Finishes, exchange goodies, etc.

Hi all! First day of Fall and it sure feels like it around here as it's just 66 degrees.

I want to thank you all for your well wishes! You're all a great group of ladies!

I want to comment on a few of your comments:

Barb, thanks for the laugh! I remember when you injured your back but I didn't know it was like mine. Mine could've been worse, for sure as there is no surgery involved. No more identical injuries for the two of us!

Carol, in doing studying on compression fractures, I have read that osteoporosis can make it easier to get that type of injury. How awful. It's a reminder to us as women that we need to watch for that as we age. So sorry that your mother is dealing with some health issues.

Daffycat/Sharon, I cannot imagine how that felt to fall on your knees from 3 steps up. I cringed when I read that. Sounded painful.

Kaye/Kaisevic, you're welcome. If I could, I would love to buy the entire seasons of the Gift of Stitching magazine. That would make a perfect gift, I agree.

I am awaiting the call to get the CAT scan and dealing with the insurance company for workmans compensation, well, let's not go there! I'm sure we've all had a time of it dealing with the government:(

Today is a wonderful day and even more so because I got my exchange package! Joanie Lintz sent me all this wonderful goodness..

I am already stitching the little Pine Mountain design there at the left above the Scary Mouse pattern. I love ceramic pumpkins and this one is so cute. She made the project bag that is under everything. Take a look at this box with what I think is a Bent Creek or Trilogy pattern on it...

I also received some chocolate which is gone already. I love it all. Joanie, thanks again for these wonderful gifts! Happy mail on the 1st day of Fall, perfect.

I finished Halloween Revelry, yay!

The fabric is a bit washed out here. In real life it's more brown/orange. I wasn't sure of the fabric color when I first started but now I think it's great. The whole bottom half of this design have a bunch of counting mistakes but I made it work! It's hard to tell! 

I also started and finished this little freebie...

The fabric is a raw or natural linen and dyed orange by me. I made a few changes to the design, pulling in the cat on the right because I like symmetry. Designed by Pamela Dervarits whose blog is now defunct. You may be able to find it though by Googling her name. The witchy fabric is what I'll use to make a pillow. 

So that's it. I'll continue to stitch on the Pine Mountain design, shouldn't take me long. I'll continue to oooh and awww over my exchange gifts! Continue to wait to hear from the insurance company, ugh. 

Take care, and have a great weekend!

Apparently, I can't fly:(

Hi all! Long time no see! I've had some things going on but I'm back. I have a finish, some stash, progress on a WIP, and a few things I want to show you. Picture heavy so get comfy.

As for my title, all kidding aside, I can kind of joke about it now but not much. August 24 I was doing my usual thing at work, filling orders because I work in a warehouse. For the last 9 or 10 months I have climbed ladders of all sizes with no problems. Why all of the sudden on that day has me just scratching my head. I fell off a ladder, actually missed the last 2 or 3 steps, backward, landing point blank on my butt. When I hit, I knew I did something to my back. I immediately couldn't hardly breathe as I probably knocked the wind out also. After talking with emt firefighters and then the ambulance crew, took my first ambulance ride to the ER. I thought if I went in the ambulance they could shoot me up with painkillers because boy, was I in pain. Couldn't hardly stand or walk. I have a compression fracture on one of my vertebrae, T12 it's called. My 3rd doc appointment yesterday, I finally got to see my X-ray film and he pointed out my vertebrae that is squished down. He says it's not a bad one but bad enough. Needless to say I haven't been back to work. I had so many physical restrictions that my job didn't have anything for me to do. I've been going stir crazy! After 2 weeks I started feeling better and could get around much better. Now in my 3rd week, I pleaded my case to the doctor that I can bend over, reach over my head, carry heavier things with no pain. I want to go back to work! Haha. Nope doc says. So next week I have a CAT scan to see anything else that a regular X-ray couldn't and still home rest for another two weeks. My problem is that I'm impatient and hate being incapacitated. My daughter had been my caretaker, buying me groceries and making sure I was okay. The first two days I couldn't keep anything down so I hardly ate. I also couldn't sit very long without changing position so my stitching suffered. When I could sit still for longer, I made up for time! I really think I dodged a bullet because it's a cement floor that I went down on. It replays over and over that it could've been worse.

