Blogging Break

Just a quick post to let you know that I will be taking a blogging break for the next little while.  Hopefully not too long, but depending on circumstances it may be a month or more.  I will try to keep reading your blogs, but I can't promise that I'll be able to stay on top of that either at this time.  I do wish you all  the best and hope that you will be patient with me until things calm down in my world. 

Karen

Totally inappropriate Santa update on Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!  I hope you get lots of ghosts and goblins at your door begging for treats.  :o)

I have no Halloween or fall like projects on the go... all I have is Santa.... so, here's a pic of  what I've done over the last couple of days. 

I wonder if anyone ever dresses up as Santa for Halloween?? lol 

I'm thoroughly enjoying this project.  I love that I can stitch for an hour and see a ton of progress.  Going back to the small counts of fabric I'm used to will be a challenge lol.  Anyways, this was just a quick update post to prove that I have been stitching.

I wish everyone the best this Halloween!

Karen

Santa Update

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and that's the longest I've had between post in some time.  I've held off on posting because well, I just didn't have anything stitchy to share.   Last night,  I finally managed to sit down with needle and yarn and this is the progress that was made.

 Santa is finally starting to look like a Santa. If I can just sit and stitch I know he won't take long at all to complete, but I just can't seem to get into a good stitching groove.  Oh well, every strand stitched means progress even if it is only one strand per sitting. 

It looks to be a beautiful sunny day here in New Brunswick, albeit on the cold side (it is 0 Celsius right now brrrrrrrrrrrrr).   I hope your weekend is an enjoyable one with many stitching pleasures!

Karen

Something Different

This is something a little different for me since I rarely use aida. Actually, I can't even remember the last time I used aida. It is a Santa kit by Janlyn and has been sitting in my stash for a few years now like a lot of my things, but it takes up quite a bit of space since it is kitted with yarn. So, I thought its time to get this out of the way (literally) and the easiest way to do that is to actually stitch it. It shouldn't take too long, after all it is stitched on a huge aida count with yarn.

The kit is a complete kit including little bells for trim, felt for backing, and a ton of yarn to stitch with. I'm not even minding the aida. It is soft to the touch, not stiff like some of the stuff I used years ago. I usually find it looks really blocky for lack of a better word, but that isn't even bothering me with this. Perhaps I've been a fabric snob for too long and need to give aida another chance. I do believe it has its place in the stitching world.

I'm sorry to say that I have been extremely busy recently and I just haven't had the time to post comments regularly although I do read your blogs regularly. Hopefully, things will start to slow down soon and I'll have a little more spare time.

Also, I wanted to thank all of you for your very kind comments on my finish of Shades of Autumn.  There are a couple of mistakes in it that I noticed after I was finished, but they won't be coming out.  It just makes it a little more unique to me.  At least that's how I'm going to look at it.  hehe

And finally, I hope all of my Canadian friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend last week with family and friends and lots of good food. As a Canadian, I believe we truly do have a lot to be thankful for in our every day lives. :)

Finished it!

I'm very pleased to share a finish with all of you! 

Shades of Autumn

by

Nancy's Needle

Recommended threads

18 ct canvas

As per usual, I under-estimated how much time it would take me to finish this off today.  Each of the four remaining squares took about 45 mins-1 hour.... crazyness, I know!  lol  Anyways, I'm pleased to say that after about 5 or 6 hours (maybe more) of stitching today (and yes, that's a lot of stitching for me in one day!) It's done! 

I'm not sure if I'm going to get this framed or if I'll make it into a little pillow.  I think I'm leaning towards having it framed. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks for your lovely comments!    :) 

Shades of Autumn is coming to an end.  I have 4 more squares around the outside and the final border left.  This piece is definitely taking much longer than I anticipated.  With the coverage of the thread and the fact that you don't stitch every hole, I figured this would be a really quick stitch.  But the fact is, each outside square is taking me about 30 minutes to complete. I think this is mainly because of the many colour changes.  I'm not one to drag my thread accross the back, so I start and stop my thread for almost every bar.  With the way the pattern is laid out it's not simple to see where the colours will be in the next square.  So, I find it easier to just stop my thread after each bar.

With any luck, this will be finished before I head back to work tomorrow.  If my estimate of 30 minutes per square is correct there should only be a couple of more hours of  "intensive" colour changing work.  The outside border shouldn't take too long since it's all one colour. 

Oh yea, I received a notice in the mail yesterday that there is a package waiting for me at the post office.  It should be my JCS Halloween book and the Christmas issue!  Can't wait to pick them up!  :)

From My Grandmother's Closet

I always new that one of my Grandmother's was very talented with a needle and thread, but I didn't know that my other Grandmother also had a hidden talent.  Last night, my mom told me that her mother enjoyed embroidery a lot, but never had the time or money to work on it.  I was always told that she didn't like sewing at all, so, I figured that included every form of needlework.  What a surprise! Hidden away in her closet was a stamped linen tablecloth that my mom passed on to me. 

