Winner, winner, exchange goods, and more

Hello hello! Fall is on its way and I couldn't be more happy! Yesterday, it hit 91 degrees, ugh.

First order of business, thank you for your kind words on the passing of my aunt Teresa. She was laid to rest yesterday after a very nice, and sad service. Thanks.

Second piece of business- Diana, you are the winner of the La D Da chart Yellow Bird! I think I have your address somewhere so let me look for it before I email you for it. Congrats! Diana, turns out I do need your address so if you would email me at.......I will get the chart out to you.

Thursday night my exchange package arrived, Woohoo! Here it is..

Hope it's not too blurry. The chocolate kisses were gone within minutes! Love it all. I love ceramic pumpkins so that was nice. I'm really excited to start the new PSS chart and the PSS pillow is wonderful. Trims are always welcome here and the Halloween kitchen towel and socks are jump starting my decorating for my favorite holiday. Take a look at this tiny pincushion Sue sent...

It's in an antique salt cellar. I don't know what they were used for but the whole thing is wonderful. Sue doesn't know I have a blog but Thank You Sue for the great exchange goodies! 

So my SAL that I have going on has gotten derailed for a bit. To tell the truth, I can't even remember when I stitched and didn't! The struggle is real! I have a journal with all my starts and WIPs and I WAS writing down dates of when I stitched on something but quit around last Tuesday, 9/11. My dad also died 11 years ago on that date so I think the anniversary of his passing and the terrorist attack kind of put me in a funk. But today is a new day and all the sad has been taken care of.

Onto the Linda SAL! Thanks Linda for letting me use your name for the SAL. I took one day to finish up a couple small stitchings and will show those down below. Here is a Christmas ornament...

This freebie has been in my freebie file for quite awhile. I'm using the colors called for but using a scrap piece of Ship's Manor fabric 32ct. Sometimes I feel the need to mix things up so I paired this up with the fabric. 

The next piece is...

Yeah, all in Russian! It's by Verbena on etsy. To me, that project looks big. Nope! I stitched it on 32ct PTP fabric and it's just 3" long! 

It's on the left. I don't know what I'll FFO it into. I'm thinking a skinny candy tin to mount it onto or maybe a necklace? Who knows. I used a Belle Soie silk on it called Woolly Bear from my stash and it is pretty with the light and dark brown variegation. On the right is the freebie from Hands on Design, stitched that right up in 3 hours or so. I still need to sew on the metal heart charm on the house. They are the results of my day of finishing.

Okay, this next one I'm asking you all to humor me! Lol. Yup, another Souvenir de France!

But look at how pretty it is going to be! A scrap of the natural gingham which I think is Weeks. It looks perfect next to the rose fabric that Kaye/Kitten Stitching sent with my prize when I won one of her giveaways. The floss is WDW Peony and it really matches the roses in the fabric. It will be a flat ornament.

Alright, that's it. My last post, Rebecca mentioned starting Trick or Treat because I inspired her. She has ordered the floss for it. Yay! Trick or Treat is a WIP I have added into this SAL so once I have worked on my #plumstreetsunday project I'll bring out Trick. 

Thanks for stopping by! I really do appreciate you all!

Catching up

Hello! It is September 8th and I have starts to show for my Bday SAL. Not my birthday SAL but Linda's Bday SAL. Don't want to use your name, Linda, so it's the Bday SAL.

So the first 4 days went well. On Thursday though an aunt died in the morning so no stitching that day. She fought breast cancer 9 years ago and about 6 months ago she was found to have lung and heart cancer. This is the second person I know that fought breast cancer only to have it come back as lung and heart cancer. It's just heartbreaking for all. 

So here we go with my SAL stitching-Tis the Season..

Yep, just a measly start on the 1st. I'm not happy with that green for the leaf. Several times I've gone back and forth with the floss for this project and it is now in time out, haha! I see what everyone is using for their conversions and I'm like oh I like that! I have found good green flosses for the leaves. As for the cardinal, I'm waiting for an order from 123 for Licorice Red CCW.

The 2nd day I stitched my usual Sunday stitch The Merry Hart PSS..

It looks better in person. That C on the right is for Cheerful and under that goldish colored flower under countenance is the house. I'll get back to this tomorrow.

3rd day is this one..

I have had this in my stash for a long time. This reminds me of Winter which I'm looking forward to! Call me crazy but it's supposed to be 90 and 91 today! So the saying says-one who sleeps under a quilt is comforted by love. 

My 4th project is..

Do You See What I See by Shelly Auen. Very primitive and the verse is from my most favorite Christmas carol Little Lamb (I think thats the name). Here is where I am at..

I am so used to stitching 1 over on a high count that my 2 over is feeling bulky. The fabric is 32ct so I could've gone both ways I guess. I like how it's going.

On Wednesday, I started I Bring Thee Joy by Pineberry Lane..

I'm using the called for Tin Roof linen and it will look great. Here's my progress..

Not a whole lot there. It's nice using DMC and not having to worry if I have enough and will dye lots match if I have to buy more. It looks like a lot of stitching from the model picture but looking at the graph, it's do able by Christmas.

Thursday, news of my aunt so no stitching.

Got back on track Friday and with another Hands on Design, this one a freebie..

A cute Halloween freebie on a scrap of linen from a finish earlier this year. 

