Final Spending of 2013 - Stitch From Stash 2014

Hope everyone had a tolerable, or at least somewhat good holiday season. I know it's not quite over yet but for me as I work tomorrow it feels like it is.
We did not have such a great Christmas for the first half... but luckily DH's family is awesome and our final 'day' of Christmas festivities was great fun!

So I've been starting at the date thinking "oh my gosh I need to spend some money before I can't anymore!!" as January 1, 2014 looms in front of me and the beginning of the Stitch From Stash challenge. I have 66 participants so far!
What am I talking about? Click the link at the top of this post for the group and read the details. Anyone can sign-up until January 2, 2014.

So I'm trying to decide what to get before the budget is instituted... just a couple little things with some holiday money I got... maybe this gorgeous (because I adore Autumn) new piece from Victoria Sampler.










OR these adorable new little projects from Brookes Books Publishing that are Wizard of Oz!!! (she has a new Little Women series as well that is just so cute).

I'll let you all know about what I decided to buy in the end next post.

Oh... AND Dragons has a page complete!!! That's right exciting right?? You bet! Pics of it and the countdown to the final page in my next post.

Xmas Ornaments x2 Complete - more SFS2014

10 days to holiday time! I can't even believe it. And not all my shopping is done, sad but true. However we are very close to complete so it's not a disaster. :)

First I wanna say a huge thank you to everyone that has joined up (22 so far!) and commented for Stitch From Stash 2014. I will be making a tab on this blog for the info, and have sent out confirmation emails to everyone signed up so far. If you have not gotten an email from me about Stitch From Stash 2014 please email me at stitchfromstash@gmail.com to join.
There are some new fun 'guidelines' coming that will only add to the fun (and give you more flexibility). If you wanna know more check out the post right below this one, or if it's Tuesday morning the new tab should be showing up!
I will have a button with a little logo/design coming in the next week so watch out for that. Thanks to everyone for their excitement and support on the project. I can't wait for us to start it and see all the WIP, UFO's and stashed up items that will appear on everyone's blogs!

Now to the part people really want to see. Some finishes!
I should have taken photos of these beautiful Victoria Sampler ornaments before finishing... they maybe looked nicer then. As many of you know I'm an awful finisher and it's not my favourite thing to do; but I wanted to make ornaments for my two remaining grandparents, both the ladies of their families. So my Nana (Dad's Mom) in Ontario will be receiving the squirrel; and my Grandma (Mom's Mom) in BC will be receiving the fawn/deer. Hopefully they will look past my bad finishing and enjoy the ornaments none-the-less. These were made from my stash (threads and fabric chosen based on what I had around, not necessarily following the pattern), and both patterns are from Just Cross Stitch ornament issues over the last couple years; by Cathy Jean at Victoria Sampler.

I've got one more ornament to go for the season and then going to focus on December cottage (which is started) and the latest page of Dragons. That's the plan until December!
Thanks for stopping by and again thank you for your excitement over Stitch for Stash 2014. Sign-ups don't close until Jan 2, 2014 so anyone else who wants to join can. More info and button graphics coming this week! :)

Stitch from Stash 2014 - JOIN NOW

After much deliberation and input from many of you I have decided to host the first annual Stitch from Stash (2014).

Why Stitch from Stash? 
As I have personally taken on a new great job, that sadly pays much, much less than I used to make; corners need to be hacked. And the stitching budget, while painful, needs to be cut back, significantly.  That is what stitch from stash is going to be all about; stitching from stash and saving money.

Like all of you, I too have more than I could stitch in the next 2 lifetimes (and I'm only 30!); and like many of you I am always tempted by the latest and greatest. But really what's wrong with the 25 patterns you didn't stitch but bought the year before?
This is by no means meant to be a rebellion from buying, there will be a budget for 'new' stuff in the rules (and for needed supplies like needles, threads, etc.). The spirit here is to help encourage each other to save a little bit of money for the necessities like food or the mortgage (in my case).

Why participate?
Participate and stay to the $25 budget for 11 of the 12 months of the year and you will be entered for a gift certificate of $100 from a selection of online stores (ie: likely to be included are 123 Stitch, Wasatch Needleworks, HEAD, etc.).  Store will be of your choosing from my list of approved suppliers (why my list: to make sure you will get what you order for the value of course!)

