I need another week... at least...on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Where does the time go???? I would really like an additional week of time squeezed in before Christmas which is only 7 days 13 hours and 9 minutes away according to my countdown clock at this moment.  I was productive last week but there is still so much  I want to do. I finally got up a Christmas tree. I opted for a smaller tree this year... 4 1/2 feet and I placed it on a small table I found at IKEA for $15... the table is powder coated yellow and will look great on my front porch next Spring. Anyway with the tree on the table it still  looks like a big tree from outside and the on the inside it was less to decorate and it takes up less floor space... a big consideration when you have a small house.

Now I still have 2 other Christmas projects I want to get  too and the sand is tumbling through the hourglass at an ever quickening rate...yikes!!!

So here's what I can show for my week... cross stitch...lots of cross stitch. I noticed I've been on a cross stitch binge since before Halloween and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.  Charts have been showing up in my mail slot at an alarming rate... Christmas and Snowmen and little prim ladies... I'll explain that last obsession in a bit.... that's a teaser...LOL

First, my Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings XX1...

So in looking at this picture I see I somehow got the bottom crooked and I think I need to edit the frou frou at the top a bit... a project for later today... anyway I'm happy with how it turned out.

I like the fabric I painted as a base for this piece... gives it a bit more movement and the little guys are adorable.... I placed it here on the lower shelf of  my TV cabinet...

I need to find my bag of fake snow and sprinkle a little on that top shelf too... wonder where I left it? Someplace safe I'm sure...

And then I got off on another  tangent... prim little ladies... OMG... I am besotted with them and must stitch more....I blame it on my love of paper dolls as a child... I could never have enough of them...now I think I shall stitch myself a whole sorority of little prim ladies with puffed sleeve dresses... and this is how it started...

Isn't she pretty???  Quite angelic... She's half of the chart Peppermint & Holly by With Thy Needle and Thread...

As you can see I only stitched the right portion of the chart... peppermint angel but no holly ... I did change several things ... first she's stitched on 36 count linen that I painted and then overdyed... I changed her dress color to GA Grecian Gold and her hair is a bit more auburn than the chart called for...the white was in my stash...DMC...no band... I used 2 ply for her and 1 ply  for the snowflakes...now this was a piece of linen that I had planned to use for something else, but as I was painting it, it got yuckky so I shoved it in a jar of leftover dye and this is what I got... oh I LOVE this but don't know if I can recreate it... insert frowny face...

I know it is hard to see in this pic but there are traces of the yellow I started with peeking through and it is very mottled which I think is perfect for prim pieces... and I took my cue for the trim from Brenda Gervais' model... that red and white cording came from Target... $4 for about 30 feet...

I just hand stitched it on ... wish I had cut the piece a smidge longer... would have helped when I tied the bow... live and learn.

And since I had a bit more of that lovely turquoise linen and I wanted another prim lady I stitched this...

This is A Sprig of Holly by Pineberry Lane... I used the called for DMC colors except for the little scallop bands top and bottom ...I think it called for 830 and I only had 831 ...or maybe vice versa... anyway.... I LOVE the little scissors in her hand... I added some pipe cleaner evergreen stuff and some berries and gingham to the top...  I purchased this pattern from Patternmart.com  ...  you buy the pattern and then you can immediately download it and print it out...INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!!  and the price was less than buying a paper copy elsewhere. They have a nice selection of prim patterns and I will be buying more.

I added my prim ladies to this shelf of the bookcase...those reindeer needed some colorful company...

And so I remember next year how I decorated this bookcase a gratuitous shot for me...

That middle shelf could use a cross stitched piece... gotta work on that... right now I'm torn between starting some more Christmas pieces... I have 2 larger pieces I want to do and there isn't enough time to finish before this Christmas but realistically I did plan them for next year... I finally got some more 36 ct linen to re-paint for the Lizzie Kate  ABC Christmas and this time I don't "see" anything in the splotches... and I want to stitch this piece from With Thy Needle and Thread...In Santa Claus Land...

