Happy Halloween!

I'm back!

Hey y'all, I'm still alive! Yay, me! I've been dealing with a flare-up of a health issue for the last couple of months and hadn't touched any needlework in weeks. Happily, I think I may be getting better, s-l-o-w-l-y, and I did get started on the latest Advent Animal on Saturday. I had finished stitching Mr. Wonderful's Halloween ornament last month, but never got it posted. So it's stitched, but it's not going to be finished in time for Halloween. Oh well. At least it's stitched. Here he is:

I'm off to try to get Advent Animal #8 finished before #9 is posted, which should be some time this week. Still waiting for a fox!

The Thesis Project

Mr. Wonderful is in graduate school and will begin writing his thesis this winter. I suggested he choose a project for me to start when he starts writing. Here's his choice, which will hang in his office when I finish it.

Isn't that gorgeous? It's a Riolis (Russian) kit, and I plan to switch out the fabric for evenweave or linen. It's a pretty good sized project, but not a difficult stitch as it only has 11 colors. 

Other stash has recently made its way to my house. Of course, the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue is here, and we've already chosen our ornaments.

Here's a new Halloween design by The Drawn Thread.

Some pink polka-dot evenweave with a slight shimmer that I have no idea how I will use, but  knew for sure had to come live at my house. Just in case.

And finally, some gorgeous new threads from GAST, Frozen Grapes (limited edition) on the left and Dragonfly on the right.

I'm working on Halloween ornaments right now. Hope to have the first one finished in a couple of days. 

Ichabod Crane Inn

Another long-time WIP finished! This is Ichabod Crane Inn by The Primitive Hare. It's stitched on Weeks 30 ct. Beige with Crescent Colors Black Coffee, Cocoa Bean, and Barn Door, and GAST Gingersnap. This design is in the book, "Le point de croix au fil des saisons"  which is a collaboration between three designers: The Primitive Hare, Atelier de la Comtesse, and Madame Chantilly. As far as I know, it's not available as a separate design. I got my book from Amazon France.

For some reason, no matter what light I put this fabric in to photograph it, it looks washed out. It looks grayish, but it's actually a much warmer brown, a little darker than parchment. 

Last week in Michael's I stumbled across a black, crackle-finish frame that would be perfect for this... on clearance for $10. I love it when that happens.

Next up is Mr. Wonderful's Halloween ornament. 

Happy Stitching!

Skeleton Crew is FINISHED!

I cannot believe I'm done with this thing! It has been a WIP for way too long, and it's actually been only a couple of hours' work from being finished for months. But that's how it goes when I only worked on it in little bursts every few months. Had I worked on it consistently it would've been a pretty fast stitch, even given its size. I normally stitch smalls, which is a good thing since I only stitch a couple of times a week at most, and sometimes don't pick up a needle for a couple of weeks (must fix that). This is the biggest piece I've stitched, so it was a major departure for me, and it's a major triumph that I stuck with it and finished it. Yay, me!

Off to knock off another WIP ('cause now I'm feelin' all big and stuff)...

Tea Box Bookmarks

So the other day I polished off another box of my favorite tea, Scottish Breakfast from The Edinburgh Tea & Coffee Company. I have always thought the box is pretty, so instead of pitching it, I set it on the counter for a couple of days to see if any use for it occurred to me. And I had an idea. Now, this has probably been done a zillion times, but since I don't frequent craft websites or blogs (I have enough to do already!), I had to think of it myself. 

Bookmark! I thought, "Hey, I'll just cut off the front of the box and put a little ribbon on it and have a nice bookmark." I am a voracious reader and usually have several books going at a time so I'm always in need of a bookmark. And we drink a lot of tea in this house. A lot. And tea boxes are often very pretty. I realized that I had just tossed an empty Bigelow Constant Comment box (a favorite tea since childhood--served with Red Hots!) so I rescued it from the trash to include in my project. Happily, it wasn't gross, just a bit mushed on the corners. 

Off I went in search of the perfect ribbon. Found it. And found some glitter paper to glue the box fronts on because I thought they needed a little more weight. Also because sparkly. Here's what I came up with.

