Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Happy Halloween!
It's time for Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching - Halloween Blog Hop! It's my first time to join the fun and this post is brought to you by the letter:

 

 That's a capital "I," as in "I" know it's blurry and "I" don't have much large alphabet stitches, "I" apologize.
Anyway, I've been wanting to join since last year but didn't have enough Halloween finishes then. Needless to say, I can't be satisfied with a spectatorial role anymore, haha. 
This is my latest finish (just last week!)

 

 Away We Ride

by Blackbird Designs

16ct. tea-dyed Aida

Shades of gray on the neverending border

Not spooky? This piece actually gave me a fright. More than the panic of trying to finish before the hop. Courtesy of my DH as usual... Proud as I am upon completing the task, I held it in front of him, "ta-da!" He looked at it and recited "Away we ride till it's dark as pitch, to find A home FOR the wicked witch." Aaahhh! Goodness, I thought my eyes would fall out. Since when have we decided to do social work for witches?

Here's another one made early this year:

 

 Pumpkin Hollow Farms

by Little House Needleworks

14ct. antique white Aida

And here was last year's: 

The Branch

(Come with me All Hallow's Night)

by Barbara Ana Designs

16ct. natural Aida

 There you have it, I'm a Halloween Hop virgin no more! So run along now, your next letter is from Leonore of Needle, Pen & Sword. Have fun!

Thanks for visiting!

Just the Sea Life

Hello friendly bloggers. 
Another weekly post, really wanted to stitch and post and read more but didn't have much spare time (and energy) after work, been busy lately, sigh:(
I'm only showing the Sea Life progress here. But don't be fooled, for I did a happy dance this week (despite aching legs and feet!), which you get to see next post (the finish, not the feet!) Oooh, I'm excited.
So here's Sea Life and all the blues in it:

 

 The blues provided a relaxing break from all the grays on my latest finish (hint, hint!). I'm spending time this weekend on the neglected WIP - Read Between the Lines, while digging some flosstube I've missed the past two weeks, I hope I can catch up with blog reading too (while stitching? haha). I have also tweaked my wishlist recently in time for holiday stashing. Looks like a Sampler year ahead...

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Weekly post

Hello blog friends. It's been a week since I last posted.
Will try to keep up with the reading too. But there was definitely lots of stitching done.
Look who decided to pay me a visit at the stitching spot:

Santa's back!  You can see how long he's been off here. I put in the gray smoke and light green on his blanket first, then proceeded with the abominable snow - white! I'm using B5200 instead. I purposely made the picture dark so the white can be seen - it's on the houses, trees and the ground, still lots to go:

Prairie Schooler's Christmas Eve

Next up is Sea Life by Lanarte:

I got carried away with that lighthouse. Still saved white stitching for last. I finished the starfish and wait, I changed something on the bottom left:

The chart had 3 fishes in backstitch next to the lighthouse. It felt mediocre to me. So I found one in the book that met my impeccable taste, LOL.

Aside from stitching, I continued thinning more magazines. I'm feeling more guilty than ever for stashing and not stitching some wonderful designs inside. 

This one is calling out to me more than the others:

Here's the thing though, I'm not a coffee drinker. But I do sip tea once in a while. I'm also thinking of making one in blue. Aaah, plans... 

Ooh, I almost forgot, I've been stitching overtime on my Halloween WIP, I definitely see that flicker of light at the end of the tunnel, yes, just what's left of the border and the windows then it's another happy dance!

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Sea Life

Hello blog friends. 
A rainy afternoon we had and now it's raining again, setting the mood for more stitching! Thanks so much for the kind comments on my latest finish (with my Christmas story too!)

I'm dedicating this weekend to Away We Ride, which you get to see on Halloween, hopefully that it gets done by then (such a tall order for a short stitcher). I can only tell you that I've moved on from the grays and browns for now. I'm doing Mulberry and next will be an orange hue, how exciting!

But during the work week I had two pieces on the table. My new start, which I'm rather enjoying than the second WIP. Here is the dark picture:

 

 Sea Life 

by Lanarte

16ct. White Aida

This is how it should look when done:

 Let me repeat that- "should look". Again, I'm planning to do some changes along the way. The booklet showcases more patterns, and there are some neat elements I really like to add on this one.
Here's the other WIP, Read Between the Lines:

 

 

 I know it looks boring, I felt bored stitching those lines too. But as much as possible, I'm trying to finish that stuff first:(
This is all for now. I hope you're all having a lovely stitchy weekend.
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching! 

