So ready for fall...

I started this week working on what I "should", a CJC piece I would really like to have done in time for Halloween. And I am proud to say I finished up page 1 and half of page 2 (it is a 6 page chart) for "Thine is the Trick and the Treat". Good progress until I got distracted by my mailman....

And this is my newest distraction. Prairie Schooler "Thanksgiving Comes Again". I ordered this off of Ebay, thinking it would be nice to work on around Thanksgiving time since I like to stitch in season. Well, when I got the chart the colors were just too pretty to resist. I think i'm about halfway through already? The rest of my time this week is being spent back to school shopping. My youngest starts kindergarten this year. The school she is going to requires uniforms, and they have to have all white sneakers. For my oldest it was no problem finding all white sneakers, but my youngest still wears toddler sizes. Do you know how hard it is to find all white little girl toddler shoes! I went to every shoe store in town before ordering them on line. Now i'm a little nervous for when they get here if they are even going to fit. If all else fails my youngest may be wearing a home-made pair of sneakers for her first day of school.

This is how I stitch

Yes, this is honestly how I get most of my stitching done at home. Karma, our pet conure likes to sit with us on the couch while we watch tv. Well, I more listen to the tv as most of the time I am stitching if i'm sitting. Karma actually loves to help me stitch, she pulls the needle through the top of the fabric, and occasionally refuses to give it back. If she sees me sitting and stitching, and I haven't taken her out of her cage she will squawk and call to me until I do. She has never bird-pooped on one of my stitching pieces yet (we have semi-trained her to do it before we take her out of her cage) but I am a little fearful someday she might. Anyway, it is fun to have a pet that enjoys my little hobby as much as I do.

And this is my little finish for the week. Bent Creek's "Boo", I left out the little star in the upper left corner in favor of the cute spider web charm in the bottom right. It only took me three days to whip up. I know, I know! those three days would have been much better spent working on one of my Crazy January pieces, but I am easily distracted by anything Halloween. And with temps hovering around 110 degrees here I am longing for cooler Autumn weather.

Liberty

It took me quite a few photos to get the color on this one to look like it does in real life. I finally had to give up on ever getting the line perfectly straight in the photo. The linen is a very pretty buttery-beige color. This was the one piece I started as soon as I got the chart on our vacation. Dixie Darlin has a finished model of this one, and it was gorgeous. The chart is "1776" by Little House Needleworks. It took me all of 2 weeks to stitch this one. I was under the self-imposed dead line of having it done for the 4th of July. I got it done on the 2nd, and fingers crossed will have it framed for the 4th of July 2013!
I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July. We watched the fireworks from our back porch. One of our dogs took off as soon as the noise started, but the other one actually laid at our feet and seemed to enjoy the show, he was definitely looking up at the fireworks. It was funny to watch. Luckily enough we had the first monsoon storm here yesterday, and it sprinkled rain most of the day (it only rains here a handful of time every year). Lucky for two reasons, it probably made it safer for the fireworks here in the very dry desert, and because our air conditioning went out Tuesday night! It was fixed by yesterday afternoon, and the rain cooled it down to about 90 yesterday when our normal temps here are around 110. So I was very grateful for our semi-annual dose of rain.
I'll end with another patriotic piece. This is the Bent Creek zipper kit I finished on the plane ride back from summer vacation. I stitched it using Weeks thread instead of the Perl cottons included in the kit. So far I can't force myself to stitch with those, they seem so bulky. So this turned out much smaller than it would have, but still a cute patriotic finish.

Summer Needlework Tour 2012!

There was awesomeness, there was excess, there was groupies (in the form of very patient boyfriend and children), there was even a mild hangover (but oh was it worth it!) We are back from our 10 day summer vacation, and it was wonderful. We went to Tennessee and Kentucky, and of course while there I had to check out all the local needlework shops. They were great. It is so fun getting to see new shop's displays and local offerings. Oh boy did I partake of all the goodies. First stop was Dixie Darling in Pigeon Forge TN (Dolly Parton's hometown and home of Dollywood). This shop had amazing stitched models up on the wall, as you came in it was a huge wall of beautiful samplers. I was amazed to find such a great shop in the middle of such a bustling tourist town. This next place was outside of Pigeon Forge down a country road, in a doublewide trailer. The shop owner was so nice, she helped me pick out the perfect peice of linen for my new project. She also has so many older charts and magazines, and an amazing selection by topic. This place we dropped into on the last day of our trip and I was so sad to find it was a needlework shop and had a very limited selection of actual cross stitch. Very nice stitched models of needlework in this shop though, and the owner was super helpful. And this was the last stop on our tour, and it truly was the grand finale. Do you know those filing cabinets that are 5ft tall and 3ft wide they have in big offices? This shop had dozens of those lining the walls filled with cross stitch patterns! It was like Christmas going through each drawer. The shop owner talked to us the whole time we were in there, and even gave my girls a cute embroidery pattern each to work on. And of course while we were there we had to stop at each little antique store on the side of the road. I found lots of awesome cross stitch too... This one looks pretty old, and the linen is so thin you can see the backside where they tied off the threads or crossed over. This one is huge (2ftx1ft) It wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so my groupie-ahem boyfriend had to help bubblewrap/duct-tape it and carry it into the airport. I am sure the security people were disappointed to cut through all that tape just to find some needlework. There is a cute little animal/design on each of the letters of "Home Sweet Home" which made me fall for it. I love the bunny with his carrot. And this one is about 4 feet long? I love the flowers on it. It is hanging on my wall already. And this one was a tiny little gold necklace. I love how small the stitches are. This last one is a stamped linen sampler. It says made exclusively for Ladies Home Journal, but unfortunately doesn't say what year. I would love to know how old this one is (I'm guessing 1960's era?) I will post again later this weekend. I have more stash pictures to show. I couldn't go to all those needlework shops without picking up a few new charts could I? I also started 1 new project while on vacation, and managed to finish one while on the plane.

