May Cake Finish

I finished this guy up just in the nick of time. With this finish, this concludes the 'Spring' birthday cake freebies from Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books. I am waffling on continuing with the Summer series, or if I should pick up something from the Bin O'Shame. I have not had a finish from the Bin O'Shame in quite some time. (Almost a year, I think). I really do need to get back to it, as I am soooooooo close to finishing them all up. 

Well, at any rate, here is the second finish for the month of May and the eighth for the year. 

Design: May Cake

Designer: Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books

Fabric Used: 32 count Belfast linen from Silkweavers' in Dusk 

Fibers Used: DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117 as called for in the chart. Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02, Brightest White. 

Beads Used: Mill Hill beads in #02031 Citron,   #42101 Purple and #03050 Champagne Ice Antique Glass seed beads. Kreinik #4 braid in 007 - Pink.

Stitchers' Notes: Design from the 12 month series of monthly Birthday Cakes. Finished Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Left off border. Substituted DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117  B5200 for Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02 Brightest White. Eighth finish for 2018.

Time for me to be off. I need to clean up my area and check on dinner. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Happy stitching!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

April Birthday Cake Finish For May

My latest finish is way late for the month of April. This is due to getting socked with allergies and living in an apartment building with inconsiderate smokers. I am hoping that the situation gets rectified soon, but who knows?

At any rate, I have managed to finish this guy up. I am pleased with the way that it has turned out, although for whatever reason, this one was a bit fiddly to work on. I am not sure why, but that's the way it goes. 

Here is my first finish for May and my seventh for the year:

Design: April Cake

Designer: Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books

Fabric Used: 28 count natural Cashel linen of unknown manufacturer

Fibers Used: DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117 as called for in the chart. Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02, Brightest White. 

Beads Used: Mill Hill beads in #00479 White and and #03050 Champagne Ice Antique Glass seed beads. 

Stitchers' Notes: Design from the 12 month series of monthly Birthday Cakes. Finished Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Left off border. Substituted DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117  B5200 for Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02 Brightest White. Seventh finish for 2018.

Welp, time for me to be off. Tons to do today and I need to get my next project put together. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Happy stitching! :)

Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Happy Birthday March Cake Finish

Happy day, all! I chose this latest design because this series is one that I have wanted to stitch as soon as the series began. There are so many applications for these designs. And I love the use of color and beading that Brooke Nolan uses in her designs. 

I am also excited to use a large piece of fabric from my LNS' inventory sale. Once a year they have a 'fabric by the pound' sale and this past December, I purchased 2 pounds of fabric in all counts and colors for $10.00. I could not pass that up! This year I will have to see about saving up more loose change for the end of the year inventory sale. I didn't get a whole lot this past year, but I love what I did get and really, two pounds of fabric is none too shabby. :)

At any rate, here is my latest finish:

Design: March Cake

Designer: Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books

Fabric Used: 32 count Belfast linen from Silkweavers' in Dusk 

Fibers Used: DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117 as called for in the chart. Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02, Brightest White. 

Beads Used: Mill Hill beads in #00479 White and #02011 Victorian Gold. 

Stitchers' Notes: Began, Sunday, March 18, 2018. Design from the 12 month series of monthly Birthday Cakes. Finished Monday, March 26, 2018. Left off border. Substituted DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117  B5200 for Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02 Brightest White. Sixth finish for 2018.

Time for me to be off. I hope everyone is having a great week. Happy stitching!

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Respectfully submitted,

C.

No Mas (No More)

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. DH and I drove to Las Vegas to visit with family and friends, so I had some stitching time. I managed to get Project 30 stitched up just in the nick of time. I doubt I will be able to get another finish under my belt before the new year, as I have managed to get sick over the holiday. Las Vegas does not have the best air quality :/. 

Well, at any rate, here is Project #30 in all its' glory:

Design: Allégresse and Holly 

Designers: Dany Chevallier of Danybrod and Luli

Fabric Used: 32 count Belfast linen Fabric Orphan No. B301 (closest to Herald) by Picture This Plus

Fiber Used: Crescent Colours Belle Soie silk in Vanilla Pudding

Accoutrements: Jolee's Jewels Swarovski 6704 20mm Snowflake Aurora Borealis Crystal. 

Stitchers' Notes: Began Tuesday, December 12, 2017. Finished monday, December 25, 2017. Project number 30 for the year 2017. Fabric is a fabric orphan purchased from Stitchers' Village. Please note that the Allégresse design was a purchased chart and the Holly chart is a freebie. 

