A Scary Happy Dance...whew

That's right...whew! I just have a couple stitches to put in the lower left but my problem child has flown the coop!

The LK Mystery Scary Sampler in all its glory. After two and a half days of marathon stitching, I'm done, practically. I went back in my posts to find when I started this and it was 2012. I didn't order the kit, just the charts. I had my own fibers and ordered the fabric. As you can see on a picture below, I had to leave some things off to have enough fabric to frame with. Some things I realized is that I could've stitched in the house as charted and not left so much lawn. My satin stitching with the green has gone wonky on the sides. Also on the chart, the Cadet is satin stitched. It is added that instead of satin stitches, the two parts of the lawn could be cross stitched. Right there at the bottom left I'll stitch in a diamond like those on the right side above the satin stitching so it won't look so off kilter. As for the wonky, it's staying because I just want to move on! Here's what the chart looked like..

Hoping these pictures look alright from your side. I'm glad I have a finish of some kind!

See ya'll on the 10th!

TUSAL time

Now I know I stitched more than this..

You can't see it but I have lots of black in there, mostly from the Queen of quite a lot exchange pillow.

Goodnight! Zzzzzzzzzz........

September Stitch From Stash, finishes, road trip pics, the exchange,etc..

Here we are, end of September. It's just going by too fast! Picture heavy by the way.

Friday night I stitched with the Sew-In and stitched right into Saturday and Sunday. There is no loss of mojo whatsoever but I do most of my stitching on the weekends anyway. During the week, I'm either too wiped out or stressed to pick up a needle. I also managed to finish a couple things too. Without further ado, here's SFS..

Beginning balance was: $52.75 with September's $25 added.

Money spent: $29.60 for two designs from the Primitive Hare, Wicked and Christmas Carol Sampler.

New starts from stash: Harvest Delivery

My Saturday and Sunday stitching. I'm stitching this on 32ct Platinum which I love. It's a nice all purpose fabric. It's a lot of fun.

WIPs or UFOs worked on: Exchange projects which is below, School Days, Vintage Stars, Merry Moose Wishes, LK Scary Sampler.

Balance is now $23.15. I could do better but...!

Here are my two finishes..

Designer is Plum Street Samplers, I think the chart is called My Pretties. I stitched this up a couple years ago as a huge pillow but it just looked terrible. So I cut it down and did this to it. I just noticed that a stitch is real loose, I'll have to fix that. And that PS ornament that is found in a JCS ornament magazine..

I need more Christmas ornaments! 

I just got an email from Joan who blogs at Stitching Squad (didn't get a link) that she received what I sent for the Harvest Exchange 2014. Besides a WTNT chart, floss to stitch it, scissors, needles, linen, wool, etc. I made these for her..

On the left is a door hanger. The design is from an older JCS issue. I also made the two wool leaves that are attached to the wire. I felt that wasn't enough so I stitched up the Scarlett House design and made the crown pin that is attached to the pillow at the upper left. She likes what I sent..woohoo!

As if my life isn't already busy, I up and joined the First Annual Christmas Ornament Exchange hosted by Angela at Hooked on Stitching http://hookedonstitches.blogspot.com/2014/09/first-annual-christmas-ornament-exchange.html

I think she has openings yet so go check it out. You make an ornament and send a card! That's it! 

I took some time off of work last week and my daughter and I drove to Jerome, AZ. for lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. It's named that because of the shenanigans something was doing with tools, noises, and such when the owners were renovating? Jerome is a ghost town that is still alive with about 300 people living there. The whole town is said to be haunted!

Our trip begins not too far from my home.. And into Jerome with its skinny roads

You can see the red rocks of Sedona in the distance. That's where we're going. The next pictures are entering or through Sedona. I love Sedona, it's so pretty there but their summers are pretty warm, in the low 100s most of the time but they also get some snow in the winter. Here we go..

This area has had a couple fires in the last year and you can see how the pines are burnt up, leaving just the tops. It's really greening up though because of the amount of rain we've had.

This would be my dream home!

This is Slide Rock State Park. Oak Creek runs through this portion, making the rock slick and its like a slide.

Lots of views.

See the rock above the white thing on the roof in the center of this pic? It's called Coffeepot Rock. Here's a better picture of it without the buildings..

See how it looks like an old style percolator coffee pot? You have the spout, the round thing on top, and the handle. On the other side of town, heading out toward Interstate 17, is Bell Rock which looks like a huge bell.

Now here's a picture that could answer a trivia question..

The only McDonald's in the entire US that doesn't have the yellow arches! They're turquoise. Zoning laws in Sedona allows only colors that reflect the area of the red rocks. Everywhere you go here, you notice the buildings, light poles, retaining walls are all a sandstone, brown, beige, or this turquoise color. It all looks very nice with the red rocks.

So I believe that's it. Hope you enjoyed the road trip. I'm hoping my iPad doesn't have too much trouble uploading all these pictures. I'm back to stitching on the LK sampler, determined to finish the thing before Halloween. Do I sound disgusted with the sampler? I am because its become a pain in my butt. I could've stitched more on the roof because now the satin stitches may be long in the lawn and I'm close to running out of the WDW Cadet for it. Grrr. I'll keep plugging away. Virpi's book she won is on its way to Finland and I'm crossing fingers it gets there. And Mary will soon be receiving her book too. All my business is done and I'm going to stitch! Take care and thanks for visiting!

