Fully-Finished Gallery SAL Check-in!

Just in time, I picked this up at the framer's yesterday!

Plum Street Sampler's "Cape Cod Keeps" - stitched as one piece and framed

I love this little piece. I think my framer did a great job with it, too!  I still have hopes of having a mermaid-themed bathroom....although it may be years away at this point.  So for now she hangs on the wall in my craft room, along with a few other mermaid things I've been collecting.

January 2019 WIPocalypse post

Yes!  I WILL participate in the WIPocalypse this year!  I will post regular updates, and make progress!

Wait.

I was supposed to post 2 days ago?  Well crap.

LOL

So here is my update...
...I actually finished something!  My New Years' start, Plum Street Samplers' "Cape Cod Keeps" stitched as a single piece, is done.

I even took it in to my local frame shop, because I had the perfect frame in my stash of finishing materials (something I acquired from a thrift store years ago, I'm pretty sure I had another piece in mind for it, but this was just too perfect).  My framer is only charging me $20 to mount it, put spacers in, and replace the glass.  And yes, I know I *could* do it myself, but I'm just never quite pleased with my own stretching/pinning/lacing skills when it comes to framing.  For an ornament or other small....sure.  But not things I want to display more permanently.  And I can't complain about $20 charge!  It seems more than fair, and I like supporting a local shop instead of the big craft store chains.

I'm currently working on a small, and I also need to start a tooth fairy pillow for my niece and ANOTHER ornament for a niece or nephew arriving in August....my sister and her husband were taken completely by surprise with this one.  They are referring to this one as "Daisy" until it is born.  I'd also like to dig out another WIP for February - either Ink Circles "Turrets and Town" or my Lavender and Lace Family Garden sampler.

WIPocalypse Question of the Month:What SALs are you participating in this year?
1) well, obviously the WIPocalpyse!
2) the Fully Finished Gallery SAL - posting will happen on the 10th of each month.  I love the idea of showing off a fully-finished thing every month, and I certainly have the bin of completed-but-not-finished items to support such an undertaking.
3) I might join the Smalls SAL again, but I'm not sure.  If I do, I probably won't manage a small finish every month (obviously, since I've already missed January.)

There, I've managed my first WIPocalypse post and it wasn't TOO late....we'll see how I do with the next deadline (February 24 - see, I'm including it here so I have no excuse for forgetting!).

..aaaand we're off!

Here is what I started at midnight (or thereabout) on New Year's Eve...

Plum Street Samplers' "Cape Cod Keeps," on 32-ct. antique white linen (a freebie from Needleworker's Delight at a Celebrations dinner).  I've substituted for almost all of the colors, either because I didn't have the dyed flosses called for or because when I pulled the ones I DID have, they didn't look like the picture.

I hope this turns out well as one long, horizontal piece - I like the idea that the mermaid and the whale are "talking" to each other.  LOL

Also, I've briefly considered making 2019 "The Year of Mermaids," because my stash of mermaid/ocean-themed patterns is sort of crazy.  I've gone so far as to seriously contemplate putting together a mermaid collection (patterns, some finishing trims, a book of mermaid lore, and other doo-dads) for the silent auction at Celebrations of Needlework this year.  The more things I finish, the more patterns I'll be able to part with in the auction basket!  I even made this little fob and needleminder set to include, with glass beads I ordered from an Etsy seller.

The fob just tickles my fancy!  I'm not sure about including the minder, though...I've seen some people on Facebook and other places complaining about the size/strength of minder magnets, and I'm also worried that it could crack if someone really let it "thwack" together.  :/

December News

My, how time flies.

First, going back a month or two... I pillowified Plum Street Samplers' "Rotted" ornament design.  Because I used a 28-ct. fabric instead of the 40-ct. used in the model, mine was a little too large for an ornament.  It was displayed (briefly!) in my basket of seasonal finishes.

For Halloween, my Wee One was a ninja pirate princess (entirely her idea!).  I threw on some of my faire garb and walked around campus as the Gypsy Librarian - since our library is being renovated and we've been moved around campus twice, one of my favorite faculty members referred to us as "the roving band of gypsy librarians."  Here we are together, in a pic snapped by one of her daycare teachers after the costume parade there.

And the first weekend in November was a momentous occasion - I spent it in Utica, stitching with friends!  Some ladies I met at Celebrations live in the area, and a couple others joined us for a rather low-key stitch-in.  We made a trip to A Stitcher's Garden in Syracuse, and had a lovely time.

I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving, but let's just say it was a HUGE success...my parents came out, and I prepared most of the dinner.  I made a spinach-and-herb stuffed turkey breast, pretzel topped sweet potatoes, a cranberry salad, and a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.  My mom brought an apple-bean casserole.  I think my folks were a little worried about my cooking skills, as they've never had a Thanksgiving meal prepared by me before!  Well, my father - who prefers his turkey be dark meat - had seconds of my turkey, and insisted that my mom get my recipe!!  Winning!!  (*my secret: the stuffing goes between the skin and the meat, not inside the turkey.)

There was some sad news between all the fun stuff, though....the week before Thanksgiving, I had to have my sweet Mina-kitty put to sleep.

That picture is from about 5 years ago, but she was only about 10 years old when she died.  However, over the course of a few weeks, she went from looking like that - at about 11 lbs - to being a fragile, sickly 6.5 lbs.  During that time, we put our house on the market and she was hiding more, which I assumed was due to the random strangers tromping through our house at odd times during showings.  But then one evening she hopped into lap, and felt like nothing but fur and bones.  :(  We took her to the vet, and while all of her tests came back normal, it was obvious something was NOT right.  A week later I could see that she wasn't eating, and we were back at the vet's office.  A (very expensive) x-ray showed that one of her lungs was congested, and her heart looked abnormal.  The vet couldn't say if that was the cause of the problem, or if it might have been caused by something else, like a thyroid condition, but either way, she was too far gone and too fragile for any kind of aggressive treatment.  So while it broke my heart, I chose to have her put down.  I miss you, Mina.  Maura still asks about you, too....  *sniff*

So I'll end things on a happy note with a new start.