Okay, onto some more pleasant things!

When all that happened, I was working on These is My Words by LHN. Here's the before...

And now..

Stitching in the wagon canvas is brutal so I go back and forth with the wagon part and the canvas to break up the monotony of the covering. It was coming along good until I got bit by the Halloween bug!

I picked up this WIP by PSS called Ghoul Tidings found in the 2013 special JCS Halloween issue. I know it's out as a stand alone chart now. It's a finish!

Before all I had was the very first penny? at the top left. I had tunnel vision with this. I can't remember what the dark color is, it's all WDW though. I ran out of that color at half of the cart and luckily found another skein in with some kitted up projects that was nearly identical. Another thing is the leaves called for a more greenish floss but mine came out that brownish-green color. Oh well. I love it and those cats!

After that was done, I picked up Halloween Revelry by the Primitive Stitcher that is found in the October 2009 JCS Halloween preview issue. It has been a new start/WIP since publication! I've gone to town on it. Here's the before..

This is from May of this year. Below is where I'm at now...

Love it! That witch took 3 days to stitch. I love her green skin and her outfit as she's out trick or treating. I still have to go back and stitch in the border cats eyes in that orange color. Also calling for WDW floss, I ran out of Charcoal for the black and once again lucked out as I had another skein of it. I'll be stitching this until it's finished, hopefully by the end of this month since it looks like I'll be home still. Aaarggh.

I also stashed just a little..

That Sunflower Seed design has been a want to stitch of mine for awhile so was glad to nab it. And that Primitive Betty sewing book is wonderful. 

I also received my giveaway prize from the Flosstuber Kindred Stitcher, a WTN & T chart..

I am searching for the perfect fabric for it, a nice pale white, maybe a vintage lentil from Lakeside?

Couple months ago I downloaded these E-magazines from Etsy. I'm sure some of you remember them. They're found at Etsy at the shop called DesignsbyKirstenE, all one word. You can buy and download a months issue for $3 or buy the all the seasons for $99, I think. So here they are..

This one I bought just for that The Sampler Girl design on the cover. Now I've never read any of the Jane Austen books but I love the colors on this sampler.

This is one of their Christmas ornament issues..

Cute ornaments in this one. The next one I bought for the cover project...

Isn't she pretty! Love the teals and the light greens on this and I have a perfect linen for it.

I was going to wait to post so I could show what I received from my exchange friend with the latest Dixiesamplar exchange but I haven't gotten it yet. I will show what I sent to mine though. I can never remember to take a picture of all the things I put together but I do have pictures of two of the things I made. Judy has received her goodies. Here they are..

A paper mâché round box that I painted orange first and then black, then scuffed it up. That design is Pumpkin + White by Bent Creek. Then I cut woolfelt and sewed on the white wool for white pumpkins and stitched in vines with daisy stitch leaves. Then cut out the window for the design to show through. Glued the black trim around it after attaching the striped ribbon around the lid. Below is the inside..

I made it puffy on the bottom with batting and then the fabric. I attached the ribbon and button over my trim where it meets because I'm horrible meeting ends! It turned out very nice and Judy loves it.

I also did one of those pocket watches from WTN & T..

Turned out great also! Just hope the EEK stays put! Good thing I had stitched and made all these before my accident. 

So I think that might be it! I'll continue stitching on Halloween Revelry. When I'm finished with that I think some Halloween ornaments are in order. 

Take care everyone. Be careful in everything you do. I'm not sure how I'll take having to climb ladders when I go back to work but it's a fear that I need to deal with. I'm mortally afraid of falling, even walking into a store, etc. See you next time!

Contest winner and a new start

Hi all! 

