Another finish, and the winner is....

CJ! She wins the LizzieKate chart Coming to Town~Santa '11. CJ, I had your mailing address but not anymore. So email me at _______to leave your mailing address! Thanks to the 3 other contestants who played along.

Another big finish, folks, at least for me. I started Vintage Stars in 2013 sometime. I had to go back and track it down. So here she is...

This is by Jeannette Douglas Designs. This is my problem child and I have detailed the problems I've had with the silks and their names/colors so I won't bore you all again. Stitched on 35ct Liberty Gathering Gray by R & R. It's not splotched at all but sprinkling water on it to iron it resulted in it looking this way. I love it! This puts me at 17 finishes for the year. Here is a picture of the chart against my finish. You'll notice the yellow color in the big top motif..

I took my requisite day off from stitching after Stars and started back on this...

This is not my picture. I took this from the internet but this is what my pattern looks like. It's by Jura Point de Croix. I don't know a lick of French! She has a blog by the same name but it's all in French. I'm stitching mine on a lambswool-looking fabric. I just have half of the skinny snowman right now. Here is something else she has designed and those houses are adorable..

Carol, I could swear you stitched up some Christmas ornaments from this designer sometime back. I may be wrong. So I wanted to download some freebie patterns from her but my iPad wasn't having it.

I also got some good news from Stitching Noni that my package to her for Christmas in July made it! Sixteen days to Australia it took. She'll be blogging about that pretty soon so be sure to check her out at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.

Here's another look at Vintage Stars..

Which brings me up to a little contest....who can guess which of all the medallions/motifs on this design is my favorite? I've never mentioned a favorite. So take a look at the better picture and this ^. Just leave your guess in the comments. If two or more people guess the same, I'll draw a name a week from this Saturday and send something. It'll be a surprise! Open to anyone. Sounds like fun!

Well, I've got to get ready for work. I wanted to comment on comments left in the last two posts but have run out of time. So in the next time I'm here with the winner of the contest, I'll do that. 

I better get. Take care everyone!

The Big Reveal and stories

Howdy everyone! Hope the summer has been easy on you all. I've noticed some areas of the U.S. have had flooding and crazy heat. The fire had been put out 4 days after my last post. Everyone was allowed to go home. Here in Arizona, our monsoons have arrived and today it will be 82 degrees. Whew. It rained for a week and a half straight. It heats up and the storms come in in the afternoon. Like I've said before, I don't like humidity but it comes with the territory. The picture on my header is a lake not far from me. You can see the level has gone down. But look at that color! It does turn that color here after a storm. It's very neat.

Let's get to the real reason I'm here, among other reasons. I joined the Christmas in July Exchange hosted by Kaye at Kitten Stitching. The person to send to me is Nadine or Jocondine as her blog is known. Her package arrived the 2nd week of July from France..

I love the stamps!

We had to wait until today, the 25th, to open our packages and here's what I have in mine..

!!!!!!! Clockwise from top left-the package of sweets, the Christmas card, the handmade ornament (love it, by Cuore et Batticuore, an Italian designer), the ornament with monceau sapin which I think means tree hill or mound, and the wonderful Christmas fabric. Here's what is inside the card..

Isn't that cute? Each little 'door' opens to little stickers or a nice little saying, or with a charm like the one at the bottom right. And of course, I had to open the package of sweets...

I have since had one of the little marshmallow-like candy and it's very tasty! Saving the big peanut cluster candy and cane for later.

Nadine, a huge Thank You for this wonderful Christmas gift! I love it all! Thank You also to Kaye for putting this exchange on. It's a lot of fun!

As for my package to Noni aka Stitching Noni, I sent it off on the 13th of July to Australia and I'm hoping it has arrived in time. Seems that 12 days would be enough time? We'll find out. Next time I mail to Australia, I'll have a better knowledge of how long it takes.

Since I'm here, I might as well show a finish I had, the LizzieKate design..

Wow, how blurry. Cute, cute. I used a sparkly braid for his eyebrows and the buttons that came with the chart. I used a linen called Strawflower and I really like it because there are very faint red and green colors in it in real life. Since I'm finished, the chart of this is up for grabs! No embellishments though. The usual rules of which there are hardly any: just comment you would like to have it and I'll draw names on August 2nd, Arizona time. I can mail overseas, follower or not. 