Monthly draws for patterns & supplies from Mel's stash will also happen for each entry (ie: December cottage from Country Cottages, Lizzie Kate snippet, fabrics, threads & more!)

What are the 'rules/agreements' of Stitch from Stash?
It will of course be on an honor system, and I do hope that all stitchers who join will remain in the spirit of the group.
After much deliberation and input from the community the following are to be the 'rules/agreements' for the Stitch from Stash 2014 group:

1) All new items started in 2014 must be from your current stash or purchased within the monthly 'budget' as dictated by Stitch from Stash.

2) Your birthday or holiday money given to you is an exemption (but you cannot gift yourself!). Ie: you get a gift card to a stitching store for your bday, fair enough as it is "free" from the budget money it does not count.

3) Each month you can spend $25 to get supplies, or even a new pattern that you need/want. But do not exceed $25. So if you buy a pattern but needed threads you're out of luck and have to wait for next month. The $25 does not include shipping if online purchase (or those of us in 'international' locations would be spent already in shipping!)

4) Exemptions from the $25 include:
- gifted money (as indicated in rule )
- a monthly already paid for subscription to a magazine or fiber/thread club
- a monthly or semi-monthly program where you have committed to the project and are actively stitching it alongside another group (ie: Calendar Girls, Frosty Friends or another designers series). You must commit to the series/subscription/program before Jan 2, 2014 even if it hasn't started yet. (almost all designers have announced their 2014 early series by now).

5) Post to your blog about how much you spent that month (within the $25, if you go over please be honest!) and what you stitched on from stash (pictures are always great, at least 1 is appreciated). All posts and emails need to be completed by the 28th of each month to be eligible. I don't care when you post during the month (because life is busy) but you must do it in the month (ie: February's post must be posted between Feb. 1 and 28). I will likely post around the 20th of each month to remind everyone.

6) Then email your link to your blog to StitchFromStash@gmail.com for Mel (from Epic Stitching) to review and enter you in a draw for a stash giveaway that month!! Email and enter 11 of the 12 months of 2014 and be eligible to win the $100 stitching gift card.

7) By popular demand or on my own I may, and could change or relax the rules at any time to allow for an exemption... or 'free' weekend (ie: anticipate a free or budgeted amount that is okay to spend on Nashville Market new pattern announcements the weekend of Nashville Market)

Want in?
Email StitchFromStash@gmail.com (yep it's own email just in case I get bombarded) and let me know your name, blog address and confirm interest in joining! I will confirm each entry individually as received.
You must confirm you are participating by January 2, 2013 via email; following that an email will be sent to confirm the list and any further details needed.

Questions? 
Post them below in comments and I will respond here so everyone can see, or email me at StitchFromStash@gmail.com and I'll be happy to answer.

Anticipated Answers:
- The program is worked out that you will have one month to cheat in and still be eligible for the big prize, just don't email me about entering for that month. Feel free to post about how you didn't make it and need to then keep to it for the rest of the year!
- If you splurge in more than one month you will no longer be eligible for the yearly big prize, but can still participate in the monthly prizes if you keep to it for that individual month (blog and email me about it of course).
- Yes you can drop out at anytime. Life happens and there are (sometimes) more important things than a blogging group. However there will be no exceptions to the 11 of 12 months for the large prize. The committed members deserve their best chance to win and it's too hard to keep track of or 'decide' for me who to exempt.

I look forward to everyone who chooses to join in. 
And for those that don't we will all jealously watch your awesome purchases for the year!! :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming up on my blog later this week: A holiday ornament finished and two more started. Some work on December cottage as well. Dragons has been picked up and is more than halfway to another page finish, I anticipate closer to the end of the month to share this with everyone.

A job!! - Stitch from Stash 2014 Idea

Well it's been a 4 week road, but I just finished my second week at a new job.
Thank you to everyone who commented and sent me their support during this transition time.
Ironically I think it will work out for the best, just like so many of you told me! :)

So what's the new job? 
It's for the Alberta government. I'm quite pleased to secure this position, it was at the top of my list. It has great benefits and flex days; however the pay is (of course) much lower than working directly in industry as I was before. But, we're working through that on the budget level and luckily we didn't purchase a home back in April that was at the brink of our affordability. Thank goodness!

