Turtle Trot, Dancin' with Fancey, Mojo Resuscitator, and losing myself

Hi all! I'm so excited! I just went and picked up my copy of this

Of course, Momo had to get into the picture. After I post, I will be losing myself in this book!

Turtle Trot, right! Here's Fancey, all finished

Fancey Blackett by Pineberry Lane, on 28ct Antique White linen with DMC. See the evil red eyes of the owls? And I thought the corn cobs looked great with their coloring. I have my fingers crossed that these pictures show up good on my blog. I'm at the mercy of this Blogger app. I'll miss Fancey but I do have one more pattern with her on it.

What's next? Oh yeah! I finished my 5th ornament

Snowy Night by Prairie Schooler, using 32ct Lambswool with DMC except for the dark area, used GAST Black Crow. I'll make this up like it is in the magazine, with felt backer and a hanger. Out of the JCS '08 Ornie mag. As Carol from Stitching Dreams said, Prairie Schoolers are a comfort stitch. And she's right. You can really lose yourself in them. They're like wearing an old comfy pair of slippers!

I also had some progress with the Ruby Pemberton Sampler Pillow, before

And after..

I wet this a little to iron it and some of the color bled in that middle row of stitches. Argh! I will keep this so it's no biggie! On 36ct, 1 over 2.

Couple weeks ago, I was hardly stitching at all. I was reading blogs and came upon Stacy Nash's blog with a pic of her new series of samplers and took one look at those chickens and said to myself, I've got to have this! Check out the chickens

Miss Baxters House. I put in an order for the fibers yesterday. Yes, my budget took a hit but I'll be a good girl from here on out. I do, however, need the fabric! Ha! My budget can handle the purchase of fabric because nothing in my stash looks good with this pattern.

I think that's all I had to say. Thanks for stopping in, as always. I really do appreciate your comments and try to respond quickly. 

Take Care!

I left my mojo in Las Vegas, Final Turtle Trot 2013, long post!

My mojo went missing this whole past week, so I'm thinking I left it in Vegas. I had packed one of the sachets with me to work on during some down time. What down time?! We were in the hotel room just to sleep and change clothes! We stayed at Circus, Circus for the two nights we were there. Comfortable I would say, nothing fancy. But the price of a bottled water in a vending machine at the hotel was $3.00! Needless to say, we bought our water at a drugstore. We went to see the National Finals Rodeo, held every year in December in Las Vegas. It's like the Super Bowl of rodeo. I was raised around rodeo; my mothers family rodeoed, some still do, and my fathers family raised cattle and horses. So being around cowboys and rodeo is nothing new.

I didn't get photos of the arena but I did of a few of The Strip, one of a certain pawn shop, and a couple others. My daughter was the passenger and the photog. Amazingly I didn't hardly take pictures of anything! I just forgot I guess. So here are my few pics!






The MGM Grand, bathed in green in top photo. There was a Rainforest Cafe (I think that's the correct name) inside and we had to walk a long ways to reach this cafe. This hotel is just huge. Anyway, I wished I took a picture of this cafe as it felt like you were in an actual rainforest. There were animal sounds, a sky above you with stars and clouds, moving elephants and cheetahs and birds. Sometimes a thunderstorm would come through with lightning and thunder. Pretty neat. Prices were pricey though. But to me, portions were big. I had a Cobb salad and it took up a whole long plate. For two meals, an appetizer, drinks, the bill came to a little over $50. My daughter went to one of these cafes in Tempe, which is a city next to Phoenix, and begged me to go to this one.

The photo above is of the Venetian, I think. Inside its beautiful, makes you think you're in some palace in Italy. Along with the rodeo were trade shows that cater to the country, rodeo, horsey set. They sold things like cattle chutes, clothing, jewelry, art. One such trade show was inside this hotel. If we go again next year, I want to stay here!

Here's that certain pawn shop. Do you recognize it!



The Pawn Shop on tv! This was a must-see! We could only take a pic driving by as parking was around the side and back and at midnight, I wasn't about to walk through the dark.

By the time Sunday evening came, I was pretty well tuckered out. I had blisters on both feet, I have bad knees and they were yelling at me. Saturday we were wandering along The Strip at midnight! That's way past my bedtime!

On our way to Las Vegas though, we stopped at the bridge that crosses over the Colorado river. It bypasses Hoover Dam, which you could pass over at one time. Not anymore, thanks to 9/11. My brother worked on this bridge at the very beginning of its construction. You can take an exit and walk on the walkway or go on the dam. Here are pictures of both the dam, Lake Mead, and looking waaaaay down from the walkway.





