Turtle Trot October, SAL-itis, yadda yadda

Wow, these last few months are sure going by fast, aren't they?

I worked on one TT WIP, Pumpkins and Sunflowers, Now

Can't get a good picture of this.

Before..

P & S is a fun stitch and not very big.

As for progress on Harvest Delivery, here she is..Now

I like the argyle pumpkins. I want to finish this before Thanksgiving.

And before..

I'm getting ready to stitch the black wagon, a few more flowers, and the wagon tongue. Onto the horse! Looking forward to him/her.

I had to have one last new start for something Halloweeny, so here it is..

Tombstone Angel Pinkeep Drum and Strawberry. Yes, I'm going to attempt to construct this drum! I have a perfect fabric for the top and the wool for the bottom. I'll have to buy the black velvet for the strawberry though. Which then brings me to the question of-If I can stitch this tombstone angel, why can't I get back to stitching on my Early Witches piece?!

This the SAL with the Primitive Hare. Actually, as I was working away on the drum piece up above, I was feeling like I could go back to Witches and really put in an effort to catching up. I think the last part is being released this coming week. After I post this, I think I'll get back to it.

My plan for October is No New Starts for Halloween! I will finish up the all the Halloween type projects I have going, including Wicked..

I just need to frog some stitches at the bottom of the key. 

Lets see if my self-talk works!

Speaking of SAL-itis, I joined yet another group! Kim at Wisdom with Needle & Thread is hosting the Traveling Treasure Chest. She has sent off a package with some of her unwanted stash. She picked the first Pirate who is Teresa from the blog At Willow Tree Pond. Teresa picks two charts she wants, adds two or three from her own stash and sends the whole thing off to the next pirate! All of us who joined have alter egos! I am...

Harriet 'One-Eyed' Goff, the Knave of Mudskipper Harbour, who is also a jolly japester prone to the yo ho ho-ing, especially after a bottle of rum!

Yup, that rum will do that to you!

As mentioned in another post, I joined with a Christmas exchange hosted by Angela P at Hooked on Stitching. I received my recipient info and will begin stitching here soon, probably after I get all my Halloween done. It's not due to be shipped until the end of November.

I'm taking it easy today because Mr. Vertigo is trying to make his presence known. I dreamed I had an episode this morning but I think it really happened! How weird is that! I've been plagued with vertigo for the last 10 years and its a B---H!! Sometimes I can go for a year with constant vertigo but at a small degree where I have to lay down very slowly and get out of bed very slowly but life goes on. And sometimes they're so bad that I can't drive or work. One episode I went to the ER and had an MRI and  an EKG because this one was sooo bad and I could feel my heart beating like it was going to jump out of my chest. Both tests came out clear and positive. I was sent home with Valium to help with the anxiety. Right now I have a huge headache because I'm stressing over this. I've gone an entire year and a half without Mr. Vertigo. Why he's shown up now is beyond me. So no weedwacking for me. I had planned on yard work today but that's not happening now.

Thanks for allowing me to vent about Mr. Vertigo. I hate him! Lol!

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm also happy to see new followers, either through Blogger or Bloglovin'. A BIG Welcome to you all! My blogging anniversary is coming up in December so a Giveaway might be nice, right?! Take care all!

September Stitch From Stash, finishes, road trip pics, the exchange,etc..

Here we are, end of September. It's just going by too fast! Picture heavy by the way.

Friday night I stitched with the Sew-In and stitched right into Saturday and Sunday. There is no loss of mojo whatsoever but I do most of my stitching on the weekends anyway. During the week, I'm either too wiped out or stressed to pick up a needle. I also managed to finish a couple things too. Without further ado, here's SFS..

Beginning balance was: $52.75 with September's $25 added.

Money spent: $29.60 for two designs from the Primitive Hare, Wicked and Christmas Carol Sampler.

New starts from stash: Harvest Delivery

My Saturday and Sunday stitching. I'm stitching this on 32ct Platinum which I love. It's a nice all purpose fabric. It's a lot of fun.

WIPs or UFOs worked on: Exchange projects which is below, School Days, Vintage Stars, Merry Moose Wishes, LK Scary Sampler.

Balance is now $23.15. I could do better but...!

Here are my two finishes..

Designer is Plum Street Samplers, I think the chart is called My Pretties. I stitched this up a couple years ago as a huge pillow but it just looked terrible. So I cut it down and did this to it. I just noticed that a stitch is real loose, I'll have to fix that. And that PS ornament that is found in a JCS ornament magazine..

I need more Christmas ornaments! 

I just got an email from Joan who blogs at Stitching Squad (didn't get a link) that she received what I sent for the Harvest Exchange 2014. Besides a WTNT chart, floss to stitch it, scissors, needles, linen, wool, etc. I made these for her..

On the left is a door hanger. The design is from an older JCS issue. I also made the two wool leaves that are attached to the wire. I felt that wasn't enough so I stitched up the Scarlett House design and made the crown pin that is attached to the pillow at the upper left. She likes what I sent..woohoo!