What did I learn having this little contest? Blue is a favorite color of most of you. Tiffany, I enjoyed your explanation of how you picked your favorite motif! My favorite color is blue but my favorite motif was the very light colored one below the YZ. Yes, my favorite but not while I was stitching it! It has a lacey quality to it. So that means Kay and Raven picked the right one! After drawing names between those two, RAVEN IS THE WINNER! The prize is a gift certificate to 123 stitch. I don't know how much but I'll decide tomorrow after work. So Raven, I will contact you through your profile and ask for an email of where to send the gift certificate. Congrats! This was fun. I enjoyed reading all your picks.

A couple people picked the big middle motif at the top. That one was the toughest to stitch and also because that yellow silk was never to be found amongst the silks that came with the pattern. That was one of the problems. So I ended up using that lighter color in it. 

Last week after thinking my stitching bug needed a boost, I started something new..

I love this design and have already read the first novel and need to start on the 2nd. The fabric is 32ct Legacy by PTP and using DMCs and CC floss. Here is what I have so far..

For the sawtooth border I used DMC because I don't have CC Blue Jeans and I'm not crazy about it, it's so dark. If you look at the chart, the sawtooth is lighter blue. I'm leaving the DMC in at the sawtooth but the rest of the areas that use Blue Jeans will be stitched with WDW Union Blue which is almost like Blue Jeans. So I'm using half CC and DMC on this. I am now at the covered wagon there at the left and taking a break from the cream color and now working on the wagon itself. On 32ct the design is 11 1/4" square, so it's a big one. I'm enjoying it though.

Paula, I noticed you wanted to find some exchanges. Here's one on Facebook that I belong to:

Dixiesamplar's Exchange group. She used to hold them on her blog but now she just announces her fabric sales on it and mostly works from Facebook. So if you do FB, go check it out.

Raven, I noticed you remarked on one of my earlier posts about the snow I showed coming down. You said you may be moving here to Arizona but your boyfriend/hubby? doesn't want to be cold. Well, to the west of me and south are desert and every now and then we get to see Saguaro cactus with snow on them which makes for a very pretty picture. So Phoenix, Tucson, and points in between are your best bets for no snow and better jobs! Where I live though, we may have snow but by the afternoon it's gone or it's melting. The temp can get down to 0 here in the winter but not often. 

Okay, I believe I'm done! Short but sweet. Oh yeah, I won a Brenda Gervais chart from a Flosstuber named Lisa aka Kindred Stitcher. She's from the Northwest and stitches stuff that I like. The chart is Heap on The Wood, I believe, and man is it pretty! I have looked at that chart online before but seeing it stitched up, wow. I should have it my hands before this week is out. Can't wait. I love Flosstube, haha! 

Thanks for stopping by everyone, and leaving comments. Welcome to any new followers also. The more the merrier, I say! Take care and have a wonderful week:)

Also my header pic is of a trip my daughter and I took north to eat at Chik fil A and drove back down through Oak Creek and Sedona. Always a nice trip through those areas:)

Another finish, and the winner is....

CJ! She wins the LizzieKate chart Coming to Town~Santa '11. CJ, I had your mailing address but not anymore. So email me at _______to leave your mailing address! Thanks to the 3 other contestants who played along.

Another big finish, folks, at least for me. I started Vintage Stars in 2013 sometime. I had to go back and track it down. So here she is...

This is by Jeannette Douglas Designs. This is my problem child and I have detailed the problems I've had with the silks and their names/colors so I won't bore you all again. Stitched on 35ct Liberty Gathering Gray by R & R. It's not splotched at all but sprinkling water on it to iron it resulted in it looking this way. I love it! This puts me at 17 finishes for the year. Here is a picture of the chart against my finish. You'll notice the yellow color in the big top motif..

I took my requisite day off from stitching after Stars and started back on this...

This is not my picture. I took this from the internet but this is what my pattern looks like. It's by Jura Point de Croix. I don't know a lick of French! She has a blog by the same name but it's all in French. I'm stitching mine on a lambswool-looking fabric. I just have half of the skinny snowman right now. Here is something else she has designed and those houses are adorable..

Carol, I could swear you stitched up some Christmas ornaments from this designer sometime back. I may be wrong. So I wanted to download some freebie patterns from her but my iPad wasn't having it.

