Inspiration!

Well, I can thank all of you for this. . you are all to blame! My stitching has taken a back seat for over a month now, due to various family member's health issues, the weeds threatening to take over my herbs and flowers, and various other time consuming elements.

But recently there has been a flurry of activity here, with all sorts of delightful Halloween finishes, or works-in-progress flashing up on my computer screen every time I log on. Inspiration in it's purest form! And I thank you!

Each evening for the past few nights, I've sat down for a mere 30 minutes, and stitched just a few short rows. .and then this evening, I decided to put everything else on the back burner for a bit, and finished this:

Yes! I have finally finished The Giving Sisters!
I can't believe how much my Ott light changes the color of the fabric in the photo, but imagine an earthier wheat shade. I am gathering some different fabrics to make into a patchwork pillow, with this as the center panel.

So thank you, thank you, Thank YOU! for the continued inspiration! I love looking at all of your projects, and seeing your progress. And now keep it up because I'm already looking for the fabric and threads for my next Halloween project to put into my rotation!

Everyone who lives in the U.S., have a great Holiday weekend, and for those beyond our borders, I wish you a glorious weekend too!

Soooo Close & New Pattern!

We had to be away from home for over a week, and I didn't have much time to stitch, and of course, once we returned, there was a lot to catch up on, which I still haven't done. BUT, I did take a little time each morning to stitch a little bit. And now I am SO close to finishing! I wanted to wait until I was done, to post the photo, but when I'm home, I like to stick to my self made promise to post my progress no matter how much or little.

So, here is my The Giving Sisters. Mr Owl still needs his eyes, and Ms. Witch needs the skirt portion of her dress, and her dainty shoes. This has been a lot of fun to stitch!

I've already picked out my next Halloween project, and have posted it on my personal blog.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful stitchy, perhaps on a witchy, week!

WIP The Giving Sisters

I'm taking a chance here, with the continued problems with the blogs and Internet Explorer. I do wish that they would get the problems fixed!!



With that in mind, I'm keeping this brief! I wasn't going to post a photo until it was done, but my stitching time has been extrememly limited lately, so I presenting this, wrinkles and all!!



All of my stitching is fun, but there is something extra fanciful about working on a Halloween piece, and this one is no exception.

I hope that everyone has a safe holiday weekend!

Do You Hear A Scream?

Sorry if you had to cover your head with your pillow, or stuff cotton in your ears to drown out the noise.

I don't know whether to cry or get angry, and I'm trying SO hard not to clamp my jaw, since I was just diagnosed with TMJ due to stress..and I thought that cross stitching would be relaxing! lol

I had made a lot of progress on my Giving Sisters, enough to post a photo, but earlier today I decided that I didn't like the one color of thread with the fabric, so decided to change it. .and somehow in the process, managed to catch just the tiniest bit of the fabric, and you guessed it. .it frayed. I tried to carefully re-stitch but the fabric completely broke through, making a hole that won't hold the thread. .I thought some unkind thoughts, walked away, and then came back to try and figure out a way to save it, but there isn't. .not without frogging most of everything that I had completed.

Soooooo, I am now starting anew, on a new piece of fabric. And I am truly noticing for the first time, the differences in the quality of Aida. The ruined piece is a dyed one from Silk Weavers (I'm going to remove all of the threads later, cut off the ruined portion and save the rest for another project.), and is soft, but dense. The replacement fabric is a top of the line Charles Craft, but it is stiff at first, and not nearly as dense. I can see my hand through it, where I couldn't the one from Silk Weavers. So, I've learned something from this experience. I need to stash more fabrics that I truly love, not just what is handy! And to be ultra careful in removing my threads. .although, now that I think about it, in all of the over 20 years that I've been stitching, this is the first time that this has happened to me.

For now, I'll have to content myself with enjoying all of your Halloween projects, until I get mine once again to the point of actually looking like something! lol

I wish you happier stitching!!

The Giving Sisters

Hi!

I wanted to be further along so that it would hopefully be more interesting to look at, but I have made a promise to myself to post a progress on all of my projects at least once a week. And I'm late on this one!

I've made a discovery that is going to make my stitching a little more of a challenge, but one that I'm willing to accommodate at least for now. My eyesight is such that even with readers, I'm not comfortable with working with the larger counts of fabric, so I have to limit my stitching time in the morning to before I put my contact lenses in (I'm both near sighted and far sighted. .how's that for fun! lol). Only then, with my fabric practically up to my nose, can I see what I'm doing, clearly. Unfortunately, everything else is a complete blur!! lol

But, I've gotten a start on The Giving Sisters! I've added a little extra fun for me, since I've never stitched on custom dyed fabric before, or used custom dyed threads. I love the earthiness of the colors that seem so perfect for a Halloween primitive pattern, so decided to take the plunge!

I'm stitching them on "Days Gone By", by Silkweavers, and bought a number of threads from Weeks Dye Works, Crescent Colours, and The Gentle Art, Simply Shaker Sampler Thread line. I'm going to match and replace a number of the DMC colors that are standardly used.

Here is a closer look at the pattern itself!

I've noticed that HAED has a few Halloween patterns. Is there anyone here who is working on one?

I hope that everyone has a beautiful weekend!!