2017 plans, a last finish, and other stuff

Hi everyone! Better get comfortable, grab a drink or something because I've been talking to cats for the last day and a half!

Hope your Christmas was magical with family, friends, and food! Mine was particularly wonderful, partly because of this..

Yup, a white Christmas, yay! Although I can live without the white stuff, you just gotta have a white Christmas. My brothers came up Christmas Eve morning to avoid the snow and it was great to see them. They live in Phoenix. And...my gift that my daughter bought me that brought tears to my eyes...

Works like a charm. I also received chocolate, lottery tickets, and gift cards but this...! I fired it up yesterday and made this..

An ornament that I stitched up earlier this year. My cord-making went haywire. I cannot make cording to save my life! I have watched Vonna's video on cord-making and this is what I end up with ^. So I improvised and sewed it on the top and hung a skeleton key on the end and made a tassel. It's back to the drawing board for making cord. One of my New Years resolutions, to master this. Ha. But it's just great to have a sewing machine again. I never took my old one in to be checked and fixed. 

Here we go....I joined Honeybee's (Copper Fox) little sal The Keeping Christmas Project to stitch ornaments. I had my first finish in September and as of last week, ended up with 7 ornaments. Here is the very last one...A Sprig of Holly, from the Primitive Punchneedle and Cross Stitch, I think?

On 32ct, 1 over 2. Love her dress with the the eyelet stitch at her waist and the satin stitch spool to the right. All of these ornaments I'll FFO them next year.

I also had another finish last week, the last one for 2016. Little Lamb by Kathy Barrick...

It's a small design, fits a 8" sq. frame. I stitched in the reins at the last. Does anyone see Rudolph and his red nose? I think Santa was giving his reindeer a night off! 

Total finishes for 2016 comes to 37! Woohoo! Two of those finishes were exchange gifts and are gone. Some of these finishes have been FFO'd already, or need it, or need framing. I'll do all that next year.

Remember I won a gift card from Brian (Blitstitch) from flosstube? Well, here is what I used it on..

Overdye's to kit up some projects, two LHN designs that have been on my wish list for months, and the Mardi Gras silks for a sal that I've joined for February or March. 

Uh, what next? Oh. Here are my plans for 2017. I reserve the right to chuck it all and do what I want! I have 4 or 5 definite projects to do and here they are: 

Frosty Forest by CCN

I just need to get the DMC's together. This is my New Year's day stitch. Somewhere down the line I will add a border on this, just like Jeannie at Willow Tree Stitcher did on hers. I don't have a link but some of you may know what it looks like. I may tweak a few borders from other CCN or LHN charts for my border. Just hope I have enough fabric for that!

Classic Christmas Charm by Barbara Ana, found in 3 issues of Cross Stitch and Needlework mags..

I wasn't too sure about this called for fabric, Milk Chocolate, but after the floss toss, decided it won't be too bad. I'll do half of the border starting from the upper left and then start stitching the inner white and green blocks. I'm thinking of a week spent on each new start. Next up are two Primitive Hare designs, Christmas Carol Sampler and Ichabod Crane Inn, all ready to start..

As for WIPs, these are what I'm stitching on..

Top to bottom: Jacks Bash by PSS, Blackwater Hollow by Stacy Nash, Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas, A Bee in your Bonnet by Summerhouse Stitcheworkes, and last but not least- Christmas Garden by BBD. Vintage Stars is the oldest WIP here. Wish me luck..

I run with the Stitch Maynia crowd on FB and have joined a couple of SAL's through Maynia, a Mardi Gras style one in February I think, and an M sal which is stitch on something that starts with the letter M, or a designer or subject matter. That's in March. I also joined a Stitch from Stash on FB. 

If you can believe it, I'm still waiting on Cricketbugs chart and fabric for winning my giveaway! Everything she gets she can use for next Christmas! I emailed her a couple weeks ago and this was her response:

             I am having the same problems! It's like it's Christmas or something 

Lol. She's too funny! Like it's Christmas, indeed! I'll have to time the giveaway next year a little better. The problem is the dyed linen coming from Dames of the Needle. Well, dame- it! Just kidding!