So I lost the stitchy bug for a good week. I just wasn't feeling it. I did however get caught up on some reading. I looked at all my WIPs but nothing screamed at me, until I up and jumped onboard another exchange! This one is the Haunted Harvest Exchange hosted by the Dixiesamplar/Terri on FB. I have my recipients name and info already. While waiting for the info, I started this Notforgotten Farm piece called Death and Judgement..

Everything is looking so blurry. This may or may not be the exchange piece for my person. It's big. I'm going to give it a tea bath and finish it just like the model, a tombstone. I'm thankful my person likes Halloween! We have until the last week of September to mail to our person.

So needless to say, the stitch bug is back!

I guess that's it! Thanks for stopping by. Here's to a great week for all! I'll leave you with a picture of Monument Valley up in northern Arizona while I go out and weedwhack the jungle outside!

Happy 4th! And the winner is..

MENDY ELLIOTT!! Mendy, you won the Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin. Thanks for playing. Here is an email to reach me: ________. Let me know your mailing details and I will get Peetie out to you. Thanks to everyone else for playing. It was a good turnout!

I hear the fireworks as I type, trying to keep my poor cats calm but it's not working. I am nervous about fireworks as it has been so hot and dry here. Two neighboring towns canceled their fireworks because of this:

I took this picture off my front porch. It looks like the fire is right behind those houses but it's really 14-16 miles south in the mountains. This was Tuesday of last week. It started 3 days before on Saturday. By Sunday you could see a plume of smoke. It was all white smoke, burning through chaparral and pine. Those dark smoke section means it burnt some cabins and outbuildings. After this picture, the wind turned and for the first time since the fire started, the smoke poured in to town. I began to get worried. Otherwise, it had been blowing to the east.

An aerial shot from a news chopper. At this point, it grew to 20,000 acres. And got within 5 or 6 miles from my town! A whole slew of evacuations for 5 or 6 small towns down the highway with us being a maybe. People with horses had to write names and numbers on their hooves or backs and set them loose. I started packing important papers and wondering how my cats were going to handle being tossed into my car! I was a nervous-wreck. I went to work expecting to get alerts that we were to pre-evacuate.

On Sunday the slurry tankers began to fly along with the helicopters that scoop up water to pour on the fire. By Friday there were 1,120 firefighters fighting this and they began having success. As of this morning, 28,740 acres, I believe, had been burnt and it is 95% contained. Whew. The evacuations began lifting and people were being slowly let go to go back to their homes. They haven't said how many structures had been destroyed. There is a couple crews doing mop ups and watching some small fires still going. There is still a little bit of smoke in the air. Boy, was that scary. Every June this happens here, fires springing up. Not helping was all the rain we got from January to April and everything just grew. It's been 10 or 11 years since a fire sprang up this close and I'm hoping we don't see another one for quite awhile.

Last weekend before all the above, I got the FFO bug. Here's the result:

The round ornament is The Bluebird of Happiness from a JCS ornament magazine. If you go back in my posts, you'll see which issue its from. Above is Why Yes..from Lizzie Kate and the Mardi Gras ornament I think is called duc d'Orleans but it's by Ink Circles. I wish I had cut the contours for that one instead of one big oval shape. But I'm quite happy with all three.

I started and finished this one. Cute as a Button by the Nebby Needle..

I will sew a button or two on the end and make it like the model with jumbo ric rac and buttons..

I picked up Coming to Town-Santa '11 by Lizzie Kate just a couple hours ago and am half way through it. It's failing miserably as a cool reminder: today was pretty warm. Cricket-bug, you are right, I don't have AC here so fans and ice water, and shorts, and windows open is what I have to do. I don't get a good nights sleep but I am now used to hearing the big box fan I have going in my room at night. We are just praying for rain and our monsoon is running a little late. Once they arrive, the fire ban throughout the forests get lifted and we get some relief. 

So that's it, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a hectic week and a half here what with the fire and a few other little crises. Here's hoping things settle down. Take care!

Oh I forgot that I framed this little cutie, Home, Diminutive by Pineberry Lane

This poor thing has been on the to-frame pile for the last two years. There is no green in the design but the yellowish areas pick up the same in the frame. The word HOME looks like HOMB. I learned the hard way to pay attention to details. The fabric is 35 or 36ct and I went ahead and stitched 2 over 2 when it should have been 1 over 2! I couldn't figure out why my stitches looked so squashed and awful! 

Okay, now I'm gone!

