October.

 Yay! An update! I keep meaning to do this and meaning to do this but it never seems to happen. Grrr! I lost a bit of time there in September due to a vacation week and - even more importantly - a BRAND NEW COMPUTER. I am no longer computing like it's 2006, people! 

My old computer actually wasn't in terrible shape, aside from being nervous of a hardware meltdown happening at any time because, you know, that stuff wasn't built to last forever and 7-8 years is asking a bit much of it. *ahem* The bigger issue was that more and more things weren't working with Windows Vista now that it's no longer supported so, rather than upgrade an old computer, we just got a new one! (A Windows 7 machine though because, MAN!, have I heard horrible no good things about Windows 8.) I was dreading moving everything over but apparently things have changed a LOT since I last bought one of these dang machines and it was actually pretty easy. *blink*

ANYWAY. I'm in a good mood today (mostly) because tomorrow is the Stitches East show and I looooooooooooooooooovveeeeeeeeeeeee the Stitches East show. And now it's here and I'm excited, even though I haven't been knitting much lately. I did so much knitting over the summer that I decided to take a break from it for a little while and get more stitching done. 

Turns out when you work on stitching a little bit each day (or most days) you actually FINISH THINGS UP. I know, right? It's miraculous.

These finishes here are the L*K Song of Spring kit , the rabbity 'small' that comes with that and the 2nd part of the BBD Honeybee Hill. (I haven't had occasion to use that sparkly green linen before and I quite like it here with Mr. Rabbit. )

I finished another piece as well but that may/may not be a gift so I don't want to post it and I have a big Plum Street piece 'in progress' that I am plugging along on. I can't go to the SE show without something on the needles though so stitching progress might be halted for a bit while I get my sock knitting on. :)

Relatedly, that new iPhone x-stitch app making the rounds is quite brilliant. An online/device accessible detailed accounting of everything in your stash?  YOU KNOW I had to snap that up immediately because I *LOVE* a good spreadsheeting, organizing, finger snapping, alphabetizing project. 

I went through pretty much everything I have pattern wise, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap and.......

Honestly, it's not AS BAD as I thought it was going to be! Of the 315 patterns I own, about 75-80 have already been stitched. Now, that is still more than I can probably REALISTICALLY finish in the years I have left to me (or have left in my eyesight/hand dexterity). And it doesn't take into account that I own 14 years of the JCS ornament issues which, well, have a lot of stuff in them. But. It's STILL not as bad as I thought. I would have guessed I had no less than 500 patterns to get to, so, yay? Buy more? ;)

(Also not counted: the patterns I have given away over the years. I gave away a GIANT stack of used Shepherd's Bush/misc. patterns at some point, a fact I am a little bitter about, to be honest, because REASONS. Things did not turn out well on that one. *sigh*)

After the patterns were done, I did my hand dyed threads but not my DMC. (Because I own ALL OF IT so I don't need a stinking list for that. ) All of the info is in that mysterious Cloud thingy now  and I can open it up on my phone or Mini so I have NO EXCUSES not to keep up on it. The app is really great and I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone with Apple devices and a wish to have an easily searchable database of their stash.

OH well. I probably had a million other things to say but this will do for now, right? :)

BTW - those little guys at the top are the new Mummy beads I posted on Etsy/my site this week. Cuties! :)

Halloweenie Stitchies!

...ignoring the fact that I was too busy to notice it's been over a week since I last posted.........*cough*

The fall leaves are terrible this year - truly terrible. They just dry up, turn brown, and fall. Not a single tree here has a color other than "hello, I'm dead-deady-dead" brown. It's kinda sad actually. (Is this because of the late summer storms and flood of rain? I have no idea, to be honest.) Oh well. There is always next year, right? 

Mmmmm! APPLES.

 One thing that is not terrible are the apple trees. They got hit hard by Irene, of course, but there are still plenty of apples for the picking. 

I love this place we go to nearby in Pomfret because the trees are short enough to walk up to and pick apples. (The places we always went to when I was a kid required some sort of long stick with a can/catch basket/clawed hand type of contraption for picking. It took coordination and patience, man!) We over-picked for 2 people - as usual. Twenty+ pounds! Might not sound like a lot to some but I, uhhhh, don't really bake. Cook, yes - practically every day of the week. Bake? Not so much with that. I think it was probably sometime around 2009 the last time I made a batch of cookies. I can usually put together a fairly decent apple crisp or dutch apple pie (provided I BUY pre-made crust, of course) so I just need to get around to doing that. I've been eating 2 apples a day since we went picking and I *might* just run of apples though before I actually get around to baking any. *snort*

Did anybody else fall under the spell of this booklet that was released last month?

