A busy, busy February

Already into February... time just gets away.  I've been stitching away.  I picked up my February project on the 1st of the month, intending to get back to Safari to finish page 2.  Here's the progress as of the end of January 31:  

Not far to go.  I had planned to pick it up and finish it off maybe that first weekend in February, just to at least be done with page 2, and I've been enjoying my February project so much, it's hard to put that one down.  I may need to sprout another set of arms is all lol..

February's project is the Noah's Ark sampler by Teresa Wentzler.  Many of her designs have blended colors, but not this one, thankfully -- I think that would've done me in.  Here's the progress at the start of the month when I picked it up and the progress as of Sunday evening, February 5.

Currently, the ark is finished and I've made it to the lower left corner of the picture above the alphabet there.  The squares of the border will each have animals in them, stitched 1 over 1.  My daughter loves looking at the animals and naming them (she's 4), so I will probably let her dictate which animals to do first, second, etc., when it gets to that point.

It will likely be another couple weeks before making another posting as I'm off for vacation for two weeks as of Monday.  I was undecided as to which to take with me and decided on both!

When I return, I hope to delve into the next chapter of the RR, the Christmas tree theme, and March will have me starting another larger project from scratch, a chart called The Edge of Night from Heaven and Earth Designs.  Happy Stitching to all!

Safari, Take 2

As of my last post plus a week, I finished page 1... the giraffes were a touch darker than I thought they'd be, but I liked it.  No, I loved it.  Two weeks of work, and I was ready to begin page 2.  Off I went to use my trusty washable marking pencil to mark the fabric... but wait... this can't be right.  It's 6 pages wide, right?  Or was it 5?  Eyeing the fabric, I prayed it was 5... and then I stumbled into every stitcher's nightmare.  My fabric wasn't wide enough. 

I didn't yell.  I didn't holler.  I didn't even cry.  I seriously considered chocolate.  Instead, I felt disappointed in myself for a couple of hours and then dug out the 25-count evenweave I had set aside for my project I'll be starting in March.... and started over.  This time around, I began with the confetti toward the bottom and finished my giraffes first.  I couldn't bear the thought of being without their company again longer than I needed to be.  Last night marked 8 days, and I beat my first time by 6 days.

I'm still not sure how I made such a mistake.  I am hanging onto the first page 1 to turn it into a smaller design some day by adding the feet of the giraffes and the head of the other one there.  I have never stitched on 25-count before, and at first I thought, "Boy, are those squares small!"  I found I like it better than the first one.  It's being stitched with 1 over 1.  Full speed ahead with page 2.

In other stitchy-related news, my Round Robin group has agreed on mailing the first weekend of February, so soon I'll be working on the next project in line for that, a Christmas tree!  Another pattern provided to me by the owner, and so gorgeous!  I can't wait to get started.  It looks like it will be a relative quick stitch.

February is fast approaching, and with it, the Noah's Ark sampler by Theresa Wentzler.  I'll be picking that up again on the 1st and then deciding how to do a rotation between that and Safari.

On a Safari

Here we are, already in the midst of January, rapidly heading toward the middle of the first month of 2012 already!  As of January 1, 2012, I started on my first Mystic Stitch, "Safari."  I have decided to take progress pictures on each Sunday (skipping that first one on the 1st).  So, progress as of January 8 is below:

Though the rust/reddish color looks fairly close, there are several colors in that mix.  The black is the emergence of a tree.  Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of this first page is confetti, so it's slow going, but I still love it!  I will be sad to put it down for February, but excited to pick up my next one, too.  I'll eventually get to one I'm not as excited to work on and return to this.

Prior to this, I spent December working on the pink border on my cupcakes until I received the Round Robin piece for a sweet girl in Tennessee (shout out to Lara!).  Her theme is fairies, and she provided the pattern, but I am saving back the picture with her wings until she gets it back as I wanted her to have some surprise.  (For anyone who stopped by yesterday, you're not losing it -- I hadn't posted a picture and came back to add one of her and to link up Lara's blog.)  This little fairy is just about the cutest thing -- I love how she turned out!  It isn't my usual choice to stitch, which is one of the fun things about a Rount Robin, but I completely enjoyed her and, in fact, am considering these dolls as a future theme for my daughter now!

Next month, my mom is planning a sewing day with some of my aunts and cousins, so I'm looking forward to that.  They'll be doing mostly quilting and sewing with their machines, but I'll find a comfy corner and curl up with either my Safari or next month's project, Theresa Wentzler's Noah's Ark Sampler.  This coming weekend is my good friend's monthly weekend SAL, so I hope to get lots done and post another WIP picture soon! 

Happy stitching!