Happy Spring Part 2

The Spring /Easter Exchange 2019 is now over and my partner and I have received our gifts. Here is what I sent Lisa:

She likes the same designers as I do, BBD, PSS and so on. I stitched the BBD

piece which I show somewhere in my last posts. I bought the wooden box, 

painted it to match the greys in the design. I inserted the polka dot scrapbook

paper in the top and in the inside. Then finished the stitched piece on 

sticky board as Priscilla and Chelsea call it and glued it to the top. I sure hope

it holds. Then I bought her the other bits and pieces. Here's another look

at the box

It turned out nice.

This is what I received from Sandy..

I can't wait to start the design on the purple fabric. See the adorable Shepherd's 

Bush piece in the frame? Here's a closer look..

So cute. I have it on the wall with my other mini's, what I call my small

framed stitches.

FFOs. One was the exchange box and the other is this LK small..

This is Nevermore. I've really been into sewing those borders onto the 

sides of the stitched piece. Funny how I have favorites of finishing styles like

a cube finish or pin pillows, or flat ornaments. Right now it's the finish above!

I believe this is it. It's Saturday, so it's back to old WIP stitching. As mentioned

before, I plan on 19 new starts/WIPS for Maynia this year. Ten new starts

and 9 WIPs. Christmas Garden will be amongst those plus a few others that

are close to a finish. 

The weather has been flirting with the low 70s which I'm happy about.

Oh, I had to leave that 2nd job I had for health reasons. I have bad knees

and sciatica which after my work accident, is so much worse than

it was. It's been a relief to let it go. That also means more stitching time! Yay!

Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you in April!

Happy Spring!

Hi all! I thought I would get in one last post for March. Spring has definitely sprung here. My header photo is my back yard which is covered in those little purple flowers. It's really pretty.

This post may run into Part 2, so let's get a move on.

First up are my old WIP progress: Winter at Beacon House..

I filled in the sand/snow between the brown dog and the boy with the light blue hat 

and installed 1 over 1 bird at the lower left tree. 

Promise Me by LK, before:

After:

Pretty good progress I would say

Next is Christmas Garden by BBD:

No before picture because all I stitched was the beginnings of the red flowers at the left.

I have 2 finishes. First is Do You See What I See by Shelly Auen:

I love it! I believe I started this for last year's Maynia.

Next one is Snow Day by Sisters & Best Friends:

On a piece of Babbling Brook jobelan, I believe. I saw this stitched up at another blog called 

Black flies and Snow flies and commented on how cute he was. The blogger Lisa

offered to send me the pattern! So I took up her offer and here he is. I searched for this pattern

which is a freebie but I still could not find it. If anyone would like to stitch him, let me know, I'll send

this freebie to you. Go check out Lisa's blog. Thanks again, Lisa!

Ok, 1 more picture before Blogger goes nuts! On Stitch Maynia there's a SAL I'm

taking part in, new starts in 2019 on the 19th of each month. Here's 

my new start-Night Moves Trumpeter Swans..

I have the lower swan going in. The swans themselves are 5 different DMC greys

plus white! That is several hours of stitching! Whew. Swans will be a WIP for Maynia 

because I'm joining this year again!

Onto Part 2. Over there are FFOs and exchange goodies. See you there!

Part 2 Happy March!

If you haven't already, see Part 1 below this post.

So I've been stitching more these past couple of weeks. On Feb. 19 I started a Christmas ornament from the 2015 JCS ornament mag..

This is the PS ornament that is directly above in the picture called Winter's Eve. I can't remember the name of the fabric I'm using but it's 32ct. I'm taking part of A Year of New Starts SAL at Stitch Maynia and this was my start. Every month on the 19th we start something new.

I also have a couple FFOs. First, I finally did the ribbon ruching for All Hallows Eve by Dulaney Woods designs..

I ruched as I sewed it on instead of sewing a running stitch in the ribbon. It still took awhile and I was worried I was going to run out of ribbon! I'll tell you, it's best to have a drink nearby, preferably of the alcoholic kind! It took me about 2 and a half hours to get the ribbon on! So worth it though. Here's the back..

Love the fabric.

I'm still doing my WIP stitching once a week on older WIPs and I just stopped on Early Witches by the Primitive Hare..before..

and now..

Tituba is now done. I just have the town to stitch in below her name. Her skin color was charted for dmc black but I decided on a warm brown for her skin. I like it much better.

I am now moving onto Winter at Beacon House..

I'll stitch on this today. I have 1 over 1 birds to stitch there in the bottom left corner and a few specialty stitches in the sky around the house. I have not touched this in about 4 years! Time to get back at it.

Oh I forgot to show the other FFO!

By Notforgotten Farm. It could've been stuffed and closed up better but I like it. Here's the back..

The fabric looks like moss. Just like moss on an old headstone.

Okay, Blogger is doing its crazy thing, one more picture..

