All in for Halloween on Slow Stitching Sunday...

If today's weather is a harbinger of what is to come for Fall, bring it on!!! From the woman who always complains about the weather, I have nothing to harp about on this glorious Sunday. I have all the windows in the house open ... the sun is shining...and there is a gentle breeze... I'm gonna park my butt in my easy chair and stitch stitch stitch...

But before I do that I will overload you with pics of my Halloween decor. Don't know what got into me this year but I have gone all in for Halloween.  So here's a tour of my house, starting with the main event...

I made the quilt back in 2013... you can see more of it here... there are 88 different Halloween prints in this quilt...no duplicates. I picked up the Spooky banner at the Dollar Spot at Target... it was three dollars but I'm not quibbling. The colors are perfect for this display and they are glittery... I love glitter... you can click on any of these pics and make them bigger to see the details.

Down in front we have the Halloween 3 tier tray... oh I had so much fun putting this together...

I've got close up of lots of the goodies in this tray starting at the top...

I've have two new pieces of cross stitch here... Halloween piece is Lizzie Kate's Pumpkin Pocket... this came as a kit but all I used out of it was the chart and one black button. I stitched it on 32 count linen I painted and used DMC flosses.

I took my embellishment cues from Priscilla and added that polka dot ribbon bow, a sparkly bat and that little broom stick.

The little green girl is from Prairie Schooler's Trick or Treat... she wasn't green on the chart but this is my homage to Wicked which I saw again last week... great show!!

I finished these little pillow using some vintage Debbie Mumm fabrics. I put polyester fiberfill in the top and added crushed walnut shells so they'd sit up nicely. I added about an inch of fabric at the bottom as I thought the base might get lost in the tray and I'm glad I did it that way.


Onto the middle and bottom trays..

More cross stitch and a bat and a skeleton and those cone shaped pieces are witches' hat made from pipe cleaners with a back brim... hard to see. Anyway close ups of the cross stitch...

This little guy is also from the PS Trick or Treat chart... and the filler in this tray is that sparkly black and orange garland... my carpet is covered with little bits of orange and black ... gotta vacuum.

And this is from the bottom of the PS chart...

And last but not least on the bottom tray is the Pumpkinhead Girl...

All of the cross stitch pieces were stitched on linen I hand-painted... I really love the look and I'll be doing more linen painting soon.

As we pan around the room we see that the Lizzie Kate Boo Club has returned from the framer... and I LOVE that purple frame....

It was a very good thing that I mis-counted and ran out of linen... this piece wouldn't have fit where I wanted to hang it if it was any longer or wider. I did have them leave a generous border on this piece as I wanted to show as much of the linen as I could. Also I asked them to frame this over a piece of fleece/batting which I took them and they did a great job. I really like how a cross stitched piece looks when it is slightly padded. Now you can do glass with this technique but I don't do glass on my pieces so it works fine for me. I'm going to take them my Lizzie Kate Christmas piece next week and have them do that one padded too.

Here's a view from my of the front door...

See how the Boo Club just fits... and the Gourdy Guys are hanging in there... the quilt is my Halloween Swoon from 2011... you can see more of it here. I was gung ho for Swoon blocks when the first hit the scene and I have 7 more big ones done for another quilt but this is the only Swoon I've completed... need to go look at that UFO again.

The bookcase has a large helping of pumpkins and quilts and some Fall cross stitch...

And the table is set...

Now I can sit and stitch... I picked up the Prairie Schooler Trick or Treat that got me started on all this Halloween stitching...

I usually wait to put in the back stitching but there was so much of it I decided to go ahead and get some of it done. It does add a lot to the piece.  I didn't fill in the windows, I think the linen looks good showing there.  I'm about half way done... I'd love to have this piece finished and displayed by Halloween and there is a chance I can do it. If I get it stitched I'll just "frame" in myself  in a Priscilla like fashion... she shows some wonderful pieces and I could do that.

So have I over stimulated you with Halloweenie stuff??   I am really enjoying it this year... LOL...can't wait for the hordes of Trick or Treaters that will come to my door.

