This is the end, my only friend, the end

Quick, the lyrics in my title are from what song? And from what band or singer? Be the first to guess correctly, leave your guess in comments below, and I'll send you a little something. No hints this time! Oh, and be sure to leave a working email. Good luck! Google is your friend!

We're coming to the end of 2018 and I have a year ending update like I always do. I have been hermitting this weekend as we're dealing with a cold snap in these here parts. Yesterday, Phoenix was actually colder than many locations on the east coast! According to the weather guys, this happens every couple or three years. When my daughter and I were in New Orleans in February of 2016, Terri from Phoenix who comments on this blog, said it was pretty cold with high temps in the 50s. By Phoenix standards, that is cold. Here, our lows are stuck in the teens. So I bought groceries Friday after work and only left the house yesterday to go check mail. 

Let's get started!

As usual, here's progress on Christmas Garden by BBD..

I have made my way into the middle section! I took it out of the snaps to take this picture and decided I needed a break! So I'm stitching on something else for these last couple of days. I will pick Garden back up sometime in January for its week long stitching.

Here are 6 old WIPs, along with Garden, that I will stitch once a week starting Jan. 1..

Poor thing, I only stitched that much and never went back to it! I need to do a better job of centering as I will be getting a little close on that right border. I've seen this finished with the bottom portion left off but I will stitch the whole thing...Next...

Promise Me by LK. This was a Crazy January start that I never went back to. It will be for my daughter. 

Early Witches by the Primitive Hare. I'm pretty sure this will be a 2019 finish. Next..

Those of you who have followed me for awhile should recognize this project. It's a Praiseworthy Stitches design in the Jan/Feb 2011 JCS magazine. It's a biggie. I have a big lap stand that I found at a second hand store for $8 and I'll use it for WaBH ^. I also have a bigger qsnap that this might fit on too so I'll have to check. I still have all the floss for this in that baggie. I like Praiseworthy Stitches but they like specialty stitches a lot and I avoid them like the plague. This design has a few specialty stitches but it's not bad. I'm determined to get to the halfway point on this.

And last but not least is A Bee in Your Bonnett by Summerhouse Stitchworkes..

Here is what the model looks like. I don't have the chart anymore. It's way too pretty to abandon.

So that's my WIP plans for the first 4 months of 2019. I say 4 months because I just might, might, do Maynia in May again! All new starts again, every day maybe. I was watching a flosstuber who was talking about Maynia and that she hates to see all her stash sitting on the shelf not being stitched and I agree. Who knows, I may decide that stitching on my WIPs is more fun than new starts. It's a vicious cycle!

I stashed again but these don't count because they're Christmas presents to myself!

Would you just look at this Goode Huswife design! I saw that and I jumped right on it. It's from her etsy site. At $16 it's more than I usually spend on a brand new chart but it's a beauty and I will definitely start that in 2019. On the right is this Barbara Ana Halloween design that I've been pining away for. Chart only $4 new on a FB destash group. They average out to $10 per chart. It feels better thinking of it that way!

So I had 21 finishes for the year! I had small, medium, and large for me, finishes. Here are 4 of the bigger ones..

and the tribal rooster..

The tribal rooster is shiny because I didn't take him out of the portfolio that I keep for my finishes. I would really like to have these all framed. My portfolio is full of other framed wannabees too! They'll have to get in line. That is a goal for 2019, to get things framed that deserve to be. 

I had a recent finish that I never showed..

From a Hands On Design freebie. It'll be a pillow.

I had another FFO..

Another flange pillow using Vonna's video tutorial. Thanks Vonna. It's such an adorable design and fits right in with the prim Christmas style that I like. I used the red and white twine for the bow and picks up the red door of the tiny house and those red stitches under Vixen.

Here's my 2019 reading pile!

I have already begun the top book and I'm halfway through it. The Windhaven Plantation series are old and published around the 70s maybe, following descendants from an immigrant from France who established a plantation in Alabama. It's fiction. There are several books, 14 of them and the one above is number 10. The next one I'll have to find as I don't have it. This makes it the 3rd rereading of the series.

