Monday Update

Thursday I finished up the September Snapshot...

(Finish #23) September 13th, 2018

September Snapshot from Pine Mountain Designs

Stitched on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC and 1 GAST

Started Sept 8th. Took me 6 Days.

 

So that's another YOW (Year of WIPs) marked off the list of 20. Just need one more to qualify for the end of the year giveaways. Wohoo! Plus I only have October left to do until the whole Snapshot series is finished from that I did for the Smalls SAL last year. It's kitted up and ready to go so I really hope it will be finished before the end of October.

 

After finishing that up I put two days into the Halloween Spooky Sampler from Frosted Pumpkin. I shared a WIP photo of it in my last post already. 

 

Over the weekend we went to the cabin. We installed a screen door...

Now every time I open the door it scares me since there is a 2nd door haha. It will be so nice when the Fall temps finally arrive and we can have the windows open. Both panes of glass come out so it will have a lot of air flow. My Uncle also made us a beautiful new cabinet to go between the beds...

Now we have somewhere to sit our drinks when we are on the bed. Also decorating space which is always nice to have. Mom came down and spent the night Saturday night. We put up a cot for Jeremiah to sleep on and it worked fantastic. So it's nice to know we can all 4 be in there overnight. Plus Izzy (our dog) came down for the weekend. She had a blast too. The weather was hot again but we still had a lot of fun.

Now we have a busy busy week ahead. We are leaving for vacation Monday the 24th. So lots to do to be ready for that. I get to attend a new to me stitching retreat in Harrisburg, PA though and see several of my PALs Retreat friends so I'm really looking forward to that. We've never been to that area so we are looking forward to new experiences too. I look forward to sharing our adventures on my blog again. So hope you can travel a long with us in spirit. Hope everyone has a great week!

September Gifted Gorgeousness

The 15th of every month we have a Gifted Gorgeousness check in. The idea of this fun blog SAL is to share things we are stitching as gifts or things we have received as gifts. Pop over to the wonderful Jo's blog to see what everyone has shared this time around.

Since the 15th of August I've worked on so many different pieces but let's see what qualifies for this SAL...

Last time I shared a WIP picture of You are Loved by Hinzeit that my hubby gave me for Christmas...

I finished it August 27th...

I also shared a new project I was going to start that my hubby got me for Christmas as well the Halloween Spooky Sampler from Frosted Pumpkin...

Here is where I am now on this one...

My sweet hubby also got me the Christmas one which I can't wait to start but I'm still in a Halloween mood so it will have to wait till later this year. I'm really hoping to finish this Halloween one. We'll see.

I joined Faith from Faithfully Stitching in an exchange. She was interested in the You are Loved pattern. So I swapped her for this beautiful piece of fabric...

Can't wait to find something to use it for. I'm always in need of fabrics. Thanks Faith for the great swap!

Have a great month! See ya next GG update with hopefully more progress on the Halloween Sampler.

Monday Update

What a wonderful weekend. We decided to take the weekend off. We got a TON of DVR shows watched. Plus I got a TON of stitching time. So I showed you my WIP of the September Durene Jones piece Friday afternoon in my last post. I was able to get it finished up and put together Friday evening...

(Finish #22) September 7th, 2018

September from Durene Jones Calendar
Freebie available on her FB Group
Stitched on 14ct Ecru Aida
Threads are suggested DMC
Started Sept 4th. Took 4 Days.

 

I can't believe I only have 3 more of these to do. I've enjoyed them so much. Sure seems to make the year fly by when I have a cute little monthly to stitch up. 

 

Saturday morning I started the September Snapshot from Pine Mountain Designs. Here is what it will look like...

Here is where I got with Saturday and Sunday full of stitching on it...

Here we are with a new week. We plan on getting out our fall/Halloween decorations this week. We finally have had nice temperatures and we even had to be long pants on this past weekend. We are getting a little warmer this week but only like low 80's instead of high 90's so we'll take it.

If you are on the East Coast of the US please be careful of this hurricane that's coming. Sure sounds scary. My favorite place to vacation OBX, North Carolina might get a lot of damage. I guess we're glad we aren't vacationing there this year after all. I hope everyone stays safe and the damage they are predicting stays small. We were there for Hurricane Matthew and they said it was nothing compared to this one. Scary.