As if my life isn't already busy, I up and joined the First Annual Christmas Ornament Exchange hosted by Angela at Hooked on Stitching http://hookedonstitches.blogspot.com/2014/09/first-annual-christmas-ornament-exchange.html

I think she has openings yet so go check it out. You make an ornament and send a card! That's it! 

I took some time off of work last week and my daughter and I drove to Jerome, AZ. for lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. It's named that because of the shenanigans something was doing with tools, noises, and such when the owners were renovating? Jerome is a ghost town that is still alive with about 300 people living there. The whole town is said to be haunted!

Our trip begins not too far from my home.. And into Jerome with its skinny roads

You can see the red rocks of Sedona in the distance. That's where we're going. The next pictures are entering or through Sedona. I love Sedona, it's so pretty there but their summers are pretty warm, in the low 100s most of the time but they also get some snow in the winter. Here we go..

This area has had a couple fires in the last year and you can see how the pines are burnt up, leaving just the tops. It's really greening up though because of the amount of rain we've had.

This would be my dream home!

This is Slide Rock State Park. Oak Creek runs through this portion, making the rock slick and its like a slide.

Lots of views.

See the rock above the white thing on the roof in the center of this pic? It's called Coffeepot Rock. Here's a better picture of it without the buildings..

See how it looks like an old style percolator coffee pot? You have the spout, the round thing on top, and the handle. On the other side of town, heading out toward Interstate 17, is Bell Rock which looks like a huge bell.

Now here's a picture that could answer a trivia question..

The only McDonald's in the entire US that doesn't have the yellow arches! They're turquoise. Zoning laws in Sedona allows only colors that reflect the area of the red rocks. Everywhere you go here, you notice the buildings, light poles, retaining walls are all a sandstone, brown, beige, or this turquoise color. It all looks very nice with the red rocks.

So I believe that's it. Hope you enjoyed the road trip. I'm hoping my iPad doesn't have too much trouble uploading all these pictures. I'm back to stitching on the LK sampler, determined to finish the thing before Halloween. Do I sound disgusted with the sampler? I am because its become a pain in my butt. I could've stitched more on the roof because now the satin stitches may be long in the lawn and I'm close to running out of the WDW Cadet for it. Grrr. I'll keep plugging away. Virpi's book she won is on its way to Finland and I'm crossing fingers it gets there. And Mary will soon be receiving her book too. All my business is done and I'm going to stitch! Take care and thanks for visiting!

Happy, Happy, Happy!

I'm so happy to get back to my WIPs and no-pressure stitching! I finished my exchange stitching and just need to sew it up. I'll send it and everything else next week. That, my friends, is that. Because I love Halloween, I only join the Fall/Halloween exchanges, so it'll be another year before I do that again!

Here we are for Turtle Trot time though and I managed to stitch on 3 WIPs. Here's my problem child-the LK Mystery Scary Sampler. Why problem? Because the fabric is too short, I'm having to leave out quite a bit of the pattern..

I've left enough fabric for framing at the bottom. I can at least get the lawn in with the x's and satin stitch. I wanted to make sure I put in the WDW Kohl and Guacamole border that kind of frames the house area. Here's that border right above the house, below..

which is unfortunately in the shadow! I'll put on my big girl panties and get this stitched up for Halloween. This is how it looked before..

Now, here's Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas, another Turtle Trot WIP

And how it looked before..

Just a few more stitches in the bluish Quaker and finishing up the large one in the middle.

And take a look at School Days. I'm building the school house now..

and the flag pole. A first, when I stitched the flag pole, I thought it should be a gray color because they're metal. But then I thought, no, an older style schoolhouse probably had a wooden flagpole back in the day. So now the color will remain.

For August, I asked Mel from SFS if I could please have a Free Month. Here's why..

Strawberry Fields Forever is awaiting its fabric but the others have fabric and fibers. This great shop in Maryland is called Needlecraft Corner www.needlecraft-corner.com. They can sell you just the chart or the whole enchilada (fab/floss/chart) at decent prices. They have a simple website where you have to either email or call in an order. Drema is a very nice lady and you can bet I'll order from them again. Next year though! Ha. Spent too much but look at those charts! 

So I'm giving away another cross stitch Christmas book, see last post. It ends this Friday if you're interested.

I've got a load of laundry to get done so I'd better do it! I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my cube finish. I still stop to look at it! Hope your Thursday is wonderful!

July's TUSAL and Stitch from Stash, progress, a finish, and stash!

How's everyone doing? This is going to be a long post with lots of pics. Just thought I'd warn you all! First I saw this over at 123stitch, borrowed the picture. I can say yes to 6 of these! Honestly now, what's your count?!

This is a new pattern on the New Items page at 123stitch.

So I'm doing double duty today for TUSAL and SFS. Here's my ort jar for the month of July

I have been stitching everyday, maybe a one day break when I finished my latest ornament. I took one ort out to show you how far down I go! I've looked at others and they're so long! Lots of blacks from Early Witches. 

SFS:

My ending balance from June was : $32.73

Add $25 for July:                               25.00

                                                       =57.73

Money Spent (I tried my best to make this a free month!):

$1.68 on GAST to finish the Sampler Pillow

  7.20 on LK Hats Off chart

  3.52 LK embellishment pack

  9.99 JCS Halloween issue

  2.20 on Colourworks thread (formerly Crescent Colours) for-

  5.39 LHN Red House in Winter

= $29.98! 

