More Witches Hollow

On Saturday I finished the second scene (which I think will be my favorite):

Yesterday I started on the third scene (there are five total):

Teresa, the kind person who loaned the chart to me, commented that she liked that I had a different needle minder each week. At first I was using a witch hat, which I had picked up at my LNS. Then I received a big, blingy bat in the mail, so I had to use that one for a while. But both of those were large, so they only fit  when I could put them at the top of the fabric; now that I've extended the Q-snaps, I need smaller minders that fit along the side. Besides, it's always fun to switch things up a bit!

For those in the US, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving; to everyone else, a great stitchy week!

More Progress...

... on Witches Hollow by The Primitve Needle:

I'm hoping to finish up the second "line" this week; then I'll be about 2/5 finished. :)

Stitching will slow down around Thanksgiving, as I can't spend as much time in my craft room when there's cleaning, cooking and visiting to be done. I've got a small project kitted up that I can work on in the kitchen while my mom is here (hi Mom!!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Progress on Witches Hollow

I'm working steadily this piece, and have now completed the top "line":

There are four more "lines" like this one in the pattern; if each one takes about a week and a half to stitch, then I should finish this one around the end of the year. Although, it might be a little longer because holiday preparations take a bite out of my stitching time this time of year. I am really enjoying working on this, though; it's hard to put down!

As I've mentioned before, I spent several years stitching models for Karen Kluba of Rosewood Manor. Part of the contract is that once she is done with sending the models to trunk shows around the country, I will get my pieces back, already framed. Well, I finally got a couple back, and they are gorgeous!

The first is the first model I stitched for Karen, called My Token of Love:

I stitched this right before my husband and I celebrated our 20th anniversary, and I was allowed to personalize it, which makes it even more special.

Having passed the "test" of my stitching abilities, the next project Karen sent was Past & Present, which I absolutely love:

The last model I've gotten back is My Heart's Desire Needleroll, which appeared in the February 2011 issue of The Gift of Stitching:

That's all for now from my little corner of the crafting world; hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Stitchers are the best!

Every year about this time a wish list is started on the 123Stitch MB, in which people post any stitching wish and grant wishes, either from their stash, by ordering items or sending a gift certificate. It's really a mood-booster to see the generosity of stitchers, as some pretty hard-to-find charts/items are gifted.

My wish this year was a long-shot, as I wanted to borrow someone's Witches Hollow by The Primitive Needle. This chart is hard to come by, and sells in the $150 range on eBay, which I just couldn't bring myself to pay. I'm not even a big fan of primitive designs, but something about this one really struck my fancy; the motifs and colors used just called to me. :)

Amazingly enough, a fellow stitcher offered to lend the chart to me (thanks Teresa!!), and it arrived last week. Here is my start on it:

With a close-up of the owl:

I think part of the reason I don't usually care for primitive designs is that so many of them are stitched on brown/tan fabrics; I barely have any of that color range in my stash. For this one, I pulled out a piece of my favorite Halloween-stitching fabric, PTP's Haunted on Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to seeing how different the design will look on this fabric; I think the colors will pop nicely.

Speaking of colors, this chart calls for a lot of over-dyed flosses. Luckily, I had about half of them in my stash, and I ordered and received the rest last week. However, last night as I was finishing the owl, I was thinking that it had used a lot of floss, so I looked at the instructions and, sure enough, I was supposed to be using one strand of floss instead of two! That's probably another reason I don't like prims; even on 36ct fabric, I'd rather use two strands of floss, because I don't like to see fabric through the design.

So, I am going to continue to use two strands, and just raid my stash for more floss in colors that I like. This will definitely be a one-of-a-kind finish!

As far as my previous WIP, Lightning McQueen & Friends, it has now been put away until this one is finished. I was able to finish Mater before I put it away, and he is just adorable:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

As I've said before...

...I LOVE Judy Odell! I have so many goodies, I'm not sure where to start!

 Hmm, maybe with the model I finished for her that took a bite out of my blog-able stitching. It is called Tapestry Sampler, and the colors are just beautiful:

She released it at the Online Needlework Show, along with her Sophia's Rose:

Her pattern contains both the stitching and finishing instructions for this clever stitcher's toolbox. To show the versatility of the finishing instructions, Judy asked me to stitch up another design; I chose a couple of Lizzie*Kate designs, Spooky String and Tingles Spooky, which I showed in a previous post:

Here is the finished toolbox:

Another piece that I sent to Judy was Just Nan's Honeysuckle Rose, which I stitched many years ago and then put in the "finished" bin:

Using her finishing instructions for "Your Grandmother's Pincushion", which she offers for free in her Facebook group, Judy turned it into this:

Another finishing technique Judy showed at the ONS was for a dry-flower vase:

She asked me if I had a finished piece that might work with this finish, so I sent her Passione Ricamo's Poinsettia Fae (again, pulled from the "finished" bin). However, Judy thought it was just too romantic to finish into a vase, so she made me this gorgeous easel instead:

I just love whatever Judy has sent to me; here is a picture of several of my treasures all together:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

No Cars...

