Back and catching up

Hello dear blogging friends. I'm back from the preview trip, arrived safely very late Thursday night despite the heavy downpour. Yesterday was spent doing all the laundry and going to the grocery. So now I'm free to catch up on some reading (which I'll do after my sleep :)
Brace yourself for a lot of pictures... I saved the best ones for last;) 

 

 

 

This is where the event was held. 

 

 

 

 Tour around campus. Niece summarized it as "brick buildings in a forest." I think she's having freshman jitters, knowing this is where she will live a couple of months from now.

 

 

 Look at those trees. There's an area here you can't pass by at night because they don't want to disturb the bats, and there's a lake where they keep the alligators.

 

 

The Gators' football stadium. Niece said they were taught how to do the cheer during the preview.

The freebie bag, loaded with school goodies - water bottle, fan, poncho, etc. You can tell what the weather is by these items, hah. Official gear were being sold after the 2-day event. Niece bought a magnet and a cap.
So now we come to how little niece and I spent our day while they were away. First day, we planned to go to the Butterfly Rainforest but the weather did not cooperate (thunderstorm and lightning everywhere) so little niece spent the morning til lunch at the indoor swimming pool, after that, she watched tv and slept the afternoon away. Ooooh, lucky me got a lot of stitching done!
Second day, we went and explored...the mall, still it was a rainy day. I got some good deals on clothes.

 And look at what I saw along the way:

This is the biggest Joann store I've been in so far. Unfortunately, there were no good xstitch sale items and I have no coupons on hand. Next time, I will be prepared! There's also a Michael's and we just found out Hobby Lobby is also in the area.

And now here's my travel stitching:

I finished the border (yipee!), then have gone on to do the red numbers which I'm almost done with:) I'll be posting that next with the best part of this trip. It's getting late. I'll catch up on reading those blogs tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

12 Days of Christmas WIP

Hello dear friends, I hope everyone had a busy stitching weekend... as I did!
Actually, I tried to have as much done on 12 Days of Christmas before I "might" have to set it aside for this week. I'm on a roadtrip (6 hour drive) with sis' family for big niece' university orientation.  It's a two-day school affair (beginning tomorrow, where big niece has to stay overnight at the campus). After dropping her off comes the fun! We'll see how we're going to spend the time waiting for her and then traveling back, we don't want to bore little niece now do we? But just so you know, I packed my cross stitch too, lol. Brother-in-law is doing all the driving, with my sis doing all that scheduling thing while yours truly slaves on nanny duties, hah! So far, I think we're scheduled to return home late Thursday night.
Okay, enough said, we're here for the stitching! I'm thrilled to show you how much I managed since the last post, take a look:

I like how this border looks, I didn't get bored at all (unlike the border on Summer Breeze). Apologies for the bad photo taken so early this morning. 

I tried to finish the border but couldn't. These eyes begged off but the fingers were still willing, you know that twitching-eyelid kinda thing? Wish I can squeeze in some time tomorrow to finish it off... let's hope little niece quits bugging me by midnight (tough luck), hahaha.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching.

Just Human

Hello dear friends. 
This is no end of the week update on Petal Fairy or Summer Fragrance. Instead, it's a confession... Yup, I've been tempted again to start a new one from the birthday stash.

 12 Days of Christmas 

by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

I'm doing it on 15 x 18 cut of 14 ct. silver-dusted aida (Stardust by Charles Craft). I had to put in thread gridlines because the pen is no match for the shiny silver threads on the fabric. I started with the dark green (though not finished with this color), I wanted to add in those musical notes to cheer me up.

Oh, before I close this, let me say "thank you" to all who left comments or viewed my previous post, you don't know just how much it means to me. Again, thank you... Now, I'm going to be on the lookout for frames!:)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

The Great Frame Challenge

Hello dear friends. 
I have been busy finding ways to frame Summer Breeze, you know how we get all obsessive compulsive when it comes to something we've made. Thanks to all your encouraging words and tips on my last post... so I made sure this is worth posting for your viewing pleasure, hah!