On the 10th of this month, my daughter and I were supposed to fly to Chicago but after the last two months of a kitty death, auto breakdown, and various other mishaps, we had to cancel:((

But....that weekend it was below zero up there! We dodged that bullet! I really wanted to see the Christkindle market and eat Chicago deep dish pizza. So before the tickets expire in June, we have decided to go back to New Orleans in March. Weather wise, a huge extreme. It'll be after Mardi Gras and the room prices will go back down somewhat. 

I believe that's it! Whew. Hopefully, you made it to the end with me. I will continue to stitch an ornament or two a month. I'll be busy for sure. I have 31 WIPs and hope to whittle that down by this time next year. 

Followers and lurkers, I just want to say Thank You for hanging with me throughout the entire year! Thank you for your comments, for your words of sympathy on the death of E.T., for commiserating with me on my wacky health which I might add is much better. Helps to lose 20 pounds here in the last 3 months, not diabetic anymore. I appreciate each and everyone of you. Wishing you a 

and a year of great health, lots of new stash, peace, and new beginnings! See you next year!

A great weekend!

Hi all!

Back so soon, you ask? Yes. My exchange goodie reached my partner and I received mine so I thought I would show off what they look like.

I made the PSS design The Favorite Font Sampler into a flat ornament/wall hanging..

And because my partner likes blue, I made the house blue and trimmed it with that thick blue chenille trim. Used twine for the bow and the hanger then added the rusty bells. She loved it. I also added a little Chocolate Santa to the package.

After a pretty bad day yesterday, I checked my mailbox to find I had received my exchange gift from my partner. When I read the card that came with it, I whooped because the partner turned out to be the owner and designer of Death By Thread, of whom I own two charts! Here it is..

Let's just say my attitude and day turned on a dime! I love it. The pattern is Merry Yule by Forgotten Farm. Velvet on the back and the scrunched up ribbon is a nice touch. Thanks again, Becky!

Also, I just found out that I won a $30 gift certificate to 123stitch from a Flosstuber! His name is Brian and he goes by Blitstitch on Flosstube and @blitstitch on Instagram. He works on huge and beautiful projects and is an excellent stitcher. So go check him out. I have a smile on my face that goes ear to ear! Haha.

I am stitching a Christmas design from that primitive stitching magazine I showed the last post. I'll be picking that back up here pretty soon.

Cricket-bug, I am still waiting on a package from Stitching Bits and Bobs. Everyone on FB says that the shop is pretty slow. In their defense, they are a two person shop as someone toured the shop and it was mentioned it's a wife/husband team. So as soon as I get it, everything will be on its way to you.

CJ, your package is in the mail as of today so watch out for it sometime this coming week.

I'll be back after Christmas with a recap of this year, and my stitching plans for 2017, big plans. If I'm not back sooner, I'll just say now that I wish each and everyone of you who follow or lurk, a very

Winner! WIP progress and more

Hi all! Coming to you from a chilly snow-on-the-mountains-around-us-but-none-down-here kind of day. I thought I would make this post before I go to work.

I drew names of all you contestants, linen and Aida stitchers, together and a linen stitcher was picked and she is.....

            CRICKET-BUG! I will email you for your mailing address. As soon as I get the rest of the

               goodies in the mail, I'll ship it off to you.

And then I drew names between the Aida stitchers and the name drawn for the LK chart and Aida fabric is.........

            

            CJ! I will be emailing you soon for your mailing address. Since it's just the chart and fabric,

               I have it already and will get it in the mail this week.

Thanks ladies, for taking part in my giveaway! 

I've been toiling away at a WIP, Little Lamb by Kathy Barrick..here is before...

And now..

A good amount of progress, I think. Santa is awaiting reins to all three animals but I'll do that at the end. I'm having fun stitching the house. Sorry for the blurry picture. I try holding my breath to take a picture and sometimes it works, sometimes not! It's not a huge design. The width is what you see there. I hope to have this finished by Christmas but we'll see because there is a forest and two or three more deer. I have one deer partially stitched next to the house.

Two or three posts ago I mentioned a Kickstarter campaign by Ship's Manor that I took part in? Well, I received my package! I love all that he sent, take a look..

On the left is the fabric I chose, a 32ct fat quarter of this beautiful orangey, perfect for Halloween color. On the right is backing fabric, dyed also, and a skein of his silk and a cotton floss. Yummy. His fabrics are beautiful.

I have stash also, again! Everytime I look at this chart, I smile!

Aren't they cute! I saw this and had to have it.

Last but not least is this, the Christmas issue of..