So you wanna know what I really do all day? 
I sit at a computer and review energy applications for development and ask questions of applicants, submit closures (for incorrect info) and submit approvals to the "signatures" department. It's what I used to do but just on the other side, instead of making the applications I know approve them.
I think it's a great fit for me as it's a way less stressful environment, government jobs are often immune to layoffs when industry slows down, and I work overall less hours because of flex time and such.

I'm quite pleased to have obtained this job, but will also be starting a "stitch from stash" year in 2014 to make sure I try to keep the spending down.
I wonder if there is a group I can join like that or I should start my own?
Any thoughts??

November Cottage Finish

Well it's already snowy and cold here as of two days ago. Made me think while I was stitching up the November Cottage that I should have done it up as a snowy month as it almost always is here in Calgary.
While I didn't do snow in Nov, I did change a number of things in it. I was feeling like there was a lot of red in the bottom half of the calendar and wanted to add in a different color. That is where the purple came from in Nov. Also Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, not November like the US so I removed the turkey and changed up the acorns to be a bit less symmetrical and a bit more random. As autumn (my fave season) is much more random with leaves everywhere than most other seasons. Here's my version of the November cottage:







I'm still off work but have some good opportunities I'm waiting to hear on. And an interview lined up for Friday at the job that was at the top of my list to work at! So it's going alright, albeit very, very slow. Luckily we're still doing fine and unemployment insurance payments should kick in very soon. I'm confident I will be working again full-time soon enough.
Thank you to everyone for your well wishes last time and hopefully by my next update I will get to tell you about how I'm starting a new job!

Dragons --- finally a page finish!!!

Well... after forever on this latest page I *finally* have a page finish to show you on Dragons.
This poor project has gotten pushed aside most of the year between moving, traveling to Europe & my Etsy store. BUT, it's getting some good attention now. Partially because things have chilled out; and partially because I'm back to making it more of a priority.

So here is the latest area I worked on:

A close-up of the Dragons to date:

And the entire piece to date:

There are only 5 pages to go! The one you can see missing on the latest row and only one more row of 4 full pages. Getting soooo close. But should be as this is year 6 (I think) on this piece, believe it or not. But I haven't given it all my attention and have had other finishes that I love when I needed a break or change of pace.

In other news: I was shocked on Tuesday morning to be informed that I was being laid off from my job. They claim it's due to 'shortage of work' but the reality in mine and the man's opinion is that it's because of a conflict that had escalated recently between myself and a co-worker. (sigh). So I'm looking for a new job everyday while I'm home (as they asked me to pack my stuff and leave immediately following the discussion about layoff). And I've put some more new work into my Etsy store allowing for me to have more time in the evenings for Dragons. Too bad stitching doesn't generate me any money! I'm sure we've all wished that many times.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm gonna keep pushing on my last two cottages (nov, dec) and dragons for the next little while and will update as soon as I have enough progress. I really appreciate all the hits, reads & comments that I get. You are all so awesome!

Cottages Sept & Oct - Complete!

Two more cottages of 12 complete. I'm down to only 2 more to go, Nov & Dec, of course. These little cottages have been really great to stitch on over the last year and a half. I've just heard that Country Cottages that published them is going to release a set of 9 little ones (like the cottages) that will have "furry friends" in them. Sounds exciting! I can't wait to see the first and decide if I'm going to stitch it.
However in the meantime here are September & October complete:

I changed a few things like the placement of birds and took out some flowers from the sky that I didn't love. I'm also changing up November to remove the turkey as Canadian Thanksgiving is today! (not in Nov like in the US).

We had a lovely dinner the other night and I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch. Amazingly it tasted just like my Mom's (her recipe)!! Very exciting. ;)

I've been stitching on dragons all weekend long and making some good progress on the latest page. So I'm going to share once the page is complete. Only a little while longer.

Thanks for visiting and all your lovely comments! 
Hope you can all find something to be thankful for at this moment. For me it's my partner, Dave and the wonderful life we've created with each other. 

Phoenix & Mail Finishes!

