Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2021

Welcome, welcome to my spooky post for this years Halloween blog hop!

This is Early Witches by the Primitive Hare. It was a mystery SAL if my memory serves me right! By the time I got serious about stitching it, all the parts had been released. I made a few changes to it, very minor ones, like lightening the skin tone of Tituba,and adding a few more pins to the voodoo doll that Marie LeVeau is holding. It's a favorite finish of mine and one day I will frame it!

I've done a little Halloween decorating. My big white jack o lantern with an orange lightbulb inside and my table decor with a few of my FFO'd finishes and my ceramic pumpkins..

Since you're here to collect letters, here it is..

The next scary blog hopper to check out is: http://jocondine.blogspot.com/. I'm sure she has some spooky stitching to show!

Now who is responsible for the Halloween blog hop? Why it's Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher at this link: https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2021/10/halloween-trick-or-treat-blog-hop-2021.html. Be sure to check it out. Bwaahaaa

Here, there, and everywhere!

Hi all! Hope you're all doing well! It's a very overcast day here. We're supposed to get a bit of that boom cyclone weather that's hitting the PNW right now. Hope those of you in the middle of that are dry and safe. It'll be a trickle of boom cyclone by the time it reaches us here in AZ. As for my title, I've been all over with my stitching! I have a finish that wasn't a part of my WIPs, I have progress on two WIPs, and I still have a hankering for starting things! So let's show the finish..this is Winter Gingham by Twisted Threads..

On the called for 28ct Graziano Gingham, the yellowish one. 1 over 1!! Yeppers! It's just a tiny thing but it's all 1 over 1. I had a very hard time stitching the parts that took lots of stitching, the snowman and the house. There may or may not be mistakes in those two parts! The alphabet was easy and I flew over all that. I also had to put a black hat on the snowman, and substituted colors for those I didn't have. It's the cutest little thing ever but I don't know if I will do 1 over 1 on 28ct again! Progress-after I finished Christmas Garden, I chose out of the hat Town of Halloween and put in some good progress..

Last time all I had was the entire left side and over to part of the second house. I put that down and drew another WIP and it turned out to be Winter at Beacon House!

I've stitched in part of the lighthouse and filled in a few places in the sand. My goal is to fill in the snowy areas amongst the alphabet. It's 19 inches long so I've got a ways to go yet.

Yup, that's an FFO in the making! You all better go out and buy lottery tickets because I have 2 more in the queue! It has been a year since I fired up my sewing machine. It's been a rough year so there's that. That's Quaker Boo by the Sampler Girl with everything that is going on it. I bought poly fil yesterday so I can stuff it. Next are 2 ornaments awaiting the same treatment..

Red House in Winter by LHN. All 3 will be pinkeeps. This next one is a Brittercup design..

I have the ribbons picked out for this one. Such Christmas-y colors. I have much more to FFO so stay tuned! That's it folks! I'll be back a week from today as I haved joined Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher for the Halloween blog hop. I am really looking forward to tha! Take care and stay safe and healthy!

Finis!

After stitching in my family's initials clear to midnight last night, I am now officially finished with Christmas Garden!..

Thanks Honeybee for the offer of your skein of Endive, I was able to track down a full skein amongst my WIPs. The lighter gold color on the sampler is CCW Fool's Gold and I ran out of that stitching the last letter of a set of initials. I used a DMC that matched the darker variegation of the floss. Finally I decided to do with the rest of the initials using Calico Kitty since I had quite a bit left over. So what have I learned stitching this huge sampler? The big thing is stitch on a smaller count. When I first started CG 7 years ago, I hated this fabric. It's 30ct French Vanilla, 2 over 2. My stitches were moving the fabric threads over which I see when I look at it. I'm stitching my mystery SAL on a 36ct and the fabric threads don't move so easily but then on the 36ct, I use just one thread of the floss. I kept hemming and hawing about the fabric I used but it got to late to make a change. It's still gorgeous though! I got my new SAL stitching caught up and now taking a short breather, lol! Until next time, stay healthy!

Almost a wrap!

Yes, it's almost a wrap! I'm almost finished with Christmas Garden and at 15 3/8" x 18",the largest cross stitch design I've ever stitched! She's almost a wrap because I've run out of GAST Endive and that was even after I added half a skein from my stash. I'll go through all my WIPs and kitted projects for another skein of Endive. Here is Christmas Garden before..

and as of last night..

I just love her! I look at this and think why did it take 7 years to finish! To me, now, it doesn't look very huge. How funny is that! So there may or not be half stitches! That whole bottom half was stitched while getting caught up with flosstube. I watched Kindred Stitcher from 3 years ago to her latest video. I had to frog a lot of areas because my count was off while trying to save the floss. When I started this, I bought the floss a little at a time, Endive needed 5 skeins, Calico Kitty needed 5 skeins, Heirloom Gold-3, Fool's Gold-3. See what I'm left with..

and what I've used..

Amazing! I still have to stitch the greenery inside the capital C and G with a couple stitches using Calico Kitty as holly berries and finish up with Endive the very bottom right with the floating rose buds! If you look near the top you'll see I've stitched in my initials. I'll be adding my two brothers, my daughter's, my nephew's and my parent's initials along with 2021. I've got a large sampler hangover! What's next you ask?! I've signed up for another mystery SAL put on by Tempting Tangles. It's called the Rooky Woods Mystery SAL. Here's the website.. www.temptingtanglesdesigns.com and look for Rooky Woods. Below are the Dinky Dyes silks (there's a dmc conversion for it too) and the fabric I chose, PTP Vellum 36ct..

I also picked another WIP and it's Halloween Town. Very appropriate!

I think that's it, folks! I just might stitch on Halloween Town for the rest of the month. For now, I'm going to rifle through everything for another skein of Endive. Wish me luck! Take care!