It's a Marshmallow World

Woke up to find Jack Frost had visited us during the night!

Here's the view off the back deck... baby, it's cold outside!

Winter has come to Paw Paw Lake!

Wee Seasons

A good 15 years ago I started stitching Heart in Hand's Wee Seasons. I'd decided to stitch all four charts lengthwise and make the finished piece into a bellpull. And naturally I would stitch along with the changing seasons. I got off to a great start, stitching Wee Winter at the top of my bellpull-to-be.

Come spring I began stitching the next season. But that tree... all that brown... for some reason it just killed my desire to finish before summer arrived. Of course this meant I'd have to wait a whole year to work on Wee Spring again. No biggie! I'd get it done the following year! Which I did! Hooray! Back on track!

Wee Summer was easy... with all those red apples and pretty flowers, I couldn't put it down!

Then came a verrrrry long break in my stitching. This poor 3/4 finished project hung over a hanger in my closet for probably six years! Then it got folded up in a box and forgotten for several more! Somehow it resurfaced and I added it to my WIPocolypse list in the hopes of finally finishing it. The last season was fall and I was determined to get it stitched before the end of November. I almost didn't make it, but with tons of encouragement from Phil I put the last stitch in Wee Fall on the 30th!

Here's a look at the whole (slightly slanty) project:

I'd still like to finish it into a bellpull but for now I'm just basking in the joy of finishing one of my oldest WIPs!

Two More

I picked up two more Starbucks mugs to add to my collection while Phil and I were visiting family and friends down in Texas over Thanksgiving. We packed a lot into the week and put over 3000 miles on his car in the process! The weather was fabulous the entire trip and I'm hoping I was able to convince Phil that Texas would be a grrrrreat place to retire!

Yesterday I went through my WIPs looking for something Christmas-y to work on and came up with Better Not Pout from Shepherd's Bush. I'll share my progress soon! I also have a finish to share, plus I had Winter Wonderland framed! Woohoo!

5/12

I finished Block 5 of my Village of Hawk Run Hollow last week. I wish they all went this fast!

Here's what the whole thing looks like so far:

Obviously I won't be finishing it before the end of the year like I'd hoped but it feels good to be almost halfway done!

Flanges My Foot

I decided to get creative and put together this little pillow today. The cross stitch is tres tres old (a Heart in Hand Wee One? Wee Witch?) and I've had the fabric long enough that some might consider it 'vintage'! I was wanting to make it a flanged pillow but after much measuring and cutting and re-measuring I just couldn't wrap my gray cells around it. May as well have been trying to solve a calculus problem! In the end I just made a regular square pillow and called it good. I'm super happy with how it came out to be honest! (Let's just keep it a secret that I actually managed to sew my measuring tape to the pillow at one point!)

Friday's Village

I set up my floor stand earlier this week so I could get back to work on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I was a little cross-eyed working on the 40 count linen at first but now I'm lovin' it! There's not much to this block so barring a disaster I should be able to get it done soon.

Joyful Summer Fini!

Including the dreaded french knots!

Let the fall stitching begin! Woohoo!

Fall Stitching Basket

Instead of pulling out every single fall project I'd like to work on, I decided I'd excercise some restraint and stick with what is on my WIPocolypse list for now. The idea is to finish these four projects and then I can choose something new to start. Sounds reasonable, right?

Top left we have The Village of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings which technically isn't a fall project but to me those colors couldn't get more fall-ish. So into the basket it goes!

Top right is Wee Autumn from Heart in Hand. I started this back in the 90s thinking I'd stitch all four seasons on a long piece of fabric and make it into a bellpull. I have Winter, Spring, and Summer already stitched so fingers crossed Autumn gets done soon!

Bottom left is Acorn Hill from LHN. I believe I started this one during last year's Crazy January Challenge so this will be my second chance to get 'er done!

Bottom right is Into the Night from Shepherd's Bush which I started in 2008. I love the sheep in his cape and hat! There's only a few more rows left to stitch but the big challenge will be finding the threads that came with the kit. They seem to have gotten separated from everything else. Quelle surprise. Some day soon I need to do some serious stash organizing!

 

Harry seems to think he belongs in the Fall Stitching Basket too. Afterall, he is a nice fall colored kitty.

Signs

First there was was the smell of burning leaves while I was walking the dogs yesterday.

Next I had to light the fire because it was too chilly in the living room last night.

Then today I see this on the floor where I'm sorting through my stitchy stash...

I'm beginning to think it's time to put together my fall stitching basket!

Oh Joy

Don't you love it when you take a nice picture to post on your blog and discover later there's a stray thread hanging across it?

Kinda like when you have someone take a photo of you and your kids and you end up with this...

(In my defense I had taken Vicodin for a migraine that day!)

Happiness is...

A comfy new stitching chair!!

If you need me you'll know where to find me!! :-)

Happy Labor Daybor!

August WIPocolypse Update

It's time for another WIPocolypse update! I can't say that my needles have been flying but I do have a finish to report!

The stitching on Summer Snapperland is complete! I still need to attach the snaps and buttons but I don't like to do that until I'm ready for the final finish finishing. I really love the beachy feel to this one, and I'm super happy to have it done! I have other Snapperlands in my stash so this should encourage me to get started on them.

Next up is Joyful Summer from CCN...

