Mini-Finish, New Start and Some Stash!

Hi everyone! I know it's been almost a month since I've posted on any progress but I have a lot to show and talk about!  So grab a warm beverage and a snack because we're off!

First off, I have made some progress on Santa in the Clouds.  The last time it looked like this:

And now I've filled in more of the top:

Next I get to put in some gray which will be a welcome change from blue.  That spot in the middle is where the star is.

I didn't stitch much on this because I got distracted with holiday stuff.

However, I do have a finish to show!

Yep Halloween Green is done!

Last time it was here:

I was surprised because the color on the bottom is 307 which is bright yellow and it's the same color as the windows but looks really different.  Now I only have Halloween Yellow to do and then I'm done with them all.  I haven't fully finished it yet but I'll probably wait to do that until I finish Yellow.

Finally, I have a new start!  I told myself I wouldn't start it until I finished Halloween Green which is what pushed me to finish it but ever since I have I've been a stitching machine!  Curious yet?  😈

It's Raven from Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixies series!  I stitched all of the black in the last two days and I think I'll have her finished in no time!  She's stitched on 14 ct opalescent Aida that I dyed a stormy gray with a touch of purple.  It's a tad darker than I was planning but I like it.  I chose the gray because it's something that all of them will look good on and with the sparkles it's like they're conjuring magic on a stormy night.  Each one will have a touch of the same color as in their dress.  The purple didn't come out super well but I still like it.  I'm excited to get into the purples in her dress and the moon.  I'm going to do the skin over one so that will take a while but I don't think it'll be too bad.  All of Halloween Green and Raven have been stitched since the weekend since I am now officially on break from work.

I also got a bit of new stash.  The first I'm not going to show but I finally finished my DMC collection after 3 trips to the store.  I only was short by 50 or so colors.

The second thing I got was the Dimensions Gold kit Woodland Enchantress.

It was on clearance at Michaels for $20 originally $45.  They had 2 other kits on clearance that I like which are Fall Fairy and Aurora.  I sent pictures of them to my mother-in-law with a 'very subtle' hint that I'd like them for Christmas and that they were on clearance 😀

Finally, I received a very generous gift from Keiley at Keebles World.  She got me a HAED!

This is After the Ball and I love it because not only is Cinderella a brunette with blue eyes (like me) but she's so pretty and has such a wistful look in her eyes.  I also like that it's not a blatant in-your-face fairy tale picture (although I like those too).

Whew that's a lot!  I'm still catching up on blogs but I'm only about a week behind now instead of over a month.  I haven't been reading a lot lately because I've been too busy stitching but I'm okay with that!

After the new year I won't be stitching much because I'll be starting student teaching which is going to eat up almost all of my time.  Luckily the school is less than ten minutes from me.  I'm hopefully going to have one day a week that I won't do any planning or anything and can just stitch but we'll see how things go.

Thanks for stopping by!  I probably won't be back (well depends on how Raven goes) so if I don't see you again have a Merry Christmas or happy whatever holiday you celebrate!  We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at my house.  I'll see you (hopefully) before the new year!

It's Christmas Time!

Hi everyone I'm back with another faithful update! And another new start! I didn't get any more done on Hocus Pocus because I've been feeling in more of a Christmas mood so I started Santa in the Clouds by Tilton Crafts. I'm doing this one on 28ct evenweave using pin stitch to start and finish and tenting.

Here's what the picture will look like:

And here's my progress so far:

Second color:

I'm really surprised at how dark the colors are. The picture looks a lot lighter but I'm trusting the pattern and I'm sure it'll be beautiful :)

not much else to report other than that I've finished my observation hours so now I just have to wait on finding my placement for student teaching in January.

I'll probably stick with Santa for the time being as I won't have much stitchy time and I'm liking this one so far. I'm going to try to get the Christmas star done before the end of the year. I realized I work much better with a deadline, even when I'm not too strict with it. I'm still catching up on blogs and probably will be for several weeks.

Oh oh I almost forgot! I was the featured blog in Cross Stitch Collection magazine so keep an eye out in the December issue ;)

Thsnks for stopping by I'll see you all next time!

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!