Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2022

Welcome to the Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2022, hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitcher. Be sure to visit the blog hop page to find links to others taking part:

http://www.serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk/

I love Halloween so I'm taking part in it again! If things sound stilted, it's because I'm out of practice so please bear with me.

My stitching today is the Good Witch, just newly FFOd. She is sitting on her backing fabric. Good Witch comes from the 2017 Fall issue of the Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine, using 36ct Straw linen with the called for floss. The white dots in her dress are eyelet stitches which I was horrified to find that they were used! I mostly avoid specialty stitches but I put on my big girl panties and just did it!

Mwahaha, with gnashing of the teeth!!

Your next job is to collect this letter

And to head on over to:

https://lifeoutsidethewashingbasket.blogspot.com/

to collect another letter to solve the Mystery Phrase.

Happy Halloween!!

Decisions

Hello! 

Lee, if you should see this, you should be getting a notification soon from 123stitch for a little electronic gift card for winning the contest from a couple weeks ago. Enjoy!

After a few days of some serious thinking, I have decided to stop blogging. Why, you ask? Because no one is reading my blog anymore and/or commenting. I know a few of you do, like Linda, and Jo. I thank you two for that. I will miss it.

Take care everyone! Hope you're all healthy and continue to stay that way. Thanks for coming along on this stitchy blog ride!

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Hello! Yesterday was the last day to make your guess of which vase/flower is my favorite and today I have a winner. Here's Christmas Garden with it circled...

and the winner is Lee!! She picked my favorite right off. So Lee, contact me at azcampis@yahoo.com with your working email so I can have your gift sent to you! 

Thanks for playing along everyone!

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!

I will be back soon with Stitch From Stash numbers, and what I've been stitching. Take care!!

Squirrels Run Amok

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Hope Mother's Day was a good one! I got a gift which will be below. You should probably grab a comfortable chair because this post will be picture heavy! As my title suggests, the month of May was a crazy one. I jumped from WIP to new start and then back, and just couldn't stay with anything. So let's do this!

First order of business is Stitch from Stash:

Beginning budget-$69.17 (carryover from April and the 20 I allow myself each month). I had 2 finishes-31 October by Heart In Hand, picture at last post, and Lucky Love by Primrose Cottage, I think, all for $4.00 credit. Then the $59.99 for joining the Primive Hare Early Stitchers club,  subtracted for an ending balance of $13.18.

I have FFOs, progress on WIPs, new starts, finishes, and more!

So a week before Mother's Day, my daughter and I were in downtown Prescott walking through a couple antique stores. In one I saw a real nice flower frog with the bottom in amber colored glass. I told my daughter that they were all the rage sometime back because you can put embroidery scissors in them. I wasn't buying anything so we just walked on. Lo and behold, on Mother's Day, in walks daughter with the frog we were looking at, just for me!

Is that pretty or what! The bottom portion is like a sunflower. And she bought me two embroidery scissors too!

They're nice and sharp. Here's everything together...

The smaller scissors I already had. It was a great Mother's Day!

On the last post I mentioned I use scissors that are falling apart. Here they are...

See how the rubber has worn off? I'm still using them, haha.

Last month I took a couple of hours to count my WIPs, I have 26. Not too bad but 1 caught my attention and I thought I'd give it some attention. This is These Is My Words by LHN..

I stitched in the entire door and the whole right side of the cabin. It looks great. Then I stitched more of the quilt there at the left. After that, I was to find something else! So I picked up Mighty Acorn by BBD...

I extended the outer border and stitched in the inner portions. I'm missing Schneckley for some of the leaves but using a different DMC substitute for that. It's a doozy.

After that, I decided I needed a new start! So here's Lucky Love by Primrose Cottage, on 32ct black linen....

Just DMC used. It looks better in person. I'd like to get St Patrick's Day and patriotic designs stitched for a basket display. I don't have enough but I'm working on it.

I also started Grimalken's Apothecary by The Woolly Ewe...

On 36ct Straw linen, using GAST floss. My head is straightened out enough to join a SAL again, and it's working out. It's at Halloween Cross Stitch Challenge on fb called the Road Trip. It's been fun.

Speaking of patriotic, Notforgotten Farm  posted a freebie at her blog of Colonel Sammy aka Uncle Sam...

I'm using 36ct cinnamon roll by Silkweaver with half DMCs and hand dyed floss. I nearly have his face done. 

Today I decided to FFO a few things. First one is Land That I Love by not sure. It might be Mosey 'N Me...

My stuffing leaves a lot to be desired! I took a length of that rayon DMC floss and tied little knots on it, then used a dot of Aleene's on each knot to secure it to the fabric. It turned out cute. The FFOing continues tomorrow with this recent finish...

Freebie by PSS. The house color matches the background of the cotton fabric. Then I'll trim it with the chenille.

Slowly, I'm tackling all the finished stitching I have. Some I'd like framed but that will take awhile.

I thought it was a good time as ever to have a contest! Take a look at Christmas Garden and guess which is my favorite flower and vase duo. I always have a favorite motif! If there are more than 1 correct guess by the time the contest is over on the 24th, I'll draw names and send the winner a little something. You must be a follower of my blog and leave a working email because you'll get a notification. Sorry to say, this contest is only for US residents. If I could think of a way to buy a gift card from an overseas ONS for an overseas stitcher, I'd do it. I'll figure something out! Here's Christmas Garden, be sure to click on picture to zoom it. 

Good Luck and have fun!!

