Turkeys Turkeys everywhere!

As I may have mentioned before, I like to stitch "in season". And this is the season of the bird. We actually already cooked a small turkey last week for dinner, and the left-overs only lasted maybe a week. For Thanksgiving we are going the non-traditional route of a Honey Baked Ham, YUM! The above was just finished, it is off of a larger chart "Harvest Blessings" by Diane Arthurs,(its about 3x3 I think).

And this was my start on Lizzie Kate's November flip-it, which sadly will have to wait until next November to be finished. And I found the cutest little wooden frame for it too. I was a little disappointed this one won't get to be displayed on Turkey day. Of course I again changed every single color I could on it. And as you can see I changed my mind on which color brown to use as the background for the letters, so now I have to rip all the dark brown on the right side out (it came out too dark for me).

And let me just post a warning about these next pictures...they may only be interesting to me but I was trying to motivate myself to finish this one this year. Obviously all that good motivation only lasted 5 days...sigh my touch of ADD struck me down again. I started on Bent Creek's Uber-Turkey and this is where I am at so far. I was trying to take pics every day to keep me motivated to work on it. I remember what a pain the Uber-egg became even though I loved the design and bright pastel colors. So I was trying to get this one done pre-Thanksgiving. I have changed all the colors on it, not sure I am liking my tail feather choices so far. Yet another turkey packed away for next year.







I have already started some of my X-mas ornament stitching, I think I may have even gotten my Thanksgiving stitches done if I hadn't started in trying to get some ornaments done before we put the tree up. I hope everyone has a wonderful Turkey day with the people you love (and stays safe/sane on black Friday).

State Fair

In October in Arizona the State fair comes to town, and this year we were in it! I entered "Walk in the Woods" by Cricket Collection and won 2nd place.



I also entered my "Harvest of Love" by Lizzie Kate and won 3rd in the pillow category.



My daughter on the other hand took FIRST PLACE woo-hoo! for her hand-sewn Hello Kitty purse she made. Yeah MAYA! My little crafter, I'm so proud.



I am already plotting my state fair entry for next year. And while I was so excited to win a ribbon, the piece that won first place in the stitching category I think should not have won. Is that wrong of me to say? Am I being a sore loser? It was a kit from Michael's/Joann's that was done on 14ct Aida with DMC, while it was large and colorful, it just was not as fancy/skillful as other pieces that were there. I'm not saying my piece should have taken first, it was done on plain even-weave with DMC off of a chart from 1989 I think. But there were a few pieces I saw that were just beautiful, and I wish I had taken some pics of them too. Stitched over one, with variegated threads and also alot of really difficult stitches I'm not brave enough to even attempt yet. So it did make me wonder who exactly they had judging and how I could get on the committee! When we went to pick up our pieces I asked the lady how they chose the judges. She said that most of them were from a local quilting guild (which is close but not the same as needlework). Im still excited to enter again next year though, and I know Maya is too. It's fun to see in person all the amazing stuff other crafters are making. P.S.--the winning piece is the one to the left of my head in the photo.

Anyways we spent all afternoon/evening at the fair, and finally had to drag the girls home at 09:30 at night, way past bedtime! We decided it was time to go home once the Snoop Dogg concert let out. The girls would have stayed till midnight though.

Halloween Hangover!

These are my two girls Halloween costumes. Zoe was Dorothy this year, and Maya was a princess. I loved both their dresses, oh to be five again. I myself went as a pirate this year, and I almost went as a very naughty pirate. I found a parrot at Goodwill for 99 cents. It was one of those talking ones, but of course had no batteries with it. I bought it anyways thinking it was still pretty cute even if it didn't talk. I got it home and stuck batteries in it and WOW did that parrot talk. It said some things that would make a sailor blush. He actually said about five different witticisms, each one more vulgar than the last. It seems that Polly wanted more than a cracker. Needless to say Polly promptly had his batteries removed, and did not get to attend our preschool trunk or treat!

Now that Halloween is done, I have spent this week putting all the decorations away, and eating my children's Halloween candy. You might think my hangover was caused by all the empty candy wrappers laying around my feet. And while I do feel my teeth starting to tingle with cavities, my hangover is actually caused by x-stitch. I started lots of Halloween stitches, so many they now have their very own WIP box...sigh. I also was forced to admit I started more Halloween stitches than I finished. Instead of binging on candy I binged on cross-stitch.

This is one of the few I actually finished this season. A Lizzie Kate from the "Fall Crazy" chart. I actually forgot to sew the star on her witches wand, so I had to improvise and sew on a little charm afterwards. I also found some cute star sequins at Jo-Anns and added those on too.

This is another Lizzie Kate, off of her "Halloween" chart. I changed all the colors and it is stitched on hand-dyed even weave. One of my litle candy corn buttons broke in half as I was sewing it on. It was my own fault, I didn't want to dig for a smaller needle to sew on the buttons with. I love the little spider button, what a cute idea to sew on his legs.



And these are all my starts-and put away till next years.....The box gets bigger every year. Sigh (and a little of giggle of glee ... I really do love Halloween stitching!)

Trunk or Treat

For Halloween our preschool did a Trunk or Treat event. It was the first year I had gone (actually the 3rd year our daughter has attended the school though), and I had lots of fun. They do a raffle supporting the school and above is what I made. It's Lizzie Kate but I changed the colors into primary colors. The frame is from Pier 1, and I found it for 5 bucks at Goodwill! I painted the mat a bright yellow, and the preschool teacher had the children put their fingerprints on the wooden part of the frame and then turned them into flowers & bugs. It turned out so cute! And it raised $85 for the preschool which is awesome.



And this is what I won from the preschool raffle. The bag is handmade with really beautiful batik quilting fabric. And the inside was stuffed with really cozy/fuzzy/fluffy yarns. Is it so wrong of me to be inspired to take up knitting? Anyways I was so excited to win this.

And below is my oldest daughter and me (and our ghostie) in the trunk afterwards. I made the mistake of wearing pointy pirate boots as part of my costume and could barely walk afterwards. I also hand-dyed the skirt from white to red. The most impressive part of this is that I managed to not dye anything else in my house bright red!