Finish Friday & February Smalls SAL

Today I have my first fully finished piece in forever! 

The finished product is:

"Final Fantasy Mog and Chocobo Cross Stitch Pattern KUPO" - CraftyGamerUK FINISHED!

Here is what the moogle and chocobo piece looked like last time:

It may be a small one but it’s a finish and motivation to work on other things! 

A few years ago I bought a bunch of tiny video game related patterns on Etsy and designed a few on my own in hopes of creating a series of small stitchings that represent my all time favorite games. This is number 3 to be finished!

I realize now that I didn't initial/date the first 2 pieces. I'll have to go back and look at when I finished them and add them. Next in the series will either be a Suikoden or a Crash Bandicoot pattern. I haven't decided yet and I'm not sure when that will actually happen anyways!😋

I do need to find where I have my other aida mounted squares so I can keep working on little projects in between my big ones so I stay motivated with finishes. 

Update: I am updating this post to also include information about the Smalls SAL! The Smalls SAL is where you stitch something each month that you consider small to you and post about it on the last Friday of every month. It is currently being hosted by Mary of Mary's Thread so hop on over to see other entries! To be honest I completely forgot that I used to participate in this a couple years ago before my life got hectic and as a matter of fact, the Mario and Vivi pieces in the game series were what I stitched for the Smalls SAL before! So I am going to add my Moogle & Chocobo piece into the same category as well. Now to decide what to stitch for March!

Happy Stitching!

WIP Wednesday & Gifted Gorgeousness!

I know, I know, it’s technically Thursday but I’ve been busy with 2 very hyper little ones all day so I haven’t had a chance to post and since I haven't gone to bed yet, it's still Wednesday! That's how it works, right? Just go with it! 😝 

Today is WIP Wednesday and also happens to be just after the February Gifted Gorgeousness link up has gone live! It's where you show off what you've been working on that is a gift for someone or was a gift to you. Hop on over to Jo’s page  to check out all the awesome stuff people are working on! 

Keep in mind that last year, I basically did no stitching due to everything I had going on so I feel like there hasn’t been much progress made recently but I have worked on some things here and there. 

First up is my most recent WIP which I finished the stitching on as well but I need to fully finish it! I found this pattern on Etsy and thought it was too cute. This was a silly little Valentine’s gift for my husband! It took me a total of 20 hrs and 45 mins over 3 days during down time on the night shift at work! 

I did modify this pattern in the tiniest way. The flower on the girl Pikachu is supposed to be pink and red but instead I changed them to lighter shades of our wedding colors!

Next is my oldest WIP so far, the Olde World Map. This will be a gift for my Mom & Stepdad who have their master bedroom decorated with all sorts of maps. The last time it was posted was in May 2018 😱 

then:

now:

I guess I made more progress on this one than I thought. This was probably the only piece that I tried to distract myself with while in the hospital helplessly watching my daughter. 

Another gift for my Mom & Stepdad will be the Game of Thrones houses since they are huge fans of the show. The last time this was mentioned was in February 2019 and there's been a little bit of progress.

then:

now:

I also signed up for a couple SALs at the beginning of last year but didn't make it far in them. One was the Homely Houseplants by Stitchonomy. This is intended to be a gift for my Dad since he also developed a recent love of indoor plants!

Instead of going with the default color scheme that was provided, I was playing with a variegated rainbow thread and white for the pots. I'm liking how it is turning out but I haven't touched this one in a while. 

My daughter has always loved Disney, Disney princesses and Disney movies, so when I stumbled upon this Magic Kingdom SAL by Cunning Cross Stitch on Facebook, I knew I just had to attempt to do it for her. I literally just found this late last week and the January (Ariel) and February (Alice) patterns are out. So, I'm pretty behind but I did start it! This is also my first piece ever working on evenweave, so it's making me a little bit nervous! 

The final piece that can be included for the GG is actually not cross stitch. It was a diamond art painting that was given to me for the Secret Santa gift exchange we had at work. It is perfect because it's basically been what my mantra has been since everything started with my daughter in March last year. This is actually finished as far as the diamonds go, but it needs to be framed and I haven't decided if it will go on our gallery wall or in our master bedroom yet. I will have to say that this will be my first and last diamond painting, lol. It was definitely an interesting little project though.

Then there are just 2 other pieces that I have started as well but aren't gifts for anyone. They are just nerdy things that I wanted to stitch!

First is the Avatar: The Last Airbender 4 Elements SAL from last year. I haven't made it far but I am liking my border thread choice a lot!

The second nerdy piece is an Etsy pattern of a Final Fantasy moogle and chocobo. FF is one of my all time favorite game series and I thought the pattern was too cute to pass up. I am stitching this on black aida so it's a little rough on the eyes but this will be a quick piece. This is only maybe an hour's worth of stitching during down time at work so I could probably have it done by my next work night if I focused on it. 

I believe that's everything that I've started so far and I do plan on starting another SAL soon. We will see how it all turns out! 

Thank you for hopping on by and don't forget to keep hopping along to see all the other participants' work! Happy stitching!

June 2017 Smalls SAL

Before the start of this year, I had planned on participating in Stitching Lotus' Smalls SAL for the entire year but thanks to the busy first half of the year, this will be my first entry! Better late than never I guess 😆

My Smalls SAL entry is of one of my favorite video game characters: Vivi from Final Fantasy IX! Vivi was stitched over the course of 2 days (Thurs-Friday). He is 2.5 inches wide and 3.2 inches tall and is super cute! I am happy to have him as the first of a series of game inspired pieces I'd like to stitch!

FINISHED! CraftyGamerUK's FF Vivi Cross Stitch Pattern

I purchased the pattern from Etsy and stitched it on a 6x6 (actually 4x4 stitchable area) square aida cloth that was stretched over a wood frame. The squares I actually found at Michael's in a pack of 3 in 3 different colors so I'm excited to use them for future Smalls projects!

My future entries will more than likely all be video game themed pieces because I have a bunch of small patterns for various things from some of my favorite games! Next I will probably stitch classic Mario!