2017 plans, a last finish, and other stuff

Hi everyone! Better get comfortable, grab a drink or something because I've been talking to cats for the last day and a half!

Hope your Christmas was magical with family, friends, and food! Mine was particularly wonderful, partly because of this..

Yup, a white Christmas, yay! Although I can live without the white stuff, you just gotta have a white Christmas. My brothers came up Christmas Eve morning to avoid the snow and it was great to see them. They live in Phoenix. And...my gift that my daughter bought me that brought tears to my eyes...

Works like a charm. I also received chocolate, lottery tickets, and gift cards but this...! I fired it up yesterday and made this..

An ornament that I stitched up earlier this year. My cord-making went haywire. I cannot make cording to save my life! I have watched Vonna's video on cord-making and this is what I end up with ^. So I improvised and sewed it on the top and hung a skeleton key on the end and made a tassel. It's back to the drawing board for making cord. One of my New Years resolutions, to master this. Ha. But it's just great to have a sewing machine again. I never took my old one in to be checked and fixed. 

Here we go....I joined Honeybee's (Copper Fox) little sal The Keeping Christmas Project to stitch ornaments. I had my first finish in September and as of last week, ended up with 7 ornaments. Here is the very last one...A Sprig of Holly, from the Primitive Punchneedle and Cross Stitch, I think?

On 32ct, 1 over 2. Love her dress with the the eyelet stitch at her waist and the satin stitch spool to the right. All of these ornaments I'll FFO them next year.

I also had another finish last week, the last one for 2016. Little Lamb by Kathy Barrick...

It's a small design, fits a 8" sq. frame. I stitched in the reins at the last. Does anyone see Rudolph and his red nose? I think Santa was giving his reindeer a night off! 

Total finishes for 2016 comes to 37! Woohoo! Two of those finishes were exchange gifts and are gone. Some of these finishes have been FFO'd already, or need it, or need framing. I'll do all that next year.

Remember I won a gift card from Brian (Blitstitch) from flosstube? Well, here is what I used it on..

Overdye's to kit up some projects, two LHN designs that have been on my wish list for months, and the Mardi Gras silks for a sal that I've joined for February or March. 

Uh, what next? Oh. Here are my plans for 2017. I reserve the right to chuck it all and do what I want! I have 4 or 5 definite projects to do and here they are: 

Frosty Forest by CCN

I just need to get the DMC's together. This is my New Year's day stitch. Somewhere down the line I will add a border on this, just like Jeannie at Willow Tree Stitcher did on hers. I don't have a link but some of you may know what it looks like. I may tweak a few borders from other CCN or LHN charts for my border. Just hope I have enough fabric for that!

Classic Christmas Charm by Barbara Ana, found in 3 issues of Cross Stitch and Needlework mags..

I wasn't too sure about this called for fabric, Milk Chocolate, but after the floss toss, decided it won't be too bad. I'll do half of the border starting from the upper left and then start stitching the inner white and green blocks. I'm thinking of a week spent on each new start. Next up are two Primitive Hare designs, Christmas Carol Sampler and Ichabod Crane Inn, all ready to start..

As for WIPs, these are what I'm stitching on..

Top to bottom: Jacks Bash by PSS, Blackwater Hollow by Stacy Nash, Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas, A Bee in your Bonnet by Summerhouse Stitcheworkes, and last but not least- Christmas Garden by BBD. Vintage Stars is the oldest WIP here. Wish me luck..

I run with the Stitch Maynia crowd on FB and have joined a couple of SAL's through Maynia, a Mardi Gras style one in February I think, and an M sal which is stitch on something that starts with the letter M, or a designer or subject matter. That's in March. I also joined a Stitch from Stash on FB. 

If you can believe it, I'm still waiting on Cricketbugs chart and fabric for winning my giveaway! Everything she gets she can use for next Christmas! I emailed her a couple weeks ago and this was her response:

             I am having the same problems! It's like it's Christmas or something 

Lol. She's too funny! Like it's Christmas, indeed! I'll have to time the giveaway next year a little better. The problem is the dyed linen coming from Dames of the Needle. Well, dame- it! Just kidding!

