made it up as I went.  Let me tell you, that was a challenge.  I made a mistake cutting the star fabric on my first block and thought 'well heck, I don't have enough of it to re-cut it' so I added a planet block in the center of each star strip.  To my eye it made the star pieces much less over powering. Now that it is done, people tell me that when I told them the fabric was going to be numbers and planets, they weren't sure it was going to work.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure it would work.

I used an orange flannel to back the quilt as I thought it was a lovely warm fabric for our winters here in Colorado. While this was supposed to be a baby quilt, I decided that with these fabric choices, I would make a bigger quilt so he could use it longer than a year or two. 

My other finishes were stitching related.  

I couldn't come up with a present for my son and his family so, I decided to stitch this up for them. It's at the framers now so they should have it in a week or so.

Shepherds Bush Spring - I finished this about 3 months ago but couldn't find the embellishments.  So, when I realized I was going to meet with my framer, I was just going to suck up the fact that I didn't have the embellishments, that in my stash, I couldn't find a bunny charm and just get it framed.  I dated it, and then on a whim, looked one last time.  Well, whaddya know, there they were.  So, we determined what frame, mats and size at our meeting and I took it home to finish that day - because it was 12/31/14 and I had dated it 2014.

While I was there, I also picked up the framed Lizzie Kate 2013 Halloween Mystery Sampler.  I really LOVE how this turned out.

My stitching goals for this year, I have two Mirabilia's that I started a few years ago and want to finish them, a couple Shepherds Bush samplers that have been started (one is on the floor frame right now and will be done in the next day or two) and a few new projects that are calling to me.  One is a Victoria Sampler Christmas and the other is a beautiful monthly stitch along that started on 1/1/15.  I have my fabric ready and am still working on putting my floss together.  I've decided to use over-dyed threads and have had to convert the colors from DMC.  The other big goal I have is to get something framed each month because I have so much in my completed bin that I really want to see displayed in one way or another.

We'll see how the year progresses and how much I manage to accomplish.