And today? Another Hands on Design freebie! I Am Home..

I'm not sure what the linen is. I want to finish it just like the little house on the chart. Should be a quick stitch.

Twenty-two more days of new starts/WIPs! I have quite a few freebies in the mix just to get them stitched and the charts out of my freebie file.

It's coming on Go time for the exchange and mailing the package by the 19th. I have time yet and awaiting an order from 123 for floss for the chart I am sending my partner. I need a few other goodies to add also. I thought I would show what I finished for her. I am so proud of it and almost thought of keeping it, haha! I'll make another for myself! Here it is..

Yup, and my first time ever finishing something like this! The design is Black Pumpkin by SubRosa, stitched on a mystery 36ct linen. I can't imagine using a lower count fabric, it would be huge! I think I used 310 DMC. It's a paper mâché box that I painted black, inside and out. Bought scrapbook paper for the inside and top of lid. In the box I glued a black trim around the bottom and used another trim found in the sale section of Hobby Lobby around the edge of the lid. I had that black wire-edged cloth ribbon and attached it to the lid and ruffled it. Here in AZ, people are just barely harvesting Pumpkins and squashes so I didn't think I could find a real squash stump? for the stitched piece. So off to Hob Lob for plastic pumpkins and just cut off a plastic one. It looks kind of real! I hot glued it to the stitched piece and voila! I put rubber footies on the bottom too. Whew! I love how it turned out. I could've done a better job sewing up the opening where I stuffed it but all in all it looks good. I hope she likes it. My partner is Theresa Meloon of Dulaney Woods Treasures, a prim style cross stitch designer! Yikes! I have two of her charts. 

So that's how my week has been going! So far so good on the starts and it's kind of fun going to my bins picking out the new start or WIP to stitch that day.

Well I'm off! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

SAL's and more

Hello everyone! Long time no see. Time has gotten away from me as usual.

As my title says, today is the first day of two SALs that I'm in, the Tis the Season/BBD on FB and Linda/Stitchin with My Furbabies. Linda is celebrating her upcoming birthday with some ideas and I'm doing 31 starts for the month. I hope I can keep up with it!

I also have a near FFO, progress, and some new stash!

Here is Tis the Season by BBD, picture taken off Pinterest. I work from a master copy. This takes care of the FB and Linda's SAL starts...

And my fabric and floss choices..

I'm not using the called for silks but I am using the called for fabric 32ct Pear by Lakeside. I'll stitch in Tis the Season in place of the French. So I have floss pulled for all the other colors but I'm undecided on the color of the Cardinal. In the picture is Country Redwood which is a nice variegated red and I also like Raspberry Parfait which isn't shown. Pictures on 123stitch for country redwood show up different as my skein above. I don't want my Cardinal to be mauve-y but red. So I may buy the skein of country rosewood and if the new skein is a little off I'll just take a strand each from both skeins since I'm doing 2 over 2. 

I will come back to Tis the Season during the month.

I have progress on two projects, Trick or Treat and The Merry Hart..

First is this one. Would you look at that?! I stitch on this for two hours or more for 6 days. There are JABC buttons scattered all over on the model but I plan on only a few bat buttons, a moon, and a purple cauldron placed on the base of the last street lamp. This is so cute! It's part of my Linda SAL so I'll be getting back to this also. Below is where I was before..

Here is my Sunday stitch..

I'll be starting the house real soon!

This FFO I showed before. I was waiting to buy flat pins...

I am still not happy with the decoration on the top but I have added the back and side fabric and the ribbon. I think I'll check out some transparent ribbon in red and green colors for the top.

I also stashed!

These two I bought off one of the resale groups on FB. I hemmed and hawed about the BBD but after I saw how much this was being sold on eBay, I snatched it up for $8 postage included. There are 4 designs in here, one being a reproduction. Then I couldn't pass up these festive moose. I'm seeing a tree covered with Merry Christmooses!

I believe this is my very first Goode Huswife chart. The name threw me off at first with 'Hooked' but it's all stitched. The Chessie and Me is called Scarlett's Christmas Sampler. I had to have it! A simple sampler with lots of Smyrna stitches! That's a given on a Chessie and Me, right? I guess there is hope for me in that I can actually buy a few charts that aren't Halloween or all Christmas!

So delivery day is approaching with the Haunted Harvest exchange and I have finally bought all the supplies to finish the round paper mâché box. I have 3 days off this weekend so I'll be tackling that. I just need a fire lit under my butt! I have mentioned that I'm a procrastinator and it has reared its ugly head in the last couple of weeks for sure. Any other time I would have had the exchange package on its way already but not this time.

If this post sounds disjointed it's because I am disjointed! It was a rough week this past week with plenty to stress about.

So if you made it this far, good for you! Giveaway time! The woman I bought two of the charts from threw this in as a freebie..

Some freebie, right?! I already have it so who would like it? The usual rules, be a follower on Bloglovin and Blogger, comment below you would like it. I can mail anywhere, even overseas. Comment until September 12 at 11:59 pm Arizona time. Good luck!

So I'm guessing that is it. You will be seeing a lot of me on here this month so you may get tired of me! It will be fun starting new projects for a change. I have lots of freebies and some kitted up projects along with a few WIPs to stitch.

Happy Labor Day to those in the U.S. and happy stitching to those not! 

Take care!