Spur of the Moment Fall Festival!

Grab a cup of tea and settle in, I have a lot to share! I was getting together some photos for a post and the number kept growing and growing. I thought about splitting them into a few different posts, and then I thought, "Nah. I'll just do one big, happy, autumn-y post!" 

Snuggle down... I've got a WIP, a wee finish, retail therapy finds, fall displays, fall freebies, and even a recipe. Here we go!

Are y'all feeling cozy now?

Here are some links in case y'all want any of these goodies to come live at your house. If there's anything else you see that you're curious about, just ask!

Autumn is Coming Mini Quaker (I'm stitching this on 32 ct. Flax and swapped out GAST Pebble for GAST Parchment.)

Rose Gold & Aqua Stork Scissors (this is the shop I purchased from, but these are available at other Etsy shops)

Counting pins are from Puntini Puntini. I don't know if this exact set is still available.

Autumn FREEBIE

October is my favorite color FREEBIE

Banana Bread recipe (I used 3/4 c. sugar and baked for 1 hour, covering with foil after 50 minutes. Make it a day ahead--it's better if it sits a bit.)

Bonus FREEBIES : Wonderful Fall and Goodbye Swallows

*****

Happy Fall, y'all!

Time for Tea Update

 Catching up on Time for Tea--August block is finished!

Info on this design in this post.

Summer of Halloween Final Finish: Bat Pig!

 I said there'd be a pig, and here he is: Bat Pig!

I laughed out loud when I saw this design and in my book, that makes it a must-stitch. As you can see, I made a few changes. He's stitched on 28 ct. PTP Flash with most of the recommended threads. I used GAST Burnt Orange for the ground instead of green, to make it look a bit like fallen leaves, and the wiggly detail around the border is Weeks Jack-o-Lantern. And I added a wee bat button instead of stitching one. Very festive. And really, what Halloween display doesn't need a pig wearing a mask and bat wings? 

In other news, fall arrived rather dramatically on Tuesday. The temperature plunged into the 40's (from the 90's on Sunday!) and it rained and rained and rained. It was lovely! Tiger Lily took to her blanket donut, which marks the official start of fall.

I made one of my favorite soups. And we just savored the coziness of the first cold, rainy fall day. 

Thanks so much for all the well wishes following my food poisoning adventure. I'm fine now and stitching up a storm! It helps to get a lot of stitching done when the weather cooperates so nicely. There's nothing like a cold rain to get the needle flying. Except maybe a blizzard. But let's have fall first!

Well, that was exciting.

I'm back. Summer of Halloween began with quarantine and ended with food poisoning! I haven't picked up a needle in over two weeks, and my plan to finish strong on my Halloween stitching didn't quite succeed. I've got one last small project about half finished, and had another one ready to go, but I think I'll just go ahead and move on with my fall stitching after I've finished the little one. I had such a blast getting some new Halloween stuff stitched over the summer, but fall is here and I have projects that are calling me. 

Nurse Tiger Lily was on duty during the drama.

Magnificent floofy tail.

I'm pretty much back to normal and hope to be able to get back to my stitching this holiday weekend. Hope y'all are well and stitching away!

Saturday Sampler: Late Summer Stitching Edition

 It has been nearly a year since my last Saturday Sampler. How is that possible? 

Needle minder: Michelle Palmer Originals

Scissor holder: Mini Stash 'n Store

Orange fabric: 28 ct. PTP Flash

Inventory Heaven! (and a PSA)

 Y'all, I made a fiber/bead inventory book and I am tickled pink with it! I'm sure there are spiffy apps and stuff for inventories, but I'm an old-fashioned, paper and pencil kinda gal. I love writing things down on paper, I love flipping through notebooks and books and magazines, and I try to limit or eliminate screen usage when possible. Behold! My new inventory!

I save the covers of stitching catalogs if they're particularly pretty. They're great for notebooks with cover sleeves. This is the book I used. I love these things and keep several tucked away all the time. I'm always finding uses for them.

My fancy new inventory includes all of my most-used fibers and beads: Classic Colorworks, Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, Weeks Dye Works, Cosmo, Kreinik, and Mill Hill beads.

Now all I have to do is check off what I have in my stash and I'm all set. Making shopping lists will be much quicker! You may wonder how I've survived all these years without an inventory, but believe it or not, I usually can look at a list of threads and pretty much know what I have and what I don't. And I usually don't buy for more than one or two projects at a time, so it's not inconvenient to just check my threads or beads for a few colors. That changed with the pandemic, and that brings me to my PSA.

***Public Service Announcement: If you're planning a lot of fall and Christmas stitching, consider doing your shopping now. 

No industry escaped pandemic-related difficulties in the spring, including the stitching industry: online shops were flooded with orders and were weeks behind in shipping, local shops were closed, dyers couldn't get supplies, etc. Gentle Arts, which is based in Ohio, completely shut down in compliance with state orders, and if you tried to find GAST during the spring, you know how hard it was. 

Along with all of you, I'm hoping and praying we don't go through this again in the fall and winter, but I'm preparing just in case. A few weeks ago I sat down and planned a bunch of projects and made a shopping list. Even with most things returning to normal, I still had to hunt for all the threads I needed and ended up having to order from three different shops. 

So if you really have your heart set on some special projects for this fall and Christmas (and who doesn't?), you might want to think about not waiting too long to get your supplies together. 

***This concludes today's PSA. And now I'm off to play with my inventory. 

Happy Stitching!

Summer of Halloween: Lantern Tags

Finished my other little lantern! These are Mill Hill kits Taboo Kitty and Moonstruck Manor finished using chalkboard tags from Michael's. 

Really happy with how these turned out. Quick, easy, fun little stitches and super easy finishing option. What could be better? 

One more month left in Summer of Halloween... what will I stitch next? 

Fall Goodies

It's coming. I know it doesn't feel like it but the best season of the year is on the way. I went on a little craft crawl to a couple of my favorite local shops and picked up some Cosmo floss and a few fat quarters for fall finishing projects. 

It's been a long time since I got a new piece of pottery. We don't have as many local potters here as we did where we used to live, so our pottery collecting has slowed significantly. However! While looking for something else (isn't that always the way?) I stumbled across this gorgeous little bread baker from an Ohio potter. It makes a very small loaf, just right for two people. Since I'm always on the look-out for small bakeware to feed my tiny baking obsession, I snapped it up. I am absolutely delighted with it and can't wait to try it out when fall baking season rolls around. Happily, it comes with a dozen recipes! (If you're a pottery nut, click on the "pottery" label at the end of this post to see some of my collection.)

Tiger Lily did not miss out on goodies. She has a passion for tissue paper and whenever something arrives in the mail wrapped in it, the tissue paper goes to her.

Bonus mid-summer sunrise!

Happy Stitching, y'all!