Just looking at this picture above makes me dizzy. The wind was blowing like crazy that day and being on this walkway was like being in an open top tunnel, it was just whistling through there.

I was glad to come home! This weekend I'm doing NOTHING! Sorry for yelling. I've already warned everyone that I'm not moving from this couch. Except to finish my sachets, buy a Christmas tree. We're doing live this year. For the past 6 years, we've had fake trees. I destroyed two vacuums vacuuming up needles. This year we want live. Interesting to see what our cats will do! Wish us luck!

Okay, Turtle Trot, the last one. Can't believe it. I worked on Fancey Blackett



Here's before



She'll be one of my Turtle Trot 2014 WIPs.

Last post I mentioned I didn't have much Christmas charts-I'm taking care of that!



I know that middle one is not Christmas, but will you take a look at that black velvet strawberry!! I had to have it. I also bought two new charts from Shakespeare's Peddler, Christmas ones!



I'm waiting on word from Barb for her mailing address. Here's what I'm sending her-a $30 e-gift card to 123stitch, a sachet, some holiday appropriate goodies! Catherine, I'll have your sachet + stuff in the mail this coming week. Justine, I sent you an email.

I received a very nice package from Gracie at http://needlespinsanddragonflies.blogspot.com/ Gracie, I'm just blown away by your tatting talent! Here's one of her tatting creations





It's so dainty and petite! See the beads as ornaments. It's by far one of the prettiest things I've seen! She also sent me a kit



Thank You, Gracie! She also sent a Christmas card, my first of this season. No one sends Christmas cards anymore, it's sad.

Well I believe this is the end of this novel! After I hit the publish button, I remember other things to talk about! This is long enough though!

Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Oh, and its supposed to be 50 degrees here today! Short sleeve weather, alright! And 65 on Tuesday or Wednesday. Just this past week it was 11 degrees when I went to work at 5:40 am. Crazy weather, but I'll take it. Hope those of you in cold areas stay warm and dry!



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Turtle Trot November, Hangin' With Fancey

I have just one WIP that I worked on and that's Fancey Blackett. I actually missed her! I've ignored her long enough! Here's what she looked like before




The top portion of the trunk was not going to line up with the bottom portion which has 5 stitches and the upper part has 3. The top part sits smack in the middle of the 5 stitches. So I pretty much just set her aside. I picked her back up a couple weeks ago, tore out the upper trunk and started over. I had counted everything and have no idea where I went wrong! So this is what I have so far




Her official name is Fancey Blackett-The Harvest Dance. 28ct ivory linen is called for, but I used 28ct antique white linen. It also called for 1 over 2 or 2 over 2, I'm doing 2 over 2. I couldn't see just one thread on 28ct, it was going to be pretty thin. See my Day of the Dead needleminder? I fell in love with it and ordered 2!

So the Winter Olympics are coming up February 6, I believe. Anyone got plans for Olympic stitching? I know, it's so far away, but this is how I roll! I stitched AND finished a project during the Summer Olympics in London. Gosh, when did that happen?! Anyway, it was Queens Crowns by PSS. The Winter Olympics are in Russia, so I have no idea what I'll stitch!

I just opened a fortune cookie and here's what it says 'Lavish spending may be disastrous, be careful' Great! I just bought a little stash, hardly lavish as some of the charts are Bent Creek for $3-something!

If anyone's wondering, that's my dad in my header picture. He's gone now but he served in the Air Force. I miss him very day.

Well, Fancey beckons! I'd like to have her done by this time next month. If I get her done (git 'er done!lol), it leaves me with 5 WIPs left. Not bad! If Claudette of BAP Attack hosts another SAL, I just may join up again.

Have a good evening!


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Turtle Trot October, a finish, a start, EE-I-EE-I-O

I have a Turtle Trot finish!



This is Dead of Night by Funk and Weber Designs. On 32ct black linen. If you look at the last time I posted a picture of this, you'll see that weird line of stitches that was above the cats back. I ripped that out and stitched it better. I'm glad to have this one done. I was over on the HOE Exchange site checking out the rules for their new Halloween I exchange. I came thisclose to joining that! I know! Monday is the deadline to sign up. I'm ready to move on from Halloween.

