At last, my first April finish

Hello friends.
Yes, it is the first and also my only finish for the month as it is the last day, lol.
I just did what I set out to do, kept working at it to have an April finish...and now I'm so happy (breathing a big sigh of relief:)

 I See Trees of Green

by Heartstring Samplery

14ct. vintage country cream aida

This is fresh from the last stitched X. The needle is still smokin' hot, haha.
Some pics to show you the GAST's dyed/faded/antique look (the shot didn't capture the marbling on the fabric though):

 Oh, almost forgot to mention that I only used one skein of each color (I ordered 2 of each). Guess my guesstimating skills need improvement... or not. I'm pretty sure I'll be using those extra skeins for something else. Do I smell another start? Ooh, I think not, Santa's watching.

 Tomorrow I'll attend to my other WIPs as it is already a new month, have those finished before everything turns to chaos. I'll tell you about it in my next post.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Seeing Trees again

Hello friendly bloggers.
It's a no-brainer to pick up I See Trees as soon as the GAST threads arrived.
Without further ado:

 I have conquered the border but didn't get to finish all of Piney Woods. Anyway, that tree in the middle is more than half done, then I could proceed with the last thread color to have that long-awaited finish, hopefully by next week? Apple cider stitching only calls for a reindeer, the tree pot, and the remaining lyrics- so I think that's doable,what do you think?

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Bees and Santas

Hello dear friends.
Loads of action on this post, my first for the week. I just realized I don't have a finish yet for this month and we're already on the last week! So I got me my turbo needle and stitched away...

 

 Did a lot of gray stitching! See that awkward-looking bear? That one will bravely hug a beehive. What else is new here? The Queen Bee, of course she takes that royal middle spot! There are more grays to come but I felt (for blog presentation purposes) I just had to add that gold on her, otherwise she'll be like a different insect (ooops! sorry:(

 

These next two men I'm so eager to show you. My Men in Red.

  

I finished what little was left of 2004 Santa's red robe (is that robe that they're wearing? I don't exactly know what you call that.) Then I proceeded to 2007 Santa. This was a joy to stitch, I kept at it and got excited as I see the scarf outline taking form.

 

And I also love the pattern on the bottom of his robe. Neat! Only ecru, cream and backstitching left on these two men.

 Here's  the whole piece:

I'm stitching this piece along with Annie, hop on over to see her great progress. 

The GAST threads (along with 16ct. Aida) were just delivered. Can't wait to get back to I See Trees, no guarantees though if I'll have a finish for the month. At this point I think it will take a miracle superturbo needle to do just that.

As always, I want you to know I appreciate each kind comment you leave on my posts:)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

A week later...

Hello friendly bloggers:)
Prepare for total bobbination...
Took me a week to finally turn my floss storage blogworthy:) and I'm very happy with the results... so I just keep eyeing it that there's not enough time to stitch save for one WIP, shame!
So let's see what this whole brouhaha is all about:

THE NEW BOBBINS! More of that towards the end:)
I used a labeler to put the DMC range in front of every side of my double-sided bins, see?

Floss army pictures:

150-739, each compartment can fit 7 to 8 bobbins (depends how much thread is left). The middle part has a longer compartment, so that's where my extra skeins go (in that same range that's why you see a lot of 310 on top).
Here's the top view:

On its flipside:  740-3078

top view:

And last but not least, 3325-B5200 (the clear bobbins, yipee!):

The bigger compartment on this one carries satin and light effects threads. 

This side still had space, so I put there extra bobbins, Bohin needles, buttons that I'll use soon (hopefully) and beads, here's the topview shot:

On the flipside are more stuff:

Needles, buttons & pins (some are freebies). I keep the tag on those so I'll know where I got them from. Thread Heaven and Clover water-erasable markers. You see those bobbined threads? Those I noticed were somehow have a different shade from the newer batch of DMC, so I separated them, I'll just use them for smaller projects.
Have I managed to make you dizzy? Wait, there's more:(
After all the work I've put in to make it organized and uniform, I noticed things, hmm...

 Since the time I started stitching, I've always cut and taped the number from the DMC label (some white bobbins are already turning yellowish because of age, boohoo). Something else you noticed? Yes! the numbers are not even printed alike:(

Some have dots in front, or at the end or even on both sides of the number, 

 Some were underlined,

 Some edged in gold, some in black,

Some fonts are Arial, Times New Roman, etc.

See that 701? It says For Sale Outside EU on the side. Now it makes me wonder if the shade sold here is not the same as in EU (and I read they're more expensive there), I think those sold here are made in France. Does DMC even care about my irrelevant concerns, lol. I know what you're thinking - what's she babbling about, she can't even cut and tape straight, hahaha. For now I'm keeping these varied numbers to reflect the history of my bobbin journey (what!?!)

