Back to Brown

Hello again dear friends:)
Guess who's back to rule the stitching table this week? None other than 3371!

No more flying teddy bear there, lol - I'm referring to a comment by rosey175 of ishkabibble (thanks to all the commenters by the way, you always make me smile for sure). 
So that's another brown out of the way. I'm now on to another brown (>_<), starting with the reindeer, but I'm really excited to see them come out of that fabric:)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Stitchy weekend

Hello blog friends. A wonderful Easter evening to you and your family:)
Happiness is... having another finish! 
I put all other WIPs down for the rest of last week until I could finish...

 

 Yesteryear

by Little House Needleworks

16ct. Lite Oatmeal Aida 

 Some close-ups: 

 It has been 2.5 weeks since I last posted on Yesteryear but I've been picking it up on some days. I changed all the cream (712) into white because it gets lost on the fabric. I actually used 3 strands on those to make it more pronounced. I just have to imagine the peeps were into super-bleaching their clothes in the old times, lol.

 And since we have another finish for the month, I thought I'd extend this joyous moment with...

Another start, yippee!!! (you would really be such a stitching nerd if you guessed what that pattern is, haha).

It's 4 Prairie Schooler Santas which I've decided to stitch together on a 14ct natural aida. But this was tricky though, year 2005 is one square extra in width:( It's the one holding a quilt. I placed it on the lower left corner, be forewarned that one of Santa's fingers may look short, lol.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

There's something about Reindeer

Hello friends.
Here's my last batch of Prairie Schooler charts:

Apologies for the dark pictures. I just love the colors on Bees, and much to my surprise, the chart only requires 4 colors.

And the main topic:

 I think this is a reissue of Prairie Schooler Book#25 - Up On the Housetop. The back shows lovely houses:

 I like the old simple style of Santa's sled:

 There's a reindeer on one of these Christmas trees (beside the snowman).
I'm also adding here a pattern by Heartstring Samplery which I got on sale a month ago (less 25%) . It's got the lyrics  of "What a Wonderful World" which is pretty neat, love the song.

  

 I already bought 4 of the 5 required threads. A few days ago I posted the fabric I'm going to stitch this on. 

 Finally, lots of progress on Christmas Eve:

I finished green, red and dark gold. There's an omission here. I'm still doubting its placement, I'll tell you all about it when I'm close to a finish. It's not something noticeable.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Begin Row Finish

Hello blog friends.
Yesss, I'm back with another finish!

Begin Row

by Bent Creek

16ct. Ice Blue Aida

The chart came with these cute white flower buttons.

The black- lettered word seem to be enticing me to start another chart, hah 

As always, thank you for the kind and lovely comments you leave on my posts, truly appreciate how you put a smile on my face each time. I'm setting aside what remains of my weekend attending to my long- unread bloglist, stitching shall commence tomorrow night:)
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Christmas Eve start

Hello dear friends:)
You can only deny your feelings for so long before it gets crazy and you just have to give in, start cutting that fabric and put in the first stitches...
I'm this close to finishing Begin Row and Yesteryear is begging for some lovin', but then...

How can I resist that? Look at the floss batch on the shiny fabric, yep, I know you can't see the glitters, just trust me on that one, haha.

And you've guessed it, that's the pesky 3371, won't quit following me!

Green got the honor of starting Christmas Eve:) But I'm putting down my needle on this tonight. This weekend will be focused on Begin Row. Have a nice weekend. 
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

"A Time to Rend, A Time to Stitch" Finish

Hello dear blog friends. I'm back with my first finish for March:

 A Time to Rend, A Time to Stitch

Cross Country Stitching Magazine (June 2013 issue)

14ct. Lite Oatmeal

 

 Oh I love this! Loved finishing it with the buttons I got for cheap! The lone heart at top is from my scrapbook supply. The rest are from a Buttons Galore theme pack (the chart originally used JABCo "Love to Sew"). This pack cost me just a $1.89, imagine that? For all these cute stuff - thimbles, scissors, spools, buttons, and...

 

...tape measure!

Easy on the eyes and pocket, I like!

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Of fabrics and scissors

Hello friendly bloggers. No WIP update tonight, but next post will definitely showcase a... finish! I'm just putting in the last details on it,  just give me more Time (that's a hint there, lol). Even if there's no WIP here, I hope you read this til the end. By the way, I've been reading the comments and I feel so loved right now with all the great PS Alphabet ideas you've thrown at me:) I'm amped with the idea of a smaller count or different fabric, and then when I'm ready to hit that button to buy the fabric I freeze. You would probably laugh that it's just an 18ct. aida that I'm looking at, haha. But it's one of my goals for this year to try, hopefully I'll get down to it when I get enough time off. I'm still trying hard to wean myself from 14ct. Baby steps...
Speaking of fabric, my purchase came in for some charts I plan to start in the coming days as I'm already counting two finishes this month.

L-R: 14ct black, 14ct vintage country cream, 14ct. blue blizzard opalescent, 16ct. French lace aida.
The blue blizzard, with its shiny specks uncaptured by this photographer, is for PS Christmas Eve and the Vintage country cream is for another Reindeer chart. Hmm... I think this month is officially a Christmas stitching month for me.

