Recent finishes and framed pieces

I've been so busy on the computer at work that the last thing I want to do on the weekends is be on the computer. I took the time today to do the last two posts and this one. I'm playing catch-up today. :)

Here are two Shepherd's Bush pieces (or is it really 5??). I finished Easter Parade from a kit. I stitched the four Easter egg kits and got them framed as one. The inner mats complement each egg and one mat on top to tie it all together. If I ever find the first set of eggs I stitched, I'll make them into ornaments for a future Easter tree.

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A friend bought me this chart book of Blackbird's Down by the Sea. I loved this so I started it immediately. I switched the threads to a nice Caron Wildflowers I had on hand.

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Every year I try to do a piece celebrating the 4th of July on the 4th of July. This year, while watching the Coney Island hot dog eating contest on TV, I stitched Pine Mountain's Liberty. The kit came with a little red frame.

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I've had several cats over the years, but by far my favorite was a male tuxedo I named Shannon. He was a rescue (as they all have been), liked to fetch a fuzzy pink catnip ball, knead me, and slept with his head on my elbow. He only lived 4 years, but they were a great 4 years. Time passes. I'm in a craft store looking at the cross stitch kits and there, to my surprise, is a picture of Shannon! The design was on white fabric with half stitched black. There were six or seven cats in the picture, but in the black was Shannon. I always meant to stitch the whole thing, but one day this spring it occurred to me that if I only liked the tuxedo, then stitch only the tuxedo! So here he is:

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In Just CrossStitch October 2010 issue was a design I liked by Lisa Roswell of Primitive Sampler. It's called Halloween Revelry. Due to a boo boo of mine, I stitched it with the wrong side as the top. That didn't leave enough room to do the entire design. I punted and really like with what I did.

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In an issue of SANQ this year was a reproduction sampler by Lucie Beharel in France. I stitched this because I like the color orange and there's a repro category in the fair.

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A couple of new starts

I started Midnight Watch (a Halloween design) by Blackbird Designs on Tuesday and Busy Bee by Shepherd's Bush yesterday. I really want to keep on stitching on either of these so I may modify my "fifteen starts in fifteen days" so that I keep my sanity!! ;)

Besides that, I pulled out about 7 SB things to work on right-this-very-minute. Most of it is small stuff or stuff I'd started once upon a time.

Working like crazy on Lizzie Kate's ABC Halloween

I have the rest of the skeleton and three more rows to go to be done. I'm averaging about a row every 3 days. My plan is to send it to Jill Rensel in Ogden, UT, for mats. I can send it with The Mermaid and the Sea. When they get back I can frame them locally.

I was going through a box in my closet and came across a bunch of boring, old cross stitch charts. However, in amongst them, was a partially stitched SB ornament (wisemen) from one of the annual JCS ornament magazines. I even had the sterling silver charm with it! It is now in my soon-to-be-finished pile.

Next up is a Blackbird Loose Feathers design from a couple of years ago. Although I can't recall the name of it right now, it's the one with the three different fabrics that are sewn together after stitching and then embroidery is done over the seam.

More stockings finished

I finished these in January 2010. They go fairly quickly.

Quaker Fragments

Lily of the Valley

Colorful Cosmos


This is my commemorative for the 24" of snow we got on December 19, 2009. It's a freebie from Lizzie Kate.

Playing catch-up

I was having problems with computer memory for a while, but now that's resolved and I can post pictures again of my stitching!

This is the Shepherd's Bush "A Christmas Pin Cushion" that I finished in December 2009 and will finish as an ornament:


This was a little kit in the December (?) Cross Stitcher Magazine. Cute as a button!


Although I started this project YEARS ago, I only completed day one and barely started day two. In December I finished days two through five and started day six.






For my birthday my friend gave me two Blackbird stocking kits I'd not seen before. She had attended a retreat in Virginia Beach this past October and picked them up there. The one on the left is To Light the Way. The one on the right is Sea Side Beauty.



I decided to stitch all of these as one of my stitching goals for 2010. I've been doing well since there's a lot of variety to choose from. I'm trying to mix stitching ones I like a lot with ones I don't care for as much. (I'm not telling which are which!!) :)

I started Auld Lang Syne on January 1, 2010, and finished it on January 2nd. It's from the January book.



Next up was New Arrival from the June book. No babies in my house so the stork has no baby either.



Purple is one of my favorite colors so February's Violet (from the February book) was up next.



I wasn't sure I liked this one and was not looking forward to stitching the umbrella, but it's much prettier in person and the umbrella wasn't too bad to stitch.



I'm currently working on Quaker Fragments from the March book. I like the design, but was a little leery about the colors. Again, this works up much prettier than I thought it would.

Halloween fabrics!

I went to Joann Fabrics on Saturday and picked up tons of half yard pieces of Halloween fabrics. It's my favorite holiday and I like to cross stitch Halloween ornaments and always need backing fabric. This time I bought fabric for the soon-to-be-released Halloween stockings chart book by Blackbird Designs. Yes, I know there's no picture of them yet, but I bought "generic" Halloween fabric for all possible designs! I like the neon spider webs on black about the best.

I have been looking for backing fabric for my Halloween hats round robin wall hanging. I wanted fabric with witches hats on it. I did a double-take when I actually found some! It has hats and shoes and the designs are on the small side (which I like) being about 2 inches high. I will wait until the piece is done before buying any more fabric for it.