October WIPocalypse

For this month's WIPocalypse, I have been trying desperately to have Ghoul finished by month's end and Halloween. I have succeeded with the exception of the squaring off around the design. That would have been finished too if not for my lame brain. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I ran out of floss halfway through this piece and had to order more. I could have sworn I had ordered 2 additional skeins but when the order arrived there was only one lone skein. I immediately ordered a few more because I know I'll always be able to use the black again. However it's still in transit and more than likely won't arrive here until next week. So Ghoul is almost finished!

Besides Ghoul, I've also completed 2 Halloween smalls.

Spooky Halloween designed by Shelly Auen

The Stitcherhood Hocus Pocus

I put in very few stitches on Paradis Perdu.

I started another Halloween piece by Barbara Ana, which I just couldn't resist, called A Wicked Plant.

And finally I moved on to some Christmas stitching. This ornament may look finished but it's only halfway there. It's by The Stitcherhood and is called Christmas Morning. I found this one in the 2012 JC ornament issue.

That covers everything for this month. Next month should see a lot more Christmas stitching. I just might put my latest Halloween stitch on the back burner to accomplish this. Now I'm off to check in on all of your progress!

Ghoul Returns

After waiting a few weeks for more floss to arrive, I'm finally able to get back on track with Ghoul. It's been fun working on this one again and I've made some good progress. Here's where I am up to this point.

I must admit, I am tiring of stitching with black especially since I went and started another Halloween piece. I know, I know, it serves me right! I just couldn't resist. I just couldn't resist when I saw this pattern on the Creative Poppy website. It's a new release by Barbara Ana  called A Wicked Plant. It had a wicked effect on me alright because I ended up purchasing not only this one but also October 31st and Wicked by the same designer. Follow the link and have a peek. I know you'll be tempted!

I love the fabric I'm using for this one. It's one of Picture This Plus' lovely overdyed linens and is called Ancient. It's perfect for this design!  I'm already playing around with some of the floss. One of the called for floss was just too washed out on this fabric so I found a substitute in my stash. As you my have noticed from the picture, the frogs have also paid a quick visit already. I've had to stitch that branch three times now! That's what I get for stitching when I'm tired, lol! I know this won't be done in time for Halloween but that's alright. It will carry me through the gloomy month of November which is only fitting.

I'm giving up on stitching anymore Halloween smalls with my latest start so now I'm digging out some Christmas ornaments to get started on. After all, Christmas is just two short months away. Help!

Of Fall, Halloween finishes and a Win

It's a beautiful fall day here today and I have to go no further than the windows of my home to see autumn's beauty. I  snapped a few pics of the view but before I show you, it's time for a stitching update.

I've had two small finishes this week. First up is Hocus Pocus.

The Stitcherhood Hocus Pocus
stitched on 36 ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Pear
using DMC floss

I think I prefer this one without the vines and should I ever stitch it again I'm going to leave them off.
Next is a cute little stitch called Spooky Halloween. I'm on the hunt for the right fabric to finish this one off shortly.

Spooky Halloween by Shelly Auen of Primitive Stitchin'
stitched on 32 ct Lakeside Linen Sand
using DMC floss

My black silk floss for Ghoul has arrived so as of last night it's back in my rotation. I should have an updated photo for you soon. I'd still like to do one more Halloween small, yet to be decided on.

Besides the silk floss, I had another surprise arrival last week. Cath of The Stitchin' Chicken had a giveaway at the end of August to celebrate her blogoversary which I was the lucky winner of. All I knew was that there was a suprise package to be sent to the winner. Here's what I found waiting for me: 2 lovely cuts of linen, some 
WDW floss, a pair of scissors, gorgeous fob and Birds of a Feather Bloom Where You Are Planted. I was overwhelmed by Cath's generosity. Thank you very much Cath! I intend to make good use of everything.

 

Last week my family gathered in Ottawa for a memorial service for my cousin's wife who had recently passed due to a long fight with ovarian cancer. It was a chance for us to celebrate her life and also to visit with one another since we are rarely together anymore.
Here I am with my cousins and my sister Laurie (far right).

Two of my sons, Daniel and Chris were also able to join us so I snapped a picture of them with their Aunt and Uncle.

Now for some pics of the colours outside the windows of my home.

I'll be sorry to see all that colour go and it is going, as you can see from that bare tree in the last photo. I've been stuck indoors with some sort of a respiratory virus so I haven't been able to get out and enjoy the sights the last several days. 
Gotta go, I hear the timer on my oven beeping! I'm on for coffee hour goodies at church on Sunday so I'm baking some pumpkin loaves. Mmm, wish they were for us!

