Happy Stretchy Pants Month

Good afternoon! I'm back a week after my last post, that's a record of sorts for me. Because it was Halloween last post, I wanted to keep it scary. This post will have everything I forgot about and/or saved for another time. 

I have a finish, some found unicorn charts, a new start, plans, and more. Let's do it💃🏻

The first day of this month I started the first of my Gingerbread stitching. On Shannon Christine's FB group, in pictures, she has a bunch of freebies free for the taking. I saved about 4 that had some kind of gingerbread motif on it. Here's my first...

It's called Christmas Tree Cupcake Small. I 'borrowed' a 32ct White linen from my MerryChristMoose chart. These patterns are so tiny I'll still have plenty of the linen to finish up the Moose pattern. I didn't measure this but the count is 30 x 30. This took just 3 evenings to stitch. I'm not sure how I'll FFO it, maybe a tiny pillow or on a cube. I still haven't FFOd anything but I have a week off between Christmas and New Year's so that might be a good time to sit at my sewing machine and finally do something! 

Jingle Ball tickets became available so I got into that and purchased a ticket for the Plum Street Sampler's class for the pocket...

I have the called for linen, 36ct Maple Bar linen by Cedar River already, just had to cut enough off of the piece I'm using for Grace Doth Abound by the same designer as the pocket. I have a lot of the called for floss but I will end up substituting for DMC. Here's the little bit I started this morning...

As you can see there's just enough fabric on the left to sew to create the pocket. I'm pretty stingy with fabric! I will try to get as much as I can from a fat quarter. Of course, I'm cussing myself because I have to get my fingers into the back to cut my tails and there's not much room, lol. I'll stitch as much as I can because I'd like to get the gingerbread freebies all finished this month.

I may end up missing Paulette Stewart's class because we are going to Las Vegas that week, my daughter, her SO, and I. At least we have access to the class videos for 30 days.

I also lucked out on a unicorn chart hunt and another that I didn't know I needed!

Here's Autumn Leaves by ewe & eye & friends...

I forgot where I saw this. Oh, I saw it for sale in a DeStash group on Facebook but someone already claimed it. A couple weeks ago I googled it again and found it in an Etsy shop. Ka-ching!! It only cost $7 or 8. The house and the leaves are what attracted me. I'm not sure about the big acorn, it might get left off. I like the border.

Some of you may know my other unicorn chart is And To All a Good Night by Blackbird. I love that chart! Perusing the sales of a DeStash group, I found a chart by Fanci That that may hold me over before I find the Blackbird chart that's affordable!😆

Sorry for the blurriness. I purchased a chart from a seller and she sent it off. I never received it. She shipped without tracking. That's the risks of buying without tracking. The few charts I had purchased from that DeStash group had arrived with no problems. I thought it wasn't worth doing a PayPal complaint because the chart just cost $2.89🤷🏻‍♀️ I went back to Google and found this chart elsewhere. It's cute. 

Now we're up to the fun part...a contest! I had to go back to 2024 in this blog for the last one!

Open to followers. Take a look at my Gingerbread Houses by Stacy Nash. I have a favorite house, which one is it? Leave your pick in the comments with a working email because I'll award the winner with an e-gift card to Primrose Cottage. Label your pick as the left house, the center house, or the right house. I will extend the time to 2 weeks from today. If many of you pick the same house that is my favorite, I will draw your names for a winner.

Please play! It'll be fun! 

Halloween went by with no kids stopping by. I bought a small bag of candy thinking I might have a few kids. Nope! I ate a few pieces but on Monday I hauled it off to work for my coworkers😊

