Stitching Questions Because I Know That Your Inquiring Mind Wants To Know

For me, it's always interesting to hear the opinions of other stitchers.  I ran across some questions about my favorite craft at the blog Thread Garden.  Jan at Thread Garden found them at Serendipitous Stitching, another blog, who found them on another blog.....etc. etc.  I thought I'd have a go at them just for fun.

1.  Which fabric do you prefer?  I like the result I get on Jobelan or Lugana.  Nice and even weave, and easy to stitch are the features that make these fabrics my favorites. 

2.  What is your favorite fabric count?  28 count is my choice, but I'll go as small as 32 count.  My eyes cross when stitching on anything smaller than that.  Especially if it's linen.  And then I make mistakes.  Bad mistakes.

3.  What color fabric do you most enjoy stitching on?  Neutrals -- off white, white, beige.  I get out of my neutral comfort zone often though.

4.  What is your favorite fiber?  DMC for its beautiful range of colors, softness, and easy availability.  I do use some overdyed floss and like those for certain things.

5.  How many of the 450 DMC colors do you own?  Probably most of them.  Don't judge me.

6.  Of your last 5 finished projects, how many used DMC/Anchor as the main floss?  Three.  I think.

7.  Of the last 5 projects, if you didn't use DMC/Anchor, what did you use?  Either Crescent Colours, Weeks Dye Works, or Gentle Arts.

8.  What needles do you prefer?  Bohin size 26.

9.  What is the ugliest design you've encountered?  Now, now.  I'm not going to be hurting anyone's feelings here.  There are things that I don't like, but then probably other stitchers don't like some of the designs I stitch.  I mean, if I really answered this question, then people might not visit my blog anymore.  And that would be sad.

10.  What is the most beautiful design you've encountered?   Too many to name.  And it doesn't help that I like a lot of different kinds of designs.  I'm an avid collector.

11.  Who is your favorite designer?  I gravitate toward Little House Needleworks, Blackbird Designs, Prairie Schooler, New York Dreamer, Drawn Thread.  There are more.

12.  Least favorite designer?  I don't have a least favorite.  Nope, not going there.

13.  Would you support a designer whose personal beliefs offended or angered you?  I can't imagine what that would be, but probably not.  I guess.

14.  Do you have a lamp specially made for needleworkers/crafters?  I do!  I have a standing Ott Light in my craft room, a tabletop Ott Light, and a teeny tiny Ott Light.  I use the tabletop light the most.

15.  What brand of stitching light do you have or prefer?  I already spilled the beans on that one, huh?

16.  What kind of environment best suits you when you are stitching?  Anywhere with a semi-comfortable seat and good lighting.  And I need a place to have all of my supplies at hand.  My favorite environment is when my stitch group, The Sisters In Stitches, gathers and we all stitch together.

17.  Have you stitched any design more than once?  Yes, it was a Noah's Ark chart that I found in a magazine.  I first stitched it for some friends, then when I wanted to stitch it again for my sister, I had to hunt the magazine down.  Finally found it on Ebay.

18.  Favorite design you have stitched and finished. 

Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs

It's called Barn Dance and I found the chart in a magazine.  I don't remember which one.

19.  Least favorite design you've stitched and finished?  Any wedding sampler.  Don't know why, but I really dislike stitching these.  Sorry.

20.  Last, but not least, what's your longest running WIP?

That would be Teresa Wentzler's English Cottage Sampler.  It's beautiful, but it's sooooo detailed.  See all of those little flowers in the border?  Almost all of them require backstitching -- yes, backstitching on each of the stitches.  And I don't think all of the little flowers are stitched yet.  And the blended threads!  I really should work on this.  Maybe I can leave all of the backstitching until very last and then I'd be more motivated to do it. This might be a 10+ year old WIP.

That sums up the questions.  Now you are enlightened about all of my stitching preferences.  Aren't you glad?  Go on and try it on your blog.  It's kind of fun.

Snowbound Stitching

We got a big surprise yesterday -- a snowstorm!  Let me clarify.  I live just north of Atlanta and what comprises a snowstorm here is completely different from what I grew up with in the Midwest.  There is this belief that Atlanta drivers don't know how to drive in snow, but I don't think that's true.  The reality is that the local governments don't know how to prepare for "snow events", and just don't have the proper equipment to keep the streets clear.  I'm not complaining.  That's just how it is.

Somewhere in Atlanta.  Found this photo on one of the news pages.