Have a great week! Hope we all find time for those fabulous X's. 

Weekend Off

We are taking this weekend off. Not going anywhere. Not even the cabin. We have got so far behind on our TV shows on our DVR. Plus it's supposed to be really rainy from Hurricane Gordon believe it or not. We might get 2 to 5 inches of rain by Monday they are saying. So we decided to make it a TV watching weekend. Which translates into a lot of stitching time too Wohoo!

I've been working on September from the Durene Jones Calendar this week...

Just need to finish the backstitching on the front panel, stitch the back panel, and put it together. Since I was close and hoping for a finish soon. I spent some time this morning kitting up 3 other projects...

The last two Snapshots I have to do which are September and October. Plus a tiny Erica Michael Petite called Scared Squared that's stitches on 40ct silk gauze. Soon as I finish the Durene Jones piece I can get started on the September Snapshot.

Have a great weekend!

Monday Update: A Finish and a HAED Week

Last Monday I was able to finish up You are Loved...

Finish # 21 August 27th, 2018

You are Loved by Hinzeit

Christmas 2017 Gift from Fred

Stitched on 28ct Beige Jobelan Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC Threads

Started Dec 30th, 2017. Took 14 Days.

I'm so happy to have it marked off my YOW (Year of WIPs) list. I just need two more things marked off the list and I will be entered into the end of the year drawing for the YOW group. I will definitely have the Durene Jones piece finished for then. So I just need one more marked off. Wonder which one it will be?

After I finished that one up I heard my HAEDs (Heaven and Earth Designs) screaming Remember Us? So I looked through them and ended up having Jeremiah pick a number for me. First one he picked was Dragon Moon. Here is what she will look like again...

The artwork is from Nene Thomas unfortunately her designs are now OOP at HAED or at least last I checked they were. I hadn't worked on it since March this year. I put two more days into it and here is the progress now after 12 Days on it...

I'm stitching it 1 thread over 1 complete X on 32ct taupe evenweave. The sparkle doesn't show up very well in this picture. There is a lot of Kreinik blending filament in this one. What a pain but it looks pretty when it's in.

After those two days I asked Jeremiah to pick another number from my HAEDs and he picked Dragon Skies from Selina Fenech...

I'm doing it 1 thread over 1 complete x on 32ct as well. This one was from the lovely Justine and I hadn't worked on it since March 2016! I worked on it Thursday and yesterday. Here it is now with 11 days of progress...

I was so glad to get away from the Kreinik in the other one and yep you can see it in this one....it's mostly Kreinik in the area I worked on the past two days. So frustrating but again it looks pretty after it's in the fabric. I got 6 columns finished up now on the first page. Looks like I'm almost to the top of the dragonfly according to the artwork photo so that's good. I glanced ahead and several of the pages are just B5200. What a boring page that will be. But I will LOVE it once I get to that beautiful fairy and dragon!

Over the weekend we went up to our friends house in Michigan. It was just the 4 of us (Jeremiah decided to stay home and have an Xbox weekend) and it was forecast to be HOT and rainy. So we asked them if we could stay in their old camper instead of bringing our tent. Boy I'm glad we did. The weather was horrible. We even had a tornado touch down 6 miles away from us. We had fun but so glad to be home in the AC again. We didn't do much at all. We spent Saturday shopping at several fun places and 2 breweries instead of kayaking which I'm glad we did with all the lightning that ended up being in the area. It was a fun relaxing weekend with great friends at least along the Kalamazoo River...

I hope everyone has a great week. As always I feel overwhelmed with all I need to do. Hopefully though I can squeeze in some X's. Hope you can too!

Smalls SAL

Today is the last Friday of the month which means it's time for a Smalls SAL check in. I joined this SAL a few years ago and decided to pick year long monthly designs to stitch up to display on a shelf unit. I am trying to finish them up each month they represent. So far I only missed July by one day and really I got the stitching done in July just not the finishing part. August I luckily had no problem finishing up in time...

This years set I picked is from Durene Jones. It's a calendar set she has available for free on her Facebook group. I've really enjoyed stitching them so far. Can't believe there are only 4 more left.

