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.

Animal Crossing New Horizons SAL - Happy Dance!!

It has been a productive stitching year because I completed my year long project. I'm so happy with how this project turned out. I can’t wait to hang it on the wall in my craft room above my TV in my video game area. I will show a photo of how I frame it in 2022.

ACNH SAL
Start Date January 1, 2021
Finished Date December 17, 2021

December - K.K. Slider is a dog musician who visits your island on Saturday. After 6pm you can attend his live concert and he will give you one of his records. This is the image Stewart used for creating the block. I didn't like the spotlight above his head creating shadows on his face. I changed him to just be white, no other shades.

Here is my stitched block.

There are 107 songs to collect. My favourite song is Welcome Horizons, the ACNH theme song. You can play the music on any record player, radio, stereo in the game. You can hang the records on the wall as art.

A Late Wedding Gift

The year is almost over and my Animal Crossing SAL is almost completed. 2022 Stewart is doing stand alone projects for each month. I won't be participating, but might save the patterns for another time.

Yesterday, I started a new project called Frederick the Literate. This is a late wedding gift to my son Jordyn and daughter-in-law Sarah who got married July 2020. At the time, I was working on the huge Harry Potter Stitch Your Own Adventure and Peppermint Purple Blackwork projects so I didn't have time to stitch them a wedding gift. Also, I didn't know what to stitch for them. After discussing it with them, we decided that I would stitch Frederick the Literate because the cat looks like one of theirs (Roman).

I bought this as a kit about 20 years ago but never got around to stitching it. I swapped the 14ct aida for 28ct Monaco (which I dyed black). Unfortunately they don't want a black background, they asked for a brown bookshelf as the background instead. So I didn't really need to dye the fabric, but I don't have any brown or white large enough for this project. The design size is 172st x 154st (13"w x 11"h).

This is Roman their cat.

This is what the project will look like when completed.

Here is my progress from yesterday (1st day). I'm starting in the top left corner of the bookshelf.

ACNH - all caught up

November - Stewart designed Daisy Mae as the character for this block. She sells turnips on Sunday mornings. You have until the following Saturday night to sell them before they rot. You have to check twice a day (morning/afternoon) to see when Nook’s Cranny is buying turnips for a profit (more than you paid for the turnips). It is called the “stalk market” in the game. You hope to buy low (under $100 bells) and sell high ($200 - $700). This is where having lots of friends playing the game helps. Everyone checks their stores to see who has the best price. I don’t like Daisy Mae’s character with the snotty nose.

I love all of the flowers, shrubs and vegetables in the game. Photo borrowed from the internet.

Leif (sloth) sells you plant starters.  I love his cheerful personality and all his bright yellow apron and trailer.

I designed him standing in front of his RV trailer, but I only put a tomato (left) and carrot (right) plant in front of him. Here is my island all up to date.

Here is the whole project. The last block will be released next week Dec 15th. 

ACNH - Isabelle - Happy Dance

Tonight I finished the October block with Isabelle. I decided to add white beads for the lily of the valley flowers.

Then I decided to add some shooting stars in the night sky with Celeste and Wisp.

I hope to finish this project by the end of the year. I only have 2 blocks left. Stewart will release the last pattern on December 15th.

ACNH - Isabelle

October - Isabelle is my favourite character in the Animal Crossing series. She works in the Resident Services office and gives us the morning announcements. Stewart’s design is based on this scene where Isabelle gives us the morning announcements.

Here is my progress from yesterday.

I’m adding a perfect flower to this block. We find a flower called a lily of the valley on our island after we reach 5 stars.