Sew Dance

This has been a strange year. Lots of ups and downs. Mostly down until near the end of the year when my luck seems to be picking up. Here were my goals from last year. Find a job. This is a must but I'd prefer sooner rather than later. The job hunt will start Jan. 2. Stitch only from my stash that I have at the moment. (see button on right and additional post here ) Complete some sewing projects (my own additional stitch from stash) Reorganize my craft closet, again. It's nice for a while but gets messy after a bit. Will be easier to accomplish after #2 & #3 have been worked on. Clean up my facebook friends. Write something, or come up with an idea that I can produce myself without the backing of a major studio. My mom's goal for me is to find a boyfriend. How did I do? Found a job. It's a freelance, but it's income I didn't have most of the year. I tried, but I ended up adding more to my stash than finishing things. See this post for a mor...

Well, the year is over. I know I did a December post, but I felt like I should do a bookend post to mirror this one . So, I stitched from my stash and really didn't buy anything new until November. That's when I used the exemption and went a bit crazy. In my defense, I did finish 6 things I bought at that time. Beginning of the year I had a run on fabric, and the summer was a major yarn haul. Key: Bold = current WIP Italic = kit Strikethrough = finished Red = started this year Cross-stitch and other needle crafts: Argentine Tango - RTO Beauty From the Deep Best Friend Black Stallion Buterfly Pillow (needlepoint) Cat Purse (plastic canvas) Cat stocking Cats...  Cats on the Quilts (longstitch) Celestial Dragon Dance Me Out Dancing Couple Dragon Carousel Fairy Melody Fairy Spell Fantastic Landscape Fantasy Triptych Felted Penguin Flowers Foxtrot - RTO Frog Pile Grand Ball Horses of the Apocalypse In the Garden 'insanity...

I finished my final Christmas ornament on Christmas Eve. Just in time. All 6 of the ones I made this year are now on my tree. So, I went back to Peacocks. Almost done with the first page.   I had a lovely, quiet, Christmas. My gifts this year seemed to have a 'beauty' theme to them. I knew I wasn't getting any craft supplies. My parents believe I have too much already.

Has it really been a year since I started this challenge? I think I did pretty well, with the exception of my "exemption month". It's probably a good thing next years edition doesn't include one of those. Anyway, this is what I've worked on this month. Peacocks.   Divine Hat Two Mill Hill Ornaments   3 dimensions ornaments with one still left before Christmas.  "Hoot" the owl. And part of my threads that I ordered on Black Friday arrived.

I finished more ornaments. One more to go! And the stuffed animal I showed a partial preview of last post. Say hello to "Hoot". And (most of) my sparkly/specialty threads arrived. Left is Looking Glass, right is Christmas Tree V.

I worked on a lot of Christmas things this week. Completed the other Mill Hill ornament kit.   Finished the stitching on a dimensions kit. Just need to cut it out and add the hanger.      Made two hats and a scarf as presents. I can only show one hat here as it has been given to the recipient. Put up my tree. And the one non-Christmas thing was started a stuffed animal.

I was surprising busy this week. Either that or I kept switching crochet projects that are meant as Christmas presents and can't post photos. However, I didn't work on Insanity this week. I did a bit of work on Peacocks because I have other projects planned for my overnight. 3 of my orders came on Saturday, finished this guy last night and almost have the other similar ornament finished as well.

So this week wasn't so much a 'create' week as an 'organize week. Oh, someone on Ravelry wanted to use my photo of my Sun Blossom Mandala Doily for the patterns' page. I finish my lapghan which I had frogged the outer part because the pattern was wrong and corner wasn't in the right place. My minimal progress on Insanity. And now for the organizing part. While my list for Black Friday purchases grew longer, I pulled out my bolt of aida, since I knew I was getting low on it to find this: I ran out! I probably ran out last year but didn't realize it. But I bought the bolt almost 10 years ago so I think I got my money's worth. Had to order another one. I have enough for Leopard in Grass which is a really tiny GK. but the max width from any new pattern is either 8" or 11" depending on what size I cut from. I don't do small patterns that often. Now for my Black Friday purchases, more stash. From ABCstitch, whic...

First off, I'm calling exemption. I started off the month with a plan to use some money I received as a gift with the instructions "use it for something fun" and it quickly went beyond that. Oops. So here's where I am with the projects I worked on this month. I've managed to attach all my heptagons to the afghan and work a row of black around the whole thing. I also started making half circles on top. It's been so long I forget if I did the original one with a 4.00 or 4.25 hook. I'm using 4.25 this time around but think I may go down. I'm also using two strands so I don't know if it'll really make that much of a difference. We'll see when I pick it up next. I finished my second whirl lapghan. Frogged the outer part as I realized the pattern was written incorrectly and the corners were placed wrong. I finished two pages of Fantasy Triptych, minus special stitches, over ones, and beads.  I picked up Insanity again. A...