Theme-a-licious: July Wrap-Up

Hey Blog Buddies,
July is almost over, and that means the last update on the theme for the month:  Jolly July.  "It's a jolly holiday with your WIPs.  You can concentrate on Christmas designs, ornaments, or even pick a different holiday to render in stitchy goodness."

I decided to stitch a little something as one of the prizes at our Guild's Ukrainian embroidery workshop (see sidebar).  I racked my brain trying to come up with something that needed little or no finishing (why torture myself any further?) and came up with a little hardanger Christmas ornie.  And I had a pattern that I had stitched before.  Genius!

I'm not the best at making bows,

but that just adds to its charm, doesn't it?

I stitched this on some 24-count Congress cloth

that I had on hand--to give it a little more body than linen.

The design came from (are you ready for this?)

the Christmas 1991 edition of "Cross Stitch Sampler" magazine!

Does anyone remember that magazine?

It's a simple design--took me less than a week start to finish.

And the design is timeless, IMO.

Moving on to Altius August:

"Embrace the Olympic motto,

Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger)

by elevating your mind.

It's the perfect time to learn something new.

Or maybe achieve some goals..."

August will hopefully be achieving more

goals of commitment stitching for the Boutique:

more crocheted scarves,

more hardanger ornies,

and (maybe) a "monster" made of fleece!  Maybe.

No promises on that last one, though!

To check out the other Theme-a-licious updates,

and find out how you can join in, click below:

Until next time, happy stitching!

And thanks for visiting!

It's County Fair Season Again!

Hey Blog Buddies,
It's county fair season around here, and that means entering your stitchy stuff in various categories, and then going to the Fair to see everyone else's stitchy stuff.  And, of course, casually looking to see if your stuff has won any ribbons.  It's great fun, and you should try it if you haven't.

I did not enter the Porter County (IN) Fair this year, but many of my stitching sisters at Guild did, and I want to take this moment to congratulate Lelia, Sue, Debbie and Mel for their many ribbons.  You ladies rock!  The light in the Arts and Crafts Building (I think they call it the Expo Center) is very bad, so the photos I took aren't very good, but I do want to show this one:

Congratulations, Debbie!

(sorry about the bad lighting and the glare)

I did enter the Lake County (IN) Fair

and brought my four exhibits to the Fairgrounds today.

If you're interested they are:

Noel, CT13, Soar and Betty.

Thursday evening is Exhibitor's Preview Night

at the Family Arts and Crafts Building,

and I'll find out how everyone did.

I'm competing against many of my stitching sisters from Guild.

I wish us all good luck and cool weather.

The building is not air-conditioned!

Hope you are enjoying this summer (or perhaps winter) weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

July IHSW: A Big Finish!

Hey Blog Buddies,
A couple of weeks ago, I received a $50 coupon in the mail from my local framing shop.  It had an expiration date of July 31st.  If that's not incentive to finish a project and get it framed, I don't know what is!  So I grabbed Rainforest Revisited and got busy.  At that point, I had nine squares to go, and I'm happy to tell you that it's now finished.  Well, happy and a little sad, too, because I'm going to miss it.  Every square was different (some were really different!), so I never got bored.

The finished size of the design

is 8" by 16".

Here are some larger-than-life close-ups

of the more recently worked squares:

Another "psychedelic" design!

This one is actually cuter in real life...

Kathy (Rees, the designer of this piece)

just loves to create multiple changes of direction!

I love the metallic threads

peeking out of the waffle-stitch band!

I changed the colors around on this one.

Winter Wheat was recommended

(not my favorite--too drab)

so I substituted the orange variegated thread

which is Watercolours Marigold.

That's it!  That's all I did stitching-wise this weekend.

DH was wondering (probably not seriously)

if there was going to be a void in my life now.

I have one or twelve other WIPs

clamoring for my attention.

So, no!

You know, I just realized that I have tended

to finish projects more often than not

during recent International Hermit and Stitch Weekends.

No pressure for August, though!

Click here for links to see what my

fellow hermitters were doing this weekend.

Hope you had a fun weekend!

And thanks, as always, for visiting!

Theme-a-Licious - Jolly July

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's time for the Theme-a-Licious July update. 

The theme for this month is:

"It's a jolly holiday with your WIPs.  You can concentrate on
Christmas designs, ornaments, or even pick a different holiday
to render in stitchy goodness.

I had a new (ahem) chart that kept calling my name,

and since it's only 3 months until October,

I decided to go with Hallowe'en as the holiday.