Last weekend we had terrible floods here in az. Then they hit southwestern Colorado and a corner of northwestern New Mexico. On Sunday it rained so hard it didn't let up. I live about half a mile from the river that runs through this valley but I live on the side of a hill. At one point, we got evacuation notices to Go but I was fine. It was for the houses that are closer to the main river, the Verde. By the time Monday morning came around, said river reached 23 1/2 feet! It took out 25ft cottonwood trees. They are laying down in the river bed. Flooded houses. Two of my coworkers ended up with 3-5 inches of water in their homes, ones water well is contaminated now. There was flooding through Oak Creek Canyon through Sedona. That creek empties into another creek and turned it into a river. There was an rv park that was torn up, leaving the whole place a big mud patch. I feel many paid heed to the warnings and left before that creek turned into a river. I drive over a couple bridges and to see these huge trees just knocked over...wow. The power of water. The same water filled up 2 reservoirs down near Phoenix. Every single lake in Northern AZ was filled up just like that🫰🏼. In the Oak Creek Canyon outside of Sedona, nearly 8 inches of rain fell. All from the remnants of Hurricane Vance that collided with a strong front from Alaska. Yikes!

Needless to say, I think everyone from Phoenix and northward are rain-weary. Here yesterday, we had a little storm drop pea sized hail with lightning and I thought to myself 'not again'. Not far from me, a horse stable owner was arrested for animal abuse. She's down near the river but she ignored offers of help to get the horses out. Authorities found 4 alive but 3 dead and the rest are missing. 

It's been a rough week.

Hopefully, the weather levels out some. Today it reached about 67 degrees with the sun shining! It was great.

That's it for now. Don't forget to pick my favorite gingerbread house!

See you in 2 weeks! Stay safe!

Boo!

Good afternoon! Happy Halloween!🎃👻 It's been a couple weeks of stitching and weather, so let's do this💃🏻

Stitching first. I have a finish and some progress. My progress

Pumpkin Head from Twin Peaks Primitives. I started on his head since the last post. When I get bored with stitching the border, I'll work on his head or fill in that nice green color. I'm using all the called for DMC on this. Because I'm about to get into winter/Christmas stitching for 2 months, Mr Pumpkin Head will go bye bye for now.

My next WIP is Boo To You by Brenda Gervais...

I have stitched on this for a week. It's on R & R's Winter Brew which I just love with the called for floss. There are areas that are stitched vertically like her pumpkin head and her pumpkin head basket. At first I thought Nah, I'll just stitch horizontally as usual. I decided to try it vertically going by Brenda's instruction. That would be stitching half of how many stitches there are and then stitching backwards from the bottom up. You can see that on the basket, especially where its eyes are. I'm doing the same thing to her head. It takes some getting used to and I feel it uses up floss doing it this way. But I'll continue on. Miss Boo will be leaving as well.

Now my finish!

Here's Miss Lucian's School for Girls-Lesson 1..

The text says Trick or Treat Stitches Neat or Prickly Needles Stick your Feet. After the last post I dedicated all my time to getting this done. The changing font was fun to stitch, even the little orange and black 'dots' were too. It's finished as a table topper, on the model, with black ric rac trim and that's how I'll finish mine. When will that happen? Don't know but don't hold your breath!🤭

As of today I have 18 finishes on the year. For tonight while I watch Hocus Pocus, Corpse Bride, and whatever else I can find, I'll put in a few more stitches on Boo To You. 

Crazy weather!

Three confirmed tornado touchdowns. The picture above is not far from where I used to live. No lives or property affected since it was out in the forest but some of the pines were knocked into the road that goes through. I was at work that morning, texting my daughter because I'd heard they were getting crazy thunderstorms. At one point, she says Mom we just got a tornado warning and to seek shelter quickly. That scared me! Sure enough, after the National Weather Service investigated, it was determined to be a tornado. Two others here in northern AZ also but further north and the other in eastern AZ. We get tornados but they're rare. The last reports of tornados was 15 years ago. All day long, we kept getting tornado watches or warnings. What a day. I now know more about the watches and warnings then I ever wanted to know! Tonight, Halloween, we're supposed to get some heavy rain clear into Monday morning. I'm am going to hunker down tonight and tomorrow.

Honeybee, if you read this, thanks for checking on me. You must've seen in the news our severe weather.😊

As for trick or treating here in my new neighborhood, there's none. It's more of a retired neighborhood but there are a few families that have their grandchildren living with them.

I hope things are fine where you're at. Here we go into November! These last few months really just zoom on by. It's strange.

Here's to treats but no tricks for all!