Here's another Trot WIP that I finally dragged out. All it had was the heart and most of the house



What a horrible picture! It looked bright enough when I took it! Here's what it should look like done


I hope to have it finished for Christmas 2014! There's a lot of backstitching on this. Vonna from the Twisted Stitcher brought up tossing a WIP that she lost interest in. I'm starting to feel that way about some of my Turtle Trot WIPs. I know of one that I just dread working on. I have a few stitches on it. I'll make a decision on it soon.

So I had a hankering for a new start



Sheesh! Another bad pic. The color of the house on the chart soo not matches what I'm stitching. I think the discrepancy is from the camera flash when the picture is taken for the charts. Not much I can do. Another thing I've noticed is the finished measurement is so much bigger than what I have! I'm using the called for linen count. It's a mystery to me!

Seeing as I've been a good girl not buying oodles of stash lately, I treated myself to these two



LHN Exodus 20:16 on the left. I snagged this on eBay. On the right is Little Lamb Sleeping by the Drawn Thread.

It's looking like I'll finally have my ONS order sometime this coming week. On the invoice it says if you have not received your order, wait 14 days to contact us. So I contacted them. They emailed me Friday to say my order is on its way. You know, with 123Stitch I never have this problem of them having to backorder anything. Besides, they let you know when something can ship out right on the item page. I like them a lot.

Since Diana has not gotten a hold of me concerning her giveaway win, I'm giving her until this coming Friday to contact me. There's no way to get a hold of her. So, if I don't hear from her then, Saturday I'll draw another persons name on the Giveaway post. So be sure to check this blog this coming weekend.

Well, I gotta cook dinner. I see I'm up to 108 followers. Welcome! Thanks for commenting and visiting, appreciate it!


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Turtle Trot August, Idiot stitching, finishes

I've got a finish! By LHN



Whoo hoo! It's so pretty, it's one of my Trot WIPs. This is where the Idiot stitching comes in! Got your attention now? The words 'Pick your own Pumpkin' were supposed to be in Roasted Chestnut-CC, not in Blackbird! I don't know what I was thinking! Sheesh! I wasn't about to tear out the words so I left them. I think they look fine and they match the other areas of Blackbird. Once I stitched in all the flower leaves, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel and realized I could get this done. Here's more looks at Pumpkin Hollow






I also finished La D Da's Yellow Bird



Instead of the 35ct Parchment called for, I used 36ct Flax Edinburgh linen with Glorianna Birch Brown silk. Instead of the designers initials, I put in this year. No Idiot stitching here, though my first attempt at the year had to be ripped out-too close to the bird. I like things symmetrical, I know-weird!

Here's my newest start Buttons Black by PSS or Plum Street Samplers



Stitched on 36ct LL Autumn Gold. 1 over 2 GAST. I like doing 1 over 2 strictly from an economical standpoint-lots of the over-dyed left over! Idiot stitched the K in Clack wrong which then threw off the ack in Brack. So out came ack and stitched in right but by counting over from Brew is! I left that funky K in Clack, lol! AND then the star at the right has extra stitches to give it a more square look! I just left those in too.

ACK!

I'm guessing there were a lot of distractions while I was stitching; things like TV, 3 football games, and a couple movies like 2012 and the newer Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I'm pooped and I'm going to see if I can put in a few more stitches in Buttons Black. Thanks for stopping in. Have a great evening!



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Turtle Trot June and a finish!

Wish me luck on a post that'll work. This is my third try. Here we go

I have another finish

Here's Homespun Elegance's Winter House sampler. I used Sandstone linen which is a tad darker than this pic. I like it a lot. At first I wasn't too crazy for the thread colors used but its grown on me! And of course, there was Poppies that I finished last week. 

Here's another view of the sampler

So here's what I've been stitching on in between everything. This is a Jeannette Douglas design called Vintage Stars. It's a kit with silks. See the 'star' on the left near G? Well, I think it was supposed to be another color, like that of the bigger star at bottom center. I just hope I don't run out of the color I was  SUPPOSED to use on the smaller stars. The silks came in a small bag with a paper with names of the silk colors but no way to identify the silks! Oh we'll! This problem I'm having with posting is back so I'll say goodbye, take care, say Welcome to my 93rd follower, and Thanks for all the comments last post! You are all super!

Turtle Trot May '13, a Winner!, and a Happy Dance!

The first order of business is

LINDA!!!

Since you were the only commenter, you're the winner! Congrats! Send me your mailing address to campbo41@q.com and I'll have your Chocolate chart to you along with a few surprises!

