My stitching week in review...

Well, Monday came and went, and I gave stitching on Christmas ABC's a skip.  I did do some stitching, but it was to put the hem back into my Renaissance Costume.  I accidentally caught it on something when I went to the local Rein. Faire a year or so ago.  The ward Halloween social was coming up and I wanted to dress up a little bit, so I figured it was about time to sit down with a sharp needle and re-hem my dress.  So that's what took my time on Monday night.

Something happened on Tuesday, so I didn't get any stitching in either... But I can't remember what it was!  I guess it wasn't that important.  The ward Halloween social was on Wednesday, so that was another day without stitching.  But Thursday!  That's when I was able to get back to stitching.

Here is the progress on my at work project, Something Wicked by La-Di-Da.  More boot.  And there is alot more boot left to stitch.  I'm really enjoying the purple I'm using for it.  I'm even trying to figure out what else I can use it for...  I'm sure I'll come up with something wonderful!  I'm sorry the picture is so dark.  I'm not sure how that came to be as all the lights were on in my room when I took the picture...

Flower Power saw some good time at the end of the week.  Here is where I was Saturday evening:

I am trucking right along on that second flower.  I thought the above would be my progress picture for the week, but I actually sat down this afternoon and watched some episodes of The Muppet Show that I have on DVD and worked at it some more.

The empty spot on the petals to the lower left is where a humming bird wing is going to go.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to pause in the middle of the flower and do the humming bird or not.  I thought I might have to roll the scrolls a little bit to finish up the last bit of the flower.  I decided to stitch the white reflection of the last petal up and find out.  As it turns out, I can finish up this flower without rolling the scrolls.  So I'll finish this flower and then do the hummer, and then roll and move on to the next bit of the pattern.  (So far no counting errors on this flower! *knocks on wooden desk*)

And here is the Heirloom Nativity progress from earlier today.  More snow and a pine tree.  I think next week it'll be a sheep and maybe a start on a shepherd.  I still think those shepherds a bit silly being out in the snow and all...

Heirloom Nativity has a section of hardanger at the bottom of the pattern.  I've been a little... not qutie worried really... slightly concerned?...  something like that... about doing the hardanger when I get to that point.  (It hasn't been occupying a lot of brain time since it is so far away.)  Anyway, on Friday I received a newsletter for the local knit/needlework shop, and they are offering hardanger classes in November.  I called up my bff LMS and she was going to call me to see if I wanted to take the class with her.  Well we are all signed up and will be taking the class together on Tuesday evenings.  Woo-hoo! I'm very excited.

Satuday evening, I decided to wander over to Hobby Lobby to see if I could find something Halloweeny to put on the end of my Halloween scissor fob I made a few weeks ago.  I didn't figure there would be much selection in the first place, but thought that there would be less stuff if I wanted until after the holdiay.  Mom decided she would come along for the ride.  This is what I found to finish off the fob:

A retro spooky purple cat with a 'diamond' collar.  It's purrrrrrfect!  Mom also found some pretty cotton thread to tat some bookmarks for her friends in the quilt group she goes to.  I told her I wanted to learn how to tat a little bit.  Nothing fancy, really, just some bookmarks is mostly what I had in mind.  So after hardanger classes are over, I think I'll give learning how to tat a go.  Mom has quite the collection of shuttles and what-not, so I won't have to buy any equipment.

Have a happy and save Halloween, and a good week of stitching!
Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

TUSAL - October 26th, 2011

Is it that time already?  It just seems like the days go screaming by!

All my projects saw some good time this month.  Here is the big jar with the collections from the little jars I carry around with me.

From top to bottom are the flosses from: Heirloom Nativity Sampler, Something Wicked, Christmas ABC's (and some Crabby All Year mixed in), and Flower Power.  And here's the jar with all the flosses added to the top.  I squished them down a bit, so it doesn't show much being added.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Some weekend stitching

Well, I don't think I'm going to get back to my L*K Halloween Rules anytime soon.  I'm having too much fun with Flower Power to switch out the scroll rods that my StitchMate is holding.  Now, swapping out what is being held is super easy, but Halloween Rules just isn't speaking to me right now.  It might have to become the L*K Monday night project after I get Christmas ABC's done.

And now that I've rambled on a bit, let's get down to what I did stitch on.  I finished up the white lacy band on the Heirloom Nativity Sampler today at church and moved up to a band that will be of the shepherds.  Still stitching with white because those silly shepherds are out in the snow.  I predict a lot of upside down stitching in my future as I'm working my way up from the middle right now.

