More stuff like a new start, FFO's, progress

Hi all. Hope you're all having a great Sunday. I've been busy..

The scene of the crime! I have FFO's that I'll show below. This could be I Spy...can you spot the seam ripper, the bobbinated DMC? Haha.

So I had a new start, one that I planned for 2017. Christmas Carol sampler by the Primitive Hare..

I have to say this border is pretty gnarly! Envision 10 more of the flower motif in the border across the top. It's a biggie. I had to buy another skein of GAST Tarnished Gold for the border and another skein of GAST Moonlit Path, that purplish color that goes around the white M. The new skein of Moonlit Path is a bit different from my old one. So what I'll do is finish up that square with the old one and join strands of the old and new together for the rest of this design. It has been two years this design has been kitted up with that older skein of Moonlit Path. I'll probably pick this back up the end of February.

I had progress on Vintage Stars..

What's new is the dark red motif on the right, the YZ, and the big lighter colored motif below YZ. Unfortunately, I lost the skein of color that goes in the empty spaces of the big motif. How does one lose a silk??! I do, very easily! Considering this has been a WIP for a long time. They're all NPI silks which are cheaper than some of the other silks. At 123, they're $4.49 a skein. Like the sampler at the top, I will get back to this after I stitch an exchange piece.

Yesterday, it finally warmed up around here. This past week, the temps never reached 40 and my craft room/bedroom gets chilly. The sun warmed up my room so it was time to FFO stuff and I have a ton but just two for now. I'm out of stuffing so flat ornaments with foam mounting board it is..

Silent Night by LK. I used two pieces of styrofoam from work. I never had a real idea for this. As you can see, I added as I went..

The backside fabric is brown tiny red flowers. The green plastic leaf at the top was plucked from those Christmas pokey things that you can use on a wreath. Forget what they're called. I almost made this a mini cube, but my rubber footsies are too big, so I stuck some twine in with pins for a hanger. It turned out nice.

Here's HoHoHo, just a tiny little thing but it's cute..

I'm glad I have the fuzzy red trim. Used the pins to secure it. I might make a little bow to put at the top. At this rate, I'll have more ornaments to put on my tree this year!

Stash! Lol. All of this plus the chart from last post are still under my budget at SFS2017A on FB..

The fabric are PTP's. That pink one is Opalescent Fresco and it is soo pretty. A 9x9 piece, perfect for an ornament. The other is Relic at a nice size. The two skeins mentioned above. At Needlework Corner, Drema is having a huge fabric overstock sale and I bought those two pieces above. The Fresco was only $3.75 and you can see the price of the Relic. Go check it out!

I also had two finishes..

Winter Flakes is from the Punch Needle and Primitive Stitch magazine, the 2016 Christmas/Winter issue, and on right is Batty and Friend from Keslyn's. Winter Flakes is on a mystery fabric and it almost didn't fit! It called for 36ct but I think my fabric is 30ct after measuring it. It's a bag in the magazine and I will do that with mine, albeit a big bag!

So that's it with the pictures.

I joined an exchange with Teri at Dixiesamplar and my partner likes sheep, blue, and spring flowers. My shipment in from 123 is on its way. I'll be dropping everything to stitch the design with all three likes on it. I lucked out there! Everything is due the first week of March so I think I'll get it out on time.

Comments on comments left last post:

  Carol- Thanks for the recommendation of The Paradise. I'll will check it out. I watched Hell on Wheels 

     twice! It was great. On Netflix.

  Honeybee- Funny comment! I'm making a trip to Phoenix in March so I'll be sure to stop at a Chick fil 

     A. 

  Paisley- Lucky you for being able to fill up on Chick fil A! 

  Barb- You just got to start Jack's Bash. You'll love it!

Thanks for leaving your comments everyone! Appreciate it!

So my February plans are stitching for that exchange, starting the second block of Frosty Forest, and a piece for a little SAL on FB. It has to do with something funny. I can't find the SAL though. I signed up for it. More important is doing the exchange piece.

Congrats if you made it to here and if you found the two items on my messy craft table!

Take care!

Lots of stuff!

Hi all. Hope the new year is going wonderfully for you! Mine has been stitchingly busy, as you will see below! Photo heavy as Mr. Selfridge plays in the background. Been watching it all day.

