Yup. Stitching fun little Halloween designs when I'm supposed to be working on WIPs. I'm not even going to try to make an excuse for myself. Except that I had this luscious Picture This Plus fabric that my cousin sent me just languishing in my stash. Except that I had found this excellent freebie from The Dusty Rabbit blog. Except that fall is coming and it's my favorite time of year...
Never mind. The last time I posted about neglecting my WIPs in favor of quick Halloween stitches, y'all enabled me dreadfully and contributed to my delinquency! So I know that even if I feel I have to make excuses to myself, I don't have to make them to y'all. Yay! Stitchers understand. Stitchers are the best.
So this is stitched on 32 ct. Solar from PTP, which is absolutely eye-popping in person and is perfect for monochromatic black designs. It's also hard to get a photograph to do it justice. I carried this piece all over the house, trying different light. This is the best I could do. It's a little fuzzy but the color is pretty close.
Now I really have to get back to my WIPs. No, really. Really.
I have been in a fog all summer. The first half of our summer was filled with "Mr. Wonderful Finishing Graduate School" stuff, and the second half of our summer has been filled with "Recovering From Two Years of Graduate School" stuff. Mr. Wonderful graduated at the end of July and both of us have been incoherent since then. I've gotten very little stitching done. I was really hoping to finish Snowfire Christmas by the end of the summer, but frankly, I haven't had the wits for it. Happily, even if I don't have the wits to stitch, I always have the wits to shop.
So, since my stitching posts have been sadly lacking, I decided to gather up all the stuff I've acquired during the summer and show y'all that. Remember... this isn't one shopping spree... it's been spread out over the whooooole summer. By the way, I like to see posts like this on other stitchers' blogs because sometimes I find out about stuff I didn't even know I needed! Okay, let's dig through my loot.
First, fabric. I'm not big on purple fabric, but this piece (Weeks Peoria Purple) just called to me. It's for a Halloween project (see the little buttons that go with it?). And yes, in case you're wondering, I am hoarding polka dot fabric.
More Fabric Flair fabric (top to bottom): Dried Petal, Sunshine, Aqua, Provence. Aren't those pretty, soft colors?
A couple of charts... I am in love with that Blackberry Lane snowman design!
A bunch of finishing supplies. First, Halloween. Did you even know there was such a thing as glow-in-the-dark pins?! How perfect would those be for a Halloween finish?
Christmas finishing stuff. Yes, those are ridiculously adorable fox buttons!
Miscellaneous goodies. I have the perfect finish in mind for that "Off with her head!" charm (I bet y'all can guess which one it is).
That red bug is a Needle Beetle. It has a lighted needle threader and a thread cutter built in. Here's mine, with the light on. If you look closely, you can see the needle threader sticking out (it retracts and the light goes off). So. Cute.
It's back-to-school time, and I'm always on the look-out for stuff that can be put to stitchy use. Here's a little pencil bag that happens to be the perfect size to hold a 6" q-snap and supplies. This will be great to keep "loaded" to throw in a bag for travel. I think it was $1.
And finally... my finishing basket. As y'all can see, I am waaaay behind. I desperately need to have a finishing/framing weekend... week?
Whew. That was a lot of stuff, wasn't it? Hope you saw something you like that you might want to hunt for. Let me know if there's anything you want to know more about and I'll try to help you find it.
I can tell that summer is winding down and fall is on the way, which usually super-charges me. Hopefully I'll be more productive in the coming weeks.
Happy Stitching!
I finally got to the fox!
We haven't had enough Tiger Lily lately, have we? Here she is yesterday, keeping me company while I worked on Woodland Sampler (on her Woodland blanket, appropriately enough).
Yep, I'm back to working on my long-term projects. I did a little work on Woodland Sampler yesterday and hope to get another block done this weekend. I also charted out our names for Snowfire Christmas (wedding sampler conversion). Boy, was that tedious! I'm using a beautiful alphabet, but it's large so I'll be stitching it over one. I still have to chart out our wedding date, but the names were enough for one session! I realized after getting our names charted that stitching those two bands over one (names and date) is going to take me forever, so it's not likely I'll be finished with this sampler by the end of the summer as I'd hoped. Oh well.
Here's my last "fling" project: a couple of little stitching mermaids. These are from Autumn Stitches by Sue Hillis.
Back to Woodland Sampler...
First of all, I have to thank all of you who commented on my last post and encouraged me to keep stitching whatever I wanted. Y'all are as bad as I am! You know I'm supposed to be working on other stuff, but there y'all are, urging me to continue being bad. I took your advice and stitched up a quick little Christmas ornament that has been in my stash for a few years. This was a freebie from my LNS from Summer House Stitche Workes. I searched for it to see if it's still available, but I couldn't find it. If you'd really like to stitch it, perhaps you could try contacting the designer.
