Stuff

How's everyone doing? Good I hope. We have more fall-like weather here, finally!

I've been busy so get comfy! I have progress, a finish, FFO's, and experiments! Picture heavy.

Progress first: I'm still in the Christmas mode and decided to stitch on two of my bigger Christmas WIPs-Christmas Carol Sampler by the Primitive Hare and Christmas Garden by BBD. I have been stitching on the Primitive Hare piece every waking moment! I love this thing; I stitch on it in the morning before work, stitch on it in the evening before bed, on the weekends sometimes to midnight!, etcetera, etcetera! Here it is..

That top border is where it stops and it's almost a foot long! A biggie for sure. On the left border, count 7 more flower thingees down and that's where it'll end. The bottom border is more of the brown flowers matching up with the length of the top. I love that lamp post, btw, very Victorian England. I'm using the Old Salem linen that Isobel the designer makes and sells, 30ct. What you see above is almost half of the design. Love it! I'll continue stitching on this to the end of this month. Here is what this looked like before...

So yeah, lots of stitching going on.

December 1st is Christmas Garden's time in the snaps. Here is what progress I had before...

I'm looking forward to stitching on this. Both projects won't be finished for this Christmas but I know that Christmas Carol will be finished in January or February. Love affair!

My other Christmas piece I was working on in the last post, Vixen at Crow Creek by Pamela Dervarits is done and dyed...

Coffee dyed and then baked for a bit. I love how it turned out. I didn't want to go too dark but I'm happy with the coloring. I'm not sure how I'll FFO this, try a flange pillow using Vonna's tutorial, or frame it.

Another finish I have is this ornament found in the 2010 JCS ornament issue...

Stitched on 36ct something linen, it's a nice size. I left off the bottom border that looks like the zig zag one on the right. Very pretty colors.

I have two FFOs, stitching that was finished last year..

This is fleur d'orleans by Ink Circles. I just closed it up yesterday and tried to sew on a thick purple chenille trim but it wasn't happening. I'll go back to gluing! (Carol!!) The backing fabric is a batik in the colors of orange, yellow, and purple. I'm in a pillow mood lately. 

The next one is found in one of the Primitive Punchneedle and Stitching magazine (I don't think that is the correct name but I think most of you know what it is). It's designed by The Snowflower Diaries...

Is that cute or what? At the last moment I added that big fabric flower that I found in a package of two for $1.00 at Walmart. Such a beautiful sentiment. The back fabric is the same as that bit at the right.

My contest entry for Simona of Mani di Donna's FB contest is finished and FFO'd...

I don't think anyone at the contest page knows I have a blog so here it is. I sewed on the sparkly and hairy trim. I stuck a little sticky rhinestone on the front for a star but I feel like it needs something else. It's too late to stitch in some snowflakes. I'm thinking of buying the Mill Hill metal snowflakes and add a few. I don't want to overdo the sparkle though! The backing fabric is so pretty and I made sure to have the Cardinal right in the middle. Our submission photo to the contest needs to happen on the 21st of December so I have time to decide on snowflakes or not.

See the fabric right above that the ornament is sitting on? That's my experiment. I have a PSS chart called Farmstead Christmas and on FB I saw a stitcher had stitched it on a PTP fabric called Cauldron and I thought it looked great! I decided to dye a piece of Edinburgh linen to look somewhat like the Cauldron...

I 'borrowed' this picture from FB. I knew I needed gray and orange RIT dye to look like the above. Here's my version...

This is a fat half and the pattern should only take up half of this fabric. It turned out great but just a tad darker than the Cauldron. I know I'll have to change out some of the floss colors for this but I want to   start this after the Christmas Carol Sampler is done. 

I also dyed this piece of Monaco, not sure of the count. I measured it and it comes out to 30ct but it may have been 32 with some shrinkage. I baked both pieces also...

I named them Bruise! The fabric was white while the linen above was cream. Not much difference in the dyed color. Walmart didn't have orange so I bought a red and yellow to make orange. The colors are Graphite, Racing Red and Daffodil yellow in liquid RIT. It was so much fun to dye. I got the idea of how to do it from two flosstubers-Yany Novoa and Leticia (Crafty Curator).

I had a question from Bonnie on the last post about ruching ribbon. Bonnie, I used Vonna the Twisted Stitchers tutorial here- http://tts-learntofinish.blogspot.com/2012/02/rusched-ribbon.html

The ribbon I used is just one ribbon, not two. Sewing the running stitch onto this kind of ribbon was hard as it's an open weave. A running stitch on a ribbon like grossgrain and those with solid material would be better. Then I sewed it onto the side seam of the pillow. Be sure to use thread for your running stitch that matches your ribbon. 

Thanks for hanging around to the end because here is the fun part! A giveaway to celebrate my 7 year  blogging anniversary! Two 123stitch gift certificates for $35 each to spread the cheer instead of a big $70 one although it would be fun to spend that on stitchy stuff, right?! I started this blog on the 21st of December 2010. Two rules: you must be a follower and you must mention in the comments that you would like a chance at a gift certificate by December 9 at 11:59 pm Arizona time. You'll have time to 'buy' yourself stitching gifts for Christmas! You can be from anywhere in the world and hopefully you have an email address because 123 announces that you have one waiting for you by email. Good luck to you all! 

I believe this is it. Thanks for stopping in and leaving comments, I read them all.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the U.S. I am going to the home of my daughters boyfriends parents for Thanksgiving this year but still cooking a small turkey breast when I get home for turkey sandwiches and turkey and black bean enchiladas, yummy! To everyone else, have a super stitchy week! 

See you all in December!