Heading to the Finish!

Hi all,

I have one last week in between kid visits to finish up my 2018 stitching and pack it away for the year.  My Art Basel baby has gone back to LA and will be back next Wednesday and her baby sister a few days later.  I only get to see them a few times a year so everything will be on hold until
January 1st.

I am so proud of myself for finishing up a series.  These have been great little projects.  My stitching buddies helped me with the cording so this should get done this week.

Not to worry I have already made my 2019 stitching "to do" list!

Have a wonderful Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

Strawberry Arrival

Here they are!

I have 2 more finished and pinned up on my bulletin board to be sent after Christmas.

And here is Rebekkha - I finished her cape and now am moving on to her hair, the lace trim on her apron and then the left column.  Then who knows...maybe the other eggplant!

There's A Video For That!

Hi there,  

I'm still having some trouble remembering what day it is.  Should be Saturday by now. 

I'm still working on Elegant Thanksgiving and today I decided to try picot needleweaving which is how the eggplant leaves are done on the garland.  Good thing I still have an OLD laptop with a disk drive because I needed it.  I spent an hour this morning watching Amy and Kelly do needleweaving so was ready to try it on my own.  Two hours and two attempts later I had 3 leaves.  Oh this will definitely not be finished in 2018!

Here's my practice canvas- kind of messy but I'm getting the idea!

Here's how it looks now after putting it in and taking it out and putting it in again.  Not too shabby!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE !!!

Hi there,

In the midst of a free fall in the stock market I am feeling good about working my stash.  I have just finished Eleven Pipers Piping!  That means one more to go!

Here they are all laid out on the bed.  Awesome!  The 5 golden rings canvas is still on stretcher bars because of the turkey work.

Then,  since it IS Thanksgiving week I thought I might pull out Elegant Thanksgiving.  This is as far as I got - I think I may try and give Rebecca some hair this year and I have to take out the hands because they are supposed to be on top of the basket.  Would love to work on the basket...Lets see how it goes...

 Here's the big picture- don't count on this getting done in 2018 (hopefully 2019).  This is a super time consuming project.  If I can stay away from an Amy Home Study maybe I can work on this.  Who am I kidding - I have 3 of those to finish.  Let's just try not to start a new one!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

xoxo

Another Strawberry Finished !

Next up is a Fall Weekend!

Strawberry Basket in Progress

Hi,

I didn't get a lot of needlepoint done this weekend because I was finishing up my daughter's scarf.  Now that that's done (!) I can continue on...


Here's plenty of red to choose from for the strawberries which are all french knots.  I guess this is why I have stash!

 I did manage to finish the background at least.

Hopefully tonight I  can finish this up.  I ought to work on a fall project but will have to see what jumps out at me next.  Maybe I'll go back to the little fall basket.

Have a great week!

How I Spent My Weekend

Hi there,

I'm getting to the point of the year where I can only stitch easy or fast.  I have way too much going on in my head.  So this is what I took out to stitch on this weekend.

Another Strawberry - fits in with easy and fast.

One of the Roo Bear panels.  Believe it or not also easy (maybe not fast).

And the hands down easy one is basketweave on 13 mesh that you hold in your hand and roll up at the end of the afternoon!  Almost finished the border.  Yay!

And for those of you that follow the Chilly Hollow blog...it was one strand of white DMC floss that I used on the bunny's whiskers not dental floss.

Have a Happy Wednesday!

ROO BEAR ... So Old It's New Again

Hi there,

We are getting our act together in order to sell our  house which means going through all the stuff we have accumulated and deciding what to let go of.  Since I am the stuff collector I really need to get a handle on this.  Right now I'm only emotionally able to ORGANIZE my needlepoint  (not let it go) , but that day too is coming.  Like my friends I have 5 lifetimes worth of KITTED projects to finish!

Here's my first Amy home study from 2008 - back when they weren't so LONG.  Yes, it's Roo Bear.  I got it out to see if I could consolidate the threads and the remaining canvases but there's still too much to do.  This little bear is 10 canvases of which I have done 6.

There are 2 of these (4 panels) - I've done 1 canvas of 2 panels.  Pretty easy stitching.

Tummy and Back - 2 more panels to go

Right Leg

Top of his Head

Ears and Paws

Left Arm

Left Leg

With all that you would think I was almost finished wouldn't you?  After all I've done one arm, both legs,  his ears and paws, the top of his head and half of his tummy/back!

But no there's lots more!  I still have the sides of his head, the other arm, the front pocket where supposedly he's holding his candy (not that real candy will ever touch this bear) and the other panel for his back.  Yep that's 4 more canvases.


So I'm going to start with this one...the other arm.  It's apparently the same pattern as his ear.

My friend Lisa has this too - in fact I think she may have yet another bear in her stash.  She nimbly avoided this by becoming president of our ANG chapter then of the national chapter and then by starting her magnet business.  All of which put Roo Bear (and everything else) on the back burner...but her day is coming.  She's younger than I am so I guess she figures she has more time!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Halloween Candy #8

Hi all,

This is the second piece of needlepoint I took on my car trip so I think I will try and finish this up this weekend.  Of course it will go in the drawer until next year for finishing!

This one finishes up the candy series from Bedecked and Beadazzled.  I really enjoyed these and they were great car projects.

Just like the strawberries are now!!!

