Post Frolic, An Apple a Day, and a finish

Morning!

I am returned from the Dead! I think this might be a quote from a book or something, not sure! It applies to my stitching and blogging mojo, there was nothing, nada, zilch. I stitched enough to have one finish which is below. So I joined the Kitten Stitching and Friday Frolics SAL to jump start my mojo and to remind myself to stitch with FNSI which is always on the 3rd Friday. Well, I forgot FNSI AGAIN! But I remembered the Frolic and here's what I stitched..

Halloween Revelry by the Primitive Needle and stitched for the Sept./Oct. 2009 JCS issue. Here's where I was last time..

This is a Crazy project and so I would love to have it finished before this Halloween but at 40ct fabric, I don't think that's happening!

An Apple a Day. Part of the problem was working on my apples..

I have them completely blanket-stitched and now just have to blanket stitch the base, the round circle, and then attach the apples to the base. It was relaxing to stitch on the apples while bingeing on Longmire! 

Over at the PS SAL, I had this finish, in case some of you hadn't seen it..

It's from the unnamed card but I'm calling it Queen Bee. Took me all of a few hours, the only stitching in the 18 days between posts. This will be a gift. I have some ideas for the FF (Final Finish) of it.

I also finished the item for the Exchange that Dixiesamplar is hosting. I have to the 23rd or 24th to get the whole kaboodle into the mail and sent off. Just glad Terri hooked me up with a fellow countryman or woman! I have a few more things to buy for the package and a trip to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies for the finishing for the Exchange item will be today. So I'm going to be a busy bee today!

Next week, I'm announcing a Halloween Giveaway. I love Halloween as I'm sure most of you know! I've been collecting things through the year and am making two of the items in addition to other stuff. It's more like a Prim kind of Halloween. There won't be any laughing pumpkins or things like that. It'll be great! So if you like/love Halloween, be sure to check these pages out next week. I'm doing it early so the winner can display the items early enough.

Luckily, most of of the things are exempt under SFS rules!

Glad you could stop in. Welcome to the new Bloglovin' followers. Hope me and my stitching are interesting enough! Lol. Take care!

Gone around the bend, a detour

Hi all!

Yup, I've gone around the bend. In the last week, I've signed up for a Fall/Halloween exchange and two, yes 2, SALs! The exchange hosted by Terri from Dixiesamplar, and the SALs are the Prairie Schooler and the Americana hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. I would put up links but they don't work so well on this app on my iPad. Now, I haven't stitched up a whole lot of PS but since hearing they are retiring, I had to join in on the fun. As soon as I can, I'll add to my stash some PS.

I took a detour recently. Here she is..

The Black-Hearted Queen by sub-rosa. Here's a better picture of the color of the fabric I used..

Here's a commercial for DixieSamplar fabrics, unpaid of course! But because I love her fabrics! This is 28ct Vintage River Rocks. I also made some changes to the pattern: red lips, a different neckline. I knocked this out in a weekend. 

So, I've been tackling some long time WIPs and put in a few more stitches on this one..

This is Pumpkins & Sunflowers from a Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine. It's taking on a life since the last time I stitched on it..

October 11th of last year is the last time I stitched on it. To the left of the sunflower is a ginormous pumpkin taking shape. You can see a leaf above it and the stalk. I'm looking forward to it because it's one color of orange!

I haven't stitched a whole bunch in the last week. It's been pretty warm here and it just sucks the life outta you! 

I'm off. Just finished watching the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies on TV. It always ushers in football season and the start of cooler weather around here. I am so ready for Fall! 

Thanks for stopping by! See you around the 15th!

Some progress, some stash

Hi all!

Here we are on the cusp of another 4th of July, in the halfway point of the year. It has been hot here which explains my header picture! Last week before our Monsoon rains came in with a bang, the temps had been around the high 90s. It was just torture! So I thought I'd put up a picture of something cold. This isn't where I live. It looks like it may be the Swiss Alps maybe?! I don't know but it feels great to see that.

So onto progress..