On the 10th of this month, my daughter and I were supposed to fly to Chicago but after the last two months of a kitty death, auto breakdown, and various other mishaps, we had to cancel:((

But....that weekend it was below zero up there! We dodged that bullet! I really wanted to see the Christkindle market and eat Chicago deep dish pizza. So before the tickets expire in June, we have decided to go back to New Orleans in March. Weather wise, a huge extreme. It'll be after Mardi Gras and the room prices will go back down somewhat. 

I believe that's it! Whew. Hopefully, you made it to the end with me. I will continue to stitch an ornament or two a month. I'll be busy for sure. I have 31 WIPs and hope to whittle that down by this time next year. 

Followers and lurkers, I just want to say Thank You for hanging with me throughout the entire year! Thank you for your comments, for your words of sympathy on the death of E.T., for commiserating with me on my wacky health which I might add is much better. Helps to lose 20 pounds here in the last 3 months, not diabetic anymore. I appreciate each and everyone of you. Wishing you a 

and a year of great health, lots of new stash, peace, and new beginnings! See you next year!

A great weekend!

Hi all!

Back so soon, you ask? Yes. My exchange goodie reached my partner and I received mine so I thought I would show off what they look like.

I made the PSS design The Favorite Font Sampler into a flat ornament/wall hanging..

And because my partner likes blue, I made the house blue and trimmed it with that thick blue chenille trim. Used twine for the bow and the hanger then added the rusty bells. She loved it. I also added a little Chocolate Santa to the package.

After a pretty bad day yesterday, I checked my mailbox to find I had received my exchange gift from my partner. When I read the card that came with it, I whooped because the partner turned out to be the owner and designer of Death By Thread, of whom I own two charts! Here it is..

Let's just say my attitude and day turned on a dime! I love it. The pattern is Merry Yule by Forgotten Farm. Velvet on the back and the scrunched up ribbon is a nice touch. Thanks again, Becky!

Also, I just found out that I won a $30 gift certificate to 123stitch from a Flosstuber! His name is Brian and he goes by Blitstitch on Flosstube and @blitstitch on Instagram. He works on huge and beautiful projects and is an excellent stitcher. So go check him out. I have a smile on my face that goes ear to ear! Haha.

I am stitching a Christmas design from that primitive stitching magazine I showed the last post. I'll be picking that back up here pretty soon.

Cricket-bug, I am still waiting on a package from Stitching Bits and Bobs. Everyone on FB says that the shop is pretty slow. In their defense, they are a two person shop as someone toured the shop and it was mentioned it's a wife/husband team. So as soon as I get it, everything will be on its way to you.

CJ, your package is in the mail as of today so watch out for it sometime this coming week.

I'll be back after Christmas with a recap of this year, and my stitching plans for 2017, big plans. If I'm not back sooner, I'll just say now that I wish each and everyone of you who follow or lurk, a very

Wicked Dance, 'Tis the Season

Hi all! Just got home from grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving meal. I can't believe it's almost the end of 2016 but after the year we've had, my daughter and I, 2017 can only be better!

I have a finish! Here's Wicked by Barbara Ana..

I'm not sure of the fabric I used but the floss is DMC variations and regular. The orange is called Chilean Sunset or #4130 and up close it has some pink in it and it's very pretty. The floss color of the key though I don't know as I lost the plastic sleeve it came in but I thought it was a good color for a key! I started this in 2014 and put it in time out because somewhere in the key handle is a counting mistake. I know where it's off but it doesn't really mess with how it looks. As for the date in the cartouche, I didn't know what to put in it because I misplaced the number graph that came with the chart. I didn't want the 1976 that the designer has on the model so I just stitched that 8 in there. I also shortened the web to the spider on the right so that it stayed in line with the bottom of the design. This is one cute design and just makes me want to stitch all the other Barbara Ana designs!

Giveaway time! My 6th Blogaversary is a few days before Christmas but I want to do this early enough in time. So sign up starts now and ends November 27th. I know everyone will be busy throughout next week. Open to followers on Blogger/Google and Bloglovin and I will mail overseas too. You have to let me know 3 things though:

1. Are you a linen stitcher or Aida stitcher? I have chart/fabric combos for either one. So you just  

    mention which one you would like and just the one.

2. What kind of candy do you like? It's cooled down now so I can mail chocolate!

3. Do you like Christmas-y scents and what kinds? Examples: baked goods scents, spruce/tree, 

    and so on.