Have a great weekend - hope to get some finishing from Ruth tomorrow or Saturday.  YUM

More Vacation Stitching

 Hi everyone,

A little over a year ago I said to my family...."I have been through my LAST hurricane". (That would be Irma).   They all stared at me like I had finally lost my marbles.  After all, I go back to Hurricane Donna in 1960 so you would think I was ok with hurricanes.  But no... I have decided to re-locate and take them all with me.  So off to North Carolina I go - I've been there twice now this summer and was there last week when Hurricane Michael followed me up there.  And that is no joke- we were leaving Georgia on the way to North Carolina on Wednesday and we were NOT STOPPING.  (Lesson learned: You can run but you cannot hide)  This trip we decided to take the car to see if it was possible to live through THAT experience as well.

Did you know that you can get a LOT of stitching done on a 2 day car trip?  I also found out how much/little you get done stitching per hour.  It took me about 5 hours to stitch this background starting in rush hour in Miami and ending in Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Tonight I finished this little strawberry with the beads and the ribbon.  I've left the striped ribbon a little long until I get it back and then I can trim it post finishing.

Now I can finish my last Halloween candy which was the other vacation stitching I took with me.


Happy Wednesday!!

Almost Fall

Hi everyone,

I've got one more strawberry done.  Love little projects!

So now it's on to fall stitching before it's time to work on Christmas stitching.  Notice I'm completely bypassing Thanksgiving this year EVEN THOUGH I STILL HAVE ALL 5 ELEGANT THANKSGIVING PIECES TO DO!!  This is a group project with my friends so it's more fun than working alone.  We all get to help each other.  And it's pretty small which is a plus.

I'm hoping one of my friends has the red-orange beads for this little guy's eyes.  Even I don't want to buy a tube of beads for 3 beads.

Once I get this under control I need to get back to the Gingerbread House.  Not sure what happened with my plan to do 2 sections a week???

And I signed up to do the companion piece to that house in February!  OMG

Have a great Wednesday

xoxo

First Strawberry Finish

Here's my first strawberry from Barbara's Needlepoint.

I changed some threads because the ones in the kit were just too heavy for me.  So that's 2 strands of white floche instead of Pepper Pot and then the dit dot in between is a cross stitch in white Petite Silk Lame.  I've got one more to finish from my last trip (they went to North Carolina) and then I'll send them in for finishing.

Happy Wednesday!

What's Next ?

My friend Millie loves to tease me about my unfinished projects. 

Here's a blast from the past.  I uncovered this while organizing my stitching closet.  It's a pink birdhouse all kitted up.  It's from WAY BACK so it's pretty easy.  I think I'll try and do it in sections - starting with the purple shutters.  I think I last worked on this in 2010, but whose counting years at this point!

Then of course there's the gorilla on my desk.  Oh, I have come so far!  Next up here is to finish the last witch's hair and hat.  At least I finished all those pesky little pumpkins!  The trees are another issue 😝  Something involving gnarly branches....

Have a great day!

A Decision is Finally Made

Hi there,

This one has been sitting next to my desk for about a month while I ponder the ground beneath the house.  Tonight I finally decided that ground doesn't have to be straight across.  And I actually like it this way .  How many canvases have I done with rolling hills??? So my Halloween house now has a rolling  ground.

I especially like the spider climbing up the wall!  I do hope he's not destroyed in the finishing process!

This was another fun canvas that I had FOREVER and now it's done!

Mini Christmas Wreath

All finished and SEW MUCH FUN!

Sunday Finish Off the Shelf

Hi there,

It took 2 days and the longest Dolphin game ever to get this finished.  I only have one more candy so I think I will aim to finish up this series.  This one had a LOT of beads as you can see.  The last one has almost none!

Have a great week!

White Rabbit

Hi there,

I am of a certain age where "White Rabbit" only meant one thing... the hit song by the Jefferson Airplane.  I also wanted to be Grace Slick so this was an obvious one to pick up from the TBF pile.

It still astonishes me how floss whiskers look so real!

Have a blessed Sunday xoxo

Egg Finishing

Stitch guides and finishing by Enriched Stitch.  Like they say in racing - do not try this on your own!  Leave to the professionals!!

Have a great weekend!

Running out of Space!

Hi there,

I'm running out of space on my stitching shelf!  My Amy Cookbooks are getting smushed!  These projects are the "grab and go" ones but they don't seem to be going anywhere.  In fact I think they're multiplying.

 


So I better finish one of these little projects and free up some room.  Here's a bunny that went on a vacation and never got finished.  Lots of tennis on tv so this is a good one.  I love how the shading shows through the wisper!

Vacation Project Complete!

Starry Starry Night

Working the background in and around the trees!

Top border done on secret project!

Great Way to Start Monday

Chain is Done!  You know I hated cutting that!

Border Started

This project is a surprise so you will only see bits and pieces of it on my blog.

Here is the right half of the top border.  Petite Very Velvet tent stitch then couched kreinik with ribbon leaves AND THE PERFECT BUTTON!

A Girl Has To Have Transportation

I was feeling a little bit guilty so I went ahead and did the broom!  Needs more trimming.  I think I'll ponder on that a bit.  😊

How To Do Three Projects At Once

First,  this is what it looks like.  

"Ponder" in the back.  Then "almost finished vacation project" in the middle and what's that up front?  My newest from Ruth. 

No it's not a mystery project.  It starts with a coupon.  Then,  I went to the sale page and before you could blink I had ordered the kitty, threads and stitch guide.  All while completely blowing through my coupon.  Beware coupons when you don't really need anything!

These are the buttons that go in the corners.  LOVE THEM!

Here's the big picture

And the vacation project - I'm taking out the tulips in the right front grass and re-doing them from lazy daisy to straight stitch.  They look too big and bushy to me.

Now I am totally re-energized for the weekend!

Happy Friday 😊