FFG - October 2022

I'd like to thank Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher for hosting this SAL. You can visit her site to join or for more information about this SAL.

This is the first time participating this year, but I do have 2 big projects that are now framed.

Dave & I designed and built a shadow box frame to put my 2021 Animal Crossing Switch project inside. I took the photo before adding the glass, so there is no glare.

I finally completed Frederick the Literate which was a wedding/anniversary gift for my youngest son Jordyn and my daughter-in-law Sarah. I bought a 14" x 14" frame at Michael's and framed it myself. I took the photo without the glass, so there was no glare. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend, so they took Frederick home.

Frederick Bottom Shelf & Puzzles

 I know it has been a while since I showed an update on Frederick. I have been stitching at least once or twice a week, but don't always feel like photographing and updating my blog. 

I am working on the bottom shelf of books. I have run out of a few colours from the kit, but I went through my DMC floss and found something close enough to substitute instead of contacting Dimensions and ordering more floss.

Dave & I have worked on a few puzzles in the past month. We like to sit outside on the patio working on the puzzles.

This one is a 1000pc called the Beach Hut by Ravensburger. We enjoyed all the bright colours and beach theme.

This one doesn't have a name, but we loved the colours and it was very quick to build. It only took us 4 hours to complete.

This is the first time I have built a shape puzzle. I love tea, so I borrowed this one from my sisters. I thought it would be easy to assemble. Well I was wrong. I started it, then Dave helped me. I think it took about 4 days off and on to complete. I am happy to say we finished it, but I don't think I will go out of my way to do another one. It was one of the hardest puzzles I have completed. There are pieces that look like edges that are not.

This puzzle also had 13 hidden object pieces.

Let The People Choose - Pets

 

Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting the Let The People Choose each month. The theme for July is Pets. 

As a child my family only had dogs. My husbands family had lots of animals living on a farm.  When we moved in together way back in 1985, we had 5 budgies. 

When our boys were young we had many different pets ... 

hamsters (Hammy & Digger). This is Digger, he was so sweet and didn't bite people.

guinea pigs (Eeyore, Popcorn & Jellybean). This is the habitat we built them.

red-eared slider turtle named Frodo who lived 12 years.

and this is the first fish tank (20 gallons).   

Now our boys are adults, but we still have a fish tank (75 gallons). We have a pleco (algae eater) named Waldo who is 16 years old and 5 clown loaches, but they don't have names.

  

I have stitched a few cats for my sister-in-laws back in 1998 & 2003.

and yes, I'm still working on Frederick the Literate for my son and daughter-in-law.

I stitched this turtle in 2006.

But my favourite is the Rainbow Bridge by Sue Hillis stitched in 2011.  This is a tribute to all of the pets we have loved over the years. I added extra animals to this project to make it personal (budgies, a hedgehog my sister had, a ferret that my sister's friend had and a nicer looking turtle). 

Books Update #4

 I haven't stitched much lately, but here is a photo of my progress so far.

We have been busy working on another jigsaw puzzle. We did this puzzle in exactly 1 week.

I have taken 2 photos of the finished puzzle. Dave & I just bought a new DSLR camera Nikon Z50. I usually take photos with my iPad because it is easier to update my blog, but I do love how much clearer the images are with the new camera. Cross stitch of Frederick was taken with the new camera as well.

iPad photo (8 mega pixels)

Nikon Z50 (20 mega pixels)

Books Update #3

I finally reached the end of the first row. Black vertical line is a shadow at the end of the bookshelf.  There is still lots to stitch on the top shelf. Above Frederick’s butt is a bird. I need to finish the green, blue and rust coloured books, but you can see how wide and how tall the project is because I started stitching the bottom shelf. I love stitching the bright coloured books.

Cat & whale

I worked on Frederick a lot yesterday (afternoon & evening). Close up of Frederick’s butt and leg.

Here is the whole project.

Dave & I finally completed another 2000pc puzzle. This was also a Christmas gift from our youngest son Jordyn. 

