New Finish

I might not have been working on Jolly Jack exclusively but I've finished stitching him!

I think he turned out really well. The top of the design is supposed to say "Jolly Jack" but I prefer it without any words. I think he's general enough to keep up all Fall, right?

I'm planning to finish him as a flat fold, one of those A frame designs that stands up on their own. I should be going to JoAnn's tonight (after I pick up my sewing machine, squee!) to buy the supplies. I'm going to pick up stuff for this, my black cat pillow (that I haven't finished stitching yet), my two swap items and my Lizzie Kate finish. I'm hoping I'll be able to get my finishing mojo on. Have I mentioned that I haven't sewn anything since I was like 10? This should be interesting. I'm sure I can figure it out. I'll post the results when I can!!

I've started a new ornament. Remember that ornament a month challenge that I said I was doing back in January? The one that I kept up with until May? Yeah, well, I'm trying to get back into it. I'm using Weeks Dye Works Wild Berries, Sampler Threads (Gentle Arts) Gold leaf and some DMC. The pattern doesn't call for beads, but I thought it would add something nice and sparkly so I'm going to try to add some. I'm going to hold off on posting a picture, just in case my swap partner follows my blog. She's the one who organized the swap so she knows I'm mailing it to her.

I did forget to show you my pretties from my local needlework shop: 

I bought these each for $1 on etsy (the "whites" and browns in the above picture are for the mugs):

I saw a Winter Tag one too that I should have gotten to match the Autumn one above. I'm waiting for her to post some other things that I might be interested in so I can save on shipping. They are all Angel Stitchin' patterns. I love anything coffee related so I knew I had to have those mugs! The hot cocoa one came with a cute little marshmallow button too!!

I found this Leisure Arts Alphabet at my mom's house (More Backstitch Alphabets, Mini Series #20):

I just bought the first one on eBay yesterday. You can never have too many fonts to choose from! I personalize Christmas ornaments for my friends' children so it's a nice thing to have around.

I know I have a ton of magazines some where (probably at my mom's house still) that I bought years and years ago at a book sale in front of an Ames (remember those?) Now I just need to track them down, but who knows where they are at this point!

Overall it was a win all around for me this week! 1 finish and 1 new start (from stash, in case anyone was wondering!)

Side note, the Frosted Pumpkin Mysterious Halloween Town's third clue came out and I'm not really feeling it. I think I'm going to change it a bit. I really don't think a bakery is fitting with the Halloween Theme. Now maybe a candy shop would be better. I really wanted a cemetery though. Which would you like to see more? A candy shop (minor changes) or a cemetery (a total over haul)? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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Sneak Peek

And there goes another week! This is crazy! Fall is almost here. How early is too early to decorate for Halloween?!?!

Speaking of fall, here's where I'm at with Jolly Jack. It got put on the back burner for the weekend while I finished the stitching part of my swap gift.

He's turning out so well! there are two more birds, more branches & leaves to go. Plus some random bits and bobs around. Still less than 3/4s done, but we're slowly getting there! I did some more last night while my husband was at PT. I have a star now too! And some leaves and branches. :)

And here's the biggest picture I can show you for now, my instagram swap gift. :) Find me: xstitchhaven. Don't forget you can click the picture and see a larger view!

Look how fuzzy that Wisper thread is!!! I am so glad I waited to go to my LNS before finishing. I love love LOVE the way it turned out! :) The teal is Weeks Dye Works Blue Topaz and the fabric is Silkweavers Tropical Breeze. My husband told me he's amazed how much work I put into something that I'm "just going to give away". I am 99% sure that my swap partner will appreciate it as much as I do. That's why it's a cross stitch swap. We all know how much time & effort goes into this and who is better to appreciate something than another stitcher? My mom is going to help me finish it since my sewing machine is at the repair shop (not to mention I have no idea what I'm doing!). I'm hoping for tomorrow but we'll see, time permitting. My husband has PT so he'll be taking the car. . . 

And last but not least my FOTM from Steph's Fabby's. This was really hard to photograph, but I think it's pretty true (purples, blues & pinks). It's called Soaring Dragonfly and I ordered an extra large piece since I knew I was going to love it! :) I have no idea what I'll stitch on it, but something whimsical I think. I'm open for suggestions!

I should have a piece from Crafty Kitten coming soon, which I think I'll do something Halloween on (me, Halloween, I'm sure you are shocked). It's a nice dark gray-ish color. :)

It's amazing the difference in quality of pictures now that I guilted myself into using my Nikon and just a tiny amount of editing (mostly to try to get the colors to show up better really).

Halloween Town Clue 3 comes out tomorrow! I'm excited, poor Jolly Jack will probably get pushed back again so I can work on that one! :)


Who else is excited about the third clue?!?!

