Thanksgiving and giveaway

Nancy is having a great giveaway today.  It's pick your present!  Go check her out and Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the U.S.!  To all of my readers thank you for joining me on my stitching journey I'm grateful for you all!

Nancy's giveaway!

Sandy is having another fabric giveaway.  Go say hi

A Finish!

Hey everyone I'm happy to report I've finished Halloween Red!  It actually ended up with far more orange than I thought it had.  It didn't stitch up quite as quickly as I thought it would at the end but I've been not as into it as I was at the beginning with the gorgeous Christmas Red DMC.

And the piece as a whole:

I have to say it does look pretty cool.  I like to put my signature on all of my pieces but I ran out of room on the end a bit so it's a little run together but that's okay.

I changed my mind on my cousin's wedding gift.  She's more of a beach girl so I found a new life quote and new pattern.  I haven't purchased it yet as it's a long piece so I need to do some calculations to see if I can fit the quote I chose and find some fabric to fit the pattern.  I need to buy it soon because it's from Love Thy Thread and they're going out of business.  :(
But I did get some fabric dyed and I love how the blue turned out.

Sorry about the lighting but I don't have my lamp plugged in.  The blue is done on DMC Monaco 100% cotton evenweave.  The two greens are actually the same color.  The fabric is DMC tea-dyed Irish Linen which I used RIT color remover on to get rid of the tea color and then dyed dark green.  I dyed these fabrics at the same time and ended up going out for several hours to see the Hunger Games.  When I got home I rinsed them out and panicked because they were so dark.  Luckily after I washed them they ended up being the perfect colors.  I'm definitely trying the blue again.  My next start will be my cousin's project after I buy the pattern, fabric and floss and get the fabric dyed and gridded :).  Michael's has a 25% off entire purchase coupon that I'll use for floss.  I think I'm going to buy a soluble pen to grid instead of the thread I've been using but don't know how well it will work on my dark fabrics.  I'll be back with a start hopefully!

Until next time,
May the stitches be ever in your favor!

Yet Another Giveaway!

This one is really cool.  It's a choice of fabric or floss.  Check it out!

Stash and Progress!

Hello my fellow bloggers and welcome to another update in my fantasy world.  I've got a lot in this one so let's get to it!  First off I made some progress on Halloween Red.  I was focusing more on my chair this week and had finished it but the thing broke while I was moving it because the hinges were too small so I'll have pics after I fix them.  Red is looking pretty and should be done next week.

I filled in their eyes and the moon and also got some more orange done in the middle.  I only have one more color to fill in and a couple of little color changes near the windmill.  But those should only take me an hour or so hopefully.  I'm having a lot of fun with this one.

I also got the bit in the windmill as it's the same yellow as the ghosts' eyes. I'm really hoping for a finish next week.  However I'm trying to take some tests so I don't have to enroll in community college so I can get accepted into a master's program so that may take some time.  I also need to apply for a substitute teaching position.  Wish me luck!

My big news this post though is all of my new stash.  I have some gifts I'll be stitching so if you're reading this and you're my mom or Kayla stop reading!!  I don't think they read this however so I feel pretty safe posting my progress.  My first stash buy was from Tilton Crafts.  They had a sale which I talked about in my last post which was buy 2 get 2 free. 

Setting Sail is going to be for my cousin Kayla's wedding in October.  I'm going to put a beachy life quote over it so I have to decide that first and then put the pattern behind it.  Enchanted Lake and Santa in the Clouds are both probably going to be for me but Santa might be for my aunt.  I'm changing that one a bit too and adding different colored beads around the houses to look like Christmas lights.  Howling is going to be a gift for my mom for Christmas next year.  I'm going to be working mostly on Setting Sail because I want to have it done and Howling after that but we'll see how fast I'm able to go.  I bought fabrics for both but I'm not including a picture because I have to dye it still but they're both going to be on 28ct linen.  It takes a while because I don't own a sewing machine so I have to hand sew the edges so they don't fray.  I got all of the floss for Setting Sail though and spent most of this week putting it on bobbins.

Some of the floss is the rest of what I needed for Christmas Quilt but the rest is all Setting Sail.  It's about 80 colors.  I still have to organize it all but I've made a start.  Okay I think that's enough for this week.  Thanks to all my followers I hope I'm keeping you entertained!

Until next time,
Stay Classy Stitchers!

Another giveaway

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having another giveaway.  More fabric!

Giveaway!

The Victorian Motto Sampler shop is having a giveaway for the 25 days of Christmas.  It's different stuff each day so head over and check it out!Victorian Motto Sampler Shop

Progress and a Bit of Stash

I'm happy to say I've got quite a bit of Halloween Red done.  I also received the exclusive chart I talked about in my last post.  Tilton is also having a great sale if you're part of their Facebook group.  Buy 2 get 2 free.  So I'll have more stash after I decide which ones I want.  After that no more buying!  Also in the next post I should have a finish.  I'd be further along now but I've been working more on my chair.  I should have that finished on Sunday hopefully.  So next post will be very informative!

But for now I'm proud of my progress on Halloween Red.  Especially when I look at the pictures from last week.

Then:

Now:

I have to say I'm loving this one so far.  It's turning out really well.  My new chart is titled Christmas Quilt.

I thought it looked more like stained glass so I think I'm going to make a few changes to make it that way.  It's hard to see in the pic but I will take out some of the colors that make it look like stitching and add a thick black border around each object using backstitch.  Still debating this as it will require quite a few changes but I love the look of stained glass and I think this will lend itself well.  However out of my 4 new charts I'll be getting, 2 of them are Christmas/Winter themed which gives me 4 Christmas projects.  But I'm going to be focusing most on Magical World.  I'm going to dye the Christmas Quilt fabric a mottled red and Santa's Workshop a mottled dark green.  I was debating dark blue but it already has a lot of blue and due to a happy accident where I got lost I found my way to a Joann's and got some red and green Dylon dye.

On a more serious note my family is currently funding an operation for my niece who has shaken baby syndrome and who is starting to lose her vision in one eye.  I'm putting her funding page on my sidebar if you can help great if not I understand.  But if you can help put the word out I would be grateful.  Thanks!

Until next time,
Happy stitching!