On Saturday, I put in some good work on Flower Power.  I've finished up the stitching and am working on the backstitch on this flower.  I'm not too keen on the way the one petal to the lower left turned out.  I had a counting error on it and didn't want to frog because by the time I'd figured out I had a problem, it was a little too late.  So I fudged it.  I might not be happy with it, but I am not frogging!!!

I am trying to decide if I want to put in the couching bits before I move onto the next flower or not.  I think I could do it here as there's not another flower close by that these things would run into.  I've never couched anything before, so I'm a little apprehensive about doing it. But... There's a first time for everything, and I'm sure it won't be that bad or hard to do.

I had hoped to get the rest of the backstitching done today, but it was one of those busy Sunday's where I was out visiting people, or they were over visiting me.  Perhaps I'll get to move onto the next flower this week.  It's taken me about three weeks to get this flower done.  At that rate, I think I'll be working on Flower Power for the next couple of years.  I'd better not think about it and just do it.

This past Wednesday was crafty-stitchy night and we met over at LB's house.  As always we had a good time working on our projects and just chatting away.  We're thinking of doing a weekend retreat sometime next March, but are having a bit of a time trying to come up with a place to stay.  No kids (for a change of pace), and no cats/dogs (allergies) are our rules so you'd think that'd open up a world of possibilities.  Add that we're all mostly broke, and the possibilities narrow right back down.  Oh well, I'm sure we'll come up with something between now and then.

While there, LB introduced me to something evil.  Now, I have a weak spot for anything collectable. And I try hard to not get into collecting things because it's usually on the expensive side.  (Take a look at this here hobby I blog about.)  And I love Lego.  Well curse those Lego people because they've made collectable Lego people.  And added a hint of gambling to it. (Think collectable baseball cards.) You buy a package, you have no idea what's in it, and you are getting 1 of 16 mini figures.  I had no idea they existed, and now I do.  I had to pick up a few packages at Target when I was there the other day.  Here are the figures I ended up with:

Aren't the fun?  I now needed a place to keep these little people, so I dug out a tin from one of my boxes of packed stuff and threw them in.  Collecting.  It's a sickness, I tell you!  I know I'll have to pick up another mystery package or two now on my weekly trips to Target.  Grrrr... another collection.  Just like I need another hole in my head.

I hope your week is stitchy and productive!
Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

A report on my Monday ... And Sunday stitching

After giving the Monday L*K SAL a skip last week, I was right back into it this week.  I added all the white in the A, D, and G blocks, added the dove and moved the hoops down to start in on the K block.  Hurray for K! My favorite letter.

I'm trying to decide which way to stitch this now... Down and over or over and down...  Not that it matters, you've got to do it all to get it done.

And here is the little bit of progress I made on my Heirloom Nativity Sampler on Sunday.  Most of my time was stitching in the little white x's, and now I'm filling in with #8 and #12 pearl cotton as the pattern calls for.  After this, there will be a section of shepherds to do.  I expect that will take me through the end of the year considering I only give this an hour to two hours of work a week.

Tonight, I am going to roll the scrolls and work some more on Flower Power.  I just bought the 4th season of The Big Bang Theory so I'll pop that into the DVD player and giggle along with the math geeks.

I hope your stitching is going well!
Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Stitching and Other Stuff

I was a lazy girl earlier in the week and didn't work on my L*K Christmas ABC's on Monday night like I usually do.  No worries.  I'll get to it when I get to it.  I'm not a stitcher that sets goals for what I want to accomplish during any given period of time.  I'm actually anti-goal.  Goals are just ways to prove failure in my experience, and are therefore to be avoided.

I did do some stitching this week though, no need to fret!  Something Wicked saw some good progress at work this week.  I am doing the lettering with CC's Brown Sugar, and the boot thus far is CC's Rainy Day.  I do love me some purple floss.

I spent some time in the evenings working on the first day lily on flower power.  I'm about to the point where I need to roll the scroll rods a bit so I can get to the last couple of petals I have left.  I've managed to work my first counting error in and unless you're counting every stitch, you can't tell where it is.  I haven't quite got to the rest of the petal where the second error is, but I've been giving it some thought as to how to work with it.  I'll probably just make something up while I'm going along.

Satuday I got it into my head that I wanted to make a few scissor fobs for some of the scissors I have that don't have one yet.  So I unearthed my beading box and spread the contents out all over my bed.

