Why is it that we never seem to get as much done as we planned to do? The first weekend every month, I do a Facebook Event for Christmas ornaments or just about anything crafty that folks want to do. I always have so many things planned to do and never seem to have the time to do them. This month was no exception. The July event started on Thursday because of Canada Day and Independence Day. I figured a lot of people had a long weekend, so let’s do a long event, right? Right. I started this little guy on Thursday and figured he would be done by Friday. WRONG! He turned out to be quite a difficult little one. 2 reds, 3 white/grey, 2 blues, 2 greens. And all in a rather tiny 30x45ish piece. I got done backstitching him on SUNDAY. Yep. Sunday.

So, I moved on to the next one, knowing it was a more simple design and should not take me all that long to do. I know from past experience that an ornament this size with 8 to 10 colors takes me about 4 hours start to finish. So, if I started it on Sunday, I should be finished on Monday. Easy. Wrong. Somehow or another my precious stitching hours just never materialized this weekend.

These are both kits, which I normally hate. I love the designs though and have been known to buy kits just for that reason alone. I still substitute my own fabrics mainly because I like a little more working room. The fabrics included with these are just barely larger than the openings and I want a bit more so that I can finish these off as ornaments and *then* insert them into the cards. The first one I did was on 16 count Aida, the 2nd one is on 14 count. I like the one on 16 count a lot more. I prefer to have a little bit of white space around my stitching. Don’t be surprised if you see variants of these in my shops before too long.

I also managed to finish several pieces for the Canadian Honour Quilts project. The geese I spoke of earlier are done. I am not sure if this will be on the quilt for the detachment or for the family. It’ an elegant, timeless design from Lynne Nicoletti. Lynne retired very recently, but her charts can still be found in a few places if you are lucky. She also has several suggestions for the colors on the silhouettes. I picked the soft greens as they remind me of spruce trees. This one was stitched on 18 count Aida, which means it takes a long time to see your progress. That is 18 tiny crosses per inch.

The other complex one is the Canada Quilt. I have seen this one used before on these memorial quilts and I fell in love with it. It’s a wonderful chart to stitch – using only whole stitches. BUT, it is a solid 98×106 stitches. The original chart did not call for the white blocks or stitching to be filled in. I added those because well, this is a square for a memorial quilt and not the time to cut corners. There are close to 11,000 stitches in this piece!! But, I am happy with it, and I know it will be a great addition to whatever quilt it ends up on.

There are 2 children from this family that will be receiving quilts as well, both boys. I decided I was going to do the Monster Letters from Cross Stitch Wonders mainly because the designs are fun, happy, and bright. I have one done and will be starting the second one this evening.

The 8 point star I mentioned in an earlier post is also done. I didn’t want to use all black on the two black points so I used the darkest grey I had. It’s a very simple but effective design and I think the final quilt will be quite interesting. I have a couple of others finished as well, so my queue is now down to a very reasonable 1-1/2 from the 6 I had to do in April. These are all headed to Canada, which has been warning people for several weeks of a postal strike. That event is finally happening this week, so it is watch and see time now. These guys will sit with me for just a bit longer rather than at the Post Office.

I have a Spiderman in progress for a pillow. This one is on 16 count because of the size of the chart. I changed and brightened the colors up on this one and it still looks gloomy to me. I wasn’t liking it much until I realized this is the older classic Spiderman and not the red and blue version you see in the modern movies. I will return to this one later this month, and hopefully get it done by the beginning of September. This is about 25% done right now.

And of course, I need to get working on the ornaments for the shops. This year, we will be donating 50% of the sales price to Blind Cat Rescue to help them with their ongoing needs. Watch for those going up soon, I hope! The goal is September 1st. So, enough posting… time to get back to work!