Now I painted a piece of fabric in light blue and green... I love the little houses that run up the side of this piece and I think there needs to be  some contrast so you see that deer in the front.... did you see the deer??? I didn't at first... anyway, my plan is to have some larger Christmas pieces next year and change out the samplers that hang year round in my living room. I know that some stitchers have adopted a Santa Sunday stitching plan and I'm thinking that would be a good idea for 2018.

And there are several Winter pieces calling my name... I got the Little House Needleworks Winter ABC's chart in the mail last week... I painted a piece of linen for it yesterday and got my flosses together... I'm going to add a bit of turquoise to the piece... that is usually a quick stitch and I'd like it when January rolls around.

So I have no lack of things I want to do... I just need more time... need to clean up my craft room...it it looks like Hobby Lobby exploded in there...oh the humanity... ornaments and ribbons and fabric and paper strewn hither, thither and yon....and I want to bake some cookies and make some fudge... I bought a ginormous bag of chocolate chips at Costco ... need to do more with the bag than sneak a handful of chips several times a day.

I know next week will fly by for all of us...hope you have a happy and productive week ahead!! I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... now I'll be off and hopefully get busy on another project.

happy stitching-
carol fun

A yarn post...

I haven't done a yarn post in a long time... I've been knitting, but cross stitch has dominated my free time lately. I binge blocked 3 shawls the other week... I'm not fond of blocking but it has to be done if you want the piece to look the way it should... so here's the fruits of my labor!!


First,  Stormy Sky... a free pattern you can find here.

I used Misti Alpaca and the color way is Reggaeton... looks like a Mexican serape to me... the colors are more vibrant in real life. This is a better pic of the colors...

Had a hard time with all these pictures as it is a sunny day ( and I am NOT complaining about that as it is only 28 degrees and there is snow forecast for tomorrow...ugh).  And all of the shawls are big and it is hard to get all of them into a picture. This shawl has the boomerang shape...it starts with just a couple of stitches and continues to grow and grow and grow and grow and you get the point. I love how the alpaca feels around my neck... in fact I love  it so much that I cast on another Stormy Sky shawl using a different skein of Misti Alpaca..

I love the purples and olive greens in this one... pretty mindless knitting and that boomerang shape is very easy to wear... it stays put around your neck.


And when I like a pattern I often knit is more than once...  and as evidence I have 3 Cladonia in my wardrobe ... so since I loved this Casapinka pattern One & Done,  which you can see here, but it isn't free, I've knit 2 shawls using the pattern...

This one is knit in Malabrigo  and the colorway was Diana. IRL it is a lovely soft rusty peach with olive. I like the crescent shape and the dropped stitches.

And my second iteration of this pattern is this shawl...

IRL this is waaaay more pink... here's a pic when I was knitting it and the color is much truer...

The yarn is from    Kakeidoscope Dyeworks in Canada and the colorway was called Gilligan's Island.

I think once Christmas is over I'll be knitting more ...and I should knit more because a bit of yarn has sneaked into  the house again.

Last year I got an Opal Advent calendar... an adorable little mini-skein of yarn every day in the month of December up till Christmas.  I LOVED the yarn and in the end I think I knitted 4 pairs of socks adding some yarn for heels and toes.   Lovely scrappy Frankensocks...like these...

and these....

Well this year when I went to order myself an advent calendar I remembered fondly how much I enjoyed the one last year and how on several occasions I wished I had 2 of certain mini-skeins... and the only way to get 2 mini-skeins of the same colorway is to order TWO Advent calendars... a decadent purchase indeed...but then I couldn't think of anyone who deserved it more than ME!!!  Yes this is the way delusion works...LOL

Sooooooo.....

I have two Opal Advent Calendars... they are shaped like giant books... and this is the yarn I've gotten so far...