This is a Prim kind of giveaway, the prizes are prim looking, rusty, etc. Here's what is for the linen crowd..

Comes with 32ct linen called for.

For the Aida stitchers is this LK chart of Santa with a nice chunk of 14ct dyed Aida

Winner gets their of choice of linen or Aida and all the goodies to go with it. If the winner chooses the Aida, then the linen package without goodies is still up for grabs and I will draw names for whoever chose linen in the first place and vice versa. Is that understandable? I don't know why my giveaways are so convoluted! 

It's a short post this time around. I spent most of my stitching time on Wicked so I have nothing else to show. As soon as I post this, I have to put together my exchange project. I don't know why I've been procrastinating on it but it has to be mailed on the 30th so I better get with it.

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and Happy Stitching to those who don't. I'll be back on the 27th or 28th to announce the winners of the giveaway. Good luck and take care! I'll leave you with a funny picture of two Saguaro cacti Somewhere in Arizona. 

This is a hold up, Pardner!

Post

Hi all!

Couldn't think of an attention-grabbing title! I'm a little on the tired side, bored so I thought I would take some last minute pictures and here I am! I do have some finishes, progress, and Stash!

So the progress I have is on Jack's Bash by PSS..

I don't know why I get that big red splotch in the middle on nighttime, lamplight pictures but there it is. This fabric does have some small areas of red splotchyness but nothing like the picture. Anyway, I got the sawtooth border in below the first row of alphabet, nothing hard about it and it went fast. I have another row below the last part of alphabet. Below that are the tops of heads and a roof and then I'll have stitched half of this design, folks! The rest of it becomes interesting as there's a house, 4 people, a verse in tent stitch, and a very large lawn (well, to me it's large!), and two large urns with plants!

Here is Jack before

I quit stitching on Jack because I received my exchange partners' info and started stitching right away which is also one of my finishes. I don't think she knows I have a blog. So, she likes Plum Street and the color blue. She was in luck because I like PSS also and had the perfect design-The Favorite Font Sampler..

On 36ct something Edinburg linen. I made the fox a little more browner and the house blue. We can't make a pinkeep so I'll make it into a flat ornament with a hanger. Mailing date is the 30th. This weekend I'll put it together and get it in the mail next week or the week of Thanksgiving. Yay! 

My other finish was a little Christmas ornament for the Keeping Christmas Project hosted by Honeybee.

This is a freebie by Stitchorizeit. I added green Kreinik to the green floss for the stars? on the sides for some bling. Here's the link to this design. You just have to scroll down until you run into it:

https://stitchorizeit.wordpress.com/2014/12/

I'm stitching another ornament and its half way done but no picture yet.

Stash! I bought all the charts from Stash Unload and Stash Unloading on FB, and the fabric on etsy.

The fabric is 36 ct with some light beige coloring for only $6.50, the Fleur de Lys chart for $4 ppd because I've joined a Mardi Gras type SAL on FB in February or March, the PSS chart for $9 ppd, the Hands on Designs chart for $4 and the two PS minis for $2 each. Not bad at all. Then I ungrouped myself from Stash Unload! 

I have joined a Stitch from Stash 2017 on FB. I think my stash buying has been pretty mild this entire year compared with previous years. The Nashville market always trips me up though! I gave myself a $25 budget but I doubt I'll go over it, maybe a thread or two here and there. 

Some of you may have noticed no Halloween giveaway this year. The time got away from me and then my kitty died and the bill was over $300 and then my daughter's pickup broke down and there went $500 so no giveaway:( But stay tuned for the end of this month because I'll announce a Christmas giveaway. It's my 6 year blogaversary in December and well, it's the Christmas season! It's a prim kind of giveaway so if you like prim, this ones for you!

I think that's it. I have a couple people messaging me so I better attend to that.

I want to say Welcome to new followers, on Blogger and Bloglovin'. There were so many of you checking out the blog hop that a few of you stayed! Glad to have you!

I better get. Take care!

Something's burnin', na na na na....

and I think it's meeeee! Quick, what song does that sound like? Well, except the meeee part ;)

Boy, has it been hot here in these parts! 101 couple Sundays ago,105 the day after and it has not been below 95 since! In my area, the 105 was the hottest ever recorded. Down in Phoenix, 105 is rather cool! Today though, it's cloudy and it feels a tad humid. Yay, maybe our Monsoon season is gearing up. Hope so. I love thunderstorms but my cats do not.

