Dancing with Jack, a finish, and more

Hi all! Hope the weather has been forgiving for you where you're at. Here in the Southwest it has been an oven. Where I live, at 5120 ft. elevation, we went maybe 5 days at over 100 degrees or over. It went to 103 this past Tuesday. I think yesterday the heat caught up with me at work as I started feeling shaky and lightheaded and clammy. I almost came home but I took it easy and drank more water. At least it hasn't been Phoenix-like where flights were canceled because of the extreme heat. I think I can speak for all Arizonans that our monsoon season can't come soon enough but not the humidity! Can't be happy at all!

So I have a huge, Huge, HUGE finish! Not in size but in the 1 over 1, and the amount of motifs and people in a small space- Jack's Bash!

I just love this! It's not the biggest piece I have ever finished but just the amount of flowers, people, alphabets, it's the busiest I've finished. Once I sat down to tackle the verse, it went fast. I couldn't say how many hours it took but I worked on it 4 evenings in a row for maybe 2 or 3 hours in between laundry, washing dishes, etc. The grass under the couple really took longer than the verse! In the end, it was all worth it, a real piece of art and I'm glad it is finished! 

I also had this small finish, Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin by Twisted Threads..

The color of the fabric is as close as I could get it. I'm either going to attempt a flat-fold on this or just a flat ornament. I have an Autumn fabric that will look real nice with this. 

This brings my finishes for 2017 to 15 with the more important ones being Jack's Bash and Blackwater Hollow by Stacy Nash. Also, my WIP count has gone down, yippee! From 31 in December to 27 as of now. 

I have two new starts and I can blame the recent weather for these!

Ah, Beau Leggy, squatting over that Cholla cactus. I'm using a Tarnish fabric, don't know the maker, in 28 or 32ct. When our monsoon rolls in, our skies will look like that, dark, gray stormy clouds. With the moon and stars out, this cowboy is out roping at night, looks like. I made some changes though. The model has Beau wearing a purple hat. Nope, I changed the hat to brown. He is wearing leather gloves so I left them that color. The rope got a change of color too. I will probably change his boots to another color also. Pretend my needleminder is a coyote!

My other start is this..

I only have the two lines of stitching done above Santa Claus so not worth a picture. I was in the mood for Lizzie Kate and something to put me in a cool mood!

I have finished my piece for the Christmas in July exchange hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. It's so cute if I say so myself. I have found Christmas fabric, an ornament and now just need to track down Christmas candy. I found a website called the Candy Warehouse and they sell Christmas candy. Although it's Winter down under, if I send chocolate, it will become a melty mess just from here to Phoenix! So that's a no go. If you should see this, Leonie, the package will be on its way after July 6th. I can't wait to see what I receive from Nadine!

On my last post, Cricket-bug commented that if you do 1 over 1 more frequently, it will become easier. I believe this because once I got down to the last two lines of verse on Jack, it went fast and wasn't so painful. Barb, are you listening?! Or rather, reading?! Haha. It's like giving birth, lol. You swear you're never getting pregnant again and once that baby comes, you forget what you just went through! Lol.

Stitchinowl/Carolyn said in response to Thirteen Owls by PSS being hard to find that she didn't know that. After that, I thought I would search for it on eBay. I didn't find it but was amazed to see that people are buying charts, PSS specifically, that cost more than 123Stitch or Stitching Bits and Bobs offer, if you're willing to wait for the latter! On FB and Stitch Maynia, there are posts by stitchers who don't know of these ONS's and are doing the Dimensions kits and such that are found at the chain craft stores. On the Plum Street Samplers FB page, sometimes you get stitchers who ask where to get a certain chart. I can't quite remember when I discovered these ONS's myself but it sure opened up a whole new world! I too was buying from eBay. 

If you made it this far, good on you because I'm giving away the little Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin chart. It's in good condition. I will mail in the U.S. and overseas too. Just comment that you would like to have it. Follower or otherwise, open to all. I will draw names on the 4th of July if there is more than 1 person wanting it.

I believe that's it! I will continue to stitch on the Lizzie Kate and Beau. I have some quick stitches in the queue that I would like to do, Halloween and Christmas stuff. I have some FFO'ing I want to do today or tomorrow. As I'm typing this, I'm trying to decide what to get at the grocery store. Multi-tasker here! A plus side to these hot temps is your appetite gets killed off. My soda consumption goes down because the only thing good is ice water. So I can't think of a single thing that sounds appetizing. Hmm.

Here's wishing a wonderful, patriotic 4th of July to those of you in the U.S. We will be watching a parade and fireworks along with the rodeo. A happy stitching day and week to those who aren't in the U.S. Take care!

