Saturday Sampler: Thursday Edition

 

All is well! We're still here, just very busy! October has been a month of anxious hurricane watching from our position right smack on the Gulf Coast. Thankfully, all of the landfalls have been just to our west or east, but it is heartbreaking nonetheless to watch them hit anywhere. I know people love to live on the water, but I cannot understand how it's worth this worry for six months out of every year. To each their own, I guess.

I've also been busy preparing for a speaking engagement at the end of the month, and I've been doing some stitching, mainly finishing up this year's Christmas Open House. Only one more project left to go and that will be done. I started a Halloween project a couple of days ago, hoping to squeeze in one more, but I'm not sure I will finish it before Halloween. Stitching is much slower these days, as I now have lots of "help" and must take frequent snuggle breaks. Speaking of the babies, they are fine: chunky, fluffy, purry, snuggly, and ever so helpful. 

Just wanted to quickly drop in and let y'all know we're okay. Thank you to those who have reached out to check on us. I have a very busy weekend coming up but hopefully once I get that over with, things will quiet down a bit and I'll be around more. Hope you're all well!

Happy Stitching!

August Basket

 

Look how pretty this one is! Peach is not at the top of the list of colors I like, but these threads were so lovely, especially together with that gray green in the basket. I made a couple of small changes to this one. I used a Rhodes stitch for the centers of the small white flowers, and I altered the "Fresh Peaches" sign to read "Peach Salsa" as that's my favorite way to eat peaches! If you're interested in trying it, you can't go wrong with the famous peach salsa made in our home state of Texas. 

Only four more baskets left in this series by Cosford Rise Stitchery (Etsy)! 

Quoth the Raven

 

First finish of spooky season! This is Nevermore Raven by Quaternion Creations from the 2024 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special Issue (also available in the designer's Etsy shop). I chose a darker fabric than the model because I wanted that beautiful moon to really show up well. I also added a little spark of color to the leaf.

Fabric: 28 ct. Storm, Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie

Moon: GAST Ohio Sky

Raven/Nevermore: GAST Onyx

Branches: GAST Wood Trail

Leaf: CC Colonial Copper

Summer Birds: Blue Jay

 

Here he is! My final bird for the summer, a gorgeous Blue Jay from the new book by Max Pigeon, Cross Stitch in the Forest (Amazon). I stitched him on Stormy Grey Jobelan, and pretty much stuck to the chart, except for one thing. This designer uses a lot of negative space in his work, which I like, but he also uses white fabric a lot. I almost never use white fabric, so for this design, I simply filled the spaces he left open (for the white fabric to show) with white stitches. This is the third design of his I've stitched this year (!) and for the other two, I used green and blue fabrics, and didn't fill any of the negative space. These designs can definitely work well on dyed fabric.

 

I have all but one of my summer birds fully finished and am just waiting on a frame for this guy, and I'll have this bird project wrapped up until next spring. I am continuing to work on my Nimble Birds sampler though. 

Stay tuned to see all my bird finishes, and my first Halloween finish of the year! Coming soon!

July Basket

 

Cruising along through the Cosford Rise Stitchery (Etsy) basket series and having a lovely time with it! The baskets are quick to stitch so it's easy to keep up with monthly finishes, even if you're busy with other things, and of course, they're so pretty! This design includes a number of flag options, and the model is stitched with the flag of the UK, so I hadn't seen a finish with the American flag. I think it's beautiful!

As we head into this holiday weekend, the last weekend of summer (hooray!), I've had to make some adjustments to my stitchy plans. If you've been around lately, you know I've been stitching up a bunch of birds for my summer decorating, and that we've been sick, and that this summer has not gone according to plan. No worries! I have adapted! 

I'm about 2/3 done with my final bird of the summer (a real showstopper). I wanted to get my birds finished/framed in time to display them this summer, but that didn't work out. I am undeterred. I really want to enjoy them so I decided to just go ahead with that plan, instead of bringing out all of my fall/Halloween stitching. (If you missed last year's somewhat over-the-top display, click on the Halloween label in the right sidebar and scroll down a bit.) I have a stack of small Halloween stitches I want to get done, and the new plan is to whip those up and do a smaller display with just my new finishes. So, full speed ahead on Summer Birds, and on a scaled down--but all new!--Halloween display! Fingers crossed I can get some finishing done this weekend. 

Wishing you all a safe and stitchy holiday weekend... we made it to fall, y'all!

PS: Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes for the girls! 

The Werewolves Are Two Years Old!

Happy Summerween!

 

If you are a fellow Summer Sufferer and spend June, July, and August longing for all things cool and crisp and autumnal, this design is for you! This is Jack-o-Melon by The Stitch Crypt (Etsy), stitched with the recommended DMC on lime green Lugana. Such a cheerful, unique little design. It's very summery, but with a spooky twist!

Speaking of summer, I'll be glad to write this one off. We were both sick (he in June, I in July), which is extremely unusual. We both get sick maybe once every four years or so, and even then it's never at the same time. I hadn't been sick since December of 2019, so I was overdue. Anyway, that messed up some summer plans we had, and also threw me behind with stitching and finishing projects, and that's most annoying! Last week I spent about five hours doing project prep for a bunch of stuff I want to stitch, so now I can just pick up a new project as soon as I finish one and keep going. I am in desperate need of a finishing marathon. Maybe Labor Day weekend? We'll see.