Be sure to watch this space a week from today. I start gingerbread stitching tomorrow and will show where I get to on that. Today I want to keep it spooky!👻🎃🥸🤡🤖☠️💀

😆

Take care!

Odalys Polo Rachel

You may be wondering what my title means🤔those are the names of the hurricanes/tropical depressions that affected us here in Arizona. I'll talk more about the crazy weather down below.

Let's talk stitching! Nearly halfway through October already, I'd like to get back to twice a month posting.

Disclaimer: it's Halloween stitching from here on out! I have progress, a new start and a bit of stash. Let's go!

You'll recognize Witch Hill by Ship's Manor...

Sorry about the fold in the fabric, I try not to iron my stitching until the end. It's slow going stitching, and I don't know why! Since the last time I stitched on this, I put in the 2 pumpkins in the middle of the design. There's a lot of different colors on the hill and that's probably why I'm just chugging along. I can't wait to get to Miss Witchy there at the bottom.

Next is the PSS pattern called Miss Lucien's School for Girls Lesson One...

I just love this. Heck, I just love Paulette's Halloween designs period! The last time I just had the peacock and a few letters. It would be nice to have this finished by Halloween but I don't think it's going to happen. Since I've involuntarily, mind you, taken an extensive leave from any FFOing, I shouldn't worry😂

And it's raining again🌧️💨

This next piece should be a new start but I'm categorizing it as a WIP...

Meet Pumpkin from the Fang and Big Eye Gang by Twin Peak Primitives...

Not a lot to show but it's a start. I call it a WIP because I already stitched the cat on the left on the cover. I want to have all 3 stitched. They're pretty much full coverage. I find these hard to stitch though. The outer border are 4 rows of the 2 floss colors. On this piece, it's the black and yellow stitches. I think it's because the meeting place for the right and left border do not match. One side might have 25 stitches and on the other maybe 1 or 2 extra stitches. So I'm constantly counting the border stitches🫨 somehow it comes together.

Now my new start. Boo To You by Brenda Gervais/WTH&T...

She's on 36ct Winter Brew on R&R. She's a cutie. I'm using most of the called for floss. I'll have to look for substitutes for the colors I don't have. 

So last weekend I took part in the Harvest Moon Hangout which is brought to us by Lindy Stitches. It's a virtual event like the Jingle Ball. I bought a fat quarter of fabric and some fripperies...

The JCS magazine is from 123stitch. The fabric is 32ct orangey black linen that is perfect for a Halloween design I have in mind. A lip smoother and the tea round out my purchases. Not too bad I would say😌

Anyone thinking of stitching plans in 2027? I plan to turn 63 in January! As if I have any say in the matter. I think I'm going to have a start-a-thon type of plan but I'm not starting 63 things! If anyone's watching Sully Stitches Tara on flosstube, I might do something like that. She's starting 25 new designs and doing the old school shaking the basket and picking a number, and I like that. I do have charts that I really want to start, some may need floss and/or fabric but most are ready to go. WIPGO might be in the cards but I'm gnashing my teeth to start stuff!

What I do know is that I will switch to winter/Christmas stitching in November. I don't know if it will be all Gingerbread or something else. I'm kind of interested in stitching Christmas charts that are just red; white or antique white fabric with red floss. I have a PDF of a Santa head that is all red floss and I found an ornament in a JCS ornament issue that is also all red stitched. I think a corner of a bookcase would look so pretty with just red stitched items🤔 stay tuned!

Onto the weather!

Last Saturday or Sunday we started getting tons of clouds from the then tropical storm Odalys. It then rained for 2 days straight. I don't think we got any Polo remnants though. I think those got eastern New Mexico and into Texas. Then Rachel decided to visit Friday and it's been off and on raining. Right now it's super windy outside. As I was typing this out, warnings kept popping up on my phone that Hurricane Rachel is near! FYI: We've never had a hurricane make landfall anywhere near AZ simply because we're not near the ocean. We're separated from the Eastern Pacific by Baja California. So I'm not sure what the weather service is going on about. 

