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!

Christmas Garden progress

Hi everyone! I'm back to show my progress on Christmas Garden. Since my last post, I have stitched on this exclusively. I'm taking this coming week off for vacation, more like a staycation. Every waking moment I'm stitching! Before work, after work and into the evening. I put it down for the day just now. Here's the before..

and now..

I have since finished the flower with the bird on top at the right and have stitched in a bit of the border that separates this section from where the words Christmas Garden will be stitched. Yup, been eating breathing this WIP! I could very well be finished by this time bext week. It's huge. I've learned a few things about stitching a sampler that I'll share when I am finished. See you soon!

Hello September, half over!

Hi all! I am back to show progress, a finish from earlier this year, and two new charts. I wish I could figure out how to do new paragraps, otherwise my sentences are just run ons! Bear with me, I'll figure it out sooner or later! Starting with progress, I put in some more stitches onto Yule..

Last post I mentioned running out of the Brown Bear floss; it's getting there! Once I get back to Yule and stitch, I'll know better. All that's left to do is the whole fireplace. After Yule I picked up a subRosa design, a WIP, and stitched more border. I was stitching at night. The next morning, I looked at it and the border was two different colors of white! Because I stitched at night, I couldn't tell the difference! It's in time out right now. After that fiasco, I drew a WIP out of the basket and lo and behold, look what I picked..

Christmas Garden. It was about time I picked a big WIP! This poor thing has not seen the light of day since the end of December last year. I've added quite a bit since Friday, two days ago. I am getting so close to the end. I ironed it for this picture and it's going to be a biggie. I'm going to have to go back through it all and tighten up stitches and add initials of family. A WIP for 7 years, it's time to be done and I think I can. That big tall flower in the middle is above the space for the words Christmas Garden. Yep. So keep tuning in because I want to keep stitching on it through this month.

My mystery SAL When Witches go Riding. I finished the whole first part. There's back stitching in this section but I'll wait until the end to stitch those in. I have the 2nd and 3rd parts with the final part yet to come. I stashed also..

I'm not planning any new starts with these but I do have fabric for the Blueberry sampler. I think it calls for silks so it'll be next year. The rest of this year is dedicated to WIPs. Any finishes I get will go a long way in easing the guilt of my b-day SAL coming up in January. It'll be eye candy for days! I'm not sure some of you saw a finish I had the earlier part of this year. Red House by Sheepish Designs..

On a Dixiesamplar fabric, 36ct Mountain Stream. Very light gray. Love it! Okey doke, that'll be it. I was under the weather for a couple weeks. Congestion, runny nostril, stuffed nose, crazy. I thought oh no, is this Covid again?! My doctor assured me that I should still have antibodies in my system from Covid and that I couldn't possibly catch it again. A 63 year old cousin of mine has it and is having a rough time. I have fully recovered my taste and smell again so I'm a happy camper! I hope youre all staying safe and healthy! Take care and see you soon:)

Bye bye August!

Hi all! I thought I'd get on here and post one last time for August. Boy, here we are on the fast track once again. I am looking forward to Fall though! Edited to add-the rose bush picture did not load:( Today's post is a bit newsy but I also have another finish and progress. Let's do the finish first..

Red House in Winter by LHN, with called for flosses. The linen is a mystery though but it could either be a PTP or Stormy linen from Wichelt. Either way, it sure adds to the atmosphere of this winter design. It didn't take me long to stitch it up. Last time all I had was the roof and the first third of the left side tree. When the FFO bug bites me, it'll be a hanging pillow ornament. I have progress on two WIPs..

These Is My Words by LHN. Lisa, thanks for the offer of your skein of CCW Roasted Chestnut. I ordered the skein plus others from Needlecase Goodies on Etsy and it arrived in just two days! So I started filling in the cabin. My next WIP to draw is Yule or Yuletide from the Primitive Hare. This was found in the magazine PNPS 2016 Christmas/Winter issue but I think it's on a chart now. Here's how it will look..

and what I have so far..