I like historical fiction and the middle two thinner books are set in historical times. The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first of a series about a young lady who befriends Sherlock Holmes in his retirement and he becomes her reluctant 'teacher' in investigating. I like anything Sherlock Homes! The Tea Planters Wife is a mystery where things are not as they seem. She learns things about her husband while living with him on his tea plantation in the Indies. Sounds interesting.

And of course the Outlander. Diana Gabaldon has said that 2019 could be when the next book is published so I'm rereading them and A Breath of Snow and Ashes is next. It takes me more than a month to read these thick books. It never used to be this way! I read a page and then get drowsy!

So that's it for the update. We had a Merry Christmas, hope you had one too. My brothers couldn't make it, one was sick and the other was having some minor car troubles. So I went to my daughter's place and had Christmas there. She loved the Grinch ornaments I made her and the bunting. Her style is the Farnhouse look so the bunting fit in perfectly. She has watched the newer Grinch 20-some odd times since Thanksgiving! Told you she loves the Grinch! Here's a picture of my granddog Hunter dressed for the occasion..

He's such a ham! You can put all sorts of stuff on this dog and nothing bothers him!

Well, I believe this is it, the End. I want to thank you all for riding along with me the entire year. I am going to try my best next year to show up more here on the blog. No SALs for me in 2019 since I'm such a failure at them. I have joined some SALs that are listed in Stitch Maynia and they are stuff like stitch on something with words or that are a certain color. Pretty doable. I am doing the usual 2 exchanges with Dixiesamplar that I like, the Easter/Spring and the fall/Halloween ones. Maybe throw another in with the destash group whose admin likes to do exchanges. We'll see!

Here's wishing you all a healthy, happy, stitchy and just a Happy New Year!

Happy Blogaversary!

Yes, it's my 8th year of blogging! Well, yesterday it was! Unfortunately, I had to shelve my blogaversary giveaway plans. Sorry about that but I do have a birthday coming up soon and maybe I'll do something for that. This birthday is freaking me out. I'm turning 55. There was only one other birthday where I wasn't feeling it and that was my 30th. I'm pretty sure life will go on after 55 but for now I will just...freak out!

I thought I would start out responding to comments:

Jessica said that Mill Hill kits make her nervous! Well, in looking at mine that I mentioned last post, I'm confused about all the beads that are needed and that they're all mixed together! I hope I'm easy on the perforated paper too.

Honeybee, I will get to stitch these upcoming days as I have a 5 day weekend and I only work 

  Wednesday night at my 2nd job during those 5 days. So I'm pretty excited about that.

Denise Brown, I hope you see this. I wasn't sure if you wanted the giveaway fabric from the last post. If you did, it's yours. Let me know in a comment below.

I spent the whole afternoon today running the glue gun and the sewing machine and just came out for air. It's too dark to do anymore crafting anyway. It's 6:37pm as I type. I have FFO's to show, some stash, an upcoming project, and a frog visit. Here we go:

Progress and reverse progress on Christmas Garden! Frog came to visit..

I had to rip out the green vine and the flowers there on the right because I had miscounted up at that last rose bud where I turned the corner. I assume it's a rose bud. It took me a couple hours to take it all out! What you see is the re-stitched vine. Had a bit of progress on the flowers and leaves that are to the right of the deer. You know, in looking at what I have on Christmas Garden right now, I could just finish the flowers and vine and that gold border and call it a day! A stand alone sampler! Nah, I have to do the whole thing. I'll get started back to stitching on it tonight or tomorrow.

Remember the Grinch ornaments I was making for my daughter for Christmas? They're done!

I was waiting on batting to finish the last 2. I use cotton batting on both sides. I love how they turned out! In the older animated the Grinch, the announcer, whom it so happens is Boris Karloff, describes the Grinch as Stink Stank Stunk. I found the red and white twine in Joanne's (might've been Hob Lob) and bought the grinch fabric on etsy. I cut the fabric so I could center the characters in the middle on the back. Love my glue gun! Sharon/Daffycat, thank you for designing this freebie. I knew when I saw it that I had to stitch up several for my daughter. If you're interested in this freebie, go to Daffycat blog and scroll down to find it. I think she showed it on her blog the earlier part of this year. She will email you a copy.

Stash! 

