July Gifted Gorgeousness and stuff

It's GG time and here is Whoo's There

This was a giveaway win from Frances. One big hooter for ya! I'll start stitching in its twin on the other side soon.

Yesterday found me puttering around in my craftroom/bedroom looking at the pile of my unfinished finishes. I came across Hornbook Angel by the Primitive Needle. At first I planned to have this framed but yesterday I turned it into a cube..

I used fabric, ribbon from my stash. Here's a sideways look..

The fabric looks reddish here but it's really brown. It matches the ribbon at the top. The brown skinny ribbon around it is velvet. Cubes are easy to make but cutting the styrofoam is one messy job!

After finishing Salem Sisters, I made Tombstone Angel Pin Drum my evening stitch..

Designed by Stacy Nash. And the before picture..

Yup, a good bit of progress on this one.

And that will be that. Thanks for stopping in!

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!)

Some progress, some stash

Hi all!

Here we are on the cusp of another 4th of July, in the halfway point of the year. It has been hot here which explains my header picture! Last week before our Monsoon rains came in with a bang, the temps had been around the high 90s. It was just torture! So I thought I'd put up a picture of something cold. This isn't where I live. It looks like it may be the Swiss Alps maybe?! I don't know but it feels great to see that.

So onto progress..

Salem Sisters by PSS, my evening stitch. I haven't stitched on her because my pole lamp I use for stitching busted its last bulb Sunday and I haven't been able to find the bulbs. Since I've begun my 5 day weekend today, I'll be putting in some more kitty heads which makes up the border on the bottom. I'm almost done! This will be my 13th DUCJ/FSAL finish. Yay!

Here's where Sisters was before..

My summer stitch is this, Bee in Your Bonnet..

This will be so pretty when it's done. I had to make a change to the light over dyed thread. Chart called for GAST Oatmeal but it pretty much disappeared into the fabric. So I hauled out every light colored over dyed thread I had and guess what worked? Good ole' DMC Blanc! All it's for is the trim around the crown and the honeycomb one of which is being stitched there at the bottom of Bonnet. Love the colors going in here in this section. Below is what I had before..

Here's my very first start of DUCJ/FSAL. I just recently picked the poor thing back up. Here's where I'm at now..

This is Ambiance Automnale by Danybrod. It finally got it's very first ironing. I believe the fabric is Sandcastle maybe or something like that. I really like the splotches of pinkish/beige color. So I've made some changes on this. The crows body took black and light gray DMC. I'm using GAST Black Crow, appropriate, huh?! His beak is steel gray DMC. The orangey flowers which may be Bittersweet? got their own change from DMC which I didn't have, to an overdyed thread of some kind, can't remember! The witchy boot will be black DMC, see below on the chart. Last time I stitched on this I had just the crows head. So there's been progress!

Well, I up and joined Stitch from Stash 2015-B, which started on the 1st. I'll try and make it to December this year! I liked the idea of earning virtual $$. It's nice incentive to finish more. The past two months I hadn't bought any stitchy stuff. Yay for me, until the last week of June when it looked like I wouldn't have any patriotic stitching done. I tend to stitch a lot of Easter, Halloween and Christmas things. I don't have any patriotic charts so I bought this chart..

I saw this when it first came out and just thought Wow, that's a lot of stitching on that whale! But looking at it a second time, that whale really grows on you! I've found some patriotic freebies here and there, with the help of Frances and her Independence tree. I'll be prepared next year! 

That's pretty much it! Those 3 WIPs I have next to my stitching corner of the couch (I've put in a big hole here. A new couch is in order, I think!) and they're the ones I've been working on lately. I'll continue my search for bulbs for my stitching lamp in the meantime!

Happy 4th to all you Americans! Have a nice weekend to those of you who aren't! Thanks for stopping by!

My FNSI stitching

Just a quick post before we head off to watch Jurassic World

Bee in Your Bonnet, my summer stitch. As you can see, I chose a different fabric instead of the 30ct WDW beige. This is 32ct and the coverage is much better. Thanks for your recommendations!

Tata!

FNSI!

More importantly, it's Friday!!!! Whew..

Summertime and the livin' is easy, and GG

Well, it's easy livin' this morning anyway. It's supposed to get to 94 degrees this afternoon. Our mild Spring is over :(

It's GG time! Gifted Gorgeousness is a SAL hosted by the famous Jo, her first year long SAL. Charts, fabric, threads, stuff that was gifted to us, we stitch or use.

