Saturday Sampler: Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween from The Girls!

Belinda, Penelope, and Sally

These little gals were originally published in the Just Cross Stitch special Halloween issues in 2008, 2011, and 2013. They weren't available separate from those long sold-out issues... until Friday! Brooke Nolan made them available as a set in her Etsy store. 

Last Sunday, I made up my mind to take the plunge and do the Plum Street Samplers 12 Days of Christmas free mystery sampler that I mentioned in last Saturday's Sampler (is that a confusing enough sentence?!). So I spent Sunday afternoon choosing colors for it, placed my order, and then spent the week cyberstalking the progress of my threads across the country to my house. I can't be the only one who does this. How did we survive in the days before we could track our goodies as they moved through the postal system?

My threads arrived Friday, and I spent that afternoon deciding on fabric and getting everything ready to start, which I did manage to do last night. I'm going my own way with the colors, but more on that tomorrow. Speaking of color, we're at peak fall color right now. This was taken early this week, and today there is no green to be seen on this tree.

Tiger Lily has been enjoying the cool air at her windows.

And finally, here's a Saturday sneak peek of the mystery sampler.

Check back in on Sunday for a mystery sampler update and a little more about the colors I've chosen for this wonderful freebie.

How to Make a Big, Splashy Bow

Here's Penelope, all finished!

I thought I'd offer a little how-to on making those big bows. This isn't the only method, of course, but this is quick and easy... and on most stuff, I'm all about quick and easy! 

First, thread a needle with 2 strands of floss (or sewing thread) and tie a knot in the end. For this purpose, I use the old-fashioned knot-making method of wetting my finger, wrapping the floss around the tip of my finger a few times, then sliding it off into a fat knot. It's definitely not the tidiest knot, but... quick and easy! (Also, it gives the glue something to stick to apart from that smooth ribbon.)

Using however many colors of 1/8" ribbon you like, make loops and secure them on the needle, leaving the tails a little long so you can trim them later. Now, you can make all the loops the same size, but I like to just make them any old way. I do this because to my eye, a slightly sloppy, "splashy" bow is a nice contrast to the precision of the stitching. Remember as you're making loops that you're working from the bottom of the bow to the top, so you might want to make your first loops a bit larger, and make them a bit smaller as you go. Also, odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye than even, so instead of making four or six loops, make five or seven, or however many you need to make the bow the size you want.

When you have the bow like you want it, pull the floss through the bow until the knot is at the back, and put a couple of stitches through the center of the bow to secure it.

To finish off the bow, you can sew a bead or a button onto the center, but here I just tied a small bow and glued it to the center.

And here's the finished big, splashy bow!

Not perfect... but festive!

Meet Penelope the Pumpkin Girl!

Thanks for the enthusiastic support for the Saturday Sampler!  Remember those cute shoes? They're Penelope's! Behold... in all her un-cut-out glory!

This is Brooke Nolan's Penelope the Pumpkin Witch, but sort of "de-witched." She is supposed to be holding a broom in her right hand, with the crow perched upon it, but I left off the broom (and had to fix her dress on that side, as a result) and cut out Mr. Crow so he could perch on her arm instead. Normally when I stitch one of Brooke's witches, I change the hat, but this one looked like an upside down pumpkin blossom to me, so I left it. When I do the finishing on her, it will have a big fluffy bow on it.

I changed her green eyes to brown, changed her eyebrows, and changed the color of her mouth. If you've been following my (slow!) progress on the Advent Animal series, you'll notice that I'm always changing eye color to brown, or to a darker shade of whatever color is called for. I do this because I think the darker eye color gives the face a little more depth of expression, if that makes any sense. To me, the light eye color gives the face a slightly blank look. 

Penelope has a couple of sisters... a Spooky Stitcher (who I need to name!) and Belinda the Bat Girl, who needs finishing. I wonder if I can get the finishing done on these girls in time to show off a family portrait for Halloween. Hmmm...

Saturday Sampler

Mr. Wonderful and I were having a quiet Saturday, watching college football. I had been stitching, and uploading some pictures for a blog post, and I was thinking about what to title the post. I said, "What's a word starting with 's' that means 'odds and ends'? I want to call this post 'Saturday... something'." Without missing a beat, Mr. Wonderful said, "Saturday Sampler!" I nearly fell off the couch! It's perfect! Sometimes this man amazes me, y'all. 

So here we are, our first Saturday Sampler. I'm not going to promise I'll do this every Saturday, or even most Saturdays, but I thought having an occasional "hodge podge" post at the end of the week might be fun. Just a little re-cap of the week, things I've found shopping, things I've found wandering around the web, things I've been working on, and of course, Tiger Lily. Let's see what we have today...

Have y'all seen the FREE 12 Days of Christmas SAL from Plum Street Samplers? The first three days were released last Sunday, and the remaining days will be released each Sunday until the sampler is complete. I haven't decided if I'll stitch it or not, but I'm saving it... it's pretty neat!

