Where's the time gone?!

Howdy! Yes, I am back with a new post! I've been AWOL for almost a month. Crazy!

How's everyone doing? I've been catching up to everyone's blog posts and seeing great things being FFO'd and stitched.

First order of business, I finally sent the magazine giveaway to Linda about two weeks ago! Sorry
about that Linda. Things were crazy last month. Also I'd like to respond to some comments from
last post. To Carol: No I didn't take a picture of the lightning strike. It is hard to get a pic of
lightning! I stood outside during one storm constantly clicking the camera button on my iPad and
caught nothing, lol. I heard shutter speed comes into play so a fancier camera works.

To Meg: Yes I added Orange RIT to my coffee dye mix to come up with that fabric color, then
popped it into the oven for a bit. And to Astrid: I have gotten used to the new job and the hours.
I cuss when the alarm goes off but after one 5 minute snooze, I get up! I also now go to bed at
9 pm or sometimes 8:30 if I'm especially tired.

I have exchange goodies to show and a finish so let's go!

Here is my finished creation that went to my exchange partner..

This is Land of Milk and Honey by Summerhouse Stitcheworks.

I attached magnets to the back of the stitched piece and hot glued some to the 

muffin tin. Some of the flowers are either hot glued in place or glued to a magnet.

Next time I'll use skinnier, flatter magnets. I am happy with how it turned out and 

Susan loved it. As usual, I forgot to take a picture of all the things I sent.

Here is what I received..

Love it all. Bag of M&Ms are gone! I love ceramic pumpkins so was glad to get that

small one in the corner. The WTN&T pattern, perfect. And everything else.

Here's a look at the stitched piece..

It's by Pineberry Lane on Carrot linen, probably from WDW. So pretty. One of

the questions for the exchange is what colors do you like and mine are always

the same-Halloween colors! I am going to have to buy that pattern now!

I also have another Halloween finish-Vlad's House..

By Lucy Beam Love In Stitches. That house, though! I had to leave off windows

on the bottom of the house because I was running out of GAST Soot. I 

figured Vlad lived in a fortified castle and it wasn't a good idea to have

windows at the bottom! The lighter gray areas of the house are WDW Pelican Grey

which I nearly ran out of but I went into some kitted projects and found a skein. 

I'm not sure how I'll finish this.

I am stitching yet another Halloween ornament but it just has a few stitches in so

no pic.

I guess that's it's. I have chicken and two bean chili going in the crock pot right now,

almost done, and in two hours an oil change for the car. As I mentioned above, the job

has become easier. I wake up at 3:45am and now have a routine going. I hate

rushing around that early in the morning! Things are done the night before so I can

get on the highway for my 30 minute commute. I don't mind it, I listen to music, see

the sunrise yet, and think! 

I'm not sure what's in store stitch wise. I'll finish the ornament and would like to

put in some work on Christmas Garden by BBD. I've seen several finishes of it

and am inspired to get going on mine.

Well, thanks for visiting! Hope you're all stitching up a storm!

Take care!

Happy Spring Part 2

The Spring /Easter Exchange 2019 is now over and my partner and I have received our gifts. Here is what I sent Lisa:

She likes the same designers as I do, BBD, PSS and so on. I stitched the BBD

piece which I show somewhere in my last posts. I bought the wooden box, 

painted it to match the greys in the design. I inserted the polka dot scrapbook

paper in the top and in the inside. Then finished the stitched piece on 

sticky board as Priscilla and Chelsea call it and glued it to the top. I sure hope

it holds. Then I bought her the other bits and pieces. Here's another look

at the box

It turned out nice.

This is what I received from Sandy..

I can't wait to start the design on the purple fabric. See the adorable Shepherd's 

Bush piece in the frame? Here's a closer look..

So cute. I have it on the wall with my other mini's, what I call my small

framed stitches.

FFOs. One was the exchange box and the other is this LK small..

This is Nevermore. I've really been into sewing those borders onto the 

sides of the stitched piece. Funny how I have favorites of finishing styles like

a cube finish or pin pillows, or flat ornaments. Right now it's the finish above!

I believe this is it. It's Saturday, so it's back to old WIP stitching. As mentioned

before, I plan on 19 new starts/WIPS for Maynia this year. Ten new starts

and 9 WIPs. Christmas Garden will be amongst those plus a few others that

are close to a finish. 

The weather has been flirting with the low 70s which I'm happy about.

Oh, I had to leave that 2nd job I had for health reasons. I have bad knees

and sciatica which after my work accident, is so much worse than

it was. It's been a relief to let it go. That also means more stitching time! Yay!

Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you in April!

Happy March! Part 1

March is certainly roaring in like a lion! Very windy outside, think I'll stay in.

