A HUGE Christmas finish!

Dear Stitching Friends, please excuse my very long absence.  I have been very busy trying to finish my massive train project.  As some of you know, this is a project that has been 10 years in the making and I swore it would not go past the 10 year mark!  It was set aside many times due to things of life getting in the way and sometimes out of pure frustration. But, alas, it is finally finished!

May I present...drumroll, please...

Holiday Express

by

Stardust

Stitched on 28 ct Pewter Jobelyn 

Used called for threads, beads & blending filament

Stitched from June 2003 - December 24, 2013

Please, ignore all the wrinkles!  I was trying to get it finished, in a box and wrapped before my husband got home from work on Christmas Eve.  He came home while I was putting it in the box.  ;-)

Super Bowl Train Update!

It's been almost a month, but I am finally getting a few minutes to sit down at the computer. Since the week of Super Bowl I must admit that my blog and my stitching have been vastly neglected. Work has kept me swamped and I am already dreaming of tax season being over.

Here is what I got stitched on my train Super Bowl weekend!

Hopefully I will be able to stitch some this week. I desperately need to work on my Round Robin piece and the piece for my niece's wedding.

Hope everyone is doing well and getting much more stitching done than I am!

A New Start, A Round Robin and A Train Update!

Life has been beyond busy with work for me this month, so I haven't done much stitching. The last 2 weeks the stitching has been completely non existent. However, here is what I have done since Christmas:

A New Start:

my niece is getting married in April and I am doing "F" from M Designs Celtic Alphabet series.

Stitched on 32 ct. Sterling by Picture this Plus
using Ink Black by Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors


A Round Robin:

I have entered into my first ever Round Robin!
We are stitching Quaker Friendship Sampler by Samplers & Such. Here is what I have stitched for Sharyn thus far. She did the wreath part with initials and date and I have done the tiny little vine design to the left of it. Not much, but it's a start. Not sure what fabric she is using, but the threads are Bing Cherry by Crescent Colours. Very pretty thread choice!

Now that I have been stitching on Sharyn's piece it is making me doubt my thread choice. Anyhow...I chose Aged Plum by Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors. It is being stitched on 32 ct Heather by Picture this Plus. You can check out the picture here of my choices on our blog. While I do like the thread and the fabric and know that ultimately I will like it, I generally tend to go towards either dark reds (like Sharyn's Bing Cherry above) or toward turquoise colors. Not sure why I didn't go that direction. I guess that is just the color that struck me when I was at the store looking, but I hate second guessing myself. Frustrating!

Finally a Train update:

Sorry folks, it still isn't finished! You can't be as frustrated as I am about that, trust me! I am trying not to beat myself up for not getting it finished in December and now not getting it finished in January, but life just throws challenges in the way sometimes and things just don't get done! I'm sure you know what I mean! Anyhow...here it is!

Hope to get a lot stitched on it during the Super Bowl this weekend. Will give an update pic again next week.

Hope everyone is staying warm and getting lots of stitching done!

Train Update and Give Away Sign-up!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. We went out of town for a few days before Thanksgiving and arrived back on Wednesday afternoon about 3 hours before our company arrived for Thanksgiving. It was nice to get away, but things went immediately into full swing upon our return.



I have been promising a train update and I finally have it!

Train in September

Train project now!

Sorry, it's not the best picture. Will do some closeups soon. I stitched the dates in, 2003-2008, so I am committed to finishing it by the end of the year now! :-)

Give Away!

My next post will my 100th! Plus, my B-day is coming up this week and St. Nicholas day is this week as well, so....in honor of it all I am giving away 3 charts!

Chart 1: Permin of Copenhagen - leaflet # 150205 - Father Christmas - note: pattern is in Dutch

Chart 2: Sherherd's Bush - Santaberry Pudding

Chart 3: Elizabeth's Designs - Flowers & Friends Stitching Club - Happy Holidays - comes with threads, pewter charm and 3 brass star charms

All 3 charts are from my personal stash, but have not been used and are in excellent condition.

If you are interested in this give away, please comment on this post and indicate which chart you are interested in. (chart 1, chart 2, chart 3 or all)

I will announce the winners on my 100th post on Saturday, December 6th.

New Train Update!

Well...I finally dug my train project out from amongst all the dust bunnies and am back at work on it. It seems to be coming along fairly well. I think I am over the worst part...the train and the buildings. Sooooooooooooooooooooo much blending filament involved in those 2 areas. UGH!!!

Here is what it looked like in February:

Here is what it looks like now:

Maybe I can get it finished by Christmas. That is what I am hoping anyway. :-)

PS: please excuse all the wrinkles

A New Train Update!

I finally have a new train update for the first time since I think March of last year! I have finished all the stitching on the left side of the piece except for the 1/2 stitch mountains that are above all the buildings and the beading (snowflakes & berries on garland/wreath). Both of these things will be the very last things I do. I still have quite a bit of stitching left to do, but feel like I can officially say that I am half way through now. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's a lengthy tunnel, but I can see a light now.

I am still working on my first ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL. Since this is a surprise for my husband I can't much stitching done on it because he has been home during the time I've actually had to sitdown and stitch. Oh, well. I hope to have it done in the next week or so.

I hope everyone is staying warm and dry and getting a bunch of stitching done!

Train update

I know you can't tell a bit of difference from this picture and the last train update picture I posted many months ago. I got very little stitching done last weekend and the differences are minimal and hard to see. I've been too exhausted the last few weeks from work to even think about picking up a needle.

On the work note...work has been going well, but I have been overwhelmed by the amount of work the girl I replaced left unfinished. I was hoping to be caught up by the end of this past week, but it didn't happen. Maybe by the end of this month. Maybe!!!

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Updates!

Well...still not really any stitching going on in my neck (no pun intended) of the woods. :-) My neck is much better. Thanks so much for all the get well wishes. I have started working on a finishing project for a small finish I had just before my neck problems. I finished Frech Country - Rabbit by JBW Designs. I am going to finish it into a little hanging pillow with a beaded edge. It is all being hand done and is much more tedious than I originally thought. But...I really like the way it looks. It will take me a while to finish it, but will post pictures once done.





As many of you know, I have been working on Holiday Express by Stardust for almost 4 years. I will admit that I put it down for almost a year of that time after Hurricane Ivan hit this area, but...the rest has been tedious stitching. So much of this project is working with blending filament and we all know what a nightmare that can be. It took 2 1/2 spools of black blending filament for the train!!!! I am on my 2nd spool of yellow blending filament for the windows (of train and stores). The first picture is from January. And the second one was taken 2 weeks ago, right before the neck problems. (sorry for the shadow at the bottom.) I hope to start working on it again in a couple of weeks.


My son's Spring Break starts this weekend and we are off to see Mickey and friends at Disney World.

WIP

I'm finally posting my WIP of my HUGE train project that I have been working on for 3 years now. Yes, I know I'm a slow stitcher. This is called "Holiday Express" by Stardust.

Still working on those "ideas in my head". Will let you know more about that in the coming months. :-)

I'm keeping it short today. Off to do some stitching!