A start and a finish

Hello friendly bloggers.
It's happy stitching progress and finish since I've last posted. I guess regular readers could guess what that finish is, so I'll reserve that to the end.
Here's the start I've been yapping about last week. I may have confused you, it's not another Christmas piece but was part of my haul last Christmas (yep, the presents for myself). I've added more blocks on it now, so it's no longer shy to pose for the camera (sorry it's not straight because it's on the bed):

 

 Read Between the Lines

Blue Ribbon Designs

16ct. Ivory Aida

And now for the main event,

Ta-da! 

 Prairie Stars

(all stitched together)

Prairie Schooler

14ct. White Aida

I wasn't quite happy with the Santa face backstitch, but what else can I do. I'm just glad all the blocks fit together though they are not all of same size. They are strategically placed for my story though, here goes (just follow each block):

The yuletide season is in full bloom (the flower), and Santa is ready with his presents for all the nice kids (but the sack looked more like a tiny Christmas tree). So when nighttime came (there's the moon, so it really is nighttime), he summoned his reindeer (who's just dancing in the snow) so they can start spreading Christmas Joy. Meanwhile, little kids have already hung their stockings (just two?), and when the last embers have died, Santa went down the chimney (again with his sack that looked like a tiny tree). This he did and finished all in one night while everyone was at the midnight mass. But lo and behold, when they arrived home, they found Santa left his boot too filled with more goodies (yep, that's a shoe right?).

And that, my friends, is why I'll never be a storybook writer, nor even a greeting card writer, haha. I'll stick with stitching.

Hey, there's more. I won't be posting any more progress on my Halloween piece. I hope I can complete that before Halloween so you'll see it on that day (pressure, pressure). So this blog will be boring if you'll only see one WIP, fear not, I have picked up another start! It's something nautical.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

2 WIPs

Hello again stitching buddies.

"Prairie Stars" is back on the stitching table:

 

 I have stitched the blue on the Church block and currently doing Ecru. I had to buy an extra skein today. 

 I hope that this will be finished by next post...

 I also added more on Away We Ride, the brown on the house:

 

I have started the new pattern I told you about last time. I will be taking a photo of it once there's significant progress, right not it's just two blocks in. 

Here's more, I just dug up an old WIP (not really that old). What could it be? It's either lacking backstitch or light colored stitching (white!) When I looked at it, I thought, what was I thinking, it's almost a finish for me. So tune in next time.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching.

Away We Ride

Hello blog friends.
Not much stitching since going back to work.
Just a little progress on Away We Ride, at least I already have A Witch (in words, haha).

 

  Not much progress, right? I have, however, chosen a new pattern to start. It's from the Christmas haul last year. I already have the fabric, a 16count Aida, and taken out the necessary floss, Iwill be doing the DMC conversion. I still need to put gridlines though. 
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

WIPs update

Hello sweet blog friends.
October already?!?.. and tomorrow I'm going back to work (sigh😔
I could have started a new piece after finishing "Record" but decided against it (frankly, I can't make up my mind what to pick🤔. The new Mirabilias are already out of the equation, I won't be able to concentrate on anything else if I start one of those. While weighing my options, I stitched on my two current WIPs:

 

 I wonder if I will be able to finish Away We Ride before Halloween... I love the pattern don't get me wrong, but the grays are weighing down on me that I keep going back to Prairie Stars' attractive colors...

 

 

Just some blues on the Church background and then it's all Ecru, then a little bit of backstitch. So it's going to be Ecru or Gray stitching from here on... or I'm choosing a new start pronto, haha, we'll see...

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Framed, Delivered and Appreciated (and more stitching)

Hello blog friends. Thanks for the lovely words on my last finish post.
What a diff'rence a day made, 24 little hours (so the song goes, actually it's been two days since I posted). I'm so excited to share with you now my framing achievement! But before that, let's have some more stitching progress on not one- but two WIPs! I'm making most of what's left of my work-free week.

Away We Ride

Prairie Stars

Okay, now that we got those out of the way... Oooh, I'm really so happy to be posting about this. Here's the frame I bought weeks ago from Michael's, at less than $5 with the sale and extra coupon:

Doesn't it look almost like the one on the magazine?

TA-DA!

Finished, polished, of course I didn't bother wrapping this labor when I presented it to a surprised (he had to act the part) DH. He was really pleased at how it turned out, so much so he almost played it on the record player (okay that's too much acting! haha). But I'm so sure he was genuinely pleased for he allowed me to borrow these for another round of photo shoot:

These are what's on his cd playlist right now so I had to be content. Asking for the real LPs will be really pushing it, LOL (...maybe when I stitch his favorite Album cover, hmmm).