I found this little fox ornament for my Fox Christmas Tree. Yeah, he looks kinda like a dog, but he's still cute... and I know he's a fox.

Every year Mr. Wonderful and I choose our Christmas ornaments from the annual Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. If you'd like to see all of them, just click on the "Christmas Open House" label on the right sidebar. Anyway, although I didn't choose it for my ornament this year, I really liked the Mani di Donna "Christmas Carols" ornament. I found the beautiful button for it at Down Sunshine Lane and ordered it, just in case I want to stitch it some day. 

Speaking of ornaments, have y'all seen the super cool Mid-Century Modern set of Christmas ornaments from Misty Hill Studio? I love, love, LOVE how they look grouped together... so mod! Check out what I found at Hobby Lobby to use on ornament finishes:

Perfect, right? When I saw the black and silver, I was like (gasp!), "Holly's ornaments!" 

Here's a shot of Tiger Lily taken this week. She was sitting in her "donut" patiently waiting for me to finish my housework so we could settle down and stitch. Seriously, that's what she was doing... waiting on me!

And here's a sneak peek of what we've been working on all week. Somebody's got some cute shoes!

Okay, y'all, that wraps up the Saturday Sampler. Hope y'all enjoyed it. Have a great weekend and Happy Stitching!

Cassie Cow

Look who's back! Advent Animals! I haven't finished one of these since May. Wow. So with this finish, I'm only behind by five. 

This one took me a little longer than usual because I made lots of changes, the most obvious of which is that she's not a Holstein, she's a Jersey! I love Jerseys, so I stitched her in DMC 435.

Other changes I made: larger eyes (and brown instead of blue) and smaller eyebrows, changed the shape of the nose and mouth, changed the bodice of the apron and backstitched the pocket in green instead of black, stitched the tray in pink instead of blue, backstitched the glass in grey instead of white, and stitched the cookies in 437. 

Woodland Sampler: September Block

A mama hedgehog and her baby snuffling in the autumn leaves.

I think it's time for a little Christmas stitching... I'm starting to feel it! 

"I heard the geese go over..."

Oh, October! My favorite month. December is wonderful for all the obvious reasons, but October is my favorite. And this October has started out perfectly... dark and cold and rainy. The other evening I heard the geese go over, and whenever I do, I am always reminded of this:

In the village store someone says,

"I heard the geese go over,"

and there is a moment of silence.

Why this is so moving, I do not know.

But all of us feel it.

~Gladys Taber

I just finished this tiny Canada Goose. He reminds me of fall, and that winter is coming.

Tiger Lily has been staying snug. She migrates with the seasons, just like the geese. She has several cozy baskets and beds around the house, which lie empty all summer. But come the first few days of cooler weather, I find her snuggled down in her basket. 

Stay cozy, y'all. Winter is coming.

Stitching: An Essay

What is your favorite aspect of being a stitcher?

I've been pondering this lately, and I've come up with my answer. While I love the creativity, the color, the "play" aspect of being a stitcher, I think the most valuable thing to me is that as a stitcher, there is always something to look forward to, to plan for, to work toward. 

Looking forward is so important in life. It's so easy to get bogged down by day-to-day concerns, and to start being hyper-focused on those concerns to the point of being unable to enjoy looking forward. Life has problems that need and deserve our attention, but life is our most important WIP, and for me, stitching is one of the things that keeps me looking forward to what's next, instead of down at what's now. 

We joke and tease each other about "stash enhancement" but really, there is something very positive and healthy about looking forward to, and being excited about, our next project, a new design release, the markets, a special magazine issue.  That forward-looking attitude filters through to the rest of our lives, I think. And I sometimes wonder, does the stitching mo-jo leave us because other aspects of life are getting us down, or do other aspects of life get us down because we've (temporarily) let go of our creative, forward-looking outlet? It can be both, at different times, and in different situations, but I wonder if it's the latter more often than we suspect. I think it is, for me.

I'm a planner. Planning makes me happy, and no planning makes me happier than stitchy planning. Although I don't "kit up" projects, I understand why a lot of people do it. It's fun to make plans. We enjoy planning vacations, parties, surprises for loved ones, holidays. Planning for stitching is no different. Whether you kit up projects months (years?) in advance, or whether you put your supplies together right before your new start, it's a pleasure to sit down with your stash and pull threads, choose fabric, change colors. 

I have a yearly tradition that I treasure. Years ago, I started using the week between Christmas and the New Year to plan my projects for the coming year. I call it my "Stitchy Planning Week" and it's one of my favorite parts of the holidays. In that lull between those two holidays, I pull out all of my charts and spend several days deciding what I'd like to stitch. I have a three-ring binder with folders in it, each labeled for a month of the year. I choose designs for each month (I'm a seasonal stitcher) and place them in the folders. Do I ever stitch everything in my binder? No. Do I change my mind throughout the year? Yes. The point is, I'm making plans. Looking forward is an attitude, and planning is an action. They're two sides of the same coin.

