Cock a doodle doo!

Hi all! Hope the weekend was a good one. Saturday was good, went to the big rodeo parade my daughter and I. Sunday I wanted to die. I don't know what I ate that made me so sick. I was in my pajamas all day, moved from my bed to the couch. Around 5 last night, I could finally sit up without having to run to the bathroom. I had toast this morning after going 24 hours without food. Wow. That's the sickest I've ever been, food poisoning or stomach bug. I ate from chik fil A in the afternoon Saturday and may not ever again! Last time I ate from a fast food place and got sick, I didn't eat there again for 5 or 6 years. It was chicken then too. I don't know if chik fil A was the culprit though.

That is why I'm posting today. I have 3 finishes! First is the Tribal Rooster by White Willow Stitching..

The fabric is 32ct Wren by PTP. I hope it's not blurry on your side. I just love it! I used up the entire two skeins I bought for this. Primitive Rainbow by Barbaral Creations on etsy, a Hungarian or Romanian dyer. I started running out of the blue and green and yellow parts of the floss because I had been cutting my floss to get certain colors here and there. I had to floss dive to find colors to match those colors. There's one shape that shows up darker from the substitute floss but I bet you can't tell which one it is. I had this project kitted up for more than 2 years so it's nice to have it stitched up. I'm not sure how I'll finish it but I'm leaning heavily toward a pillow.

I decided that I'll stitch another Tribal Rooster but using this silk floss this time..

It's a pretty color and I'll need one more skein. I'll also use a higher count fabric, like 36.

Next finish is Christmas Bird..

So cute and a quick stitch. On 32ct vintage country mocha with some GAST and DMC floss. Two symbols on the graph are almost identical so I messed up the 1 stitch inside the red square flowers. On the bottom they are a different color than the two on the top and on the right. Oh well. Not sure how I'll finish it.

Last but not least is Black Pumpkin by SubRosa..

I'm not sure of the fabric. It might be Abecedarian, maybe by R & R. Black DMC used. I'll make this up as a pincushion that is on the cover of the chart which can be seen on the last post. Then mount it on something painted black. A quick stitch. This will be an exchange gift for the Halloween Harvest exchange. Terri will get us our partners tomorrow. I'm already ahead! I may stitch up a few other things to go with Black Pumpkin. Pineberry Lane has a freebie with 3 little designs on it, a strawberry, and 2 pincushions. The strawberry and one of the little pincushions with a strawberry bush on it I'll stitch in black. 

What will I stitch on now? I don't know but I might get back to Cobblestone Crossing. On the 4th, I joined a one day SAL on FB to stitch on something patriotic or with blue, red or white on it. I'm doing Dear House by La D Da, a UFO..

I think the floss is Blackboard, it has a very dark blue tone to it. Poor thing hasn't seen the light of day in a couple years.

Sometime ago, I finished a Stacy Nash drum design of a tombstone angel. Couple weeks ago, after reading and rereading the instructions of how to construct a drum finish, it was go time. Aargh, it's a total fail..

I wished that I had practiced on just plain fabric than use this finish as my guinea pig. I still have the chart and fabric for this but I'm just bummed. The strawberry is black velvet and I'm not happy with it either. I machine sewed the top and bottom fabrics together and I think maybe I should hand sew next time. Turning it right side out, it crinkled up the fabric and so I tried to iron it out..People, don't try this at home. So you see what happened when I tried to iron it, creases everywhere. I stuffed it with sawdust which I thought was nice, pretty messy though. Vonna/Twisted Stitcher had just put out a tutorial on a drum finishing which uses mat board for top and bottom but I wanted to stick pins into mine and I like them better, just like the prim designers make theirs. Wah, wah. Back to the drawing board!

That's it! I have to get ready for work.

Thanks for stopping in. I want to wish a big Welcome to the new followers on both Bloglovin' and Blogger/Google. I don't even know who runs these blogs anymore! Anyway, welcome and I hope you stick around for awhile. Happy Independence Day to us Americans and happy stitching to those elsewhere!

Rain, glorious rain!

We in Arizona get so happy when it rains! The former Tropical Storm Bud broke up near Cabo and sent moisture our way and it's been raining on and off since this morning. It's nice and cool outside, being 93-95 degrees this past week. Perfect weather to stitch and watch Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law).

Hope you are all doing well and getting some stitching in. I have a new start (what?!), and progress to show, and finishes.