Salem Sisters by PSS, my evening stitch. I haven't stitched on her because my pole lamp I use for stitching busted its last bulb Sunday and I haven't been able to find the bulbs. Since I've begun my 5 day weekend today, I'll be putting in some more kitty heads which makes up the border on the bottom. I'm almost done! This will be my 13th DUCJ/FSAL finish. Yay!

Here's where Sisters was before..

My summer stitch is this, Bee in Your Bonnet..

This will be so pretty when it's done. I had to make a change to the light over dyed thread. Chart called for GAST Oatmeal but it pretty much disappeared into the fabric. So I hauled out every light colored over dyed thread I had and guess what worked? Good ole' DMC Blanc! All it's for is the trim around the crown and the honeycomb one of which is being stitched there at the bottom of Bonnet. Love the colors going in here in this section. Below is what I had before..

Here's my very first start of DUCJ/FSAL. I just recently picked the poor thing back up. Here's where I'm at now..

This is Ambiance Automnale by Danybrod. It finally got it's very first ironing. I believe the fabric is Sandcastle maybe or something like that. I really like the splotches of pinkish/beige color. So I've made some changes on this. The crows body took black and light gray DMC. I'm using GAST Black Crow, appropriate, huh?! His beak is steel gray DMC. The orangey flowers which may be Bittersweet? got their own change from DMC which I didn't have, to an overdyed thread of some kind, can't remember! The witchy boot will be black DMC, see below on the chart. Last time I stitched on this I had just the crows head. So there's been progress!

Well, I up and joined Stitch from Stash 2015-B, which started on the 1st. I'll try and make it to December this year! I liked the idea of earning virtual $$. It's nice incentive to finish more. The past two months I hadn't bought any stitchy stuff. Yay for me, until the last week of June when it looked like I wouldn't have any patriotic stitching done. I tend to stitch a lot of Easter, Halloween and Christmas things. I don't have any patriotic charts so I bought this chart..

I saw this when it first came out and just thought Wow, that's a lot of stitching on that whale! But looking at it a second time, that whale really grows on you! I've found some patriotic freebies here and there, with the help of Frances and her Independence tree. I'll be prepared next year! 

That's pretty much it! Those 3 WIPs I have next to my stitching corner of the couch (I've put in a big hole here. A new couch is in order, I think!) and they're the ones I've been working on lately. I'll continue my search for bulbs for my stitching lamp in the meantime!

Happy 4th to all you Americans! Have a nice weekend to those of you who aren't! Thanks for stopping by!

Jumped right into it, we have a winner, and a magazine/fabric giveaway!

Ahh, Spring! It's supposed to get to 74 degrees today. Maybe I can finally turn off the heater!

Although I don't have all the threads needed, I decided to make the leap and start Christmas Garden by BBD!

I've been budgeting for the purchases of the threads needed for this as some call for 3 or 5 skeins each. I have 3 colors and still need 2 others which I'll buy here in another week or two. Above is what I have so far, just some border. It's huge! A new start is definitely what I needed and I haven't picked up anything else! 

So we have a winner from the two that wanted the Aida and that would be LINDA!!!! Linda I have your address from the package you sent me for the Traveling Chest. Wonder what happened to that, if it got lost or what. I think some countries are going through mail strikes. Anyway, I'll have the Aida on its way to you this coming week.

How about another giveaway? This one is for the magazine and the fabric for one design..

My pictures are just terrible, ugh. The 28ct Dawn Grey Jubilee evenweave is for the project on the left-Autumn in New England. Lots of tweeding here, judging by the next picture..

The bracketing represents using one strand of one color and a strand of another. There's a lot of work here but it'll be beautiful when done. Not a whole lot of backstitching either. This is a JCS August 1992 issue with lots of other designs too. I've had this in my stash for a very long time; time for a new home! Who would like it? This time I can send overseas and Canada. As usual, if more than one person wants it, I'll draw names next Saturday. Open to everyone, follower or not.

Alrighty! That's it for today, a short post. I'm stitching on my GG project so I'll be back tomorrow to post for that. The 15th already! Time is just speeding by. 

Take care!