Turtle Trot October, SAL-itis, yadda yadda

Wow, these last few months are sure going by fast, aren't they?

I worked on one TT WIP, Pumpkins and Sunflowers, Now

Can't get a good picture of this.

Before..

P & S is a fun stitch and not very big.

As for progress on Harvest Delivery, here she is..Now

I like the argyle pumpkins. I want to finish this before Thanksgiving.

And before..

I'm getting ready to stitch the black wagon, a few more flowers, and the wagon tongue. Onto the horse! Looking forward to him/her.

I had to have one last new start for something Halloweeny, so here it is..

Tombstone Angel Pinkeep Drum and Strawberry. Yes, I'm going to attempt to construct this drum! I have a perfect fabric for the top and the wool for the bottom. I'll have to buy the black velvet for the strawberry though. Which then brings me to the question of-If I can stitch this tombstone angel, why can't I get back to stitching on my Early Witches piece?!

This the SAL with the Primitive Hare. Actually, as I was working away on the drum piece up above, I was feeling like I could go back to Witches and really put in an effort to catching up. I think the last part is being released this coming week. After I post this, I think I'll get back to it.

My plan for October is No New Starts for Halloween! I will finish up the all the Halloween type projects I have going, including Wicked..

I just need to frog some stitches at the bottom of the key. 

Lets see if my self-talk works!

Speaking of SAL-itis, I joined yet another group! Kim at Wisdom with Needle & Thread is hosting the Traveling Treasure Chest. She has sent off a package with some of her unwanted stash. She picked the first Pirate who is Teresa from the blog At Willow Tree Pond. Teresa picks two charts she wants, adds two or three from her own stash and sends the whole thing off to the next pirate! All of us who joined have alter egos! I am...

Harriet 'One-Eyed' Goff, the Knave of Mudskipper Harbour, who is also a jolly japester prone to the yo ho ho-ing, especially after a bottle of rum!

Yup, that rum will do that to you!

As mentioned in another post, I joined with a Christmas exchange hosted by Angela P at Hooked on Stitching. I received my recipient info and will begin stitching here soon, probably after I get all my Halloween done. It's not due to be shipped until the end of November.

I'm taking it easy today because Mr. Vertigo is trying to make his presence known. I dreamed I had an episode this morning but I think it really happened! How weird is that! I've been plagued with vertigo for the last 10 years and its a B---H!! Sometimes I can go for a year with constant vertigo but at a small degree where I have to lay down very slowly and get out of bed very slowly but life goes on. And sometimes they're so bad that I can't drive or work. One episode I went to the ER and had an MRI and  an EKG because this one was sooo bad and I could feel my heart beating like it was going to jump out of my chest. Both tests came out clear and positive. I was sent home with Valium to help with the anxiety. Right now I have a huge headache because I'm stressing over this. I've gone an entire year and a half without Mr. Vertigo. Why he's shown up now is beyond me. So no weedwacking for me. I had planned on yard work today but that's not happening now.

Thanks for allowing me to vent about Mr. Vertigo. I hate him! Lol!

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm also happy to see new followers, either through Blogger or Bloglovin'. A BIG Welcome to you all! My blogging anniversary is coming up in December so a Giveaway might be nice, right?! Take care all!

Happy, Happy, Happy!

I'm so happy to get back to my WIPs and no-pressure stitching! I finished my exchange stitching and just need to sew it up. I'll send it and everything else next week. That, my friends, is that. Because I love Halloween, I only join the Fall/Halloween exchanges, so it'll be another year before I do that again!

Here we are for Turtle Trot time though and I managed to stitch on 3 WIPs. Here's my problem child-the LK Mystery Scary Sampler. Why problem? Because the fabric is too short, I'm having to leave out quite a bit of the pattern..

I've left enough fabric for framing at the bottom. I can at least get the lawn in with the x's and satin stitch. I wanted to make sure I put in the WDW Kohl and Guacamole border that kind of frames the house area. Here's that border right above the house, below..

which is unfortunately in the shadow! I'll put on my big girl panties and get this stitched up for Halloween. This is how it looked before..

Now, here's Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas, another Turtle Trot WIP

And how it looked before..

Just a few more stitches in the bluish Quaker and finishing up the large one in the middle.

And take a look at School Days. I'm building the school house now..

and the flag pole. A first, when I stitched the flag pole, I thought it should be a gray color because they're metal. But then I thought, no, an older style schoolhouse probably had a wooden flagpole back in the day. So now the color will remain.

