On the dance floor!

I'm back for a regular update post. There's all sorts of things today: a huge finish, a fall off my track, smalls finishes, stash, and more.

Let's do finishes first!! I have finally finished Tombstone Angel..

Happy Dance!! It's from a Halloween preview issue from JCS but I know it's now a stand alone pattern. I was surprised to find I started it in 2020; I thought it was older. Stitched on 36ct vintage country mocha but on the side that doesn't have the mottling. I used the called for NPI silks.

It is a good feeling to get the bigger WIPs done.

I also forgot to show this Christmas piece, Joy, from La Comtesse de Croix..

I think I used a cream evenweave on this, count is unknown. DMC 221. It's large, 10-11" high. I was kind of thinking of the hello Liz Matthews trees kind of finish for this. Cut some big pieces of mat board and glue polyfil on them for a puffed shape? We'll see. I love the message though. 

For the #weekend4by4 SAL hosted by the Camping Stitcher, I started 4 smalls but the picture shows just 3 for now. I haven't finished the other one. This was for the month of March (or was it for this month?) Anyway...

The 2 on the right are freebies from primitivebettys and the stocking is by PSS and found in the 2013 JCS ornament magazine. I have so many freebies and PDFs stored on my iPad, it was nice to delete the 2 freebies from it.

I have some progress on Frosty Forest also...

See my cabin? It's almost all stitched except for the door. I have snowflakes, a pine on the right, snow, and cardinals yet to stitch. I've put it down for a little to work on my derailment piece, the Bertha Mae Brown sampler...

I'm having fun stitching on Bertha. Those 2 single rows of stitches are long arm stitches. I was scared for nothing! Haha. I avoid specialty stitches like the plague but they stitched up nicely. I have lots of alphabets left to do before I get to the fun stuff.

I bought a few charts from Market. When I found out the BBD formerly OOP chart was being reprinted, I said sign me up!! And I can't resist a couple of nice Halloween charts, especially the Dirty Annie chart with the street scene on Bourbon St! When will I stitch these? Well, the BBD is charted for silks so it'll be awhile for that one. I just want to get all my WIPs down to a manageable number. 

I also bought a tiny pair of Cohana scissors that I didn't get a pic of. 

I think back in January I mentioned a pattern I wanted to stitch and get the little trunk that was used with it...

It's from the Punch Needle and Primitive Stitch magazine, don't know the date. The trunk I purchased from the Kittenstitcher website and the fabric and floss came with it. She also designed the pattern. That was the last of the Christmas money my daughter gave me last November.

And look what I won in a giveaway from the Halloween Stitch Challenge group! A voodoo doll!

Her name is Marie for the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau. She has her mini scissors, and a bobbin of thread, and a big heart. She's adorable!

That's it for the stitching.

I think spring has finally sprung around here! It is 74 degrees outside right now. I've tidied up the yard some and came inside to vacuum.

I hadn't been feeling very good for the last 3, 4 weeks. I have a doc appointment this Wednesday after it having been pushed back since January! I've been lightheaded, headaches. I have never had high blood pressure but now when I mention how I'm feeling, people with high BP said it sounds like I do. I'm hoping not!! My mother struggled with finding a good medication but that was 30 or more years ago. I have almost given up on diet sodas (I was drinking a lot!), and taking PM pills for sleep. These are things I have some control over. I have insomnia. I'm looking into melatonin. I have to say I have been feeling somewhat better but I'm super tired. 

Well, on that note, I am done!

I'm going to stitch on Bertha some more today, make me some Guacamole for later, and do laundry for the week and work.

Take care! See ya next time!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2023

Good morning! Today is Good Friday and it's the day of the Easter Treasure Hunt blog hop! Hosted by superhost Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

My stitched piece for today is one of the carrots from The Cricket Collection...

I had to do a little searching for the name of this cutie. It's the 2010 Carrot, a freebie. I used a very light green fabric, three little pink buttons in the field below the house. When I first signed up for this blog hop, I sat at my craft table thinking of a spring/Easter-ish piece I could show. I felt that 2 weeks to stitch something was not enough time, especially since I'm knee deep in SALs. I reached up to turn on the lamp on my table and my eye saw this carrot! It has hung off my lamp for years serving as a pincushion! Voila! 

I also have this unFFO'd carrot that I forgot I had...

It's from a chart called Rabbits' Delight, also from The Cricket Collection. The fabric reminds me of orange sorbet, yummy, but I think it's Tropical Orange, dyer unknown. I should FFO it for next year's Easter blog hop!