Monday Update

Last week I posted my finished Skeleton face. I finished that up Wednesday. Thursday I pulled out the Spring Bell Pull and worked on it. Friday I heard another WIP calling my name and pulled out You are Loved again. I worked on it a bit Friday in the middle of packing and getting ready for the weekend away at the cabin. I took it along with me because it's at that point where I might as well finish it up. Saturday we had some plans but we woke up at 5am to pouring heavy rain so we canceled our plans for the day. It rained heavy until the afternoon. I heard we got 2 inches of rain. I never see standing water at the campground and boy it was everywhere...

 

 

The top picture shows where we normally setup our tent. Another time we were sure glad we didn't have it setup. It was sure a horrible day. But we made it a fabulous day! Fred finished up my chair and the pretty purple paracord on the arms instead of the ugly worn rubber...

We watched 3 movies we had really been wanting to watch together. Plus I got a ton of stitching time. So we made it a good good day. Jeremiah didn't even get changed out of his pjs so he was a happy camper he said. Just the day we needed. We did go out and grab pizza for dinner but that was it. Very relaxing.

My last post showed the before picture on You are Loved. Here I am now...

So close. See why I'm keeping it out until it's finished. Can't put it away now can I?

Sunday the heat was back on. It felt like 100 degrees again. So we started to work on the remaining bits of our deck roof and stopped quickly. We did get the front metal on though...

 

It definitely gives it a more finished look now on the front end. We have one more section to add to the back part that is above the cabin but we decided it could wait till it was cooler. My Uncle and friends were able to get my grandparent's extended roof all finished up during the week. I forgot to get a picture of it though. I will next time we are there. It looks wonderful. So another wonderful weekend even though it rained and rained.

This week it's hot hot hot again. This coming weekend it's supposed to cool down a little bit and it's Labor Day weekend here in the US. We are going up to Michigan to camp with friends in their yard. We will miss our cabin but it will be nice to hang out with our friends. Hope everyone has a great week. I'm hoping to have a finish to report soon.

August WIPocalypse

Today is time for a WIPocalypse check in. The purpose of this blog SAL is to finish all our WIPs before the end of the world. I know I have no hope what so ever haha. Only if all the designers stopped putting out new and beautiful things. Plus if my WIP basket and tub somehow got finished. See like I said....Never Going To Happen! So every month the world doesn't end we share our progress on this endless task. I personally like to use this SAL to keep track of what I work on and for how many days each. So let's see what I've been working on since the last check in...

Durene Jones Calendar -- 5 Days
I got July finished up right after my last check in...

I was also able to start and finish August...

Ocean in a Bottle -- 2 Days
Here it was before...

Here it is now...

You Are Loved -- 3 Days
Here it was before...

The after will be posted tomorrow for my Monday update because I worked on it over the weekend at the cabin. I've took this one to the cabin twice now and had two great progress days while there. It's getting close to a finish and I think I'll keep it out till I can mark it off my list. So come back tomorrow to see the new progress photo.

Frosted Pumpkin Halloween Spooky Sampler -- 6 Days
I finally got started on this fun design and am happy with my progress on it so far...

Halloween Mini Skeleton Face -- 5 Days
I had this one just barely started before...

Now the skeleton face is finished up and ready to be finished off and on display for this Halloween hopefully....

Spring Bell Pull -- 1 Day
I'm working on the N block still. Here it was before...

Here it is now. I got the top part finished up...

I only had 6 days of no stitching this time around so that's good. 5 of those were days we were busy at the cabin so that's at least a good excuse to miss stitching. The other day I was busy catching up reading blogs and emails so still an okay reason if you ask me.

Also with the WIPocalypse we get fun questions to answer so we can get to know each other. Question of the Month:Which is more satisfying to you and why – the process of stitching a piece, or the finish? Hmm I like them both equally. I just love being in love with the process of stitching a piece. When a piece is calling my name my needles just seem to fly. This month I've enjoyed each piece I've worked on. I love working on several different pieces and as you can see I did just that from the above photos. But when I get close to a finish it's really exciting too. It's always nice to know you are going to marking one off that long WIP list. So I guess I enjoy both for different reasons. I'm excited about finishing up You are Loved and getting it framed. I think I will hang it in the cabin. I was looking around for the perfect spot while we were there this weekend.