Now the skeins don't appear in the same order in each calendar. I've been watching people show their daily skeins on Instagram and it is totally random what order they appear. In the eight days so far I've only gotten the same skein twice but they didn't appear on the same day.  I am LOVING these skeins...they seem very bright and cheerful this year. There is one so far that is mostly black and white and I'm hoping for some checkerboard patterning from that skein and I got a soft gray one today that I'm not totally sold on yet, but we will see. I'm not planning on starting the socks till after Christmas so I can fully evaluate all my choices. Last year I jumped right in and wished I had waited as better combinations would have occurred had I waited.   Maybe there is something to that adage about patience....nay... jump right in with both feet...LOL!

So I have plenty to keep me busy... so many things I want to do ... I'm still contemplating getting out my Christmas tree... I have the rest of the decorations up but the tree always drives me nuts... even with a pre-lit tree I futz with bubble lights and Hallmark light and motion ornaments and I haven't had the gumption to deal with them yet...maybe this weekend.  It has been a very busy week...something that had to be done or someplace we had to go to every single day... and it seems to continue through next week too...except maybe Wednesday will be open... and if it is I just want to stay home!!!

Hope you have a good weekend ahead of you... I'm doing dinner with my son and DIL tomorrow instead of Sunday as they have other Christmas party obligations on Sunday...and that will mess up my fragile hold on what day of the week it is... good thing by cell phone keeps track of this stuff...

I was going to link up with Judy's Knitting Report but I can't find a link on her post... but do go look and see what she's doing ...lots of pretty projects and yarn. 

happy knitting-

carol fun 

Christmas Cross Stitch Palooza-and Mis-Adventures in Painting on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

So did you have a productive week?  I actually did... unbelievable...LOL... I got all the Fall decorations put away and hauled out most of the Christmas stuff. I still have to do the tree, but this coming week will be soon enough.  I got my outside lights up on Tuesday but a significant amount of 4 letter words were used. Out of 8 strings of light with 150 bulbs each...none of which are more than 4 years old... 4 of them only partially lit up...gggrrrrrrrr!!!!  I problem solved by wadding up the ones that didn't light and shoving them back into the bushes... got a thorn in my thumb in the process that aggravated me for days.  Anyway they are up ... I'm thinking of getting one of  those projection things that puts sparkly lights all over your house...except that I need two of them as my house is on the corner and has 2 front yards... I'll think about it... maybe I can snag two after Christmas...we'll see.

As my title alludes I have gotten a bunch of Christmas cross stitched finished and #priscillafied ... I find so much inspiration on Priscilla's blog and her IG account.    Go take a minute to see all her wonderful Christmas stuff... I'm drooling over her cross stitch and her Fitz & Floyd stuff.

As for the Mis- Adventures in Painting...that's at the end of this post.

So here's my Christmas cross stitch ...

First, my Lizzie Kate Jingles...

I know it looks washed out here but IRL it is nice and bright... these pics are truer in color...

The wood on the back is a piece I picked up at Hobby Lobby... I liked that metal band at the top and the bottom. It was just a natural wood so I slapped some white craft paint on it as I wanted to keep a rustic look. The bow and the peppermints at the top are also from Hobby Lobby... I'm in LOVE with that curly ribbon bow... I got 3 of them in one package for $2... and you will see I used all 3 of them.  The back mat is a Basic Grey fabric,  I think from the Juniper collection. It had all the colors of the piece in it and I love a good plaid!  Now if you remember back when I was stitching this I was almost done when I realized I didn't have enough fabric to do all 12 of  the Jingles, so I left off the last two. I was unhappy then, but happy now as this piece of wood wouldn't have been large enough if I had done all 12... I'm a genius...NOT...LOL   This is hanging right by the front door.

And then there is this finish...my J'Arrive by Tournicoton...

That curly ribbon thing has turned up again this time paired with some "snowballs" which I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby had a great selection of picks this year, but when I was there on Friday they were pretty picked over...oh I am punny... the fabric behind this piece is from Sandy Gervais' Merry collection from about a year ago. It was the right shade of aqua and I like the snowflakes.   This sits on a shelf display in the living room...