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Instagram Swap

I'm always surprised when another week goes by and I'm here writing a post again. I hope time doesn't always fly by like this!

After two evenings at PT (my husband, not me) I was able to get the rest of the orange pumpkin done, I still have to do the rest of the cutouts and thee stem before he's done done though:


 
I took out my "big girl camera" for this picture. :) No lightbox yet though! It suppose to say Jolly Jack at the top, but I'm thinking I"m going to leave it out or change it to say Halloween. I'm not sure, clearly I'm not that far yet!

The girls on Instagram decided to hold a little cross stitch swap. I'm pretty excited about this one and the Christmas one I'm doing on another website. I'm debating posting it here. I don't know who follows both my instagram and my blog. I don't want my swap to know! Here's a sneak peak I already shared on instagram which won't do any harm. ;) I'm also going to go buy some Wisper thread. It's suppose to be fuzzy! I think it'll add a great dimension to the piece and I'm also going to personalize it. Then get my mom to sew it into an ornament. I took my sewing machine to be serviced over the weekend and it doesn't sound like I'll be getting it back for like 3 weeks.

I'm using Weeks Dye Works Blue Topaz and a 32 count Silkweaver linen in "Tropicial Breeze" that I had in my stash. It looks so awesome in real life! I got the pattern from one of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament editions. I think it's from the 2008 one (from that eBay haul I had).

You can also see my preferred stitching highlighting method. I use an app on my iPad called GoodNotes to highlight across. I do have to scan in my charts and then delete them when I'm done, but the ability to zoom in makes it 100% worth it.

I also worked a bit on my Chatelaine. Just some of the decorative stitches which is why I do not have an update picture. Slow going. I have too many projects on the go at once, it's hard to decide what to work on. Who else has that problem?!

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Time consuming hobbies

Hi all! Where has the week gone? Oh yeah, I was in Des Moines, Iowa for work all of last week, then came back and went up north to my in-law's cabin for the weekend, went to a stitching shop (I totally didn't take a picture of my haul, I'll do that for next week!) & met some friends, then came back for my husband's birthday and went to a local farm for dinner. Then this week I've had two job interviews (phone ones, but still). BUSY. I love it, but hate it at the same time. When to do laundry?! Or more importantly, stitch?!?!

Here's some of the scenery up north:

and our view for lunch:

I'm very lucky to live in such a beautiful state. These were taken on the Allegheny River, the dam is Kinzua Dam.

Another thing that put a damper in my cross stitch time was that EA Games released the Sims 2 Ultimate Edition for FREE on Origin. Needless to say, that sucked me back in. Why are all of my hobbies so time consuming?! I may or may not have been up playing Sims 2 until midnight on a work night.

Anyways, here's what I've been working on.

Chatelaine, I managed to do some of the backstitching. I love this piece, but I have so many things going on that it's never a priority.

I also worked on my Jolly Jack:

 I took it with me last night to my husband's physical therapy session (1.5 ~ 2 hours), so you'll see a nice huge (to me anyway) update next week!

I also just remembered I promised to show what I was stitching at the airport:

I forgot to edit this picture, and it's a little blurry. Sorry!

Does anyone else have other time consuming hobbies other than stitching?!

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Fabrics!

I might be in a different state right now, but I'm a dedicated blogger! I present today's post!

I finished up Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Town part II:

I purchased Frosted Pumpkin's Spooky Sampler awhile back and during the Picture This Plus sale on Friday I picked up a few options for it, Crystal Haunted & Crystal Echo, I also purchased Heather and Mirage (all 1/4 yards). I'm thinking one of the crystals will be good for it. I haven't done any patterns on sparkly fabric yet!


My July FOTM from Steph's Fabby's came over the weekend as well:

I've got several different colors from her now. I'm going to have to start finding projects for them. I'm turning into a fabric hoarder! I've been getting the 13x18 size (I think that's the one? it's the smallest one offered) but I think maybe I should jump up a size. That way I wouldn't have to worry about it being too small for any random project. I don't know. :)

I really really wanted to pick up my Chat on Thursday night, but I got home and promptly fell asleep! I feel like an old lady, not 27 years young. It's okay though, because I did get a tiny amount done over the weekend. Here's a before picture:

I think that's going to be it for now! If you follow me on instagram (@brendaxstitchhaven) you'll see a sneak peek of next week's blog post and see what I've been working on at the airport!

Do you bring projects when you are traveling?

Also, this was scheduled for Wednesday and it uploaded to Tumblr just fine (how did that happen?!), but it's not appearing on the blog, BUT I got a comment on it... Anyone else having weird issues with blogger?

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