As a native Arizonan, I'm ready for dry weather😂 However, the huge reservoirs bordering this state, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are going down due to usage, normal evaporation. Lakes nearby are nearly drying up. So it's a real concern. For that, we're grateful for all the precipitation. We may have a snowy winter too. Not me though, where I live now we might get a dusting of snow once every couple of years. I will not miss going out to find my windshield iced over and I have to scrape it! 

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back on Halloween night. I'll show where I've got to on some of my scary stitching and who knows, maybe I'll have actual FFOs to show! 

Happy stitching! See you on the 31st!👻🧡🎃

Merry Scary👀

Happy Saturday! I think it's Saturday🤔🤣 it's September 19th. It's amazing to think we're more than halfway through September! Can we slow down a little bit?

It's looking like this may be my only post for September. I just finished doing my laundry for next week so let's look at that I've been stitching on since August 30th. I have a new start, progress, and a finish. 

The finish first-Raven Moon...

From the JCS Halloween issue 2022. I started this in the middle since I was using a small piece of fabric. I don't even remember what fabric it was. I used all the called for DMC. As I mentioned on the last post, I planned to leave off a few branches at the bottom. I think it looks balanced as is. The moon looks good as does the Raven and the black branches. I'm not sure how I'll finish this. 

I have 18 finishes so far on the year. 

Now we have progress on Yukon's Christmas List by Heartstring Samplery...

I'm really enjoying stitching this. I don't mind doing letters but I'm not a fan of the single stitches in that bottom row of red snowflakes? I love it though. The floss are my favorite Christmas colors. 

I also brought out Witch Hill by Ship's Manor...

Horrible picture, sorry! That jack o' lantern on the right I had to frog. I don't know what I was thinking when I last stitched on this. The count of the pumpkin was so off. Now it's in correct. There will be a lot of back stitch in this piece and I'm making some changes on it. I'd show you a picture of it on the PDF but I've lost it. Good thing my head is attached to my body or I'd lose it too!

Up next is my new start. I saw this chart for sale on a Facebook DeStash group earlier this year and you know me and Halloween, I had to get it...

I'm using 40ct Espresso linen by Fiberlicious. The copyright on this chart is 2010 and it called for 36ct Vintage Autumn Gold by Lakeside. The stitch count is 344 x 72. I was worried using 40ct would make it super skinny but I think it'll be alright. It's a table runner on the picture with black ric rac on the edges. I want to make mine the same. In case you can't read the words, it says Trick or Treat Stitches Neat or Prickly Needles Stick Your Feet. And no single stitches on this, by the way!

As you can probably tell, I'm easing myself into Halloween stitching. Usually by this time, I'm in the middle of scary stitching. There's always October to do all that. 

I'm also putting out an APB (All Points Bulletin) for my missing FFO bug! I have so many finished pieces that need a final finish but it's been the last thing on my mind. I've organized my craft room but need more shelving. I don't know how I got all my cross stitch stuff into my bedroom in the old house. I now have a craft room and it's nearly full! 

First world stitchy problems, right?!

Wow, did we get some crazy rain last week! Tuesday or Wednesday, it just about rained all day. There was flooding down in the Phoenix area. It was a tropical disturbance that came north from Mexico and it dropped 2-4+ inches in places. 

Right now, it's 91 degrees and I'll take it! I didn't even turn on my AC. We're due to get more rain this coming week though. We really need it despite the mosquitos!!

I suppose that's it! Those 3 pieces above are all I stitched on. I work 10 hr days, 4 10s, and when I get home I just vegetate on the couch😂 sometimes I pick up my stitching and sometimes I don't. I retired but didn't really retire! I'll keep working full time until Social Security has a problem with it, lol.

Take care. See you in October!👻💀🎃 

The 'ber months!🏵️🌼🍂

Happy Sunday! I didn't think I had much to talk about and show but I do. Today, I have a finish, a new start, progress, a new purchase, and an actual win! Let's go!

In the last post, I talked about working on a big piece along with some smalls. Just yesterday, I pulled out my big Jane Southward. She was in time out but I sat down and frogged out all my wrong stitches. And then stitched the vine back in....