I've really got to stop updating this blog with "where does the time go?" But I swear its the eternal question!
I've got two finishes for you today. The first was mostly done on our Amsterdam trip. This is a bright Joan Elliot from her fantasy book of patterns. Done on 28ct white with DMC and some Kreinik #4 braid.






Second, as it was July which in the crafting world means Christmas time; I finally finished the Mill Hill Bead & Button Mail piece. I dunno why this little guy kept getting bumped but he did, and now the edges show the wear. Luckily they cut right off!




So with all this new space at our new home talk of more pets has come up such as a dog or two and a turtle!! So perhaps you can imagine my excitement over the latest Ink Circles pattern. I had to immediately add it to my stash! I was surprised upon receiving the chart that the shell motives are in DMC. I will definitely spruce it up a bit when I get to stitching it with some variegated overdyed threads. You can see the pattern here. All The Way Down - Ink Circles
Sorry I couldn't post photo direct.

Thanks for continuing to visit and commenting! I have more cottage months to finish up, new mill hill and yes, a dragons update coming up soon!

Location:15 Ave SW,Calgary,Canada

Bead fun!

Well secret stitching is done and in the hands of an amazing couple. The piece was Victoria Samplers wedding piece. Highly modified by me. And... Somehow I forgot to take a picture!
Don't worry it's my best friend so I will grab one soon and share.

Tonight's fun?
Beads!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More water than you can imagine... and the Giveaway WINNER

Well... it has been an unexpected 6 days of crisis and emergency state here in my home city of Calgary. I was born and raised here and in my 30 years I have never, ever seen this bad of flooding. It's unreal.
So my apologies for the very late announcement on the winner of my mystery sampler giveaway. It's been... well interesting.

 
We had my parents here for a couple days as their home was evacuated (they are only a couple blocks from the park which hosts the river). Thankfully we found out on Saturday that their home is unaffected and they were allowed to return.
For myself and my man our home is near the top of the highest hill in Calgary. So we were never in any danger of flooding. However my office is inside the downtown evacuation zone and I have been unable to go to work for a few days now. The photo to the right is only 10 blocks away from my downtown office. It's making everyone anxious as there is a lot of work to do, but with no power and water in the access streets it's impossible to get there until the city allows us. I'd talk more about this but honestly it's just so overwhelming and we've been so immersed in it for so many days now that I am running out of energy to put into the situation. So for now I'll say if you want to know more and see photos that Global Calgary has the best coverage.

MYSTERY GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Thank you so much to everyone that participated, tweeted and shared the giveaway in various ways. Everyone was given their name in a hat for the number of times they earned an entry.
The winner is:

KIM REID

Here is what you've won Kim (please email me with your address so I can send it out):

Part 1 of the Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler.
It's super cute and looks like a nice, quick stitch.
I'm hoping to start mine sooner rather than later. 

Thanks to everyone for their patience and to everyone that has sent me a private message thank you so much for your concern and well wishes. It is likely to be a long road in Calgary to see some normalcy again. And some of our infrastructure will never be the same, but at the end of the day the loss of life is incredibly low and that is what really counts.

So many Mysteries... so little time... A Giveaway

Has anyone else noticed lately that there are A LOT of mystery samplers and other mystery pieces going around?
I know Martina at Chatelaine has done them forever but recently a few other well known designers got on board.

I happen to have a duplicate (yep I actually bought the pattern twice... apparently I was really excited about it) of the first part of a mystery that was released in the last year. And I'd love for it to go to a fellow stitcher and follower!

But here's the catch. It's a mystery right? So I'm not going to tell you what the mystery part 1 sampler is, or who the designer is. Sound like fun? Wanna get in on it?

To enter the giveaway 
Just follow these rules: 
1) Be a follower of my blog
2) Leave a comment on this post (and only this post counts) that you want to be included in the draw. Please put your email address in the comment or ensure your profile is viewable and your email is shown on it.
3) Wait until Friday, June 21 to see if you won! (entries will close Thursday, June 20 at midnight MST)

One entries not enough?
Here's how you can get more:
1) Tweet about this blog (ensure you put in @epicstitching so I know you did it)
2) Tweet about my Etsy store. (same deal put in @epicstitching so I know you did it) Etsy store link is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/epicstitching
3) Post on your blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post (comment that you did so please so I am not searching forever).

