Happy Haunting Finish!

It's been busy here with my husband travelling again. October and November are usually like that for us. I did have a couple of more finishes. The big one is Happy Haunting from Shepherds Bush!! I started it a couple of years ago and has taken it out every fall and stitched a bit on it. This fall I just kept on going on and finished it early November.



I joined the Christmas Challenge that Becky is hosting and got this cute guy stitched up. I love Mill Hill's ornament kits and have quite a few of the santa's so I want to stitch more of them up. I started this one a while ago but figured out that I had stitched the polar bear with a light gray thread and had to frog the whole bear which I had started with and was almost finished. So out went all the stitching and I had to start it over from scratch. I wasn't sure that the cardboard paper would hold up but it did. He's the Nanavut Santa from the Arctic Circle Santas series from Mill Hill.



And I did some finishing work too. I think these are the Redwork Santas from Prairie Schooler. I stitched them up a couple of years ago and couldn't figure out how to finish them. A couple of months ago I got this idea and tried it out on one of the santa's and since it worked out ok I went ahead and finished the rest of them the same way. Can't wait to set up my tree with handmade ornaments this year, lots of new pretties.

Thank you for stopping by and for your sweet comments!

Sanctuary and Wicked finishes!!

I finally finished Sanctuary, I think I started this in 2006 and without Sally's SAL it would still be lurking around in my stash somewhere. Thanks Sally, you can take some credit for this one! I think I used BOAF's Sandpiper linen, 32 count and the called for NPI's.



I love all the little details in this sampler!






The hollyhocks were one of my absolute favorites.



I kitted up a little Halloween design that I have been itching to do for a while. I think it's called Wicked from La D D. It was oop but was reprinted in Just Cross Stitch's Halloween book. I used 36 ct Havana from WDW and Carrie's Threads (can't remember the exact colors, and they are somewhere in the stash).



When I was done with Sanctuary and Wicked I felt a bit lost and didn't know what to work on so I pulled out another WIP that I have been working on for a couple of years, Shepherd's Bush Happy Haunting (kit). Filling in that hill on the top turned me of this piece but Mel came over and we stitched and all of a sudden I was done. The other bands have gone pretty quick so I'm hoping to finish this one.



Remember the snowmen I stitched for the Dodge House? Well, This is how many I got done! Not bad if I say so myself. They are very quick stitches though. And so much sparklier in real life, lots of beads!

Thank you for all the sweet comments on my Spring Sampler finishes! They mean the world to me. I haven't been doing the blog rounds yet but I'm planning to the next few days. Earlier this week I took another accounting exam and I have been busy studying for it. The result- bleckity bleck! Didn't feel great about it but I have been doing good in that class, some problems I had to do ahead of time so that could save me.

Two questions: Would anyone be interested in the Sanctuary chart? It's a bit worn so I'm not selling it. Mostly it's the folds in the middle of it that are a bit scruffed. If more than one person is interested I will hold another give away. Second question, is anyone interested in a Prairie Schooler Christmas Village SAL? I have had the chart since it was released but never got around to stitch it. I would love to SAL with someone and have it ready for next Christmas. Let me know!

Spring Samplers from Prairie Schooler finish!

It feels like I can't remember when I didn't work on these! But I finally have all 3 finished. I used all the called for DMC on a fabric from Silkweavers, a 32 count evenweave that I think was called Winter Sky. Not certain about the name though, it might be Spring Sky too but not Summer since that's more true blue. The sampler above was my favorite of the 3, isn't the frog cute.


The last sampler I finished and it's so much cuter then the picture. I didn't have much left on it so I just pulled it out and got it finished this week.


This is the sampler I started first and I loved stitching it but those borders took a lot of time.

Sorry about the wrinkles, I put them in a plastic bag so I can take them with me frame shopping. I want them all ready to go on display next spring.

I'm almost done with Sanctuary, I'm thinking I'm having another finish this week!

Thank you as always for visiting! Sharing my stitching my stitching with you means so much to me.

Winner!

I had 6 interested ladies so I just told me DD to pick a number between 1 and 6. She picked number 4 - which is Carol since she was the fourth one to post.

I'll mail this out as soon as I get your address info Carol. Congratulations

2011 PS Santa give away!

I ended up with 2 of this chart. He's really cute and fresh from the printers.

If you are a follower just leave comment on this post and I will draw a name before this weekend.

Thanks for visiting and all the sweet comments on my last post!

Summer House from Blackbird Designs framed!

I love how it turned out! If I would do the design again I would pick another fabric so it would stand out more. I have to find a wall to hang all my framed BBD designs, I have a bunch that lives in the closet in my guest room.

Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments! They brightened my day when I was slaving over balance sheets!

Finshed finishes!

Ouch what a month! Major virus on the computer that took a week to figure out. Why does people do that? And my classes started, didn't know that my brain could hurt this bad. I'm a bit rusty after the summer too. But I finished this pillow before I started school. I think it's my favorite pillow finish ever! The kit was from Mill Hill.


I tried out this finish for my red Prairie Schooler santa's. I wasn't sure about it at first but it's growing on me. The the green straw were crumbling all over but I went over it with some clear glue and it's more sturdy now. Have 7 more I have to finish this way.



And I got some small stitching finishes, a dinosaur from a Simply Heritage kit and another little snow charmer for the EGA's tree.

