Last Post of 2018 ?

Well, life has been busy, but that is part of the joy of having family around for Christmas.

I have been stitching on one large piece lately. It is out and I am making progress.
Here is where I last showed you:

And here I am now:

I discovered a huge mistake while stitching the ox, so I had to rip out a section. At least I did not make a hole in my linen!












I do have some plans for 2019. Right now they are just running around in my head, but hopefully I will get them written out and posted before the end of January. With photos too! My college kids are still home and I am trying to enjoy my time with them before they return to school.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you and yours have a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Eve and I am Working on...

FALL! It is my Mill Hill project and I wanted to share it with you.

I am making some progress as I have finished using all of the beads in one package. After I get the tree done, I can work on the last package of beads. Oh so close, but oh so far away.

International Hermit and Stitching Weekend!

I was so glad to see Jo's post on Facebook that this is the weekend to Hermit and Stitch.  No, you do not need to stitch all weekend or kick your family out of the house so you can stitch! It is just a weekend where you try to get a little stitching time in. We are supposed to post our progress on the Monday or Tuesday after the weekend.    Here is a full list of all the information.

I plan on stitching on First Christmas Stocking. Yes, it is MY stocking. My son laughed at me the other night as he noticed I had not even made it to the toe....

But since my candy making is done-a couple of friends are trading candy with me-I can spend some extra time stitching.  It will be a nice little break during this busy season.

Oh! I wanted to mention that one of the ladies on Flosstube is trying to raise money for Beagle Paws, a beagle rescue group.  Her name is Caroline McNeil Hauffe and her channel is   Off the Grid Needlearts   .Just wanted to get the word out... When I was a child we had a beagle called Charlie Brown. He was the best dog ever. I miss that dog. My husband is a cat person so we have a cat. I am allergic to cats. Guess who the cat loves?    
       

Day 11 Online Advent Calendar

I don't remember getting an Advent calendar as a child. Maybe because there were 6 children and we were poor! (That is what my mom told me, although I never felt poor.) Anyway, Jo over at  Serendipitous Stitching         
is having an online stitching Advent Calendar. It is so much fun seeing what other people stitch for the holidays.
First big disclaimer: I had PLANNED on finishing two ornaments to show here, but life has gotten in the way. I haven't even finished the Mill Hill Nativity set. Sigh. Maybe in Janurary...
So here are our Christmas stockings. I stitched all but one. Can you guess which one?

 This one is my husband's:

 My daughter's:

 One son:

 The other son:

 Mine:

I would really love to get my stocking done for 2019, but we will see.
Jo asked us to include a favorite seasonal song. Mine is rather odd, but I have always loved it:
Emanuel

I tried to add the Youtube, but had issues. What do you think about this song?

Tall Turkey

Yes, it is December. Yes, I want to stitch Christmas. But every year I wish I had a few more things to put out at other seasons. I was cleaning my basement and going through stash when I found this piece:

I have been stitching on him since Thanksgiving, but just haven't shared it with you. It was a kit that had fabric and a button. I pulled threads from my stash. I think I may have to do the heart in another color. He is my take along project.

Mill Hill Monday

I have made a little progress so I thought I would show it. This is where you saw it last:

 And here it is now:

It is fun, but there are a ton of beads! And I am ready for something Christmasy!

Dragons

When   Jo  announced that dragons was the theme for the People's Choice SAL in December, I had to laugh. When my oldest was a young child, he loved dragons. He would make up imaginary ones and tell us what they sounded like. He had a toy dragon that he loved. It is in the basement somewhere....
Anyway, one year I decided to make him a Christmas stocking. He wanted a dragon on it. This is around the year 1999. No dragon stockings. So he drew a picture of one and helped me pick the stitches for a counted canvas piece.

Yes, the colors are that bright.(Please ignore the mess in the background!)He helped me choose the colors and  all the stitches. I was close to being done when he told me the dragon was in a cave with lots of gold coins. So AFTER I had done most of the stitches, I had to paint the background black. Luckily my SIL had some coin charms that I could use and I was set.


Here is another dragon that I did stitch for him that is hanging on the wall in his bedroom. I don't know the designer or the year I stitched it, but it is a dragon!