That's all there is to it! Pretty easy? I hope so. 

A couple of things to note: I will ship anywhere in the world. The pattern is brand new and is only part 1, but it can be stitched up on it's own and still be very cute. 

Baby Piece Complete & new home mess.

Well May has turned into quite the month. We've been in the new home for one month this past weekend and so far we have had:
- one laundry room flood; new pipes were required to fix it
- one bathroom sink leak; fixed with a new washer
- a backyard full of what we think are dew worms (making it all lumpy and yucky)
- someone break into our truck out front of the new home (only stole a couple cables no big deal)
AND
just got rear-ended in said truck last Tuesday.
*sigh*
So... you could say it's been a bit of a challenge.
Being a home owner is waaayyyy more work than renting and well just kind of stressful all the time. I feel like we will be fixing things in this home forever! (there is more to the story here but until lawyers settle it I cannot discuss it).
But screw all that, let's talk about stitching!

I've got the baby piece I was working on complete! And have started the 'un-shareable' piece as well. But I have a smaller piece on the go that I will share in the next week or so that is my "break" piece from the 'cant show you' one; so there will still be updates to come.
I'm hoping things start to become less crazy and a little more manageable. We will see.
Here is the baby piece. I signicantly changed this piece to fit the size I wanted and put in the motifs I wanted as well. But love the way it has turned out. Colors were all chosen based on earth palette and what I had available in stash. It's on a 28ct Cashel Antique Linen. I'll be framing it here soon and sending it off to the baby it belongs to (who just turned 1, gah bad). I'm glad to see it done up and can't wait to get it in the mail off to baby.
(name is obscured for privacy sake).

 

 

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully I will have some new, better stories in the next couple months! 

I'm coming back... I promise!

I know you're thinking geez Mel a whole month and it's not like you were even in Europe this time.

Forgive me everyone it's been crazy. We've had some set-backs with the new home (though we are living in it and mostly happy with it) that have just eaten up time.

I will be back this weekend. I hope! With a new finish (baby piece). The next piece I have coming up is going to be a secret, can't be shared here piece. My apologies. But I'll try and update you all on different things that are a happening.

Thanks for continuing to follow me and read these! 
Mel.

I'm back from Holland!!!

That's right I'm back. Actually have been for a week or so but we are living in box/fort land with packing our home up so its been tough to find time to come and update everyone. (we move into our first home on this Friday!!)

I've got two springy stitchy finishes to share today with you all.

First up from the latest Just Cross Stitch magazine are daffodils. I wanted something bright and wonderful to stitch on while I was on the plane and in the Netherlands and this is what I picked. Little did I know that it would be some of the only pretty flowers we saw as it was unseasonable cold for Amsterdam and none of the tulips were up yet. :(
But alas these daffodils kept me smiling:

I've also got another cottage complete. August is the latest. Now I did make some major modifications including: took out the seascape waves at the bottom and put in the matching flowers from the top row so that it looked uniform like all the other months. Took out some of the 'clutter' on the pages and just included the seashells. Didn't use a sand color for the grass instead picked a nice green. I think it works, but others may disagree. :)
Here is my August:

 

While I was at it I (finally) took a couple quick (and very rough) pictures of the entire piece so far:

 

Only 4 more cottages to go!!

I've been working on a baby sampler for my cousin's little guy. It's adorable and I will share it soon.
Dragons is all packed up for now, but I'll get back to them at my new house.

Otherwise it's all packing and working for me lately.
I'll be back soon with some pictures from our trip to the Netherlands and some pictures of my new home.

Thanks for stopping by!!

June cottage in March

Well I've got the June cottage finished. And as I flipped my calendar all I could think was wow March. I feel like I just finished the March cottage in this project (which I did in March last year!)

Without further ado, the latest installment of Country Cottages June:





I will take a large photo of all the cottages soon (August is almost done; July was done in the summer with the Canada changes).

There have been big happenings for me, which is why I'm having so much trouble finding time to post!
I turned 30 last week. Ugh.
But same week we closed a deal on a house. Possession is in April.
We've also started booking events for our trip to the Netherlands at the end of the month.
So busy? Definitely!!

