I Thought They Already Had All Of The Colors!

What are the three main things that we stitchers like the most?  That would be charts, fabric and thread, of course.  There are lots of other necessities that are always on our radar -- scissors, needles, needle minders, lights, cases to hold all of our stuff, and more.

I always like seeing new charts that have come out, and spending time ooh-ing and ahh-ing over new fabrics, but I think my favorite thing is floss.  I like all kinds of floss, but DMC is my preferred go-to brand for its consistency, softness and sheen.  So when I heard that DMC was introducing new colors, well, it made me pretty happy.  But then I wondered where they were going to get new colors.  I mean, don't they already make every shade of every color in the rainbow?  Apparently not.  Last week I received in the mail my little box of DMC's 16 new floss colors.

It contains 8 soft, natural shades and 8 bright, vibrant hues.  Ahhhhh, what a wonderful stash addition for a floss fan.  I just want to stitch something with them.  And just look at that orange.  Wouldn't it be perfect for a little Halloween something?  So if you feel a need to add to your floss collection, this is just the thing.  Happy stitching!

A New Finish For An Old Ornament

Last year, while going through some stitching stuff, I found some ornaments that I stitched back in 1997.

Remember these?

I hadn't completed the stitching on the top one, and it's not really cross stitch but stitching done on canvas.  No, I still haven't finished stitching it yet.  I figure it's been sitting around for 16 years, what's a few months years months more?  Put that one in the WIP file, or would it be a UFO?  I made the one in the lower right hand corner into an ornament and posted about that.  Well, I finally got around to ornamentizing another one.  Hah!  I made up a word.

I like to find different ways of making ornaments, and this idea came out of nowhere.  I stretched the fabric over a piece of medium weight cardboard and used my favorite tape - Terrifically Tacky Tape - to hold the edges down.  Then I used some heavy cardstock for the background.  I then positioned the ribbon hanger and glued the stitched part to the cardstock with tacky glue.  That's it.  How easy can it be?

Nineteen ninety seven was indeed a good year for stitching.  Now to think up a cute ornamentization for the Santa one. 

I also spent a little time in the craftroom working on a project that I can't show you right now.  That's the thing about gifts -- I'd LOVE to post about what I'm doing but can't until the gift has been given.  Pretty cool accomplishment in the craftroom today, don't you think?

Giveaway Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of my Come-Back Giveaway!  I drew the name from my magical crystal dish and it's:

Emma/Itzy from My Creative Corner

Congratulations, Emma/Itzy!!  I will be e-mailing you soon for your address, so I can put your goodies in the mail!

I'm just kidding.  That dish isn't magical.  Well, it once was - when someone gave it to me stuffed with candy.  THAT was pretty magical.

I put my LHN mystery sampler aside for a while.  As much as I love it, I just needed to work on something else for a change.  I chose my "Quaker Star" by Bent Creek.  I really like the colors in this, and for once this evenweave fan is stitching on linen.

I really do need to start some more projects.  Ha ha. 

Happy Fall to everyone!  I've started to make a few little fall changes around the house.  It's fun to see the decorating ideas on other blogs to get a little inspiration.  Unfortunately, I can't have a lot of accessible foliage because of certain furry beings who live here.

I'd like to welcome my new followers and give a big thanks to everyone who follows.  Your comments are so appreciated.  Come back and visit!

A Come-Back Giveaway!

Here's what happened:  I got busy.  I didn't do much stitching or any other crafting, for that matter.  And I have been absent from the blogging world for three weeks!  So to make it up to the people who read my blog, I'm having a giveaway! 

Included in the prize package is Little House Needlework's "All Dolled Up" chart, "Joy". I stitched this one up last year and finished it as a door hanger.  The winner will also get some fabric, a 12-1/2"x20" piece of Norden Pearl Linen, 25 count, in Natural AND a Christmas bead and charm pack. 

What do you think?  Want to try to win this one?  All you have to do is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already), and comment on this post.  Make sure that there is some way I can contact you.  That's important!  I will draw one winner on Monday, September 23rd.  I'll e-mail the winner and also announce who won right here on the blog.

It feels like fall here today.  Low 70's and pretty windy.  I'm finally getting to air the house out and the cats are loving it!  Windowsills!  Fresh air!  When you think of it, Christmas is not that far away, so I thought Christmas would be a good theme for a giveaway.

I'm still stitching LHN's "Song Of The Seasons".  I made some pretty good progress on it during Stitch Day last Saturday. 

Stitch Day was a good time to discuss our next Stitch Retreat which takes place next month!  See how quickly time is passing?  It seems like I just made the reservations for our retreat, but I actually did that in
April!  And now it's almost here. 

Thanks for sticking with me even though I was absent for a while.  Fall seems like a good time to get crafting and stitching again, so I'll see you soon!