I also got some good news from Stitching Noni that my package to her for Christmas in July made it! Sixteen days to Australia it took. She'll be blogging about that pretty soon so be sure to check her out at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.

Here's another look at Vintage Stars..

Which brings me up to a little contest....who can guess which of all the medallions/motifs on this design is my favorite? I've never mentioned a favorite. So take a look at the better picture and this ^. Just leave your guess in the comments. If two or more people guess the same, I'll draw a name a week from this Saturday and send something. It'll be a surprise! Open to anyone. Sounds like fun!

Well, I've got to get ready for work. I wanted to comment on comments left in the last two posts but have run out of time. So in the next time I'm here with the winner of the contest, I'll do that. 

I better get. Take care everyone!

The Big Reveal and stories

Howdy everyone! Hope the summer has been easy on you all. I've noticed some areas of the U.S. have had flooding and crazy heat. The fire had been put out 4 days after my last post. Everyone was allowed to go home. Here in Arizona, our monsoons have arrived and today it will be 82 degrees. Whew. It rained for a week and a half straight. It heats up and the storms come in in the afternoon. Like I've said before, I don't like humidity but it comes with the territory. The picture on my header is a lake not far from me. You can see the level has gone down. But look at that color! It does turn that color here after a storm. It's very neat.

Let's get to the real reason I'm here, among other reasons. I joined the Christmas in July Exchange hosted by Kaye at Kitten Stitching. The person to send to me is Nadine or Jocondine as her blog is known. Her package arrived the 2nd week of July from France..

I love the stamps!

We had to wait until today, the 25th, to open our packages and here's what I have in mine..

!!!!!!! Clockwise from top left-the package of sweets, the Christmas card, the handmade ornament (love it, by Cuore et Batticuore, an Italian designer), the ornament with monceau sapin which I think means tree hill or mound, and the wonderful Christmas fabric. Here's what is inside the card..

Isn't that cute? Each little 'door' opens to little stickers or a nice little saying, or with a charm like the one at the bottom right. And of course, I had to open the package of sweets...

I have since had one of the little marshmallow-like candy and it's very tasty! Saving the big peanut cluster candy and cane for later.

Nadine, a huge Thank You for this wonderful Christmas gift! I love it all! Thank You also to Kaye for putting this exchange on. It's a lot of fun!

As for my package to Noni aka Stitching Noni, I sent it off on the 13th of July to Australia and I'm hoping it has arrived in time. Seems that 12 days would be enough time? We'll find out. Next time I mail to Australia, I'll have a better knowledge of how long it takes.

Since I'm here, I might as well show a finish I had, the LizzieKate design..

Wow, how blurry. Cute, cute. I used a sparkly braid for his eyebrows and the buttons that came with the chart. I used a linen called Strawflower and I really like it because there are very faint red and green colors in it in real life. Since I'm finished, the chart of this is up for grabs! No embellishments though. The usual rules of which there are hardly any: just comment you would like to have it and I'll draw names on August 2nd, Arizona time. I can mail overseas, follower or not. 

So I lost the stitchy bug for a good week. I just wasn't feeling it. I did however get caught up on some reading. I looked at all my WIPs but nothing screamed at me, until I up and jumped onboard another exchange! This one is the Haunted Harvest Exchange hosted by the Dixiesamplar/Terri on FB. I have my recipients name and info already. While waiting for the info, I started this Notforgotten Farm piece called Death and Judgement..

Everything is looking so blurry. This may or may not be the exchange piece for my person. It's big. I'm going to give it a tea bath and finish it just like the model, a tombstone. I'm thankful my person likes Halloween! We have until the last week of September to mail to our person.

So needless to say, the stitch bug is back!

I guess that's it! Thanks for stopping by. Here's to a great week for all! I'll leave you with a picture of Monument Valley up in northern Arizona while I go out and weedwhack the jungle outside!

Happy 4th! And the winner is..

MENDY ELLIOTT!! Mendy, you won the Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin. Thanks for playing. Here is an email to reach me: ________. Let me know your mailing details and I will get Peetie out to you. Thanks to everyone else for playing. It was a good turnout!

