Happy Spring!

Hi all! I thought I would get in one last post for March. Spring has definitely sprung here. My header photo is my back yard which is covered in those little purple flowers. It's really pretty.

This post may run into Part 2, so let's get a move on.

First up are my old WIP progress: Winter at Beacon House..

I filled in the sand/snow between the brown dog and the boy with the light blue hat 

and installed 1 over 1 bird at the lower left tree. 

Promise Me by LK, before:

After:

Pretty good progress I would say

Next is Christmas Garden by BBD:

No before picture because all I stitched was the beginnings of the red flowers at the left.

I have 2 finishes. First is Do You See What I See by Shelly Auen:

I love it! I believe I started this for last year's Maynia.

Next one is Snow Day by Sisters & Best Friends:

On a piece of Babbling Brook jobelan, I believe. I saw this stitched up at another blog called 

Black flies and Snow flies and commented on how cute he was. The blogger Lisa

offered to send me the pattern! So I took up her offer and here he is. I searched for this pattern

which is a freebie but I still could not find it. If anyone would like to stitch him, let me know, I'll send

this freebie to you. Go check out Lisa's blog. Thanks again, Lisa!

Ok, 1 more picture before Blogger goes nuts! On Stitch Maynia there's a SAL I'm

taking part in, new starts in 2019 on the 19th of each month. Here's 

my new start-Night Moves Trumpeter Swans..

I have the lower swan going in. The swans themselves are 5 different DMC greys

plus white! That is several hours of stitching! Whew. Swans will be a WIP for Maynia 

because I'm joining this year again!

Onto Part 2. Over there are FFOs and exchange goodies. See you there!

Part 2 Happy March!

If you haven't already, see Part 1 below this post.

So I've been stitching more these past couple of weeks. On Feb. 19 I started a Christmas ornament from the 2015 JCS ornament mag..

This is the PS ornament that is directly above in the picture called Winter's Eve. I can't remember the name of the fabric I'm using but it's 32ct. I'm taking part of A Year of New Starts SAL at Stitch Maynia and this was my start. Every month on the 19th we start something new.

I also have a couple FFOs. First, I finally did the ribbon ruching for All Hallows Eve by Dulaney Woods designs..

I ruched as I sewed it on instead of sewing a running stitch in the ribbon. It still took awhile and I was worried I was going to run out of ribbon! I'll tell you, it's best to have a drink nearby, preferably of the alcoholic kind! It took me about 2 and a half hours to get the ribbon on! So worth it though. Here's the back..

Love the fabric.

I'm still doing my WIP stitching once a week on older WIPs and I just stopped on Early Witches by the Primitive Hare..before..

and now..

Tituba is now done. I just have the town to stitch in below her name. Her skin color was charted for dmc black but I decided on a warm brown for her skin. I like it much better.

I am now moving onto Winter at Beacon House..

I'll stitch on this today. I have 1 over 1 birds to stitch there in the bottom left corner and a few specialty stitches in the sky around the house. I have not touched this in about 4 years! Time to get back at it.

Oh I forgot to show the other FFO!

By Notforgotten Farm. It could've been stuffed and closed up better but I like it. Here's the back..

The fabric looks like moss. Just like moss on an old headstone.

Okay, Blogger is doing its crazy thing, one more picture..

Market is upon us and while I have seen lots of charts that I want, I really do want this sampler. It has the house and fruit baskets/vases that I like in a sampler. What are you all liking from Nashville Market?

Alright, I better skedaddle! Thanks for stopping by and visiting and leaving comments. Also Welcome to new followers through Bloglovin! Stay awhile! 

Take care!

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!

Do the Happy Dance!

Hi all!

I did it! I finished Salem Sisters some time last week. Take a look..

Love it! I believe it is stitched on 35 or 36 ct Havana. If you look at the previous post of Sisters, the fabric color is more true there. Stitched with Classic Colourworks thread. That row of kitty heads and their whiskers took some doing but it wouldn't be the same without them. That last word 'swangin' brings to mind a country western song some years back that had that word as the title. Can anyone remember the singer? Heehee. Fire up that Google! I may have something for the first person to supply the singers' name in the comment section.

After I was done with Sisters, I picked up a couple WIPs to work on. Here's a long standing one, Blackwater Hollow Sampler..

I can't seem to get a good pic of this. It's by Stacy Nash Primitive Designs. Here's what I had last time..

March 1st is when I last worked on Blackwater, for short. I would love to have this finished this year sometime.

Without a Mouse by BBD is the next WIP I picked up..

I've been working away on that pumpkin house. When I get bored with all that dark color, I work on the lettering on the left side. Here's the before picture..