Right now I'm working on another small summer design, and then I need to get back to my "real" projects. I've been doing fairly well keeping up with them all year, and if I get too far off track I'll have a tough time getting back. If you're new to my blog, you can check out the labels on the right for Advent Animals, Snowfire Christmas, and Woodland Sampler and see the projects I'm talking about.
I guess when you're working diligently on long-term projects or series, every now and then you have to have a little fling with something completely different. Thanks for the encouragement and the compliments on Simply Boo.
Happy Stitching!
I should be working on Snowfire Christmas, and Woodland Sampler, and Advent Animals (I'm 5 behind!). But what am I doing? Stitching Halloween. Sometimes I just lose all my self-discipline and start a new project even though I've already got several going that need my attention. Around this time every summer I start really wanting to stitch Halloween stuff, so when the urge hit me a couple of days ago, I gave in. This is Simply Boo by Elizabeth's Designs, from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Special Halloween Issue. I wanted more vivid colors, so I changed them all: Caron Wildflowers Black Forest and Fiesta, GAST Burlap and Fragrant Cloves, and DMC 310. It's stitched on 32 ct. Natural Belfast linen.
I really should get back to my other projects... but I'll probably stitch some more Halloween. I'm still feeling kinda undisciplined.
Here's a fairytale-y finish... a black-hearted queen! It's a freebie from a Hungarian blog. This is not usually the sort of thing I stitch, but this little design appealed to me and I love how she turned out. She's stitched on 30 ct. R&R Irish Cream linen with DMC blanc, 310, 321, 712, and 3828. I used DMC for a couple of the colors that called for WDW, and I added the 321 for the mouth, as I wanted a tiny drop of color to catch the eye.
The more I look at this, the more I like it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just that it's an interesting change from "princess" mania. Or maybe I'm just warped. Yeah. That could be it.
Happy Stitching!
A couple more bands done on Snowfire Christmas. The second band was supposed to be pulled work, but as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan, so I changed that one a bit. Two more skinny bands to go before the section where I've decided to stitch our names and wedding date. I think I've settled on an alphabet, but I need to chart the bands. I'm pretty sure I'll be stitching it over one. Then one more band of snowflakes, and I'll be done. I was hoping to have this done by the end of the summer... we'll see.
Have y'all ever done one of these quickpoint pillows?
That's one I did a couple of years ago. If you haven't ever worked one of these, let me do a commercial for them.
*They're fun. Really fun. For the following reasons:
*They work up quickly.
*No need for perfect lighting to see what you're doing.
*No counting.
*No frustrating knots.
*Easy on the eyes and hands. You're using a giant needle, with yarn, on a big canvas. It's the needlework equivalent of finger painting. And who doesn't need a little more finger painting in their lives?
*MUCH less expensive than needlepoint canvasses.
These kits are made by several different companies, but the only ones I have experience with are the kits from Vervaco (Belgium). They're very good quality, the designs are gorgeous, and they don't skimp on yarn. Here's the one I'm working on now; an owl for Mr. Wonderful:
And here's my pillow kit hoard. Foxes for me and owls for Mr. Wonderful:
When I finish the pillow I'm working on now and take it off the frame, I'll show you the frame and the tacking tools I use.
Another thing about these kits, for all the reasons I mentioned above, I think they might work well for older stitchers who have vision or hand problems and can no longer see to cross stitch or hold a tiny needle. It's just giant cross stitch with yarn, and as you can see, there are a lot of really beautiful choices.
If you go searching for these, some retailers call them quickpoint and some call them needlepoint. The retailers I am sure carry them, and that I have done business with, are 123 Stitch, Herrschner's, The Stitchery, and Sew and So in the UK (which calls them chunky cross stitch cushion kits). I believe Sew and So is the only one that carries kits by other manufacturers. I purchased the suede cloth pillow backs from The Stitchery; nice quality and lots of colors.
Happy Stitching!
For June, a sweet little lightning bug.
(I don't know why I can't get a decent picture of this sampler... they're all awful! Sorry!)
Here's a little $2 kit I turned into an ornament for my fox Christmas tree. I didn't use any of the materials from the kit besides the chart itself--which I changed just a bit--and I added the tiny holly buttons from my stash.
My Mental Health Weekend was a complete success! I'm ready to get back to doing all of the stuff I should be doing (instead of stitching all day), and that's a sure sign the break was needed and effective. I highly recommend it.