The mantel and the mortar in the brick work is GAST Brown Bear and I have a feeling I'll need another skein as I'm going 2 over 2 on a nystery linen. Last time I worked on this all I had was the y stitched. The newsy part! I can smell and taste certain things still. I'm craving the things I couldn't taste but now can! Like diet Pepsi, pizza. I had chili rellenos w/rice and beans for lunch and couldn't really taste the rellenos! Ugh. The congestion is finally gone, after nearly 2 months. We've had a 2 week dry period here with no rain but you should see my yard! I weedwacked yesterday and need to finish today. The humidity has gone up, I can feel it. Our monsoons are regurning and by Wednesday itll be stormy again with remnants of tropical storm Nora sending moisture our way. Shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as what Louisiana is facing! My thoughts and prayers are with those people there. Anyway, here's some pics of the jungle..

So I can't see what order the pictures are in but I'll tell you about them. The Morning Glory's my mother planted more than 30 years ago but they come up whenever we get a lot of rain. They make me smile. That purple flower with the yellow stamen is a weed! The stem is as thick as a pencil and covered with stickers. They're hard to wack. They come back every spring regardless of of moisture. The prickly pear cactus is going gangbusters. I need to protect it from Javelina. They eat the fruit, stickers and all. Last but not least the rose bush that has bloomed a second time this year. It looks better now than the spring bloom! I finally got WiFi back in the house and now I don't want to work or go to sleep! I'm bingeing on flosstube and getting caught up on that. I watched all of Nicole's Needlework and am now watching Carol the Saltbox Stitcher. I need to get Netflix going on my Blu-ray player, I can add apps to it. I can use my ipad again but since the browser on my ipad is incompatible with Blogger, I'm stuck posting here on my blog with my phone. A new ipad is in the works but it might be cheaper to get my HP laptop fixed. We'll see. I think that's it! Take care everyone, stay healthy. See you next time!

Happy August!

Hello! I'm back for an update. I have a new start, a finish, and progress today. Let's do this! My new start is a mystery Halloween piece by Tiny Modernist. I have the first part but all I have stitched is half of the tombstone angel..

The angel is taking some time! The called for fabric is a 32ct but I had this 35ct so it'll be a tad bit smaller and I'm good with that. I guess I'm behind because the 2nd part is on it's way! That's okay. So I fell off the WIP track when I received the mystery piece but got right back on when I picked Quaker Boo by The Sampler Girl, copyright 2010! I think it's been a WIP for just 5 or 6 years but it's now finished, yay!

I left off a few things on my piece, the top and bottom border, and the black and orange diamonds in the big medallion with the cat inside. See the PDF for what I left off. After that finish, a drew another WIP and it's These Is My Words by LHN. I have to wait for CCW Roasted Chestnut to arrive as the skein I have is not enough. I am worried about dye lot issues so I'll wait to fill in the blank spaces on the cabin. After I'm done here, I'll stitch on the hanging quilt at the left. Here she is..

In between all the above was Fleurs 1805..

The date may be different as it's not here with me. I've had to sub with DMC a few of the floss colors but it's turning out nice. That's all my stitching to date! A health update: it has been a month since I had covid and in general I feel good, still have minor issues with a little congestion and I can now taste and smell a few things but not everything. I can pick up chile, and very sweet tastes. It's getting better but not as fast as I would like. Covid is still out there as our local numbers show. Mondays always reveal new infection rates. We are now in a dry period here in AZ. I cannot believe all the rain we got but unfortunately two young girls lost their lives being swept away in flood waters. It is so green here and I have a jungle outside to weedwack which I'm taking a break from. I may have to hire a guy who to finish up because the vibration just kills my arms and hands. The rain may return sometime this week. I believe this is it. Thanks for reading my posts! Please stay safe and healthy. See you all next time!