For August, I asked Mel from SFS if I could please have a Free Month. Here's why..

Strawberry Fields Forever is awaiting its fabric but the others have fabric and fibers. This great shop in Maryland is called Needlecraft Corner www.needlecraft-corner.com. They can sell you just the chart or the whole enchilada (fab/floss/chart) at decent prices. They have a simple website where you have to either email or call in an order. Drema is a very nice lady and you can bet I'll order from them again. Next year though! Ha. Spent too much but look at those charts! 

So I'm giving away another cross stitch Christmas book, see last post. It ends this Friday if you're interested.

I've got a load of laundry to get done so I'd better do it! I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my cube finish. I still stop to look at it! Hope your Thursday is wonderful!

Turtle Trot, Lost and Found, a finish

Morning all!

Yesterday was a great day. Preseason football games, the first episode of Outlander..woohoo.

It's Turtle Trot today and I worked on two WIPs. As usual, pic heavy!

LK Mystery Scary Sampler

Horrid picture. I finally started the bottom portion. Last time, all I had was the 5 blocks with the leaves and the black. But...like my stitching has been in the past month, I have a problem

I have 4 and 1/4 inches below the house to add the lawn, a row of acorns and leaves, and the border. It's not going to happen! This is what I get for being thrifty and buying the fabric separate from the kit. Oh well. I have raised the house to two lines below the black/green line, shortened up the roof, raised the windows to a line below the roof. Because I shortened the roof, I had to pull in the windows. Everything below the windows will be as charted. I will get this framed so I'm trying to leave enough fab at the bottom to do that. I'm thinking the satin stitch portion of the lawn will be shortened up too. Can't leave that out!

And from the Lost and Found Department, here's Pumpkins and Sunflowers! I misplaced this and it's been MIA since the beginning of this year. Here's what I had before

And where I'm at now

This is so much fun, so much that I found myself still stitching at 11pm last night! Ever have a stitching like that where you lose track of time? There will be a good amount of backstitching. This is on Lambswool Jobelan. I'm really enjoying stitching on an evenweave. I always became confused on whether I was supposed to stitch over 1 or 2. 

 I have a finish also

By Pineberry Lane, Lydia Broome Sampler. I saw this sewed up into a pin pillow on another blog and it was very nice. My first thought was a large needlebook since I've never made one. It'll get the lizard sand treatment!

I started another ornament from a JCS ornament mag but not enough work to show it.

I bought more trim, feeding this trim obsession I've got!

From Michael's and Hobby Lobby.

And I up and joined an exchange for the Fall/Halloween season. Over at the Dixie sampler http://www.dixiesamplar.com/2014/08/harvest-exchange-2014.html. 

Its been a couple of years since I joined an exchange and I'm pretty sure cross stitch gifts are allowed under SFS rules.

It'll satisfy my urge to splurge! Speaking of SFS, Mel has given us a $25 bonus to spend during Market week! So

looking forward to that! 

How about a small Giveaway?! When I found P & S (pumpkins and sunflowers), I came across a couple of things that I don't want. Here's one:

There are tons of patterns in this thing. Here's a few peaks:

There are instructions to put all these different uses together.

Leave a comment saying I Want It. If more people leave the comment, on the 17th, I'll draw a name. I may just throw in a few extras that pertain to the designs in this book just to get you on your way! Open to everyone, overseas too. To heck with the cost of global shipping, eh?!

I also have a few Christmas stitching books that I'll giveaway too in the upcoming weeks.

But today I will be doing this.....

Thanks for your comments as usual! Welcome to the new followers that are following through Bloglovin! Take care.

July's Turtle Trot

Hi everyone!

I can't seem to leave comments on blogs lately. I don't know what's going on. It must be a Blogger thing because when I click on say..my local newspapers' website, the page loads completely. On the blogs, the page doesn't go to a full load, which also describes my mind lately! Sometimes I feel like I should just buy a PC. I'm hoping this isn't permanent. Anyone else using an iPad having this problem? So to Gracie from Needles Pins and Dragonflies, I'm hoping you're feeling better after your fall. One of these days I just may 'wander' into Joanne's too!

Edited to add: I restarted my iPad and that seemed to clear up the problem. Thanks Kathy Simpson, I will keep your tip in mind!