 My husband spent the night on the floor of his office, but at least he didn't get stuck on one of the highways like a lot of people did.  Many businesses are closed and we're being told not to go anywhere today.

So yesterday I was snowbound, and I got the call at 6:00 a.m. today telling me that I didn't have to be at work. I decided to take advantage of being shut in and do some stitching.   I'm working on a little moon and star chart that I will turn into a tooth fairy pillow for a little boy.  If you look at the moon closely, you'll see that it was mainly stitched in metallic!  I have made peace with metallics!  I recently received some valuable advice about stitching with metallics -- make a knot with the thread in the eye of the needle.  That will prevent the thread from slipping around and fraying.  I did not know this!!  It is so nice to learn something new.

I enjoyed taking part in the Grow Your Blog party.  My followers now number 180!  In addition, I received some nice comments on my blog.  My giveaway is still open to anyone who wants to try for one of the two prizes.  All you have to do is leave a comment on my Grow Your Blog post and I'll draw two names on February 15th - one for each prize.  Go on.  Check it out.

In the meantime, I'll try to enjoy my unexpected day off and do a little more stitching.

Grow Your Blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog, CraftyCat.  Last year I participated in the Grow Your Blog party hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full and had a wonderful time.  So I am happily joining in the fun again.

My favorite craft is cross stitch, but that's not all I feature on this blog.  You'll also find posts about jewelry making, beading, sewing, crocheting and other crafty endeavors.  On occasion, you'll see a recipe, photos of what's growing in my yard, and maybe photos of cats.  Yes, they do appear here from time to time.

I try to make this a fun place to visit, and don't take myself too seriously.  I'll happily admit to my shortcomings, like my limited crochet abilities.  But my goal each time I begin any kind of craft project is to create something beautiful.

During last year's Grow Your Blog event, I found so many great blogs.  Along with gaining inspiration, ideas, and helpful crafty information from them, I've just had fun reading many of these blogs.  It is my hope that you will have the same experience when you visit CraftyCat.

As part of the Grow Your Blog party, I am having two prize drawings! Yay!  To enter the drawings, all you have to do is make a comment on THIS post.  That's it.  And remember that if you win, I'll have to get in touch with you, so make sure that I can find an e-mail address for you.  The prizes are:

#1: A very cool beaded (by me!) needle case.  

#2: Better Homes & Gardens "Cross-Stitch Christmas"(128 page book)

Pretty awesome, right?  So just leave a comment.  I'll draw two names at noon (EST) on February 15th.  One will win the needle case and one will win the cross stitch book.  I'll post the names of the winners right here in a blog post in addition to sending them e-mails.  Good luck!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back often!

Almost Missed The Party

Last year I participated in the Grow Your Blog party hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full, and had fun viewing new-to-me blogs and adding followers to my own blog.  I fully intended to join the party again, but found out that I missed the sign-up by a few days.  Woe is me.  I usually follow the rules, but this time I missed the boat and decided to ask in a nice way if I could still join.  Vicki sent me a message back saying that she would indeed include me and to go ahead and sign up.  Yay!  So on January 25th, I'll be participating with about 500 other bloggers in this event.  I'll also be including a prize drawing as part of Grow Your Blog, so watch for my post for details.

I was on the hunt for some deep blue fabric to stitch a special little gift, but was having trouble finding the right shade.  Finally I hit the jackpot by contacting Leslie at Under the Sea Fabrics.  I had the winning bid on one of her fabrics during her auction, and added a beautiful deep blue fabric to my order.

Harvest Moon & Witching Hour

Yeah, that made my day.  And now for the bonus:  I get to start something new!

On Facebook, I'm a member of a little cross stitch group of friendly stitchers.  We are doing a Valentine exchange with stitched cards.  This is a totally new craft for me!  I did finish mine, but will wait to post the result here until it is received.  I did crochet a little add-on last week. 

Awwww, cute, right?  And yes, I finally got some red yarn.  I had originally learned how to crochet this little heart with gold yarn because that was all I had available.  You can find the instructions to make this little cutie at Maybe Matilda's blog.  Just click on the "crochet" button and that will take you to all of her crochet projects including these Valentine hearts.  They're amazingly easy, even for me. 

What do you think of my blog's new look?  I'd had the old one for quite a while and decided to spruce up the blog a little in anticipation of the Grow Your Blog party.  Happy colors for this time of year, when it's most needed!