Today I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and on Monday I'll link with Super Mom - No Cape...hope you are having a slow Sunday. I'm going to sit and stitch  and enjoy the lovely weather. No dinner to make again this week... will probably go out for  a quick bite later...

don't want to waste away like this guy...LOL!!!


happy stitching-
carol fun

Some Fall Finishes on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Fall officially arrived on Thursday...Mother Nature  didn't get the message and cranked the temps up to 90... thank goodness for AC. Nevertheless, I have persevered and pull out all my pumpkins... there is orange-y goodness every where you look ... and I have my favorite Spiced Pumpkin Yankee Candle burning...let the leaves commence falling!!


So a lot of what I displayed was pretty close to last year..and the year before...and the year before... so I'm only showing what is new this year. If you want to see what I did the other years just type Fall decor in the Search box in the upper left hand corner of the blog... you'll see it all whether you want to or not...LOL

Let us begin...

Love the quilt... love the tray...love the cat!!!

The quilt I made in 2014. I started with a panel with the birds and then improv'd pieced the filler blocks. All of the fabrics are from Sandy Gervais' Fall collections... love her Fall stuff!!!

A closer pic of the 3 tier tray...

This year the tray has new cross stitch accents... I shamelessly stole the idea from Priscilla's blog...which you can check out here.

First, this cute Lizzie Kate Autumn piece from the chart Seasons...

I'm gaga over the different framing/display ideas that Priscilla shows... I've been buying those clipboard stands whenever I see them and I really like this one as it came with the burlap.  I mounted the stitching to sticky board and made a "frame" for it by mounting fabric (Sandy Gervais stuff) to sticky board.  I topped it off with some wired burlap ribbon and some cotton bolls.   I have noticed that Priscilla uses lots of cotton and it does "fluff" the piece nicely.

Also in the tray is a little Lizzie Kate Snippets piece Autumn ABC's. I stitched this years ago and never did anything with it because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Glad I waited, as I like this finishing a lot.

And this is my newest finish, Prairie Schooler's Autumn from the chart Prairie Seasons. I got this chart as a reprint.

I have no recollection of where I got that shallow fluted metal tray  but I found in it my stash of decorating bits and pieces and it worked out perfectly. Again I took my cues from Priscilla and mounted the stitching and the back frame on sticky board... added some burlap ribbon and some woven Fall-ish ribbon (notice the polka dots) and added a bit of cotton. I plan on stitching all 4 of the season from the PS chart and this is going to be a perfect  way to display them.

Here's where it resides right now... this is the lower part of my TV cabinet... and yes that mercury glass pumpkin on the bottom is enormous...LOL

And this is my newest pumpkin purchase... a square polka dot pumpkin!!! I picked it up at Hobby Lobby...

Fall is my favorite season and I LOVE decorating for Fall. I collect pumpkins...along with snowmen and birds and chickens... and I'm trying to be selective in an additions to my collections... because... I'm running out of space!!  But for a particularly cute item I  find a spot.  My son did a count of how many pumpkins I have in the house the other day...he came up with  50... I thought I had more...hmmmm... perhaps a bit more shopping won't hurt...LOL


I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow. I have a quiet day this Sunday...we're doing carry out for dinner so no cooking for me. Perhaps I can get a bit more done on my Halloween stitching. I want to put out my Halloween decorations starting October 1  which I just realized is next Sunday....gotta stitch faster!!!

happy stitching-
carol fun

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

First, my heart just aches for all of those who are in the path of Hurricane Irma. People haven't even begun to come back from Hurricane Harvey and we are onto another epic disaster, and I've heard a third hurricane, Jose, it waiting in the wings. I've made some donations to charity and said prayers, lots and lots and lots of prayers. I have a very dear friend who lives in a mobile home in Bradenton, FL. She sold her home here in the Midwest and just moved down there about 2 months ago to be a permanent resident of Florida. She's done a bunch of home improvement projects that are still shiny and new, and as of last night she was staying in a local shelter with her cat. She is constantly in my thoughts and prayers. I believe she'll be safe and I hope her home doesn't take too much damage.

And while I've been glued to the weather channel I've been stitching away... not finishing anything of consequence but bouncing around like the proverbial "BB in a box car" that my dear Father described me as.