As you can see, they're quite large, which I like. I don't know why bookmarks are always skinny, flimsy little affairs, but we're having none of that here. I thought about using my fancy scrapbooking scissors and punches to pretty up the edges and the corners, but I decided I liked the "boxy" look--they being tea boxes and all. The only thing I did was round the corners with a little punch just to give them a more finished look.

Y'all, I have to confess. I'm sort of ridiculously pleased with how these turned out, given how simple they are both in concept and construction. But sometimes our simplest creations give us the most pleasure. I'm resisting the urge to raid our tea cupboard and empty all the boxes so I can make bookmarks. I'll have to make Mr. Wonderful one (if he doesn't steal the Constant Comment one) when he finishes his box of Earl Grey. No glitter paper.

Pierre Penguin

Caught. Up. I'm caught up! Cookies for everyone! 

Lots of changes on this little guy. I changed his eyes, eyebrows, and mouth; raised his left wing so he could hold the mistletoe (since I'm not stitching the borders on these--more on that later); fiddled with his bow tie because I had raised his wing; omitted the drinks; added a random snowflake where the mistletoe would have been. I think that's it. Here's my version:

And here are the first six all together. As cute as each of these are individually, I think they're actually cuter when grouped together. You get a good idea of the color palette she's using.

Now about the border. When I stitched #1, I wasn't too sure I loved the border so I stitched the next couple without and thought I liked them better without. Then Mr. Wonderful commented that the ones without the border looked more "free" so that settled it. No border. When I get a chance, I'm going to pull out the border on #1 and see how it leaves the fabric. I may need to re-stitch it, but I'm not going to bother with that just now. I'm just happy to be caught up!

Cashmere Camel

Another brown-eyed girl! The only change I made to this one was to tone her make-up down just a bit and give her brown eyes. 

My needle is smokin'. One more to go and I'm all caught up.

Hattie Hedgehog

Look at this cute face! The design has blue eyes, but I made her a brown-eyed girl.

I was so close to being caught up, and then #7 was released yesterday. But I'm determined to  whip out the last two as quickly as possible so I can move on to some other projects that are calling me. 

Duncan Dog

Here's Mr. Duncan! Just a slight change to his eye--instead of blue, I stitched it over one in brown and then added a little white french knot to the center.

I have two more to stitch to be caught up, but #7 should be out this week, sooo... 

Hope to get a good start on Hattie Hedgehog today. So far, I think she's my favorite. She has a teacup on her head, so how could she not be? But of course, y'all know what I'm really waiting for. A fox! 

Happy Stitching!

More Foxy Finds

Foxes are trending. As a fox fanatic, I have mixed feelings about this. Part of the fun of collecting something is that it's like a treasure hunt. It's so fun to run across a fox in an unexpected place and collect it. Up until this year, they've been few and far between. This fall, they're popping up everywhere. I certainly don't feel compelled to buy every fox I see (which is good), and as with anything that becomes trendy, you get a lot of really dumb-looking foxes. On the other hand, it's kinda nice to be able to find more of a variety of fox stuff. So, mixed feelings.

My weekly Hobby Lobby raid produced the following treasures: a pretty little dish,

a winter doll (check out the fur boots!),

and a lovely little glass ornament (sniffed and approved by Tiger Lily).

Bonus: all 40% off! Yay!

Now, when this will really get dangerous is if the fox trend catches on with the needlework designers like the owl trend has done. I may need to be restrained. And there are signs, y'all, there are signs. Just Nan has just introduced a fox needle slide and a fox charm garden pin. Yes, those are coming to my house. 

And so it begins...

More Winter Preparations

That's what we're gonna call it, okay? Winter preparations. Because you have to be prepared for winter. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read yesterday's post.) Right. So another happy mail day--my order from the Picture This Plus "Christmas in July" sale arrived today! They have one sale a year, on 25 July, and everything is 25% off. If you missed it, mark your calendar for next year because it's a great deal on gorgeous fabric.