I'm sure you've been in a situation where you lose something dear to you and you try to replace it. Then you go online and it's your mind you lose this time around. Well, what if I tell you, I just found my old scissors in one of the deep deep pockets of my tote a day before I got my new scissors from the mail. But I'm not kicking myself for it. I still love the them all, lol. We're not in the operating room okay?

The two leftmost pairs are Gingher birthday scissors and the one lost and finally found old scissors:

Weapon of choice in the new batch: the one with large handles, super sharp and cute. The larger stork will take permanent residence at my sister's so I don't have to worry about bringing a pair when I go there. And the one beside it is just as lovely, it's so light that I actually find myself reaching for it more than my old ones which I put in tin cases for floss assigned for each WIP.
And now let me try to tug at heartstrings here. Last week, a young lady (same age as my Big niece) who I see three times a week at work started cross stitching. She's been in a sad mood for some weeks now, so she gave it a try. I gave her pieces of 11ct. aida (yes, I do have 11ct, lol), some floss and letter pattern... and she never looked back. The girl has been asking me for easy patterns. She's done a cute pig and is now doing a classic cameo (silhouette). Below is her first finish (posted with her permission):   

So, last Friday, I presented her with her first stitching kit:)

The tin case includes size 22 needles, needle threader, some floss for her cameo silhouette and the new smaller stork scissors. She was genuinely pleased with it, esp. the scissors! 

So you see, I think I should thank my old scissors for temporarily hiding from me:)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Time to Stitch

Hello dear friends.
Update on Time to Rend: 

 Completed cross-stitching the hearts, houses, birds. I even had time to "back"stitch and do running stitch. Now this in the running with Begin Row for this month's finish. Both pieces include buttons, we'll see how that goes.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Going Green

Hello blog friends.
Quick update on 2 WIPs. 

Continued green stitching on Yesteryear (top border and more leaves).

 And on Begin, I added more trees. 

Only need two rounded trees, some light/ecru stitches and very tiny amount of backstitch, yipee! 

Oh, I also added the six cute birds using satin floss.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Prairie Schooler Haul

Hello dear blog friends.
There's just something about the word "closing" that puts me under a buying spell. I did the same thing around this time last year with Cross Country Stitching Magazine (that's why I feel guilty seeing the pile that I have to stitch some charts from it). Now it's Prairie Schooler, and to think I just stitched my first PS ever with Summer Breeze last year, lol. I enjoyed stitching and framing it.
After five order cancellations and weeks of finger-tapping, I'm posting some of that haul. I'm still waiting for three which I hope don't get cancelled, other charts I've given up searching.
Here we go, apologies for the blurry pics:

 I got the Alphabet series. I was actually uncertain at first if I should give it a go. This was quite a task as GHI seems to be out of stock in most sites. Isn't that interesting? It would be understandable if it's ABC that's hard to find. So between this series I also considered the "Fairy tales/Fables (Little Red Riding Hood, Three Pigs, Tortoise and Hare, Three Bears which is also OOP I think) or the Months with December missing in most. Eventually the Alphabets won, hey it's only 9 charts against 12 (months):)
Next are Christmas charts:

 I like reindeer. I don't know why, I just like them. I did one last year too. 

And the Santas bearing gifts to make every stitcher's Christmas merry:) I plan to stitch four of them together- years 2004 to 2007.
Among all these charts, my favorites:

Christmas Eve absolutely took first place, I already ordered fabric for it online, can't wait to start it. I love the red, green, white, okay maybe the brown too which happens to be 3371 (again!), haha.

Second place goes to Garden Samplers which is OOP (and selling at high price on some sites). This has been on my wishlist for a long time waiting for it to get cheaper... and it did, patience is a virtue:) The chart picture doesn't look nice but I have seen a finished picture of it on the net. I love the middle piece with the flowers so bright and pretty. 

And now I'm overwhelmed. I don't know how I'm going to tackle those alphabets. It's going to take a huge fabric to stitch all of them together. If you know my reputation with large fabric, not so good! I've stitched only in aida and by hand. Large fabric and my small frame you know how it goes (right, Petal Fairy?) It's going to be a challenge, lol. 
This is all for now, still stitching on WIPs.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

A Time to Begin

Hello dear blog friends. I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.
I'm back with my two WIPs. These two I have paired so that's the reason for my title today (lame, haha).
I stitched last night til I got sleepy (late, late).

 I'm done with red and black floss, and stitched some blue and green on A Time to Rend...

 And on Begin Row, I completed the alphabets in brown shade.

This is all for now. I'll be at my sis' today, still undecided which WIP to bring or if I should, the Big niece is back on a one-week break from college, so I'm not sure if I'll even get a chance to put in a single stitch.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Back with Two WIPs

Hello dear blogging friends. It's me again:) First off, huge thanks for the kind comments on my latest finish, truly appreciate each one of them. Second, I'm way behind my blog reading. I'm trying to catch up slowly, when I got spare time it happens that my net connection works poorly, the photos won't load as fast so as the comments. 
Now let's get down to stitching...
All done with happy dance at the start of the week, I wondered what would be next...

 So I thought I "must begin with a single step," lol. It's about time to pick up Begin Row, my first WIP of the year.

 I stitched the letters in 924, a blue shade, instead of 730.

 And I definitely had enough time for my magazine chart. Finished the words and some hearts and started working on some birds.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!