I hear the fireworks as I type, trying to keep my poor cats calm but it's not working. I am nervous about fireworks as it has been so hot and dry here. Two neighboring towns canceled their fireworks because of this:

I took this picture off my front porch. It looks like the fire is right behind those houses but it's really 14-16 miles south in the mountains. This was Tuesday of last week. It started 3 days before on Saturday. By Sunday you could see a plume of smoke. It was all white smoke, burning through chaparral and pine. Those dark smoke section means it burnt some cabins and outbuildings. After this picture, the wind turned and for the first time since the fire started, the smoke poured in to town. I began to get worried. Otherwise, it had been blowing to the east.

An aerial shot from a news chopper. At this point, it grew to 20,000 acres. And got within 5 or 6 miles from my town! A whole slew of evacuations for 5 or 6 small towns down the highway with us being a maybe. People with horses had to write names and numbers on their hooves or backs and set them loose. I started packing important papers and wondering how my cats were going to handle being tossed into my car! I was a nervous-wreck. I went to work expecting to get alerts that we were to pre-evacuate.

On Sunday the slurry tankers began to fly along with the helicopters that scoop up water to pour on the fire. By Friday there were 1,120 firefighters fighting this and they began having success. As of this morning, 28,740 acres, I believe, had been burnt and it is 95% contained. Whew. The evacuations began lifting and people were being slowly let go to go back to their homes. They haven't said how many structures had been destroyed. There is a couple crews doing mop ups and watching some small fires still going. There is still a little bit of smoke in the air. Boy, was that scary. Every June this happens here, fires springing up. Not helping was all the rain we got from January to April and everything just grew. It's been 10 or 11 years since a fire sprang up this close and I'm hoping we don't see another one for quite awhile.

Last weekend before all the above, I got the FFO bug. Here's the result:

The round ornament is The Bluebird of Happiness from a JCS ornament magazine. If you go back in my posts, you'll see which issue its from. Above is Why Yes..from Lizzie Kate and the Mardi Gras ornament I think is called duc d'Orleans but it's by Ink Circles. I wish I had cut the contours for that one instead of one big oval shape. But I'm quite happy with all three.

I started and finished this one. Cute as a Button by the Nebby Needle..

I will sew a button or two on the end and make it like the model with jumbo ric rac and buttons..

I picked up Coming to Town-Santa '11 by Lizzie Kate just a couple hours ago and am half way through it. It's failing miserably as a cool reminder: today was pretty warm. Cricket-bug, you are right, I don't have AC here so fans and ice water, and shorts, and windows open is what I have to do. I don't get a good nights sleep but I am now used to hearing the big box fan I have going in my room at night. We are just praying for rain and our monsoon is running a little late. Once they arrive, the fire ban throughout the forests get lifted and we get some relief. 

So that's it, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a hectic week and a half here what with the fire and a few other little crises. Here's hoping things settle down. Take care!

Oh I forgot that I framed this little cutie, Home, Diminutive by Pineberry Lane

This poor thing has been on the to-frame pile for the last two years. There is no green in the design but the yellowish areas pick up the same in the frame. The word HOME looks like HOMB. I learned the hard way to pay attention to details. The fabric is 35 or 36ct and I went ahead and stitched 2 over 2 when it should have been 1 over 2! I couldn't figure out why my stitches looked so squashed and awful! 

Okay, now I'm gone!

Dancing with Jack, a finish, and more

Hi all! Hope the weather has been forgiving for you where you're at. Here in the Southwest it has been an oven. Where I live, at 5120 ft. elevation, we went maybe 5 days at over 100 degrees or over. It went to 103 this past Tuesday. I think yesterday the heat caught up with me at work as I started feeling shaky and lightheaded and clammy. I almost came home but I took it easy and drank more water. At least it hasn't been Phoenix-like where flights were canceled because of the extreme heat. I think I can speak for all Arizonans that our monsoon season can't come soon enough but not the humidity! Can't be happy at all!

