A serious case of startitis on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ... excuse the lack of a post last Sunday but I really didn't have anything new to show... being out of the house every day of the week substantially cuts into the crafty time... and while this week had lots of out of the house activities I did do a little better in getting some things finished...and a bunch of things started... I'm an EXCELLENT starter... finishing sometimes eludes me... mostly because other shiny stuff comes along and I'm off in another direction...

So to finished things... always good to start on a high note... I got my Stone Street Stitchworks Turkey FFO'd  (fully finished) and priscillafied.... and put the tier tray together...

Here's the whole display with my Grungy Gourds quilt... my version of Cluck Cluck Sew's Pumpkins quilt... I do love all those Basic Grey Grunge fabrics...

The tier tray by itself....

Top  - Stone Street Stitchworks piece done on 32 ct linen I painted with Rit dyes...

Middle - Little sampler, Autumn ABC's by Lizzie Kate

Bottom - Tiny Turkey from Bent Creek... I stitched him years ago but only FFO'd him last week...

I was surprised at how many smaller turkey's I've collected ... quite a flock...I still feel like Thanksgiving should have been last week versus this coming week... it is going to be a very short time between this turkey dinner and the next... not that we're having turkey... we do prime rib... but you know what I mean.

So with the tray completed I worked on some Christmas-y cross stitch... I'm almost done with this piece, The Drawn Thread's Little Bits of Christmas...

Santa needs an eye and a lip and a pom pom for his hat and we're good to go... and with that complete I was going to move onto December from  Hands on Designs A Year of Celebration... the last one in the monthly series I need to do... but something shiny caught my eye and I thought I could put in a couple of stitches... and I did....

This is Oh Christmas Tree by All Through the Night...  you can see the chart here...I'm stitching it on a piece of 32 ct linen I found in my stash ...

not sure if I painted this with a particular chart in mind or what... but since I can't remember and it is big enough for this design I'm using it... the blue isn't as intense as is showing in this picture but I can't figure out how to adjust it... sigh... now I should leave well enough alone and just stitch the whole thing in the called for Valdani thread, which is lovely... the color is P2 Olive Green and there is so much pretty variegation... but I never take the easy path so I decided that the top  star should be gold... and maybe all the stars should be gold... and the little birds could be red... I think that would look nice and festive ... so that's my plan...


And while I was playing with Oh Christmas Tree another new chart was shoved through my mail slot... this is Yes Virginia by Remembering ByGone Stitches....

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!!!
I purchased the kit here from Country Sampler in Spring Green WI... and I had no idea it would arrive so quickly... I purchased it late on Wednesday  night and it arrived yesterday... and again I could not resist putting a few stitches into it...

actually quite a few stitches... the fabric is a lovely rosy color and the flosses are Gentle Arts Parchment and Weeks Flatfish... I'm stitching one ply over 2 threads and while I usually like better coverage I think it works for this design...Using 2 ply on this would be a lot more work to get the threads to lie nice and neat... this is way quicker ... and it give is a vintage feel in my humble opinion....

Sidenote here... as I was typing I had a thought... a dangerous situation for me... why did the kit include so much Parchment... 3 skeins... that seems like a lot of thread... and I looked at the chart again and it called for using one ply on 36 ct linen (a different one than the kit supplied but I like this better)  ... perhaps the linen in the kit isn't 36 ct... I re-checked the listing online and it says it is 36 ct...hmmmm... got out my ruler and pins and Mr. Magoo magnifying glasses and checked for myself... the linen is 32 ct.!!  So you could use 2 ply and you would probably need 3 skeins then.... I think I'm going to leave it as it is and continue on with one ply... reminder... listen to the little voices in your head when something doesn't look right... and listen when they say to get out of your chair and get a piece of chocolate... I never ignore that little voice...LOL

And another thing, in my humble opinion the chart could have been executed better... there are only 2 symbols and o and an s and where the two are mixed together in the Dear Virginia text over the beard they are hard to distinguish... I'm going to mark up my working copy to make them easier to see and plan to stitch the words before I work on the beard...also since I've figured out that this is 32 not 36 I may stitch the Dear Virginia words in 2 ply so they show up better... I know there isn't a lot of contrast on the model picture and I may like it to show more... will cross that bridge later...