The Eyes Still Have It

At our last Stitch Day, I showed everyone a little needlecase that I made a couple of years ago.  I used a little wooden needlecase and worked the beaded part in the tubular peyote stitch.  I've proclaimed this case as  mine and carry it with all of my other stitching stuff.

It got me to thinking that I should try this particular craft again now that my eyes have gotten a little older.  I honestly wondered if I could still do it or if the tiny Delica beads would do me in. 

During my craftroom cleanup, I found my pattern books for these beaded cases.  Jennie Might at Black Giraffe Designs is the author of the books and designer of all of the patterns in them.  I found a pattern with only three colors, which worked out well because it was pretty straightforward and an easy re-introduction to beading.  I also happened to have all three of these colors "in stock".  Yes, there are actually some beads that I don't have.  Then I got to work.  And here's the result.  It's the one with the American Flag design.

The other two were ones I made previously.  I think these will become special gifts eventually.  I intend to add to this little collection because the good news is that I CAN still do this, old eyes and all!  Hah!  It was a fun  project and I may be ordering some more beads soon.

Also, here's an update on my LHN mystery sampler, "Song Of The Seasons".  I'm not exactly getting through this at the speed of lightning, am I?  But it is turning out nicely, even though this is kind of a funky picture.

Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for commenting on my posts, few and far between they may be lately.  I'm happy to say that the craftroom organization/cleanup is done!  Look for a post about that in the near future.  It's such a good feeling to get everything put into place and have a nice environment to craft!

A Lot Of Love Went Into This Finish

I decided to use my day off to finish a finish.  That sounds pretty funny, doesn't it?  We talked about this exact thing at one of our Stitch Days -- what to call a completed cross stitch, and what to call it when you actually do something with that cross stitch piece.  We're talking about framing or making it into an ornament or a pillow or whatever.  Which one is the finish?  And what do we call the other one? Or are there already terms for both of these and I'm just out of the loop?  Fellow stitchers, I think we need to address this.  It's important.

So I pronounced today the day of accomplishing something crafty.  All thoughts of finishing the ongoing craftroom project were pushed out of my mind.  Hey, all I needed was a clear table for the sewing machine, right?  Yes, it is taking me a long time to organize one small room.  I know.  OK, I'll set a goal for organization completion:  Done by September 13th.  Sounds good to me.  Then I'll share photos of the organized lovliness. 

Back to my project.  I took my completed "Love" by New York Dreamer, some fabric, some rick-rack and a little fiberfill stuffing and turned it into this.

Something cute to display at Valentine's Day!  I'm happy with my little finish....or whatever we're calling it. 

Here's something else I just found.  I went to Dictionary.com to find out the correct spelling of rick-rack (rick-rack OR ric-rac.  You choose the one you like.) and there was an ad!  Right there on the dictionary page for rick-rack!  This could lead to all kinds of trouble, especially when you find something like The Ribbon Retreat.  Look at all the ribbons and trims!  I love this kind of stuff!  I think I hyperventilated a little just looking through the ribbons!  See what I mean when I say trouble?  It's been bookmarked.

Thanks for looking at my blog today.  If you have a minute, drop a little comment about what you think about my finish.  And let me know if this is a finish or something else.

Brick Or Bark? What's The Difference?

Oh, let me tell you, the difference is a lot of frogging.  I received the second part of LHN's mystery sampler, Song of the Seasons, a couple of weeks ago.  Sorry to say that the stitching on this part is not going as quickly as on part 1.  First of all, there are a lot more stitches to do before we can call this section completed.  Also, I've been a bit of a slug in the stitchy/crafty department lately. 

It seems like every book I reserved at the library is coming in at once.  I'll be halfway through one and then another one comes in.  It's always like this with library books -- feast or famine.  So I've been devoting my time to reading and the (seemingly) never-ending craft room organization. 

I worked a lot on the book case yesterday and have organized my charts.  Most of them, anyway.  Wow, there is an abundance of charts.  How did this happen?  I watched an episode of Hoarders today and got a little worried about myself.  Mark said I'm not a hoarder, but he was trying to be nice.  The good news about the craft room is that I have only one more section to go through. 

So back to the Song of the Seasons.  Last night, I put my book down and picked up my stitching.  I decided to work on a house, starting with the roof.  The color key said the color to use is "Bark" (Weeks Dye Works).  I looked through my project bag and found the little Floss Away bag I thought I needed and saw a B....k and got to work.  I was pretty pleased with myself when I finished that little roof today and went to work on the house.  Oh, the color is "Brick".  Wait a minute.  Then there is that moment when you realize that something is very wrong.  I had stitched the whole roof in "Brick" instead of "Bark".  And a-frogging we will go.

That frog is laughing his head off.

Mark observed that it must be a lot more work to take the stitches out than to put them in.  Um, yee-ah.  And there you have it.  My frogging adventure for the weekend.  OK, not the end of the world.  I'll just spend some time with the frog and then go on my merry way!