...yet, but I'm going to start on Luigi today:

I am having so much fun on this one; nice, bright colors and easy stitching with all full cross stitches (and a bit of back stitching, but not too much!). It is making me want to do the two other Vervaco Disney alphabet kits I have:

I bought the Tinkerbell kit at the same time as the Cars kit, probably about seven years ago. The Pooh kit I just happened to find on eBay within the past year, and I just love it. They would be cute to stitch up for my 3-year-old niece and nephew (twins). Of course, they'd probably be in high school before I'd actually get them both stitched up!

Hopefully I'll have Luigi and Mater done by my next post...stay tuned. :)

Hope everyone is having a great stitchy week!

And another Halloween finish (and a wintery one, too!)

Yep, finished up The Mysterious Halloween Town by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery:

I had so much fun making changes and playing with colors with this one! Here's a picture showing the chart photo, so you can see some of the changes:

I finished it just in time to enter it in The World of Cross Stitching's #projectoftheweek on their Facebook page, and they chose it!

Talk about fun!!

After finishing this one, I finally pulled out Country Cottage Needleworks Frosty Forest so I could stitch the last block. Luckily, I had stayed caught up until the last block was released, so a couple of days' work led to this:

It was stitched on Silkweaver Karma on Belfast, and I made quite a few color changes to this one, too. It was kind of strange to get into a winter piece after so much Halloween stitching lately, but I'm glad it's finally finished.

I'm kind of wavering about what to work on next, but I'm leaning towards a piece I started in February 2008 called "Lightning McQueen & Friends". My son was 6 years old at the time, and we watched the movie "Cars" at least once a day back then. It looks like I put a day or two into this one, and then it disappeared into the Bucket 'o' WIPs:

The fabric is Silkweaver's Ametrine on opal Lugana, which I thought looks like a sparkly, sandy, desert background. My son is 13 now, and over six feet tall, so it seems a little silly to stitch this now, but I do really like the pattern, and it will always bring back good memories of when he was just a little guy!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Another Halloween finish

It is definitely the time of year for Halloween stitching! After finishing Ghostly Mandala, I picked up Lizzie*Kate's Tingles and was able to finish it this past week. It is stitched on PTP Cauldron on Belfast:

Continuing on the Halloween theme, I then went back to The Mysterious Halloween Town by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I had finished parts 1 and 2 before I put it away, and tomorrow I should be able to finish part 3; hopefully all four parts will be done by the end of the weekend.

The shop in part 3 is charted as a bakery, but that just doesn't seem very Halloween-y to me, so I changed it up quite a bit. I wanted to call it a potion shop, but I couldn't get that to fit in the sign, so it is an elixir shop:

This one is being stitched on PTP Haunted Edinburgh. Once it's finished, I'm not sure what I'll be working on; I'm getting in the mood for a new start...

Earlier tonight I was going through my bucket of finished pieces, looking for something that Judy Odell could use for a new finishing idea that she had. I didn't realize just how many Lizzie*Kate designs I had done that haven't been framed yet:

Her designs are just so much fun to stitch, especially the Halloween ones. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Boo!

That is what ghosts say, so it seemed a fitting title for this post since I finished Ghostly Mandala by Ink Circles this week:

The pattern can be found in the Just Cross Stitch 2014 special Halloween issue. I stitched mine on PTP Mire Cashel, using Mill Hill beads (requires 5145 beads). While the beads look black in the picture, they are actually rainbow black; this picture shows the different colors a bit better:

I have now moved on to my Lizzie*Kate Tingles WIP. Today I finished up part nine, so there are three parts remaining:

This one is being stitched on PTP Cauldron Belfast. Depending on how much stitching I get done this weekend, it might be close to finished by Monday. Ever since I finally finished the model I was working on for two months I've been loving getting to decide what I feel like working on; so many projects are calling to me!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Model is finished!

This past Thursday evening, I put the final stitches in the model for Judy Odell. On that Monday she told me that she had decided to enter the Online Needlework Show, so she wanted me to get as much done as I could, and send whatever I had done back to her in a week (i.e. tomorrow). The thought of sending it back unfinished bothered the heck out of me, so from Tuesday to Thursday I stitched for probably 30 hours to get it done. I was headed to my mom's house for the weekend, and I knew I wouldn't get much done there. So Friday, on my way out of town, I mailed the finished piece to Judy, and in a few weeks you'll be able to see it in the show at the Just A Thought "booth".

As you might imagine, I was a bit burned out after my marathon stitching sessions, so this weekend I didn't stitch at all. I did, however, get all the floss for Michael Jolly's Little Women wound onto bobbins. Tonight, after I got home, I went through my fabric stash and found a pretty blue and white piece of opal Belfast to stitch the design on, which should look like a beautiful summer sky:

I'm not sure when I'll start this one, but it's nice to know that it's ready to go when the urge strikes.

I have two pieces in line that I want to finish before I start anything else; they are Ink Circles Ghostly Mandala and Lizzie*Kate Tingles:

I'm thinking I'll finish the mandala first, just because it's so much fun to work with beads. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!