Last Monday I went outside on my patio and painted some more linen... first was this piece...

This started as a piece of 36 count white Wichelt Endinburgh  linen... I'm going to do all nine of the Blackbird Designs, Loose Feathers series, For the Birds. I'm going to do them as a 3 by 3 grid with a small border in between each one. I figure I can replicate border designs from other BBD pieces.

I painted this using Rit dyes in Apple Green, Royal Blue and Tan... I diluted them a lot. When I painted this piece I thought I was going to stitch on the side I painted, but after it dried I found that the dye had gone all the way through the linen (unlike the linen I painted previously) and I liked the "back" even better than the front.

Here is a bigger pic of the whole piece of linen...

I know it looks a bit blotchy now but I think that once I get the designs stitched on it, it will be more subtle and just provide an interesting background. As far as I can tell each chart uses the same palette of Weeks threads...blues in Deep Sea, Jay Bird and Blue Jeans... greens in Caper and Loden... tans in Cocoa, Flat Fish and Pamlico.  This piece of linen is about 21" square.  I couldn't wait to put a couple of stitches in... that was about one night's work.


And while I had made mess on the patio I painted some more Halloween-y type linen. This linen started as 32 ct. white Charles Craft linen. It is much stiffer than the Wichelt brand. I assume it has a coating of some kind of sizing. It takes the dye fine on the one side but doesn't penetrate to the back side completely.

I painted this piece with the chart in front of me trying to get  the proper proportions to match up with the design. I didn't measure anything...which I could have if I had thought of it beforehand... I just winged it... but I think it is going to work out pretty well. I'm hoping that the haunted house ends up where the green begins.

Again I had to put some stitches in to see what it would look like...that is about 2 nights of work...and I'm quite happy with the results. However I don't think I'll be able to get this finished before this Halloween,  as I then bounced over to work on this...

Prairie Schooler Autumn from Prairie Seasons No. 80.. this is almost done. I'm making the barn redder than the chart called for and I substituted the orange cause I didn't have the one called for. Don't know why this pic is blurry ... it looked fine on my phone. Oh well, I may be able to knock this one out tonight.  I have plans to display it with some of my many many many pumpkins.

And bouncing back to the Halloween stitching... since I don't think I can finish the entire PS Trick or Treat piece I thought perhaps I could do some of the motifs as little pin pillows...and this is the first one I stitched.

He is less than 2" square and come on...he is too stinking CUTE!!!  I'm going to do the pumpkin head kid and the witch... scroll back up and look at the chart...they are at the bottom. And if I have time I'd like to stitch the Trick or Treat words from the bottom of the chart and stuff it as a long pillow. I have lots of plans...lots of plans...just need the time.

Well I have dinner prepped and ready to put into the oven... a chicken alfredo casserole made with low carb pasta.. roasted asparagus, a salad,  dinner rolls, watermelon and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.  They should go home full...

The weather here has been gorgeous the last week, we are suppose to get the remnants of Irma Tuesday through Friday... rainy days should give me more stitching time as I won't have to water my garden. Oh, I'll post some garden pictures later this week. I re-did my window boxes with mums and ornamental cabbages and kale... I really like the look...and I have several gorgeous dahlias as big as a salad plate. I'm on the hunt for more dahlia tubers for next year.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. Keep all of those in the path of hurricanes in your prayers.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Getting things ready on Slow Sunday Stitching...

This week has been a productive one where cross stitch is concerned... and I can't believe I have stuff almost ready for Halloween... yeah me!!

First, I finished my Lizzie Kate Boo Club before my self-imposed deadline of September 1 and here is is in all its glory...

It is a very good thing that I couldn't get all 12 little vignettes on this piece of linen ... I now have enough fabric left to leave a border of the linen showing when I frame it...and I held it up to the spot where I want to hang it and if it was much bigger it wouldn't fit there...yikes!!

Top half close-up ...

Bottom half close-up ...

I did change the thread color on Ghost to the Weeks Tomato so I could repeat that orange... it looked more balanced to my eye.  I do love the Frankenstein... he's too cute!! Now to get this to the framer this week so I can hang it October 1.

