Saturday Stitching: Embroidery

The last time I embroidered something was when I did the leaves on the Fox and Rabbit Changing Seasons MSAL. I didn’t really like what I’d done and after some research, I discovered why they didn’t look like they should – I’d done the satin stitch incorrectly. Before then, I hadn’t done any embroidery since I was about 16 – 30 some odd years ago.

Not long after I did the leaves, I was gifted with an embroidery kit:

I was actually quite excited to get this, and I quickly chose a section to work on first:

Once I got the hoop onto the fabric and actually looked at the pattern I lost interest. I told myself I’d start it later. Later became two days ago when I was wanting to stitch something, but I neither wanted to work on the MSAL not wanted to start something new. I took out the kit, got out the project and started watching embroidery videos on YouTube by Sarah Homfray Embroidery

I really like how soothing her voice is and how informative her videos are. I’d watched some of her videos before – couching gold work is very cool. I chose to do the stems first and watched a video to see how to do the stem stitch properly – turns out I’d done this one incorrectly in the past as well.

I’ve moved on to leaves now which use the satin stitch and after a fun video, I now make them properly too. I like the way they look a lot more now. I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m not a total dud either.

I’m only going to work on this project when I really need something different to do so, it won’t get done any time soon. I will share my progress from time to time so you’ll be seeing more of this in the future just not on a regular basis. I do have to say, now that I’m doing the stitches correctly, I’m a lot happier with the whole project.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Saturday Stitching: MSAL – October Design Done!

It took me longer than I’d planned to get this last square done, but it’s finally finished. I can’t wait to see what November is going to look like – December too. If December is the MSAL name, Changing Seasons and the date, I’m going to find something else to fill in the space. I just don’t see myself doing that. I didn’t do it on last year’s MSAL either.

Anyway, here is what the block looks like:

Here’s what the overall piece looks like now:

I’m still not sure what colors I’m going to use. I guess it’s going to depend on what flowers and such are used. It won’t be much longer before the next one is released.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Free Pattern Friday – Sadie Sampler Half Circle Shawl by Kristin Omdahl

This is a gorgeous shawl, and I’m definitely going to be making this in November when I have the money for the yarn.

I love how the designer has layered all the different stitches to make something so light, lacy and feminine!

If you decide to make this, please share pictures of it finished! I’ll be linking this post to the one I’ll be making of the shawl once I’ve made it.

Sadie Sampler Half Circle Crochet Shawl

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Saturday Stitching: MSAL – September

It took a while, but I finally got September’s design done. The center is a pumpkin, and the two outsides are pomegranates – to me at least. I think I did a pretty good job of getting the Autumn color scheme right.

I’m now working on October’s design which goes in the little square on the right. I’m thinking of using lavender for some line work. Does that say Winter to anyone?? I’m not from an area of the United States that gets snow normally so I could use some help choosing a color. Maybe, I should use black??

I hope to have October’s design done in the next few days so I can get some smalls done: David’s biscornu and a new start using blackwork which I haven’t started yet.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

YouTube Tuesday: Stitch Man Darcy

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I do apologize. I just don’t seem to have time to watch everyone on my list and still find new people to watch. I’ve actually had to cull a few from my list – ikr!

Stitch Man Darcy comes highly recommended from three of the people I watch on Flosstube videos featuring cross stitching and the people who love it so much so, I decided to give him a looksee.

He’s funny, he’s talented, and he doesn’t take himself very seriously. In fact, he tends to avoid being serious even when he’s showing off his beautiful work. He works primarily on full coverage projects with most being designs by Heaven and Earth Designs aka HAED, and he loves his 18ct Aida fabric. He’s also a big fan of Alice in Wonderland. That’s not to say he doesn’t work on other subjects – he’s doing a portrait of Jimmy Stewart right now.

I’m linking to his newest video below, but I do recommend watching his older videos as well -Princess with Himalayan Cat is incredible!

He does curse so fair warning!

If you like his channel, please let him know by Liking, and if you really like him, be sure to Subscribe! Let me know what you think about him in the comments below.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Dollhouse Project: Exterior Walls are Done!

I know my camera skills are not the best, but I think you can still see the progress I’ve made on the exterior walls of the house. I need to put up some fireplace stacks and chimney tops eventually but for now, this is where I’m at.

I plan to move indoors and start putting in flooring on the Ground Floor. I want to do stone in the basement and wine cellar, wooden floors in the back entrance and walk in pantry and tile in the kitchen and washroom. I’m not sure how I’m going to do the tile yet, but the other two I have seen a great many videos on how to do all of it so it’s just a matter of giving it a try myself.

Sorry about the mess. I have a small part of a room for my crafting so things get a bit cluttered and messy at times.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Saturday Stitching: An FO, a Small and the MSAL

I have one finished small project. I started it a week before my vacation started, while I was waiting for my car to be worked on. I finished it this past Thursday,

The above is what it’s supposed to look like. It’s a DMC Cross Stitch Starter Kit design. The kit came with 7 skeins of floss, each a different color, 2 pieces of 14 ct white Aida, a tapestry needle. a hoop and a book with 6 designs in it. The supplies were enough to make two of the designs.

Now me, I made some changes to the shoe. The pattern is simply named Shoe…

The original pattern was only stitched, nothing special on it. I added some bling to it. The red beads are upside down hearts. I didn’t like the hearts of the tongue of the shoe so, I left them off. I think my shoe looks more fun than the original.

