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!