What a pretty Easter tree it would be with all these carrots hanging from it. I had plans at one time to stitch ALL the carrots; I just might still do that!

So you're hunting for letters, aren't ya? Here's one...

The name of the game is to collect all the letters from the various blogs taking part today and leave what you think they spell, here:

https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2023/04/easter-treasure-hunt-blog-hop-2023.html

The next blog to check out and grab a letter is:

http://elfinstitches.blogspot.com/

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!!

Eat all the chocolate!!

Just stitchin'!

Hi all! Hope this sunny but windy AZ Sunday finds you all well and stitching up a storm! I've been stitching up a storm myself and I have progress, a finish, and plans for Maynia and Summer stitching. So let's do this!

First up is my stitching for the SAL #idareyousal2023. I call this Joy (it doesn't have a name) and it's a freebie from the La Comtesse @ Le Point De Croix. I don't remember when I started it but at the beginning of this month, all I had was the star at the top and maybe the J stitched. Here it is...

Sorry for the wrinkles. There is a border at the bottom that I'm stitching below Peace. I'm trying to get it done before the end of this month. I used a creamy ivory evenweave, might be a 28ct, not sure, but it's kind of big. I'll measure it for the next post. I used DMC 221. I love a rich red floss color on this color of fabric. Like red on WDW Straw fabric. For this SAL I'm stitching on WIPs. On a FB group I'm with, an event I'm doing starting April is a WIP buster for the rest of the year.

However, I've been fighting the urge to start new stuff. So I think I'm going to do Maynia this year but start a new piece. I've stitched this before but sold it when a person saw it as I was stitching it at a swap meet. I couldn't not take up the offer. So this one is mine and it's not going anywhere. Jack's Bash by PSS..

I'm using a different fabric for this one but still 36ct. I'll start it May 1st. Can't wait!

So I mentioned a new Summer stitch. Here it is...

Summer Jubilee by BBD. Before these designs were reprinted, I searched high and low for the JCS issue it was in. I believe it was August 93? What I could find was that this issue was going for a lot of moolah! So I'm glad they were reprinted. Side note: for market this year I bought the reprint of a formerly OOP design from BBD, forgot its name though.

How about some WIP progress?

Tombstone Angel, designed by Kathy Barrick for a JCS Halloween preview issue. I don't have the magazine handy to see the date. I am stitching this in a SAL on Halloween Stitching Challenge group on FB. I'm doing the Haunted New Orleans event where we pick where want to visit with a corresponding number of stitches. I just finished the visit to Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar for 500 stitches. Here's my progress...

An old WIP, I'm about halfway finished. I'm using NPI silks on this. That medallion at the bottom is the very end. I still have lots of words to stitch in the middle. It won't be finished soon.

Now up is my finish. It's from the 2013 Christmas ornies from JCS. It's called O Night Divine by the Sampler Girl...

I'm not sure of the fabric, I think it's Monaco. I used the called for floss. It's pretty and big for an ornament but that's okay. 

I'm still working out of that 2013 issue and here's what I have planned for April and May..

For April...

The stocking by Plum Street Samplers. I have a 123stitch order coming for 2 missing floss etc. I got my hands on the 36ct Cedar Plank by Lakeside which is not the called for, Vintage was, but I think it'll be fine. I felt like buying a lottery ticket after being the first to do the 'me please' bit!! 

For May, the garland by La D Da...

I found Tin Roof gingham but in 28ct for this but I think I'll substitute the floss which is $7.90 a skein I believe, with something else. I hope to get 3 stars out of the fat quarter I bought. I already have big rusty bells in my stash. 

It's like Carol said in my last post, you go through the older issues of this magazine and something strikes you this time around. It happens a lot with me. 

Now we're up to some sad news. It's not earth shattering but it almost felt like it when I saw it. Ahhh, nothing like first world problems, hey! Here's Frosty Forest...

I started building the cabin there with the brown colors, and that's been going good. Buuuuut, a couple weeks ago I looked at it during the day and found I had used 2 different whites in the 7th and the current block!!! 

Can you see the difference between the white of the snow under the pine and the border? Also in the block next to it, the white for the snow where the fox is is different than the border?! This is what happens when you stitch a lot at night. I'm so disappointed. I am not going to frog all that white out though. I'm not stitching for awards so the plan remains to eventually get it framed and hanging here in my house, warts and all! Lesson learned. I think a piece that remains a WIP for a long time is just ripe for a bunch of mistakes. I've accepted it now. 

