Finishing Frenzy

Hey Blog Buddies,

First, thanks so much for all the comments you've been leaving--I love you guys!

This past weekend turned into a finishing frenzy for me--very uncharacteristic.  There's quite a bit to catch up on, so let's go right to the photos:

This crocheted daisy scarf (not part of this weekend's frenzy)

was finished right around the beginning of this month.

It's another donation for the Boutique.

 

Next up, my July Hallowe'en ornament

(I am in the 2013 Halloween Ornament SAL):

 

The July theme was bats and/or spiders.

I finished stitching this in July,

but put off the ornamentification until this past Friday.

This was another one that was very annoying to complete

and I'm not at all happy with the way it turned out.

Hopefully, I will have so many tiny ornaments

on my Hallowe'en tree this year

that it will get lost in the crowd!

(I won't bore you with what's wrong with it.)

 

And the August ornament:

 

We got to choose our theme for August,

so I chose All Dressed Up

from the BBD Trix or Treat booklet.

The original design had a diamond border,

but I omitted that in order to

make the ornament smaller (for my small tree).

This is 40-count Heritage linen--again.

I am so used to using two strands

that I started out with two and then

decided to just go with it.

It was a little more difficult to find the holes

but the coverage was sublime!!

Don't worry--it's over two, not over one!

I put the black running stitches in at the end

so that my seams would be somewhat straight

when I sewed it all together.

I had every intention of taking them out,

then decided that I kind of liked the effect.

Not perfect--a little funky even--

but I'm happier with this one than the July ornie.

 

And while I had my sewing machine out...

...I decided to finish this little piece as either

a small pillow or large pincushion (take your pick).

The design is PS Summer & Winter's August.

I finished stitching this in August,

but put off the finish-finishing until now.

The good news is that

I believe we will have an August in 2014,

and it will be displayed then!

The batik fabric, which is a pretty good match

if I do say so myself, was in my stash.

 

And in between all the stressful finishes

was I stitching on something soothing

like a Lizzie-Kate on 14-count Aida?

Uhhh, noooo.

I decided to pull out

Twisted Thread's Lofty Pumpkin.

Here is what it looked like after my June start:

 

This is 25-count Lugana, 1 over 1,

with lots of confetti stitching!

Let me explain this choice:

I switched out my little seasonal cubby-holes

at the beginning of September.

I have five of them and only three are filled--

all with pumpkin designs.

So I remembered I had this pumpkin in the works.

By early Saturday, stitching it was driving me nuts

and I figured I would just put it away

and finish it "later on."

As a matter of fact,

it reminded me more of an ear of Indian corn

than a pumpkin.

But by the end of Saturday I realized

I had gotten a whole lot of stitching completed!

 

This is what it looks like now:

 

Still a bit of 1-over-1 confetti stitching left,

but it's almost there.

And more good news:  I have in my stash

the cutest, most perfect frame for it!

Once I have it finished and framed

--hopefully very soon--

it will make a final appearance on this blog.

 

So that's it from here.

Hope you all had a fun, relaxing weekend.

And thanks for visiting!

July IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you all had a groovy July weekend.  Well, another IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) has come and gone.  I didn't get that much stitching in Friday through Sunday for various reasons, but I "cheated" and made up for it this morning.  However, I'm sure that Joyce at Random Ramblings will forgive me.  (heheh)

First up is the ornament for the

Halloween 2013 SAL.

This month's theme was bats/spiders,

so I chose Sweetheart Tree's

Itty Bitty Kitty - Halloween design.

The design is very small, and it's a good thing

because there were quite a few

quarter stitches and backstitching.

You'll notice it's not ornamentified yet.

I was definitely not in the mood to do that,

but it needs to get done before I start

the August ornament.

 

Then I decided to dust off my canvaswork pumpkin--

it's been on hiatus since shortly after the workshop.

 

Here is another case of the photo

not even coming close to doing the piece justice.

It's hard to make out the sparkly orange Treasure Braid,

the olive green Burmilana wool

and the burgundy Petite Very Velvet threads,

but they're there, and this little section

looks fantastic in real life.

It's right at the tip of the middle "football."

There are five adjoining football shapes which,

when finish-finished, will make up

a 3-dimensional pumpkin.

I'll be working on this piece all week,

so stay tuned for a more detailed update on the whole thing.

 

That's it for now.

Click on over to Random Ramblings to see

what the other hermitters were up to this weekend.

Thanks for organizing this, Joyce!

 

And thank you for visiting

and leaving your kind comments!