I really love the way the linen looks on this piece and I showed it on a FB Lizzie Kate group. Several people asked how I painted it and here's the explanation I posted.

OK - here's how I painted the linen. I laid the linen on a piece of cardboard... the linen was dry... I used liquid Rit dye in the bottles and diluted it slightly as it is pretty intense direct from the bottle. I used a paint brush and applied the dye directly to the linen taking care not to overlap areas too much so I would get any brown splotches where colors might merge. I used Hyacinth, Apple Green, Tangerine and Lemon Yellow. After I painted the whole thing I drizzled a little of the Hyacinth here and there for little and sometimes big drops. Since I started with dry fabric the dye didn't seem to spread as quickly as I suspect it would have it the linen was wet. Painting was really easy...nothing that requires talent... just slop it on. The hard part was waiting for it to dry. After it was dry I ironed it with a hot steam iron to "set" it to some extent. Now the back of this piece is not as intense with color... it is not a reversible piece of linen... it has a definite front and back. I did paint a smaller piece of linen as a trial run... after it dried and iron it I wet it to see if the dye would run... I got just a little bit of residual dye. I hope this explains it. It isn't a complicated procedure. I will be doing it again...soon... I have a Prairie Schooler Halloween piece calling my name.

In fact I hope to paint some more linen tomorrow... the  rain has stopped and it is a glorious day here...sunny and 70's and that's the forecast for tomorrow. I want to paint the linen outside on my patio potting table as I don't want to take the chance of spilling dye and messing up my Corian kitchen counters.   I ordered the chart Prairie Schooler Trick or Treat which you can see here...and I'd love to start it.  Realistically I probably can't get it done by this Halloween but it will be fun to  work on during this Fall season.


In the meantime I finished stitching this little Halloween piece...

This is stitched on the scrap piece of linen I played with before I painted the big piece... it only measures 3.5 wide by 2.25" tall... I'll probably turn it into a little pillow to tuck into my Halloween decor.

I was ambitious this morning and put away all of my Summer decor and got out my Fall stuff... at the moment I have the quilts put in their places and lots of the pumpkins placed where I want them. I want to work on my 3 tier tray ... I have some cross stitch I'm going to mount  and then see what arrangement I can come up with.  To set the mood I lit a Spiced Pumpkin Yankee Candle...now if I could just have a piece of Frisch's pumpkin pie... makes my mouth water...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. Hope you are enjoying this 3 day weekend. It doesn't seem like Sunday to me since I'm not doing dinner for the family today...we are doing it tomorrow...and then I'll be mixed up on my days the rest of the week...oh well..it is worth it for the holiday.

happy stitching-
carol fun

OMG I did it again... on Slow Stitching Sunday

Oh my goodness... I did it AGAIN... and why do I have that Brittney Spears song stuck in my head... I have AGAIN miscalculated on a Lizzie Kate long project. Remember when I miscounted the  linen for the Jingles series... you can see my truncated version here... well I was super-duper, extra special careful when I cut the linen for the Lizzie Kate Boo series... I was NOT going to run out of linen again... BUT I ALMOST DID....ugh....


So here is how far I am today...

Moving right along... loving all those different fonts and images... when I arrived at the spooky house yesterday... and I thought to myself (note: thinking almost ALWAYS gets me into trouble...LOL)... it seems like I don't have enough linen left to do 4 more words and images... I should double check... and I did ...and I DON'T!!!!  Now I have more linen than I showed in the picture above but not enough to do all the sections. This time I did cut enough linen but I misread the instructions about how to space the sections and I've been putting too many stitches between each section and that has eaten up stitches almost totally a full section... arggghhhh.... what to do... what to do????

Well here's my solution... I am going to leave out one section... the one that says Brew... I'm going to move up the Ghost section because there is a pattern where every other section has the image on the opposite side and I want to keep that going. I'll be able to do the little house which says Fright, follow by Ghost, followed by Monster...he's adorable and then finish with Halloween.

By the time I figured out my error I had the little house done...

it was reduced to a pile of fuzz...

and then relocated up several stitches and re-built. I sometimes wonder why I like counted cross stitch so much when I have so much trouble COUNTING...but I do... I really really do!!!

Here's a close-up of the sections I have finished since I last posted...

