-->

About Me

My photo
I love anything creative...I am a busy mom of three (+4 dogs, 1 bird, 1 bunny, and 1 sweet husband) who sometimes wishes I had more time/energy/talent to devote to just being creative!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Excited for Autumn

This is my first bloom out of the sunflower patch, so excited! Though the seed packets lied in the 6 to 7ft tall claim, mine are only about 4-5ft tall. But still pretty,maybe it's just the heat that is stunting their growth. There is a little bee perched on the bottom left of the sunflower, see him?

These are all my recent finishes. By showing you them here in all their unfinished glory I am trying to shame myself into actually finishing them into something pretty and display-worthy. People ask me all the time how many cross stitches I have hung up in my house. Well i've been stitching for 20 years now, so you would think I have more than a few. But really I only have maybe 15 out on display. I know I have stitched more than that, so in a recent clean up of the craft room I did a count of my finishes, and WIP. I'm gonna take a deep breath now and admit my secret....I have THIRTY FOUR finished/not finished peices stuffed in a bag on a shelf in my craft room, and TWENTY SEVEN works in progress....EEK! So my goal for the year is to get every single finished pieced out of that bag and up on a wall, made into an ornament, or given as a gift by the end of this year. I didn't put all that work into them just to have them sit in a bag. Though most of the joy of stitching for me is in the stitching itself, not necessarily the finished project. I am still pondering a way to hold myself accountable on the finishes. I'm thinking a little sidebar list, where I can cross out the finishes as I go.



And this is my Mount Everest cross stitch. It is a Sandy Orton design, Autumn Sampler, measuring 14" by 18". And it's not solid stitching. It has little designs that are fun to finish, but lots of details and backstitching, and thread changes. So this is the piece that has taken me 4 years to get this far on, and will probably be another two before it's done. I am reconsidering doing the other 3 seasons ( I have already started the Spring Sampler).

On the non-stitchy front this is what has been taking up the rest of my time. We adopted a new bunny, Gypsy. Who so far has done very well with the chaos and children and dogs in our household (I was a little worried we would give new bunny a heart attack).

Also I finished Zoey's door this week. I chickened out on painting Tinkerbell on it myself, and instead found a cute wooden cut out to glue on (like the letters for her name). I also painted a cloud of glitter/fairy dust around her that doesn't show up very well in my pics. I'm just happy she has a door again.



7 comments:

gracie said...

Beautiful Sunflower.....nice finishes....love Zoey's door.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Zoey's door is fabulous!
and 27 unfinished, finishes...you need to get those finished ;o)

Jenny said...

The door is adorable and the new bunny is precious - I just love those loooong ears!
I like your idea about a side-bar list with progress updates about WIPs and finishes. I have one, but I am not great at updating it (or even at working on the projects in the list...).
I don't think that 34 "awaiting final finishing" projects sounds bad at all. After all, you have been stitching for 20 years - that is less than 2 unfinished projects per year, which sounds great in my book! ;-) On the other hand, I think like you often... I think that a lot of us have a box stashed away somewhere with a lot of forgotten treasures.
I love Sandy Orton's designs. I can't wait to see more progress pics from you in the future. The fall sampler already looks fabulous!

Mouse said...

oo love the sunflower :) and Zoey's door and ooooo now we can keep tabs on you to get those pieces finished finished and also get the others worked on ... last count 4 to be made up and working on a fair few ..lol and welcome to little gypsy :) love mouse xxxx

CalamityJr said...

I was going to comment on the beautiful sunflower, then kept reading and your blog kept getting better and better! Your stitched finishes are great, especially the white bunny because I have a white grandbunny, Gypsy is adorable, and I love Zoey's door! Kudos to you for everything!

Wagapapa said...

I love Zoey's door!

Carry on and finish Autumn sampler, it's very cute!

Your finishes are great although they are not finished at all, can't wait to see what you do with them.

A big hug from Bilbao.

Noemi
http://wagapapacreations.blogspot.com/

passionfruitprincess said...

Hi! Your blog is lovely, and all your stitch is beautiful!
I have three of the samplers, I just need to get the Winter one. But guess what,I got all finished on e-bay. You are brave, stitching this Sampler. It is beautiful, but I would never be able to finish one.
I am following you back. :)