New Start Norwegian Flag Table Runner

Hello there stitches and crafters!  I have been itching to start a new stitching project for some time, but I finally gave in and started one earlier this month.  I started the Norwegian Flag Table Runner (technically it doesn't have a name just a design number) by Permin on March 5th!  The goal I set for myself is to have it finished by May 17th so I can display it for the Norwegian Constitution Day Holiday.  I think this is an attainable goal as I am currently at the halfway point!

Here is what the final product will look like...

Here are some various progress shots...

So far I have enjoyed stitching this and it has been a nice break from the confetti of my current HAED project.  It took me a false start to figure out that this is stitched 1 over 2.  This is only the second time I have stitched on Linen fabric and the irregularities in the weave and fibers are a bit annoying.

Here is my latest progress...

I am just past the halfway point. Yay!  When this is finished it will be about 13" x 48".  But now I have to figure out how to reverse the design for the flags as this kit only includes the chart for this first half for some reason.  I hope I'll be able to figure it out and still finish before my deadline.  Wish me luck!  

Happy Crafting!

March YOTA and 2nd Finish of 2015!

Hello friends!  It's YOTA time (the first Saturday of the month) and I am actually on time with my post woo hoo :).  

The big news is that I finally finished my YOTA focus piece from last year Medieval Lady!  Here she is in all her completely finished glory...

Sorry it's late at night and the lighting is horrible but I am so excited she is finally done :).  I had to buy what I thought was an expensive single skein of thread to finish.  Well it turned out that the price I paid was for 12 skeins!!  I thought the price was high originally but I figured it's Amazon they can charge what they want but I bought there so I wouldn't be tempted to buy other stitchy things to make the shipping worth it on a site like 123stitch.com.

Last month I have also been working on my HAED Mom and Baby Turtle.  Here's where I was at the last YOTA check in...

And here is my current progress...

It's getting there!  Now I am kind of to the point where there is a lot of confetti stitches but they do make the design look amazing.  I was hoping to show you this page finished but c'est la vie...and stay tuned for next month.

Thanks to everyone for reading and sticking with me on this crazy crafting journey I'm on.  Happy crafting!

I found Nepali stamps!

Hello again!  I am trying to live up to my word and post more here.  Anyways last month on the Martin Luther King Jr. American holiday, I took a trip to Durbar Square in the Patan neighborhood of Kathmandu.  This Durbar Square (there are three of them in the Kathmandu Valley which I learned when I went to the wrong one and missed my tour group) was in the Patan area.  Patan is one of the nicer, more affluent neighborhoods in Kathmandu and it also contains the Patan Museum.  My new friends and I actually discovered the museum by accident when I found the gift shop first.  

One of the first things that caught my eye in the shop were these beautiful hand carved wooden stamps.

It's been awhile since I've blogged about it but I really love to use rubber stamps to make cards so I was thrilled to find these beautiful Nepali stamps!  The top one is a lotus flower, the second row are mandala designs, then there is the eyes of Buddha (who was born in Nepal and "Buddha was born in Nepal" is a very popular bumper sticker on busses here in town), a mandala with Nepali characters, a temple image, and the number 30 with the sunburst which also represents Buddha.  

I decided to try them out the other day but unfortunately these hand carved wooden stamps don't work quite as well as rubber or plastic stamps with a stamp pad and paper...

But I am still happy I found them here and they've made their way into my stamp collection.  I may try using a paint brush to add paint to them and seeing if that will give me a better detailed image next time.  Does anyone out there have any other techniques or suggestions?  Thanks for sharing my crafting journey with me :)

First Finish of 2015!

Hello again!  Earlier this week I had my very first project finish for this year!  I came really close with Medieval Lady but my first actual finish this year is my sons owl birth sampler.

Here it was in its "infant stage" the last time I showed it to you...

And here is the big finish!

It is designed by Heather Yothers and I purchased it from her Etsy shop One of a Kind Baby Design.  The colors I chose match my sons crib bedding theme.  It will be awhile before I can get it framed and hang it up on his wall but I can't wait!  Once I completed the border and my sons first name I really lost interest because the stitching wasn't going quite as quickly as I thought it would.  That's when I had to take a small break and restart my HAED Mom and Baby Turtle.  But I did go back and once I finished the owl which I changed slightly from the chart to match the bedding, the rest stitched up fast (even the whole column of dreaded French knots!).  I'm still waiting on my one skein of thread from Amazon and then I will have another finish to show you soon.  Thank you everyone for following my progress and for all of your wonderful comments on my last post.  Happy Stitching!

