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🙋🏻‍♀️