Well, looky that! I guess I did because I managed to start AND finish a few projects from it within the last few weeks.  Gotta love a pattern that only calls for 4 different colors to work all of the projects. They just whip up lickety-split that way!

My first attempt at the Halloween piece though was...............not good. I had in mind to use some zig-zag trim I bought to use on my Death by Candy piece, as a sort of 'practice session' for figuring it out. (I am good at some things but straight up sewing is NOT one of them.)

Hmm. FAIL.

I basted the zig-zag down first so it wouldn't move around when sewing it to the rest of the place and.........it still did that. Some zig-zag areas were higher than others and the corners were so bunchy and icky it was painful. Back to the drawing board with this idea, I guess. I might have to shoot an email to Vonda to get some tips on this kind of finish. At least I was able to salvage the stitching part with some careful ripping and have enough to sew it into a tiny needle minder. So all was not lost. WHEW. :)

Finishes, finishes, I gots some finishes!! :)

I've been to worn down at night to do anything but watch tv like a mindless zombie but it's been good for getting some things done. My hands are always busy even if my BRAIN is shut down. 

(Not always recommended, mind you, because you do tend to find yourself in Frog/Tink country quite often this way. It is what it is.)

Blackbird Designs - December stockings

I did all of the stitching on two of these in February/March but I got the third one done real quick this week. Funny how that works out. I don't like to let these sit too long without finishing them so I whipped up the backs with a country red plaid and VOILA! I now have 8 months of these completed. :)

 

I've also had some frames waiting for a little attention so I got started on those too. This little goodie is the L*K Snowman '10 piece I did earlier this year. I special ordered the model frame for it from 123stitch (thanks so much, girls!) and it looks positively darling. I can't wait to hang this one up! I think it's going to go on The Wall but I have two more pieces to finish stretching and framing before I get there. I should get those done this weekend and then to The Wall they go. The pieces are getting so high now the hubby is going to have to drag out the BIG BIG ladder to hang these suckers up! Heh. Better him than me, I say. :)

July/August Blackbird Stockings

 

Fini.

I really really really need to not let these build up again because doing the finishing on these six at a time, well, it sucks. There really is no other way to put it. lol

Eight months down, four more to go. And then........then I don't know what. All I know is that I am determined to see this project through to the end. I bought all 12 booklets and I'll be damned if I don't use all 12 booklets.

Upskirt pic for those who like such things (sssh, I won't tell!):

I'm giving STUFF AWAY FOR FREE again. :)

Yeah, so. Crazy week. And my poor neglected blog (and Facebook, Twitter, and LJ) have suffered for it. I'm keeping myself busy at night though. Now that I'm 'free' of the Citrus mittens/Crazy Socks I went back to some stitching, trying to hustle my way through the July and August BB stockings.

I'm on the last one for August and then I'm done with those months. I started to get them ready for sewing (as you can see). Alas, I haven't gotten any further than what you see here since I took this picture (about FOUR days ago) other than picking out some backing fabrics out of my stash.

Since I'm in a stitchy mood and want to spread the stitchy love, I have an AWESOME stitchy giveway for my stitchy friends:

A pristine copy of the 2003 Just Cross Stitch Xmas Ornament magazine. 

For a time I was buying two of these every year - one for me and one for my friend. I guess I just didn't get it to her this year. I've been meaning to give it away ever since so now one of you get to enjoy it!

All you have to do is EMAIL ME (comments to this entry don't count!) if you want to be entered into the giveaway. I will ship it anywhere in the world and will randomly pull the name next Sunday, September 26th. Let me know in your email if you are a follower of my blog/your blog name because I will enter your name in TWICE if you are because followers are SPECIAL and stuff like that. :)

Feel free to link the giveaway on your blog if you want! I'm sure your stitchy friends love free stuff too. :)

July Stockings

Finished up just in time!