Hope you are all doing fine. I haven't paid much attention to the news lately so I don't know how the weather is where you're at. I am dealing with a headcold which started yesterday, stuffed and running nose, sneezing and head feeling thick. I never get sick so I'm a bit surprised. Maybe this is just allergies, who knows. Well, the last part of February was crazy! My stove quit working the 3rd week of February and I was able to buy a used one in very good condition last week. So I had a few weeks of microwaveable meals, soups, and anything else I could eat cold and heat up in the microwave. So this weekend I'm making soup on the stove! Two Thursday's ago we got hit one of those snowstorms of the century. Take a look..

That is my car, surrounded by 2 feet of snow. It was windy so there was drifted snow behind my car at a half of foot more. The last time we had snow like this was 32 years ago. Then, it was 2 1/2 feet of snow. Lucky me, my shovels, plain old dirt turning shovels, were buried under the snow in the back. 

The snow started Thursday night, all Friday and finally stopped Saturday night. I was never so glad to see it stop! I had to hire a guy to come and dig out my driveway so I could get out of the house. No work for two days. Crazy stuff! If it never snowed again the rest of this winter, no problem here! In 1 week, all the snow is gone except for shady spots, and up in the mountains. That's Arizona for you, the temps made it to 60 for a couple days ago.

Time for stitching news! This post may be in 2 parts, maybe.

I spoke about happy news in the last post. Happy for me because it closed a 4 year wait. The designer who had a Kickstarter event has had her antique sampler stitched up and should be marketing that soon. Here are my campaign goodies..

Now I hemmed and hawed on whether I should reveal the designer and since she had made it known on her FB page, which is now gone, that after the funding came through, she fell into a deep depression. Having some experience with depression, I can certainly understand how she was unable to get that humongous sampler started and all the other things going promised on her campaign. To 

those who don't know what's going on, Shakespeares Peddler or KittenStitcher on Flosstube, Theresa had started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to purchase an antique sampler and had all these extras offered depending on the size of your donation. I love the sampler she chose for me.

Anyway, she has finished the repro sampler. It's a beauty and big with about 500 stitches on the long side. I decided to reveal her because it's a good thing to put a face on depression. The more we hide from it, the more it becomes an illness to be scared of and not understand. 

I have a finish!

This is Floral Sewing Box by BBD in the Vintage Inspirations booklet. It's the exchange piece for my partner. Above it is the box I'm staining for it and the polka dot paper that will go inside the top and inside the box. The exchange is due on the 20th, heading to Virginia. I'm still gathering more things to add to the exchange.

Okay, I'll end this here. Please check out Part 2 above this post. 

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!

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

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!

My oh my, what a wonderful day yesterday was! Today? Not so much..

My exchange goodies have arrived!

A big box!

Packages, a card, candy, candles, black trims, the orange kitchen towel..

The Halloweenie chart, the adorable cube. I had never seen that design by LizzieKate before. Two ceramic decorations and the pompom trim. It's always great to be gifted with trims.

Another chart I have never seen by Stacy Nash. This is identical to my tombstone angel drum keep which is still not sewed together! The notepads will keep me in an Autumn state of mind for awhile. And..

this great 36ct Mesa fabric! By PTP, my favorite kind of linen that is off limits economy-wise! 

Thanks again, Joanie! I love it all!

I'm home from work with what feels like Mr. Vertigo or a migraine trying to make a comeback. Thought I'd post this and then go back to bed! 

Take care, y'all!

The winner and exchange goods!

Howdy!

I have survived the Great Pepper Fire! I'm good but I haven't broke into a jar just yet to see what they taste like, haha. 

Onto the business at hand! 

                 LEE is the winner of the magazine and fab/floss!

Lee, email me at azcampis@yahoo.com to leave your mailing address and I'll get it out to you asap.

As for my Halloween giveaway, Heather has emailed me with her address but Missy, no. Where are you Missy?? 

I have not received my Halloween Harvest exchange goodies just yet but my recipient got hers from me:

Becky does not have a blog but she does FB. I made her the box at the top with the August freebie from the Stitcherhood, fabric and trims because she finishes her own things, caramel, cinnamon candle, a thread holder, two overdyed threads, charms, a Notforgotten chart and fabric to go with it. Here's a closeup of the box..

I enjoyed making it. I also changed the color of the Quaker emblem on the stitched section and boy, can a button with a ribbon cover up a joining problem! 

I believe this is the last exchange for me. I love them but s___ happens and sometimes your partner isn't able to send your goodies on time. I can understand that but it's happened the last two exchanges I've taken part in. Is it me? Who knows. Besides, it interferes with my Halloween stitching! Woo haw! 

Finally, finally I'm stitching for myself! I'm so bad, I have forgotten the Friday Frolics with Kitten Stitching SAL, the Americana SAL, and the PS SAL. but my excuse is giveaway and exchange stitching. And I missed the Gifted Gorgeousness last month because of Mr. Mojo leaving the building. So last night, I pulled out my Whoo's There and started on the scary house. I'll update the PS SAL with that one, pictures forthcoming.