Next we have my 3 tier tray... appropriately Santa is photo-bombing this display. LOL!!  I stuck with a Santa theme here and Priscilla-fied another Lizzie Kate chart called Merry.

I mounted it on a fabric covered sticky board ... I think that holly fabric came from Joanns a year or so ago...

I painted the 32 count linen with very diluted  Scarlet and Aquamarine Rit dyes. And getting every last cent out of that $2 I spent on the curly ribbon bows, I've paired it this time with some red holly berries.  I love the little stand this is on. Aren't those crossed candy canes cute?  It was a photo stand I found at Micheals.

And last but not least, a Barbara Ana Santa...

He came from the sampler Christmas Joy which you can see here.   I want to do this sampler and have painted some fabric for it... don't know if I'll get it done for this Christmas but there is always next year. And next year I want to have a couple of larger Christmas pieces to display.  Here's another pic of Santa ... love the shoes!!!

I just finished this as a simple pillow and added the little bow and bell. I have been stuffing the top part of pieces like this with fiberfill and then adding crushed walnut shells to the bottom for weight. They stand up nicely that way. I have plans for a couple of Lizzie Kate elves that I'd like to stitch this year... probably doable...

But wait there is one Christmas piece that is totally calling my name...in fact it is a joyous little  refrain which I hear to the melody of Ode to Joy...stitch me...stitch me... (yes I am crazy but as my older son points out it isn't the kind of crazy they can commit you for...at least not YET...LOL)

Christmas ABC's by Lizzie Kate...

OMG I  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. I saw on on a Flosstube video with Priscilla & Chelsea "The Real Housewives of CrossStitch".... you can check it out here.  Their Flosstube videos are a blast... treat yourself  to watching them when you have some time. Anyway this only comes as a kit as far as I can find out and I got mine here at Stoney Creek... it included the chart and all the flosses. I am going to change out the blue for an aqua but that's the only change I plan.

So,here's where the mis-adventure occurred.  I wanted to paint some linen for this piece in pink/aqua/sage...which I did ... a 36 count ... and I loved the way it turned out until I sat down to stitch... I don't know how it happened and I certainly didn't do it on purpose... Honestly,  I don't think I could have done it on purpose if I tried, but the blotchy pink splotch smack in the middle of the linen looked like something...  you know how you see pictures in clouds...well I saw something... and then I asked my younger son if he saw anything ...and he did ...and what was it you ask? Well, somehow I had "painted" a large phallic member complete with jewels ...I am MORTIFIED!!!!   And once you saw it, it couldn't be unseen.... I tried to convince myself that once I stitched the whole piece you wouldn't see it...and maybe no one else would see it but I WOULD!!!  And my Catholic upbringing would have me turning as many shades of pink and red as were in the offending image.  Okay...it is pretty funny... I don't think I should show a picture of the linen... you'll have to trust me on this one. A friend stopped over today and I asked her if she saw anything in the linen and well...she saw it too.... we laughed and laughed. I know there is some subversive cross stitch out there but it isn't the look I'm going for... so I'll paint another piece of linen this week and I will watch very very very closely to be sure I don't end up with another pornographic piece of linen.. 

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... so many lovely projects to view on that linkup. 

Well it is a lovely Sunday here in southwest Ohio.... the impending doom of cold weather and perhaps some flurries is projected to start on Wednesday... not looking forward to it, but know it is inevitable... it  is Ohio and it is winter. My neighbor across the street who plays golf every chance he gets said he looked at a long range forecast and after Wednesday there wasn't a day above 40 degrees till the end of February...boy he's a buzz kill...LOL

I did get my snowman inflatable straightened out and I just glanced out the kitchen window to see the boys are sunbathing this afternoon... I don't blame them.

Hope you have a great week!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Cautiously creeping up on Christmas with Slow Sunday Stitching...