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for your continued support and comments. I'll be back very soon (I hope) with August. And the baby sampler border is done to share.
For those that follow Dragons yes it's been awhile. I'll get back to them I promise!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Commission Finish

I almost got excited that my post title rhymed. But not quite. But it's perhaps a bit of a tongue twister.
What is the commission finish you ask? 
It's the piece that I did up for a gal as per her wants, needs, preferences. I think it turned out so cute and am so excited to share it with you. The funny thing is that this piece was highly customized by this lovely gal and while I was stitching it (in fact only 2 weeks before I completed it) the cat that it was being stitched up as (Buddy the Cat) passed away. We was 12 years old and had been an amazing family cat. So now the piece is perfect to commemorate Buddy by. I know this girl and her family will enjoy seeing Buddy immortalized in stitching on the wall. So without further ado, I give you "Buddy the Cat" as customized by a commission (yes that means paid) request:












The linen is 30 ct weeks dye works. I can't quite remember the name. It was a bit challenging to work with as it's got a lot of stretch in it, but on my bars it's always better. The threads are a combination of DMC solids and sampler colors variegated cottons. Colors were picked by my client. Order of colors used in the pattern was done by randomly selecting the next color from a baggie and making sure to use all the colors once before putting all the numbers back in. I did use some creative selection to make sure that it balanced so that it wasn't all green in one area, etc. The pattern is from White Willow Stitching called Tribal Cat.
Coming up: 
- another cottage is complete
- baby sampler update (it's so cute!)
- and dragons... eventually. :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Whew, busy and some finishes!

Whew. I don't mind holiday time but I'm always happy to see it go away, if only because life can go back to a schedule and make more sense. It's always such a whirlwind in December.

So what have I been up to? Well I've been up to stitching! Finally. :)
I also got the nasty flu/bug that has been wreaking havoc on Calgary (and around North America from what I  hear) but I survived so life moves on. lol.

I'm proud to say I actually have some finishes. One you've seen 5 like it before, and one that I didn't even post a progress photo of. I know, slap my hand and tell me to post more often! I'm working on it. Truly I am.

First up we've got the May Cottage from Country Cottage Stitching's SAL last year. good thing the apocalypse didn't happen or my cottages wouldn't even have made halfway in the WIPocalypse challenge! However, I did get to 50% just after new years. Here's May (I adore the blue in here):

And in the holiday theme of things I did up a little ornament for my Mom who is obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with tropical locations, especially Maui. So when I saw Mill Hill had a bead and button kit this year that was "Maui Santa" it was clearly meant to be. This little guy did get cut out and backed onto felt boarding but I forgot to take a picture afterwards amid all the insanity. But all the stitches and beads are on him here:

I've been working on Dragons and am hoping to have a 'halfway' through the current page update for you very, very soon.
I also have a baby sampler that I need to get really moving on (as the little guy is already born), my commission cat piece is moving along, nevermind the billion other things I keep buying and stashing.

We've been quite busy as of late house hunting.As this is the first purchase for my common-law man and I into real estate it's been a bit of a roller coaster. lots of things to do learn, lots of big decisions to make and a ton of time! But we've seen a couple dozen places now, have a good idea of what options are out there and just waiting now for that "right" listing. We had one in our grasp on day 2 of house hunting but didn't really realize what a gem we were standing in until someone else bought it (on the market for 3 days and sold, crazy!) It was a cute little 100 year old house with some upgrades but kept the character and feel of 100 yrs ago. Needless to say I loved it (might still). However we are seeing condos with character that are recently build or upgraded from the 50s or 70s. Location is key for us as well as the place not looking like a cookie cutter (and of course price, the all mighty dollar). If price were not an option I'd have a gorgeous heritage home that was upgraded, big and on the outskirts of downtown (what Calgarians call the "beltline") but money is a driving force so we are waiting and looking knowing that the right place will come.

I hope everyone is doing well. I've had a few new items trickle into the store recently. There will be a huge new release section up very soon (hopefully this weekend).
For anyone curious I am not doing a "goals" list this year as with the store and freelance work it is hard to judge time for stitching these days. So I will just keep plugging away and make it less of a competition for myself. I think in the last few weeks when I gave up on the 'list' it worked much better.
Thanks for dropping by!