Annnddd, to wrap up my wordy post, my Mama had her 15th bday last week...

She follows me from room to room, and fights off her 2 kids to sleep on my feet. She is currently sleeping and snoring!

Well that's it, folks. I'm a bit surprised that I've lasted in these SALs I'm in. I normally stop doing them after awhile and do what I want. I'm committed to getting WIPs done though, and I'm committed to stitching all the Christmas ornaments from the issues I have bookmarked. I've always wanted to do that!

Oh, I'll be back April 7th for the Easter blog hop that superwoman Jo is hosting. I better find a finished something Easter-y or start something. See you then!

Take care!

See ya, February!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd get in one last post for February. Hope you're doing well!

I have lots to talk about so let's get going!

First I want to say a big welcome to Solstitches, via Carol's blog. I hope you'll like it here. As you can see I like to stitch on all sorts of styles. Samplers to Primitive with a few Lizzie Kate- type designs thrown in but mostly primitive.

Carol/Stitching Dreams mentioned the work and the emotions involved in cleaning and moving furniture etc out of a house. I get it. There's 40+ years of accumulation here. I look at it all and think how am I going to do this? It'll be another year before that happens but I've begun getting rid of things that fit in my trash container, or donating, or setting aside for a moving sale. I will miss it here, my daughter still lives in the neighboring town, and four seasons! I'm going just 45 minutes away but it's in a valley and can be almost as hot as Phoenix in the summer! This winter though it has snowed down there a couple times so it can still get a little chilly.

So let's talk stitching!

I'm still in two SALs, one ends in two days, the other goes the entire year. The SAL ending soon is the #wintercrossstitchcamp on IG, hosted by the Colorado Stitcher. I started a Christmas ornament called The Nutcracker Dancers and here it is finished..

I think that might be Clara at the bottom. I used mostly DMCs with a couple hand dyed floss. The pattern had all these squiggly shapes in between the ballerinas in different colors but I just used B5200 DMC for snowflakes and stars. The fabric sure looks and acts like an evenweave. It's more blue than the pic shows. Very cute. This design is found in a JCS Christmas preview December issue 2021.

After I finished the above, I pulled out Peace which was handy anyway because I'm stitching it for the year long SAL in a FB group and for my own personal SAL. Here's Peace...

I'm not sure what fabric I used but it's done! So the dark stitching in the words and the door and windows are 2 different floss colors! I didn't do my homework! The windows and door were GAST Tin Bucket, I didn't have it so I substituted it with the DMC listed which is 413. Well, I didn't notice that it practically matched the floss for the leaves in the corners, the dark ones which is GAST Otter Creek! So it all looks the same, lol. Oh well, outside of me and you, nobody will know! Up in the right corner is a space for an initial but I held off on it.

Peace is found in the 2013 JCS ornament issues. Because I have a bunch of marked designs I want to stitch in this issue.....

I'm going to continue stitching ornaments from this magazine, and the ornament that I'll start March 1 is O Night Divine by the Sampler Girl...

I have the overdyes, I just need to gather the DMCs needed. The fabric looks to be a white evenweave. For the rest of the ornaments in this issue, I'll have to go through my small pieces of fabric remnants.

The year long SAL I'm in is called #idareyousal2023. We either start a new project or work on a WIP. I'm doing all WIPs. I have my next victim chosen and will start in the 1st. 

In addition to those 2 finishes above, I started and finished a new piece to add to my Valentine's Day display. It's like some of you said, I'll get my numbers up! This is Always, a freebie by hello from Liz Matthews...

To get this, you'll have to sign up for her emails. I'm not sure of any other way to get her freebies. I used the called for GAST Brethren Blue on 36ct WDW Straw. I stitched it in 7 hours; it didn't take long at all.

I now have 3 finishes for the year.

So I wanted to talk about the recent blog hop hosted by Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher. I found out who had my PSS freebie stocking with hearts on it...

Astrid/Dragon Stitches and Stuff is my other stitching sweetheart! See the bird at the bottom, looks like a Robin. I'm seeing lots of them in my yard. 

I had Leonore/Needle, Pen & Sword's Valentine heart...

Love it on the petit point fabric!

Here's progress on Frosty Forest on that 8th block....

I'll be building the cabin when I pick it back up, most likely this spring. I have an ulterior motive for finishing FF because I'm joining stitch from stash again in July and this piece will give me a huge credit!! Ha!

I wanted to show you another design I want to stitch from the December 2021 JCS magazine. This guy (or girl)....

