Coffee and Cross Stitch

Bewitching Pixies | Cross Stitch

Summer is holding on for dear life as we round out August here in VA.  It hit 100 degrees the other day and I about melted walking to my car from work.  Quite honestly, I can't believe this is the final few days of August already.  Where has the time gone this year?! Literally everyone I talk to, particularly at work, cannot believe the year has completely flown by.

The heat had me contemplating fall, and even though I'm already working on Autumn at Hawk Run, I wanted to do something that wouldn't take me decades to finish.  Let's be honest, the Hawk Run series is incredible, but those blocks take an insane amount of time to finish.  So, I decided to pull out one of the Bewitching Pixies by Nora Corbett.  This one is called Witching Hour.

I was drawn to it because of the purples, the books, and, of course, the black kitty that she has as a steadfast friend.  

How do I know they're friends?  The kitty is guarding her book stack.

I think, too, that the bottom of her dress reminded me of Morticia Addams' dress in the old tv show and I used to love that show.  

Also!  I had a swatch of Picture This Plus Haunted leftover from when I did Skeleton Crew, and clearly it was perfect for this piece.  The model was stitched on a creamy color, which made the owl blend in and almost disappear.  This fabric allows you to see all the colors and is a much better compliment than a lighter color.

I need to stretch the piece a bit so the beads lay in straighter lines, but for now, she's done.  

Stay cool out there, friends!  Soon it will be time for sweaters and heavy blankets and I'll be dreaming of this warm weather!! 

Happy stitching!

Halloween Fun | Cross Stitch

Good morning, fellow stitchers!  I felt the need to write "good morrow" as if I was in merry ol' England, but then didn't, because I'm confident at least one of you would question my lingering sanity, so that's where we're at today.

Aaaanyhooter.  Here we are, a week after Halloween, which is the time of year when you sneeze and it's Christmas Eve.  I feel like I just put out the fall decorations, and it's going to be time to pull out all the red and green and gold and decorate the treeeeee!  I. Love. Christmas.

But! Before I start showing you what I've been stitching for Christmas, I managed to finish a Halloween piece that's been in my stash for literally almost 20 years.  Maybe 15. I don't know.  It's been a long time.  

This one was a kit from Pine Mountain, and is cute Halloween quilting fabric stitched with a square of 10 ct. stitching fabric for you to put a cute little Halloween design on (graph included) and then wrap it around a little pillow.

Sounds totes cute, amiright?

Well, yes.  Now that I'm done stitching it, it's adorable.  Do you want to know why it's been unfinished for a solid 15 years?  Because the stitching fabric made me BATTY.  Ha.  Batty, Halloween pattern.  Ahem.

It's crooked, first of all, which is a stitcher's nightmare.  Second, it's not graphed as a perfect square. So....it's taller than it is wide, and since the fabric is crooked I stitched and ripped it out three times (15 years!) before I finally just decided, screw it, it's gonna have to stay uneven because I just can't anymore.

But! Now that it's done, it's super cute and I need to dust off my sewing machine and make a cute little pillow to wrap this around.  Hopefully before Halloween of next year.  Because, goals.

I hopped online to see if these kits are still available in case any of you wanted to stitch this, but didn't see any.  There are others available from Pine Mountain from online shops, so perhaps if you pull out your Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe and do some sleuthing, you'll come across one that needs a home!

Happy stitching, friends!

 

Summer is Here! | Cross Stitch

Hello, friends! Our weather went from cold and rainy straight to the heat and humidity of July, all in a matter of days.  And it's not even Memorial Day!  Perfect to sit inside where it's a smidge cooler and catch up on some stitching.

What have you guys been working on?  I've seen so many gorgeous stitched pieces on the good ol' Instagram, from samplers to patriotic to Christmas.  I love seeing what everyone is working on, since much of it is so different from my own stitching style.  

The big piece I'm working on right now (since you all know by now I have at least one gigantic piece going at a time...sometimes two) is Dressmaker's Daughter.  I posted about it a while back, and honestly, didn't realize just how long I've been working on it - over a year!

I think the Winter dress is still my favorite (the first one on the left), but the colors in all of these dresses are just gorgeous.

I mean, those fall reds and oranges!  Could you die?!

I absolutely love these apples!  I can't wait to add the beads!

I'm on the final dress, which is Autumn.  I usually wait to go back and fill in the Caron silks after I do all the DMC stitching, but since there was so much in the background that was stitched with two of the silks, I decided it was easier to stitch those first, then go back and fill in the background.

The best part is going back and filling in with the silks and, of course, the beads.  There are two Kreiniks in this piece, which I'm not excited for, but they always make a big different in the finished piece.  

The next few weeks will be busy, so we'll see how far I get on the background.  Hopefully, it won't take too long, especially now that I've become better at the sewing method! It makes all that solid stitching go SO much faster!

Happy stitching!

Dressmaker's Daughter | Cross Stitch

Well, here we are, folks.  Right smack in the holiday season.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I managed to find some time to stitch this past weekend, and finished up the second dress in Dressmaker's Daughter.

This is another gorgeous Mirabilia piece that's been in my stash for far too long, and so over the summer, I finally got some fabric for it and got to work.

The piece features four dresses, each one representing a season beginning with Winter.

That blue dress!  The fur trim!

I cannot wait to put the beads and treasures on this dress!  It'll be gorgeous!

Purple is my favorite color, but....I still think I like the blue "Winter" dress better.  Maybe it's the style?  Or the ruffles?  Not sure...although the shades of purple are to die.

The beads will be beautiful on this dress, too.  Two dresses down, two more to go!  "Summer" is up next!  I'm taking a short break from this one (it is...gigantic...and I need a sense of accomplishment...haha); I started a Prairie Schooler Santa on Sunday (Santa Sunday!), and may work a little on that for a bit before coming back and starting the next dress.

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season so far! May your cups of coffee, tea, and hot cocoa always be warm :)

Snowy Night | Cross Stitch

I used to stitch a lot of Mill Hill buttoned and beaded kits, mainly for gifts at Christmas.  I loved how the beads buttons would add so much life to the stitching, giving it an extra layer of beauty.

While I got away from them for a few years, I've recently picked up a few of their newer kits.  I stopped using the perforated paper, and instead use 32 ct fabric that I have on hand.  Luckily, for this wintery scene, I had a leftover piece of (what I think is) Dusk from PtP.  It was almost an exact match for the perforated paper that came with the kit!

I know we're all desperate for spring, warmer weather, and sunshine, so this winter scene probably makes most of you want to run for the hills.  I started this while it was still frigid out, and messed up BAD with the colors.  Since this is a kit, they give you all the thread, but they're not numbered.  I told myself I should go into my DMC stash and match the threads so I knew the difference between "very, very dark", "very dark", and "dark" blue.  But.....I didn't, and had almost half of this stitched before I realized my mistake.  I had to rip it all out and start over, this time, making the effort to match up the colors with my stash.

And that's my story about how I finished a winter piece in spring.

The beads always take longer than I anticipate.  I think because you have to stop at each half stitch and attach a bead, rather than just keep right on moving down the line with stitching.

Well worth the effort, though.

All of these are tiny beads, attached with a cross stitch so they lay upright on the fabric as opposed to on an angle.

Looking at this, I can almost hear the church bells in the background as the snow falls over the town, the moonlight glistening on the snow.  A quiet night with hot cocoa or tea warm in your mug as you settle in with stitching or a good book :)

I have a frame for this piece, so hopefully I can set aside some time to frame this prior to next winter.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Happy stitching!