My Lonely Craft Room

I've worked at making my craft room as comfortable, user-friendly and welcoming as possible and I think I've succeeded.  But there's one thing missing and that is me.  Look how sad and lonely my craft room is.  I think I can hear crickets chirping.  Over the past 2 months several things have prevented me from getting crafty.  Those are:  working extra hours, being sick, and the holidays.  Excuses, excuses, right?

The really bad thing is that if I turned around and took a picture of the opposite wall, you'd see a book case (used for storage and pretty display) that is crammed with stuff that I just stuck there.  You'd find gift bags, my fabric wreath, magazines, framed holiday cross stitch which should be stored properly, and an assortment of miscellaneous items.  Do you like how I just photographed the neat side?

Maybe I haven't been TOTALLY idle.  I made a pretty tote bag for a Christmas gift.  Now that it's been given, I can show you.

This past weekend was Stitch Day for the Sisters In Stitches.  I worked on another gift that I can't show anyone just yet, but will soon.  But I did have a small finish during the holiday time:  "Cardinal Winter" by LHN.

Now that life is back to normal, I am enjoying getting back to stitching and planning my next project.  And I plan to get back into that craft room soon to try my hand at turning a tiny stitched project into a greeting card.  I also have an ongoing painting project that has been sorely neglected.  Happily it's in the home stretch so when I do get back to it, it will be a short time before it's completed. 

But first, I think I should do some serious cleaning up of my craft room mess and get a little organized. 
Maybe.

A Very Merry Stitch Day

What's better than our monthly Stitch Day?  That would be a Christmas celebration Stitch Day!  This took place last Saturday and was no ordinary gathering.  We had decided to bring food to share, which is a departure from what we usually do.  So no little sack lunches for us!  Instead, we feasted on a ham spread appetizer, meatballs, pulled pork sliders and salad.  Peggy, our resident baker extraordinaire, provided us with a selection of delicious desserts.

Peggy also made sure that our gift table was festive.

And for when we drew numbers for our gift exchange.

Now that's pretty creative.

We each received a festive Christmas cracker and a coffee mug gift package, courtesy of Peggy.  I missed the opportunity to take a photo of all of us wearing our paper crowns.  You would have loved that!  Some boy scouts were visiting the fire station (we meet at a community room adjacent to that) and laughed at us enough.  We appreciated all of the work that Peggy put into our gathering to make it extra special!

Peggy's gifts for all of us.

Oh yes!  We also stitched.  Here is a sampling of what we were working on.

Trish's project.

My "Cardinal Winter"

Autumn leaf by Sheila.

Renee was working on a pillow.

Peggy's work of art.

Pat's Christmas tree.

We did miss two of our group members, Laurie and Thea, who could not attend, and look forward to seeing them in January!

Pat presented each of us with a lovely handmade scarf.  What a nice gift, so beautifully crafted.  And then we got creative with our scarf display for this photo.

  

So you can see what a fun and special gathering this was for the Sisters In Stitches.  I'm pretty sure that this is something we will be doing again next year! 

A Kooky Project And A Stitched Finish

I completely forgot to show you what I finished while I was on our group's stitch retreat!  This is one of the old (1997?) ornament projects that I found while doing some actual cleaning in the craft room.  Some of you may be familiar with that story as I've posted about it in the past.  The items I found are turning into some lovely ornament finishes, and here's another one.

I put the final stitches into it during the retreat only to figure out that I didn't have any beads.  You know how we stitchers like to finish things.  So Laurie came to the rescue with just enough tiny red beads that turned out to be perfect for this little project.  It's not a traditional cross stitch project, more of a long stitch done on what looks like needlepoint canvas.  Now it just has to be completed into an ornament. 

Another project I've been working on is a little different.  I saw this idea all over the internet last year and decided to make my own.  First I had to get a clear wine bottle.  So after drinking a bottle of mediocre wine (bought just for the clear bottle), I sprayed it with a frost finish.  Looked good and went on easier than I thought it would.  Then I painted on a trio of ghosts and some other spooky stuff, tied on some black ribbon and then stuffed some clear lights into it.  I'm pretty sure that the light cord is supposed to go through a hole that should be drilled through the bottle.  Gulp.  I'm not brave enough for that yet.  I have visions of glass shards flying everywhere.  And the bottle should have a cork to finish it.  But it's kind of a fun finish, isn't it?

Bottle Of Boos.  Get it?

Today I started a painting project that I will be sharing right here on the blog.  So far so good.  And I am photographing the process as I go.  So stay tuned.