Dancing with Jack, a finish, and more

Hi all! Hope the weather has been forgiving for you where you're at. Here in the Southwest it has been an oven. Where I live, at 5120 ft. elevation, we went maybe 5 days at over 100 degrees or over. It went to 103 this past Tuesday. I think yesterday the heat caught up with me at work as I started feeling shaky and lightheaded and clammy. I almost came home but I took it easy and drank more water. At least it hasn't been Phoenix-like where flights were canceled because of the extreme heat. I think I can speak for all Arizonans that our monsoon season can't come soon enough but not the humidity! Can't be happy at all!

So I have a huge, Huge, HUGE finish! Not in size but in the 1 over 1, and the amount of motifs and people in a small space- Jack's Bash!

I just love this! It's not the biggest piece I have ever finished but just the amount of flowers, people, alphabets, it's the busiest I've finished. Once I sat down to tackle the verse, it went fast. I couldn't say how many hours it took but I worked on it 4 evenings in a row for maybe 2 or 3 hours in between laundry, washing dishes, etc. The grass under the couple really took longer than the verse! In the end, it was all worth it, a real piece of art and I'm glad it is finished! 

I also had this small finish, Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin by Twisted Threads..

The color of the fabric is as close as I could get it. I'm either going to attempt a flat-fold on this or just a flat ornament. I have an Autumn fabric that will look real nice with this. 

This brings my finishes for 2017 to 15 with the more important ones being Jack's Bash and Blackwater Hollow by Stacy Nash. Also, my WIP count has gone down, yippee! From 31 in December to 27 as of now. 

I have two new starts and I can blame the recent weather for these!

Ah, Beau Leggy, squatting over that Cholla cactus. I'm using a Tarnish fabric, don't know the maker, in 28 or 32ct. When our monsoon rolls in, our skies will look like that, dark, gray stormy clouds. With the moon and stars out, this cowboy is out roping at night, looks like. I made some changes though. The model has Beau wearing a purple hat. Nope, I changed the hat to brown. He is wearing leather gloves so I left them that color. The rope got a change of color too. I will probably change his boots to another color also. Pretend my needleminder is a coyote!

My other start is this..

I only have the two lines of stitching done above Santa Claus so not worth a picture. I was in the mood for Lizzie Kate and something to put me in a cool mood!

I have finished my piece for the Christmas in July exchange hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. It's so cute if I say so myself. I have found Christmas fabric, an ornament and now just need to track down Christmas candy. I found a website called the Candy Warehouse and they sell Christmas candy. Although it's Winter down under, if I send chocolate, it will become a melty mess just from here to Phoenix! So that's a no go. If you should see this, Leonie, the package will be on its way after July 6th. I can't wait to see what I receive from Nadine!

On my last post, Cricket-bug commented that if you do 1 over 1 more frequently, it will become easier. I believe this because once I got down to the last two lines of verse on Jack, it went fast and wasn't so painful. Barb, are you listening?! Or rather, reading?! Haha. It's like giving birth, lol. You swear you're never getting pregnant again and once that baby comes, you forget what you just went through! Lol.

Stitchinowl/Carolyn said in response to Thirteen Owls by PSS being hard to find that she didn't know that. After that, I thought I would search for it on eBay. I didn't find it but was amazed to see that people are buying charts, PSS specifically, that cost more than 123Stitch or Stitching Bits and Bobs offer, if you're willing to wait for the latter! On FB and Stitch Maynia, there are posts by stitchers who don't know of these ONS's and are doing the Dimensions kits and such that are found at the chain craft stores. On the Plum Street Samplers FB page, sometimes you get stitchers who ask where to get a certain chart. I can't quite remember when I discovered these ONS's myself but it sure opened up a whole new world! I too was buying from eBay. 

If you made it this far, good on you because I'm giving away the little Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin chart. It's in good condition. I will mail in the U.S. and overseas too. Just comment that you would like to have it. Follower or otherwise, open to all. I will draw names on the 4th of July if there is more than 1 person wanting it.

I believe that's it! I will continue to stitch on the Lizzie Kate and Beau. I have some quick stitches in the queue that I would like to do, Halloween and Christmas stuff. I have some FFO'ing I want to do today or tomorrow. As I'm typing this, I'm trying to decide what to get at the grocery store. Multi-tasker here! A plus side to these hot temps is your appetite gets killed off. My soda consumption goes down because the only thing good is ice water. So I can't think of a single thing that sounds appetizing. Hmm.

Here's wishing a wonderful, patriotic 4th of July to those of you in the U.S. We will be watching a parade and fireworks along with the rodeo. A happy stitching day and week to those who aren't in the U.S. Take care!