Market is upon us and while I have seen lots of charts that I want, I really do want this sampler. It has the house and fruit baskets/vases that I like in a sampler. What are you all liking from Nashville Market?

Alright, I better skedaddle! Thanks for stopping by and visiting and leaving comments. Also Welcome to new followers through Bloglovin! Stay awhile! 

Take care!

Happy March! Part 1

March is certainly roaring in like a lion! Very windy outside, think I'll stay in.

Hope you are all doing fine. I haven't paid much attention to the news lately so I don't know how the weather is where you're at. I am dealing with a headcold which started yesterday, stuffed and running nose, sneezing and head feeling thick. I never get sick so I'm a bit surprised. Maybe this is just allergies, who knows. Well, the last part of February was crazy! My stove quit working the 3rd week of February and I was able to buy a used one in very good condition last week. So I had a few weeks of microwaveable meals, soups, and anything else I could eat cold and heat up in the microwave. So this weekend I'm making soup on the stove! Two Thursday's ago we got hit one of those snowstorms of the century. Take a look..

That is my car, surrounded by 2 feet of snow. It was windy so there was drifted snow behind my car at a half of foot more. The last time we had snow like this was 32 years ago. Then, it was 2 1/2 feet of snow. Lucky me, my shovels, plain old dirt turning shovels, were buried under the snow in the back. 

The snow started Thursday night, all Friday and finally stopped Saturday night. I was never so glad to see it stop! I had to hire a guy to come and dig out my driveway so I could get out of the house. No work for two days. Crazy stuff! If it never snowed again the rest of this winter, no problem here! In 1 week, all the snow is gone except for shady spots, and up in the mountains. That's Arizona for you, the temps made it to 60 for a couple days ago.

Time for stitching news! This post may be in 2 parts, maybe.

I spoke about happy news in the last post. Happy for me because it closed a 4 year wait. The designer who had a Kickstarter event has had her antique sampler stitched up and should be marketing that soon. Here are my campaign goodies..

Now I hemmed and hawed on whether I should reveal the designer and since she had made it known on her FB page, which is now gone, that after the funding came through, she fell into a deep depression. Having some experience with depression, I can certainly understand how she was unable to get that humongous sampler started and all the other things going promised on her campaign. To 

those who don't know what's going on, Shakespeares Peddler or KittenStitcher on Flosstube, Theresa had started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to purchase an antique sampler and had all these extras offered depending on the size of your donation. I love the sampler she chose for me.

Anyway, she has finished the repro sampler. It's a beauty and big with about 500 stitches on the long side. I decided to reveal her because it's a good thing to put a face on depression. The more we hide from it, the more it becomes an illness to be scared of and not understand. 

I have a finish!

This is Floral Sewing Box by BBD in the Vintage Inspirations booklet. It's the exchange piece for my partner. Above it is the box I'm staining for it and the polka dot paper that will go inside the top and inside the box. The exchange is due on the 20th, heading to Virginia. I'm still gathering more things to add to the exchange.

Okay, I'll end this here. Please check out Part 2 above this post. 

My date with Clint Eastwood and a little stitching

Hi all! I hope all is well where you are at. It is sleeting outside as I type. It's been the weirdest weather this winter. Snowing more than usual, black ice last week which set off accidents and cars sliding off roadway, day before yesterday it rained all day. Over tomorrow and Monday, 6 to 10 inches of snow forecast which is rare. A normal winter for us is 5 to 6 inches for an entire winter! I have a 3 day weekend so I will remain at home and off the streets!

Oh, I'm sure you're wondering about my date with Mr. Eastwood! I'm in the middle of a series of his Spaghetti westerns and watching the second one. After this will be the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, my favorite of all of them.

I am going into my 4th week of no stitching, well hardly any stitching really. My arm is feeling much better. Last night I put in an hour of stitching before bed and it felt fine.

Here is a new start for the Easter/Spring Exchange. My partner loves the same designers I do so it was easy to pick a project for her. This is Floral Sewing Box..

I still have to stitch in the bottom border. I started this last week and picked it up again last night. It should go fast. I will finish this on a square box like the model, wood or paper mâché. My exchange package is to be mailed on or before March 20th, so I have time to FFO this and gather all the other goodies that I like to add. 

Almost two weeks ago I decided to see how my arm felt with a little stitching so I grabbed Song of The Seasons by LHN..

Here is how it looked before..

Some pretty good progress, right? My arm did bug me a little so I quit. This WIP is part of my planned stitching for a week which has been shot to heck because of my arm. The called for fabric is WDW Straw which I just love. It's a favorite of mine right up there with Lakeside Vintage Examplar linen and vintage mocha.

The last thing I wanted to show you is a chart that I fell in love with after a woman on one of the FB groups I'm with finished it. I commented that I went to eBay and found two charts and they were snatched up within 30 minutes. This other commenter personal messengers me and says would I like to borrow her chart! I was like Yesss! Last week it arrived and here it is..