Late February and VERY Late January YOTA post!

Hello fellow crafters and bloggers.  Today I am showing you my progress for the YOTA or Year of the Acronym SAL hosted by pull the other thread.  I have been stitching a lot but not blogging much this year.  I was really hoping to finish or purchase the one lonely floss I needed to complete Medieval Lady while we were home in the US but I didn't.  When we made it back to Nepal I was however able to finish all of the beading!  Here are some photos of her from January.  I only last week ordered the floss to finish her so I have no idea when I will get it in the mail.

Anyways here she is overall!

And a close up of some of the beads...

And here is a view of her beautiful face and the tiny amount of stitches left to complete when my floss arrives.

I really enjoyed stitching this design from Karen Brittan found in Cross Stitch Gold Magazine!

Ok that was what I should have posted for January...now on to February's YOTA project.  I have been dying to get back to my first HAED start Mom and Baby Turtle.  The last time I worked on it was almost a year ago and I had just finished the first page which you can see here : http://craftingacrosscontinents.blogspot.com/2014/02/first-haed-start-mom-and-baby-turtle.html

Here is the stitching I have done so far...

This page is almost twice the size of the last one.  I started working on it again because I needed a break from my son's birth sampler.  I really love the colors and haven't had too much confetti stitching to do yet.  Hopefully I'll have more to show you next month and my post will actually be on time!  Happy Stitching!

Happy New Year 2015!

Hello everyone and happy 2015 to you all.  Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me on reading this blog!  I had a very wonderful year in 2014 mostly because my son joined our sweet family.  December seemed to race by and I was busy visiting family and friends while we were home in the US.    I am pretty proud of the fact that I had 12 finishes last year (almost 13)!!

For 2015 I set a very crazy stitching goal for myself...it's to only work from my stash and not buy anything for an ENTIRE YEAR!  Yes you read that right.  I found a group on Facebook and thought that I could be ready for this challenge, so here I go.  So far 6 days in and I have kept the promise.  BUT I did buy a few things that I am waiting to arrive in the mail before 2014 ended ;).

Here are a few new stash acquisitions I received before we went home in December...

This is Thea Gouverneur's Paris kit.  I've had my eye on this kit since I first started stitching but it was always out of my budget...until it went on an amazing sale at Keepsake Needle Arts!

I also picked up this Elmo pillow kit from the sale that I thought was needlepoint after all the fun I had on my Chi Omega pillow earlier this year.  But it turns out this is a yarn cross stitch kit.  I'm sure my daughter will love it all the same when it is finished.

Also this year I have signed up for the YOTA Year of the Acronym SAL challenge again.  In the past it has really helped me dwindle down my WIPs and I will show you some progress soon.

Here is my latest start...

I know at this point it just looks like a postage stamp but this is my owl birth sampler I have started stitching for my son.  I think I had put a few stitches in it last fall and then stopped to focus on Medieval Lady.

I hope you all are enjoying the fresh start of the new year and I can't wait to see what you are up to stitching wise.  Happy Stitching and thank you for reading:)

YOTA December and I want Santa's Mittens

Happy December!  I still can't believe it's almost the second week of December and almost Christmas!  I'm a little late but I have been diligently working on my Year of the Acronym piece Medieval Lady...and she is so close to being finished 😄.  I'm writing this from my iPad so I don't have the "before" but here is where I am now...

The lighting is horrible because it's really late here but you can see her in her almost completed self.  All I have left to stitch are the flowers in the border and then add beads to them and to the cloak and the jeweled part of the dogs leash and I will be all done!!  Oh and I ran out I'd DMC #797 with only about 10 stitches left.  But I am looking forward to being able to pick them up soon when we get to travel back home to Michigan for Christmas this year!  Here is an image of Santa wearing Michigan mittens that is my theme for us this year.

After a bit of googling I found out that they sell these mittens in lots of colors at www.michiganmittens.com .  For those of you who don't know, Michigan is unofficially known as the mitten state because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten.  We Michiganders even have an odd habit of explaining to someone who is unfamiliar with where a city is located by showing them and pointing to the equivalent location on the "map" on our hand.  

I am really hoping that Santa brings me a pair of these cute mittens ;).  I also hope that I can find the time to finish Medieval Lady before the end of the year to make her my 13th finish of the year and get her framed while I'm home.  How are your Holiday plans coming along?  I hope that you find a little time to stitch during this busy time of year and happy stitching!