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