This is "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Country Garden Stitchery.  I haven't seen this piece stitched anywhere but on the designer's site.  In fact, I haven't seen many of her pieces in the blogging world at all....which surprises me, because I think her style is really charming!  And if you order from her Artfire page, the option for .pdf delivery means almost instant gratification... *nudgenudge  (not affiliated, blah blah blah....just enabling!)

Primitive Halloweenies

After finishing "Rotted," I wanted more tombstone-y goodness....so I stitched this little Prairie Schooler card design, too.

The Prairie Schooler tombstone was stitched with some HDF silk - it was labeled Primitive Black, but since it was from a detritus bag, I think it might be a mis-dye of some sort.  The Plum Street design is from the JCS 2012 Halloween special, and I used a combination of DMC and hand-dyed flosses from my stash.

Rotted

So after my Halloween exchange was complete, I got inspired to do some more Halloween-y stitching for myself....

I chose the Plum Street Sampler design from the 2012 JCS Halloween issue, "Rotted but not Forgotted".  I don't have - and probably never WILL have! - 40-ct. fabric, so I used some mystery fabric from my stash.  I think it is 28-ct.?  That is a 6-inch hoop it is in, to give you an estimation of the size.  I'm using DMC for the black and green, and substituted for the off-white and orange from my dyed stash.  Not sure how that random bobbin of blue floss got into the picture....

Only a week late...

I finished the Plum Street freebie, and stitched it up into a teeny pillow last night.

Plum Street Samplers' "Lovely You" 2009 Valentine free design
stitched on 25-ct. hand-dyed linen, using Needle Necessities floss #153
finished as a small pillow
initials added -- mine on left, DH's on right

It looks like my parents might come out this weekend, so I'm not planning on a lot of stitching. What time I do get will be dedicated to finishing the Lilacs sampler, and then getting back to either Labyrinth or my Fairy Tale Towne. Have a lovely weekend, all!

Birds and butterflies

Well, I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day weekend! DH and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, and this year we don't have the finances to do much anyway, so we just enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home. I made 2 yummy casseroles, and got all the laundry off the bedroom floor....that is a miracle in itself!....and did a lot of stitching.

First, I started the freebie that Paulette posted on her Plum Street Sampler blog.I'm stitching this one over-one on a linen I found in my stash drawer labeled "25-ct. muffin." I don't know more about it than that! And I'm using some Needle Necessities over-dyed floss. I really wanted to stitch this up for DH for Valentine's (I know, I just said above that we don't really celebrate...but homemade gifts and thoughtful gestures are very different from Hallmark cards and over-priced roses!), but I'm just not that fast. I really like these quirky little birds, though!

Of course, if I could work on just ONE project, you might see more frequent finishes around here. But that just isn't my style!! So here is the latest progress on the Lilacs sampler, too. This one is going very quickly, at least. Although I've yet to tackle the bunches of lilacs made out of French knots....eek.

Arachnophobia?

A bit of obsession this week/weekend resulted in a finish!

"Bugs & Hisses" by Plum Street Samplers
stitched on linen of unknown count/color

Floss substitutions:
WDW Amber used in place of GAST Gingersnap
GAST Tarnished Gold used in place of GAST Sarsaparilla
WDW Beige used in place of GAST Flax
WDW Onyx used in place of GAST Dark Chocolate (cats only)
The Dye is Cast Cherry Jam used in place of GAST Mulberry

This really was a lot of fun to stitch...I hated to put it down (although I have been working on Cathy's neighborhood, too)! In addition to the floss changes I made, I also used some black Mill Hill petite beads for the little spiders. I think I'd like this one framed, and I might even try my own hand at framing...so I'm on the lookout for the perfect frame.

A sad but busy weekend

I had the house to myself this weekend....in fact I still do, for a few more hours...because DH's grandfather passed away unexpectedly last week. It really was rather mysterious, as he only went to see his doctor for some stomach pains about a week and a half ago...from there he had some scans done, was diagnosed with some kind of "atypical" gastric cancer, and died within a few days. As far as I know, the family still hasn't gotten much of an explanation. Anyway, the funeral was today, and DH left in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Sadly, I could not go with him -- I don't have quite enough vacation time accumulated yet at my new job. So I stayed home, built a shoe rack for the entryway, watched movies I've seen a zillion times (Harry Potter! Pirates!), and stitched.

Here's my progress on Cathy's neighborhood (again from Flickr, Blogger wants to rotate this one, too. Grrrr):

And here's my new Halloween-y start, Plum Street Samplers' "Bugs & Hisses."

I really think this is just the cutest little piece. I didn't have all the colors the pattern called for, so I improvised a bit -- I think my pumpkins might be a bit brighter than the model picture. But I still like it! There is a border that is supposed to stitched in GAST Dark Chocolate, but I don't have any of that, either. I used WDW Onyx for the cats, which were also supposed to be done in Dark Chocolate...I don't think I have enough of that for the whole border, though. Hmmm. I suppose I could go with the DMC substitute...3371.....eh. We'll see!

Yesterday my mom came out to visit, and we went out to lunch and shopping together. It was a fun couple hours...plus, Mom paid for some non-standard groceries for me, since she loves shopping at Wegman's (a regional grocery store here, for my non-local readers)!