Alla Turca SAL completed!

I have finished the last part on the Alla Turca SAL by Pelin Tezer! It was stitched on 32ct Silkweaver's Aquamarine linen with Weeks Peacock and RG gold Sparkle braid. I adjusted pt.9 slightly, and added the gold to the monocrome pattern just for fun. It is stitched over one and is only 9 inches tall!

This took a little longer than I thought because we were away on vacation, then returned to a re-decorating project....painted our home office a lovely sapphire blue and with the help of our brother-in-law, we ripped out old carpet and laid new hardwood laminate flooring...I love it!

(just before vacation we also replaced all the toilets with new low-water use ones, in preparation for the next project...DD is getting her bathroom redone, same blue, with tangerine trim!)

Over Christmas the master br will get it's makeover as well.....in a few more years the whole house will be made over. I hope!

Cheetah Biscornu

This is my August biscornu....from the Cross Stitch Happy blog, and called the Cheetah Biscornu. I matched the colors to the cat face buttons I had, and stitched it on heatherfield aida. Turned out nice, and it's fairly large.

I'm now working on finishing up the Alla Turca SAL, and then will get back to Castles in the Air!

More to come......

July Recap, August Goals

July Recap

WiPs...
~Holland Landscapes, Pt.7 Done!
~Alla Turca, Pt.7 Done!
~Castles in the Air, Pt.4 Started...
New Starts...
~Biscornu for July...Summer Butterfly Biscornu by Alexandrina Done!
~Something for Christmas in July...1991 Schooler Santa Done!
~Whatever strikes my fancy!
a Bluebird stitched on vinyl weave for a soap dispenser! Done!
(found while stash-diving!)

August Goals

WiPs...
~Castles in the Air, Pt. 4 Working...nearly done but for a 2nd peacock!
~Alla Turca, Pts. 8 & 9 all Done!
~Holland Landscapes, Pt.8 Ran out of time!
New Starts...
~Biscornu for August Done!
~Halloween project Postponed a month...
(and who knows what else?)

*We did get our home office painted, and new hardwood laminate laid at least!

Holland Landscapes update!

Last night I finished the part 7 window scene with the windmill on my Holland Landscapes! It took longer than I would have liked seeing as we are doing some renovations in our house this summer. They will have to wait until after vacation to get completed, but I have already picked out my vacation projects....ones suitable to a lakeside view and lots of relaxation!

Anyway, here's the window, and a progress picture of the whole piece as well!

Another quick finish!

While stash diving this week (and supposedly organizing) I found this and decided to stitch it up for my bird-themed kitchen finally! It is a design from an old JCS leaflet called Absorbing Nature by Cathy Livingston. The designs are all supposed to be for towels, but this Bluebird fit nicely on the 14ct vinyl weave that came with the soap dispenser by Crafter's Pride. Maybe I'll making a matching kitchen towel someday.....

Prairie Schooler Santa ornament

A little Christmas in July stitching, this one being the 1991 Schooler Santa from Prairie Schooler!

I'm stitching backward through them all to the year I met my DH, which was 20 years ago last weekend! Two more, and then I'll just stitch each new one as they come out every year. Eventually I'll finish them all as ornaments and they will have their own tree. If you had to finish 20 ornaments how would you do it? I have some nice backing fabric, but I'm not really looking forward to 20+ little pillow ornies. Suggestions welcome!

I have also been working on stash organization and clearing my hobby room of extraneous "stuff". Right now it's chaos as I have been putting everything into an Excel file (being a former librarian has it's advantages, and obsessions too!). All the charts and leaflets are done, and most of the kitted stuff....saving the magazines for last as they are a whole other "obsession"! I'm eventually going make a list of stash up for adoption, so stay tuned.

Not to worry, I'll leave time for stitching, or go crazy!

Alla Turca, Part 7 added

I added part 7 to my Alla Turca last Friday before the 4th of July holiday and just now got around to uploading the picture! There are only 2 parts left on this SAL, and I've enjoyed it thoroughly! The fabric is Silkweaver's Aquamarine cashel, the threads are gold Sparkle braid and Weeks' Peacock, all stitched over one.

Sunday I started another Schooler Santa ornie (1991 edition this time) to add to the collection...a bit of Christmas in July for me! After that I'm going to try and get back to Holland Landscapes.
Unless something else screams louder! ;-D

July Biscornu!

Hi all! Happy 4th of July in America! I finished my July Biscornu late on the 3rd and won't be able to post tomorrow, so here it is! It is by Alexandrina of the Matryoshka Biscornu blog, and is called the Summer Butterfly Biscornu. It made me think of fireworks, so I used some 28ct white evenweave and leftover Dinky-Dyes silks, stitched it over 1 and made a little 2 inch fob. I tried the trick of plain fabric on the back (strengthed with the same evenweave) and I think it turned out great (if a bit fiddley with such a small biscornu!). Once stuffed it was nice and smooth on the back.

June Recap, July Goals

June Recap...
WiPs...
~Castles in the Air, Pt. 3 Done!
~Alla Turca, Pts.4-6 Done!
~Kiwi Tote Bag Done!
New Starts...
~Just Nan's Beaded Rose Biscornu Done!
~San-Man's Going Bananas Done!
~San-Man's Kitty Frame Done!

July Goals...
WiPs...
~Castles in the Air, Pt.4 Started...
~Alla Turca, Pt.7 Done!
~Holland Landscapes, Pt.7 Done!
New Starts...
~Alexandrina's Summer Butterfly Biscornu Done!
~Something for Christmas in July...1991 Schooler Santa Done!
~Bluebird Soap Dispenser Done!
(and who knows what else?) ;-)

Castles in the Air progress report!

I finished adding Part 3 of Papillon's Castles in the Air today! It's already getting large, so next time I may have to add the q-snap extenders....

I also picked up a couple of framed pieces from my framer last Saturday. (Before a nice lunch with my stitching buddies!) This is Ink Circles' Growth Rings.

This is Praiseworthy Stitches' Winter Bird Delight. Blogger insists on rotating it 90 degrees, but you get the idea!

Kiwi Tote Bag

I finished this tote bag a couple of weeks ago, and now that my DD, the birthday girl, has turned 15 I can finally post a picture! The tote bag came from CharlesCraft, and the pattern is from a website called CraftWeb NZ, under the Assisi heading, and called the Kiwi Pin Cushion. (We have Kiwi relatives, and DD loves kiwi birds!) I stitched said Kiwi four times with four different varigated flosses, using color theory principles (warm/cool, primary/secondary, complementary colors). DD picked up on that right away, being the art student she is! Oh, and she got a cool new camera too, and started practicing on the cats right away. Hard to believe my little girl is growing up! Fast!

This week I've been working on part 3 of Papillon's Castles in the Air and hope to post a new pic soon!

San-Man cuties!

I got some cute charts and mounts from the San-Man Originals Secret Shop newsletter (limited edition charts for board members) and stitched up two of them right away! (I needed a break from all the over 1 stitching anyway!) ;-)

The first is called Going Bananas, and came with the matching tuck. I used DMC and white 14ct aida.

The second is called Kitty Frame, the frame included the little fishy chart to stitch. I used DMC and 14ct light blue aida. It's really tiny, as you can see by the thimble next to it!