I haven’t decided how I’m going to finish it completely yet. I’ll need something like a shadow box if I decide to frame it. I could give it away as is as well. I just made it because it was small, quick and fun.

What do you think?? Suggestions/comments welcome!

Then, there’s my other small which I shared with you all last month. It’s the Mill Hill beaded ornament I started.

This is what it looked like last time I talked about it. It’s being worked on 28 ct lavender even weave. I have never done so much frogging in my life!! It’s hard to see it unless I really focus, even with my magnifiers on.

I’ve discovered I don’t like working with beads this small. It’s time consuming, fiddly and annoying – to me. A friend of mine has graciously consented to take this project off my hands and finish it for herself.

I like working on even weave fabric, but I’m not a huge fan of beading something that small. I don’t see myself doing another one in the future though they are quite pretty.

I’m behind on the MSAL, but I’m working to catch up. I’ve done half of September’s design so far, and I’m trying to figure out what colors to use for October’s.

Pomegranates and pumpkins oh my! 🙂

I also wanted to show you two things I discovered on my visit to Fort Worth Texas on Thursday. We went to the Montgomery Street Antique Mall where we discovered a lovely little cafe called The Secret Garden Restaurant.

We both had the Secret Sampler and shared an order of Bread Pudding for desert.

Anyway, while in the antique store, I found these very interesting looking wall art pieces, and I took a picture of one of them:

I just noticed the price tag. OMG!!! I could make something like this for way less, even framed!

I bought a tapestry kit as well, but I don’t have a picture of it to show yet. Surprisingly, the kit is fully intact with plastic over the bottom of the box where the yarn it. It has gone into my To Do pile for next year.

That’s it for this week. I start work on Monday so, I’ll be back to having limited time for my projects. My main focus is going to be the MSAL, but I’ll also be working on some other small projects as I get the time. I haven’t forgotten the dollhouse either. I hope you like the progress I’ve made on it thus far. I’ll be writing about it soon.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Vacation 2022 Countdown: 7 More Days to Texas Haunted Roadtrip!

We plan to leave very early – like 3-4 am – on Monday 3 Oct. heading for El Paso Texas. Our plan is still fluid. We’re following one road down from El Paso to Galveston with stops planned on the way. We might stay 2 nights in El Paso just to look around since I haven’t been since I was a child, and Joe has never been. Same thing with San Antonio, but that’s still up in the air. We will stay one night at least.

If you live along our route or within say 25 miles from it in any direction, and you think there are places we should check out, feel free to comment below! I’m sure Joe would love new areas to stream. 🙂

El Paso will be the longest drive as we don’t plan on stopping on our way there. We have plenty to see on the way down and around.

I’m just so excited! 😀

If you’d like to buy us coffee, or a tank of gas, please use the form below. I also have Chime, PayPal and Cash App so message me for more information if you’d like to use any of those instead.

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See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Saturday Stitching: The Land Baby – a Finish!(Of Sorts)

The Land Baby by John Collier(1895) was turned into a cross stitch chart by someone (I have no idea who or when), and it was posted online as a series of images to be used for free. There are pdf versions others have created, and you have to pay for those. I’m using the free images. So, the painting was split into half – left and right. I’ve been working on the left.

Here is what she looked like last time I posted:

This is being worked on 16 count white Aida in the called for DMC colors. I forget how big she’s supposed to be, but on this count she’s not that big.

Here is what she looks like now:

The entire left side of the piece is now complete. I am going to be putting it away for the rest of 2022 and resume work on it at the beginning of 2023. I’ve been working on it almost from the beginning of 2022, and I need a break to get other projects done.

I have really enjoyed working on her, and I love how she’s turning out, The amount of detail in it without requiring back stitching is just amazing to me.

While I’m saying “see you later” to her, I still have plenty of other projects to show you including the ongoing Mystery Stitch-A-Long, Changing Seasons provided by Fox and Rabbit. I also have several smalls, and a new start which I’ll be showing you next week. 🙂

Until then, happy stitching!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

If you’d like to buy me a coffee, or a skein of floss, please use the form below. Every penny is greatly appreciated!! Thank you all so much!

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Vacation 2022 Countdown: 14 days to Haunted Texas Road Trip!

I am really looking forward to this trip! It’s going to be a lot of driving, but there will be plenty of stops on the way once we get to El Paso and start the journey there. It’s about 12 hours to El Paso if we follow the route on the map, but we’re not. We’re going straight to El Paso and then, we’ll follow the map. I plan to find the fastest route there. 🙂

My son. Joe, had originally planned to only live stream us checking out haunted sites but now, he has the bright idea of doing a kind of Subathon for his Twitch channel where he will livestream for so many minutes for each new subscriber he gets. His channel is:

https://www.twitch.tv/grimcommando95

He’s been streaming for two years now, and I’m so glad he’s stuck with it despite how slow it’s been to build up followers. It is an adult only stream as he curses, drinks(at times) and is just himself. He also streams games he plays with others and is always happy to play with someone new. He likes to try out new games too.

We’re going to be taking turns driving, and we’ll set up the phone as best we can to stream if/when it comes time to stream our actual traveling.

I’ll be posting pictures myself on a daily basis. I’m going to try to embed video as well, if I can figure out how. I’ll be focusing mainly on what we see at the haunted sites, if anything.

If you’d like to buy me a coffee/pay for a gallon of gas, feel free to use the form below and choose whatever amount you want to donate. Every penny is greatly appreciated!