Happy Easter! In which Jack makes an appearance and more

Hope you're all doing great on this fine Spring day and enjoying the traditions that Easter brings!

Here we are halfway through April already. Just crazy! I have progress to show, a finish, new stash, an FFO, and something different this time around.

I think I picked up Jack the last week of March and stitched him until the Friday that the Halloween SAL, never mind, I'm getting my times confused, just like I've been these past weeks. So anyway, here is Jack before..

This is Jack's Bash by PSS and here is where I'm at now below..

I hope it's not blurry on your side. It would help if I put my glasses on! I love this. See Jack there? And see the skulls in the black stitching in the urns? I'm not sure if those are flowers or globe lights. So I've made my decision on how I'm stitching the verse, (drum roll, please)-full 1 over 1! I hemmed and hawed about doing tent over 1. Either way is going to be intense! In the end, though, I decided the verse deserved to be noticed. Paulette Stewart has said before that she makes up a lot of the verses that go on her designs. So there we go. I can't wait to get back to this. I know I'll have it done by Halloween.

Umm, what's next? I have a finish. Last post I mentioned doing the Buttercream Frosting sampler for a SAL that I joined in FB. Here she is..

A tad dark but at least the lighter stitching shows up! As I was stitching this, I kept thinking that I should've searched for a darker light floss. Finished up it doesn't look too bad and I just noticed I left out a stitch on that berry near the bottom of the cake stand. Ugh. Stitching the cake and the doily took up some time. I started it on the 1st and just finished it a couple days ago. It's been in my stash since 2007 so I'm glad it's finished.

Speaking of the Halloween SAL, here is how the first section will or should look..

And my start..

32ct Abracadabra linen from Ship's Manor. I'm doing 1 over 2. I like the coverage so far. I'll pick this up after I post this. E.A. Poe approves!

Stash! Just one chart and a few of the floss needed. I saw this announced on FB and had to get it..

This is based on a semi autobiography (not sure if it's auto or biography!) of the authors' grandmother or great who came from Texas I think, in a wagon to Southern Arizona. It's a great trilogy with the first book called These Is My Words which I read the first two in the series, part low key love story, part strong woman historical. Author is Nancy Turner. Calls for Lambswool linen but I think I'll use something else. All the Lambswool I ever bought I could use as a frisbee! I like the linen but not the stiffness and the weird stuff they put on it.

Here's my FFO..

Merry by PSS. I sewed on the chenille trim. Not bad considering I usually glue trim onto everything! Haha. Nice and puffy. Then I added the wire ribbon with a button through it. I'm calling this my Christmas ornament for April. I'm keeping up!

Yesterday I tried my hand at a project bag and this cute Saguaro pillow with big pom poms. This pillow took me 4 hours to put together! Ended up with a headache after!

Please ignore my messy craft table! I'm trying to think of an easier way to sew these. The huge pom poms make it hard to sew. What I did was first machine sew the pom pom to one piece of fabric and then I took the second fabric and carefully sewed it onto the first piece. It's cute. I found these on Pinterest and just cut out a pattern on wax paper using my imagination. I have another Southwestern fabric and red pom pom that I bought and since I'm a glutton for punishment, I will tackle that one next weekend. We'll see. I could always glue the pom poms on! 

Here is my project bag..

I used cotton batting inside and I think that was too thick for my poor sewing machine. As you can see, I didn't sew the flap at all because my 'new' sewing machine was laboring through all 6 layers on the sides. I don't remember my old machine having that much trouble. I'll have to break out my owners manual for the new one and see how I can fix that.

Alrighty! I feel like I was quite chatty on this post! Don't know what it is, exhaustion or my early morning trip to the laundromat because my washer sprung a leak. At least my dryer works fine. If it ain't one thing, it's another:(

I splurged on a set of all 8 Harry Potter movies and at the beginning of Deathly Hollows right now. Still addicted to Flosstube also and if I can find a way to film, I may do a Flosstube myself! I did some test videos but my iPad ran out of space after 10 minutes and I really don't want to empty my iPad of everything I have on it. So I'll see if I can do something on my laptop. We shall see. I found that I don't mind talking at a red button! I'm normally an introvert but it felt nice. I think the attraction is no one wants to hear about my stitching, namely my family and friends. I have all of you and I'm glad I do. 

Take care everyone! Please have an extra slice of Easter ham for me!