A Tribute to the Stitchy Supervisor

Here's a little freebie finish from Stitchy Kitty. If you're a dog person, there's a "Woof Spoken Here" freebie there, too. I did a little make-over on the kitty face to make her look a bit more like our Tiger Lily, including her beauty spot to the left of her nose. 

 

Pretty stinkin' cute, huh? It's stitched in Gentle Art's Mistletoe and Crescent Colors Cerise (I can't stop using it!) and Blooming Crocus. The border is stitched in Caron's Wildflowers-Tiffany Rose. I haven't stitched with Wildflowers in a long time, probably because I don't have much of it, but as I was stitching I was thinking, "I love this stuff... why don't I have more of it?"

You know what that means.

Stash shopping.

Oh yeah.

Meet Belinda the Bat Girl!

I guess she's technically not finished since I haven't cut her out, but that's going to take a steadier hand than I have today. Besides, I was too impatient to wait to show her off! This is Belinda the Bat Witch by Brooke Nolan, from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special Issue. I did some editing and turned her into The Bat Girl. She's my Halloween ornament for this year.

That purple bit down on the right is part of her little bat friend. The rest of him is beaded, but I haven't decided what, if anything, to do with him. In the design, he is perched on her broom. Since I didn't make her broom, I was thinking I might tack him to her head at a jaunty angle like a fascinator. Still thinking...

Every time I stitch one of these little Brooke Nolan figures I am reminded of what a fun stitch they are. Well, except Belinda's cape. I wouldn't recommend stitching large areas of perforated paper with Kreinik #8. Hard on the fingers.

But look at these cute shoes!

Mr. Wonderful has chosen his Halloween ornament for this year and it's that spider by Tempting Tangles in the Sept/Oct issue of Just Cross Stitch. I think it's an awesome design, but it does make my skin crawl. Any ideas on how I can stitch it without actually looking at it?

A Public Apology

To Tiger Lily. We finished up her ear drops and I have to say she was a perfect lady throughout the entire ordeal. Actually, it wasn't an ordeal at all. I had fussed on this blog about dreading two weeks of ear drops so I think it's only fair to admit here that she proved me wrong. Through 28 doses of medicine, she never hid from us, never hissed at us, and never fought us. She growled at us a couple of times but who wouldn't? I held her (no towel necessary) and Mr. Wonderful put in her drops. Then she got a treat. No problem at all. What a sweet girl.

Also, stash. New fabric arrived from the Picture This Plus July sale. Top to bottom: (kitty paws), Shale, Highland, Pewter--all 28 ct. Cashel linen.

 

 

I've finally moved on to my Halloween stitching! Hope to have a finish to show off this weekend.

 

Happy Stitching!



SAL Update: More Sails

Well, I was moving along pretty well and then August arrived and progress came to a screeching halt. I was really hoping to have that mast finished, but no.

Mr. Wonderful starts graduate school at the end of the month and that will be a whole new kind of crazy. Yay.

It's coming...

Summer is winding down and fall is on the way! Fall and winter are my favorite seasons, but I'm a little wary of what might be in store for us this year on the East Coast. Our spring was wet and cold, and this summer has been very mild--only a week or so with temperatures in the 90's, but quite a few days we didn't even reach 80. I've actually been able to open the windows a few times. Does this mean we'll get walloped with blizzards this winter? Nobody knows, but I do know that fall cannot get here fast enough for me!

How about a pumpkin?

This is JBW's French Country Pumpkin stitched with Crescent Colors Colonial Copper. I have one more project I need to whip out and then I can start on Halloween! Stay tuned!

Barn Swallow

Finished with Button Up Birdies 8! Here's the Barn Swallow. Most of this one is supposed to be stitched in GAST Presidential Blue, but I wanted my little Swallow to be much darker, so I used GAST Midnight.

I only have four birds left, but I've got a few other things I need to stitch up first before I move on to Button Up Birdies 9. I'm having a fit to start my Halloween stitching!

Happy Stitching!

Bird Nerd

It's been forever since I've had a bird finish to show, but I'm determined to get all of them stitched before more new ones come out! This one is #13 for me--five more to go.

Now, I have to explain this one a bit. If you've seen the leaflet (Victoria Sampler, Button Up Birdies 8) you'll know that this little guy doesn't look much like the stitched model. The orioles I've seen here on the East Coast are black and orange with a black hood, so I did some research and discovered the model is a Bullock's Oriole, common to the Western United States. I wanted to stitch the kind we have here, so I gave him a make-over and turned him into a Baltimore Oriole.

I'm also happy to report that Tiger Lily has bounced back from her vet visit and resumed her duties as Stitchy Supervisor.

The Ear Drops Adventure is going pretty well so far, but she has a very sharp learning curve so I'm not hopeful that will last. Fortunately, we only have to do it 26 more times.

Oh, the indignity!

Annual check-up and shots today, which went fine as always, but she has a little ear infection so she had to get her ears cleaned and have drops in one of them. She behaved herself (actually I think it's paralysis from sheer terror rather than good behavior), but she was mad. Oh, was she mad.

This is "We Must Go Home--NOW" face.

I make this face myself sometimes, so I totally understand. Poor thing. Poor us. If you're awake around 6 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow morning, give a little thought to two people shut up in a bathroom with an angry kitty cat, trying to put drops in her ear. The vet said, "You might want to have a helper."

Um. Yeah.