I don't stitch much when it's hot. My home does not have AC or even an evaporative cooler. We make do with fans and lots of ice water! The cats sleep on the fireplace hearth because it's tile or the kitchen floor. So I got caught up with some reading.

But! My long awaited package from Needlecraft Corner arrived the other day and my stitching mojo sat up and took notice! That's kind of creepy..stitching mojo sat up!

Yup, the Spooked Mystery Sampler from LizzieKate! I jumped right on it and I just have two sides of border so really no picture. This Mystery sampler I ordered the whole shebang because last time they put out a mystery series, I thought I could be thrifty and buy my own piece of fabric. Well, I ran out of fabric and had to tweak the design some. So this time I said What the Heck. I also bought these..

Aren't these the cutest?! And this is just Part 1, eek! Since my Merry Berry finish inside the hoop, I've fallen in love with these chalkboard patterns. This came with 3 cuts of the gunmetal linen, the floss and embellishments. All from Needlecraft Corner. Drema, the owner, does a great job over there. So no more stashing for me. Well, until Part 2 of the chalkboard ornaments come out:)

I have a couple finishes, small ones..First up is Potted Poinsettia by LHN..

So pretty. I had to sub DMC for the light brown but it came out great anyway. Stitched up in a couple days.

 And my next finish tugs at the heart a bit..

This pattern is in the Fall 2015 issue of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine. Stitched in a day and a half with domestic duties getting in the way a little. When you are an empty nester, there's not much to take care of besides these cats whom I might add are shedding ferociously! Anyway, this little cutie is designed by the Snowflower Diaries designer. You can recognize her style in this. It's nice to use up some of those small pieces of leftover fabric.

Lately, I've been using (or wasting!) time at Pinterest and I came across a wine cork project. I have a bunch of wine corks that my daughter collected from area restaurants and this is what I made..

It's a pumpkin! Here's the top of it..

I bought 3 bottles of paint, varying colors of orange and went to work. It was like doing a puzzle really. I used hot glue to glue the corks together and then to secure the stalk onto the leaves. Here we are entering into July real soon, and this little pumpkin eases the hot a little. Here's a picture from Pinterest that I borrowed..

I have more corks so I think I could do the bigger one too. You can see her dot com address there at the bottom of the picture if you're interested. There is not much to making these.

Yesterday my daughter got me out of the house of stitching, haha, and we met to listen to some Bluegrass..

It was still 96 but under the shade and a nice breeze, it wasn't too bad!

Well, that's my novel and I'm sticking to it! 

Oh, and I'm joining Justine's Just One July where you work on just one project for the month. I don't think I'll do the Spooked sampler but a WIP that I would like to have done. It's been a while since I've touched it.

Hope you all have a safe 4th of July to those of you who celebrate and to those who don't, have a nice week and that you get to stitch a whole lot!

Practice makes perfect, exchange pynkeeps

Experts like to say, in so many words, that if you declutter the space around you, you'll feel better mentally. I have quite the pile of stitching just waiting to be finished or framed. By finishing I mean the final finishing. One item I finished is this LizzieKate that I completed last year. I knew how I wanted to final finish it, it was just figuring out how to decorate it. That could also be my procrastination in rampant mode. But anyway, here it is..

Hats off to Halloween by LK. There's this seller on etsy who really does some amazing final finishing to her stitching. I saw a Halloween design that I really liked and tried to finish Hats Off like hers. This thing is big! Haha. The fabric on the left has tiny spiders on it and I just used the frayed side of the fabric along the design. And I used this shiny, hairy trim for it..

I'll just say cutting through this big of piece of foam board was not fun. Fine for smaller flat ornaments, big stuff, not so much! My hanging thingamajigger at the bottom is off center too but I've been off center lately, so that's my excuse! I still love it though and keep looking at it when I walk by.

This one below, though, has used up my finishing reserve. The tank is now empty! It's a Mission church on Aida that I stitched more than 6 years ago. I kept it, tried to sell it on eBay, no takers. After seeing Vonna's new mounted flatfold tutorial on video, the Mission became my practice piece. By the way, have you seen her Flosstube videos? She's so cute, funny, and personable. I subscribed to her videos. Anyway, here is Mission, my first flatfold..