Where did the last 2 weeks go????  I thought it would be a pretty quiet Thanksgiving and for the most part it was but I never had a spare minute to post. I've been doing a bit of knitting and finally got around to blocking 3 shawls.... Hallelujah!!!!  I procrastinate endlessly when in comes to blocking... and I know I can't wear the shawls till they are blocked but I still drag my feet. I will post pics of them later in the week.  Right now I want to talk about Christmas... its coming... and I would like to request more time right up front... say another week or so?  Not gonna happen, is it?


Well I have gotten one Christmas piece finished... and I started a new piece ...and there are only a bazillion more charts I want to get to... sounds like my normal behavior. First the finish...ta dah!!!

This is the Tournicoton J'Arrive chart. I stitched it on a 32 count linen I painted... in real life it is a very soft mottled blue with hints of aqua. The reins for the reindeer were a pain in the butt and I kept putting off stitching them...and then I got to the stars/snowflakes or whatever they are. The called for stitched had 18 steps and was done with one ply of floss... I did exactly ONE and knew that there was no way that was happening. I took that one star/snowflake out and went with a simpler big cross stitch with another on top of it. Like true snowflakes no two of my stitches are the same...but they are done...and they do add a nice accent to the piece. My plan is to finish it ala Priscilla... got a piece of galvanized metal that I think will work... it is on my list of things to do...next week.

And today I started this piece...

Lizzie Kate's Merry... ain't he a cute Santa?  Reminds me of my son... big head...hope Santa has a big brain too...LOL!!!  Another piece of 32 count linen I painted with a diluted Cherry Red Rit dye and some Turquoise.   I hope to have a little stitching time after dinner, but I also hope to get my Fall decorations put away so I can start getting out the Christmas stuff.

The weather was great yesterday so I put out the inflatables ... a BIG snowman, a little snowman, a little gingerbread man and a  hippo!!!  The hippo is new and has a lot of meaning...one of my favorite Christmas songs is Gayla Peevey's  "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".   You can see an video of the song from 1953 here... and you can see another video about Gayla here.  And here in Cincinnati we've got a rock star hippopotamus at the zoo... Fiona...a little hippo born prematurely that the zoo hand raised. She's adorable and has captured every one's heart. She was even featured in an article in the New York Times which you can read here. 

A fellow crafter I met this year has done some wonderful pottery featuring Fiona...

In Cincinnati we are known for our Flying Pigs and now we have the cutest hippo too!!  You can see Trish's creations here in her Etsy shop, Gardenhouse Pottery.  I'm getting one of these mugs for me!!

Oh...the inflatables...well when I put them up yesterday it was sunny ...so it wasn't till the evening I realized the big snowman didn't light up ... darn darn darn...he's only 2 years old...he still inflates but no lights, no kaleidoscope inside. So I went online and searched for how to fix it. Probably is a burnt out bulb but you have to get inside the inflatable through the zipper opening in the bottom and fish out the bulb and release it from its protective covering.   Hmmm... I think I can do this... so I performed the surgery on the snowman, took the little bulb that looked burnt out so off to the hardware store and got a replacement and put it back together. I have to wait till it gets dark to see if  I fixed it...fingers crossed.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. I have BIG BIG BIG plans to get so much done this week... we shall see how much actually gets accomplished. The weather is suppose to be unseasonably warm...I'll take it... 60 degrees on Tuesday. I plan to put out my Christmas lights that day...and there is a quilt for the living room wall that needs quilting ...and I'm taking a class to make a crossbody purse ...I'm doing it in Christmas fabrics in hopes that I'll get it finished...and I have a couple several oh heck a whole bunch of new Christmas charts headed for my mail box this week. It's the most busiest time of the year!!!

Hope your week is as productive as I want mine to be!!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A little bit of French Christmas...

Boy am I tired... it finally got cold enough to kill the zinnias and lantana in my garden so I went outside today and did some garden clean-up. I filled up two of the big paper garden waste bags ... it never seems like there is that much dead stuff till you start pulling it up. I was going to wait till later in the week... I thought for sure when I was watching the weather gal last night there was a 60 degree day on like Friday or Saturday but I didn't see that on my phone weather app so I attacked stuff today while it was a balmy 50 degrees... yes that is balmy when yesterday was in the 30s.

