Tree of Stitches (and a few other finishes)

I finally have my Tree of Stitches embroidery finished and framed!  I love how it turned out. Over fiver years in the making...

Click on this picture to see it in a larger size!

To be honest, I am not sure how long it took me to stitch this project. I started it back in January 2011 when Kaelyn was only a few months old. I would work on it a little bit every month as a stitch-a-long. I think starting work up that year kept me from being able to put much time in it, and eventually life made me forget about it and I hadn't touched it for years. I had done about half of it when I pulled it out of my bag in November. It then only took a few weeks to finish it up, add the beads, take it to the framer's.  Learning new stitches is great for my mind and is so much fun!  Additionally, using different threads like the metallic threads and variegated threads, makes it look a bit more three dimensional.  I love how it turned out!

This is how it looked after 5-ish years when I pulled it out in November.

First night's progress

Finished, but not framed.

Before I started the Tree of Stitches, I decided to pick up something small. I worked on a beaded ornament kit.  Oh, how I HATE beads. They were were a pain in the butt, but my Santa ornament does look pretty. This one I decided to count my hours worked on it, for fun.

90 minutes in. The first 10 minutes were just organizing the flosses.

Two more hours of work. (3.5 hours total)

2 hours. (5.5 hours total)

Another 90 minutes (7 hours total)

2 more hours. (9 total hours)

Here are a few other finished of 2015. I hadn't cross-stitched at all for the past couple of years, but at the end of October I just got the bug to start it up again, and I have been plowing through some things!

Pumpkin pin

I had this about 1/4 finished when I pulled it out. This is also the first cross-stitch I did this year!  It didn't take me that long to finish it, but it did give me the bug to start some other projects.

Wedding sampler

A friend of mine got married in November and I started the above cross stitch later than I would have like. I finished it THE DAY we went to her wedding. Whew!  That was a close one. If it wasn't for my husband taking the kids out of the house that morning, they would have received and IOU.

Family portrait

This was a quick one I made after Tree of Stitches but before I started the one I am currently working on. I needed something to pass my time before I could start a big project on Christmas Day.

Currently I am working on a Cinderella's Castle. I am taking weekly progress reports since I don't have as much time to work on the project and the project is sizable. I look forward to working on it this year, and I hope to have it completed by the summer. If you want to follow along with the progress pictures, check out my Instagram account.