As of Sunday, December 24, 2017:

As of Monday, December 25, 2017:

Well, time for me to be off and away. I hope everyone is having a great last week of 2017. Happy stitching! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

A Monochrome Finish

My latest finish is a more primitive type of design. I could not recall if I had ever stitched a primitive style Christmas design, so I dug through my Leaflet Silo and found this small design. It took longer than anticipated as Thanksgiving was upon us all of a sudden. Then, DH and I have decided to get sick on top of it. Good times. 

I have also really been struggling to stitch anything at all. This year has been the year of the burn out, I think. I've stitched so much in the past couple of years, I've lost the desire to stitch. Which completely pisses me off as I have all of these lovely and gorgeous projects to choose to stitch. I have a 6 inch binder alone of very rare, very hard to find designs and while I love pawing through them, I have very little desire to stitch. Blea. 

When these occasions happen, I organize and rearrange and take inventory of stock. As there was very little to organize due to my previous forays into organization, I took stock of what I had and what i have managed to finish this year. With this finish, I have only two more projects to stitch up and I will hit 30 projects stitched for the year. Mind you, most of these have been in the small design category, with a few Bin O'Shame finishes thrown in for good measure. That's not too bad a showing. I did hit my unofficial yearly goal of 12 projects, which equals to one per month. 

As of this writing, I will be sticking to just the unofficial yearly goal of 12 projects stitched to completion. I want to stitch on my rares and try and clean up more of the Bin O'Shame pieces. I have 24 pieces left in the Bin O'Shame and I think it's doable within the next 2 years. I am including Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow in the 24 that need to be stitched. I would love to make some progress on it, as it has sat for quite some time. I would like to finish blocks 3 through 6 next year. This would put the project to half finished by the end of 2018. We will see, yea? :) I mean, there is a certain road that is paved with nothing but good intentions, but standing back and taking stock of what I have accomplished has helped tremendously. 

At any rate, on with the finish show. I had the Devil's own time attempting to take a picture of this latest finish. I don't know how photographers do it, personally!

Design: Yule: Winter Solstice

Designer: Isobel Argante of The Primitive Hare 

Fabric Used: 28 count Cashel linen in Thyme by Wichelt

Fibers Used:  Rainbow Gallery Splendor 12 ply silk floss in S899, Dark Ecru

Stitchers' Notes: 28th finish of 2017. Freebie available on designers' blog. 

Finished Monday, November 27, 2017:

Time to bolt for the door to clean up my area and see if I cannot put the spurs to the last two projects of the year. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful weekend.

Happy stitching!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

A Quick SMO Finish And A New Start

I managed to start and finish this guy up in one day. This is a really, really old design of Sandy's, 2005 to be precise. What I cannot remember is if this was a part of the Fright Night festivities or if this was just a random Halloween freebie. I suppose it doesn't matter in the long run, however, I do like to be precise in these things. 

I have wanted to stitch this guy up for a long, long time now, however, I just never got around to it. I'm glad I did, because it is such a fun little project. Try as hard as I might, I could not photograph this piece correctly. The fabric is a very pale purple and unfortunately, it appears as gray. Even on a sunny day! Ah, well. These things happen, yes?

Design: Creepy

Designer: Sandra Dering for SanMan Originals 

Fabric: Picture This Plus 28 count cashel linen in Sprite (DMC 3743 Variegated) 

Fibers: Access Commodities Soie d'Alger in Mode, Noir, 234 and 1336. Kreinik #4 001 silver braid. 

Accoutrement: Mill Hill beads in #00167 Christmas Green. 

Stitchers' Notes: This is a MEMBER ONLY freebie for the 2005 Halloween festivities of the SanMan Originals Message Board. It is not for sale or trade! Started and finished on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.

My new start is also another halloween related SanMan Originals project. If I recall correctly, this was a Secret Shop purchase in 2011. I tried to resist stitching it on the fabric that I chose, as that piece was earmarked for another project. That is, until I realized, that I would not be getting to that project any time soon. Then I figured, there are a few other projects that I wish to use that fabric for, and when I get around to the intended project (Sacre Coeur by Jools Line of Long Dog Samplers, for the curious), I will just order another piece of fabric. :)

Well, at any rate, here is my start so far: 

Design: Ghost White Pumpkin

Designer: Sandra Dering for SanMan Originals 

Fabric: Picture This Plus 28 count cashel linen in Gothic

Fibers: Access Commodities Soie d'Alger in 2143, 3441, 3842, and 4534. Crescent Colours Belle Soie silk in Icing and Shepherd's Pasture.  

Stitchers' Notes: This is a 2011 Secret Shop purchase. As it is a .pdf file, unfortunately it is not for sale or trade. Began Tuesday, September 12, 2017. 