I bought the Quaker House Samplers from a destashing group on FB. I'm more interested in the top design with the Quaker motifs. On the left, I saw someone on Stitch Maynia had stitched Baaah Humbug up and I had to have it! Calico Confectionary is on etsy but I swear I bought the PDF from an etsy needlework shop. My memory really stinks sometimes. 

Then just today I received this fabric for this chart..

The fabric is Ice Goddess by Fabrics by Stephanie. On FB, a stitcher showed her progress of the swans on that fabric. Here is what hers' looks like..

Isn't that beautiful? I did a search for the chart and found one at the House of Stitches. I forgot how much the chart was, something like $11 or $13. You can bet I will be starting this sometime next year! 

Since I was running the sewing machine, thought I would flange-pillow a finish I had. Put on Vonna's video tutorial and only got so far before it got just too dark to work anymore..even with two lights on!

Tomorrow I will finish this. Next time you'll see it in better light.

While I was watching Vonna, I took apart a pillow that I FFO'd a couple or 3 years ago...

Yes, I pull threads on the linen for straighter sewing and finishing. I used that awful polyfil on this back before Vonna mentioned the polyloft that is so much better, trust me. I think this might be a Threadwork Primitives design. I'll stuff it with the good stuff and I might flange-pillow it too.

I think that's all I had! I still have a just a little gift buying yet to do. My brothers are headed this way Christmas morning. We're pretty informal when it comes to Christmas. We snack throughout the day. This year we're having pork chili and chicken green chili tamales with fruit salad and Russian Tea cakes or as I call them Mexican Wedding cookies. These cookies have lots of names. You may know of them,  the dough is mixed with chopped pecans, baked, and then rolled in powdered sugar a couple times. Delicious! Can't wait!

Take care everyone! Wishing you a very..

and Happy Holidays to all!!

A Post!

I had no idea for a title so we're just gonna run with it!

How are you all doing? Fine I hope. Here we are, 10 days away from Christmas, unbelievable! I have a few things to show-progress, exchange goodies, new stash, and more. So let's go...

Back in November, I finished Trick or Treat before Thanksgiving. The few days between then and the end of that month I picked up Do You See What I See by Shelly Auen. As some or most of you know, that Christmas carol is my favorite. So here's the before..

And now the after..

I got the whole tree in with the snow on the branches. What remains is snow on the ground, a girl and deer that are looking at the star. I have decided that I'm going to stitch everything that has the lyrics to the carol on it! That should be fun.

On December 1st, Christmas Garden was fished out of the WIP tub and put on the snaps. Here's the before..

And the after..

Not bad, huh? I'm not stitching on the days that I work my 2nd job (too exhausted to even stitch) but stitch the other days. I said I wanted to have this top portion done by the end of this month and I think I'll get it. I still don't like the fabric but oh well. This sampler is 15 1/2" across; biggest project I've ever stitched! I know people have done various things to the bottom. I think Barb/Wicked Stitcher just added an alphabet but I didn't check to be sure. I'll figure something out when I get there which may be way in the depths of 2019! I'll keep stitching on this and onto the first week of January. The second week will be another old WIP that gets its turn on the snaps. The end of this month I'll have pictures of the old WIPs up that I will stitch a week each in the new year. 

Last week my exchange partner and I received our goodies for Christmas. She lives in Pennsylvania. Here is what I sent Jona..

Yep, I FFO'd Kringle's Coal into a flat ornament. I also added chocolate, the PS cards, floss cards, and the necklace. Amazingly, the box I packed reached her in 3 days!

Jona sent all this to me..

I already ate a small bag of Lindor truffles up as of this picture! I'm pretty excited to stitch up one of the LK sled patterns. The ornaments are on the tree. Thanks, Jona. Exchanges are so much fun.

New stash!

After seeing so many people doing the Mill Hill kits, I thought What the Heck! I will too. The pear is so pretty and sparkly. Many moons ago I used stitch the Mill Hill buttons and bead kits. The Lucy Beam patterns were bought during Black Friday and the PS cards were bought from a resale group. 

Is anyone familiar with Long Dog samplers? I like her designs but they're so large. Take a look at what is being released soon..

A sampler devoted to dogs chasing squirrels! So beautiful, I'm thinking of picking it up. I have cats but I do have a granddog named Hunter. Lots of motifs on this design such as crowns, and it has an old English vibe to it. Stay tuned!