And then there is the actual stitching. The value of work cannot be underestimated. No matter what you're doing, work equals forward movement. If you're scrubbing toilets, you're working toward a clean house. If you're selling shoes, you're working toward feeding your family. If you're stitching, you're working toward a completed project to grace your home or someone else's.

We were created, we were built, for work of all kinds. Physical labor, mental labor, creative labor; they all serve different and vital purposes. We suffer when we neglect any one of those types of work. For many of us, modern conveniences have removed much of the need for physical labor, and modern forms of entertainment have removed the need for mental and creative labor.  The results of these "advancements" are self-evident. We need to work. With our bodies, our minds, our hands, we need to work.

Needlework--like other creative pursuits, like painting and sculpting--is a unique combination of all three of those types of labor: physical, mental, creative. It isn't physically taxing, but it requires a certain level of dexterity. It isn't mentally taxing, but it requires concentration. As for creativity, it is unlimited. It is work, but it is work that soothes, instead of tires. And being that it is work, it moves us forward to an end, to a finished product, an accomplishment.

Looking forward, planning, working. Those are the aspects of stitching that I find most valuable, perhaps because they are valuable aspects of a life well-lived, too. 

Look what the mail lady brought!

My order from the annual Picture This Plus fabric sale arrived! Yippee! Just in case you're not familiar with this sale, every 25 July PTP has a Christmas in July sale and ALL of their fabric is 25% off! Wow! I order every year because... well... because fabric. And yes, it has taken all this time for me to get my order, but that's because this is a huge sale and a small business with just a few employees. They are very upfront that filling the sale orders can take quite some time, so if you're in a hurry for a particular piece of fabric, best order it at another time. To me, the savings are worth the wait. Every year as the sale approaches, I carefully go through my stash and pull out a few designs I'd like to stitch on these fabrics over the next year (dreaming!). So let's check out my stuff!

Here are this year's choices, all 28 ct. Cashel linen, from top to bottom: Rosewood, Pampas, Valor, Haunted, Legacy.

The Rosewood is for this beautiful kitty freebie. I haven't decided on the color of thread to use. I do know it will be DMC and not something hand-dyed, as I want the fabric to shine on this one, and I don't want the thread to compete with it. I think the mottling of the fabric will look so cool peeking through those unstitched swirls.

The Pampas is for Trick or Treat by Lena Lawson Needlearts. At first I thought I would stitch it on a neutral similar to the model, but I thought it might be fun to stitch it on green so the orange-y tones would really pop. I was trying to match the green in the scarecrow's trousers, and although you can't tell from this picture, the Pampas is perfect!

This Garden Sampler is available as a very inexpensive download from Herrschner's. I thought it was so pretty... this photograph really doesn't capture the beautiful colors. The model is stitched on PTP Valor, one of my favorite greens, so that's what I chose for it.

Here's a classic: Judith Kirby's Victorian House #9, the Halloween house. I've chosen Haunted for this one, and I'm thinking about doing a color conversion on the house. Now that I have the fabric, I'll have to do some floss tossing to decide what, if any, changes I make.

And finally, Legacy for Fox Forest by The Workbasket. 

Last week, in my wanderings around the interwebs, I stumbled across this darling little Santa Fox needle minder at Down Sunshine Lane. I ordered him instantly. Isn't he too much?

It's been a good mail week around here. If you missed the PTP sale, don't despair. Get out your little pocket planner and mark it down for 25 July 2016 so you don't forget!

Happy Stitching!

Woodland Sampler: August Block

I'm still alive, y'all! Just finished this adorable little green-eyed skunkeroo for August. 

And here's my favorite girl, supervising my slooow progress.

I'm having delusions that I can get the September block whipped out before the end of the month and be back on schedule. 

Seize the Night

Just finished up a small design that Mr. Wonderful chose. This is "Carpe Noctem" by Elizabeth Spurlock, from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special Collector's Issue. This is a brown conversion stitched on R & R 30 ct. Irish Creme linen. The model in the magazine is stitched in shades of red on a grey sweatshirt, but I wanted a more aged look. The browns I used are DMC: 3371, 938, 898, 801, 433, 434.

Pretty spooky!

Goodbye, Summer

Did you know there is a difference between astronomical seasons and meteorological seasons? If you look at your calendar you will see that 23 September is the first day of fall. But that's the autumnal equinox, the beginning of the astronomical season of autumn. According to meteorological seasons, 1 September is the first day of fall. Here's a short explanation of the difference. 

Since fall is my favorite season, I'm happy for it to arrive three weeks earlier, so I observe the meteorological seasons. I'm also a weather nerd. So goodbye, summer! 

Here's an old La D Da freebie I whipped out last night.

I'm at it again.

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.

The Lost Summer

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!