First is this Maynia start that I had misplaced..

Cobblestone Crossing. The designer is on etsy and she has other really nice patterns. I think this is 32ct PTP Heritage or is it Legacy? Can't remember but I love it. Using DMC floss. So it might be too early to ask but what are your opinions on leaving the border off? I would still add the date but I'm not sure about that border. I think if I get more stitched I'll be able to make a decision. We'll see. Here's a better picture..

Let's look at my finishes. Here's the latest Souvenir de Paris finish, words left off because of laziness!

Cloudy day, dark pictures. I used evenweave, a beige color, with a Ship's Manor silk. This will be a flat ornament.

Next finish is Stink Stank Stunk, a freebie by Daffycat/Sharon. Six of them for flat ornaments. 

I love that fabric! It's 30ct Grasshopper. It might be a Weeks. That color is perfect. At first I wanted round ornaments but decided rectangular may look better. All I need is a Grinch Christmas fabric and trim and I'm all set. 

I think I have finished 4 or 5 Maynia starts, woohoo.

Progress! Take a look at the Tribal Rooster before..

And after..

For the most part, I have all the tail feathers done. I jumped on over to the head, got bored with the tail feathers. The rest of it is easier with smaller areas to stitch than the big parts in the tail feathers. It's a lot of fun stitching this. 

Here's Christmas Bird from before..

And after..

I'm at the halfway point. The breast of the bird is GAST Tomato, kind of orange/red. At first I wasn't too sure of a tomato color on a Christmas piece but I'm liking it now. The fabric is 32ct vintage mocha I think. The back side is clear with no mottling like this side above. It's a favorite fabric of mine.

I also have a new start..

This may or may not be for the Halloween/Fall exchange coming up in August! I'm pretty sure that's when Terri announces it for Halloween. I'm just getting a jump start! On 35 or 36ct mystery fabric, I started this last night. I will finish it just like that on top of a round paper mâché box that I'll paint black. I have several SubRosa patterns that should be stitched but haven't gotten around to. Shame on me!

So not a very long post this time around. I'll get back to Black Pumpkin after I'm done here.

I have several plans for stitching coming up. In July, there is a Christmas in July event coming up. I don't know if it's to just stitch ornaments or a Christmas design in general, or what group it's being run from. It might be an Instagram thing of which I've failed miserably! In September, there is a SAL for the BBD Tis the Season, you know the one with the gorgeous cardinal in red on the left? I have the pattern and the fabric called for. I know I'm doing that. Also Linda/Stitching with My Furbabies is having a birthday in September and has some plans for starts and/or finishes. I might do the 30 or 31 new starts for September! Haha, I know. The road to ...... is paved with good intentions! It sounds like fun though. I should be in the middle of stitching for Terri's exchange about then too. 

I guess that's it. My daughter and I are going on a road trip in July down to Tombstone, a 4 hour drive Southeast of here. You all have heard of Tombstone I'm sure. The OK Corral shoot out, Boothill Cemetery. We're going on a ghost hunt in an old building that was called China Mary's, a former bordello, house of ill repute, home of soiled doves! The worst time to go on a trip through the desert but we'll leave early to avoid most of the heat and the same coming back. I'm very excited and I hope we catch something floating around in this building!  

Take care!

So long March, it's been fun!

Hi all! Thought I would get on here for one last post in March. Can we please slow down the progression of the year?! Spring is here and I can hear dozens of birds chirping away through my open front door. Oh and guess what? I saw my first male Cardinal yesterday! No, not the Arizona Cardinal NFL team! What a pretty bird he was. Wished I had grabbed my cellphone to take a picture but didn't.

So I have progress, a finish, and some stash. 

First, the finish. This was a UFO of a couple years ago. One of the WIPs below I ran out of floss, again!

So after ordering another skein, I put it away for a bit. I was looking through my WIP container and saw A Lady's Sachet sitting at the top with the floss and a master copy of the pattern. So I picked it up and finished it. Yay, another finish! 4 finishes in 3 months. Anyway, here it is...

I just finished stitching in my initials S and C. I had to wait though because I misplaced the whole chartpack with the alphabet pattern. I tore this house upside down and no chartpack. So off to the Internet looking for another one! I only found two, one at a ONS where, with shipping, it would've been over $17. The other was found on eBay for $12.99, postage included. But look, it's a whole kit!