Here are my fabrics, from top to bottom (all 28 ct. Cashel linen): Valor, Crystal Charm (see the sparkles?), Pampas, and Eek!

Of course, I had to play with my new fabric, pulling out the designs I had in mind when I selected the colors, and seeing how well I did pairing the design with the fabric. Two things: one, in my opinion, using hand-dyed fabric can be tricky because sometimes the fabric overwhelms the design. To my eye, one or the other should be the focal point; they shouldn't compete, or look "busy" together, with no place for the eye to "rest". And two: it's tough to select colors online. I prefer buying hand-dyed fabric in person, but I just can't pass up the PTP sale, and I'm never disappointed with the colors. Sometimes they may be slightly different than what was pictured, but I've never been disappointed. Anyway, on with play time!

Here's the design I intend for Pampas. As you can see from the picture above, it's a yellowy-green. (For some reason, in this picture, it looks more like Valor.) I considered using Eek! for this design, but decided that would be way too much orange and black--orange and black cat on orange and black fabric. I considered a slightly bluish green to pull the color from the bubbles in the cauldron, but there really isn't any blue at all in this design. I finally settled on the yellowish green in the pumpkin leaves. After seeing it in person, I think it'll work.

Next is the letter "S" by Nora Corbett, which I want to stitch on Crystal Charm. I couldn't be more pleased with this match. It's a beautiful muted, rosy pink. Not too bright; feminine, but not girly. It looks gorgeous in person.

Floss toss! (Notice how different the fabric looks in this shot from the one above. The light changes ever so slightly and your fabric looks different.)

And finally, here's Just Nan's Snowfire Christmas, to be stitched on Valor, a dusty, grayish green. This will be a wedding sampler, which I hope to have finished by our 15th anniversary in December 2015. We married a week before Christmas and had a Christmas-y wedding. I'm not a fan of traditional wedding samplers so I couldn't find any I liked and never bothered to stitch one. But when I saw this sampler, I knew it would be perfect. I'll just add a couple of lines with our names and our wedding date and--voila!--wedding sampler! I'm stitching it on green partly because I seem to be obsessed with green fabric, but also because I've always thought the "snowy" parts of this sampler disappeared on the fabric used for the model. 

I haven't chosen anything to stitch on Eek! yet. I got it because I knew it would be great for something Halloween-y I have in my stash. Maybe something monochromatic. And because it was on sale. And because winter is coming.

Happy Stitching!

Winter Forecast

Here's my post from one year ago yesterday. I was speculating about the kind of winter we would have, based upon the spring and summer we had. Turns out the spring and summer weather were indeed a hint of what was to come. We had a looooong, cold, snowy winter. Well, I'm here to report that I think we're in for it again. Short spring (because winter refused to go away), ridiculously mild summer, a few trees already turning, Tiger Lily already blowing her summer coat. As I type, middle of August at high noon, it's 72 degrees and the windows are open. Let that sink in on ya. As I've been telling Mr. Wonderful, "We're gonna pay for this in January." Yikes.

So what does a stitcher do in the face of another hard winter? Say it with me... "Acquire more stash." If I'm going to be trapped by snow, I want to be trapped with lots of stitchy goodies. Here's what the mailman brought today.

This is Brooke's Books Spirit of Christmas Stitching Santa. So great, huh? See all the cute little details? The cardinal in his pack, the snowflake on his beard, the little mouse, and the "I love Mrs. C" on the embroidery hoop? I am really looking forward to stitching him. He'll look fantastic next to Mrs. Claus. 

Happy Stitching, and remember, a hard winter is a good excuse reason to stock up on stash! 

A Stitchy Snowma'am

For some time, I've had the idea to make a stitchy snowma'am to decorate my sewing room for Christmas. A couple of weeks ago when Hobby Lobby started putting out their Christmas crafting supplies, I noticed they had 11" snowmen that would be perfect for my project and the wheels in my brain started spinning about how I wanted to make mine. Yesterday I went on a crime shopping spree and got the supplies I needed for her. I had so much fun prowling around all over the store, looking in every department for goodies for her outfit. 