They really outdid themselves on this issue, IMHO. Here are a few cross stitch designs that caught my eye..

Soo pretty! I've been itching for a new start so one of these might be it.

Alrighty! That will be it. Congrats to Cricket-bug and CJ! Thanks to you all for playing along.

Take care and stitch, stitch, stitch!

Wicked Dance, 'Tis the Season

Hi all! Just got home from grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving meal. I can't believe it's almost the end of 2016 but after the year we've had, my daughter and I, 2017 can only be better!

I have a finish! Here's Wicked by Barbara Ana..

I'm not sure of the fabric I used but the floss is DMC variations and regular. The orange is called Chilean Sunset or #4130 and up close it has some pink in it and it's very pretty. The floss color of the key though I don't know as I lost the plastic sleeve it came in but I thought it was a good color for a key! I started this in 2014 and put it in time out because somewhere in the key handle is a counting mistake. I know where it's off but it doesn't really mess with how it looks. As for the date in the cartouche, I didn't know what to put in it because I misplaced the number graph that came with the chart. I didn't want the 1976 that the designer has on the model so I just stitched that 8 in there. I also shortened the web to the spider on the right so that it stayed in line with the bottom of the design. This is one cute design and just makes me want to stitch all the other Barbara Ana designs!

Giveaway time! My 6th Blogaversary is a few days before Christmas but I want to do this early enough in time. So sign up starts now and ends November 27th. I know everyone will be busy throughout next week. Open to followers on Blogger/Google and Bloglovin and I will mail overseas too. You have to let me know 3 things though:

1. Are you a linen stitcher or Aida stitcher? I have chart/fabric combos for either one. So you just  

    mention which one you would like and just the one.

2. What kind of candy do you like? It's cooled down now so I can mail chocolate!

3. Do you like Christmas-y scents and what kinds? Examples: baked goods scents, spruce/tree, 

    and so on.

This is a Prim kind of giveaway, the prizes are prim looking, rusty, etc. Here's what is for the linen crowd..

Comes with 32ct linen called for.

For the Aida stitchers is this LK chart of Santa with a nice chunk of 14ct dyed Aida

Winner gets their of choice of linen or Aida and all the goodies to go with it. If the winner chooses the Aida, then the linen package without goodies is still up for grabs and I will draw names for whoever chose linen in the first place and vice versa. Is that understandable? I don't know why my giveaways are so convoluted! 

It's a short post this time around. I spent most of my stitching time on Wicked so I have nothing else to show. As soon as I post this, I have to put together my exchange project. I don't know why I've been procrastinating on it but it has to be mailed on the 30th so I better get with it.

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and Happy Stitching to those who don't. I'll be back on the 27th or 28th to announce the winners of the giveaway. Good luck and take care! I'll leave you with a funny picture of two Saguaro cacti Somewhere in Arizona. 

This is a hold up, Pardner!

Post

Hi all!

Couldn't think of an attention-grabbing title! I'm a little on the tired side, bored so I thought I would take some last minute pictures and here I am! I do have some finishes, progress, and Stash!

So the progress I have is on Jack's Bash by PSS..

I don't know why I get that big red splotch in the middle on nighttime, lamplight pictures but there it is. This fabric does have some small areas of red splotchyness but nothing like the picture. Anyway, I got the sawtooth border in below the first row of alphabet, nothing hard about it and it went fast. I have another row below the last part of alphabet. Below that are the tops of heads and a roof and then I'll have stitched half of this design, folks! The rest of it becomes interesting as there's a house, 4 people, a verse in tent stitch, and a very large lawn (well, to me it's large!), and two large urns with plants!

Here is Jack before

I quit stitching on Jack because I received my exchange partners' info and started stitching right away which is also one of my finishes. I don't think she knows I have a blog. So, she likes Plum Street and the color blue. She was in luck because I like PSS also and had the perfect design-The Favorite Font Sampler..

On 36ct something Edinburg linen. I made the fox a little more browner and the house blue. We can't make a pinkeep so I'll make it into a flat ornament with a hanger. Mailing date is the 30th. This weekend I'll put it together and get it in the mail next week or the week of Thanksgiving. Yay! 

My other finish was a little Christmas ornament for the Keeping Christmas Project hosted by Honeybee.