I was really hoping to get the blue flower at the top finished but last night I decided I didn't like the looks of the top petal and decided to rip part of it out and restitch it. I ended up with a huge mess when the eye of my needle broke and got stuck under some stitches. After a glass of wine and some Jane Austen I was able to set things to right. I thought all was well and I'd get that last petal done today but now I notice there's a counting error somewhere and I'm going to have to do some fancy fudging. Autumn is just around the corner so this one might get tossed back in the WIP box if it doesn't start behaving!

I am woefully behind on my blog reading and commenting but hopefully over the long holiday weekend I will find some time to play catch up.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Big Finish

After four botched attempts our glass shower enclosure has been installed! It's practically a work of art and I'm so happy it finally came together as planned. I might get a little Joan Crawford-ish about water spots but with regular squeegeeing I should be able to keep my sanity intact!

Still no stitchy news as I haven't picked up a needle in ages. Hoping to rectify that situation soon.

Have a great weekend!

As Seen On TV

I've always wanted a spot where I could sit outside and have my morning yogurt just like they do in the television commercials. Simple pleasures are definitely the best!

Summer Stitching Continues

I managed to get a good portion of the verse stitched on Summer Snapperland over the last couple of days. Last night I noticed I was off by two threads which I'm not particularly worried about (nor particularly surprised about, haha!) since nothing looks too goofy. Still, the perfectionist in me is going to want to know where the mistake is! Normally I hate stitching letter after letter after letter but whether it's the thread or the linen or a combination of both this has been smoothy smooth. (We just have to ignore the fact that I got lulled into missing a stitch somewhere!)

I ordered the threads I need for Joyful Summer so I'll get super busy on that one as soon as they arrive. In the meantime I've been plugging along with what I have which translates to "I stitched a leaf". It's all progress though, right? And it's such a lovely leaf I just had to show everyone!

Tonight we are making stuffed bread for dinner (stuffings to be determined!) which is one of my favorites. We've been making them for years as a way to creatively use up all the bits of this and that in the fridge. There's no right or wrong when it comes to wrapping up a bunch of leftovers in bread dough! Teriyaki chicken with bacon and smoked mozzarella? Delicious!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday and finding time to do something fun! Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Recap

I'm sure the burning question on everyone's mind is whether or not I got my strawberry daiquiri on Friday! The answer is YES!

Phil's sister gave us these fun glasses. They're meant for wine but we like using them for frozen drinks too.

Saturday was spent running errands and by the time we thought we'd go out and enjoy the water we had a BIG storm move in.

My bunting bloweth over!

Sunday was clear, so after church and a delicious "big salad" at Martin's (I love a good salad bar!) I went out on the deck to relax and soak up some vitamin D.

That's my "Mike Olt striking out with the bases loaded" face.

Sunday evening we made chicken alfredo for dinner and settled in for our nightly Olympic overload.

No, it's not so cold in Michigan that we need a fire but when all it takes is a press of a button it's really hard not to press that button!

Now let's check how much stitching I managed to accomplish...

Is that all?? One blue swirly thing?? Well, I obviously won't be winning any medals for stitching speed!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I'm off to see if I can't actually make enough progress on Summer Snapperland to justify posting another picture!

More Summer Stitching

Back in June I pulled a couple of summery projects from my WIPocolypse list to work on. One of them was Bent Creek's Summer Snapperland. I had started this one waaaay back in the summer of "aught seven". Here's where I left off:

And here's how it looks today:

Nuthin' left but the border and a french knot or two! It's taking me forever to do those blue swirlies so it might be a while before I get to happy dance this one into my fuppie box.

The other piece I pulled out was Joyful Summer. It was one of my Crazy January Challenge projects from 2011. Number 14 to be exact. This is all I managed to complete on it:

(Isn't it nice to be able to go back in your blog and grab pictures from previous posts??)

So yeah, I have a looong way to go on that one and I don't have most of the Crescent Colours it calls for so I might have to get creative. Me choosing my own thread colors? Now there's a scary thought!

We're heading into the weekend! I sure hope there's a strawberry daiquiri somewhere with my name on it!

Y'all have a good one!

July in August

Thought I better stop in for a quick hello and show you all my progress on Prairie Schooler's July sampler. I finished the verse so now it's on to the fun part! Woohoo!

We've been super busy here but I'm hoping to get back into the blogging habit this month. I have a lot of catching up to do, but we'll get 'er done!

I hope everyone is doing grrrrrreat and having a blast this summer!

Disaster Averted!

Well, for once I got lucky! Leaving the LK piece soaking in a vat of cold water while I fretted over what I could do to stop the fibers from hemorrhaging turned out to be exactly what I needed to do! I expected to get up this morning to find it was a tie-dyed mess, but instead it looked perfectly fine. No shrinking, stretching, or fading. Unbelievable!

So here we have it... Part One...

Part Two...

And the whole sha-bang...

(Yes, I have it hanging on the refrigerator door! I couldn't think of a better way to get a picture of the whole thing!)

So that concludes the saga of the LK Double Flips, begun way back in 2008. Now it's off to the Fuppie Box where it will reside until I figure out what I want to do with it.

Progress continues on July...

... but it's probably time to pull another project from my WIP pile. After all, what's a WIPocolypse without any WIPs??

It's getting time to pack up my stitching bag and head over to the lake for the weekend, so I will bid you all a fond farewell, until we meet again!

Have a great weekend!