And I had a brainstorm. I didn't want to wait until Christmas to display her, so I decided to make her a fall outfit first. (You see where I'm going with this, don't you?) Then, of course, there will be a Halloween outfit, then a Christmas outfit, then... 

She was so fun to put together. Everything (except her nose) is pinned on, so that it can be easily changed for other seasons and holidays. All the supplies are from Hobby Lobby. Here she is!

She just makes me smile. I still have to put together a little sewing basket for her, but I've got to find one small enough. 

Her eyes are craft brads; eyebrows/eyelashes are mini staples colored black with a Sharpie; mouth is DMC Memory Thread; ears are tiny pompoms; earrings are corsage pins bent at a right angle and inserted in ears; flower on hat and fox brooch are from the scrapbooking section; hat and glasses are from the doll making section.

Scissors, needle, and measuring tape bow are all from the scrapbooking section; felt leaves and pumpkin are from the fall crafting section; buttons, lace trim collar and lace skirt are in fabrics.

And that's what I did today when I should've been doing housework. And I'm not even sorry.

Mary Mouse

I'm gaining on them! Here's #3, Mary Mouse. Just a few little changes on her: black whiskers changed to white, black tail changed to pink, black waistline on tutu changed to white. Just wanted a little softer look.

These are fun, quick stitches. I see from the comments (thank you!) that some of you are collecting these and saving them for later. I think this is going to be a ridiculously adorable series... one of those series that, seeing one or two, you think, "Oh, those are cute!" but then when you see all 25 of them together, you're just completely blown over! I can tell you that already, just with my three finishes lying on the table together, the cuteness factor increases the more you have done! 

Now to Duncan (#4)!

Peter Polar Bear

What?! Ten posts in one month? That's crazy talk. It kinda makes me look way more productive than I've actually been, stitchy-wise. My current obsession is to catch up on the Brooke's Books Advent Animal freebie series. I was all proud of myself that I finally finished #2 in the series, and the very next day she posted #6--which, if you haven't seen it, will crack you up.

Here's Peter Polar Bear, with a slightly re-designed sweater.

I'm working on Mary Mouse (#3) today and hope to have her finished soon. It's August tomorrow, and that's when the Halloween stitching bug really gets me, so hopefully I'll be moving on to some of that soon. Meanwhile, it's funny little Christmas animal stitching for me.

Mr. Wonderful has been RASK'd!

RASK is a Random Act of Stitchy Kindness (yes, I just made that up). After seeing a message board post where I mentioned Mr. Wonderful's deployment (he's home now), Sharon in Nevada kindly offered to send him a wool helmet liner she had knitted. Naturally, we took her up on the offer, and the helmet liner arrived on Saturday. Since I don't post pictures of Mr. Wonderful, I have one of my foxes, Maid Marian, modeling his gift.

Isn't that too wonderful?! It's beautifully made and Mr. Wonderful is carried away with it.

Thank you, Sharon, from the bottom of our hearts.

Butterflies Fly

And here it is--my last Cole's Quilts finish for a while. I've finished the commitment I made back in February to stitch quilt squares for six children. 

Now that I have that done, I'll be getting back to my personal stitching. I think I'll first concentrate on catching up on the Brooke's Books Advent Animal freebie series. I've only got the first one done and now I'm four behind! It's amazing how quickly a month goes by, isn't it? I must be getting old.

Had to share!

I've been playing in my stash a lot this week. Remember that really cute Woodland Sampler I downloaded a few posts ago? The PDF is 34 pages long. Yes, I know. Well, I only printed out about half of them, since both color and b/w charts were provided and I prefer b/w. Anyway, so I have this 16 or 17 page design. For someone who usually stitches smalls, this is an issue.

But I found this!

Brand: Avery. Product number: 47671. Stitchy usefulness: Awesome.

Here's my new pattern book.

With a super spiffy spine.

I love this thing. Really great for designs with lots and lots and lots of pages.

I will be hoarding these.

A Rose for Zoe

Another Cole's Quilts finish.