Thank you for visiting and lovely comments!

Where did this summer go? Our July's are usually busy but they have never been this crazy. Both my girls have their birthdays in July,we wen't on vacation to Minnesota for one week and the county fair was in July too. I actually volunteered some time this year since my youngest are calming down a bit so I can trust her around breakables. My stitching has suffered, the only piece I worked on every week is The Sanctuary. Sorry Sally that I haven't posted any pictures, I did work on it though, promise. I half expected to find a irrate british lady on my front porch demanding to know what's up at one time.



My EGA group stitch ornaments for the Dodge house each year. They do a selection of trees that are decorated by various groups. Our theme this year are snowmen and victorian ornaments. I haven't done any ornaments for the last few years so I thought I would try to stitch some of the Mill Hill Snowmen ornaments, this is one of my first ones. I have other already stitched up that I have to dig out of the Christmas box. He's called the Holiday Tree Snow Charmer



Talking about the fair, my oldest daughter had to put her crafting into high gear before it. We had started and kitted up several projects this last year but put off actually doing anything. So I don't know how much crafting we ended up doing on July? She's not really doing anything unless I'm there helping out and just checking her efforts. Maybe she has hit that age when they are done with crafting for a while? I wanted her to at least finish up what we had gotten for her to do. And she did really good, quite a few purple ribbons and the owl ipod holder above was selected to go to State Fair.



These orange ink thumb paintings were one of my favorite's. Love the frames and the back ground paper worked out well.



This vodoo needle cushion was a lot of work. She's not going to be my embroiderer, that's for sure. I love it though, I might have to do one for me and the lady that are managing the 4 H club with me



I found this idea over at the Moda Bake Shop. They did Halloween ornaments of charm packs but we did patriotic ones instead. I think they turned out cute, styrofoam balls are hard to work with though. You end up with a lot of small styrofoam crumbs that attaches itself to everything.



We were dog sitting this cutie last weekend. She's an old lady and I think she was stressed out since she was sick for 3 days straight. So I have some rugs to clean this week.



When the dog showed up the cat was not impressed. Oh, well.

Sorry for all the pictures. Have to share some more of my handiwork next time. I did get some things finished before July hit and I actually have my computer back with kids going back to school late last week.

Wip's and a finish

During my blogging break I did finish Summer from Drawn Thread, I loved how it turned out. The frame is waiting for it already, just have to sit down and start a finishing frenzy.



I'm working on this Mill Hill turtle for my daughter.I have been trying to actually finish up things that I have started and this is one of then. I'm doing ok with it, could be better though.



My Sanctuary SAL has been neglected the last 2 weeks. It was so busy with my dad here and last Tuesday I only had 40 minutes to sit down and stitch so I didn't even bother to switch projects that night. To make up for it I brought Sanctuary with me to a SAL this Saturday and worked on it the whole time there so I got quite a bit done.

My dad left a week ago and I have been busy cleaning house since. I'm pretty much caught up on that now and I have gotten most of my carpets cleaned so another one of the big projects for this summer are checked off. So now I'm prepping to paint the older kids rooms. It's easier to do that in the summer when I can move them down to the guest room for a couple of days. I'm not looking forward to sorting through my sons room, lots of things going to goodwill and ready to be packed away.

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post!!

Hardanger bookmarks, SAL and dance!

A while back I promised to do a couple of Hardanger bookmarks for the boutique at the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival here in Omaha. Items are sold there to cover the cost of the festival. So after procastigating for quite a while I got these sewn up. I think I have done them in off white with the watercolors thread before but I could only find my green fabric. Hope they sell!



Progress on Sanctuary is slow, I have a hard time getting into how the pattern and instructions are done. I took me about 20 minutes the other day to find where the 4 sided stitch description was the othere day.I love the color of this new row of threes though.



Miss Alice has her dance show today and tomorrow so that's what I'm doing this weekend. Last night was dress rehearsal and she was pretty excited!



I think the tap number was pretty hard, the girls were doing good but you could all see that they had their eyes on Miss Nicole at all times just to make sure that they were getting it right.

My dad is here and making his best to raise the consumer condfidence numbers here in the US. Lots of good sales out there for gents just before Fathers Day and I think that he has a new spanking wardrobe. If anyone wonders what styles, colors and prices that Dillard's and Younkers men's departments carries this season I can give you a detailed description.

Thank you for the comments on the last post! I do appreciate them all!

DT SAL

I joined the Sanctuary SAL with Sally and Chris, thanks for having me ladies. This is how far I have gotten on it. I think it's been an UFO for 6 years, hopefully I can get it stitched up. It's so pretty, don't know why I stopped working on it.

I have kind of given up on this blog. It's been a busy year here with very active freshman, a pretty active middle schooler and of course my little first grader. My DS did the musical, the play, mock trial and show choir as his extra curricular activities so we have been driving a lot. DD has been doing chorus and bands so we have enjoyed a lot of concerts over at the middle school too.

And then I decided to take more classes this year so I have been going to school 75% of the time and taking care of kids and home the rest of the time. So it's not been a lot of time for me. But I'm taking the summer off to reload and hopefully I will have some more time to post now and then. I have some finishes that I have to take pictures of and share if it only could stop raining!