Okay, now that I have shocked you with my observations (told you before I was gonna try hard to make boring stuff look interesting), let me make it up to you with some progress on a favorite WIP, woohoo! 

 This is how far Piney Woods took me. Fear not, I have ordered 2 each of apple cider and piney woods even before I ran out. It should be coming anytime soon. 

Leaves me no choice but to pick up the Bees and Santas (which I'm stitching along with Annie of My Little Xstitch Nook, who's a very fast stitcher, she just whips up those cute stitched cards out of nowhere and still manages to give Santa a hefty progress, impressive!)
That's it folks. Thanks for bearing with me. I hope I'll have something more appropriate and interesting to show for next week. 

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Trees, Bees, and Santa too

Hello dear friends.

Yes, you read (or counted) that right, three WIPs! 

 I'm really loving how "I See Trees" is coming along. Piney woods on the border just made this piece Christmassy:) 

 Not much done on Bees, just added gray octagons.  

 Jump on to another Prairie Schooler design, concentrated on just one Santa this time. Cream stitching and started the red, woohoo! Now, at least one of them is taking shape. I'm a color by color stitcher as some of you already noticed, from dark to light ones, so I'm quite being a rebel right now (I don't think Santa would mind though:)
Finally, let me share the new convert's latest finish, 

ta-da! 

Isn't she adorable? Told her to clean that bluish ink right there on the lower left before she frames it. She's now doing a red mug design.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Weekend plan trade-off

Hello lovely stitchy bloggers. 
Okay, let me start off with some confessin' - I didn't finish what I set out to finish this weekend (bobbinating, remember?) But did take a picture of my start:

 

The goodies DSIL brought - transparent bobbins and 2yards each of 11ct and 14ct aida (though they border on plastic canvas texturewise, they're FREE, so no complaints, lol... Maybe if I soak in warm water it would get softer?)

  

Another confession, I'm not going to do all those threads... Joann Fabrics had a discount coupon on total purchase so what am I to do? I took out my thread list for Prairie Schooler Alphabets and there you have it, even if I still can't decide on purchasing the fabric:)
Believe me, I started, but it's not picture-worthy yet. I got overwhelmed after more than two hours of bobbinating, so this happened:

 Isn't that a nice compromise? I finished mulberry (the border), the skein was enough, squee! Piney woods next but I'll save that for another day.
Sunday evening I picked this up:

I stitched on the quilt, stocking, and gave Santa some skin! My stitching buddy Annie of My Little Xstitch Nook got a lot of red done already. 
Since this post started off with confessions, let's end it with another one, oh no:(

My infatuation with Santa's sewing machine led to this:

No, I didn't just buy this because of that! I don't sew, never knew how. But this was in a Walmart Black Friday deals maybe 4 or 5 years ago. I got it for almost half-price...and never opened it. I dug it up from behind the bed in my sis' guestroom, all dusty and looking lonely. Hopefully the DVD instructions will help me uncover that sewing prowess, lol.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Greening Santa

Hello dear friends.
Lots of green on Prairie Schooler Santas. I'm struggling at how to show this best as I've almost always taken the photos at night from my stitchy spot:(

 

 

 For the weekend I plan to attend to the floss stash. The new bobbins have been calling my name for a while now. Fingers-crossed I'll show you a neat bobbin extravaganza in the next post. I know I'm making boring stuff seem exciting, haha. Before I forget, thanks so much for the comments esp. on I See Trees, it has become a favorite WIP too so I might put in some stitches this weekend, we'll see.
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Of bees and trees

Hello dear friends. Another quick update on 2 WIPS:)
Let's go:

 On PS Where There are Bees, I finished off the dark pink and started the bluish crowns. I went a shade darker than what's recommended. 

Looking at it, I'm not sure if I made the right choice, looks too dark? I might revert to the original for the rest of blue stitching. 

Over here, I'm happy to say I'm done with pecan pie thread. The thread was enough for that reindeer and bird. I've moved on to mulberry, the color is heavenly:)
That's it for tonight, I'm so sleepy.
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

I just knew it...

Hello stitching and blogging friends. 
Last time I posted on this I kinda knew what was coming. Yes, the apple cider GAST went poof before I finished the lyrics:(

Even my stitching agrees with me. See that last line? "And I think to myself What a"(nightmare)... my thoughts exactly, lol.

There's no GAST supplier around here, so I'm going to make a conscious effort to finish all the other threads before I go online to buy the apple cider. I surveyed my threads and looks like piney woods is not enough too.

And not much done on PS Where there are Bees, oh well, I'll make it up to you next time.
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!