On other stuff, I'm still having issues with the net connection every now and then. I'm slowly catching up with the bloglist which I'm doing alphabetically. That's why there's a lot of stitching time going on. The brother-in-law arrived late last night (flights got delayed from Japan and New Jersey) and this morning I got the new charts I asked my brother to search for. Three (OOP) Mirabilia patterns...which I don't have any plans of starting yet, I just like the idea of having the patterns on hand (crazy). 

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Look who's back with a happy (slow) dance

Hello dear blog friends. Missed you all, many thanks for the concern, felt so loved😉. 

The heavy punch came after my last post, yep, I got the full stretch of headaches, bodypain and cough. I had to take nighttime relief medication to ease the coughing to go to sleep. 

So, in between my drowsy state and the boredom confining myself in the bedroom, I got a lot of stitching done (would you believe that? I think I was really mentally "not normal" for I tackled a lot of...backstitching, haha).

And now I have a finish to show. No ailment can stop me from having this thing done. Not to worry, did double handwashing before I start and made sure not to cough on the thing😷.

 For the Record

Cross Stitcher Magazine, June 2016 issue

14ct. white Aida

I did a lot of changes with the words to make it in "tune" with DH. Here's the original from the digital copy (I used DMC, but the chart also has Anchor and Madeira conversion):  

 

I took out "FA LA LA" coming out of the phonograph and put more musical notes instead. I don't know, but to me it sounded like a Christmas carol and surely I don't want this to be a seasonal piece. I also adjusted the staff to accommodate the word POP on top of the player.

 Instead of TUNE (what is that anyway?), I put SOUL, and for ELECTRO, I put NEW AGE,

 For CLASSICAL, I placed JAZZ, which I think complements the trumpet. For the Amp Speaker, it will be redundant to have ROCK (which is already on the drumset), so I decided on BLUES,

 And R&B took the place of JAZZ beside the microphone.

 Another look:

 I already have the frame to go with it, so I'll be posting about it next time. More good news, I still have a week of vacation to spend.

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Why?

Hello dear blogging friends. Many thanks for the kind words on my last update😉
You ask "why" is the title "why"? Exactly, I don't know why this could be happening🤔 Last post I was so eager to start my vacation... Murphy's Law. Yep, not a good start so far, hopefully it gets better though.
"Why" did I say that- The weekend was spent at sister's, with The little niece. Saturday night came, she was already feeling sick. Sunday she had fever. Too weak to go to school next day. She told her mom that a classmate sitting behind her kept coughing last week. Turned out more kids got sick. Good ol Auntie felt throat soreness yesterday, and now feeling under the weather. Geez. The past few days, internet connection was poor too. I'm still catching up with your blogs, especially Jo's Birthday Blog Hop which I totally enjoy. There was an outage they said, when it finally came on, guess what? My laptop did that weird sound again and totally went blank, aaahh😱. So I had to sleep it off for the night (no blog reading, posting, flosstube viewing). It's now up again (but the net is still slow from time to time), so I'm taking the opportunity to post as quick as I can. 
On the brighter side, I got lots of stitching done. My bad I didn't introduce the design last time...

 Away We Ride

by Blackbird Designs

16ct. homemade tea-dyed (love the sound of that) Aida (originally white)

 Prairie Schooler's Prairie Stars

 Time was also spent weeding out magazine stash (that I have cunningly hidden at my Sister's... because I have more at home:(. I actually started last week at home with seven 90's to early 2000' books, took out the designs I think I might stitch someday (right!) and now filed in a binder. These are at least newer magazines from 2012-2014:

 Next week, sister's hubby, DBIL, will be returning after attending to some business back home. "Why" did I mention this? Because he'll be bringing a new Karaoke CD (updated with new songs) and 3 cross stitch patterns I told my younger brother to search for. Now little niece and aunt are so excited (coughing laugh).
Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!

Record Stitching

Hello blog friends. Another quick update to cap off a busy week.
Record progress for the DH piece, yipee!

 

 

Doesn't that look like a real LP now? Just a tiny amount of gray stitching left then I'll be backstitching (still with black and gray😔). I'm planning to do some changes on the backstitched words to reflect DH's music preference. But I'll stick with the finish suggested in the magazine (as some of you wanted to know. I'll try to have an image of that sometime soon). Stay tuned.

More yipee-ness... I'll be on vacation starting next week! No plans going someplace whatsoever. Just me and my needle. Ooh, I do hope to have a finish!

Thanks for visiting. Happy Stitching!