Yep, not hardly any ornament! I have fabric for this there on the left but need overdyes with DMCs. I'm not in a hurry to kit or stitch it though. You get different pieces spread throughout 6 issues. These are them: February, April, June, August, October, and December 2021. It says these other issues can be found at AnniesCraftStore.com. I found my issues on eBay. It's a gorgeous colorful Quaker. Maybe a Christmas 2023 start.

That's it for the stitching.

We've had some crazy storms blow through here, 4 of them last week with the 5th just last night....

About 3 inches I guess. Last Tuesday, we had a bad windstorm with 60+ mph gusts. A few times they hit 77mph. Not far from me, it was 88mph. I did not sleep at all that night. Luckily, it was a snow day at the school I work at so I got to relax and stitch a little. We have yet another storm coming in Wednesday with 5-8 inches of snow. 

I don't know about you all but I'm ready for spring!!!

That's it for now. I don't think I forgot anything. Hope you are all healthy and stitching up a storm (no pun intended!)

Take care!

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

Good Morning and Happy Valentine's Day!! It's also the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop today! Hosted by Jo/Serendipitous Stitching. Here's her link:

 https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2023/02/secret-stitching-sweetheart-blog-hop.html

Go to her blog to see the list of participants.

My secret stitching sweetheart stitched this very cute piece...

I don't have many finished Valentine's Day stitching but I will be taking care of that. Here's what I do have...

I'm off to find who has my sweetheart stitching!

Have a great day!

Just start all the SALs

Hi all! Hope you're all well! I tried to tune in a week ago but things got hectic. So here I am with the story of joining all the SALs and or challenges. I guess I've lost my mind because I usually go so far in SALs and then jump ship. So find a comfy spot to sit with your favorite beverage, this might be a long one.

Here's what I've joined: #weekend4by4, #idareyousal2023, #wintercrossstitchcamp on IG, and my own person SAL stitching every Christmas ornament that I have marked. Yes, I'm having trouble keeping track of it all!

The #weekend4by4 is put on by the Camping Stitcher in her FB group. The Camping Stitcher is also on flosstube by the same name. This challenge is 4 hours Saturday and Sunday to stitch on 4 items. One hour each or be creative. Here's what I stitched on....

A new start, the Bertha Mae Brown Sampler by Chessie and Me. It came as a kit from Country Sampler in their club Threads of Time? I could be wrong. I just basically threw money at them and said sign me up without knowing the particulars! Like when and how many kits are sent out. This kit came last Monday and I was champing at the bit to start it and then came the Camping Stitcher. That top stitching is long arm cross which I hadn't done in 10+ years but I picked up the rhythm right away. All those pinks and hearts, perfect February stitching!

Next new start is Moonlight by LHN...

On 32ct raw Belfast using the Belle Soie silk. Super pretty. It's been in my kitted box for a couple years.

For this challenge, I pulled out 2 WIPs, here's the first...

Look familiar? Peace from the 2013 JCS ornament issues. Last time I stitched on this, I only had the upper left dark green flower with some of the vine. I've come to a quandary on this. The words and that dark green flower are two different colors. The words on the bottoms are half one color and the substitute DMC floss for GAST Tin Cup is exactly the same color. I have to find a lighter gray for part of the words. I am also stitching this for another SAL. I'll just have to pick another lighter gray for the letters.

The 4th project and 2nd WIP is Frosty Forest...

I'm building a roof right now. For today I want to get some serious progress on the house (cabin). This is the 8th block; one more to go!

For the #idareyousal2023, Peace is being worked for it as mentioned. Last month, though, for this SAL, I worked on Song of the Seasons by LHN, and I did really well stitching on it for the entire month of January. Here it is...

Amazing! I ran out of 2 floss and had to order it. Sometime back, I decided to leave off a bottom box below this portion that contains flowers and vine and the alphabet. After some thought, I'm stitching it all in. I still have floss to do that and it makes sense to add that. Here's how it looked January 1st...

There are so many mistakes in this piece, haha. I watch flosstube while stitching so that leads to mistakes. I have added stitches vertically because the charts were confusing, made mistakes on the houses! It will still look great when I'm done and I can't wait!

For the #wintercrossstitchcamp SAL, I haven't started the ornament yet.

I also haven't started the ornament for my personal SAL, the same as the one above.

I did get quite a bit of progress on my new year start, Grace Bridges....