This was the hardest puzzle we have done so far. It took us 3 weeks, but we didn’t work on it every day. 

It is a beautiful puzzle to look at from a distance.  

Up close it is a pain in the neck. There was so much blue and it looks like paint brush strokes, not clear detail.  

Books - update #2

I completed the book title The Three Mouseketeers and added the symbol at the bottom. I also did 3 bookmarks at the top on the last 2 books.

Books - update #1

I completed another book (turquoise) and stitched half of the title (The Three Mouseketeers). I also added the title on the brown book (Puss-n-Boots). I forgot to mention that the initials EGW were changed from original design.  I replaced them with JCS which stands for my son’s name (Jordyn) our last name (Christie) and my daughter-in-law’s name (Sarah).

Frederick’s Head - update #3

Last night I finished the brown book, Frederick’s front paw and put the titles on 2 books (Rat Hole & Corporate Fat Cats).  I also started backstitching Frederick’s face.

Frederick’s Head - update #2

I’m still working on Frederick’s head and front paw. I also backstitched around the green book and the left side of the Bye Bye Birdie book. I’ve almost completed another 2 books on the right.

Here is the whole project.

Frederick’s Head - update #1

Here is a close up of Frederick. I’m almost done stitching his head. I did complete another book (Bye Bye Birdie), just need to do some back stitching.

Here is the whole project.

Frederick’s Head

I made some more progress yesterday on Frederick’s Head. He now has some ears.

Ravensburger - John Deere puzzle

Last week we worked on our 3rd puzzle for this year. My husband grew up on a small family farm, so he loves building puzzles with farm scenes or tractors.  His family didn’t own a John Deere tractor, but they are very popular. This is our 2nd John Deere puzzle we have in our collection. 

I did lots of stitching over the weekend. I finished the fish, worked on 2 more books and last night I started Frederick’s head.

Puzzle and more books

This week finished our second puzzle for 2022. This one I chose because of the photo. It is called The Cozy Shed. It looks like a place I’d enjoy spending time in. It didn’t take long to build because this is only a 1000 pc Ravensburger puzzle. Not sure which puzzle we will build next.

I’m continuing to work on Frederick. I did the first book on the top and bottom shelves. Now I can see how tall it will be. I will continue to work on the books on the top shelf for now. When I don’t want to count I can continue stitching the top and bottom shelves.

Garbage Can Guide

I completed another book title “Garbage Can Guide”.  I love the colours of the book spines. They are so bright in real life.

 

I’m almost to the bottom of the project.

2 book spines

Monday I spent the afternoon and evening completing the first and second book spines. There are 26 books in total.

Puzzle & Books

Last night we finished our first puzzle of the year.  My youngest son Jordyn and daughter-in-law Sarah bought us 2 Ravensburger 2000 piece puzzles. We completed one so far. It took us about a week, but we didn’t work on it every day. There is no name of the puzzle, but it does say Zoe Sadler on the side of the box. I’m guessing it is the artist who created the design.

This was the hardest puzzle we have ever built.  We started with the border as usual, then thought we would do the wood boxes/shelves around the items. That didn’t work, so we worked on the labels/tags on each bottle and then filled in the spaces around them to connect everything together. It was weird looking at the puzzle half way through with all of the gaps in between. We usually work in sections and feel like we are accomplishing something when we get an area completed. This one was a challenge from start to finish. I thought of the Harry Potter books and movies every time I read a label because they are magical potion ingredients.

I’m still working on the first book, but I did finish the title.

Happy New Year!!

I’d like to wish all of my fellow cross stitchers a happy and heathy 2022! I hope we all find time to stitch. I spent all afternoon and evening cross stitching while watching Netflix. I thought I’d have more progress, but I forgot how hard it is to see on dark fabric. I also went back to using my scroll frame and floor stand but the fabric is too large, so I have to turn my frame sideways to stitch. I think tomorrow I will remove it from the scroll frame and go back to stitching in hand, I find it faster to stitch using the sewing method.

Frederick the Literate

Here is my progress from today. I only worked on the red book today.