Pining for Pumpkins on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Happy Labor Day weekend to all you of ... the last gasp of Summer... except it isn't... it is HOT HOT HOT...and humid and I am pining for pumpkins and Fall colors and apple cider and hay bales and pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bagels and you get the picture. We had a couple of cool days a week ago... they were so nice, but now we are back to 90s...no rain in the forecast for the next 5 days and a long range forecast of temps still above normal. Mother Nature is not listening to me. My window boxes are toast... I've already ripped out two of them and put in some pretty mums...and tonight I will rip out the other 3 and plant more mums and some cabbages...and then I will have to water like crazy... more money going to the Metropolitan Water District and Duke Energy... ugh!!!

On the stitching front I have made progress... I finished my Lizzie Kate ABC's Halloween...

I am very very happy with how this turned out... I love the little motifs ... a ghost and Frankenstein...

A spooky skeleton...

And Elphaba...

She wasn't charted in green but she should have been...LOL

Now I was going to get this completely finished... "framed" and Priscillafied but as I was looking at the framing materials I have I realized that this piece is big... the stitching is about 6"wide by  11" tall and add a bit of framing to that 11" and  it is too tall to fit on any of the shelves of the display unit...soooooo I'm plotting where I can display it and then figure out just how big I can go. I have 2 possibilities.... oh I just thought of a third idea... will need to put more time into this one.

So with this one done I picked up Matilda Hornbuckle  from Not Forgotten Farm...

I know EXACTLY how she will be finished because I saw this pic (click here ) on Instagram... I raced to Hobby Lobby and got the frame she used and then looked at the stitch count... it was going to be too big if I stitched it on my favorite 32 ct... so I did the math and determined that if I wanted it to fit I was going to have to stitch it on 36 ct or higher. I got out some 36 ct and remembered why I'm not fond of 36 ct.  Two strands of floss are too thick and one strand of floss is kinda skimpy... so I found a piece of 40 ct. linen in my stash and I'm using 1 ply... for the most part I'm getting good coverage ...that BIG shoe may have some issues ...but I'm also going blind... I'm wearing my Mr. Magoo +5.0 cheaters and I'm still having trouble seeing it clearly. However she is going to look super in the frame...

There will be a broom in her left hand ...and I'm changing the colors of the flowers she's holding...they are charted in DMC 3031 Mocha Brown Very Dark... that makes them DEAD flowers in my book...not terribly attractive... so I'm using lovely DMC 783.. a warm sunny gold... I'd love to use this frame for more than Halloween so I'm  looking for small charts with a Fall flavor that can be stitched on 32 ct and still fit.

I want to work on some more small pieces ... it is easier to find spaces to display them and there is the satisfaction of a quick finish...gonna work on that.

My plans are to put away my Summer decorations starting tonight and tomorrow and have my Fall stuff up by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. I don't care that its going to be 90... I'll just crank up the AC and pay Duke Energy their pound of flesh next month...

Since I have a bit, a bunch, A  TON of Fall stuff I got started and played with some new door/wreath  decor.

This wreath jumped into my cart at HomeGoods... I got the last one at the store in Loveland but I did see the same wreath at Marshall's ...

I'm swooning over velvet pumpkins... but I couldn't leave well enough alone...and you just can't have too many velvet pumpkins (that is a fact...not an opinion...LOL) I added the little green and white ones to fill in some blank spots. The little ones came from  Hobby Lobby as a floral spray... I just yanked them off and stuck them in. It is hard to see the but the stems of the orange pumpkins are a metallic copper... so Fall-ish!!

And then I needed to update the basket that hangs on the storm door of my porch... I got the basket and all the stems from Hobby Lobby...

Here it is hanging on the back of the door in the living room so I could get a decent picture...and here it is where it will be hanging for a while...

The colors are truer in this picture.

And I'm re-doing my front porch/sunroom... the furniture I purchased back in March turned out to be very uncomfortable. It was patio/outdoor stuff and if you  were only going to be sitting on it for a little bit of time here and then it would be okay...but  I park my butt out on the porch every chance I get and it was lumpy and bumpy and wasn't working for me. Now I hesitated to pitch it and start over as I had spent a chunk of change on it ... it came from IKEA and I stumbled upon an article talking about their return policy. I checked it out here and was amazed that I could return the couch for up to 365 days as long as I had proof of purchase and it was in re-saleable condition. Before I made arrangements to haul it back to the store I spoke with a customer service rep at the store and she assured me I could bring it back for a full refund... so I did. A dear friend has a truck and he helped me take back the 3 assembled sections and all the cushions. The full purchase price was refunded to my credit card.... I couldn't be happier!!! It's no secret I love IKEA...I really really really LOVE IKEA!!! 

My mindset on this room has changed since I had the windows put installed. In the beginning I thought of it as a porch but now I think of it more as a room, a sunroom....So I purchased  another piece of furniture... a real live couch...with springs and padding ...and it is very comfortable... I selected this one called Klippan... I wasn't fond of any of the slipcovers available at IKEA but there are a ton you can find online and I got one on Amazon. Along with the couch I moved a small recliner to the porch... my son got a new recliner for his room and this smaller one was in great shape... I added a little 3 shelf display piece and I'm going to change the carpet. I told myself to wait on  the carpet till they had a sale...and darn if it didn't go on sale the next day. I got these tiles from FLOR... I need to get my handyman to come and install them...and when he does I'll show you the make over...right now I'll show my newest display on the porch...

The garland of corn husks and leaves and pine cones and acorns is camouflaging the electric conduit that runs up that wall ... the basket and the Fall hello came from Hobby Lobby... I "painted" the hello  with Rit Tangerine dye... it was unfinished wood and this was a quick easy fix... I'll be doing that again.  So come on Fall... I'm waiting for you with open arms... and a pumpkin muffin...

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend and that the short week ahead goes well too... I'll be off at least one day till Friday... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else is up to... I still need to plant 8 mums and 6 cabbages but its too darn hot right now...maybe this evening...

happy stitching!
carol fun