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you follow the link to Jo, there will be other posts of dragons.

Last Day of November

Well, I have not done much blogging this month although I will probably do less next month. I haven't even started thinking about plans for 2019! Yikes!
First of all, it is the last Friday of then month and I have been posting about Reptiles. But I put it away to work on this:

 I had high hopes of having it stitched by this Christmas, but life got in the way. This is what it looked like last November:

 And here I am today.

I could start putting in Joseph, but I think I will backstitch the stable first.

I was cleaning my basement and found all my framed stitching. It was propped against a wall taking up space. I know our basement needs to be totally redone, which won't happen any time soon, so I just started hanging pictures on the wall randomly. This upset my sons-didn't find studs or use the right type of fastener and my daughter as I did not preview where I would hang them.
Here is what it looks like:

It makes me happy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends!

Wabi-sabi Notebooks

 I keep a daily journal. No great thoughts or great art. Just a place to spill what is running around in my small mind. I use composition books or spiral bound notebooks like this one:
 

I try to make them look pretty as it adds to the appeal for me.
Earlier this year I found my Ukrainian Nyzynka piece designed by Phyllis Maurer. I checked and it has been stitched since July 2013! That is too long in a state of unfinishedness....So I made it into a journal cover:

I think it came out fairly nice.
It seems I am in a constant state of trying to clean my art room. Sigh.While attempting to clean, I came across some quilt squares made by my grandmother. One seemed to be the right size for a journal cover so I tried it:

 Not the best, but it will work. Also, it reminds me of my abuelita and all the times I visited her.
This is the fabric I used for the back:

Now to get ready for college students and Thanksgiving! It isn't at my house, thank goodness, but I do need to prepare some things.

What I Stitched This Weekend

This weekend is the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and I got a fair amount of stitching done. Don't know whose brainchild this was, but you can find the details  here  at Jo's blog.
I am bound and determined to get this piece finished before I start another LARGE piece.
  Here is my starting point:

 I managed to get all the flowers around the center stitched.

With Christmas coming and all the decorations going up, I will have to place this piece downstairs. My goal is to work on it down there. But I do have some ornaments to finish before the holidays, so we shall see.
One thing I keep asking myself, why don't I get this done? It is so lovely stitched. I think I know what my problem is. It is very hard to get the stitches to look really nice. My stitching is less than perfect. I was beating myself up over tension and the problems I was having. Then I remembered the stitching I received from my grandmother and great aunts. Was it perfect? NO! Do I love it? YES! So I have given myself permission to do the best I can and move on. I need this piece done (and the companion piece that is also close to being finished).

Do you have any pieces like this? Ones that have stretched you and made you want to give up?

A Gift to Me!

Last month I taught at the Region Workshop for EGA and I had a few ladies from my guild help me as I taught. One gal asked to borrow some magazines on crazy quilting, which I gladly did. This is what she made me as a thank you gift:

It is a pin cushion with a little scissor pocket on the back. So cute! Thanks Pat E.!
I am counting this as my Gifted Gorgeousness post for this month.  Jo      puts this SAL on and all you have to do is shoe horn the idea of "gift" in the post. Lots of fun!

MH 1656 Progress

I was able to get the row done for November and am okay with the way it turned out.

I think the blue rows would have been better in a navy blue, but I am leaving it for now. Also, the value of the light blue in the center is probably too dark of a value-it is the same value in color as the green leaves. Again, I am leaving it. Not sure what colors I will use next, but my goal it to stitch with the threads I have. This is a long sampler......

Welcome Progress

I was able to get all the stitching done on Welcome and I even added glow in the dark Kreinik blending filament on the ghost.

Now it is in my bedroom where I will try to stitch on it for 15 minutes every night and get the beads on. HA!
I was cleaning my craft room and trying to organize when I realized I do not have the January/February one of these kits. This is sad as I had planned on stitching it next. If you see one, please let me know. The official name for the series is Simply Seasonal Welcome. I did look on e-bay, but no luck. (Not that I don't have OTHER things to stitch!)

