First Finish of the Year!

Greetings, Bloglanders!

I'm back already.  I'm going to try doing more frequent, shorter posts this year.  We'll see how this plan works out.

We had a peek at this one in my last post.

Winter Defined by Erica Michaels - I believe it's one of her newest designs.

I'm not thrilled with my attempt at cording,

but it is what it is.

I got my January design (from Hands On Designs)

pillowfied, too!

After this finish, I vowed that I wouldn't

work with mini-poms again anytime soon.

And for you Molly fans,

here she is snuggling under a knitted scarf

that I actually gave away as a gift.

This fell under the "20-second rule."

Hopefully, the recipient has given up

reading this blog.

😃

So, my one-photo post

suddenly turned in a three-fer.

I'll have to work on that.

Hope your year has gotten off

to a great start.

Thanks for dropping by.

Year End Wrap-Up

Hello, Blog Enthusiasts!  It's me and I'm back for a year-end stitching wrap-up.  I realize it was July when I last posted, so we have a lot of ground (get it?  ground?) to cover.  Where to start...?

But of course, the Prairie Schooler alphabet:

I showed the V for Vineyard finish in my last post, and here's the entire row.

And we have Y for Yarn...

...and the ampersand.

No Z.  Yet.

This is the fourth block in this series

that shows a woman stitching,

and the first one who's a lefty.

The stressed-out sewer in S is for Sewing

had her scissors in her left hand,

but she could be ambidextrous.

I finished BBD's Spell of the Moon.

...and Lizzie-Kate's Hocus Pocus...

...Blue Ribbon Designs' Hayride Happenings,

published in an issue of Just Cross Stitch;

I got the frame from Hobby Lobby...

...Needle Delights Originals' Poppers...

...and Boo Logs by the same designer...

...I pieced together a bed quilt from a

Bonnie Hunter workshop!

The actual quilting was outsourced

on this large piece.

I used up a lot of scraps and left-over

fabric with this one...

...this cute little thing was a kit by Hands on Design,

sold exclusively by one of my LNSes...

...my only Christmas finish this year,

from PS's Folk Art Christmas booklet...

...and finally January, from Hands on Designs'

A Year of Celebrations.

This one hasn't been pillowfied yet -

hopefully, it will be before 1/1/19.

I have made very few stitching plans for next year.

Obviously, finishing Z is for Zinnia is one of them.

I have a start...

I'd also like to finish Blue Jeans and Daisies,

otherwise known as "the Beast."

I've got quite a bit done, 

but I just don't enjoy stitching on this linen.

This is an icky photo;

I can't get the colors right on my little iPhone -

it's much prettier IRL.

I have this little design in the works,

Erica Michaels' Defining Winter.

It's going to be another pillow.

One can never be too rich, too thin

or have too many little pillows.

I plan on starting this blackwork piece "soonish."

Other than that, I think I'll just stitch

whatever strikes my fancy.

So that's it for this year.

Hope your 2018 was a good one.

Thanks, as always, for dropping by.

Spring has Arrived

Hey Blog Buddies,
Spring has arrived, at least here in the Chicago area.  We had a sunny, mild day yesterday, which prompted me to finish-finish Erica Michaels' Random Thoughts of Spring.  I did get the piece mounted and framed, but...

...the black color on the frame has got to go!

It looks a little funereal to me for a spring piece.

I got some green acrylic paint yesterday,

so the black will be just a memory soon.

The changes I made to the design were:

I omitted the bottom row of shamrocks,

and I changed the word "blarney" to "showers."

I love the way the name of the season

is done in Assisi embroidery on these designs.

The fabric is a 30-count springy green overdye

which you can see a little bit from the photo.

I recently entered a giveaway that Chris was having at

Tot Hill Farm Stitches.

I wasn't the grand prize winner,

but she drew two extra names out of the goodness of her heart,

and I won a bunch of goodies from Market:

Clockwise from top right:

DMC coffee/tea mug, 4 of the newest WDW floss colors,

an easel floss keeper, a lovely card,

small notebook and, last but not least,

a small Whitman sampler full of cho-o-ocolates!

Thanks again, Chris!

And speaking of the Nashville Market,

Linda from The House of Stitches was invited to

our guild meeting this week.

Alarmed because I was running low on stash -- :p

I bought a couple of things:

Lizzie*Kate's Flowers Limited Edition Kit and

Tiramisu from Glendon Place.

She also brought the La-D-Da trunk show,

and since I have almost no Halloween charts (cough, cough)

I got:

There was only one of these charts left--what can I say?

This one will probably be displayed all year long...

...once I get a moment to stitch it.

I think Linda should come to all the meetings!

Well, that's it from here.

Hope you have a grand spring (or fall) stitchy weekend!

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

The March Halloween Ornie

Hey Blog Buddies,
Hope you had a groovy weekend.  The weather here is still a bit wintry for so late in March.  Just another excuse to stay home and stitch!

So far--and I know it's only March--I am keeping up with Lainey's Halloween Ornament SAL blog.  This month's theme was haunted houses, so I chose the haunted house from Prairie Schooler's Boo to You booklet:

I changed the colors a bit because

I thought the model looked too cheery:

I used 40-count PTP Heritage linen

which is a mottled khaki green (hard to tell in the photo),

I "turned out the lights" in the windows,

and the door is purple instead of orange.

I used Gloriana Charcoal instead of DMC 310

and I like the coverage better.

