Updates!

Well, it's 'feeling' a lot like Christmas lately. Maybe on a cool Christmas morning! This morning it was 15 degrees but it warmed to 53 this afternoon. It's late Fall, y'all!

So I got my marching orders from Jo for my date of posting for this year's Advent Calendar Blog Hop. Thought I'd write a post before November goes bye bye.

I have progress and a couple of new starts. Yeah, I've been distracted but I've been stitching on everything that I set out the first of this month to stitch and then some. Let's do this!

Up first is A Christmas Sampler by Blue Whale Designs....

The color of the fabric is spot on. I changed the color of Santa's outfit though. It called for DMC 632 but it's too dark, a red brown color. So instead I used GAST Antique Rose and I love it. I was after a primitive faded red and it's perfect. Since this photo was taken, I've stitched in more of the small alphabet on the right. If any of you are interested in a giveaway for this chart, I'll run one next month when I'm done. I believe I won't stitch this again. I want to get it framed soon. Let me know.

Next is Christmas Lodge by Verbena....

The fabric is Taupe Lugana using DMCs. It's a cute little design. The picture of the model is back on my last post. 

I had a finish....

My bookmark for this coming Saturday for the Jingle Ball. Tiny Modernist has a class for putting a bookmark together. I can't wait! Have you seen what Hello Liz Matthews will have for sale at the Jingle Ball? Oops, I forgot you have to have a $10 ticket to get in. You don't have to sign up for a class. Anyway, I've put aside money to buy a few things at the Ball. This is happening Friday. Teresa Kogut has sets of cards with her paintings on them too. 

It doesn't bode well for my entries for Stitching from Stash!😆🤣

I also have a couple of new starts and they're both free! One was a birthday sampler from a designer who offered it for only 2 days....

This is by Running With Needles & Scissors. Sarah Rickwood. It called for Vikki Clayton silks but I did a conversion with assorted DMCs and overdyes. Here's my progress....

I just so happened to have a piece of Prairie Land by Atomic Ranch that was called for but in 36ct. I started it in the middle because I thought the size was iffy but as you can see, it'll be fine. The light green border is at left, with plenty of fabric to spare.

Next new start is a freebie by Hello Liz Matthews. You can get them in your email if you sign up for her newsletter. It's an adorable little design so I started it....

Hers is on 36ct fabric so I used the same count because I wanted it to look the same and frame it also. These frames are from Tim Holtz. They come in a package of 6. So off I went on Black Friday on a wild goose chase looking for those frames! First I tried Joanne's. Nope! At 50% off, the Tim Holtz section was nearly gone and no frames but I did find a couple of things which you'll see below. Next I stopped at Michael's. They barely had any Tim Holtz! Then back to my town with Hobby Lobby and Viola! I found them!

Those are the frames bottom left. I also bought the little elegant frame at top right. The dome and the bigger lighter frames are from Joanne's.

Here is the one used with the freebie....

Pretty but you have to be careful because they bend and the foil on top gets crimped.

Here's my piece....

It's turning out nice but I like the lighter look on the model picture. So I'll finish this one and FFO it into the frame but stitch another finding lighter colors and a bigger count fabric so I can get it into the little elegant frame up there with my purchases. I like the lighter colors better.

Okay, what else? That's it for the stitching.

An update on my finger....I'm getting feeling back! It's like all of the sudden it began tingling and moved up toward my nail. I'm glad. It's not feeling like a rubber appendage, haha, like before.

My family had a traditional Thanksgiving meal with a turkey breast and all the fixings and I haven't stopped eating yet! It's back to work tomorrow and that's probably a good thing!

I will be back on Sunday the 3rd for my Advent Calendar post with pictures and a subject to talk about. See you all there!

Take care and stitch a bunch!!

It's looking a lot like Christmas!

But not weather-wise! Just my stitching! Hope you are all well. The end of my 3 day weekend because of Veterans Day being recognized, I can see my dad's funeral flag given to us on the occasion of his death. It's on the mantel in its display case. He served in the Air Force. Respect to all veterans!

Let's start out with housekeeping. I hope my phone cooperates today.  Blue Whale Designs seemed to be around when I discovered stitching blogs about 13 years ago. The chart I have doesn't have a copyright date on it. The Christmas Sampler I'm working on got some pretty good progress on it...

I've set it aside for now.

Stitching Dreams Carol mentioned the many designs found on Etsy. Absolutely! On IG I saw a new one from Myfanny, super pretty with colors I don't usually use on Christmas projects.

An anonymous commenter asked about the Jingle Ball coming up the first week of December, the 2nd and 3rd. The classes are virtual and at most, they run for an hour or a little bit more. The bookmark class I signed up for will go for an hour I believe. They will be available for 30 days afterwards. It sounds like your hands are full so maybe one of the other free projects would work better. All you need is the $10 ticket into the ball for those projects. I've been stitching my bookmark so I can be ready when class starts...

I really like the shot of teal in this bookmark. I don't have much more to stitch, still need to back stitch the outline for the back piece. 

I'm on Instagram as some of you know. My question to those of you who are on it too is are you tired of the strange men following you? I had to go private on my account because of the men liking all my photos! Ugh! As I'm typing, I just got two requests to follow! Scammers are what they are and I'm so tired to the point of just leaving all social media. 

Last but not least is new follower Katie! Welcome Katie! I'm headed to my 13th year of blogging and no signs of slowing down any time soon. Hope you can understand my blather! Haha!

Besides the 2 WIPs I've shown already, here's another I pulled out of my pile...Yule by The Primitive Hare and found in the PNPS magazine 2016 Christmas/Winter...

I'm doing mortar work right now, bricks and grout. The bricks will be different colors, not just red. See the blank space between the smaller cake stand and the big one? I may stitch a small Christmas tree in there or another present. We'll see. 

And I finally sewed the buttons on Frosty Forest! I bought the buttons minus one back in June. Now it's completely finished...

The first block doesn't have a snowflake button because I stitched in the big snowflake over the deer standing sideways. Maybe I should have bought the button as it feels undone to me or lopsided, lol. I'll probably end up buying one. 

Alrighty! Just a small update before the phone goes wacky. I will probably be back after Thanksgiving so I'll wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with good company, good food, and a soft place to land!

Happy stitching everyone!