9th Finish of 2017 Patriotic Heart Taiwan

My 9th finish is one of my smallest and may look a bit familiar as I have stitched the flag of three other places I have lived ( first DR Congo, Norway, and Germany for a friend).

This is stitched on white 14 count Aida with 3 strands.  This is adapted from the Patriotic Heart series by Kincavel Krosses. I started it for Stitch Maynia 2016 on May 24, 2016 and finished it on August 12, 2017.

 I think this was how far I was the last time I showed this piece...

This is what I would take with me while my daughter attended Gymnastics class on Saturdays.  I only really worked on it during her class so it inched along at a slow pace.  I based it on the USA Patriotic Heart for the red part of the Taiwan flag. 

It was so much fun when I finally made it to the blue part of the flag!  For the white sun of the design it took me a bit of time to design something that looked the best that could fit into the area I had to work with, but I am happy with my final design!  

Here is my finish!  I still need to FFO it into an ornament shape along with the first Patriotic Heart I made for DR Congo.  I have a few more finishes to show you before 2017 ends.  See you soon and Happy Stitching!

8th Finish of 2017 Floss Daily

Hello again! The clock is ticking and I only have a few hours to share the rest of my 2017 finishes.  My 8th Finish was Floss Daily by Wee Little Stitches on Etsy.  I started this for Stitch Maynia on May 21, 2016 and finished it on July 25, 2017 (less than a week after my previous finish).

I think this was where I was the last time you saw it...

I loved stitching this due to the fun fabric color and I finally got to try out my small collection of hand dyed variegated floss!

I didn’t like that the color I used called Rapunzel for the wording didn’t stand out very much from the fabric color so I ripped it out and tried another color.

Here most of the bobbins are filled in with my floss stash from Mo’s Sale and Fiberlicious.

This is the order I used the floss in for the pattern.  All of the floss on bobbins is from Mo’s Sale and the others were from my Fiberlicious Halloween mystery package from 2016.

This is the finish!  It was actually my first time using Kreinik for the metallic needles.  The fabric is Plum 14 count Aida by Stitchnmomma.  What do you think?  I really recommend this design to everyone because it stitches up quickly and has so many possibilities for you to change the colors and make it your own! See you soon...

7th Finish of 2017 Let’s Be Proud!

To continue my year in review of finishes, my 7th finish was Let’s Be Proud by Ursula Michael.  I started this piece WAY back in 2016 for Stitch Maynia on May 5, 2016 and I finished it on July 19, 2017!

Here is what it looked like the last time I showed it here.

This is my Michigan needle minder from Minding My Minders!

And here are some progress photos...

Here it is with all of the stitching finished!!

I did a few changes from the original pattern. I added some stars to represent the northern part of Maine and I added a few stars to represent the Upper Penninsula of Michigan which was unfortunately missing from the design.  I plan to share the rest of my finishes with you before 2017 is over!

3rd 4th 5th and 6th Finishes of 2017!

Hello again!  The next four finishes I have lumped together because they were all end of the year Teachers Gifts for my children's Pre-School teachers.

I was inspired by the mascot on their school t-shirt seen here.

And I found a similar Tiger design on DailycrossStitch.com.  Here is my first start...

But I realized that on the 14 count yellow Aida this was going to be WAY too big for an ornament finish like I had envisioned.  Then I got the great idea to just do the Tiger's face and then add the year and the Teachers names!

This was my 3rd Finish.  I started it on May 1st and finished stitching it on May 15th.

This was my 4th Finish.  I started it on May 14th and finished it on May 16th.

For my 5th finish I was starting to run out of time so I chose a smaller apple design from Daily Cross Stitch.  I started it on May 16th and finished it on May 22nd.

My 6th finish was another apple :)  I started this one on May 19th and finished on May 22nd.

For the apples I used hand dyed cotton floss from Mo's Sale.

I was able to finish them into ornaments just in time for the last day of the school year in May!

Here are the fronts...

And here is a view of the back teacher themed fabric.

The Teachers loved them and they were fun to make as a small thank you for all of the time spent helping mold my children's education :)  I have a few more finishes to show you so I will be back soon.  Until then...Happy Stitching!

2nd Finish of 2017 Darth Vader by Natali Needleworks

Hello and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!  I am desperately trying to catch you up with my finishes from 2017.  My second finish of the year was way back in April.  I started Darth Vader by Natali Needleworks on Etsy on April 2nd and finished it on April 30th, 2017!

My husband is a big Star Wars fan and I had been planning to make this for him for awhile.  I had originally ordered some hand dyed fabric from the now closed Dye Stitch Love.  This is the piece I ordered called Full Moon 18 count Aida.

Now we all know that hand dying fabric is an art and not a science but I was really sad when I received this fabric.  The photo on the website was more of a smoky white and black which was exactly what I was looking for.  I took a photo with the Black 310 DMC that is about 95% of the design, and I didn't think it would contrast well with that fabric.

So I decided to try one of my favorite fabric and floss dyers Nguyen at Fiberlicious. And she really came through in a big way for this project!  Here is the fabric I purchased from her "Ashes to Ashes."

With more lighter white areas I felt that the Black floss would pop more.  Here are some of my progress photos of this design...

And here is it completely finished!!

This is the needleminder I used of Princess Leia from Gina's Unique Boutique.

When I returned to my hometown this summer I was able to take this piece to be professionally framed at Wheaton's Frame Shop, and here is the FFO Finished project!

I hope to update you with the rest of my 2017 finishes before the end of this year!  Until then...Happy Stitching!

12th Finish of 2017 Autumn Bunny Pumpkin!

Hello everyone!  If anyone is still out here in blogland reading this thank you for sticking by me even when I haven't been posting as regularly as I would like to.  I still have loads to catch you up with on my stitching this year but I figured I would start where I am now with a very recent finish!

This is Autumn Bunny Pumpkin from www.dailycrossstitch.com

I changed the colors of the pumpkin and leaf on the vine to ones I felt gave a bit more of an autumn feel.  I was able to finish this in about a week.  It felt good to have a quick finish since I have been working on some huge HAEDs lately.  

I can't believe that it is almost December and the end of 2017.  It was a very long and exciting year for my family!  I will keep trying to catch you up with my progress and finishes here on this blog.

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey.  Until the next time...Happy Stitching!

First Finish of 2017 Mom and Baby Turtle

Hello Stitchers and Crafters!  I figured I would take a little time to backtrack and get you caught up with my finishes so far this year.  It took until April for me to have my first project finish and it was.... my Heaven and Earth Designs Mom and Baby Turtle by Annya Kai!! I started this way back when on December 30th 2013 when I was still living in Norway.  I worked on it in Nepal and I finally finished stitching it on in Taipei on April 1st 2017!

Here is the finished stitching in all of its colorful glory...



This is where I had left off with it back in August after the Summer Olympic Challenge.



I had done everything so far with the cross country stitching method but then I decided I like the finished feeling of parking in a 10 x 10 square so I did the rest that way.  Here are some progress photos...







When my family went home for a visit back to Michigan I took this to my favorite framing shop.  And this is the result!



I went back and forth with choosing the pink frame or a dark green one but I decided I wanted to highlight my favorite part of the turtle which is her colorful shell.

Thank you all for your lovely comments and inspiring words during the past 3 years that I have worked on this piece.  Happy Stitching!