So now I've got my butt planted firmly in my stitching chair... I should work on my secret Christmas stitching but I may put a few more stitches in this first...

This is the Tournicoton J'Arrive... here's a pic of the full chart...

I have two more reindeer and the snowmen to stitch along with the moon and the scattered stars. It has stitched up pretty quickly once I deciphered the stitch key... the several of the colors used more than one symbol as sometime the stitch is just a regular cross stitch and sometimes it is a decorative stitch. 

Not sure you can see it but if you click on the pic and make it bigger it should show ...there are Smyrna crosses in the sleigh and the hooves are satin stitches and the reindeer's nose is a Rhodes mound.  There also suppose to be beads on the sleigh... but I decided they were too much work and left them off.

The chart calls for more decorative stitches but I've not sure they are worth the time... the effect is very minimal. Also the chart called for stitching over one thread the eye of the reindeer and Santa's face and hands... not gonna happen. I did regular cross stitches and then did the eyes as French knots.. this did eliminate Santa's eyebrows and I don't see that as any great loss,

I'm using the DMC equivalents of the called for  over dyed  flosses. Also I have an issue in that ALL the reindeer are charted with red noses... EXCUSE ME...only Rudolph has a red nose and he will be my lead reindeer...  not messing with tradition here...LOL

I'm stitching this on a 32 ct linen that I painted ... it is a nice clear blue with a bit of aqua in it.  The finished piece should be about 8" square... I'm sure I'll find a place to display it this year. I need to get my Christmas gift stitching done so I can do more Christmas stuff for me. I got a couple of Lizzie Kate patterns and another Barbara Ana I'd love to do before the holidays are over. I've already seen several people post on IG that  they are decorating for Christmas... I'm not ready to go there yet... the weekend after Thanksgiving will be plenty of time for me. When you have a chance check out Priscilla's blog... you can see it here... her house is a Christmas extravaganza... she starts decorating the day after Halloween and when you see everything she displays you can see why... as I remember she puts up a dozen trees and a spectacular Christmas village.

So I'm going to settle in and thread up my needle...not making dinner tonight... my son and daughter-in-law are coming back from a wedding in Chicago and won't get in till late. I'm thinking something nice and easy for dinner ... a sandwich and a cup of soup. 

Hope your week has some stitching time in it... I have plans to stitch and maybe work on some quilt blocks... I haven't turned on my sewing machine in over a week...need to get back to it.

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

happy stitching-
carol fun

Autumn ABC's for me...

I can't believe I'm posting two days in a row... don't get use to this...but I just put the finishing touches on my Autumn ABC's and I wanted to share.

I am so smitten with the Little House Needleworks ABC Sampler series... I did the first one which you can see here and I'm looking forward to the Winter, Spring and Summer versions.  I stitched my Autumn ABC's on 32 count linen that I painted with Rit dyes.

I also did the finishing and "framing" for this piece myself... not perfect... but I'm happy with  being able to display it this season and my finishing was a fraction of the cost of taking it to the framers. Here are some close ups of the stitching and then I'll talk about the "framing"...

Top...

Middle...

Bottom...

Priscilla finished this piece and mounted it on a vintage shutter...you can see her work here... I looked for a shutter at the hardware store but it was going to be too big for the place I wanted to hang this piece so I came up with my own take on this finish.

I purchased a piece of wood at Lowe's... this is pine I think... it is 5,5" wide, 24" long and 1/4" thick. It cost around $5.  I painted it with an olive green craft paint  and then sponged on some ochre ... both paints were from those little bottles you can get at Micheal's about $2 each.  The little knobs at the bottom came from Hobby Lobby... they were in the unfinished wood section... 4 in a little bag... $2. I glued them onto the board after having painted them separately.  I found  16" x 20" sticky mounting board on Amazon...you can see it here.  This was nice as I didn't have to tape sticky board together to get a long enough piece. I used the same speckled fabric for a mat that I used on my Margo piece that I showed on Sunday... it was still laying on my desk and it was long enough and I like it...