So that's 2 new totally unplanned, no where on my radar cross stitch starts... but wait there's more... and it isn't a set of steak knives... yarn has been calling my name too... it has been cold enough to wear a shawl or a scarf and I have some lovely ones but I'd like a couple of new ones to add to my wardrobe... first I started off with the free pattern which you can see here called May I Borrow this Please?  I was using a lovely gray Madelinetosh with accents of lime green and turquoise  and purple... but the project met an untimely demise at the mouth of a hungry vacuum cleaner... so sad... my son was vacuuming the rugs and didn't see it on the footstool and there was a bit hanging down and he sucked it up... did quite a number on the shawl and the knitting needles... he was quite upset that I would be mad, but somehow in my old age I've gotten more mellow about this kind of thing where he's concerned ... I know he didn't do it on purpose and I do appreciate his help around the house... could have happened to me too... I tried unraveling the yarn back to a place I could pick up the stitches but it was so tangled I gave up.... and I already had another project on a different set of needles....

this is another freebie pattern called One Skein Wonder and you can see it here... it said it was a good pattern for a varigated yarn and this one is certainly that... purple, red, gold, green, a touch of gray and white... before I wound it in a cake I thought there was a lot more white than what is showing... it is a Blue Moon Socks that Rock yarn, lightweight and is called Christmas Balls...and why does that sound vaguely raunchy???   Anyway I like the yarn colors but have found when I use it for socks that the colors fade pretty rapidly with repeated washings... so I'm using what I've stashed for shawls... it is good mindless knitting... a four row repeat ... and I have two more patterns picked out and plenty of yarn to chose from that I'd like to get to...

Also I got back two quilt from Quilting by David this week... Fall Fizz and my Christmas Quilty Stars... I got the binding on the first one but it is in the washer at the moment and I have the binding ready to go for the Christmas one... I'll show them next week after I've laundered them and they are all nice and crinkly... I love crinkly quilts!

So I've got plenty of stuff to do and  the Christmas decorating should commence this weekend... we are doing our family Thanksgiving on Friday at my daughter-in-law's parents home... which is fine since none of us are Black Friday shoppers... maybe I'll get started on Saturday or Sunday... first I have to put all the Thanksgiving stuff away and somehow dispose of all that straw I used in my displays... I got a good run out of it... I put it out in August and its still here... I shall replace it with fake snow which should also be around for a while... I'm figuring December, January and February... by March I'm usually mentally done with Winter and will break out some Spring-y stuff whether Mother Nature cooperates or not... and then I can mess around with Easter grass... LOL...always something to play with!

And speaking of the weather...you knew I couldn't get through a post without talking whining okay, complaining about the weather... it has been blah here... a day or two of sun and "seasonal" temperatures but mostly gray and below normal temperatures... I still need to clean the pumpkins out of my window boxes and I have a couple of pots of frosted and dead mums to dispose of too. It was not a pretty Fall ... we had that early freeze and the leaves just turned brown... yuck... and lots of the trees are still holding on to their leaves. The local garden expert says the probably won't drop their leaves now till Spring when the new growth pushes off the old stuff... could make for problems if we get a heavy wet snow that will bring down tree limbs on power lines... not a good situation. The two trees I notice the most are the one in my neighbor's yard that I see out of my kitchen window... it did drop its leaves but it never turned that gorgeous orange that it usually does... and the second tree is across the street in another neighbor's back yard... it did turn yellow but it seemed to be much sparser than in years past... it is an older tree...probably 65 years old...I hope it hangs on ... I do enjoy looking out it from my living room stitching chair...

Well I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and see what everyone else is up to... between blogs and watching cross stitch and decorating and DIY videos on youtube it is a wonder I get anything done...hope you have a lovely week ahead... time to spend with family and friends and time to spend with you crafty endeavors...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Turkeys and Christmas Quilts on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello  - Did you all have a good week?  Get lots of stuff done?  I did get some stuff done... but not the stuff I thought I would last Sunday... the weather was "nice" at the beginning of the week... after clearing out those flower beds I spent a couple of hours Sunday planting 85 hyacinths and about 75 alliums... that's a lot of holes ... and I got a blister on the palm of my hand even though I was wearing gloves... I considered procrastinating on Monday as there were still 200 daffodils and some crocus to plant but the sun was out and my youngest son offered to help...and what a big help he was... he dug large holes for me to put in 5 - 7 daffodil bulbs so they will come up in clumps in the Spring...hopefully... it certainly speeded up the process ... and I even had the energy to get the dahlia bed cleaned out and all the tubers dug up... that took longer than I expected and filled 2 more lawn waste bags... so in total there were 14 bags sitting on the curb for pickup on Tuesday... I felt sorry for the garbage guys ... the bags were heavy and it rained overnight so they were soggy too... and from Tuesday on the weather has taken a decidedly winter-ish turn... cold, some flurries ... and the upcoming forecast is for measurable snow -about an inch - Monday into Tuesday with January temperatures ... ugh... not ready for it to be so cold so soon... lots of the trees still have their leaves... I'm not happy with an abbreviated Fall... the colors this year weren't as vibrant as years past, I assume due to the hot, dry spell we had this Summer  and really cold weather starting early is going to make the season even shorter...