October TUSAL

TUSAL time and Halloween is fast approaching. Where does the time go? Some of my Halloween collectibles provide the perfect backdrop for this month's orts. Only one small jar this month, meager offerings at best. Lots of blacks, rusts and greens all show evidence of stitching appropriate for the season including PSS Ghoul and The Stitcherhood Hocus Pocus. I'm hoping the latter will be finished by weeks end. It should have been finished long before now but life events have taken over this month. I'll have an updated photo very soon but until then, enjoy some spooky stitching!

Long weekend stitching

I hope all my fellow Canadians enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend and my American friends enjoyed their Columbus Day weekend. Having a long weekend usually means extra stitching time and this weekend was no exception. Mind you, I decided to do more finishing rather than stitching. It was time to bite the bullet!
Here's what I accomplished by weekend's end.

 I'm getting used to using my sewing machine now and I'm proud to say that the Dutch Tulip pin pillow on the right is my very first finish completely on my own.

Once I'd done a bit of finishing I pulled out my stitching. First up, Paradis Perdu. I added a few new motifs to it.

Sorry about that first photo. I got lazy and didn't feel like taking the piece out of the frame to photograph. This one is coming along, slowly but surely.
I decided on my first Halloween small to stitch....The Stitcherhood Hocus Pocus.

I have several other smalls I'd like to stitch but I have a lot going on this month so we'll see how far I get.

Our holiday Monday turned out to be a gorgeous day so when my friend Pam called me and invited me to shop with her in the village of Merrickville, I jumped at the chance. The village is filled with craft and gift shops and often features displays by local artisans. Naturally I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics to show but I can show you my purchases of the day.

I found the jar first, which is similar to my other ort jars. Then I found the rusty bells as well as rusty pins for finishing.

This lovely reproduction of a dough bowl was a must have. I'd been searching for one for awhile but they were all out of my price range. This one was far more reasonable in price than I ever expected.

It will be perfect to display more of my pinpillows.
My final purchase for the day was a smaller version of my large ort jar. I'm using this smaller one to hold cinnamon pumpkin potpourri.

It's filling my living room with such a lovely scent!
You'll notice my LHN Acorn Hill on display. Since it's been stretched but not framed yet, I thought it would look good displayed on this little easel.

 Hope I haven't bored you with the picture overload! That about covers everything for now. Several members of my family will be joining me at the end of the week for a memorial service for my cousin's wife who passed away recently. Despite the reason, I'm really looking forward to seeing them all. It has been far too long since we've all been together. Enjoy your week, I'm off to my Tuesday stitching now.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A very Happy Thanksgiving wish to all my Canadian blogging friends and to my family! We are so blessed here in Canada. I am thankful for the love of a wonderful husband and family, many supportive friends and the fact that this year I didn't have to prepare a meal. Our good friends and neighbours Paul and Michelle served us an awesome turkey dinner last evening. Today I'm off to the village of Merrickville with my friend Pam to check out all the craft shops. Then later in the week a good number of my family arrive to celebrate the life of one of our own who has recently left us. It will be wonderful to be surrounded by all of them once more.
In the meantime I hope you are all enjoying a fabulous holiday weekend!

September WIPocalypse

September has just flown by and my needle seems to be flying too. I have 3 small finishes and 2 larger finishes to show as well as a new start and some work on an older WIP!
If you're a regular visitor to my blog you will have seen some of these already.

First up are the smalls:  Threadwork Primitives Enchanted Crow and The Gentle Art Fall For Squirrels followed by my latest finish, PSS Give Thanks.

I'm working at getting all three of these finished off into pincushions.

Next up are my two larger finishes, PSS Turkey Love and With Thy Needle & Thread Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler.

My latest new start is PSS Ghoul. Think I'm on a bit of kick with all the Plum Street designs, lol!

I've run out of the black silk for this now and I'm awaiting the arrival of more skeins before I can continue with this one.
In the meantime I dug out a WIP which hasn't been seen since the end of January! It's Paradis Perdu, designed by A Mon Ami Pierre. I've done a silk conversion on this and I got sidetracked when a couple of the silks just weren't the right colour. I re-ordered them and when they arrived I put them away. Problem was, when I went to retrieve them and continue on, I couldn't find the darn things! Would you believe, I only just found them while searching for something else within my stash. Finally I'm able to move on again!

Here's a before photo:

And after:

I'd forgot just how much I enjoy this one!
That wraps it up for now.

 I'm very glad to have my computer back after several trying weeks with it. Goodness but I felt lost without it!!
The computer slowed down to a crawl and then started freezing on me constantly. On rebooting it wanted numerous check disks done and my worst fears were confirmed....the hard drive was finished. My laptop is not quite 4 years old and although I really would have liked to replace it since it operates with Windows Vista, I just couldn't afford the extra expense right now. It was far cheaper to just replace the hard drive, especially since they were on sale. 
So if I haven't responded to your emails I apologize and hope you'll understand. Some of the mail just wasn't getting through and in many cases I wasn't able to reply to it.

The spooky month is upon us now and so I'm off to get started on some Halloween smalls. Have a great day!