This is a freebie by Stitchorizeit. I added green Kreinik to the green floss for the stars? on the sides for some bling. Here's the link to this design. You just have to scroll down until you run into it:

https://stitchorizeit.wordpress.com/2014/12/

I'm stitching another ornament and its half way done but no picture yet.

Stash! I bought all the charts from Stash Unload and Stash Unloading on FB, and the fabric on etsy.

The fabric is 36 ct with some light beige coloring for only $6.50, the Fleur de Lys chart for $4 ppd because I've joined a Mardi Gras type SAL on FB in February or March, the PSS chart for $9 ppd, the Hands on Designs chart for $4 and the two PS minis for $2 each. Not bad at all. Then I ungrouped myself from Stash Unload! 

I have joined a Stitch from Stash 2017 on FB. I think my stash buying has been pretty mild this entire year compared with previous years. The Nashville market always trips me up though! I gave myself a $25 budget but I doubt I'll go over it, maybe a thread or two here and there. 

Some of you may have noticed no Halloween giveaway this year. The time got away from me and then my kitty died and the bill was over $300 and then my daughter's pickup broke down and there went $500 so no giveaway:( But stay tuned for the end of this month because I'll announce a Christmas giveaway. It's my 6 year blogaversary in December and well, it's the Christmas season! It's a prim kind of giveaway so if you like prim, this ones for you!

I think that's it. I have a couple people messaging me so I better attend to that.

I want to say Welcome to new followers, on Blogger and Bloglovin'. There were so many of you checking out the blog hop that a few of you stayed! Glad to have you!

I better get. Take care!

Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2016!

Hi all!

Happy Halloween! It's the Witching Hour! I have joined in the merriment of this blog hop hosted by Jo, the Serendipitous Stitcher, and since I'm a Halloween fanatic, it's a win win! I'm a rookie, so bear with me!

Here we go with the letter 

And my stitched piece..

This is #SpookhouseSelfies by Just Another Button Company, a chart that is free with the purchase of the buttons. I finished it into a flat ornament with a hanger. I love the hashtags! 

The next blog hopper to check out is..

        Tiffany at: tiffstitch.blogspot.com

She has her blog hop post up. Go check her out to get the next letter and see what frightening item she has been stitching on!

Also, go to Jo's blog at serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com to see the lineup of everyone taking part and to leave your answer to the mystery phrase.

Hope you receive treats and no tricks!

Jack is back and that's a fact! Stuff, etc.

Hi all! 

Here we are, more than halfway through October. It's zooming by! So I have progress on a couple items, two finishes, and comments on comments. Let's do the comments first..

Barb, Flosstube is addicting. I have my favorites. I mostly watch/listen to Flosstube while I'm stitching. It's nice to see what others are stitching so you may like it.

Honeybee, I had no idea the weird moon pic with the spaceship crashed in its eye was from a silent movie. I agree with you there, silent movies are kind of creepy!

Marilyn, thanks for the link for tent stitch and here's why..

Jack's Bash is back and I did the tent stitch on Happy Hallowe'en there in the middle. I'm back to taking close up pictures again. Here is what he looked like last time..

I wish I knew what the fabric is. I know it's a Lakeside, maybe vintage Examplar. I follow a FB site Plum Street Samplers stitchers and this woman had a recent finish of Jack's Bash on it and I got reinvigorated for Jack. He's all I've been stitching on for the last 3 days.

Also, Halloween Cat received some attention..

And before..

I have two finishes, one for the Keeping Christmas Project SAL with Honeybee and a WIP that I had to frog. First is Santa's Workshop..

This design is found in the 2015 Christmas issue from Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher. The two sides are attached with a grosgrain ribbon in between and then a big skeleton key tied on with the ribbon. It's very pretty. The directions say to stitch in a back stitch around the design, both pieces, since the pieces get sewn together. Well, this fabric is quite thick, I think it's Creek Bed Brown by WDW. I think I can sew it up without using backstitching to run a needle through. 

And here is my WIP where I had to frog out part of Christmas last time and it's tiny, on 36 ct..

It's a little dark though. On 36ct Vintage Lentil, Lakeside. Tent stitch, Marilyn! I like it! Haha. 3" square, it's so very cute. I'm thinking of it mounted on top of a square wood box or paper mâché box. Because my tent stitch did so well here, it made the return to Jack painless. Oh, this is Christmas Wreath Pincushion by Beehive Needleworks.