I actually stitched them earlier in the month (way earlier) but put the finishing aside and then.................totally forgot they existed. I came across them last night while I was organizing stacks of crap some stash hanging around my living room and whipped them together. Not sure how much I like the wedding ring one though? The stitched part is so much smaller than the stocking template, it looks weird to me? I thought about trimming it/sewing it together so it was right on the edge of the cross stitched part but that would make it a lot smaller than all the other stockings I've done and I know THAT would bother me too so I left it as is. I'll just chalk this one up as "Not One of My Favorites" in the series. /shrug

It was a week of bad mojo for all my projects, I guess. I've been working on a pair of socks with my Watermelon yarn and was making good progress, was up to the toe on the SECOND sock...........and realized I had knit the leg too long by not ONE, but TWO pattern repeats. And I'm not going to lie - I contemplated how much it would bother me that one sock would be longer by about two inches than it's mate. Anything to avoid ripping out a few days of work. But OF COURSE that would bother me because it's such a STUPID mistake and who wants to be reminded of that? lol So I eventually came to my senses and  ripped it all out so I could start the heel/foot part all over again. (Which is where it sits for the moment because I think this project and I need a Time Out for a few days. Hurt feelings on both sides and all.) If you're not royally screwing up your knitting here and there, you're not doing it right.........right? lol

Here's a neat not-quite-a-recipe recipe for Corn on the Cob from Tasty Kitchen that I tried yesterday that came out wicked good. It looks odd - almost like you are cooking your corn in soap water. But the corn really *was* the best ever. Didn't need anything to accompany it other than a sprinkling of kosher salt. And I'm usually the sort to glop butter alllllllllllllllllll over my corn on the cob. I'm not much of a butter lover in the larger scope of things and almost always prefer my veggies plain steamed or roasted with a little olive oil, with two exceptions: corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. I just *have* to have real butter for those and that's that. Heart valves be damned, I say! But this came out so good it honestly didn't need it.

Monday, Monday.

I will have a bunch of new things up in the Bead Shoppe this week. Maybe tomorrow but possibly on Wednesday. (The weather has been mostly dreary lately so picture taking is hit or miss.)

In the meantime, I have other sorts of eye candy to post to keep y'all interested. I saw this July 4th finish post on the Snippets and Stash blog the other day and got inspired to do up some red/white/blue pillows of my own. I had just finished up the two June Blackbird stockings and was looking for something new to work on, something quick and this worked out perfectly. Stitched up two new things (the same ones as she did) and dug two old ones out that I finished agesssssssssssssssss ago that matched and made up some super simple pillows out of them to put in the basket on my fireplace hearth for the summer.

Go me for being all industrious and shiz like that! (Though I shouldn't pat myself TOO hard on the back for that because I'm mostly in a OMG MUST STITCH mode at the moment because I'm avoiding knitting on the NeverEnding Scarf of Doom. Maybe more on that later this week. Grrrr.)

The Old Glory pattern is by Heart in Hand, using whatever WDW threads that appealed to me and a scrap of god-knows-what-kind-of-linen. The pillow on the right was stitched up so long ago I have absolutely no clue what's up with it. (Sorry! I'm oh-so-helpful with the details, aren't I? lol)

Ditto that on this star pattern. Where did it come from and when did I stitch it? No answers to either of that, I'm afraid. Did I really purchase a pattern for something so small or was it part of something larger? A freebie? Hmph. My disastrously awful long-term memory is not  helping me out here. The pattern on the right is a cute freebie from Aubry, using DMC threads.

And finally and 'upskirt' pic for those that are into that sort of thing. :)

Just random fabrics pulled out of my stash. I like the flag one the best as far as looks but it doesn't have a very nice 'feel' to it so it's perfect for something like this. No more stitching for me this week, I think, after this because I really do need to commit myself to finishing that damn scarf. Grrrrr.

Finished up the Blackbird Designs stockings for May!

Which makes me seem all 'timely and stuff until you realize these came out LAST May, not THIS May. lol
Had no issues with these other than making a couple color substitutions because they either matched too closely to the linen and/or another color in the design. (Example: the tulips colors originally were pretty much the same exact shade of coral so I switched one out for Lancaster red instead.)

 I used my new fabric quarters for the backing fabric so here is a look at the other side:

(Hmm. Just noticed I didn't keep them in the same order for the back picture. That's a little confusing. lol)

Pulled all the stuff out to do the June ones and just need to get started on them now. One of the three designs I decided not to do because it's a stork/birth announcement design which I don't have any need for at the moment. So this batch should go quicker.........theoretically.......