March 2011

Been a while hasn't it? I've been stitching tho.

I'm still working on my son's project (Floral Retreat by Dimension's Gold and the 2 HAED SAL Storykeeps). I really really want to get Floral Retreat completed so I'm thinking of just concentrating on that. I'm also working on a Tuesday only project which is a 12 Square Quilt pattern called Handblessings (a Eileen Gurak Needlework Design) which is a freebie from my local stitching shop. I'm on square #5.

Now on to my finishes - and I'm very sad to say I can't tell you the name or who they're by anymore. The Halloween one has been passed forward and I can't find the chart right now on the rose one.

This one is for my BFF (the one I did the chili pepper one for) for her birthday. It's done on pale green 16ct Aida and verigated floss (Melon). I added teeny tiny seed beads in the middle of the desigins of the border as well as within the pattern. Again I can't remember the designer as I can't find the chart (will have to do better at that in the future!!)

The Halloween one was placed on the wall behind the register at Cross My Heart where I go stitching every Tuesday for the fall season.

Well I guess that's it for now. I hope to be able to post more finishes but I seem to be a slow stitcher. Hopefully the next postings will be the 12 Square Quilt and my son's Floral Retreat.

Until then I hope everyone has a good spring and stays safe in whatever they do!

October 2010

Wow - where has the month gone. The leaves are falling and soon winter will be here. How many months til Spring???

The piece I finished is called Fat Bat Cat by The Victoria Sampler. I was in my cross stitch shop's bathroom and saw the pic of this (yes they have lots of things hanging in there - charts and completed things too - lol). Anywho - I saw this posted and thought "My those bat wings would be cute with glitter in them".

So.....my bat has krinik black with the black DMC. I also wanted something different than the stitched spiders and spider web and as I was walking thru Michaels I found the perfect item - it's for scrapping but hey it just jumped out at me and said "TAKE ME HOME AND PUT ME ON THE FAT BAT CAT" (yep it was screaming that loud - lol)

Hope you all like what I've done.

September 2010 finish - bout time!

Here it is the middle of September and I've only completed 1 project. How sad is that?? I am tho working on Floral Retreat and 2 SALs from HAED - Dragon Luck and Sunny so maybe I can use those as excuses

I've had my share of dragging my feet. My son had surgery on his ankle the end of June and for the first part of the month I just stitched away. The more mobile he got tho the less I stitched. He's back to work so I'm getting my "me" time back (not that I actually lost it - I just lost me inside that "me" time)

My dog (a Scotty named Sparky) also began having a lot of problems the end of July and August and my son and I finally had to make the decision to put her down. We had a wonderful 14 years with her (well almost - she was 2 months shy). She was so smart and quick to learn and that put a damper on things as well.

Anywho that's enough moaning/groaning/bitching and bellyaching!

The finish is called Sneak Peak from The Trilogy. It was a multi chart with part 1 having the border and cat. Chart 2 the pumpkin and ghost. Chart 3 the haunted house and witch. Of course I added some bling by putting blending filament in a couple of pieces - the ghost and the harvest moon.

I continue to go to my local stitching shop every Tuesday I can and was shocked when they asked that when completed they'd like to hang it for display. Wow talk about stressing me out - that they would even consider anything I did good enough to put on display.

Well here's the pic - a cute piece. Hope you all like it!

End of year finish

Wow - can't believe it's been so long since I'd put anything on here. I've been stitching on a few items - none of which I've done a pic for. But I did want to post my last finish of the year. I am still working on Floral Retreat by Dimensions Gold - I guess I'm about 1/3 of the way completed.
This item is called Holiday Round - St Patrick's Day from The Stitchworks. It came with a green shamrock button but it broke. I really wouldn't have used it anyway - I put a charm in the middle instead. This took me way longer than it should have. I've been trying to do a week rotation between this and Floral Retreat. For some reason I had some major issues with the last leaf of the last shamrock I was doing. Don't know what happened but I had to re-stitch it 5 times - lol.

Anywho - thanks all in advance to anyone who reads this and leaves me comments - you all don't know how much it's appreciated and how it motivates me.

I also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

July 09 finishes

Took me forever on getting my items posted but here are 2 I finished in July -

This is a small freebie that I recieved from my local shop by The Prairie Schooler. I finished it by folding it over a styofoam block and covering it in fabric - pinning the fabric to the block and pinning a ribbon over the seam. I did it on 16ct White Aida - I also changed the colors around - I just couldn't wrap my head around an eagle having a brown head - the arrows were supposed to be red and I made them gold as well as the little designs in each corner - and my bling are rhinestones I glued to the blue band of the shield.

My second finish -

Was also a freebie from my local shop. It was a handout from when they did Camp Gottastitch back in November (I didn't go). The design is from Handblessings (http://www.handblessings.com/) a Eileen Gurak Needlework Design (size 39 x 38) called Valentine Acorn Birdhouse. I stitched it on 14ct white Aida using Weeks Dye works Garnet # 2264 and Bubble Gum #2275A. My bling is the pewter heart charm in the middle. I'm having a hard time finding a frame that won't overpower the design.

And for good measure I thought I'd show you all a picture of a ceramic piece that I completed last week from castware. This was base coated in black, washed in green, dry brushed in lavender pearl then cranberry pearl and then drybrushed in copper. I'm making more to sell at a local hobby shop. If you all think I should also post my ceramics that I complete I will - 99% of it goes out for sale - I'll even sell to you all but I'd have my UPS store package so I would probably have $10.00 s/h for something this size. The piece below I'm selling for $20.00 - other items I do it would just depend on the size of the piece but you gotta remember these are very breakable.

Well that's all from me this month - I'm still working on the project for my son and doing another freebie from The Prairie Schooler.

May finish "The Hunt" SAL by Pelin Tezer

Wow - I did this as a Stitch-A-Long with an online Yahoo group. This was a fun project and I thought this was going to be a "no brainer" - lol What it taught me is I CAN'T COUNT - lol I've had more hiccups but managed to finish in (for me) a reasonable time.

The color I used for the fabric was a Aida blue (can't remember the actual name) and the floss was DMS 977 which is considered a light brown but to me is golden. One of the ladies at the LNS said it was an interesting choice of fabric/floss color - hummm not sure it that meant she like the combo or not. When I asked her if that meant she didn't like it she said "no it's just not something I would have thought to put together". I kept tossing colors on the fabric and kept coming back to the 977 for some reason.

Last week I went to Hobby Lobby to pick out the frame so I knew I had a deadline. It's just a plain brown. I was going to put a navy blue matte on it but nothing looked right.

This one actually has NO BLING - yep - NO BLING - unless I can find charms this is "as is" "au natural" "in the buff". Haven't decided where I'm going to hang it but I'm thinking my living room.

Hope you all like it.

April finish

This little thing was a freebie from my LNS. It's from The Prairie Schooler. Of course I changed it - lol I stitched around the edge of the egg in brown which was supposed to be used for the legs - wow what was I thinking (or not)- lol

I did the egg in a light green verigated and then brushed a light coating of light green glitter on it so the egg would have some sparkle. I had my ceramic teacher/friend Mary do the little bow as she does them best. I did the background as a peach felt which matches the peach of the stitching.

All in all I think it turned out pretty cute and it taught me I can make an ornament.