She's on 40ct WDW Cocoa. So far it's the one color. I'll go back in and stitch in the 2nd color for the vine. I probably could just keep the one color in and move on but I won't feel good about it! Some things I'm willing to 'cheat' a little but not on this.

Another WIP I just picked up today is Raven Moon from the JCS 2022 Halloween issue...

I'm not sure of the color of the fabric but it is 32ct. I'm doing 2 over 2. That moon, whew, was a humdinger! Five colors went into that. I followed the graph at first but toward the end, I was just throwing any colors at it, lol. It looks good though. This is one that I may 'cheat' on though. There's one more branch with 3 smaller branches at the bottom and the large branch under the Raven needs to be thicker with it coming off the trunk. I might leave off that lower branch. We'll see. I might decide to stitch it all in.

Now we're up to my finish! I think I worked on this since my last post. Dr Raven by Stacy Nash...

I think my fabric is Grey by WDW, 36ct. I used the called for floss but with 1 substitution. The instructions to sew him up seem easy enough. Flip him over and draw a quarter inch line from the stitching leaving it open at the bottom for stuffing. It's going to be tricky getting the mask stuffed. I'm not sure if I will hand sew or machine. I do terrible curves using my machine. My machine is good at straight lines! He stands 7 3/4". Stay tuned for the FFO of Doc. 

Next up is my new start, 

Merry Brew, on a 36ct fabric with called for floss. I love this design and it's the 2nd time I've stitched it. I wouldn't call it big so I'll work on it from time to time. 

My new purchase is for the Gingerbread display I want during the holidays. I saw it somewhere and just had to have it!...

From Buttermilk Basin. I saw it at the Country Sampler website but just the chart; they were waiting on the fabric which is 36ct Cocoa from Blackberry Primitives. It's now sold as a kit. The Cocoa is the same fabric used on the Stacy Nash Gingerbread Boy needlebook from Jingle Ball last year. I still need to finish that but my floss for it have wandered off!

In previous posts, I've mentioned liking October House Fiber Arts and that she has a newsletter that she releases every month. For July she announced a floss bundle giveaway and I entered. Guess what? I was one of the winners!🎉🤯

She announced the winners in this months newsletter. There are 51 skeins, unused, from GAST, WDW and CCW. There are a few limited colors. I can now put them on their respective rings.

But wait! That's not all! She also sent these:

32ct Flax, 2 note pads, and a chart. Just love it! It was great. The USPS had it going everywhere though😆 from Arkansas to Memphis and then AZ. Good things come to those who wait👍🏼

Take a look at how AI describes me and my blog..

Click on it to make it readable. Everytime I get on my blog to start a new post or to see if there are any new posts by bloggers, I see my dates of when I started this blog, and then I move on. When I see it described as "active for well over a decade", I think Wow!😆 It's different seeing it written out. I'm an Enthusiast!! Lol.

A new month is almost upon us and I've already thought of new stitching plans. I was looking through my phone pictures and came upon several Shannon Christine freebies that I took from her Facebook group. Many are little Gingerbread designs. You probably know where this is going! My Gingerbread state of mind commences on the 1st of September! Carol Stitching Dreams got me on this Shannon Christine binge😁 after seeing her 2 tiny Shannon Christine Christmas ornament finishes on her latest post. I'll go through my floss and fabric to kit up some of these Gingerbread freebies and get started on Tuesday the 1st. It's going to be fun. It'll get my mind off of how hot it's been around here.

That's the segue way into the weather. It has rained so much! I had to drive up to the old house a couple days ago and the hillsides are so green 💚 💚 

Click on the pictures to see the dark green on the hillside. My one brother and I had to go halfsies on a landscaper to cut down the weeds in the yard of the house, they'd gotten so tall. The thistle bushes act like trees but they had to come down. The purple flowers bring in a lot of bees, however. The yard now looks great.

It's still hot where I live but hopefully it'll start cooling off next month. I'd like to get out and do some road trips but it's too hot and I'd look like a drowned rat with all my sweating 😅 

Alrighty! I think this is it. Anybody joining the many SALs out there? I used to be good at Sals in the past but now I just do my own thing!

Take care and we'll see you in September.