Ending balance is now $27.75 to carry over. I'm still buying too much I feel. I just need a couple skeins of an overdyed for a project I want to start in the next couple of weeks. After that, who knows?! Haha.

My new starts from stash were: Early Witches, the Mystery SAL with the Primitive Hare

I'm doing my best to get caught up but that's a lot of black! I'm using 32ct French Vanilla and I added some splotches with coffee and vanilla extract. So when I ironed this for its intro, up wafted the scent of warm vanilla! I know there's alcohol in the extract so I didn't use a lot. I'm taking this design almost right up the edges. Isobel did say that if you're going to frame, it'll have to be close without much border. I'm worried about how much length it'll take! 

Here's my ornament, from stash also. I tried to find a website for Cherrywood Design Studios. It's a real mystery because I printed the freebie from somewhere last year and I can't remember!

Isn't he cute?! I may make him a flat ornament with pins on the side. I'll just have to look for pins that'll match these colors.

And the last new start is from Pineberry Lane, the Lydia Broome Sampler

I'm using DMC on a mystery 36ct. I'll frame it for my mini wall.

WIPS or UFOS worked on: yes! Wicked, School Days, LK Scary Mystery Sampler, RP Sampler Pillow, and Dream Big.

Here's Wicked just recently

Before

I love the crow with his crown. I've made a mistake on the key handle, a miscount and I'm frustrated. The miscount is at the top, just to the right of the crow. I stopped at the bottom of that curve when it didn't meet up perfectly. I don't know whether to frog the top where the original problem started or leave it and adjust the bottom. It won't screw up the body of the key whatever I do. So I just dropped this and moved onto something else!

Here's School Days now

Those birds and the darker leaves are a bit darker than in real life. I'm about ready to add my initials and a date below the bird at the left of the trunk, and the trunk. The roof of the schoolhouse starts below those three birds. Can't wait!

Here's what I had before

And the last of the pictures, the RP Sampler Pillow, and the skein of Claret that I had to buy to finish this but I have another problem

See the W? The right leg is the newest skein of Claret and the older skein on the left. That older skein I've had for years! And it's so much lighter than the newer. What to do. Ugh, I hate that. I get a little persnickety from time to time and if I said I'll keep stitching it just to have a finish and that I'll use it just stinks to me! We'll see!

Any temptations this time around? Everything's a temptation right now! Anything that is Halloweenish/Autumn, is. Maybe because its been so hot here. This past week it's been 97 or so, and then our monsoon rains finally came back Thursday and yesterday with a vengeance, knocking out a transformer near work. I got to come home early yesterday!

I finish finished an ornament too

I had it sewed up a couple weeks ago and needed more stuffing. I used the fabric it's sitting on as the backing and used the ric rac to trim it. It's a keeper. I have more things to be finished so I need to get my butt to the sewing machine.

Want to see my stash?

I see about 5 designs in the Halloween mag that I want to stitch. And of course, Praiseworthy Stitches always has worthy designs in these issues that I want to stitch. And then the LK design and the LHN one. I've seen that one stitched up before on blogs but never thought much of it. This time, had to have it! That red of the house is beautiful.

I believe that's it! Thanks for hanging in there. I'm hoping to have more finishes by the time Turtle Trot day comes around. I need to justify the stashing and all I keep doing is starting stuff! Then there's more of my 2014 new starts that I haven't touched in months that I should be taking care of. What I really need to do is win a lottery worth a couple hundred million and then, I can stay home!

Take care! I appreciate your comments!

Stitch From Stash June

For this months SFS, we were given a $50 bonus of which I took advantage of! Thanks Mel! It's quite convoluted though and I just hope Mel can figure this one out!

Beginning Balance was $33.13

Regular June amount-   $25.00=$58.13

Add $50 bonus =$108.13

I spent $14.00 on Miss Baxter's House by Stacy Nash

               0.46 on a skein of DMC to finish Fancey Blackett

              22.55 in fibers for Miss Baxter

              15.90 for the patterns for the Primitive Hare Mystery SAL

              11.09 fabric for Miss Baxter

              11.40 fabric for the PH SAL

for a grand total of $75.40 in purchases! I now have a new balance of $32.73 (108.13 - 75.40).

I had 2 new starts from stash: Happy Bunny Bunny Day by the Trilogy (which i showed on a previous post) and Wicked by Barbara Ana Designs. Here's what I have for Wicked

WIPs I worked on were Fancey Blackett, Snowy Night, R.B. Sampler Pillow, Dream Big, LK Scary Mystery Sampler, and School Days. Here's progress on Dream Big

And what it looked like before

Here's School Days before

And now

The colors of this sampler are what it really looks like. 

I really blew a hole in my budget so I've got to watch it from here on out. In July the new Halloween JCS issue comes out and I've reserved a copy from 123stitch and that will be the end of the money leak. Well, until I see what kind of things are in the Halloween issue!

I'm off to stitch. Take care!