I put in that row in January! Actually, I've stitched a little since then. I recently updated my iPad and now my pictures are all dated which is neat but also points out the last time some of my stitching has been touched! BTW, this last picture shows the actual color of the fabric.

That's it for now! I see Teri of DixieSampler will be holding her Halloween exchange again this year. I'll be joining that again. She will have details on her blog August 1st or thereabouts. 

It's hard to believe it's almost the middle of July. This is when I start thinking Where has the year gone?! Five months to Christmas, 3 to Halloween. I have quite a few Christmas ornaments but no Halloween. That's crazy says this Halloween fanatic! But I do have Salem Sisters!😀

I'm off to poke around in my WIP pile. I found bulbs for my stitching light so I'm back to evening stitching. Take care y'all and come on back now, ya hear! (Watched Hee Haw earlier today!)

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!

Last Minute Happy Dance!

Happy New Year to everyone in Blogland!!!

I have finished Something Wicked by La D Da

On the called-for fabric with silks. Love it, it's definitely smaller than I thought it was going to be! Onto the to-be-framed pile with the other inhabitant!

Here's the 3 other WIPs for the Turtle Trot

This is Winter House Sampler by Homespun Elegance. I started this in early December and put it down to start ornaments. It replaces Something Wicked.

Well I've lost pictures in my computer somewhere but the other WIPs are the LizzieKate Mystery Sampler-I stitched to the middle portion. Fancey Blackett Harvest Dance-wish I could show you a pic of it. I started it in the Spring of last year and got to the tree trunk and found I had counted wrong somewhere so I put it down! And the project that I'm going to work on today is Thee I love. Stitched on evenweave, I'm hoping I don't get confused on it. Everytime I start on evenweave I don't know whether to count over two like on linen or if I'm supposed to count over 1. I'll take a cue from my stitches already on Thee I Love and go with it!

I wanted to show you my Ort jar. I didn't belong to TUSAL last year but I do this year-2013.

Filled it up. I kind of hate to throw these out! They're like an good old friend-stayed there beside you through thick or thin! I must be in a contemplative mood, thinking of last year and all the changes I'm GOING to make for 2013.

I just want to say THANK YOU to all my followers, old and new, for hangin' with me this past year. It's exciting to reach 75, 76 followers and although I don't always answer everyones comments, I do read them because I'm on this computer Every. Day! Please keep leavin' those comments though! Take Care y'all!

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!

When It Rains, It Pours

Today my car chose to break down on my way to work, which is 9 miles up the highway. Fortunately, I got about 1 mile away and limped half-way back when it went completely dead. Called my roadside service, and towed the darn car home. The mechanic in the house is 100 miles away at work (my brother). I washed dishes and vacuumed, and now here I sit. I'm in the middle of a huge pity-party and decided that just for that, I'm going to start a new stitching project! Because I can! Take that, car and the other problems! I do my best thinking when I'm stitching, and its calming.

Before discovering blogs, I primarily stitched to sell on eBay. To this day I'm still in the seasons cycle, i.e. Halloween stitching now and then Christmas. For the first 6 months I stitched Halloween and Christmas so by those times I had quite a bit of things to sell and I'd make extra money for Christmas. I've been itching to start a new project and now with the car, I've found some seasonal designs to start. When you have a huge stash pile like me, sometimes looking at it all is overwhelming! But with these designs, I have all the threads and fabric needed:

The Pirate design I chose because it'll be quick and is frameable. I have 3 things that I'll frame myself but with the car problem, I'll have to wait for the non-glare glass that I was hoping to buy next week. I will make the 'My Pretties' designs just as they are. Luckily, last year I bought the fabric for it and with my tax return this year, the Belle Soie called for. The Leisure Arts book has a cute Christmas design in it and should go quick too.

For the last 2 weeks I've been stitching the Witch on the Broom, one of my WIP's from years back. I realized we're at the halfway point of the year and that I'd better start finishing up the last 3 or 4 WIP's that I have. I've taken creative license and stitched the border differently than what's on the chart. As you can see I don't have much more to go BUT I have backstitching to do on the witch, broom and cat (just love backstitching, NOT!). I'll be turning this into a pillow.

Funny how 2 weeks ago I was frustrated about Blogger problems. They have smoothed out and I'm able to leave comments. Now I have a new frustration that will take a large chunk of change to fix. We will be on foot for a couple more days until the brother and his pickup come back. For the rest of this week I'll be able to hitch a ride with co-workers who live out here. Then next week I'll be able to use bro's pickup to go to work. I hate car problems!!

That's all for now! It helps to unload sometimes and I'm glad I have a blog to do it with:) Have a great rest-of-the-week and thanks for dropping in!