The buttons really add a lot.. I love the frog and the pumpkin will get button eyes like the owl.

And I want to get this finished by the end of the month because I saw this the other day and I HAVE to stitch it!!!

Another Little House Needlework Sampler...Autumn ABC's... I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!!! Fall is my favorite season and this one is so cute... the pumpkins ..the scarecrow ...the quilt on the line. I'm assuming that she is going to do more like this to join this one that I already stitched...

I really love the style of these and framed they will fit right by my front door...which I can see from my stitching chair ...and enjoy all year round. I'd love a Winter version and a Spring version. I'll have my Lizzie Kate ones for Christmas and Halloween... and it is lovely to have a spot
where I can rotate seasonal pieces.

So I will stitch some more this evening... dinner is prepped and ready to be popped into the oven... meatballs and spaghetti is the menu for tonight. The weather is hot today but they are promising cooler temperatures next week... I am soooooo ready for Fall. My window boxes are getting raggedy and I want to pull out the petunias and replant them with mums and add some pumpkins. My bed of marigolds is sporting the perfect Fall shades of orange and yellow and I think they'll hang in there for a while still. I even have a few dahlias... my first time to try  growing them...

That's my hand for size... its about 6 1/2" from palm to fingertip.and there are going to be 3 blooms on this single stalk ... and the color in real life is a deep burgundy red... I'll be looking for more dahlia tubers to plant next year. What wonderful Fall-ish addition to my garden.

Well I will link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. Hope you have a good week ahead of you... I've got a couple of things to do during the week and then something Friday, Saturday and Sunday... time flies by, doesn't it?

happy stitching-

carol fun 

My quilting squirrels invited their cross stitch squirrel friends for a visit and the raving has continued on this Slow Stitching Sunday...

Where did the week go???  I think of myself as a retired fuddy duddy who should be sitting at home knitting and stitching and sewing but somehow I end up running here and there and don't get nearly as much crafty time as I would like...but then I would like a 36 hour crafty day so it probably isn't ever gonna happen...sigh...

Anyway this week saw several new cross stitch squirrels enter my home via the mail box and I have to say I'm really liking all of them! First was this little project and I do mean little...as in itty bitty...teeny tiny...what was I thinking???

This is Little House Needleworks "Birdhouse Alphabet" done over ONE thread of 28 count Crystal Chime Lugana... the fabric has a sparkly thread in it ...very pretty. This piece right now measures 2" wide and 3" tall... when complete it will be almost 4" tall... I wanted it to be  small and it is going to be small.  I'm using one strand of  Belle Soie silk in the Beanstalk color.  I'm using my small q-snap frame which I found helps a lot for stitching over one thread. Also excellent lighting and Mr. Magoo magnifying eyeglasses in a +4.50 power are essential for me...then I can see the threads and holes... here is a really up close picture of this latest adventure.

Now this is a warm up for the Brenda Gervais Summer Schoolhouse Lessons in Abecdarian ... you can see the story behind this project here. I do love Brenda's style and the little sneak peeks of this project just sucked me in so I ordered the chart and the fibers and the linen and they arrived yesterday.

The flosses are very pretty and the 28 count Lugana linen looks like it will be easy to stitch on over one as the weave is nice and even and the holes are easy to see. I'm not normally a hoop/q-snap user but I think it is a must for these over 1 projects...and knowing that I can stitch nicely over one and it doesn't take as long as I thought it would I might attempt another project that has been simmering for years... doing the entire Prairie Schooler ABC's on one piece of linen...like this one...

I have all of these charts and I started it once on a humongous piece of linen but didn't get past the first chart... I think that done over 1 thread it would be a more manageable project... or I could just be deluding myself... LOL...it definitely needs to simmer longer.

But before I could jump into the Summer Schoolhouse another squirrel squeezed it's way through the mail slot and well I just had to stitch a couple  of letters...

this is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas Designs...