Misbehaving WIPs

Yes, 2 WIPs are in time out! Two weeks ago after I finished the Blackbird Designs pin pillow, I'll show below, I went on a random sweep through some big WIPs. This one is Jane Southward 1836 by GigiR...

That pink flower is the middle. I already had the vine going to the left but just the one color. The vine is made up of 2 colors, yikes. So I added the 2nd color and stitched in the light pink flower and turned the corner! 

But!

I was off a stitch...

and now have to frog the stitching between my arrows, both colors! Ugh! Off to time out!

Last post I mentioned wanting to start this...

By October House Fiber Arts. I was going good, stitching 3 corners of the red white and blue star but once again I miscounted. I frogged out the wrong stitching and said "You're in Time Out!"😂

However, I did pull out the Grace Bridges Sampler by Stacy Nash and...finished the 2 rows of the bigger alphabet, right above the peacock. Also stitched in the tree top there on the right. 

No counting problems so far. I'm now where I call the fun times, no letters or numbers, just motifs. I wanted to stitch more of that tree so I can keep going to see if my fabric is going to fit. I will pick this up often in the coming weeks. 

Another WIP I picked up albeit smaller is...

Dr. Raven by Stacy Nash. I only had the 3rd row of buttons (stitched) on his lab coat. This thing will be big, maybe 7" or 8" tall. I'm missing a color in his ears which was WDW Sand. I finally just pulled out a DMC that looked sand-like. I will be picking up the good Doctor this coming week. I'd like to have him done and finished before Halloween.

What's next?🤔

I have a new start. It's a Heartstring Samplery design honoring Yukon Cornelis, the gold prospector who rescues Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Hermie in the 1964 Christmas show by the same name. I believe I bought it during the Jingle Ball in '24 or last year. I don't know if it's available on her Etsy. At my age of 62 I still have to watch it!

Two colors on a mystery 36ct linen, I substituted GAST Ruby Slippers and Piney Woods with GAST Chives, my favorite Christmas green, and Tomato. That top border is easy but there's more to the designs at the bottom. As I said before I'm not a fan of single stitches but I'm doing it. I could've left them off but it's good for character building, lol!

As mentioned above, I have a finish and that's Spring Green by Blackbird Designs...

One phone camera, 2 different colors! I used the called for 36ct Gingerbread by PTP and it's more brown/orange than how my pictures look. Perfect size for a pin pillow. My pictures don't do it justice. That's my initial there on the left side. 

So it was exchange time over at the FB group Homespun Needlework. I received my package...

Patriotic pieces are always welcome! I just love the needleminder with my name. I got stickers, needles, threaders and counting pins. As always, I forgot to take a picture of what I sent my giftee. I sent her a Blackbird Designs pin pillow, a piece of 36ct linen, trim, a little kit, and a piece of cotton fabric. The hanging pillow is by Primrose Cottage called Independence Quaker. Exchanges are fun!

I kind of fell into a stitching idea pulling out those big WIPs. I've decided to stitch on 2 or 3 pieces during the month, 1 big WIP and 1 or 2 smaller WIPs. I have another big GigiR sampler WIP that I'd like to get some work on. 

That's all for stitching.

Carol/Stitching Dream's mentioning audiobooks on her last post reminded me that I'm doing more reading. I'm on Goodreads and on January 1st I joined their reading challenge. I see others putting 50+ books for the challenge and I chose 3! I did meet my challenge though. Two paperbacks and a Kindle book from Amazon. I downloaded the app for my tablet and I'm currently reading #4. I'm a holdout for actually holding a real book but these 2 books are ebooks and they were 2.99 each. I'm liking them. 

How's the weather? Hot. It should be getting to 107 today. I just stay inside. I'm learning to do things in the morning. 

And that's all she wrote!

Thanks for your comments left on the last post. I'm enjoying them. 

Happy August! See you soon🙋🏻‍♀️

Sweat

Hi all, it's good to be back! Hope you're all doing well! We're on a crash course to the end of July so I thought I'd put in another post. Thanks for all the comments last time. I enjoyed reading them all. 