Last Saturday, I made Christmas Tree bunting from a tutorial from Bloglovin. I made this one for a coworker who is a horse ranch manager, hence the red horseshoe tree at one end..

Took me just an hour or so to cut, sew, stuff, and attach to the fabric ribbon. I have to make one for my daughter and one for me. They look cute hung up.

You have now arrived to a couple giveaways! No this is not the blogaversary giveaway. That'll happen next week! I have two items to giveaway. The fabric I was sent by mistake from a seller instead of the 32ct that I like. The chart from an online seller as an extra, appreciative all the same, that I know I won't stitch. See below..

The words say Life is a Treat as sweet as can be cause I live on a branch in a cupcake tree. (I would love to live in a cupcake tree full of red velvet cupcakes). Chart is from Raise the Roof.

The fabric is a 28ct Cameo Rose cashel linen 6" x 12"

The usual rule applies-be a follower either through Bloglovin or Google blogs. I will mail to anywhere in the world. In comments below, let me know which you are interested in or if you are interested in both. I will draw names for each item. Contest ends December 21st 2018 at 9pm Arizona time. 

So for the rest of this month I will continue with Christmas Garden. I'll be back on the 22nd with the giveaway surprise and winners of the fabric and chart. But use this post for the fabric and chart giveaway.

After Christmas I'll have my year-end update with all the usual stuff I talk about! That means 3 posts for this month.

Gotta go. I have to get ready for a work Christmas party tonight. Take care and thanks for stopping in!

Happy Dance!

Hi all! Long time no see. Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, those of us in the U.S. I cooked our usual traditional dinner. I might do a ham next year. A coworker and his family did a seafood Thanksgiving with lobster, crabs, and whatever goes with all that. Another coworker did all Mexican food. I guess it doesn't matter what food you have as long as you're all together with your loved ones, whether that be another person or a whole house full!

The cross stitching blues continued on and off the first 3 weeks of November. When I felt like stitching, I grabbed what was near me at my stitching spot and that was Trick or Treat. The work below is from the last 4 days as I felt the joy of stitching come back. I just finished adding the beads for the cats eyes and the jabco cauldron button and it is DONE!

I used the called for 32ct vintage Winter Sky Belfast from Lakeside Linens and all the called for overdyed floss. The picture is a bit wonky. It sure is cute! Finally, I did not run out of floss! The house took a lot of time with that spider web on the right side just put in this morning. I may add a bat button or two to the sky above the kids. That space below the porch of the house kind of bugs me though. This is from Praiseworthy Stitches and they use a lot of specialty stitches in their designs. See the lighter red/pink 'bricks' in the house? Those are supposed to be Kloster Blocks but to me they are like satin stitches. Couldn't get why the blocks when satin stitches sufficed. I tried to follow how the spider web was graphed but I ended up just doing my own thing. I really like how the cats eyes glow. 

Here is how Trick or Treat looked October 13th..

Yay! Funny, my last post I was saying I was getting a bit tired of Halloween stitching and here I finish this!

Trick or Treat was the only stitching I had since Halloween. I'm always stitching so this dry spell has me wondering what's going on. I also picked up a 2nd job and sometimes I get home at 7 or even 10 so that has put a huge dent in my stitching time. 

It's crunch time for me to finish a gift to my daughter, 6 Grinch ornaments that say Stink Stank Stunk so I picked up a Grinchy fabric on etsy along with a pretty Christmas tree fabric..

Haha, that is so cute! The fabric I stitched on matches the Grinch's face. I need more mat board because they will be hanging flat ornaments. My daughter is putting up her tree next weekend so I need to get my crap together and work on them.

Today I hit up Joanne's for their sales. I was after fabric, Halloween and Christmas. True to character, I bought more Halloween fabric than Christmas!

Not only will I use these as backing fabric for future Halloween ornaments, but I have ideas stewing in my head for next year. 

Here's a few Christmas fabrics plus fat quarters which were only .79 cents..

I also picked up a few Halloween sale items for next years Halloween exchange.

That is the gist of my stitching!

However, I have plans for December! On the 1st and running the entire month, I am stitching on Christmas Garden by BBD and here is what I have right now..