Whew! I have learned that it's best to use thin cotton fabrics. That second photo you can see how bulky my fabric is, and my mounting boards I could've done a better job at measuring. Also, the ribbon that's used at the bottom to keep the A shape was not long enough so a nice breeze is going to knock it over! I hope you all can see my pictures, they're kind of dark. I still like how it looks and it certainly is my practice piece. All of this courtesy of Vonna and her tutorials for the mounted flatfold and bow making. Practice makes perfect!

The pynkeep exchanging is almost over at Dixiesamplars on FB. I sent this to my partner. It's a very old freebie from 2007. I changed up the colors to match my partners likes..

First time for attaching ric rac to the sides with beads. Here's the back...

My partner liked it.

Here is what I received and I love it!

The back has an orange piece of woolfelt whipstitched in place. This exchange was called The Very Happy Unbirthday Pynkeep Exchange, hence that birthday card. The ribbon is now in my stash!

Short and sweet! It was so hot last weekend, I didn't stitch for 3 or 4 days. I started feeling a bit sideways and knew stitching would cure that and it did! It's cooled up some and we even had a thunderstorm with rain come through last night. I started something new and have been stitching on a WIP.

I enjoyed reading all your comments last post. Yeah, I had smoking needles! Thanks for dropping in!

A Spooky Selfie, O.H.D., and finishes

Haha!

Gotcha! I bet you were expecting a truly terrifying selfie of myself, weren't you? 

Actually it's one of my finishes below.

I failed on my post before last to thank Cricket-bug from Cricket-bug Corner for the Mirabilia pdf she sent me in exchange for the magazine I sent her that she was looking for. It's this one..

I had kept that magazine with this design ever since it was released with the intention of stitching it. So Cricket-bug, a big thank you for doing this. I appreciate it! It's going into my 2016 to stitch pile.

Here are my finishes..

House without a Mouse by Blackbird Designs, my 18th DUCJ/FSAL2015 finish..8 to go..

I think I used 3 skeins of CC Blackbird here and had to break out another for a few more strands. Last year when I put in the date, I made sure to make it 2016 to force myself to finish it this year!

And here's Merry Berry by a Hands on Design/JABC collaboration..

Is that nice or what? I bought the chart with fabric and buttons and then the finishing package which consists of the hoop, the wool backing, black fabric for behind the design, and the ribbon. At the JABC blog, they have a finishing video for this and I whipped it up in 15 minutes. Love it! Took me 3 days to stitch though, haha.

As for my other finishes..

Yes, indeed because the next three are Halloween-y! First up is Spooky Selfie..

The fabric is soo washed out. Picture a nice green WDW Guacamole color. I bought this at Needlecraft Corner as a kit. It was a fun stitch. Next up is Fall Postcard by Summer House Stitche Workes..

I used 40ct Havana and it is tiny but a perfect size for the burlap canvas that you see on the model picture. I have bits and pieces collected to decorate this soon. My final finish is..

Halloween Delivery by Plum Street Samplers of PSS. The fabric is Chamomile. Isn't ghostie cute?! It's like you can see his outline! 

Yes, I stitched like a mad woman! I count 15 finishes for the year so far, a mixture of things started last year and this year, Crazy stitching included.

After finishing all those, I grabbed this WIP, also a Crazy 2015 start..

This is Autumn Delights by Barbara Ana, found in the November 2013 Cross Stitch and Needlework issue. You know this is a Barbara Ana design just by the quirkiness of it. Here is what it'll look like when done..

So I have the entire bottom portion left to stitch but I'm taking a small break from all the brown of the tree! FYI-I've noticed this design being sold as a chart.

The pynkeep I made for my exchange partner is on its way to Nebraska. This is an exchange hosted by Terri/DixieSamplar on FB. I will show a picture of what I made when she receives it. I'm not sure if she knows I have a blog.

Alrighty, that's it. Looking back at what I have on this post, it should be September or October! I wish because we still have summer to get through and it's supposed to be furnace hot here this weekend, 114-115 in the deserts, probably middle 90's where I live. I mean, I'm still pulling my blanket on in the early hours! How can this be?! I'm so not ready for it. 

Thanks for stopping by. Here's to stitching for hours straight!