As for Turtle Trot, I managed to work on just one WIP

LK's Mystery Sampler from almost two years ago. What I'd like to know is What happened to last year?! It's Thursday and..never mind, I'm starting to babble. I get tired near the end of the week and my mind isn't fully loading! Anyway, I thought I would delay the satin stitches but I like moving left to right, top to bottom so I bared down and stitched them. They were actually fun and so shiny. The picture doesn't do them justice. I have the entire bottom section left to do. Here's what this looked like before

The Ruby Pemberton Sampler Pillow is not a TT WIP but I did make progress on it until I ran out of thread! Here she is before

And now

I put in an order for another skein of GAST Claret.

I also forgot to show my progress on School Days last time

It's coming along nicely. I was glad to stitch in the tree trunk and the leaves to get some color onto this thing!

Along with the GAST thread mentioned above, I also ordered the LK Hats Off chart with the embellishment pack. The designer has some real cute stuff coming out for Halloween and Christmas. I also received word from 123stitch that my reserved copy of the newest JCS Halloween magazine has arrived and that I can go order it! Haha, may have to wait to order that though. Although my stashing has gone down considerably this year, I feel like I'm still not learning anything! But seriously, after I buy that magazine, I will be putting a clamp on the wallet and doing my best to forget my Visa number!

Thanks for stopping in! A big WELCOME to the new followers also! I'm off to restart this iPad and see if it will help this blog problem. 

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!

Turtle Trot May, Finishes

After a morning of vacuuming and laundry, I can now sit down and type this all out. After finishing my 3rd ornament I took 2 days off from stitching. Two days turned into 3, then I finally picked up Fancey and added more stitches to her

I'm getting a little bored with the green corn stalks and there are two more on the right side. This is the only TT WIP that I worked on. I'll be done with her by next month.

Of course, I have more WIPs in all my 2014 starts and I have managed to finish another!

The color of the fabric is a little washed out. Hornbook Angel by The Primitive Needle on mystery 36ct fabric with overdyed thread.

Speaking of 3rd ornament-here is A Song A Song by A Sunflower Seed, found in the '08 JCS ornament magazine

Why two pictures? Because I love it and its the most favorite Christmas song of mine with Little Drummer Boy a close second. I'm not sure of the count of fabric. It's stitched with overdyed thread, Kreinik, and finished off with Mill Hill glass beads in the border. The tops of the waves were charted for Rainbow Gallery braid but I thought it had enough bling. The snow below the trees are a mix of white DMC and Kreinik silver filament. The funny looking squidgy things near the trees and Song are musical notes. I cut down on the amount of them too. Mostly because I wanted to be done! I will turn this into a pillow ornament as soon as I find a perfect fabric for the back.

I also framed one of my finishes from either last year or earlier this year (pretty bad that I can't remember!). My original plan was to make it a door hanger but did this instead

Peace by Erica Michaels. I thought the green in the frame went perfect with the greens in the trees. Sorry for the poor view.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Off to stitch and watch the NFL draft. Thanks for stopping by!

The rest of the story

I'm kind of happy with my previous post so lets do another! Actually, it's a Blogger app that I'm using now. I cropped pictures of the other WIPs that I worked on to see if they would fit better, so here we go

It does look smaller. It may fit on my blog better. Vintage Stars by Jeannette Douglas. I last worked on this sometime last year. Here is what it looked like before

Lots of work yet to do but I WILL finish this this year!

And last but not least, after finding the copies of the floss symbols and chart of this section, is LK Mystery Scary Sampler, yay!

Here's what it looked like before

So far, so good. I have one more picture of fabric that I bought and I love love it! Crystal Phoenix linen by PTP. 

I think I have about $3 and change left from my budget after this! It's gorgeous and for a couple ornaments out of the JCS ornament magazines.

I'm not all that happy with this app either. Every time I want to add more text after a picture, it scrolls to the top automatically and then I find myself adding text to the beginning of this post. It's better still than what was going on before. I thought it was the end of my blogging career! A desk top computer would work better (no apps!) but that'll have to wait!

Thanks for hanging with me though! Progress on Fancey Blackett is the last post before this one, check her out and her dancing partner. 

Fancey makes an appearance, Turtle Trot April

So I've downloaded a more newer BlogPress app and hopefully this will take care of this problem I'm having of uploading pictures.

Hope your having Spring-like weather in your part of the country. It's been kinda warm here.

I worked on 3 WIPs this past month. Here's Fancey Blackett and her oversized dancing partner!

As you can see, I added more leaves, acorns, Fancey and her partner. In a months time I should be finished with her because all that's left is corn stalks, crows, pumpkins, and squiggly vines.

Here's how she looked last time

So I'm going to post this now and see if its works. Thanks for coming by!