The silk floss is just a wee bit fatter than the cotton.

I guess I will be using it for future ornies

in spite of the fact that I hate stitching with it

(it sticks to my fingers and continually pops out of the needle!).

And it's finish-finished!

I'm making these into ornaments as I go along

because I can't think of anything worse

than having 10 stitched-but-unfinished ornaments

come October!

Over the weekend, I started to think spring

despite the fact that we had a bit of snow here yesterday.

But I'm not complaining:  the folks south of here

got 10-12 inches and we got less than an inch.

I know my UK friends have had more than their share, too.

Here is my start on Erica Michaels' Random Thoughts of Spring:

The fabric is a 30-count overdyed springy green color--

I'm very bad about keeping track of fabric names.

And I'm using two strands of good old DMC 500

which makes me a happy camper.

Don't know how much stitching I'll get in this week.

Our local cable company is having a "Watchathon"

until the end of this month,

which means you can catch up on past seasons of programs for "free"

(read:  no additional fee).

So I'm planning on watching all three seasons of Downton Abbey.

I have one week.

And no, they don't allow you to record "on demand" shows.

I probably won't be stitching while watching because

when I listen to folks with different accents,

I usually have to pay more attention!

Well, I'm off to watch Episode 2 of Season 1.

And to those of you in the northern hemisphere:

c'mon join me in thinking spring!

Thanks for visiting!

Random Thoughts of Winter

Hey Blog Buddies,
How have you been faring this winter?  Do you like snow and cold, or do you prefer to be in a warmer clime?  Here in the Chicago area, the winter has been really strange.  The low here this morning was around 10 degrees Fahrenheit, I believe the coldest of the season--which really isn't that cold for January.  We have yet to get more than one inch of measurable snow in any of our infrequent snow storms.  Not that I'm complaining--I'm not a fan of snow and cold, but I know people who are.  I'm sure that we'll get a blizzard eventually--this is Chicago after all--but every day without snow gets us one day closer to Spring.  And the weatherman said little or no snow for the coming week, too.

All this was leading up to my latest finish:  Random Thoughts of Winter by Erica Michaels which I started on New Year's Day:

This was stitched on 28-count Amsterdam Blue linen,

with DMC 762, which is a very light gray.

The linen has a greenish tinge in real life, too,

but it's a few shades darker than the photo.

I changed a few of the motifs in this piece:

a mitten replaced a Christmas stocking,

two snowmen replaced the words "fa la la,"

the word "snow" replaced the word "peace,"

the diamond motif replaced a bell,

and I omitted the entire bottom row

of Christmas trees.

This was because I wanted to make the

piece more "winter" than "Christmas."

You'll notice that the piece still has

a reindeer, a present, a sprig of holly

and a star!

Below is a photo of the piece as charted:

She gives you two choices,

along with a suggestion for an ornament.

I think she'd be fine with my tinkering.

I'm really happy with the piece.

It got finish-finished so fast

because I found that white frame last week.

This is my first 2013 finish

from a 2013 start!

Hope your weekend was enjoyable,

with maybe a little stitching, too.

Thanks for visiting!

Fair Results and Rainforest, Framed

Hey Blog Buddies,

Thanks so much for all your kind comments about my pyramid!  (I will miss it when it's gone.)  To answer the question "Why 39?":  I am making one for each of the 27 people who will be attending my embroidery guild's workshop in September.  The rest will be sold at my quilt guild's boutique in November.  (Do I belong to too many guilds?)  And I will keep one, or maybe two, for myself.

Yesterday I got my stuff back from the Lake County Fair!

Front Row:  Uptown Stitcher by Libby Sturdy,

NOEL by Erica Michael, Soar by Brenda Gervais

Back Row:  CT13 by Alessandra Adelaide

No Sweeps or Champion ribbons,

but I'm quite happy with how I did.

And today, I went to pick up Rainforest Revisited at the framers.

This is Sue at The Great Frame-Up in

Orland Park, IL.

She does all my framing.

I love how it looks--you can tell I'm not a fan of ornate!

This one will go up next to Rainforest Crunch.

Now that I have two that can hang in the space I've picked,

I can take down all the small Christmas

pictures that have been up since last year!

That's it for now.

Hope you get time to do something fun today.

Thanks for visiting!

Two Finishes, and a Class

Hey Blog Buddies,

A month or two ago I showed you my NOEL ornie before it was sent off to Karen for finishing.  Well, I got it back yesterday and can't wait to show you how it turned out.

You take a scrap of linen with

some cross stitching on it,

give it to Karen

and she turns it into a work of art!

It was a little too big for an ornament,

so I asked her to finish in as a box.

At our Guild meeting last night,

there were about 20-25 items

for Show and Tell.

At least half of them

(including this beauty)

were finished by Karen.

She is one busy lady!

This is an Erica Michaels design

from the 2008 JCS Christmas Ornament issue.

Needless to say,

I'm thrilled with the end product.

This is a Lizzie Kate freebie

that I stitched up for Averyclaire

who is having a birthday tomorrow!

Happy birthday!

Last but not least,

this is an ornament from Chickadee Hollow Designs

that I finished last year

and taught at Guild last night.

It's basic surface embroidery,

stitched through two thicknesses of fabric:

the muslin with the printed design

and a piece of batting.

It was the first class I've taught.

Nineteen out of the 22 who signed up were there!

It was noisy, and a lot of fun.

Hope your November is starting off great.

Thanks for visiting!