I'm working on Whoo's There by PS..

This is where I'm at right now. Before, I just had the upper line done. I'm having fun stitching this. 

My work day evening stitch is Salem Sisters by PSS, and she's coming along nicely..

I have a few words next to *cursed* and about two more lines of words and a bottom border left. Before I had half the crow and that was it!

Last year I bought a cord winder made by Kreinik with the intention of making my own cords for finishing. Well, I finally fired up that thing, used Vonna's (the Twisted Sitcher) tutorial for making cord, and Viola!, made my own! Take a look..

First, let me introduce, on the left, Santa's Hat Sampler, from the JCS 2012 ornie issue, with a metal heart from my stash hanging from Santa's hat, and Let It Snow from the JCS 2008 ornie issue. I sewed in the hanger for Snow but it came out so I used a mother of pearl button to sew the other hanger end in place. Santa's Hat and Snow are my 11th and 12th DUCJ/FSAL finishes, respectively, woohoo!

I used just 3 strands of floss for Snow's hanger which was super skinny. According to Vonna, whatever number of strands you start out with, gets doubled when cording. For Santa's hat I used 4 strands which I am more happier with. It's more bulkier and there is more to work with. All in all, it was a success! Thanks Vonna! 

Thought I'd show you a picture of my prickly pear cactus that is blooming..

The flower petals are waxy like and are really smooth to the touch. The green bulbs right below the flowers are fruit that will turn a dark red. I make jelly with the fruit that ripens around September.

And here's our 20+ years old rose bush, blooming like crazy!

And that is that! Have a wonderful week!

 

Late Gifted Gorgeousness, a quandary

Hi all!

I'm finally feeling much better, thank you. We took our trip to Phoenix and because of the almost 3,000 feet in elevation change from where I live to Phoenix, I couldn't get my ears to pop! On top of that, my right ear was already plugged because of my cold. Pretty comical. I could hardly hear Craig Johnson when he told us some stories but he was quite funny and I got to talk to him and get his John Hancock..

After that, we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe where it feels and sounds like you are in a real rainforest with the jungle, animated elephants, apes, and the like. The sky, the ceiling, also changes from night to day and thunderstorms. Pretty cool!

Here's my next Gifted Gorgeousness or GG project. I won this from Frances just last month along with more PS charts and other goodies. Here it is..

Chart called for 32ct Lambswool linen but I didn't have any pieces big enough. So I'm using this 32ct mystery fabric. It's got the gray mottling with white. I had my reservations about using this but now I'm liking how its looking! I bought the fabric from Shakespeare's Peddler's etsy store. I tried to go there for the name of this fabric but her site is down.

And here is my Summer 2015 start, A Bee in your Bonnet by Summerhouse Stitche Works. With a name like that, this had to be my summer project. But I have a little problem, hence the quandary. This calls for 32ct WDW Beige linen. For the life of me, I can't find this in 32ct. So I bought a 30ct piece. Chart calls for 1 over 2 for 32ct. My 30ct looks huge and my thread isn't giving me a lot of coverage. Take a look..

The U is done with 2 strands and the Y and O are with one strand. Looking at it here, the 1 over doesn't look bad but in person, it looks pretty sparse. I almost feel the fabric was mislabeled a 30ct. The U just looks so thick and I just know I'll run out of thread. Too bad I couldn't use 1 and a half strands! Now that would be splitting hairs (or floss)! Here's what the cover looks like..

I'll revisit that one later.

I've been stitching in the evenings before bed on Salem Sisters by PSS. I was going crazy last weekend stitching on 3 ornaments and not getting anywhere. So I decided to work on a larger WIP and just stitch on it until its done..

Those white splotches are what's behind. This is what I have now and here is before..

So far, this plan of mine to stitch til done is working out. 

Summer has definitely arrived. Supposed to get to 80 today. I'm watching a Harry Potter marathon in between blogging and housework. 

On another note, I'm so proud of myself. I haven't bought a single stitch-related item this entire month! I may not need Stitch from Stash for the next 6 months. Yay for me!

Time to go. Thank you ladies and maybe the stray man, for stopping in and leaving comments. And a big hearty Welcome to new followers, here and on Bloglovin. My early blogging days, I mostly talked to myself! So glad you're all here!