I think that's all, folks. It's the first week of June and not terribly hot. On Wednesday though, it's supposed to get to 90, so here we go! What's my stitching plans for June? In between stitching for the Road Trip SAL I want to get Sammy finished and FFOed so I'll have some patriotic decorations for the summer. I'll FFO the Christmas piece tomorrow. I have laundry to wash tomorrow too. 

A picture of a thistle that has grown in my yard..

Pretty in pink!

See you all next time! Take care!

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!

Update

Hi everyone! It's been a bit past a month since my last regular post so here I am for an update. I have Stitch from Stash numbers, progress, and actual FFOs! 

I've been under the weather since a week ago. Last Sunday, I was feverish and congested. Monday I went to work. Tuesday morning, I had gone grocery shopping in the morning and bought among other things a donut. As I was eating it, I realized I couldn't taste it. I have some covid home tests that the USPS sent out, and used it and it said Positive! I call work. We had Good Friday off anyway. Yesterday was my 5th day that the CDC said you should self isolate and then use a mask for another 5. I would say Tuesday and Wednesday last week were the worst. My taste came back but I'm dealing with congestion again. I still don't feel all that great. My fever broke early Thursday and it has not come back. I go back to work Tuesday wearing a mask for 3 more days. Ugh. So needless to say I've had time to FFO which you can see below. 

But first let's do Stitch from Stash 2017-2022..

Opening balance was $31.52. I had two finishes, which were Town of Halloween and Protect My Sleep that are in the March 13 post. They were worth $22. Expenses of $28 were two Nashville purchases that you'll see below, leaving me with a balance of $25.52. Not bad, I took it easy on Market!

Here's my two Market buys..

So before I got sick, I joined two SALs: Wicked Weekend Challenge and Let's Tour Hollywood. And promptly ditched them both when I got sick because my stitchy bug took flight and went missing for 5 days. I did have a new start for the Halloween SAL tho..

I will jump back on this as soon as I hit publish!

One of my WIPs was for the Tour Hollywood and that is..

I have begun stitching the other large green leaf above the crown to the right. I know I'm not going to finish this this month.

This other WIP I stitched on too for that SAL..

Holy Night, the freebie from PSS.

So barring illness flares in the next 13 days, I'm stitching 4 new starts for Hallo-Maynia on May 1st. They're small starts that were easy to kit up. I have to be mindful of Stitch From Stash.

FFOs!! Woohoo!

First up is a finish that I sewed together back in December. I had ric rac that I wanted to see onto the sides. I finally did it..

Quaker Boo by the Sampler Girl. See the ric rac?

A lesson in patience. I watched Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp and it took me the whole movie to stitch those black beads onto the ric rac. Here's a picture of the backing fabric..

I stitched this matching up all the 1 orange color of the ric rac. 

Next up is..

Peek a Boo by Val's Stuff, I believe. Pillow finish, nothing fancy.

Too cute!

Next...

A freebie by LizzieKate. I thought I had twine to make a bow but didn't. So thin white ribbon for the rescue.

And then..

Litha, a freebie from the Primitive Hare. I sewed on the off white ruffled fabric lace in the middle. The side and backing fabric is a favorite of mine with two other pillows using it. The two gold topped pins match the sunflower. And finally..

a freebie by Erica Michaels made into a round flat ornament. The back fabric is a multi-green plaid. The pins are a light green. It looks better in real life 

Those are my FFOs!! I have more! I was in a cubing frame of mind but the finishes I have won't fit on the styrofoam cubes I have so back to the drawing board. 

It has been in the high 60s and mid 70s here lately, and spring has sprung. The Irises have sprung and so have the dandelions. Also growing in my front yard is some kind of monstrosity! I'll show it next post but I'm pretty sure it's a thistle. Right now it's 3 ft high. I've never had a thistle grow in my yard. Because I have to weed wack my yard, I know what's growing out there! Hopefully it'll bloom soon.

I think I'm done. I bought the 2 first seasons of Yellowstone and have binged! For some reason, dysfunctional family shows are so popular! Breaking Bad was one and so is Rescue Me with Denis Leary. I can't make myself go back and watch those last two, haha!

Alrighty, you all take care out there!!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2022

Happy Friday to all! It is Good Friday today and it's time for this year's blog hop post. I'm an amateur for this Easter Hop so bear with me!

This little cutie is from GoodfloraStitchwort, a Scottish cross stitch designer who sells on Etsy...

I went back to her shop to get the name 

of the pdf but it's no longer there. I remember you could either use the word 'prim' like I have on the sheep, since I lean toward primitive-style stitching, or 'spring' which would've been perfect for today! The flowers are from my yard, wildflowers. Spring has definitely sprung around here! Unfortunately, because of an unforseen illness, there are no Easter get togethers this year. 

Year's ago when I was a child, our family along with an uncle's family, had cookouts on Easter Sunday. We always had our cookouts somewhere where all us kids could just run wildly, all 7 of us. Then we'd get called back in so the moms could hide Easter eggs, real ones, the ones we had all dyed the night before. I can't even remember if there was such a thing as plastic eggs back then! Because they were real eggs, we immediately went out to hunt them! Our two families always hung out together for every holiday and every birthday. Those 3 first cousins remain our closest out of 27 some first cousins that I have.

There you go, a few memories of Easter's past.

Your letter that you've all come looking for is..

Please hop on over to this next blog..

http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com/ 

to find your the next letter!

While we're at it, why are we searching for letters? We need letters to solve the mystery phrase that Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher has created. Visit her blog at..

https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2022/04/easter-treasure-hunt-blog-hop-2022-and.html

to get the list of participating blogs for this blog hop. I'll be checking out the list too.

Thanks for hopping by!