PSS worship or Progress and stash!

Hello everyone! 

Where is the time going?! The 20 days since I last posted have gone by so quickly!

I guess I'll show you some progress. Here is Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin..

I forget what the name of the fabric is-Sea foam, Sea green? Oh, Saltmarsh! What I have left is to fill out the rest of the pumpkin in Orange.

I picked up the Halloween SAL when I got bored with Jack's Bash and whatever else I had going..

All I had last time was the bottom half. I'm doing this 1 over 2 on 32ct but I swear to you this is a higher count fabric like 35 or 36. Maybe it is 32ct but shrunk some in the dyeing process. I could go to Ship's Manor and look up the info but I'm too lazy! I am now behind 1 month. The above is the May portion. I'm paid up for the rest of the SAL so no problem there.

As I mentioned above, I was stitching on Jack and tackling the 1 over 1, whew! Barb, it's pretty intense and I still have a ways to go! Here's Jack's Bash from PSS..

Hope it's not blurry on your side. I added the grass under the left side urn, the small flowers scattered there and about, the urn on the right, Jack's cane, and a bit of grass under him and the missus. The big thing is the verse. In keeping with times of old, Paulette has the 'S' looking like an F. So what looks like ruft is actually rust. And then wouldn't you know, I run out of GAST Raven for the verse! Aargh. 123stitch came to the rescue and since I can't buy just a skein of floss, I threw in a PSS chart that I show below! Haha! Since the chart was on a 5-7 days mailing time, I had to wait and just received it today. After I publish this post, I will be back with Jack, yay.

I thought I would show you what I do with multi-page patterns!

Yup! I tape them all together! At first I print out a working copy and copy the rest as I move along. A flosstuber was showing her big taped together pattern and I said hey, I do the same thing!

Speaking of the 123 order, here's that chart..

There's my Raven floss and this chart. I saw this stitched up on Stitch Maynia and the person used PTP Cauldron for the fabric and it looked great. I wouldn't have thought to use a Halloween sounding fabric for a Christmas design but there it is. Stitch Maynia can be dangerous at times!

But that's not all the new stash, I bought these charts elsewhere..

The Cricket Collection charts were from Stitching Bits and Bobs, where it took 6 or 7 weeks for back order. I knew it would take some time so I wasn't worried. The two bottom charts from a FB selling group. The hard to find Thirteen Owls by PSS and this snowy chart which I thought would look great on some kind of dyed fabric with sparkly floss for the northern lights. I'm still in the black on Stitch from Stash because of my finishes but I won't join for the second half of SFS though.

So I got bored with all the above and started something new! Salem Hornbook by PSS..

The fabric is Vintage Lentil from Lakeside. I had to add some color to the fabric because it was making the border stitches and outline of the house, church and people look awful. As I only have a Keurig that uses those K cups, I used Starbucks Iced Coffee on it! I can live with the fabric now.

I managed to have an FFO too..

I am so out of ideas on what to top these cubes with! Haha. Those are pom poms on top. Cubes seem to be my go to finish. What I would like to do is do a drum finish. I have a stitched Stacy Nash drum design ready but I just chicken out! I have two designers who explain it on charts but it's not enough. Maybe there is a YouTube tutorial out there somewhere.

Like a crazy person, I joined a different kind of exchange. This one is with Kaye from Kitten Stitching, Christmas in July. Everyone's partners have been chosen and I luckily have been teamed up with two bloggers. How cool! I am sending to Stitching Noni, I'm sure you all know who she is, and I am receiving from Jocondine. Nadine has visited this blog and I have watched all of Noni's Flosstube videos. I know what Noni likes but that didn't stop me from going through most of my JCS ornament magazines. I forgot her Christmas likes and started an ornament just to find it was going to be too big. So I started the pattern on 36ct fabric and just remembered the subject matter was not something she favorited! So now I have two started ornaments on two different size fabrics! Guess what? I will finish them and maybe give one away in a giveaway. I went back and found a pattern for her and stitched that baby up in a couple days. The deadline is the end of July! The early bird gets the worm! All I need to do now is buy some black beads for French knots and a few other supplies, along with Christmas candy, a Christmas ornament, and Christmas fabric to wrap all the above up with. It's a fun exchange. Thanks Kaye!

Alrighty! This will be it. If you made it this far, good for you. Barb, you have every right to be scared of the 1 over 1 on Jack's Bash! I get started on the verse and then go stitch in more grass. I'm keeping my sanity that way. Like everything I have stitched above, there are a few mistakes in Jack but nothing noticeable. The border is matching up so that's a good thing.

Take care everyone!