Can I get a 2nd opinion?

I started two new projects this week. Both of which I am having mixed feelings about. This is the first one, Blackbird Designs "Midnight Watch". I have loved this design for a while now, and can never resist Halloween stuff anyways. But my LNS did not have the right color thread for the moon. It called for Crescent Colors "Gingersnap" and instead I am using Weeks "Baby's Breath". I think it is a little more pink than it should be, and am starting to wonder if I should rip it all out and start over. Also the linen I am using is obviously blue instead of the khaki color the chart was stitched on. I think the blue is making my moon look even more pink. What do you think? Does anyone else have a go-to pretty color they use for moons? I actually have two other projects right now with moons in them (LK "Halloween Rules" and BC "Halloween House" and I have yet to find a white I really like.

And this is what has kept me so busy the last two weeks. End of school, and graduations, and getting ready for summer vacation. My littlest one graduated from preschool and will be going on to kindergarten next year. Also my oldest is switching schools next year, and it just seems like a lot of changes for our family. Good changes, but I will miss both of their previous schools. During preschool graduation they were talking about how she would be in the class of 2025, and wow that seems so far away and also way too soon.

Mother's Day

I can post my home-made mother's day present (to my own mom) early, since my mom is for the most part computer illiterate. But she does love hummingbirds, and what mom doesn't like home-made presents. This is a table runner I made using the Easy Striped table runner pattern, that was surprisingly true to it's name "easy". I always get nervous making things that involve angles or things lining up perfectly. To put it mildly I am not detail oriented, and if it involves more than 5 directions I rarely get past step 2. This pattern actually did only have 5 steps, and it called for a funky little triangle ruler which wasn't that hard to use either for a first timer. So I am more than pleased this project turned out so well. And no the makers of the quilting ruler/pattern did not endorse me to say any of this, I am not sure any quilt co would want someone endorsing them who can barely sew a pillow.

And this is my renewed progress on Mirabilia's "Petal Fairy". Can you see I stitched the side of her skirt first to make sure it fit? One surprising thing about this pattern for me was that on the photo her skirt looks yellow and pink. In reality (so far of course) most of the threads in her skirt are more tan/maroon. Still lovely though, and I am excited to see what she looks like finished. I hope everyone out there has a very happy Mother's Day!

The Good-The Bad-And the Ugly

Let's start with the good shall we? Lizzie Kate Halloween Rules is still as fun as ever to stitch on. I am thinking I will be ready to order the next three charts by July. My two favorite parts so far are the sunflower with the crow, and the little masked dog at the top. I feel so much more motivated to stitch when I can see finished bits and how cute they are. Next we will go with the bad. I have been doing a bunch of stitching on a new exchange that I really really like, and of course can't show any pictures of. Last exchange I forgot to take a photo before I mailed it out and was soooo mad at myself. And of course I remembered right as I was strolling out the post office doors too. Also this exchange is due to be mailed out right when we are on our summer vacation, so I HAVE to get it done a little bit early.

And I will end with the ugly. Or how about the just plain ridiculous. This is one of my CJC stitches, Mirabilia's "Petal Fairy". Can you see where it went wrong? Apparently I can't be trusted to pick out my own fabric, and I can't be bothered to use one of those nifty stitch calculators that are out there all over the net! I do clearly remember way back in January when I started this measuring it with a ruler and saying "hmmm I think it will fit". Well, yes it would have fit if it was 32 ct linen and if I had noticed that the measurements were just for the stitched area without any extra for things like framing. Luckily in the 5 months since January I have only really put 2 days of work into this before I noticed it wouldn't fit. And also I found the right fabric last night at Hobby Lobby (who knew they carried Wichelt..and why didn't you tell me?) and I like the new color a little better than the bright blue I was inspired to use before. So life and stitching goes on. I already started stitching her again last night, and this time I made SURE I had the right size linen. Lesson learned.