Well! I've have a finish to report on

This guy is from Toadally Aarrgh by Stitchy Kitty, all 2"x2 1/2" of him! Which brings me to the question AGAIN-why/how did it take so long to stitch him? I should mention he's stitched on 32ct Queen Anne's Lace jobelan or lugana using CC/DMC. Actually for as small as he is, there is a lot of stitches there, along with some Kreinik and a bead. I substituted the black metallic thread on his eye patch for regular black DMC. Oh look! I forgot to stitch his other mean eyebrow on the right eye! Anyway I started him last year sometime with just the stitches above his eyes. The color of the fabric is not what it looks like in the pic. I now have just 10 WIPs left to stitch on.

I've learned something about myself stitching on these WIPs and it's that I cannot stitch on too many at a time. I stitch on one and just want to keep stitching! It's hard to move on to another one. Here are the others that I've managed to put in some time on

In the contest I had going since TUSAL, this is the WIP closest to being finished soon. All the flowers are stitched except for the big one at the upper right. The model of this design has the words PRETTY at the top of these flowers; I chose to leave it off. This would make a very nice pillow I'm thinking! Poppies should be done by the next Trot report.

Winter Sampler by Homespun Elegance. Since the last time, I've put in the vine directly below the snow, the alphabet, and the tree. Instead of French Knots, which I can't do, I'm putting in red beads at the leaves of the vine. I'll be picking this up more in the coming weeks. Next up is

Klagetoh Navajo Rug. The only stitching done before was the upper row on the big geometric design. I got kinda bored stitching all that black which is why I started that lighter color border. I just need to bite the bullett and DO IT!!

Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Take care everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Turtle Trot April '13 Edition

I had two WIP finishes this past month. Note: Blogger is in control of this post as I had this picture centered!

Meet Thee I Love! As I look at this, I am befuddled at how long it took me to stitch this! I had it kitted up for 2 years or more. I barely started stitching on it last year. It's not very big. Where I got hung up is probably the whole plant on the left. There are 7-yes 7!- shades of green. Not to mention the back stitching! Here's a little tidbit of backstitching info-

• 368-top of lower right leaf, right side of large background leaf,
• 320-bottom left leaf except for tip, upper left side of tip of large background leaf, etc, etc.

And so on and so on. Also the symbols for the colors are all drawn by hand. But, I think it's all worth it because it turned out very nice! The color of the fabric is more sea-mist or seafoam color. It looks gray in the pic.

Here's another look at it

That's how those old JCS magazines were though, hand-drawn symbols. This particular design is from the June 1989 issue.

Christmas Magic is the second WIP I finished. This one did double duty for the Ornaments SAL and now for the Turtle Trot. Here it is again

From the JCS Ornament mag 2010.

Well, that's all I got! Sun's going down, the wind too. I live in a valley and the wind just blows through here. I am working on an ornament for the Ornament SAL coming up at the end of this month. The days are just going way too fast! Take Care!

*This post is dedicated to Dana, the recently departed animal buddy of Claudette who hosts the Turtle Trot and has the blog BAP Attack.

Turtle Trot and the post from...

H-E-double hockey sticks!

An hour ago, this computer decided it wanted to shut down and restart. It took an HOUR to go from re-start to now. I obviously need a new computer.

I have been in a slump lately! I haven't been reading posts like usual, and I managed to sleep through two alarms this morning! That's never happened! And here I am, way past bedtime, trying to get this computer to work so I can post this!

Turtle Trot time-I have spread out my stitching time amongst more WIPs than last month, in addition to starting a new ornament and stitching the LHN sheep. And starting my Exchange stitching.

Here's where I got to as compared with below. The stitching below the snowman, house and trees was supposed to be chain stitching but I put in regular cross stitches.

Remember this one? Haha, I lost the floss key again, twice now in one year! I stitched in the pumpkin to the left of the sign and the vines and flowers below the sign. Check out what it looked like last time I picked it up

I was the first month winner of the Turtle Trot and lo and behold, I find a e-gift certificate from Claudette from BAP Attack who is hosting this here SAL, in my inbox. What a surprise! Claudette, Thank You so much! This is what I bought with it

Lousy picture; new threads for a Halloween design that I want to start later this year.

It appears that I lost a picture of another WIP that I stitched on. It's been one loooong day so I'm going to hit the hay! I'll put up pictures of the two other WIPs that I worked on in the next couple of days. I have to wake up in 5 hours so...Good Night! Oh, and Happy Valentines Day to you all. I bought myself a smallish heart with chocolate truffles, which I will be inhaling tomorrow! Take Care!