Sunday was the Austrian Grand Prix. Can't stitch while that's going on... too exciting.
But I did finish Super Honeybee! Here she is, in all her super power-y glory!
I stitched her on 32 ct. mint green linen, which I obviously can't get a good picture of! The top two pictures are too washed out, and the bottom is too yellow. Anyway, it's a very pretty soft green. Here are the other changes I made:
DMC 894 changed to 3609
DMC 956 changed to 3607
DMC 601 changed to 718
DMC 209 changed to 955
E168 changed to Kreinik #8 101
eyes, eyebrows, nose: DMC 3031
cheeks: DMC 224
lips: DMC 223
hair: DMC 4145
earrings, floss lasso: Kreinik #4 001HL
pants, trim & soles of boots: Kreinik #8 010HL
(on the parts where I used #8 braid, I would have used #4 if I had had it; that's what I would recommend for 32 ct.)
The next thing I need to do is have a Finishing Weekend. I have a bunch of projects that need finishing and framing. Maybe I can swing that in a couple of weeks.
It's the first day of summer. Where has the first half of this year gone?!
I "summerized" the basket in my sewing room. I don't have many summer finishes because--I must confess--I have no interest whatsoever in summer. I use it as a preparation period for my two favorite seasons, fall and winter.
And I came sooo close to finishing Super Honeybee, but we had some severe weather last night that interrupted my stitching. All is well, but I didn't quite finish her.
I have to say, I absolutely love how she's turning out. That raised eyebrow kept bugging me, so I changed it. I think I'll change the "B" on her shirt from silver to pink as well, so it will show up better.
The MHW continues apace: slowly. It's been a slooow, quiet weekend (except for weather drama last night), which is just what I wanted. One more day to savor.
Could the Mental Health Weekend (MHW) get any better? Why yes, yes it could. When I decided to give myself a mini-vacation, I also placed a strategically timed order with 123 Stitch, knowing it would arrive in time for my MHW (because they have such great service). Sure enough, first thing Friday morning, stash arrived!
The new Mill Hill Celtic Santas: Scotland, Ireland, and Wales
And a couple of spooky-cute designs. I'm starting to feel ever so slightly Halloween-y. It happens around this time every summer!
Movie-watching marathon... Bogie and Bacall!
Bacall: I don't like your manners.
Bogie: And I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings.
So great.
Painted the piggies purple. Because it's MHW.
And got Super Emma Honeybee about half finished. As you can see, I've changed pretty much everything. When I get her finished I'll list my changes (if I can remember them all). I showed her to Mr. Wonderful and he said, "She looks like you!" Precious man.
Still debating about that raised eyebrow. I may change it. And I had to change the mouth because after stitching it four times, I couldn't manage to keep it from looking like a duck's bill (my fault, not the designer's). And that hair took forever. It's stitched in DMC Color Variations 4145 which--amazingly--is really close to my actual hair color of dark ash blond. But what took so long was that I stitched the hair in "waves" instead of in rows so that I would get a more realistic look, instead of the bands of color you get when you stitch in rows.
I had to mark off every stitch to keep track of which "wave" I had stitched and where I should go next. A lot of trouble, but I like how it turned out.
I really enjoyed my Friday. Especially when Mr. Wonderful brought home Mexican food for supper!
The MHW continues...
I am not a TV watcher. I like sports and old movies, but that's it. Last week while perusing the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) schedule, I discovered that Thursday night was monster bug movies and all day Friday was mystery/suspense movies. Also, the Austrian Grand Prix is Sunday (that's Formula 1 racing, by the way). An idea was born. I decided to do something I never do: sit in front of the TV for hours stitching and watching old movies and racing. I've been in need of a very low-key "mental health weekend" and this weekend would do nicely. I had a very productive week, got everything on my list done, cooked up a storm on Thursday so Mr. Wonderful wouldn't starve... and then I went "off duty."
I had laid in supplies:
I chose a fun new project. I thought about working on Snowfire Christmas, but that takes too much brain power and I wanted something to capture the spirit of my weekend. I chose this freebie by Brooke Nolan. You won't be a bit surprised to hear I'm changing all the colors in her outfit, as well as cutting and coloring her hair (so she'll look a little more like me!). Oh. I'm also putting pants on her (also so she'll look more like me). *snort*
I settled in to watch mutant insect movies from the 50's, because why not?
Someone else showed up. Yes, that's the TV you can't see.
Giant larva attacks Tokyo!
I'm feeling better already. I mean, how could you not?
Stay tuned for all the unexciting low-lights of my ultra low-key Mental Health Weekend!