Designed by Blue Whale Designs. It matches the style of the Pamela Dervarits design that I FFO'd into a flanged pillow two or three posts before this one. I love the tall Santa. Just like ol Clint! Haha. 

So I will keep stitching on the exchange piece, and maybe pick up another weekly WIP while taking small breaks. I pretty much quit watching Flosstube because the hankering to stitch was too much and now have a queue of 25 videos to watch! 

I have some good news but I will share that next time.

Take care and thanks for visiting! Stay safe and warm:) 

Side note: I apologize for any misspellings and/or punctuation mistakes because as I type the screen moves up and down so I'm basically typing blindly! Bye! 

Woebegone!

Hi all! Here I am again, posting on the Blogger page. I uninstalled the Blogger app and now can't reinstall! Haha. My iPad is almost 6 years old and can't update no more because there is not much storage left. I have gotten rid of a lot of apps like games, email apps, etc to open up some storage but it's not happening. I'm glad I can do it this way.

It's been a week the past week. I've had some pain in my right arm, the stitching arm, and finally went to the doc. I have tennis elbow! I'm looking at 6 weeks at no stitching, and trying to use my left arm at work. I think I developed it at work and stitching is exacerbating it. I haven't stitched in 4 days and it's not going well!

So instead of pouting, I have FFO'd a few things. First is one of the monthly Birthday Cakes designed by Brooke's Books:

The cakes are free but I haven't been able to find them on her site. I stupidly down loaded the last 3 of the year, October-December and didn't get all the others. I'm almost certain they can be found at Craftsy. Maybe you've heard of Craftsy? Anyway, I finished stitching it in November and kept forgetting to post about. I also forgot to add the beads to the cake, just regular 11 seed beads so I added those before the FFO. I like how it turned out. The trim is a store bought cord that I received in an exchange package. Here is the back..

Oop, here we go with the center margin. I'm not sure how to change that. I used that homespun for the back.

Next up, from the Dept. of Reworked Finishes..

I'm pretty sure this is a Threadwork Primitives design. I first finished this 3 or 4 years ago, maybe longer. It was a hanging pillow with ribbon hangers and patriotic fabric for the back! I didn't like it so I took it all apart and cut it with narrower margins from the stitching. The fabric at the bottom is also on the back. I used the cream colored fabric ribbon at the bottom there, made a bow and sewed on the white button with the jabco chocolate kiss button. I like it much better!

Next one is from Notforgotten Farm, can't remember the name of the pattern though..

I haven't FFO'd it yet because I want your opinion. Should I darken this more? I already gave it another coffee bath and a bake. The model on the chart shows hers much more darker, like she used WWD Straw linen. It was also finished like a tombstone and that's what I tried to do. I made up some new cuss words sewing the curves! Anybody know of a better way to sew curves like those? I wished I had taken a picture of the back fabric. You know how old old headstones in damp humid areas have moss growing all over them? Well I used a batik fabric for the back and if mimics moss. I show it next time.

After I coffee bathed the tombstone, just for fun, I added red and yellow RIT due to the bowl and threw in this little piece of linen and then baked it..

I love it! I'm sure something Halloween will look good on here.

Well, Blogger is acting up. I better get. Although I'm not a you know what, I just want to say it's 62 degrees here, door is wide open! I know a lot of you are dealing with those frozen temps. Hope you stay warm and safe. 

Take care!

A few changes, abbreviated

Greetings from chilled and blustery north central Arizona. I'm staying in. The short time I went out I began sneezing and I have what feels like a sinus headache. It's my day off.

I have some bad news, well, for me. It's nothing horrible, it's just that my iPad is giving me drama. I just typed out a whole blog post and the app I use will not publish. I'm here on the Blogger posting page and trying it this way! I will try to put pictures on here too. Be sure to click on the pictures to make them big! Dang it, I liked the big pictures using the app. Oh well.

Let's start! Below are two of the old WIPs I have stitched since the 5th of January..

Promise Me by Lizzie Kate. If you go to the last post, you'll see how it looked before. Next is A Bee In Your Bonnet. I was able to stitch on this for 4 days before I lost the floss! Yeah, lost the floss! 

Yesterday, I picked up Song of The Seasons by LHN. Not enough stitches to warrant a pic.

In between those two WIPs above, I started and/or finished two items. A Valentine's Stocking, freebie from Plum Street Samplers at her blog..

And the other is Thistles and Spells by Stacy Nash

Last picture I'll put up is of these paper mâché boxes I found at a charity shop..

I haven't been able to find these at the local craft stores. $1.43 for the whole set! Barb, my Brenda Gervais piece will fit on the one next to it. I just need to decide on a finish for the box.

Stay tuned!

Blogger is having its way with my post!

Right now, I have a HP laptop that is on the blink but it will be cheaper to fix than buying a new

iPad! My iPad has been giving me grief so I think it may be the beginning

of the end:/

Short posts like this may be what I'll have to do. I had a whole lot more to say too! Haha.

Take care everyone! Thanks for your comments as I always read them!