And set to work making fobs.  The Halloween one on the purple scissors went together quick and easy.  I need to find a cute charm or something for the end of the fob, but for now there's an empty jump ring waiting for something appropriately spooky.  The fob on the little gold scissors went together quite easily as well.  I wanted something kind of gardeny and I think I accomplished that no worries.  Now, the pink fob on the pink scissors was something I agonized over... And I don't even know why.  I knew I wanted to used the little glass drop as the end piece, and the breast cancer ribbon bead in there somewhere too.  I think I strung, unstrung, designed, redesigned, put together and took apart that dumb fob 6 or 7 times before I decided to just let it be.  I still might cut it apart and try again at a later date.

While wandering the aisles of the craft store I came across some bitty magnets in the scrapbook section.  They have adhesive on one side of the magnet.  Half have the adhesive on the positive side of the magnet, the other half have the adhesive on the negitive side. Cool!  I also came across some purple 'flower centers'. I have no idea what you use flower centers for in scrapbooking.  But they were cute, and I had an idea.  I also bought some of the flower shaped bottle caps after seeing them made into needle minders on another blog.  (I'll post a link if I can find that post again!)

Anyway, I took my adhesive magnets and attached a flower center to the positive side of one, and took the negative magnet and made a cute little needle minder.  Don't worry, it's not adhered to my fabric, but I need to put something on the other adhesive side so I don't accidentally stick it to something.

Sorry about the out of focus.  I was too close too the subject for my cameras focal length.  You'll just have to trust me that it's really cute.  And the magnets are nice and strong.  It holds my needle tightly.  I love it!  And I have 9 more magnet sets left, so I'm on the look out for other things to adhere to them.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Stitchin' the Weekend Away...

Well... except for today.  Today I read all of your blogs and generally got caught up.  It has continued to be cold here, so I put my flannel sheets on the bed, added the heated mattress pad, and then put on the pink wool blanket my Grandparents gave me some years ago.  Mmmm... nice, warm, snuggly bed.

This week, the at work project got some regular stitch time.  The words are going in at a good rate.  This is Something Wicked by La-Di-Da.  I am stitching it over two on a 28 ct. Silkweavers Solo of an unknown, but fantastic color with my random choice of flosses.  I like it!

I did put a couple of hours into Heirloom Nativity.  I haven't picked this one up for a couple of weeks, so it was nice to say hello to it earlier today as I listened to our lessons and speakers in church.

And lastly, here is some more work on Flower Power.  I finished up the one petal, and am almost done with the second, and have started on the third.  I'm sad to say it, but I've already made two counting errors.  One, I've figured out and am going to work with it.  The second one, I haven't found yet.  I just know I'm off.  But I'm going to work with it too.  I'm onrey and just don't like the frog unless absolutely necessary.  ... Let's hope it doesn't be come absolutely necessary in a few more hours time...  As I work on this, I've come to understand why the other ladies who have worked on it do the back stitching as they finish up a section.

LindaK asked where I ordered my 36 inch scroll rods from.  I ordered them from the nice folks at The Cozy Cottage who build the StitchMate floor stand.  They sell some standard sizes, but you can order rods in custom lengths as well.  Flower Power was one of the reasons for the purchase of the stand.  I knew that I couldn't do it in my little 6" tension spring hoops.  I'm liking the StitchMate stand very mcuh, I must say.  Still practicing on being a two handed stitcher, but most of the time I default to the old habit of single hand stitching... Maybe I should get a laying tool and put my left hand to use that way...

I think I shall put together a video on my StichMate, and maybe one on the spring tension hoops.  My brother is the one with the video camera, so I'm going to have to do it when he has time.  No telling when that will be.  I'll have to keep after him.  Maybe bribe him with dinner or something.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Winner! Winner! (Chicken Dinner!)

Do you ever wonder what the origin of that phrase was?  I suppose I could ask Mr. Google, but right this instant, I'm feeling too lazy to do it.

So... Anyway... Today was drawing day for the Lizzie*Kate pattern, flosses, and fabric.  So I printed up all the comments and took my scissors to them:

Then I folded them all up  into little strips:

And put them in the closest container that I had handy:

All this was accomplished by 2 p.m. this afternoon.  And there the names sat.  I'd reach over and stir the entries from time to time, shake up the bucket, and go back to reading all of your blogs.  I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to draw a name!  It's not that I didn't want to sent the pattern and such off, it's more that I didn't want anyone to loose!  So there your entries sat, unless stirred or shaken.  Until about 7 p.m. this evening.  I gathered up my gumption, reached into the pumpkin...

And finally drew a name.  And the lucky gal is Stitching Noni!  She is having a little run of good luck lately.

It looks like my package is going to be taking the long journey off to Australia... Maybe I'll have to hold it hostage until I can get some TimTams... Mmmmm.... TimTams....  Anyway, I've sent her a quick e-mail to let her know she's won.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

The midweek report

Hello and welcome to all of you.  I'm so excited to see that I have new blogs to start reading!  My Google Reader is starting to be busy. I love it!