Now this is by no means a "professional" finish... it isn't easy getting something that long straight but it is good enough for me. I plan on "finishing" all the seasons with some variation of this ... different colored paint... different wood accents... and they will all fit right next to the front door...

where I will enjoy seeing it from my stitching chair!!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Blasted Time Change for a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Well it is that time of the year again when for no good reason we change the time ... yes I know this is the "good" change where we gain an hour ... and I am grateful for an extra hour... but I still just want them to leave it alone!!!  Okay...rant over... I will say it has been a very productive day...

Woke up and hour early...oh yeah, time change... met son and daughter-in-law for breakfast... came home and decided to take advantage of the warm temps and work in the yard... did a little garden clean up but still have zinnias, lantana, guara, hydrangeas and dahilas that haven't given up the bloom... left those... put away the porch furniture and swept the porch... planted a couple of bulbs... well more than a couple... I did 100 little allium bulbs... this variety is suppose to be more pinky than purple and smaller than the others I've planted... planted 75 daffodil bulbs in pots on my  patio... put another 100 daffodil bulbs into 5 long narrow planter boxes. Now I had planned to add the 100 daffodils... cute little ones called Tete-a- tete.. to my window boxes... but I planted ornamental cabbages and kale in the boxes about 6 weeks ago and they are still going strong... they may last all winter... so I planted the bulbs in the narrow planter boxes and put them out on the edges of the patio. I figure I can transplant them to the window boxes in Spring...fingers crossed.

As for stitching and decorating I've been productive too... I put away the Halloween stuff and moved on to Thanksgiving...

I LOVE my Grungy Gourds quilt!!!   And it fits perfectly above the IKEA bench/cubbies. Terry Finnerty quilted this in a panto that is called Peacock Feather, as I remember, but I see a wood grain texture and in this case a pumpkin-y texture... doesn't it look like the ridges on a pumpkin?

And this may be my favorite pumpkin...

No, I think this is my favorite...

Moda Grunge is just sooooo cool!!!

And I turkey-fied my 3 tier tray...

I don't have any new cross stitch for the tray but I'd like to do some small turkey pieces...

However the shelf unit is sporting some new and some old stitching....

I finished Margo (Autumn Keeper by Barbara Ana Designs)  ala Priscilla  and I very happy with her...

I mounted her on sticky board and then mounted that on another fabric covered sticky board... the shaped back piece that is olive is clipboard frame I got for half price at Hobby Lobby last year (does anyone pay full price at Hobby Lobby?)  ... I took the clip off so I could center the piece  and added a burlap bow with a bit of frou-frou... and did you notice the chicken???  It was suppose to be a crow so it was a short jump to make it a chicken.. and now I've put my mark on this piece!!!

I moved my two Blackbird Design pieces over to my two tier table...

I hadn't displayed any cross stitch here before. but I like how it looks and I'm always on the prowl for new places to display  my stuff... a minimalist I am NOT...LOL

So I'm set till Christmas rolls around... and I still have stuff I want to make for Christmas...I'm really enjoying cross stitching at the moment ... and new charts seem to be sneaking into my house. That Tournicoton one I talked about last week arrived...you can see it here... and I think I'll have to at put a couple of stitches into it tonight... although I should work on my cross stitch Christmas gifts first... but I probably won't because I wanna play!!!

Since this post includes quilting and cross stitch and decorating I'm going to link up to several blogs today and tomorrow...

Kathy Quilts....Super Mom-No Cape...Small Quilts - Doll Quilts...LoveLaughQuilt ...Em's Scrapbag

Well from the sounds of the thunder outside,  I made a wise choice to work in the yard earlier... everything should get watered in nicely.   The week ahead isn't too busy so there should be plenty of stitching time... hope your week is a good one too!

happy stitching-

carol fun