Last worked on December 30 2017. I would like to get the whole right side in and begin the middle section. I also want to stitch on a winter piece in December.

For 2019 though I've decided to work on old WIPs for 6 months or maybe the whole year. Christmas Garden will be one and will continue to be stitched January 1. My last post of December I'll reintroduce the old WIPs that I will work on for one week each. No new starts for me in 2019!

I have an exchange piece due in Pennsylvania the first week of December. I need to FFO the ornament and I'm awaiting a few things I ordered off Etsy as extras. So I'm headed to Hob Lob tonight for mat board. I don't know but along with the stitchy blues, it's been hard to get motivated. So I need to light a fire underneath my butt and just do it!

Not a long log post by any means but I do feel my stitchy bug coming back. December 21st is my 8th year of blogging and I'm sure I'll have a giveaway. It'll probably be gift cards again as last time I had a giveaway with charts, fabrics, and goodies, one of the winners never got her stuff until January! Tis the season for postal service slowdown. So be sure to look for that. I will come back to post again the 2nd week of December as I'll have FFOs, and exchange goodies to show....I think!

Thanks for stopping in and visiting! See you all in December!

Happy Halloween!

Hi all! This late in the evening I imagine the trick or treating is over in your neighborhood. We don't get trick or treaters on my street and all my neighbors except for a young family next door are older and kids have flown the coop.

I have FFO's, and spooky progress to show. I haven't stitched much in the last week. Stitching mojo took a hiatus! 

Let's do progress first..Early Witches by the Primitive Hare..before..

And after..

Tituba the witch is halfway done. I changed her skin color from black to DMC 869, as I like to call it, cafe au lait. I will be putting this away for a bit.

Thistles and Spells Pinkeep from Stacy Nash..before..

And now..

I ran out of the black which is WDW Kohl and GAST Apple Cider for the border and the big plant in the middle. Yup. I usually am able to raid a kitted project for needed floss but not this time. I did have the Apple Cider but it does not match what I have stitched. If I had all the floss I needed this would have been finished! So I'll get the floss and set this aside too.

Truth be told, I'm ready to move on as I have been stitching Halloween all month long except for this last week. 

However, I caught the FFO bug last weekend! Here is Winnie the Witch, an extra with the Spooked Mystery Sampler from LK..

Next to Winnie is the freebie from Hands on Designs, just a simple little pillow. Winnie is a flat ornament that is trimmed with black and orange bakers twine and also as the hanger.

I finally FFO'd Wicked from Barbara Ana..

I finished this a year or two ago so it needed to be an FFO. Look at the poison label I used to cover the opening on the back..

This next one I'm really happy with. It's one of those Postcards from The Heart projects from the Summerhouse Stitcheworks where you stitch the design then mount it on a burlap covered wood frame and add all sorts of trinkets and what not. This one is the Halloween one..

The design is on 40ct. I had no idea what to do with this one! Once I cut the fabric to go under the stitched piece, I knew what I was going to do. I had the orange and black flower trim there on the left and glued that on and just went from there. On the sides I glued on a ribbon..

I just love it! Sometimes less is more, you know!

I also bought polyfil to finish stuffing this..

It's cute as a button! I backed it with the red horseshoe fabric..

I could not find the Mountain Mist fiberloft that Vonna swears by at Joanne's like I did last time. I was not about to buy the cheaper stuff because to me, it does not stuff good. It doesn't stay in the corners and all those little fibers stick thru my fabric. So I took a look at the other types and found one that was identical to Mountain Mist. I opened a little hole in the plastic to have a feel and it felt like the good stuff!

So what are the plans for the rest of the year? Well, I have an exchange piece that needs to arrive the first week of December out to Pennsylvania. I have two stitched Christmas ornaments that are not FFO'd so I could use one of those. A good thing too because I'm not sure if my stitching mojo will come back! I decided not to join in on Terri/Dixie Samplars latest exchange. The 1st of December I would like to stitch on BBD Christmas Garden and maybe get a few more Christmas ornaments stitched. As I type this I'm just not feeling it! Yikes. Maybe if I watch some flosstube I'll get some inspiration. We shall see.

I think that's it! It is 10:51 pm and I'm ready to hit the sack. Thanks for stopping by! Take care!