That about does it. I'll be back on the 15th with Whoo's There for the GG. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Exchange goodies have arrived!

Holy Halloween Socks! Just a peek so far...

Here we have black, gray and white twine, Time for Halloween pattern by Brenda Gervais, black and purple fuzzy socks (which I absolutely love), the little ruler which I plan on staining, card and the M&Ms, which are now gone. Thank You very much Vicki! Love it all! 

My first watch locket with the little witch inside. And look at that black arch that its hanging from

See that black bat on the side? This is so pretty. It'll be the centerpiece of my Halloween decorating!

This package came at the right time as I had to have my car towed home after work today because of a flat tire. No spare-ugh! So Dear Daughter will have to drive me to work in the morning. I'll be buying a couple tires this weekend. Needless to say, what Vicki sent cheered me up considerably. Thanks again Vicki!

Exchange Goodies!

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for your comments on the last post. Thee I Love with the Lilies of the Valley was obviously the favorite finish of most of you!

Pictures of the Stitched with Love exchange have been posted to the Gallery, so here's what I received from Cherise

My first Shepherd's Bush anything! It's very cute. The egg kit is in woolfelt which is right up my alley. There are 2 blank key rings, ribbon, handmade paper w/pencil, stitching fabric, fabric buttons, and that very pretty fabric with the pink flowers. There was a small chocolate bunny that was inhaled within the first minute. Love it all, Bev! Thank You!

Here's what I sent to Cherise

Luckily, the Rolos survived the trip to California! If I had to send these during Summer, they would've not made it! The pillow turned out wonderful! I made up some new cuss words though, while ruching that ribbon around it! All worth it, and Cherise loved it all. I have a bunch of small cross stitch to finish so I plan on ruching ribbon on them!

It's going to be 81 here in Prescott Valley. I'm planting zucchini and cucumbers so perfect time to plant. Although this past Wednesday or Thursday, it was spitting snow. Crazy weather!

The 24th is the day to post for the Ornament SAL; I have an ornament stitched up for that already. I tell you the days are just going by way too fast. I feel like it was just last week I posted for the SAL!

Take Care all!

Royal Mail-OMG!

Did you feel some tremors today? That was me, jumping up and down! Today, I received my Fall into Halloween exchange package which is why I'm so excited! First I took a pic of the package itself! See that stamp at upper right? It says Royal Mail! I know--calm down.

One of the Psycho sisters had to get into the act and sniff it out. You can see her fur at the left. I love things British! I would love to visit there one of these eons. Maybe in my second life!

Here's the packages in their Halloween tissue

And a card....

And Voila! the treats

See the cute kitty card! There's the Halloween cookie cutter set, Scooby-Doo balloons (my favorite cartoon is Scooby-Doo!), the Lizzie Kate Snippet Gather a Harvest, a pumpkin pin, the Opalescent Lugana fabric, Halloween fab, a JABC froggy threader, 3 dmc threads-oranges and black, the chocolate from Cadbury which she said is made nearby-so cool, and last but not least-the pillow from an IStitch design. The chocolate was gone within 5 minutes of opening the package and scrumptious. I want to stitch the LK design like, right now! This is so much fun.

Here's the pillow on it's own. So cute, the backing fabric is an orange fabric with haunted houses. Super stitcher I might add is T. I don't know her full name and the card is signed T! The Mysterious T!

Thank You T! I love it all!

November already, huh?! Hope no tricks but treats were bestowed upon you on Halloween night. Myself, I tried to catch every scary show on t.v. My daughter and her pal went to a hockey game dressed up with half of their face a skull as a mirror image. It looked pretty cool.

Well, have you all started your Christmas shopping yet?! I know..I know...how dare I ask. I'm getting that niggling feeling that I get about this time of year...panic! Thanksgiving will be here before you know it!

I have not picked up a needle in 4 or 5 days. I've just lost my mojo. Here's what I stitched on last week though before mojo took off

Dead of the Night on 32ct black linen with DMC. That witch and moon took some time to stitch. I feel like I need to finish this before I start anything else.

I've been looking through my stash for Christmas things to stitch and I don't have much. So I put in an order at 123 Stitch for a couple small stitchings that were on sale. I love that place!

I hit a couple after-Halloween sales and here's what I scored

The pumpkin skull was $4.00 with an orange light-bulb inside and I found these decorations for cheap also

 That's it for my after-Halloween sales buying!

Well I'm going to look at my exchange goodies and wash dishes! It's a nice warm day here for November and the door is wide open-enjoying it because next week I'm hearing the highs will be in the low 60's.

Take care y'all! Hope everyone affected by Superstorm Sandy are doing alright!