November TUSAL

I finally remember to post this wonderfully useless stitch-a-long. It is hosted by  Daffy Cat  .  All you are supposed to do is take a photo of your ort container and post it. Simple. As long as you remember to take a photo and post!

I pushed my orts down into my jar so you could see all the colors. It is fun to see the jar fill, as long as I am not ripping things out!

I Voted

Well, I haven't voted yet. My DH and I like to go to the polls together so I will wait until he gets home.
I took time yesterday to stitch this little piece up:

 It is so small!

I put magnets on it and made it into a  needle minder.  The pattern was from Ink Circles . If you are in the  United States of America, go vote!

A Little Christmas

 I have been stitching on my Christmas stocking. I did some math and realized there is no way this will get stitched before Christmas 2018.

This is sad, but a fact that I cannot change. So I decided to keep it upstairs and work on it when I am too tired to work on Drawn Thread Sampler.

That little square took an evening. Actually, that is a lie. It took me three evenings. One to cut the threads, another to do half the wrappings and last night to do the little dove's eyes. But I have decided to work on this until it is done. I need it out of my stash and into my finishing pile.

Let the People Choose-Birthstones

Got to love Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching. She has a lot of great stitch-a-longs to keep things interesting. The first Saturday of the month is her new one called-Let the People Choose! Just a way to share blogs and meet fellow bloggers.

Anyway, this month's theme is Birthstones. There are interesting monthly stitching pieces that have birthstones in them. I used to have a few needle rolls with different months and gems. Wonder where they are?

My birth month is July so my birthstone is ruby. I think that is why I love red so much. I have a few needlepoint pieces in my stash that I hope to stitch someday in my favorite colorway. But here are a few that I have stitched and shown at various times:

ANG Stitch of the Month

Gay Ann Rogers Townhouse needlecase

Solar Flare

I love red! Maybe that is why I like stitching Santas so much as they normally have a ton of red!          

New Start

Thanks for all your kind words. I am moving along on the Welcome piece and may get to beading on in next week. Haunted House has already left my house and moved to a better home although I did keep the little mad scientist. He reminds me of my science days and my college boys. Next year?

I did get my windows washed yesterday and gave myself permission to start a new project. Nicola Parkman of Hands Across the Sea Samplers  offered this as a SAL on Facebook. (I like the one she is teaching better, but until it is released in 2020, this will keep me busy.)

I am using an off-white, 40 count linen and some Splendor silks that are in my stash. I did the first row and am thinking about restitching it. Why? It is supposed to be reversible and I can see my starts and stops. I do believe it will bug me. So once I post this I will go to my stitching spot and frog. Oh well. It is a learning piece.

Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop or My Epic Fail

Well, I am sad. I had grand expectations to be all prepared for this blog hop run by Jo over at
 Serendipitous Stitching .
She runs a lot of fun blog hops and it is a great way to get to know other bloggers. I do not do a lot of Halloween although I like fall colors and have enjoyed looking at all the interesting Halloween projects on the web.

Well, I told Jo I would do this hop and I thought I could quickly stitch up a project for Halloween. I do have a few in my stash after all.
I first thought I would stitch on this project:

    It is Haunted House by Bent Creek and I received it as a gift from my local needle work store. Cute, but not my style.....
So I looked further in my stash and found this:

 It is a Mill Hill Kit, and you KNOW how much I love Mill Hill kits!
I had even purchased a frame for it so I had a way to FFO it. I did not like the overdyed floss so I pulled a  Victorian Motto Sampler thread from my stash.
I knew I would not get the beads on the piece, but I thought I would get all the cross stitching done.

Until I finished the big pumpkin:

 Sigh. I used the wrong orange and had to rip all of it out. I did think about leaving it, but the red did not blend well with the orange I had stitched.
So this is as far as I was able to stitch before I had to post:

It is a fun and easy stitch and I will keep going on it. I do have the rest of the series and once I get this done, I will skip ahead to the spring one.

 I do plan on starting another new project-DON"T JUDGE ME! But not until November 1. It is my reward for washing windows, which I also plan on doing November 1.....
If you are looking for the letter and the next place to hop:


      Tickled Pink In Stitches     

Enjoy the Hop!