One of these pieces may go to an exchange recipient because Teri/Dixiesamplar is having a Secret Santa Smalls Exchange 2016 and you make just one piece and send off with a card. She is taking sign ups right now until the 30th I believe. I don't know who my partner is yet but I hope she likes prim because I have two things already stitched up that are prim-ish and I would have them FFO'd in no time!

For the first time, I have signed up with the Hallowe'en Blog Hop that Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher hosts. You'll see me back before the end of the month with that which means I had better get stitching more on what I have picked for the Hop.

Are some of you familiar with Stash Unload on Facebook? Holy smokes, good thing I have a handle on my expenses, otherwise I would be buying loads of stash! I noticed though that some of the charts cost more there than eBay or even 123stitch. I did buy a chart of fleur di lis on a pincushion though, just $4. I also see some oldies but goodies on there. One Heart in Hand chart that I stitched about 9 years ago was being sold. Crazy. It's a dangerous place!

Okay, that's it! I'll be back in the next week or so with my Halloween item and Hop letter; I'm looking forward to that. So I'll be setting Jack down for awhile.

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'll leave you with a picture of my Upside Down cat!

To the Moon, and a SAL finish

Hi all! It's just amazing that it's the last day of September! I have a finish, well, two finishes to show and a new start, and some info to share with you all.

But first I want to say Thank You to all of you on your kind words on the passing of ET. Stitchy folk are some of the nicest people and everyone is so supportive whether it's a death of a family member, human and fur, sickness, or something as simple as a loss of stitching mojo! So, again, Thanks!

Onto the business at hand:

Last post I was working on The Raven by La D Da and now she's finished..

On 35ct WDW Straw. I took the picture at a distance to show the color of the fabric. Closer, it looked almost white! I hope it's not blurry on your side. 

My next finish is for the Keeping Christmas Project SAL that Honeybee/The Copper Fox is hosting..

Silent Night by Lizzie Kate, a Jingles design. On mystery 32ct fabric. I added my own snowflake there near the 't' in night and beads for the snow which was called for but mine are sparkly. Christmas needs sparkly! And that was it, no second finish like last month. Blah

Here is my new start, A Trip to the Moon by Ship's Manor. I think I was getting bored with Halloween and Christmas stitching, so when I saw this, click click on Etsy...

I love it! This is all I've been stitching since I downloaded the pattern last week. I liked the colors, the Victorian look of the motifs and the chandelier look of that middle part. Called for 40ct Legacy but I only had 36, and DMC's, 25 DMC's to be exact. I took the picture of mine to get the color of the fabric. I took the picture this morning as the sun was streaming into my bedroom window. This portion is easy but that moon is confetti stitching. You would think that a solid 2 hours of stitching a day in a week would produce more but nope. 

There is a story behind this new stitch. I was looking at blogs and came to the one from Ship's Manor. He had a new post up and it was about getting into fabric dyeing so he started a Kickstarter campaign. It has since raised his goal amount and has gone over. I donated my $10 and will receive a piece of his hand dyed fabric. The different levels you will receive nicer things like getting his new dyed fabric every month. Since the goal has gone way over, he has added other rewards like a skein of his cotton hand dyed floss, a skein of his silk floss, and so on. If you want to check it out, here's a link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1622197543/ships-manor-hand-dyed-fabrics

After checking that out, I went to his Etsy store and bought Moon.

 

With these Kickstarter campaigns, you have to hope they pull through and send you the rewards they promise. A whole bunch of us got burned last year when a designer started a campaign, the goal was met and she promptly disappeared with over $1000 of donated money and no rewards. She shall remain nameless. Donating to these campaigns is a bit like gambling, you never know if your dollar results in a return. My $10 that I donated to Ship's Manor is small enough that I'm not worried about it but still..

So that's it! Not picture heavy as usual. I think Flosstube is taking all my attention so I'm not stitching on tons of things. I do stitch as I watch but I end up making mistakes because I look at what the person is holding up! Who knew I would become addicted to Flosstube! 

Plans for October? Get back to stitching two Christmas ornaments, keep stitching on Moon, maybe maybe pick up a WIP. I have had 20 some odd finishes this year so I feel like I can take it easy on finishing more WIPs.

Okay now I'm going! I want to say Welcome to those who have joined via Blogger and Bloglovin'. Glad to have you! Take care, y'all!