Sorry for the weather rant... I'm blaming my bad mood on the time change... still not use to it.... as for crafty stuff, I did a little of this and a little of that and shiny stuff did catch my eye... I finished stitching 2 turkeys... this Prarire Schooler one just needed the border...

and this one is a freebie from Stone Street Stitchworks called Thankwool... you have to ask to join the group on Facebook and then go to the Files section for this pattern and other freebies... here's a link to the Facebook page...

I like how it looks like it was done in wool ... I have a plan for FFO-ing this (fully finished object) but didn't have the energy to get it done yet.

Instead yesterday was one of those sit in my stitching chair and watch Flosstube and gardening videos days... but while I was watching I did start a new piece... this is Little Bits of Christmas from The Drawn Thread...

I'm stitching this on a piece of 32 ct linen I had in my stash that I painted a while ago... I do love the reds and greens on the turquoise...

This chart has both a silk and a cotton thread version...  I'm using the called for Gentle Arts threads except for Cucumber... I didn't have Cucumber but the conversion was DMC 934 ... a very dark green...and I had it ... that center section has backstitching and little "berries" which I'm going to see if I have some beads I could use there... should finish a little more than 5" square... lots of pretty things in a small package...

As for sewing... I got all the strips prepped and upon my design wall for my Basic Grey Christmas version of Meet in the Middle... a free pattern you can see here....

it will be considerable narrower once it is all sewn together... about 60" wide...and I'm happy that all my Santas and Christmas trees are in the upright position... makes my OCD happy happy happy... the pattern called for a jelly roll but I used a layer cake and I'm glad I did... if you used the jelly roll for this collection - Kringle & Claus by Basic Grey  - the directional prints - Santa, Christmas Trees, Ornaments - would all be lying on their sides... not a good look IMHO...  and I probably could have finished it if another shiny quilt idea hadn't crossed my path... I have a bin of Basic Grey Christmas fabrics... lots of precuts... jelly rolls and layer cakes and charm packs ... and some are pretty "vintage"... I got to thinking about the collection called Fruitcake... here's a pic of the fabrics...

I'm thinking this collection is about 9 to 10 years old... and usually I'm not of fan of brown but I'm okay with it here... well I wanted to play with the fabric... and I have 3 charms packs ... so I paged through a couple of books I have that use charm packs and found this pattern... Snowfall from the book  by Vanessa Goertzen called Charm School...

Well I had some Basic Grey Grunge for the background ... I think this is White Paper... and had to make a block... or two...

I really like this... and for the sashing I have a piece of what I think is a Hoffman snowflake print... some of the snowflakes are pearlescent... and I think this piece of fabric is at least 15 maybe closer to 20 years old...

I remember making a jacket out of this print eons ago... I think it will make a really pretty quilt... but I'm not sure how I ended up making multiple Christmas quilts again this year... last year I did 3 ... and with one already at the long armer I'm on track to do 3 again... hey you can never have too many Christmas quilts, right??? Shake your head up and down, up and down...

With the upcoming cold and snowy weather I should have time to sew... except for the fact that I have an appointment every day this week... arghh... I hate when I do that to myself... I really like to have a day or two or three where I don't have to be anywhere... Dorothy was right... "There's no place like home, there's no place like home"...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... from the comments last week I can tell that most of you agree with me ... such smart readers I have... that this Daylight Saving Time switch is a pain in the butt... 6pm looks like midnight!!! I hate that ...  I hope that all of you have a good week ahead... I'm hoping the weather guys are wrong and we won't get much snow on Monday/Tuesday... there's always that possibility... and I really hope they are wrong about the frigid temperatures... but they probably got that part right...