This is just one corner of the tablecloth and you can see the price tag is still attached.  My mom thinks she probably bought it in the discount basement at Eatons.  She paid a whole $1.39 for it.  It is 36"x36" and the linen is really heavy.  Nothing at all like today's linen.  There wasn't a pattern, so, I'll have to try my hand at figuring out a colour scheme for this.  It could be fun or frustrating lol!

Something else she found hidden away was something I think I actually worked on as a kid.  It looks kind of familiar anyways, and since the Xs in that little finished patch don't all go the right way, I'm assuming I did it lol. 

It is a small table runner.  Can you believe all of the threads and the pattern were still with it in the terribly tattered paper bag!  I haven't worked on stamped cross stitch in a very long time, but it might be fun for a change. 

Next up is today's stitching progress on my canvas piece. 

It has been terribly hot and humid the last couple of days, and I haven't felt like stitching very much. I did manage to pick up my needle for an hour or two today and this is what became of it.  The center part definitely stitches up much more quickly than the outside border.  With any luck, I'll have this finished within the next couple of weeks.  

In other news, I've signed up for a Victoria Sampler SAL at the Stitchers' Village for the month of October. I haven't picked out a pattern just yet, and I guess I should get on it since October is only a week away!   

And finally, I don't discuss my work in very much detail on here, but I thought I'd share a little something with you.  I'm taking on a new "acting" role and start training tomorrow.  If all goes well and the position gets approved by upper management, the position will become permanent at a later date.  The transition from union to management is not the easiest of feats in my place of work and there's a lot of red-tape to get through before that ever happens, but I'll be crossing my fingers and toes that this becomes long term!  Overall, I'm looking forward to the change.  If it doesn't become permanent, I'll enjoy the change for as long as it lasts.  And the bonus (at least in my opinion) is that I get to continue working a condensed work week with a mixture of days and overnights.  I may be crazy, but I love this schedule.  Hmmm, maybe this schedule is making me crazy haha!  ;o) 

That's all for now folks!  Have a great week!

Karen

Stitching at the speed of a turtle....

Where art though oh stitchy mojo!?!?  You are not lost completely, but other desires have taken your place these last few days.  Why can I not sit for hours like I once did?  My fingers have been working, but the progress is very slow these last few days.  I guess I should be glad I haven't lost my desire to stitch completely, just mostly.... 

The little bit of stitching I have completed on my days off has resulted in the following progress:

This is the top half of the pattern.  A lot of you probably think that I've made plenty of progress, but you have to remember how quickly the main portion stitched up and that I've had 3 days to stitch to my hearts content and this is all I have to show for it! I am sooo ashamed!  

The boxes around the center portion were a bit boring and I think  that's why my stitching progress has slowed to the pace of a turtle.  They're great for when I'm tired, but not so much when I'm alert.  Maybe I need to have something else on the go?  That's a pretty big decision for a one-at-a-time stitcher!  But I feel the urge to stitch soemthing with specialty stitches....  hmmmm.....:) 

In my last post I mentioned that my order from Picture This Plus, from about 3 months ago, finally arrived!  They had such a huge response to their sale that they sent out an email shortly after and stated that they hoped they would have all of their sale orders fulfilled by the beginning of September.  It's great to see a little company like this be in such great demand!  And here's a couple of pics of what I got:

From left to right:  All are 32ct fat quarters of linen.  First, is Chalice which is more orangey/peachy than the picture shows.  I think it will work for some Halloween pieces.  Next,  is Relic, which is a gorgeous neutral light brown, and then Heritage which is also a lovely neutral.  The fibers are needed for another Counted Canvas piece that I have in my stash.  I also ordered the piece of canvas for it, but I didn't bother putting it in the picture cause it's pretty plain.

And I also ordered Spting Quaker and all of the goodies needed to stitch it!  I can't wait to get my fingers on those Valdani threads! 

That's all I got for now.  Happy Wednesday!

Karen

STASH = Stitching Treasures Acquired and Still Hidden

While at work last night my mind wondered to something pretty serious for me.....  my STASH.  Sometimes, I feel that I might have little too much set aside for my future stitching adventures.  Have I reached SABLE(Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy)??.  But when I see something I gotta have, it quickly goes into a cart from an online site, credit card info entered and ta da,  a few weeks later it arrives at my door.... my next  S.E.X.  (Stash Enhancing Experience). 

Like most people I have UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and WIPs (Works in Progress) and even a few WISP (Works in SLOW Progress), all waiting for that forever elusive HD (Happy Dance).  Maybe my UFOs have had too many FROGs (rip-it, rip-it) and have been shamefully been set aside for years?