It actually called for 40ct fabric which mine is not and its quite big. And see how I measured wrong, with it hugging the edge? It's going to be a problem finishing it into something. I have a round papier mâché box that will fit that.  I'll just have to finesse the thing to fit. I will probably use wool to cover the bottom portion showing a lot of fabric. So now I have this kit to make another but on 40ct! I will do it but not anytime soon. It has some of my favorite motifs on it: the crown, key, and the color purple.

I tell you, it's been a couple weeks of running out of floss for two of my WIPs. I received WDW Moonglow for Midnight Ride, stitched more moon and some of the building lights and promptly ran out of Moonglow, again! Here is the before picture...

and after...

!!! I don't know who model stitched this design, and I am using the called for count and color fabric, but it needs 3 skeins of Moonglow and 2 of Mascara. I did run out of Mascara too but luckily had more in my stash. This picture right above is the correct color of the fabric. So, I put in an order for another skein of Moonglow and because I need LizzieKate, ordered a chart and it all arrived the other day.

So I decided to get back to the Christmas Carol Sampler by the Primitive Hare. I love this thing and think I can finish it next month. Here's the before...

and after...

I got quite a bit of progress on this. Working on the bottom border with GAST Tarnished Gold, and BAM!, ran out! Just as I was getting ready to stitch Tiny Tim Crachit's hair, the little figure to the left of Scrooge. Right now he's got just the lightbulb head! Put in another order for Tarnished Gold and the first chart of the LHN Farmhouse Christmas. For now, I am building the horse and its tail. Folks, I just have the rest of that bottom border, the horse, the carriage, and more snowflakes to do, and I'm done! But between the snow and the top of the bottom border are the words Tiny Tim Crachit Ebenezer Scrooge A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I don't know if I want the words there. I'm thinking of centering A Christmas Carol in the middle with squiggly tendrils on either side with the holly berries  you see up there with Merry Christmas. We'll see what I decide. 

Stash! I am doing my best to collect a few of my favorite LizzieKate charts. Here are 4 that I bought..

I have stitched the first one before years back but I had to have it again. I am hoping to buy more LK charts in the next month or so before inventory is used up. 

I also bought a piece of Lakeside linen, a fat eighth, but forgot to take a picture. That linen traveled from Oklahoma to Phoenix, then to Peoria, a city next to Phoenix, back to Phoenix and finally up here to me. What is up with the USPS? After Whittakers' travel from Iowa and getting lost for 3 months, I am almost afraid to order anything! I have been signing up for email notifications from the USPS so I can follow where my package(s) are going. 

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Wish me luck that I don't run out of floss again, ha. 

Since Christmas Carol is almost finished, I'll keep at it. I really don't have stitching plans for April. I'll continue with this one ^ and Midnight Ride, and maybe pick up the next Souvenir de France project. I'm waiting on the next exchange announcement to come out from Terri/Dixiesamplar. It's been fun seeing everyone receiving their Spring/Easter exchange gifts.

I'm off. I want to wish a big WELCOME to followers on Bloglovin' and through Blogspot! Hope you like it here. Also, thanks for your comments; I read them all. 

Take care!

This and that, and Lost and Found

Hi all! Greetings from a blustery day here in AZ. I'm hoping this isn't the beginning of our windy season. It wreaks havoc with hairdos and allergies. Love spring around here but could do without all the wind. I'm going to stay in today. Winter visited us last week with snow, 3 inches, but it was gone in 24 hours!

I'm finally feeling better, yay! Now if I could just get myself off to bed before 11 pm, I'll be doing even better!

So I held the drawing last Saturday and just never got around to announcing the winners. The days are just whipping by and leaving me in the dust! So just two people entered the drawing-Diana and Linda, for the Heart in Hand charts. No one wanted the linen. The winners are-

           Diana for the Big Blizzard Sampler! and....

           Linda gets the Red House Sampler! 

Woohoo! Linda, I have your address in Jackson. Diana, I'll need yours. You can email me at -----with your address. I'll have the charts to you ladies in the mail by Tuesday. Thanks for playing!

Last post I started that little Shepherd's Bush kit I bought at Market day last year. I finished it...