FNSI and Giveaway winner!

MARY!! You are now the proud owner of the Christmas cross stitch book. Email me at campbo41@q.com with your mailing information and I will get it out to you.

FNSI or Friday Night Sew-In, I worked on the Scary Sampler by LK while watching the last Downton Abbey Season 4 disc, boohoo! I can't wait for Season 5..But here's the sampler, which is also a Turtle Trot WIP..

That top photo you can see just how little fabric I have left for framing. I'm not sure if I'm going to put in the satin stitched border at the bottom like the top. Oh, and I posted these same pictures over at Flickr under the name yavagirl. I'm not sure I did it correctly but they are there.

Today I'll be sending off my exchange package to the recipient. Exciting and I hope she'll enjoy what I've sent.

Thanks to the ladies who entered for the giveaway; wish I had a book for all of you. Take care all!

Friday Night Sew-In

or FNSI for short.

On the third Friday of the month, grab your stitching or sewing, wine (soda, in my case), snacks and what have you and stitch/sew to your hearts content. Here's the link-

http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/2014/09/fnsi-sign-ups.html

Then, blog about it and put a picture up about it in Flickr. More info can be found on the link above. Sure hope it works! 

Have a great weekend!

And the winner is...and the final book giveaway

             VIRPI!!!

I wish I could change the font size on this Blogger app!

Anyway, Virpi, send me your mailing information and I'll have the book on its way to you!

In the spirit of hitting (killing sounds terrible) two birds with one stone, here's the final book to giveaway.

Same rules as all the others: follower or no, can ship overseas, if more than one person is interested, I'll draw names a week from today.

Thanks for stopping in!

Happy, Happy, Happy!

I'm so happy to get back to my WIPs and no-pressure stitching! I finished my exchange stitching and just need to sew it up. I'll send it and everything else next week. That, my friends, is that. Because I love Halloween, I only join the Fall/Halloween exchanges, so it'll be another year before I do that again!

Here we are for Turtle Trot time though and I managed to stitch on 3 WIPs. Here's my problem child-the LK Mystery Scary Sampler. Why problem? Because the fabric is too short, I'm having to leave out quite a bit of the pattern..

I've left enough fabric for framing at the bottom. I can at least get the lawn in with the x's and satin stitch. I wanted to make sure I put in the WDW Kohl and Guacamole border that kind of frames the house area. Here's that border right above the house, below..

which is unfortunately in the shadow! I'll put on my big girl panties and get this stitched up for Halloween. This is how it looked before..

Now, here's Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas, another Turtle Trot WIP

And how it looked before..

Just a few more stitches in the bluish Quaker and finishing up the large one in the middle.

And take a look at School Days. I'm building the school house now..

and the flag pole. A first, when I stitched the flag pole, I thought it should be a gray color because they're metal. But then I thought, no, an older style schoolhouse probably had a wooden flagpole back in the day. So now the color will remain.

For August, I asked Mel from SFS if I could please have a Free Month. Here's why..

Strawberry Fields Forever is awaiting its fabric but the others have fabric and fibers. This great shop in Maryland is called Needlecraft Corner www.needlecraft-corner.com. They can sell you just the chart or the whole enchilada (fab/floss/chart) at decent prices. They have a simple website where you have to either email or call in an order. Drema is a very nice lady and you can bet I'll order from them again. Next year though! Ha. Spent too much but look at those charts! 

So I'm giving away another cross stitch Christmas book, see last post. It ends this Friday if you're interested.

I've got a load of laundry to get done so I'd better do it! I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my cube finish. I still stop to look at it! Hope your Thursday is wonderful!

Another book giveaway!

More pictures...

Hope the pics aren't too blurry. The same rules apply like before: If one person, after 7days, say they want the book, they'll get it! More people interested? I'll draw names on the 12th. I can ship overseas. You don't have to be a follower.

I used to buy these books every year as you can see. I'm not sure if these books are being published anymore.

I thought I'd throw in a picture of an Agave or Century Plant. As a family, we'd go out to cut wood for our fireplace and my dad would take cactus or something else and replant in our yard. So anyway, here it is

Yeah, I'd hate to fall on this thing! It's has really grown in the last 3 months because of our Monsoon rains.

It's supposed to really rain this weekend because of Tropical Storm Norbert traveling up Baja California and all the moisture/rain is going to travel into the normal Monsoon flow. The news just said 1 to 2 inches of rain is possible in places. So it's going to be perfect weather to stitch. I'm so far ahead on my exchange stitching that I could send off the package Monday but I'll wait a little bit. I haven't stitched on anything else so I'm getting antsy to get back to my other stitching!

I'm awaiting my market stash from a ONS from back east. I wish I could remember the name and website but I'll put that up on my Turtle post. They don't have a catalog but you can either call in an order or email it. My stash is all Blackbird Designs. Can't wait! I haven't stitched in 3 days so I'm sure those patterns will be a well welcomed kick in the butt to get going!

Thanks for stopping in! All your comments about my cube finish was much appreciated. Have a super weekend!

Giveaway winner!

Five people were interested in the giveaway for A Cross Stitch Christmas and here's the winner!

Stitchinowl-Carolyn!

So Carolyn, send me your mailing address and I'll have the book in the mail this weekend.

Thanks to the 4 other ladies who played along. Friday I'll have another giveaway for another Christmas book. Be sure to check that out.