A little housekeeping -DJ couldn't find the Huzzah! freebie by Plum Street Samplers. I made an order to the Lindy Stitches shop back in May or June and included in my package was several 250th freebies of which Huzzah! was one. Maybe you could do a little shopping and ask for Huzzah! to be included? 

Several of you named the bright red tree that's near me at work as a Crepe Myrtle. I'm guessing they like a little heat. As Lee said, they don't grow up in Michigan. 

All sorts of things have been going on so I'll save that for the end, including why I titled my blog Sweat😆

Today I have a #marketmaynia finish, some progress, an exchange plan, and a future new start. Let's go!

My finish for #marketmaynia is Fang from Fang and Big Eye Gang by Twin Peak Primitives...

He's cute with his tie dyed shirt. Oops, I forgot to stitch handles for his skull candy bucket😁 I had run out of the orange floss and had to wait until I could drive to Hobby Lobby located at my former home. I made a list of needed DMCs for future projects. I got back and just now finished Fang. I first used 32ct but didn't like how it was feeling and it was going to be big. The model has all 3 of these finished on dowels and stuck into old thread spools. My plan is to FFO these similarly but glued into small painted metal buckets. In August, I'll start on the next Gang member which is a pumpkin head dressed as a clown. The fabric I'm using is 36ct Sanibel by Tropical Stitches. 

My FFO bug is missing so if you see him, send him my way please!😆

Next up is my start from June, Spring Green by BBD. It's from the Ooh La La book...

I went to town on this because I was sure I could finish it before the end of this month and I still think I can. It's 4 1/4" sq inches and stitched on PTP Gingerbread 36ct. That top picture is closer to the real color. 

What I forgot to mention last month was I joined an exchange in the Homespun Needlework group on FB. Yes, I got back on Facebook again🙄😄missed it! So my partner is from back east I believe, it's been awhile since I checked where she's from. The deadline is July 30th which is rapidly approaching. I have her piece stitched, it's a whatever season selection for this exchange. It's a Christmas ornament. I have a few other gifts to send along. I kind of want to send her a Christmas card to identify myself. What do you all think about that? Let me know.

Now that Fang is finished, I kitted up a freebie from October House Fiber Arts...

Not much to kit up! I didn't have GAST Dungarees so I substituted with DMC 931. I'm using 36ct Patriot's Brew from R & R. I usually avoid stitching long designs because I don't like how they look when I FFO them. Everybody's long finishes look nice, I don't like mine. I thought this design could work as Patriot and Christmas. You can find her patterns and freebies on her website. She also has a newsletter you can sign up with. 

Okay, I think that's it for the stitchy stuff. 

About my title Sweat!

The humidity has been out of this world, for us! Our Monsoon season hit fast and furious with rain every single day and/or night going on for a week. Right now the dew point is sitting at 65% and I'm not a happy camper!😂 My hair went Poof! and all I do is sweat. While I'm sitting and stitching, or just moving about. It's worse at work! 

But!

The rain has helped to put out a fire north of me. A few times the wind shifted and we ended up with a layer of smoke in the early hours here where I live. It's been worse for those living north and northeast of the fire. Maybe you've heard of Sedona?

It went on for an entire month. With those canyons, you can't get firefighters down in those. So, it's a trade-off with the humidity. I don't know how it would be if we didn't get this relief. Because the dew point is up our temps have stayed down. I don't think for a week we've gotten into the 100s, whew.

Here's a thunderstorm going on the other day when I drove back to my old home. It can rain on your front yard but be dry in your backyard! Monsoon storms are that way.

Speaking of Sedona, I had to drive out that way recently. I forgot how pretty it is there with the red rocks. I could do without all the roundabouts though🙄

And here's a fact of life in Arizona...

 This is how people in Phoenix drive, lol. They actually keep oven mitts in their cars because the steering wheel is super hot. I've even found that to be true here, especially if you park toward the sun. 

I think that's all she wrote. I'm starting to feel Halloween-ish for August stitching. Someone on a stitching FB group has a finish of a WIP of mine and it's a Halloween piece. I may pick that up in August to get it done.

See you soon and keep cool and safe out there!🙋🏻‍♀️