Take care ... happy stitching-
carol fun

Bouncing around like a BB in a boxcar on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all... well how was your week?  And what kind of weather did you get for Halloween?  Here in SW Ohio,  it wasn't as bad as those areas that got snow but it sure was miserable... temperatures in the low 30s and high winds... the kind of Halloween where  you have to wear a coat and gloves and hat under or over the costume ... it curtailed the number of trick or treaters we got significantly... I think we only got maybe 40 or 50... on a good night we would have gotten 3 to 4 times that many... I didn't buy as much candy as I figured based on the forecast we'd have a low turn out...but I still bought too much... I did take one bag back to Target ... and gave some to friend of my son... and there is still a bowl of it in the kitchen taunting me...

As for what I did this week, well like my sainted Dad use to tell me... I bounced around like a BB in a boxcar... I did a little sewing and got the borders on my Christmas Quilty Stars  and the back pieced, but it took till Tuesday to get it to the post office... and I got the Enchanted Stars top completely sewn together... now  I need a back for it...

As for cross stitch I did FFO... which stands for Fully Finished Object...a couple of pieces in my quest to "turkey-fy" the house for November...

First off is November from the Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations...

a simple  plaid bow and some bitter sweet flower accents... what makes me smile in this display is the little blown glass pumpkin... it was an unexpected present from my youngest son ... it is right in my line of sight from my stitching chair so I can enjoy it every day!

Then I FFO'd the Prairie Schooler November...

painted a clipboard picture frame I got at Kohls and added a bow with that pretty Fall ribbon and used a metal scrapbook embellishment to finish it off...another example of why I need ALL the crafty stuff!!

After that I mounted my Lizzie Kate Autumn piece on an art caddy I picked up at the Target Dollar Spot/Bullseye's Playground last Spring...

I got 2 of these caddies back then... one was painted turquoise and I mounted the Lizzie Kate Spring on it... you can see it here... this one was unfinished wood so I painted/stained it with Apple Green Rit Dye and added some silk flowers ...

And the final piece I got done is the Lizzie Kate Thankful String...

a different kind of finish... not sure I'm totally liking it... I painted/stained this wood board with the same Apple Green Rit dye, but it came out very mottled ... in places it looks like I dropped salt on it...but I didn't... but I like the look ... however, the board just fits the stitched piece with only a smidgen of room on each end... so I futzed with it and came up with this ...  I added the wood buttons that I also dyed with Tangerine ... Rit dye is so versatile...I'll leave it like this for the month... I mounted it with foam tape so I can easily take it apart  later if I want to... oh... all the linen used in these projects was either painted or dyed with the liquid Rit dye... I used 32 ct... my favorite size for everything except the LK Thankful String... it is 28 ct.

So with that all done I re-arranged my display shelves for November...

overall I'm very happy with this... I re-used some of the Fall stuff and added the new stitched pieces along with a vintage Debbie Mumm turkey tin, a Blackbird Design piece and an old Ewe & Eye & Friends sampler and the cornicopia from Target's Dollar spot... gosh I love that place... I get into so much trouble every time they add new merchandise... I'm lucky to have a Target less than 7 minutes from my house... I've been there twice this week and got some cute new things for Christmas and Winter...  I'm still working on my 3 tier tray so stay tuned for it next week...

And after this I bounced outside ... we had freezing temperatures and my beds were looking pretty bad... the coleus was mushy and the zinnias were crispy... so I went out and worked on cleaning them out... here's the results...

12 totally overstuffed lawn waste bags... now to drag them out for the trash guys on Tuesday... I still have to deal with the dahlia bed but it shouldn't be too hard... and I need to move on to planting the bags and bags and bags and bags of bulbs waiting in the garage... maybe I can get some in this afternoon.

Not sure what I'll work on this coming week... maybe one more turkey piece ... and then onto Christmas and Winter stuff... and I'd like to get that Christmas quilt I started last week sewn together... and I'm sure that something else shiny will cross my path and I'll want to work on it too... I am NEVER at a loss for something to do... just want more time in every day...

And if you've read this blog for any time at all you know that today is the day for my semi-annual rant against Daylight Saving Time... leave the damn time alone... I heard a report that 85% of people polled agrees with me... smart people... the sun will set by 5:30 this evening...too early for me... I also read where it takes night owls longer to adjust... and I am quite the night owl... and the older I get the longer it takes for me to adjust... in this 24//7 culture we live in we don't need to "save" the daylight... we are ruled by our electrical devices, not the sun...  just leave the time alone....  crawling down off my soapbox...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today ... and later this evening...when it is pitch dark at 6pm... I'll take some time and check out what everyone else is up to this week... hope your week ahead is productive adn that you see the sun for more hours than I will... LOL

happy stitching-
carol fun