I'll be back tomorrow with my weekend update. Thanks for stopping by.

Skeleton Finish to Report

(Finish #20) August 22nd, 2018

Skeleton Face from Halloween Minis by Artecy Cross Stitch

  2nd finished of the 8 I want to do.

Stitched on 14ct White Aida
Used Suggested DMC Threads
Started Whole Design for DUCJC Jan 2nd, 2016. 

Started this Face Aug 19th, 2017. Took 6 Days. 

I hope I made the Creepy Skeleton happy since he is now finished. I do really like how he turned out.  I think these will make really cool creepy cube finishes. Maybe even before the upcoming Halloween season. Just need to get the stuff to finish them off. Jeremiah picked out the Vampire face (which you can see in my last post) for the next time I get back to this WIP. I think I hear another WIP calling for now though. We'll see.

Monday Update

Hey it's Monday and another Monday that I have a whole bunch to tell you about. Pull up a chair and let's chat...

Last Monday I finished off the August Durene Jones pillow and got it on display. I just need to update my finishes page. Then I got 4 days of progress in on the Frosted Pumpkin Halloween piece. I teased you in my last post and told you I had worked on it but no progress picture till I got the rest of Thursday and a little of Friday on it. I had a goal and I met my goal of finishing off the H and A blocks Friday morning. Here is the picture finally...

This is 6 days total now. It's a fun piece to work on. Goes quickly and that is always nice. Friday started IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend) Fred had a meeting after work so I got a little extra time before we headed down to our cabin for the weekend. We also had planned a lazy weekend away at the cabin so I thought I would get a lot of time in both days of the weekend. I decided to stick with the Halloween theme and pulled out these fun Halloween Mini's by Artecy...

I had started these for the January challenge in 2016. I am doing 8 of them since there are 4 of them I just don't care for. I am doing them on individual aida pieces so I can finish them into either pillows or cubes to display. I finished the pumpkin face in August of 2016. I didn't get the project back out till September 2017 unfortunately. That month I got a start on the skeleton face and had 1 day of progress on it...

I thought it was about time to get back to it. Friday I was able to get this much added to it...

Kinda creepy looking. Saturday I was able to steal time throughout the day at the cabin...

Now he is staring at me telling me to hurry up! Jeremiah told me at least the rest of the stitching looks like a nice smile right now haha. Sunday was so busy that I didn't get any stitching time. This one is still literally demanding to be worked on.....those eyes.....so it will stay out until I can get it to stop.

Next topic....our time at the cabin. Remember how I said it was going to be a lazy relaxed weekend. Yeah right haha.

Not only was it IHSW for me but it was a contest weekend for Fred's Ham radio hobby. They had a national contest where lighthouses and lighthouse ships setup radio event stations and broadcast. If you make a contact with them you get a postcard in the mail for making the contact. Fred setup his radio stuff on our porch and messed with it on and off Saturday throughout the day to make contacts. He also found out it was a contest weekend for all of North America so the radio waves were really busy which made it hard to find only the lighthouses participating plus he has now discovered he needs to invest some money into a better antenna to make better contacts. Which I told him it's perfect timing with Christmas being so close. Santa needs a shopping list you know? Here are some photos of all that fun...

 

 

The bottom picture is something I made up to show all the contacts he made for the contests.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon Fred also helped my Uncle and his step son with extending my Grandparent's cabin porch roof. They wanted a covered porch like we have. It only had a little 4 foot covered section before...

Not quite finished but boy they got a lot done already. Sunday we got together and finished up the rest of Dad's corn and got it cut and bagged up. We have to shuck it, cook it, and then cut if off the cob. Then you put it in ziplock freezer bags and this winter you just take it out and cook it when you're ready for delicious corn off the cob. Here are some pictures of that...

 

 

 

 

The last picture shows my Grandma and me cutting it off the cobs. It's hard work but so worth it. So our lazy weekend we had thought we would have was busy busy but we enjoyed it so much.

I told you I had a lot of chat about. I hope everyone has a great week. Hopefully we can all work in those X's too. The skeleton eyes are demanding attention from me haha.