Meanwhile, sneak peek of an almost-finish! 

Happy Stitching!

Nimble Birds Update

 

Nimble Birds (Owl Forest Embroidery) is coming along nicely. I have one more bird to stitch on this side of the sampler before I tackle all the intricate straight stitched feathers and tracks scattered between the birds. They're probably hard to see in the pictures of the design, but there are a lot of them (7 pages of illustrated instructions) and they're so lovely. Then I'll move to the other side of the sampler. I haven't decided if I'm going to add the backstitched border. I'll see how it looks when everything else is done.

Thank you for all the well wishes for my recovery. I'm over whatever was wrong with me, but it has left me pretty depleted. I missed an entire week of stitching, which is intolerable! 

Hope you're all well and getting lots of summer stitching done! 

Naptime With the Werewolves

When there's a loud lightning strike nearby...

...but it's okay to go to sleep because you're under the blanket with mama. 

Why were the three of us passed out in the middle of the day? Because I took a nasty virus Saturday evening that came with a very persistent fever that didn't break until Tuesday morning. So I've spent most of the last three days asleep, which is a terrible waste of stitching time. When we get sick, the goal is to be just sick enough that we can't do housework, but not too sick to stitch. Right? 

Anyway, there's been a lot of sleeping around here. A lot.

Fuzzy werewolf paws

Think I've finally turned the corner, as my Grandmother would say. Probably not strong enough to do laundry but I should be able to stitch!😂

Christmas in July! (& Fall & Halloween)

 

Look at this adorable wee mole in his jaunty little hat! Isn't this the cutest? I had to pause summer birds and Halloween mania just for a minute to stitch this cheerful little guy. He's from Lola Crow on Etsy. I stitched him on 32 ct. grey Basalt Splash.

I added a bit of stash in preparation for some fall projects. The fabrics are (top) 32 ct. Sandbar linen by Under the Sea Fabric and 32 ct. Service Lugana by Atomic Ranch Fabrics.

I also rummaged around in my hoard and pulled out some Halloweenish fabrics.

I have a stack of small Halloween designs I want to stitch so, as I do with most of my multi-design projects (like Summer Birds and Christmas Open House) I put them all in a presentation book (Avery, a few bucks at Walmart) and made a pretty cover. The picture is a free printable from the Purple Pumpkin blog.

Next up is either July Basket or a summery/spooky little design I found that's perfect for those of us trapped in summer and longing for fall! And my copy of the new Pigeon Coop Designs book should be here this week, and I'm pretty sure there's a bird in there I need to stitch right away. 

Happy Stitching!

Settle in, it's a chunky one!

 

Let's just breathe, shall we? Let's look at new fall stuff, and new stitchy stuff, and talk about stitching plans, and pet some fluffy kitties, okay?

Fourth of July has come and gone and in my autumn loving heart, it is time for fall. Every year I have to strongly resist the urge to drag out all my fall decorations on 5 July. What I do instead is allow myself a couple of new goodies to get me through the rest of the summer. So I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found some stuff I needed. The picture above is a set of fall lights and they are so much prettier in person. These are real fall colors--orange, brown (yes! brown lights!), and gold--not just the orange you usually see. Initially I only got one set, but after getting them home and plugging them in, I went back for a few more sets. They're that pretty.

I also got some pretty trees and a tiny canvas print in soft autumn colors.

Of course I've done a little stash enhancement: a sweet winter fox and some mini quakers.

I also got some lovely bird scissors to go with my Nimble Birds sampler I'm working on. These cut well and feel substantial.  They're available in several finishes (this is bronze) in a number of Etsy shops and on Amazon. I assume the manufacturer is the same.

Project bags! Can we ever have enough? The fancy handmade ones are beautiful but they can be expensive. I fully support those who make things by hand charging what their work is worth, and I have a couple of these, but if you need a lot of them the cost can be prohibitive. I was nosing around on Amazon and found these mesh book/document bags and I love them. These are well made and come in a set of four for about $15, but there are a number of similar styles and sizes to choose from. Just a thought, in case you want to do a bunch of project prep at once.

For the second year in a row I've purchased the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue. For me, the annual JCS Christmas Ornament issue and later the annual Halloween issue were must-purchase for many years, but after JCS was sold, I found the changes to the magazine didn't suit my taste. Last year I was pleasantly surprised to find several things to stitch in the Halloween issue, and there are some cute things in this year's issue as well. I always used to look forward to these annual issues and it's nice to do so again.

I think I might eventually stitch all three of these designs, and maybe even a couple of others. Yes, I'm still working on Summer Birds, still working on Nimble Birds, but y'all. Halloween is calling. What do I say? Well, kinda like resisting decorating for fall in July by buying a few autumn things, I plan to spend a little time putting together the supplies for a few of these projects (project bags!). Choosing fabric and pulling threads is fun and that should hold me for a bit. Maybe I can sneak in a Halloween stitch here and there!

So that's what's new in the sewing room. As promised, here are some sweet, fuzzy babies to smooth out your day!

Tummy rub!

Happy Stitching!