I managed to finish one of the new starts I have planned and that is the first block of Frosty Forest

I mentioned The Willow Tree Stitcher's changes to her Frosty Forest. She left off the swag at the top and just added more snowflakes. I liked the look of it but forgot to do it her way. I'm not about to frog all that so it's staying! The one bigger snowflake on the left should be left off if adding buttons and I stitched it in. Oh well, I'll just put the snowflake button on top of it. Buttons will be added at the end. For Stitch from Stash purposes, I will wait until the end for credit. I plan to stitch a block a month. I had no other new starts as of now but plan to here in a couple days.

Back in December, I managed to put more stitches in the LK Spooked sampler..

The last time, all I had was that first portion on the left.

This rotation I planned on didn't pan out! I knew that would happen. Instead I picked up WIPs as they spoke to me. They're the same ones mentioned in my last post and wait 'till you see what I've done with Jack's Bash though! Today I picked up Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas..here's before

Folks, this picture is from 2014! Sheesh.

Here is how she looks now..

Whew, those Quaker motifs take some stitching. I have several master copies of this and couldn't find one so had to print another. I'm having fun stitching on this. It's silk on 35ct.

Another WIP I worked on is Blackwater Hollow sampler by Stacy Nash...here is before..

October 31, 2015 is the last time it saw the light of day. I don't even know what happened to that needleminder! 

After..

I'm not happy with the colors of the flowers, happy with the orange ones though. I saw a recent finish of this on another bloggers post and the leaves are green instead of this brown color I have. She either changed them or my skeins for those flowers are just old but I'll just plug along. The black line is the handle to a black kettle. This deserves to be finished this year. I don't have the chart anymore, been working on a copy. You could say there are 4 pages to this and somehow I have lost or threw out the first two! The area below the cat is unknown and I'll have to fudge it and stick a flower in there! I'm having to stitch that bottom portion just to get to the left side border and stitch up because the missing pages contain the part of the fence! Aargh! Moral of the story-Don't make copies and then lose or throw them out!

And now here's Jack!

And before..

I just love Jack and I got a good amount of work on him. The man is holding a pumpkin but I don't know what the lady has. I thought it was a bee skep but now I think it looks like a squash of some kind! It's done in tent stitch. About tent stitch-I used this stitch for the Happy Hallowe'en at the top but look at the 'ober' at the end of the alphabet, that's a full stitch 1 over 1. Below the house is the verse and I'm not sure if I want to go with tent or a full cross stitch 1 over 1. The full stitch shows up more than the tent stitch but using the tent means I'll fly over the verse! Hmm, what to do. Stay tuned! I'm looking forward to the bottom part with Jack and his lady and two large urns on either side, with flowers. That verse, though..

I bought a chart! I forgot how much but it's still within my budget in Stitch from Stash..

That heart on the top did it for me! I'm really liking her designs as I have one other that is fully kitted, Halloween of course!

I mentioned I joined a month long SAL on FB for Mardi Gras? Here is what I have planned..

What do you all think? Silks on 32ct linen. I keep wavering between this black fabric and white. I plan to stitch the pillow.

Okay one last picture! We don't have a Chick fil A restaurant here. It's a fast food place that offers just chicken and their waffle fries are out of this world. At work we got to talking about them and I decided on a Saturday to hop in my car and drive 80-some miles to a Chick fil A! They have them in Phoenix but didn't feel like messing with the traffic there so I headed north!

The forecast was supposed to be snow here but they cancelled that, no snow or I wouldn't have gone. I'm driving here on Interstate 17 to Flagstaff, where that big mountain is in the distance. I found the place and drove and ate! I came down through Sedona, Cottonwood, and up through Jerome and to home. It was a nice drive, roads were clear. Living the life! Lol.

Alrighty! I'm done and Mr. Selfridge is begging me to change the disc to the next set of episodes. All the stitchy pictures were taken today with, finally, sunny skies. The last few weeks the sun has taken to hiding and finally have had some sun. It's been pretty gloomy around here. 

Plans for my stitching is that new start, finishing a few small things to get that credit in SFS, and continue working on WIPs. I'll try to get on here at the end of this month with hopefully some big finishes. Crossing my fingers! 

Take care!