We are having our first fall/winter storm, and I must say that I don't like it. At. All.  It seems like Summer was so long in arriving and was so very short.  I just am not ready for Fall.

Monday was weigh day at the gym.  I only lost 1 lb. for the month of September, but lost 5 and 7/8th inches over all.  My waist and hips saw the biggest reduction at 2 inches and 1 and a half inches respectively.  I'm happy with that.  I just need to keep going to the gym and keep trying to eat healthy.

My super long scroll rods arrived on Monday.  Yippiee!  Since Monday was L*K stitch along, I didn't get them out.  But on Tuesday, I did get them out, rolled my fabric, and started in on Flower Power.  Here's something for comparison:

Halloween Rules is on 20 inch scroll rods:

Here is Flower Power on the 36 inch scroll rods.

And I'm so excited, there isn't any sag!  Well, if there is, it's very minimal and I'm not noticing it.  I didn't get many stitches put in, but here they are:

The picture of the fabric on the scroll rods is a better idea of the color of the fabric.  Note too that I am stitching this sideways.  The top of the fabric is to the right, and the bottom is to the left.  I'm off to Hobby Lobby later to get a color of floss that I'm missing for this batch of flowers.  I was missing four colors and JoAnn's had three of them.  Oh well... spread the wealth.

Here is my progress on Christmas ABC's for the L*K Monday SAL.  I found the upper corner and got the big letters in on my three words.  I think next Monday will be mostly stitching in white.

Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments.  I am inspired to comment more on the blogs I visit.  It really does make a persons day.

Here's a question for you... Would you like a short video on the workings of my StitchMate?  I know when I was researching I had a hard time finding pictures that adequately described what it did and how it worked.  I love the dumb thing.  I'm still only a hand and a half stitcher, but I'm working on it!

And lastly... Don't forget my small Giveaway that ends Saturday.  Details on how to enter are listed on this entry.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Dance with me now!

Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by and following along.  I shall be looking y'all over in search of new blogs for ME to follow.  I do love to see what everyone is working on.  As for me, I have a finish.  I put the last stitches into Crabby All Year, and sewed all the buttons on!  Woot woot! (as the unhip say...)

I decided to use invisible thread to stitch all those buttons on, even though I hate invisible thread.  It was that, or spend hours trying to match up floss colors to button colors, and after a few minutes of that my "I don't care, just get it done" attitude tends to pop up.  Anyway... I'm really glad to have this one all finished up.  Now to save up a little money so I can have it framed up for Mom for Christmas.

I put my L*K Halloween Rules into the stand and have been working along on that today.  It will be in the rotation where Crabby All Year was, getting the majority of my time.  I did start to pull the flosses that I will need for Flower Power.  I have a good many of them:

I am missing 33 colors.  I'm sure I have enough to get a good start on what ever part of the chart I decide to start on, and I am keeping an eye out on those JoAnns, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby ads for a floss sale.  I have to wait for my 36" scroll rods to arrive too.  I will be stitching this puppy sideways.  That will be a first for me, and it will be interesting to see how it goes.

In case you haven't seen it, I'm having a small giveaway as detailed in my post of October 1st.  Wander by and check it out if you would like a chance.

As always,
Hugs and Stitches
Kay

Giveaway Time!

Okay, so it took me a while to get my act together, but I finally remembered to pick up the flosses to go along with this.  I am such a scatter brain sometimes!

For your very own stitching pleasure is 1 brand spanking new Tiny Tidings XV by Lizzie*Kate (because I'm a dork and have two), one skein of each of the colors used in the pattern, and a cut of my favorite Christmas stitching fabric (32 ct. Raw-Gold linen).  The linen is big enough to get two patterns on it... Yippie Skippie!

How to enter:
1) Follow the blog (my ego begs you to), and post in the comments of this post only, that you're a follower.
2) A bonus entry if you post on your blog about my silly giveaway. Post in another comment on this post only, for ease of selection.

Please, please leave an e-mail address so I can reply to you!  It's no good if you win and I can't get a hold of you!

I'll be closing the entries at 6:00 pm, Mountain Standard Time, on October 8th.  The selection process will be of the print, cut, crinkle, throw in a bowl, mix, and select sort.  I know, so very technical.  Too bad I don't have small kids or cute pets to help with the selection process.

Enjoy!
Hugs and Stitches,
Kay


*EDIT*  Well, it's now 6:53 pm, Mountain Standard Time, and therefore I'm closing the entries.  Time to print, snip, and choose.  Good Luck all!