Well, I must be off. I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Happy stitching!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

First Day Of Summer Finish

And my first finish in over a month. I am still currently in a 'Stitch when you feel like it' mode. I have had this happen before, and I am confident that this too shall pass. 

I have also managed to get the Summer Glory heart, which was designed by Linda Culp Calhoun for Leisure Arts magazine framed. I love the way that it turned out:

It is now hanging up in a place of pride in the hallway. I smile every time I pass it. :)


And now, onto my latest finish. I really enjoyed stitching this piece. I also highly enjoyed playing around with the colors. It really does feel like a summer piece, however, the saying is also a good reminder. 

At any rate, here is my latest offering:

Design: Winds of Change

Designer: Vicki Hastings of The Cross Eyed Cricket 

Fabric Used: Unknown 32 count Belfast linen. (Although, I suspect that it is Summer Khaki by Zweigart). 

Fibers Used:  Au Ver À Soie  Soie d'Alger in 1836, 2243, and 4221. Caron Collection Waterlilies in #181 Ocean Breeze (Dye Lot #CS201613). Rainbow Gallery Splendor 12 ply silk floss in S802 and S820. 

Stitchers' Notes: Former freebie obtained from LNS. Wording states "When the winds of change blow, Adjust your sails". 

Time for me to be off. I need to clean up both the remnants of stitching and breakfast and get the day started. I hope everyone is having a great week!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Skipped A Season

But really, it's not my fault. I was in my LNS the other day, picking out floss for the Valentines' and Easter 2017 Flip-It series by Linda Ebright of Lizzie Kate. During my color matching, I happen to come across a particular color combination that I knew would be absolutely perfect for a summer themed Now I Know My ABC's by Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs. I quickly purchased what I needed and started the same day. I finished the stitching the next day, and I am so pleased at the way it turned out. I have a fabric in mind for Spring and Fall, however, I do need to experiment with a floss toss before I make my final choice. 

Well, at any rate, here is the summer version of Now I Know My ABC's:

Design: Now I Know My ABC's

Designer: Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs

Fabric Used: 25 count Natural Oatmeal Floba by Wichelt

Fibers Used:  Caron Collection Waterlilies in #181 Ocean Breeze (Dye Lot #CS201613).

Accoutrements: Shell found on the beach at Half Moon Bay, California on Friday, March 17, 2017. Crab pendant by Bead Landing for Michael's from the Tahiti collection. 

Stitchers' Notes: Began Thursday, March 16, 2017. Stitching completed on Friday, March 17, 2017. Substituted some of the punctuation for various motifs. Will stitch this design in spring and fall themed fabric and fibers. Second of four in this seasonal series. 

I am not too entirely sold on the crab in the lower right hand corner, but I may leave it anyway. It's a bit large to be there as it is. I may pop around to Michael's to see if they have any other fun summer charms or pendants that can be used. 

Time for me to be off. It's dinner time and I need to get prepped for tomorrow as well. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! 

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

A Bit Late In The Day

...but I am way early for next year. :)


I am, naturally, referring to my latest finish. I completely missed the deadline for New Years' this year, but the stitching is finished really early for next year :). I have wanted to stitch this one for the longest time, but never really 'found' time to stitch it. I had this design printed out and in one of my freebie binders that I have in my stitching library. I had a small piece of leftover fabric that I had leftover from another project. It was perfect for this small design and I love how it turned out. I need to find an appropriate way to finish it off so that it may be displayed at the end of the year. I also need to find more New Years' projects to stitch. I really do not have enough of them and I really do love New Years' projects. 


At any rate, here is my latest finish:

Design: New Years' Magic

Designer: Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books

Fabric: 28 count Cashel linen from Picture This Plus  in Phantom

Fibers Used: DMC Embroidery Floss Art. 117 as called for in the chart. Kreinik metallic threads in  #4 Very Fine Braid in #001 HL Silver, #032 Pearl #4 braid, and #3223 Ametrine. 

Accouterments: Dazzle-It Czech glass beads in crystal white. 

Stitchers' Notes: This design is a freebie on the Brooke's Books website. Border and year left off in favor of a generic Happy New Year design and to keep the design more 'open'. Substituted called for Mill Hill beads for in house supplies. Began Sunday, February 19, 2017. Stitching completed Thursday, February 23, 2017.

It was really hard to capture the darkness of the fabric with the bling of the Czech glass beads. it was totally worth it, however! :)

Well, I need to be off. I have chosen my next project and I need to clean up my area in order get started on it. No rest for the wicked. I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

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Respectfully submitted, 

C.