The chart is Heads Up! from Prairie Schooler

and my pick to stitch first was the "head" stone.

The recommended color for this one was DMC 3371,

but I decided to go with all Hallowe'en colors,

so, of course, I used 310.

I plan to stitch quite a few of these,

and they'll all be on 40-count to make the ornies smaller.

I again substituted thread from my stash, WDW Carrot and

WDW Peoria Purple, for the recommended DMC.

Here are the other heads

in case you haven't seen the chart yet.

I ask you, how could I resist this one?

The designs are all perfect for my black tree.

If you want to join in on the Theme-a-Licious fun,

it's not too late.

Click on Heather's logo below

to go to her blog for all the details.

Hope your weekend was fun.

Thanks for visiting!

It's Hot, Hot, Hot! Let's Crochet!!

Hey Blog Buddies,

Yes, it's true.  I've been crocheting.  With mohair.   My quilt guild is having its yearly boutique in November, and since I really don't have the temperament to block out a whole month to devote to making things to sell (like some people do--I admire them!), I've got to start pretty early.  I do a little here and a little there.  Fortunately, the items don't need to be quilted, just hand-made.  So I started with something easy (for me): crochet.  Most of this was done last week, when the temperature here was in the 100's (F), but it was very cool inside the house, which was where I was hiding from the weather.

Animal cruelty!

The yarn I used for this was Patons Divine,

only 10.5% mohair, but it felt and acted like mohair--

not the easiest to work with--

it kept catching on my crochet hook.

Oh yes, that white fabric peeking out from under the scarf

is the t-shirt I wrapped around Molly's neck

so she wouldn't shed all over my crocheted creation!

Don't worry, she got a nice treat afterwards

to compensate her for her time and humiliation.

Here is the same pattern, different yarn:

The pattern is really simple and works up quickly:

just chains and double crochets ("filet crochet").

This yarn is Sensations Angel Hair Stripe,

an acrylic/wool/nylon blend.

It was a dream to work with after the mohair.

It's very fuzzy, too, but you can't see that

in this photo.

I've also been sewing: lots and lots of ort bags,

one for each person who comes to our guild's

Ukrainian embroidery workshop.

I'll take a photo of my "ort bag pyramid"

after they're all done.

See my prototype ort bag here.

There has been some holiday stitching, too,

(on 40-count linen!)

which I'll share with you during the Theme-a-licious update.

Hope you get a chance to stitch today...

...thanks for visiting!

A Postcard from Mouse

Hey Blog Buddies,

I'm playing along with Jo's Summer Postcard Blog Hop, and just received a lovely postcard from Mouse! 

The message on it reads:

"dear all ... having a lovely time ...

food is fantastic and the hotel is lovely ...

seeing lots of sights and taking lots of photos ...

wish you were here ...

love us xx"

I think Mouse's stitched piece is just gorgeous

and the photo of the building looks very European

to my untrained eye.

It looks like a lovely place to stay!

It's not too late to join in the fun

and exchange postcards with a fellow blogger!

Click here to go to Jo's blog and find out all about it!

In the meantime, hope your weekend was fabulous,

and thanks for visiting!

WIPocalypse 2012 - July Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

The year is half over, but am I half done with my WIPocalypse list?  Uhhh, no.  Here's what I accomplished last month:

This was a quick start and finish.

(And see, it did get framed!)

I have had this Lizzie*Kate chart for several years.

Here is another start of a chart that I've had for a while.

(Raise the Roof's Crabby All Year)

The finish on this one won't be quite as speedy.

If I can complete two squares per month,

it should get done this year.

Rainforest Revisited got a tiny bit of love.

Here's where I was at last month:

And here's where I'm at now:

I stitched the three squares in the current top row,

which is actually the second row of the piece.

I also recently started Plum Street Sampler's Boris.

That didn't turn out too well (see previous post).

But here is the new and improved Boris:

He looks so much better (IMO).

The area of the fabric that I frogged

almost looks like aida cloth now (heheh)!

But those puny-looking letters have to be redone, too!

Will everything on my list be completed

before the end of the year?

Realistically, no.

I have a fair amount of commitment stitching

staring me in the face.

And there are two or three recently-purchased (cough, cough) charts

that are just begging to be stitched.

But I'm pretty certain Rainforest will get done.

And there will be other finishes from the list, too.

Stay tuned...

Click the dragon on my sidebar

to find out more about this SAL.

Hope your month has been productive.

Thanks for visiting!