I made my way down to the peacock and that's the tip of her feathers over on the left. At first I wasn't sure of this fabric, it's parchment by Weeks. I'm beginning to like it now.

My other start, My Early Days by PSS, of all things, I have lost the first 2 pages of the graph! It just disappeared. So it's in time out.

Well, I thought this post was going to be a long one. Not really.

I have unjoined Stitch from Stash also. With the club pieces from Country Sampler and a FOTM I'm in from GaRon Stitchery, it was dumb for me to stay since I'm not staying with my budget!

 With the last of the Christmas money my daughter gave me in November, I bought a small trunk that goes with a design by the Kittenstitcher. I'll show that next time.

What you all didn't know is I was going to a stitching retreat in Florida with GaRon Stitchery this May. I was looking forward to flying to Florida but I had to pull out middle of January. They refunded me the fee I paid back in September. I might be moving this year, just 45 minutes away. I live in the family home of 44 years. Both my parents are gone, my daughter lives in the neighboring town and both brothers live in Phoenix. I'm sure I'll have help but there's 44 years of accumulation here. We'll be putting this house up for sale but I have some legal things I have to take care of. So traipsing off to Florida is not in the cards right now. Maybe next year.

Well that's all she wrote! Not too long, right? My stitching for today will be Frosty Forest. I'll be back on the 14th for the Valentine's Day blog hop hosted by Jo.

Thanks for stopping in, leaving comments. Take care!

Stitching update

Greetings from a wet and soggy central Arizona! It's been raining and snowing on and off since Saturday night here. I've got a cat on my feet keeping them nice and warm.

Let's talk stitching!

So I am with just one SAL now, it's #idareyousal2023. I stitch on one WIP for the entire month, and that WIP is Song of the Seasons by LHN...

I have stitched in the entire house and have started the snow underneath. I am missing WDW Terra Cotta and Grasshopper so I'm just working with what I have. It came with the floss and fabric but I probably borrowed those two colors for something else and now I can't find them. This is on Straw but my cell camera washes the color out.

I had a New Year new start and that is the Grace Bridges Sampler...

I'm using all DMCs on her. I'll work some more on her soon.

My Christmas start has been seeing some attention...

I'm filling in the butterfly that is to the right of my dangling border at left. On 40ct, my eyes are getting a workout. I'm also missing some floss here but one of the things I wanted to do this year is to not spend so much money! I figure I'll just keep stitching until I absolutely need that floss, lol! This is My Early Years by PSS.

Carol/Stitching Dreams asked in her post before her newer one about new year resolutions. I answered that I want to stop spending so much money and cook for myself more often. I don't know if I mentioned in my after Christmas post that my daughter got me a new set of pots and pans but I have now started cooking more here at home. Before I had been hitting the fast food places and microwaveable food pretty hard. I've made omelets (from a dozen eggs that I had that were $4.89 for a dozen!), a few soups, and like today I made Bruschetta from Pioneer Woman. I'm getting better!

Now we're up to this new plan I have, haha! It concerns Christmas ornaments...

Here's my pile and another pile of the JCS ornament magazines...

See all the page finders sticking out at the top? They're marking stuff I want to stitch. I often see stitchers on FB say they are not interested in whatever new ornaments come out. Not me! All I have to do I look through them again and I'll say 'ooh, I like that!' I have from 2005 to 2022. Saturday night I hauled them all out to kit a few with remnants of linen I have, small pieces and such, and decided to do what I've been thinking of doing for some time; I'm picking one magazine and stitching everything I have marked in it and that have a piece of fabric! Sounds crazy, right?! 

I started 1 and this is it...

Ignore the heart on the left. On the right is the inaugural start of my plan. That is You Know Dasher, and it's from the December 2021 issue. I'm not sure what fabric that is but I stitched this up yesterday. 

There's a Christmas Quaker design in the 2021 issues of JCS that I want to stitch and it's a SAL, so I searched for all the issues that had pieces of the Quaker in it. I thumbed through one and found that cute Valentine's heart on the left. It is found in the February 2021 issue. I took 3 hours to stitch. Here's what both designs look like...

So I have another little pattern to stitch from the magazine on the right and I'll start that in February. I'm basically stitching an ornament a month. If a magazine has 3 that I like I'll take 3 months to stitch them. Doing this lets me stitch on my other things and I'll still end up with 12 Christmas ornaments! 

Woohoo! So far so good 👍

I'll try to be back before the end of January with more progress on everything. Seems like when we get through January, the months go whoosh!

Take care, stay warm and dry, and thanks for visiting!