Hope it's not too blurry. The Heart of My Heart. It's just a petite little thing. Amazing how SB manages to get so many motifs and/or flowers in such a tiny space. The kit came with the floss and fabric. It's missing buttons and I don't know if I misplaced them or they didn't come with the kit. It still looks nice without. On Lambswool linen. I made a mistake down near the sheep. There was supposed to be a flower in the field but nope, I just methodically stitched in the field! I was watching Flosstube, that's my excuse! 

Speaking of Nashville market, any of you see anything you like? I like two charts of Heartstring Samplery-Bee Pincushion and the Little House on the Prairie sampler. I read all the Laura Ingalls books when I was little. And WTN&T, of course, 2 of her charts. And a few others. As for my yearly drive to Attic Needleworks in Mesa for Market day, I may not make it this year. I don't know when Market day is though. If I go, I want mostly fabric, Lakeside linens to be exact. I also really like the Farmhouse Christmas series from LHN. I like the fabric called for too. I just know that I can't spend as much as I have in past years. We shall see what happens.

From the Lost and Found department, look who showed up!

Whittaker! I mentioned that he and his package went missing December 12th. Isn't he cute?! He arrived just last week, still packaged nicely and labeled since December 5th when I ordered him. I'd like to think that he was taking in the sights between Iowa and here, haha. There is a woman version of Whittaker, I just might have to have her.

By now I'm sure you have all heard about Lizzie Kate retiring. Sad but understandable seeing how the designer has been doing this for 20+ years. I ordered 3 charts and have at least 5 others on my wishlist. I have two LK WIPs to finish and those extra patterns that come with her mystery sampler designs. I can't imagine how high prices will go once she permanently closes shop at the end of this month. 

I have been stitching here and there. I have a 2nd job working the concession stand at a colleges' performance hall and am being kept busy whenever there's a show to work. Last Sunday, the Phoenix Symphony was playing, this past Wednesday Garrison Keillor was story telling on stage. I haven't been in the mood to stitch really but last night I finally picked something up...

Midnight Ride. I have added more floss to the moon and worried that I may need another skein of it! All the building windows get the yellow floss in them too. I have the beginnings of the banner that the witch pulls behind her and the building below. I think I might run out of the black floss too. It's either Kohl or Mascara. Here's the before...

I also wanted to show you some pfd's I found out about from a flosstuber I watching last night. Take a look...

and...

These pfd's were only $5 each! This designer and her shop SamplersAndStories are on etsy, here's a link- https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamplersAndStories

The top design, Herbal Grimoire, would look great on a tea/coffee dyed fabric and the Christmas botanicals on a pale fabric. She has a few more designs at her etsy shop but these two really caught my eye. 

You can thank me later ;)

I'm going to get back to Midnight Ride and the 3rd season of Downton Abbey. My 3 kitties are snoozing and I have enough diet Pepsi to get me through today! I put myself on a diet Pepsi diet also. I'll have a bottle every other day and try drinking more water and herbal teas in between. I was drinking at least 2 a day! Just thinking about that kind of makes me slightly sick, ugh. 

I have some new followers, Welcome! If anyone tries to go back in this blog to start from the beginning, there are lots of pictures missing. I started this blog on a PC and then it went kaput and then used pictures from Picasa web album, and then got this iPad and use an app. My pictures disappeared when Picasa became no more. 

I'm off. Take care everyone and Happy Stitching! 

News, new start, FFO and more

Hi everyone! I feel like I've been MIA for awhile. Just been stitching! Hope you're all doing well, maybe starting to thaw out there on the East coast and in the upper Midwest. We actually had a cold front come through and left snow on the mountain tops and then the next day, right back to 60 degrees. Just crazy weather, I tell ya.

I have good news, not so good news, a new start, an FFO, and more. First I want to respond to some comments left on the last post. For those of you new here, I have to disconnect my email from my blog because of the amount of trash email I get when I do connect. So this is how I respond. Here we go:

Barb, this is your year to start Jack's Bash. I just know it. It will always be my best finish ever.

DebbieSFL, glad you're doing the Class Schedule. I have the table stitched but deciding on a color

   for Ron's half Scabbers and half goblet! 

Kay, glad to hear your new stash has made it out to you!

Linda, hope you are feeling better!

Honeybee, I have seen the Christmas version of Spirits and Spells and it's great. They stitch up fast

   as pictured below.

Some good news-I won the Mani di Donna contest!! Here's my ornament...

