More Finishes... and Galleria

My happy, chubby bird is finished!

Jolly Robin came as a kit from Bothy Threads.

I love the speckled aida that came with it;

it was fun to stitch.

My framer finished him in record time.

This Laura J. Perin piece, Nordic Valentine,

was finished recently, too.

I was attempting to attach the

called-for beads with invisible thread,

when I thought to myself

"Life's too short."

It looks fine without the beads.

This is the second piece from

Jeannette Douglas' Flower Tray set.

I'm going to find someone to make it

into a pincushion drum for me.

And, finally, just in time for October...

This is from Little Dove's Year.

I changed the lettering

from backstitch to cross stitch

and omitted the second spider.

I backed it with the fabric shown  in the 

background of the photo.

It reminds me of centipedes,

so it's appropriately creepy.

I almost didn't find this fabric

because it was at the bottom of a

large pile of various non-purple pieces.

I wound up re-organizing all my fabric by color.

I'll be able to find all of the purples now;

I discovered that I don't have a lot of them.

Almost two weeks ago

I went to the annual

Needlework Galleria

held in St. Charles, Missouri.

The event was bigger than ever this year;

the entire fourth floor of the

Embassy Suites was given over to it,

and about a half dozen shops were on 3.

This is just a smattering of photos

from some of the participating shops.

The bottom photo was from a

counted canvaswork shop,

participating for the first time this year.

See the tall skinny red/blue piece

in the top row.

Doesn't it have my name on it?

Of course it did!

My haul.

I went crazy at the fabric place (lower left).

If you look at the lower right part of the photo,

you can see the instruction booklet,

threads and blue canvas

shown in the model photo above.

These people (sellers) were from Canada,

and I had never seen their pieces before!

I saved on shipping!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Another thing I really liked about the Galleria

were all the doo-dads at the various shops.

Here's a close-up of those that I bought:

A couple of "square" hoops; 

metal tea balls to cross stitch

for Christmas ornaments;

little rubber cylinders to use when

tightening a hoop or to grab a needle;

and the wooden octopus square

will measure a border of either

1", 2" or 3" if you place it at the

corner of your fabric!

See, not many!

There were many other cute doo-dads

that I didn't buy.

I do have some self-control!

I seem to have finished most of

my WIPs at the same time.

I'm currently working on just

one Halloween small

which should be finished very soon.

I need to start a bunch of new projects now!

Well, that's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!

Stitching and Quilting

Hope everyone is having a great July.  It's been really rainy here, so I've been stitching away, although I really don't need an excuse to stitch!  Here's what's been happening.

Debbie Forney's Ho Ho Ho

I'm calling this a mini-finish (I have two more panels to stitch on this project).  It was my challenge project for my ANG chapter, due last month.  I knew that I wouldn't finish the whole project, but wanted to finish this panel so that I would have some momentum going forward.

As readers of this blog may remember, each June members of my chapter have the option of submitting three unfinished projects.  Their fellow members vote on which project that they want to see finished by the following June.  The larger the project and the less stitching that's completed is usually, but not always, the determining factor.  The project is disqualified if it's the size of an ornament, or more than 50 percent finished.   I submitted Ho Ho Ho for consideration again this year because I'm not even close to halfway done with it but, alas, it was not chosen.

Once everyone eyeballed this painted canvas from a design by Charley Harper (Rainforest Birds), poor Ho Ho Ho became Ho Ho NO.  The fact that I haven't taken a stitch on Rainforest Birds yet may have played a minor role as well, but everyone just seemed captivated by this one.  So Ho Ho Ho will be going on a long (hopefully not permanent) hiatus.

I finished this little July pillow from Little Dove Designs.

After I attached the fluffy chenille on the edge of the pillow,

I thought it looked like fur trim,
which is a little strange for July!

I'm making good progress on Jolly Robin.

There are a lot of color changes, but no confetti stitches.

He has been unexpectedly fun to stitch!

My kitchen has had light gray walls for about a decade.

(When I like something, I usually don't tire of it quickly.)

But it was time for something new,

so I chose my favorite color: orange.

The floor tiles have gray in them,

so I decided to quilt myself a little tablecloth
to go with the new color scheme.

I even had the Carrots piece,
on the wall to the left, reframed.

The old frame was red, and it wasn't working.

Then I had some fabric left over,
so I went all matchy-matchy with my bowl cozies.

(My old ones were red.)

I think my sewing machine (and I) need a long rest!

I've also been making progress on a couple of

long-standing UFO's.

I hope to be able to show you
a finish on at least one of them soon.

That's it from here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Even More Exciting News...

...Ladybug and Daisy, my blackwork project, is finished...

...and framed...

Here are a couple of close-ups...

The cross-hatching on the petals drove me bonkers.

It was "random" but charted, so I kept having

to look back and forth from the chart to the piece.

I would have gladly paid someone to do it for me,

if I could have found any takers.

I'm elated that this is done!

Here is another framed finish...

Kathy Barrick's Good Intentions

I seem to go a while without any finishes,

then I have a bunch all at once.

Let's get to the pillow parade...

A monthly from Heart in Hand's Square Dance

Bent Creek's Flag of Stars

The trim is not cording, but a braid.

Lizzie-Kate's Buzz from their Spring Smalls leaftlet.

I stitched this a couple of months ago,

and just got around to finishing it.

Here's what I'm working on now...

This is the July monthly from the

Little Dove's Year chart.

This chubby fellow is from Bothy Threads.

The chart is called Jolly Robin.

Here is my start.

It's going to look like a blob for a while.

This is my ANG challenge piece,

due next Saturday.  😄

I got quite a bit done
since the last time I posted.

My revised goal is to at least get

the panel on the right completed.
As I was stitching it,

I discovered that this piece

is not quite as easy as it looks.

But I probably could have completed it

if I had picked it up before last month.

I had all year to do it.

When you're as old as I am
you should stitch what calls out to you,
which is what I've been doing.
Hence, the DNF on my challenge piece.

Well, that's it from here.

Hope your June is going splendidly.

Thanks for dropping by.