 Overall, it never fails, for some reason, somehow, I manage to see something that I just got to have even though there are so many things in my STASH (Stitching Treasures Aqcuired and Still Hidden)  sitting there.  My charts, fabrics, and threads are just waiting for their time to shine on my Q-Snaps or Scroll Frames,  but someone out there has enabled me and so they remain in their bins and boxes hidden from view.  I do believe I am fairly easily enabled and I suspect that others reading my blog might have been enabled a time or two themselves.  I mean, really, all it takes is seeing a picture of a project that you really like than off to the LNS/ONS (Local/Online Needlework Store) we go. 

Some of us have been on the wagon and have done very well at it.  I know I make the same vow every year, to stitch from my existing stash.  Maybe if there was some sort of real punishment for S.E.X. than I would refrain from adding to my ever-growing STASH.   Some have even tried to STRIP (Stash Reduction Implementation Plan)!  Shocking, I know.   And then there are others that  try being PRUDE ( Person Resisting Unnecessarily Diminishing Existing stash) and so look to the enabler to help them figure out what to add to their STASH so they can have their next S.E.X. experience.

These are the odd things that go through my mind in the wee hours of the morning while at work on an overnight shift.  After feeling the guilty pleasures of another S.E.X. experience this week when my order from Picture This Plus arrived, I started to think about SABLE.  Which lead me to think about all of the other lovely stitchy acronyms we have and ones that should exist and don't.  What do you think of all of our lovely stitching acronyms?  Can you believe that STASH doesn't seem to have an acronym?  At least I couldn't find one.  After some careful thought of my own STASH I came up with Stitching Treasures Acquired and Still Hidden.  My STASH is hidden away in baskets and bins, under my bed and in my closet.  So, I guess it works quite well for me lol.  What are your thoughts?  What does STASH mean to you?  My mind sure does wonder at work sometimes hehe.  :)

Oh, and I apologize for all of my crazy talk above.  This is what happens when I write posts without sleep!  I promise that my next post will be much more sensible and won't have a single acronym in site and will hopefully include some pics of my newly acquired STASH.

Happy Sunday!

Karen

A lil' finish and my first counted canvas

Lots of stitches have been made over the last couple of days.  First up is the finish of one of the four snowfakes in my old JCS magazine.   

Snowflake Ornament

by

Alice Okon for Whicelt Imports

JCS December 1995

28 ct scrap of linen

Threadworx 1083

Mill Hill Beads

The orginal version in the magazine was on a teal green fabric with gold thread, which didn't really appeal to me.  But these types of designs are kinda unversal and easy to substitute with whatever you would like, so, after a very quick search, I chose Threadworx 1083. I also added a few beads to give it a bit of sparkle.  Overall, I'm quite pleased with the end result and plan on doing the three other snowflakes with different overdyed threads eventually.

Next, is something a little different for me.  Counted canvas work.  It caught my eye at my LNS about a year ago, which is when I bought everything for it.  They have the finished piece hanging  on the wall, and I just loved it and had to have it.  Since then, it has been sitting in my stash waiting for the right time to be stitched.  It is by From Nancy's Needle and is called Shades of Autumn. 

Shades of Autumn

by Nancy's Needle

Recommended Threads

These pieces really seem to stitch up quite quickly.  I started it yesterday morning and have about a quarter of it completed, give or take....  I've worked on needlepoint painted canvas' in the past, but never ventured into counted canvas.  It's really quite enjoyable.  I look forward to doing more of these in the future.  The ladies in the store warned me when I picked it out that I'd be hooked on needlepoint after one project, and I think they were right haha.

I'm off again tomorrow and am looking forward to some more quality time with my needle.  I'm not sure if I'll keep working on the canvas piece or work on another snowflake.  I already have my second snowflake started using a red overdyed Threadworx floss.  Which ever grabs my attention in the AM shall be what gets worked.  :) 

Variegated Snowflakes

Sometimes, something can be said for simplicity.   I've been so busy lately that my stitches have been few, and when I made some on "Summer" by Victoria Sampler I realized I was using the wrong thread.....  There were only a few stitches, so, it wasn't too hard to frog, but when I finished frogging, I decided to turn my attention to something with no thread changes and simple Xs.  Something easier to do when I'm tired out, but still wanting to relax with my stitching. 

I still had my magazine sitting out that had the Victorian Stockings in it (JCS Dec 1995).  After quickly thumbing through, I found 4 snowflake ornaments.  Their version was done on blue linen with gold cotton thread.  Kinda dated to say the least.  Knowing that I had some variegated Needle Necessities threads not too far away and some fabric scraps already cut, it was an easy decision to go with the Snowflakes. The thread I chose consists of light pink, burgandy, and green.  I'm thinking of adding a few beads at the end to give it some sparkle.  Anyways, here's a pic of my very meager start.

And that's all I've got to show for now.  I've got another long week at work this week with more extra shifts, so, I expect the stitches will be few. 

I hope everyone had an enjoyable long weekend filled with lots of stitching and fun. 

Karen