Couldn't believe it! I keep my iPad on my bedside table and grab it first thing in the morning before I have gotten out of bed. I opened it and saw a notification of a fellow contestant saying 'congrats to the winners'. So I thought oh Simona must've picked the winners. So I looked and there was my name for 1st place! I'm one of these people who couldn't buy her way in to win something! I smiled all day long!

She messaged me this morning to pick out some of her charts from her website to spend up to 50 euros which comes out to about $59 and change US. That was fun, haha. Can't wait to get it all.

I am home from work with Mr. Vertigo. I could feel it coming on early this morning and boom! sure enough, there he is. All the usual nausea, and dizziness. Vertigo is kind of chronic for me. It has gotten less severe than the first 7 years since 2004. I still have to lay down and get up out of bed s l o w l y. Something else that has been bugging me are my shoulders and right arm. I stitch a lot and I think it's now catching up with me. I am stitching but have to quit after awhile. Right now it's not aching so after I'm done here I'll stitch a bit.

I also have 2 finishes, yay! The first two of 2018..

Spirits & Spells by Brenda Gervais. I love Brenda Gervais! A fast stitch on 36ct Confederate grey. Her hair called for CC Muddy something, can't recall, which I didn't have so I used WDW Pewter. She's 1" bigger overall using 36ct than the 40ct called for. Ignore the redness, I think it's there because of the red sweatshirt I had on when I took the picture. I may look for some kind of oval box to put her on.

My next finish is Souvenir de France, a freebie by Blackbird Designs..

On a mystery scrap of linen with Belle Soie Poison Apple. Here is the fabric to go with. I'll probably make a flat ornament out of it. It's my plan to stitch Souvenir once a month using my scrap fabric and backing fabric. I think the fabric is Natural Light. It was very stiff.

I found that fabric on Etsy. It's so pretty. I think it's half a yard for a very good price. I have a floss, backing fabric and linen for each of these Souvenir's to stitch. In February I'll stitch this again but on a different fabric and with a different floss.

After I finished Spirits and Spells I started this..

From the 2014 JCS Halloween issue and here is where I'm at..

I have had this kitted up since 2014! I'm mired down in the yellow so I jump around to black and then back again. Saves my sanity! I'll stitch this for the rest of January.

As for the Class Schedule SAL, I have January's portion stitched in but deciding which color for Ron's half Scabbers half goblet. Some people have totally modified the pattern in that first block and changed the colors of the Scabbers/goblet and Professor McGonagle as the cat. I will try to stick to most of what the designer has down.

Now I have an FFO..

The FFO bug has gone missing but on a whim I created this. The stitch is from a JCS Christmas ornament issue, probably 2015. I ran a running stitch through the fabric and pulled it, added stuffing, then glued the cording around the top. Then added the bow to hide the join and added the bells on fishing line. Half of the time I have no plan in place doing these things and just keep adding as I go. It turned out alright as a last minute FFO! 

Also, Terri/Dixiesamplar is taking sign ups for the Easter/spring exchange. They close tomorrow if anyone is interested. On FB search dixiesamplar's exchange group, be sure to use the A and not E for samplars. I'm waffling over joining this one because I really like what I've been stitching on lately. 

I'm awaiting a package from Stitching bits and bobs, on a back ordered chart, as usual. You all might know that the USPS raised their rates again. Well, the above ONS uses only Priority Mail to mail your purchases. I took issue with the $7.00 shipping cost for one medium sized chart and two skeins of floss! Yup, I emailed her to find out why. She said her store has been absorbing the recent postal rate raises and now she can't be doing that all the time. I don't know what's going to happen when it gets to be too expensive to have anything mailed. I did not ask Bobbie if she would mail First Class on request which would've cost me about $3.50-4.00 if using First Class mail. I don't know if all ONS's mail Priority but it might be a good thing to ask if there is a cheaper way to ship.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Feeling horrible so I'll wrap this up. I hope you've all avoided getting the flu going around. Sounds bad. My daughter has been a little sick. A coworker was sick and they sent him home. 

Got to say Welcome to the new followers with Bloglovin'. The more the merrier! Hope you stick around for awhile! I have a little giveaway planned, just a little chart like Heart in Hand or another. I did some organizing in my craft corner and found that with the bird button for it. I was going to do it here but just not feeling good. So look for that next time. I'm hoping my contest winnings come soon but since Simona is in Italy, that could take a couple of weeks. That's okay, time is all I have! 

Take care all! Thanks for stopping by!