Happy May!

Hi all! First of all, Happy Mother's Day and greetings from a blustery central Arizona! We're in the midst of the 2nd season of 6 here in my corner of AZ. Yes, 6! Windy, Spring, Fire, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. 3 weeks ago a wildland fire started in the forest south of me, 10-14 miles as the crow flies. 

This picture was taken in the morning by my daughter after the winds shifted to straight out of the south and blew the smoke into our communities..

That red circle is the sun! Luckily, firefighters were able to hold the lines and it's nearly contained. Our fire season usually doesn't start until June so for this to happen in April is worrisome.

An update: I stayed home for 5 days after Covid and then went to work wearing a mask for 3 days. I never really lost my taste as it came back in 3 days. I am still dealing with some congestion but that could be allergies and/or this wind, ugh.

Now, onto what you came to see...stitching!

I have my Stitch from Stash numbers, finishes, and progress on WIPs. Let's go!

Stitch from Stash 2017-22

April 2022 check in

$20.00 April budget

  25.52 brought forward from March

 (16.35) expenses-needed floss

  20.00 finish credits-2

Ending bal-$49.17

So glad I've kept my purchases down to a minimum but May will be different as I joined a club this month, more on that later. 

My three finishes are...

Salem by The Bluebird Needleworks. On 36ct WDW Beige with the called for floss. 

Next is Holy Night, a freebie

by PSS, on 32ct Stone Grey linen. The color of the linen matches DMC 452. I really like this fabric. This looks so much prettier in person.

I joined a month long maynia, the Hallo-Maynia. For five weeks we start a new Halloween project or work on a WIP. Here's a finish for the group..

31 October by Heart in Hand on a scrap of PTP linen. Took about 4 hours to stitch. Tiny little thing!

Here's what I started and stopped because I just wasn't feeling it..

Not even ironed!! It's on 28ct linen. It's from a JCS Halloween issue. There was more to it but I stopped. I can still make a round ornament out of it though.

I also had progress on two WIPs..

A Bee in Your Bonnet. I stitched in that green leaf to the right of the crown. The right side will have the flower/vine border like the left but a bee skep will go in the area below the new green leaf and a little above my needleminder. And it's all done in eyelet stitch!! I'm not a fan of specialty stitches but the bee skep will look great. Gotta do it!

My other WIP is Tombstone Angel for the Hallo-Maynia..

I am working on the angel's wings. Tedious work but it has to be done. I would say that whole top third is intense with lots of fill in stitching but going down the sides are leaves which need filling in too. The whole middle portion is text which I find easy to stitch. I have put this away to start my next Maynia piece..Haunted Castle..

On 32ct Blue Spruce. The white portions on the model are glow in the dark floss but I don't have any. I'm pretty much winging it! The orange on my work is the window below the tower. I don't know if all the white windows will be orange. I may stitch a few in black. The moon will be some sort of pale yellow, I think. Stay tuned!

So I won a drawing on Halloween Cross-Stitch Challenge! Halloween floss drops!

I never win anything so this was cool! The card is cute. I'm not much of a floss drop user but I'll use these on a special Halloween project. I am a bare bones stitcher who doesn't use a lot of accoutrements. I mean, the scissors I use to cut my floss are losing the rubber parts on the handles and they're grubby, lol! The tools I use are my Bohin needles, my grubby scissors, Hob Lob qsnap-like frames, and a scroll rod bought from a second hand store! Oh well, haha.

So as mentioned above, my purchase into The Primitive Hare Early Stitchers Club will throw me into the red this month!

We got a membership card, a sample fabric piece, and yes, floss drops! I think someone is trying to tell me something! But I'm excited. We'll be getting 4 patterns this year and can't wait to see the first one. I'm calling this my Mother's Day gift! 

I think that's it! I have really got to get back to reading blogs again. That's my goal for the month of May. As for stitching, I'll keep stitching or starting for Hallo-Maynia for this month. I'm finding out that if I make plans for stitching, it goes to heck quickly! 

Thanks for coming along for the ride! Take care!