Monday, August 14, 2023

Almost time to stitch a Tiny Town

I received the Any Town Tiny Town chart a couple of weeks ago, but I decided to finish up the Hands on Design Polar Plunge and Gather Pumpkins pieces before I started it. I also still need to finish charting another local shop; I have the basics now, but I need to refine it:

This was going to be my next start, but then Cecilia released Harvest Tiny Town and Frill, and I think I'm probably going to start it when it arrives since I really love the color palette:

Right now I'm still working on part 2 of Erica Michaels' Quilting A-Bee-Cs, which I'm hoping to finish tonight:

Part 3 should be arriving at 123Stitch soon, so the plan is to start that after the Harvest Tiny Town. I have to say that while I'm enjoying getting some of these smaller designs stitched (and even fully finished!), I'm starting to get the itch to work on a Mirabilia design--missing the pretty ladies!

Finally, I was able to finish Amy Bruecken's Moonlight Magic last week, stitched with Classic Colorworks on PTP Crystal Haunted:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Monday, August 7, 2023

My first Friendstitch

Friendstitch is an online retreat hosted by the designers of Heart in Hand Needleart and Bent Creek, which I hadn't heard of until recently. This year is the fourth time they've had it, and I think this is the first time that they've split it into two "pop up" events; this past Saturday was the Halloween PopUp Gathering and then there will be a Needlework PopUp Gathering in October. I received the box with the charts, supplies and miscellaneous goodies on my birthday, which made it even harder not to open, but they were pretty clear that we weren't supposed to open it until the Zoom event (and I am nothing if not a rule follower!):

So, I was good and held onto it until the retreat and it was a lot of fun to open and explore with everyone else. There was some candy in there (but not in the photo that I took today because it's already gone!), a little notepad and a couple of little Halloween decorations, a great tote bag and then there were the stitchy goodies:

This was also the first time that they had a special guest, and she was perfect because she has such adorable Halloween designs--it was Amy Bruecken, and she designed this sweet little chart for the retreat:


I'm hoping to get that pumpkin finished tonight (or, more likely, tomorrow), then I'll probably stitch the crow and leave the larger chart for last. I really like all of the designs and am happy that I signed up for this without knowing exactly what was involved. Now I'm looking forward to the Needlework PopUp in a couple of months.

While I sat waiting to find out what was in the box, I worked on part 2 of Erica Michaels' Quilting A-Bee-Cs, which still isn't finished:


I've been stitching one color at a time for this part, and it's been fun to see it come together in this way. I'd say I'm about halfway done with this section, so not horrible, but I don't know if it will be completed before part 3 arrives. Must stitch faster!

My son has been subletting an apartment in Madison this summer, so my husband and I drove down there for a day to visit and tour the area; we had a really nice day, though it was about 90F and it felt good to get home that evening. It's about a 2-hour drive, so I took a Mill Hill kit (Kitty Treats) with me to work on in the car, and then I finished it a couple of days later:


And today I finally took pictures of the last two pieces that I got back from the framer recently; they are Dog and Cat Lessons for People by Lizzie*Kate, which I stitched back in 2011/2012:



Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!