Stitching from Stash in July

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the end of July already and that means it's time for my Stitch from Stash report.  This is a Stitch-a-Long hosted by Mel of Epic Stitching where we all try to stick to a $25/month budget for new stash acquisitions.  I have three finishes and a new little start to show you, too, but first the stats.

I spent a total of $10.25 this past month,
all of it on this one little chart:

I guess I was just in a patriotic mood.

And, it's very cute!

This month I've been stitching on the usual suspects:  Mates, A Tree by Itself and, currently, 99.  And I stitched and finished...

 ...my Semaphore quilt.  My self-imposed deadline was September 1st for this autumn-colored cutie, but I beat that by a lot!  (That usually never happens around here.)  The bottom part of the quilt that's in the shade shows the quilted fern design a little better.  You can click to make any of the photos larger...

...and here's Nancy Buhl's Flowers from my Needle from the workshop I took in back in May.  This had been my traveling piece, because it was so mindless and small--and it was stitched on 18-count canvas so it was easy to see.  What looks like a frame is really the top of a lovely music box.  All I had to do for finishing was trim the piece a little and pop it into the top of the box.  Easy peasy!  It was fun to stitch--I'll miss it.

Oh, don't worry!  I have another small 18-count canvaswork piece in my stash that's been kitted up since last year and which I'll start the next time I go a-traveling.  This is why the Stitch from Stash SAL is so easy for me.

And finally, finally:  The Long-Lost Pumpkin.  That's not its real name, but that's how I was starting to think of it, since it took so long to get it finish-finished.  Remember this?

If you've looked at this blog at all in the past year, of course you do!  And you were probably hoping never to see it again!  I posted about my June 4th finish of this weeks ago.  It was at the finisher's until the day before yesterday.  It took a long time to be finished--much longer than the three weeks which was promised--and then it was weighted wrong (very lopsided) and the green crocheted stem had it's wire poking out.  It was a mess.  Why would the finisher/store even think that a customer would be happy with something like that?  I had the store send it back to the finisher to be done properly, even though I had wanted to enter it in the Lake County Fair and didn't think that it could be fixed in 10 days' time, which is all the time that was left at that point.  But it was more important to me to get it finished properly.  So I did get a call on Friday that it was done (again) and went to pick it up.  Saturday was the Fair deadline.    Did I mention that it's a 120-mile round trip to the store?  The weighting issue was fixed and the stem was fixed, but overall it was just OK.  To be honest, I probably would have been happier with the result if I had not been mentally comparing it to the stitched model that Debbie (Stiehler, the designer) had brought with her when she taught the workshop last year.  And the store owner did give me a 10% discount for my extra trip.  All I have to say is it's a good thing that paying for finishing doesn't count against the Stitch from Stash budget, even with a 10% discount!

Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch.

Yes, it looks fine in the photo.

All's well that ends well, I guess.

Last but not least,

here is my new little start (from stash, natch):

This is Blackbird Design's Bird in Hand.

I seem to be in a bird mood recently.

My friend Anne gifted me the chart a while back.

Yes, I just finished another small piece called "Bird in Hand,"

but that was from La D Da.

This will be just a bird, a branch and a border, no words.

I'm using a dark blue floss instead of the red

which was used on the original model.

The ground is a 40-count piece of mystery linen from my stash.

So that's it from here.

I'll be back in a week or so with 

the Lake County Fair report.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

A Day Downtown

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you've had a great weekend with a little time for some stitching, too.  I've managed to get a little cross stitch in this weekend, but earlier in the week DH and I took the train to the Loop for a day in the city.  I brought my camera with, and thought I'd share a few photos of my neck of the woods.

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk up Michigan Avenue, starting at Millennium Park.  

 

This is Cloud Gate, designed by

British artist Anish Kapoor,

but everyone here calls it The Bean.

You can walk right up to it and take a selfie!

 Another fun feature of the park is Crown Fountain,

designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

It consists of two glass block towers

with images of 1,000 Chicagoans projected onto them,

and a little reflecting pool in the middle.

Further north is the Tribune Tower,

completed in 1925 and designed by

Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells.

It's neo-gothic in style with flying buttresses at the top.

One of the many cool things about this building

is the fact that there are almost 150 stones

or fragments of structures from around the world

 embedded in the outside walls of the building.

 Nope, not gonna make you look at all of them!

Right across the street from the Tribune Tower is the Wrigley Building.

This building was designed by the firm of

Graham, Anderson, Probst and White 
for William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy).

It was the first major office building built north of the Chicago River

(it was built just a couple of years earlier than the Tribune Tower)

and the first one to have air conditioning in the City of Chicago.

And speaking of all things Wrigley....

Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs)

is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year,

and you can find these decorated seats along Michigan Avenue.

I wasn't going to take a photo, but DH urged me on
(I'm so not a Cubs fan).

It's weird--in Chicago, if you follow baseball,

you're either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan--never both.

I will say that the late Ron Santo was a great guy,

just had the misfortune to play for the Cubs!

One of our newest skyscrapers, the Trump Tower.

Those letters are 20 feet high and the Mayor hates them

and is looking for ways to get them removed permanently.

The Donald, on the other hand, thinks that they're wonderful

and enhance the values of the neighboring property!

It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride on the Chicago River!

And here's the reason we went downtown:

Taking photos was strictly prohibited

inside of the theater, so this is the best you'll get.

The musical was great-- there were over 60 songs

made famous by the Motown artists

of the 60's and 70's.

And here's one last little surprise.

It's stitch-related.

The finishes in 2014 on this here blog

have been few and far between,

not because I haven't been stitching,

but I've been devoting a lot of time

to my larger projects.

But I did manage to finish my funky bird.

This is La D Da's A Bird in Hand

using the recommended fabric and silks,

except for the eye and spots on the bird,

where I substituted Gloriana India Ink.

The recommended color was just too

close in tone to the bird's body. 

It's nice to have a finish once in a while.

I have several other smaller bird designs

which I should plug into what passes for

my rotation these days.

That's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!

May Stitch from Stash... and a Finish

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting the Stitch From Stash SAL this year wherein the goal is to keep to a budget of $25/month or less for all your stitching purchases.  I'm happy to report that, for the first time this year, I spent nothing during the month on stitching supplies!  I worked on several WIPs, one of which was Needle Delights Originals' Winter Logs, which is now finished (woo hoo!):

 

 I stitched the optional border in Watercolours Quicksilver.

I knew that I wanted to use a gray for the border,

and this had the subtlest variegation.

Since there's a lot going on in the piece,

I didn't want the border to look too stripey.

Kreinik metallic braid was used in several spots,

including in the backstitching separating the four quadrants,

to give the piece a subtle glimmer.

It's hard to see in a photograph.

Here are some close-ups,

to give you a better idea of the texture of the piece:

And now for something completely different,

I also had a new start from stash.

I've had this little chart kitted up for a couple of years now.

I just love that funky bird!

DH says he's a ham radio bird

because he has what appears to be an antenna on his head.

Here is my start.

I'm using 35-count WDW Straw linen and almost all of the

recommended NPI silks, 1 over 2.

It's quite a shock to the eyeballs going from

18-count canvas to 35-count linen! 

Well, that's it from here.
Hope you all are enjoying your spring
(or autumn, as the case may be).

Thanks for visiting!