Turtle Trot 2013

I just about forgot I was supposed to post photos of my Turtle Trot stitching! I just worked on two WIPs. Right below is Thee I Love from an old issue of JCS (see my sidebar at Turtle Trot 2013 to see date of magazine). The stitching is a little difficult as there are several shades of green that has me changing needles constantly. The color of the fabric is actually a light green and the flowers are white! Don't know what happened here! The bottom one is Winter House Sampler by Homespun Elegance. The only thing I stitched on the sampler was the snowman! I had to buy more DMC for both projects. Now that I have thread, I'll be dedicating some time to both.

Okay, so Blogger wants to do center! Whatever Blogger wants, Blogger gets!

This is just a short post for my Turtle Trot WIPs.

Thanks everyone for stoppin' in and visiting!

What the SAL??!! Happy New Years!

Oh boy! This is what can happen when under the influence of several pecan pie bars loaded with chocolate! I've joined 3 other SAL's besides the Turtle Trot!

Stitching The Little House Flock

I figured that these cute sheep are small enough for me to stitch and finish. After all, Vonna does ask for just the stitching completed. Finishing the sheep are optional. If you haven't heard of this yet here's the link Little Sheep Virtues. Stitching Bits and Bobs have the pattern and button for sale at their site and may offer both as an auto program. I've already pre-ordered; I now need to order the fabric for these sheep. I'm looking forward to this!

Ornament SAL 2013

Reflections in the Pond is starting an ornament SAL for 2013. You can stitch any kind of ornament be it Halloween, Christmas, Easter, or etcetera etcetera. Here's the link Ornament SAL 2013. Check it out.

TUSAL

I already have the dates up for posting on my sidebar. Just another way to get me to post more often! Here's the link TUSAL.

And of course, the Turtle Trot 2013

I'm supposed to post pictures of my WIPs. There are dates to follow for posting progress and I think it's the 13th of every month, yikes! So here we go

I have not touched this since stitching this little bit almost a year ago!!

My poor, poor neglected Winter at Beacon House. I'll try to stitch this more often and finish it because I have another Praiseworthy Stitches design I want to stitch later on in the year.

This is Christmas Magic from the 2010 ornament magazine from JCS. This is part of the ladies' dress. The designer and the magazine escapes me! I guess I better find the magazine.

Called Klagetoh IV, a Navajo rug. This'll be a perfect Christmas gift for a friend of mine who is Navajo. This is on 14ct Aida. Lots of stitching left!

From an old BH&G Christmas magazine. This is the year of the Mitten!

(Hanging head)

(Can't wait to see what Blogger will do with these two pics!) It's supposed to be a castle.lol.

This one is a contender for early finishing as I just have the flower heads to stitch.

It's pretty overcast today, we may get some rain/snow tonight. I need to stitch this; it's too nice to leave it lying around! So far so good. I'm waiting for Blogger and/or my computer to act up with all these pics I'm putting up!

I must admit that I've been stitching on this for the last 3 days. Filling in that boot is some work! Do you see my mistake here? I'm a center starter and that's what I did. But I must've turned it around and started stitching. I may have just enough fabric for framing! It's supposed to be lengthwise..lol! I took it off the Q-snap and thought-oh crap! But my mistake turned out to be good as I'll have 2 pieces of fabric to use for ornaments for the SAL I mentioned above! I think you may know that La D Da has an ornament of witches feet in one of the JCS Halloween magazines. Not bad huh!

So I tried to load another picture and no go so I'll post the last 3 WIPs tomorrow. I have leftover Christmas ornaments kitted up, a few Halloween and I'm looking through all my charts and freebie charts to get ready for the Ornament SAL. I'm looking forward to all the stitching I'll be doing in 2013! I'm certifiably committed!

I need to put an ALL POINTS BULLETIN out for the MIA Deb from Threadgatherers! Where are you Deb? If you see this, you won the big prize! Send me an email azcampis@yahoo.com to let me know your address.

I'm going to get back to stitching cheating on Something Wicked. It's back to work tomorrow, then off for the 1st. I'm still in Christmas mode because I feel like it just snuck up on me. We had a great time eating too much and opening gifts. Hope you all did too! Thanks everyone; I appreciate your comments and even those who lurk, coming from a former lurker!