Now I'm doing it over 2 threads on 32 count and my linen is  Water Lily by Wichelt... as lovely pale green which looks great with all those peacock flosses.  I started with the ABC's and after stitching 4 letters I know I will run out of the floss for the letters. I stitched LMNO and used one one yard strand of the called for GA Portabella floss... so that means most probably I can only stitch 20 letter with one skein and last I checked there are 26 letters in the alphabet. Now this is my mistake as she stitched the sample over 36 ct using only one ply so she used less floss... I went rooting around in my stash and came up with another unopened skein of Portabella...but there is a problem...

these two skeins of floss have little in common except for the attached tags... I started with the one on the right...there is a faintest bits of the color in the right skein at the tips of some of the strands in the left skein. Now I know the left skein is older but really... that much difference??  I would call the one on the right a brown but the one on the left is a taupe... arghhh... I'll order another skein of floss from the same place and hope it matches better than what I have. In the meantime I think I'll move onto some of the other motifs... or perhaps finish the Birdhouse Alphabet or those last two border rows on my Lizzie Kate Jingles which has languished all week. 

I'm hoping the upcoming week has less running around in it... plan to stay home on the 4th which is fine with me. I've got my Sunday dinner prepped... made some cold salads yesterday... tri-color rotini pasta salad and tabbouleh and marinated tomatoes... picked up some rotisserie chicken from Costco...best $5 chicken you can buy...and I made some prosciutto wrapped asparagus bundles that I'll pop into the oven just before my son and his wife arrive... should be tasty.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday....hope you have a wonderful 4th of July !!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Long and skinny on a Slow Stitching Sunday... (LOL the stitching ...not me)

First off as I sporadically sometimes occasionally ... okay almost ALWAYS complain about the weather I would like to say that today the weather in my little corner of the world is PERFECT!!!!   It is high noon, the sun is shining, there is a lovely breeze and it is only 76 degrees... I have all the windows open in the house and I am loving it!

I started my morning by sitting in my happy chair in my pjs finishing off the last chart of the Lizzie Kate Jingles....ta dah!!!

I will add the two border rows to the bottom of this tonight while I watch my PBS British shows and then all I need to do is add the buttons and embellishments.  Here's a more close up view of the piece...

Jingles top...

Jingles bottom...

Even though I can't do all 12 charts I'm still very happy  with this piece. It will fit nicely  in the narrow space next to my front door when Christmas arrives.

And speaking of the narrow space next to my front door this is what is adorning that spot right now...

My Little House Needlework ABC's  Sampler in all its glory...

Now this is the 2nd time I've had this pieced framed... I had a disastrous  experience at a local big box craft retailer who's name I won't mention but it starts with the letter that comes between Linen and Needles. I ended up taking it out of that  frame and trying a new to me place that is much closer to my house. I think they did a great job and I was pleasantly surprised that price wise they really aren't any more expensive than the big box store.  The first yuccky framing ran about $50 ... the second lovely framing was $60... I'm willing to pay that difference for a quality job. And I noticed that a the big box store the price started out waaaay higher and then is reduced by the coupon... at the new frame place they just gave me the price...and no pressure to add mats or glass like at the big box place.

I'm very happy with all my color changes... those pops of yellow make me soooooo happy... oh the floss I used was Crescent Colors Queen Bee... my favorite yellow!

Here's a couple of close ups...

The frame I picked is a slightly weathered creamy white wood...very simple...not too wide... I really like it ...and when I went to pick this one up I saw that they had several good candidates for my Jingles piece... great motivation to get it finished and framed before the holidays... yeah for me!

Well, I see a lot  more cross stitching in my future as this last week saw me clicking away on the internet purchasing charts and floss and linen... I just got on a roll and was carried away like a leaf on the breeze (OMG... it would have to be a gale force hurricane wind to carry me off...LOL) but anyway I did choose some pretty things.  I even signed up for Brenda Gervais With Thy Needle and Thread Summer Schoolhouse - Lessons in Abcedarian which you can see here.

I love the design that I've seen so far and she says that learning how to stitch over one on 28 count won't be  a problem...we shall see... I think I'm going to have to get a hoop... I have a q-snap frame somewhere, but  I saw she works in a small 5" hoop ... I figure I'll give it a try.

Well I hope the weather where you are is as nice  as it is here... I've got a lasagna prepped for dinner tonight prepared by the requests of my sons... life is good!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow...

happy stitching-
carol fun