First, I wanted to see how it would look inside. I cut the mounting board just a tad smaller than the opening.

 Okay, cut to the chase--

TA-DA!!!

Boy oh boy, it is not that easy to center  xstitch. I was sweating! Good thing the mounting board was sturdy enough to withstand all that pulling/tugging to keep the fabric taut and center. The ends of the fabric were held together by sewing from one side to the other end. Then, when I finished sewing, I cut another piece of board, this time measured to fit snugly at the back to hide all that sewing. I did not glue it to the wood. Just in case I want to change the xstitch (Hint: Houses of Love) I can just push it out. 

What do you think? I'm way satisfied with the results, I felt like I just passed the framers license exams , lol.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Summer Breeze is Here

Hello dear blogger friends.
I'm finally done with Summer Breeze! Take a look;)

Some close-ups:

 My favorite part is that quiet swan right there.

The inset looks ok, but this swan looks kinda tired to me, lol.

This is the ort jar. I'm going to continue using the same ort jar for next project to make it full.
Now here is what I was so giddy about last time, I took out the frame I bought from Jeremiah Junction eons ago, cleaned and measured it. Fits the Houses of Love (finished earlier this year) but since Christmas is still half a year away... Why not try it on... Summer Breeze! Voila, like magic, fits perfectly!

 This is Scratched Paint style (8x12 in size), dark green in color. It doesn't have a glass and doesn't have anything on the back, just four pieces of wood glued together.

Ooh I'm so excited to try my hands on framing. Let's just hope this experiment won't be a disaster -_-

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Summer Breeze WIP

Hello fellow bloggers and new friends. It's my end of the week update.

I'm excited to tell you that I have been working double-time, make that triple, on Summer Breeze. Trust me, I have a very valid and insane reason for putting down Petal Fairy and Summer Fragrance for now. I will tell you all about it in my next post. 

For the meantime, let me show you where I'm at with Summer Breeze:

I have Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder to keep me company during this shoot. Personal favorites: Sir Duke, Superstition and Send One Your Love. I'm not really that into Miles, that's more DH's preference. 

I finished the border (finally!), the tree and the inset. I hope you can see the letters below the house, the colors used on the chart are so light.

I'm just missing some more words which are in brown (which I already bought). Next post will be a finish... then I'll tell you what's behind my rush, teehee.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Petal Fairy WIP

Hello dear friends. 
Petal Fairy makes a comeback. As planned, I stitched that lightest yellow to finish the skirt part. 

 

I have now moved on to her skin. I have not stitched with Kreinik before so I'm taking my time :)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Summer Breeze WIP

Hello again dear blogging friends.
It's my end of the week update. Here's Summer Breeze:

 I continued some of the border until I got bored with it (again!), so I did the browns of the house and beehive. I'm on light blue now.

This weekend I plan to pick up Petal Fairy. I'm bracing myself for more yellow:) and skin colors.
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Pattern Purchase

Hello dear friends.Here are the two used charts (OOP) I got from Amazon. They are fairly priced and pretty decent (no markings or tearing).

 

A vintage Norman Rockwell pattern (published in 1985) I intend to stitch the one on top as a gift. I just don't know when I will be able to start it.

Next is a Ziggy booklet (published in 1984) I was quite surprised to see that it's full of patterns. Twenty I think. 

I'm still undecided which one I will do to give Big niece. She just finished highschool and will be moving to a university dorm in August. I think I can find something cute for her  future room. I just can't imagine that she's all grown up. 

She graduated highschool with an Associate in Arts Degree, is in National Honors Society and also received a President's award. {Please pardon the proud aunt - who wisely blurred the name so in case Big niece discovers this in the future, she won't kill me, lol.}

Kill me for giving a cross stitch present again! wahahaha.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Summer Breeze WIP

Hello friends. 

Here's a quick update on Summer Breeze by Prairie Schooler.

Added the green words. I started doing the border but got bored after a while, so I went ahead with the pink (near the roof) and the blue.

 Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!