So I have a huge, Huge, HUGE finish! Not in size but in the 1 over 1, and the amount of motifs and people in a small space- Jack's Bash!

I just love this! It's not the biggest piece I have ever finished but just the amount of flowers, people, alphabets, it's the busiest I've finished. Once I sat down to tackle the verse, it went fast. I couldn't say how many hours it took but I worked on it 4 evenings in a row for maybe 2 or 3 hours in between laundry, washing dishes, etc. The grass under the couple really took longer than the verse! In the end, it was all worth it, a real piece of art and I'm glad it is finished! 

I also had this small finish, Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin by Twisted Threads..

The color of the fabric is as close as I could get it. I'm either going to attempt a flat-fold on this or just a flat ornament. I have an Autumn fabric that will look real nice with this. 

This brings my finishes for 2017 to 15 with the more important ones being Jack's Bash and Blackwater Hollow by Stacy Nash. Also, my WIP count has gone down, yippee! From 31 in December to 27 as of now. 

I have two new starts and I can blame the recent weather for these!

Ah, Beau Leggy, squatting over that Cholla cactus. I'm using a Tarnish fabric, don't know the maker, in 28 or 32ct. When our monsoon rolls in, our skies will look like that, dark, gray stormy clouds. With the moon and stars out, this cowboy is out roping at night, looks like. I made some changes though. The model has Beau wearing a purple hat. Nope, I changed the hat to brown. He is wearing leather gloves so I left them that color. The rope got a change of color too. I will probably change his boots to another color also. Pretend my needleminder is a coyote!

My other start is this..

I only have the two lines of stitching done above Santa Claus so not worth a picture. I was in the mood for Lizzie Kate and something to put me in a cool mood!

I have finished my piece for the Christmas in July exchange hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. It's so cute if I say so myself. I have found Christmas fabric, an ornament and now just need to track down Christmas candy. I found a website called the Candy Warehouse and they sell Christmas candy. Although it's Winter down under, if I send chocolate, it will become a melty mess just from here to Phoenix! So that's a no go. If you should see this, Leonie, the package will be on its way after July 6th. I can't wait to see what I receive from Nadine!

On my last post, Cricket-bug commented that if you do 1 over 1 more frequently, it will become easier. I believe this because once I got down to the last two lines of verse on Jack, it went fast and wasn't so painful. Barb, are you listening?! Or rather, reading?! Haha. It's like giving birth, lol. You swear you're never getting pregnant again and once that baby comes, you forget what you just went through! Lol.

Stitchinowl/Carolyn said in response to Thirteen Owls by PSS being hard to find that she didn't know that. After that, I thought I would search for it on eBay. I didn't find it but was amazed to see that people are buying charts, PSS specifically, that cost more than 123Stitch or Stitching Bits and Bobs offer, if you're willing to wait for the latter! On FB and Stitch Maynia, there are posts by stitchers who don't know of these ONS's and are doing the Dimensions kits and such that are found at the chain craft stores. On the Plum Street Samplers FB page, sometimes you get stitchers who ask where to get a certain chart. I can't quite remember when I discovered these ONS's myself but it sure opened up a whole new world! I too was buying from eBay. 

If you made it this far, good on you because I'm giving away the little Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin chart. It's in good condition. I will mail in the U.S. and overseas too. Just comment that you would like to have it. Follower or otherwise, open to all. I will draw names on the 4th of July if there is more than 1 person wanting it.

I believe that's it! I will continue to stitch on the Lizzie Kate and Beau. I have some quick stitches in the queue that I would like to do, Halloween and Christmas stuff. I have some FFO'ing I want to do today or tomorrow. As I'm typing this, I'm trying to decide what to get at the grocery store. Multi-tasker here! A plus side to these hot temps is your appetite gets killed off. My soda consumption goes down because the only thing good is ice water. So I can't think of a single thing that sounds appetizing. Hmm.

Here's wishing a wonderful, patriotic 4th of July to those of you in the U.S. We will be watching a parade and fireworks along with the rodeo. A happy stitching day and week to those who aren't in the U.S. Take care!