Coffee and Cross Stitch

American Panorama | Cross Stitch

I have a lot of patriotic graphs in my stash.  A lot.  This one I've been working on here and there as I completed other bigger projects, just to keep me sane, since I picked a larger count fabric to do this on.  

I love doing anything patriotic.  In fact, I just picked up another patriotic piece to stitch now that I'm done this one.

Gotta keep at least 4 projects going at the same time, or it's just not right in my stitching world.

This is American Panorama from Blue Ribbon Designs.

So cute, amiright?!

I love that sailboat with the teeny American flag!!

The sheep!  I die.

Can't have a patriotic piece without a bald eagle!!

I loved stitching this piece.  It was a relatively quick stitch, and it's so fun and full of Americana!  You could also stitch each one of the squares individually and make smalls, if you didn't want a long piece to frame.  Belinda includes finishing instructions if that is something you'd prefer to do rather than stitch them all as one.

I stitched this on 32 count Heroic from Picture This Plus fabrics.  It has the perfect balance of red and blue dyes streaking throughout to add to the whole patriotic-ness.

Now I just need to get it framed and find a place for it on my walls!

What are you all stitching this fantastic August weekend?!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Good Golly Miss Molly.  I had NO idea how much time had passed since my last post until just now when I sat down to write this one.

Atrocious.

Since I post to Instagram so often, I think I forget that I'm not actually creating posts here, even though I'm creating a photo diary of what I'm up to.

And it's been crazy, let me tell you.

I took a little time off from work, now that the insanity has died down, and was able to get a few things accomplished.  Not as much as I wanted (nor near as much as I had planned out in my imaginary planner), but I was able to get a few important things done.

Number 1: I FINALLY got myself a dining room table & chairs.  It's about GD time, right?!  I decided just to bite the bullet and get the table I wanted.  No one wants to spend that much money at one time, but, let's be serious, it's been over a year since I moved into this house, and I have yet to be able to eat a meal properly.  Or invite people over. Now I just have to wait for it to be delivered and I'm golden!  (Wait.  Maybe I should have kept my dining room empty....now people are going to want to visit me......)  

Number 2: I was able to finish the bridesmaid's mini-albums to give to the girls from my sister's wedding!!  Woop woop!  I can't wait to give them out, since they're each unique (they all have some pictures that are the same, but many are different and specific to that person) and relive that great day with them all!

This is a pic I posted to Instagram which has a sampling of the pics & pages I put into the second album.  Fun, right???  I had such a blast putting these together!

Number 3:  Since I finally finished the mini-albums, I was able to start on the big album that I'm making for my sister, which includes all of the pics that I used for each of the girls.  To clarify - each girl got some pics that are the same for all; then each girl got pics that are specific to her that the others didn't get.  Example: there's a pic of Mags & Hay that each of them have, but I don't, nor does E, but my sister does.  Make sense?!  Good.

And then there are specific pics of my sis at the shower, that none of us have.  We love you, Bean, but I don't need 900 pics of you opening your gifts.  Nor do the rest of the girls.  Nor do you, quite frankly, but I did give you some.... ;-)

Number 4:  I've done some serious stitching.  Like, serious stitching.  I finished these 4 little fun ornaments ---

 

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

Now I just have to do the finish work on them & hang them on my feather tree!! Yay!  All of these were stitched on 32 count Echo from Picture This Plus.  Echo, next to Haunted, is one of my FAVORITE fabrics to work with for Halloween pieces.  It's AWESOME.

I also started this fun piece -

 

The Town of Halloween by Primitive Hare

 

This is a super fun graph by Primitive Hare, and it's from the Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch.  It only has 2 colors -- black and a greenish-grey -- so it's easy and a quick stitch!  Love!

And lastly...
Number 5: I got out my Halloween decorations.  For some reason, I thought I had way more than I actually do, but that's ok.  All the more reason for me to hit the sales on 1 November so I have more stuff for next year ;-)

 

my mantle ;-)

 

I have two really fun Jim Shore pieces, seen on both ends, and some garland to go with my absolute all-time favorite fall candle -----

 

I LOVE THIS CANDLE

 

And that's all she wrote!!!!  I seriously don't know how this week flew by so quickly.  I guess all that stitching and scrapbooking took up more time than I thought!!

I hope you all have a wonderfully crafty fall weekend!  Do something creative this weekend!!! :-)

Much love ~~~~

Halloween Smalls | Cross stitch

Hello all!  I hope you had a glorious weekend!  It was absolutely beautiful here in Philly - the temps are definitely getting cooler, but that sun is still nice and warm during the day.

I took some time this weekend to do a little work on some Halloween smalls I want to put on a super cute feather tree I got at the Hallmark store on mega clearance.

One of my favorite designers for smalls is Blue Ribbon Designs.  A lot, if not all, of her designs can be stitched as one large piece, or broken into smalls for you to use as decorations.  Super adorbs.

The graph I chose for my Halloween smalls adventure this weekend is called Black Cats & Flying Bats, and has adorable motifs of which I chose four to make for my lil' feather tree. 

Here's the first one I finished stitching - 

Annnnddddd the second --

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen these babies as WIPs, and then as the final product.  I must've used a different filter for the one, because the fabric color looks a little different.  I used "Echo" from Picture this Plus, which I LOVE for Halloween project.  LOVE.  That and "Haunted".  Awesome sauce.

Now I just gotta finish the lil' haunted mansion one I'm working on, plus one more (i haven't decided which one i'll use as the fourth for this lil' series that i made), and then I'll do the finish work on them so I can hang them right up!  I'll be getting my Halloween decorations out very soon, so hopefully I'll have my act together enough to get this display done to put out with everything else!  HA.

Anyhooter.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!  Will you be decorating for Halloween soon, too...or are you so excited about fall & Halloween, you've already done all that????  Haha!!  

PS - don't forget  --- my giveaway is open till 19 Sept 12!  Be sure to enter!!  :-)

It feels a little fall-ish

Yesterday it really started to feel like fall here in the Philly area.  The air was crisp, but the sun was still beating warm rays through the big, puffy white clouds.

So what happens at my house when it begins to feel like fall?

I make gluten-free spice bread....

I brew a pot of coffee...

 

ohhh my this looks scrumptrulescent....

 

And I get to stitching.....

 

pattern by Blue Ribbon Designs

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait for my first mug of mulled cider...

Until then...go forth and be crafty....or bake something yummy ;-)

Much love ~~~

PS - don't forget to enter my giveaway! Head to the original post & leave a comment there to win!!  :-)

 

More from my KAF weekend getaway

Hello all!

I realized last night that I never downloaded the pics from  my camera that I took while tooling around VT & NH.

On Friday, with an entire day to scope out the area, I decided to head over to Woodstock (no, not that Woodstock) and go to this outdoor book fair they had going on all weekend.

Vintage and second-hand books?  Yes, please!  The town was not far - maybe about a 25 min ride from the inn.

 

I mean, honestly.  These old buildings are just gorgeous.

The above pic I took in the town library where they were having the rare book sale.  I thought it was super cool, espeically since it's crafty & such.  Here I am, 7 hours from home, and I find something done with mixed media in the least likely of places!  I don't even know what it was doing there!  Just chillin, I guess, on that bodyform.  Whatevs.  Cool, nonetheless ;-)

This, I think, was an inn.  Well, a large inn...but I think it was called the Woodstock Inn.  It's hidden behind those pretty trees, but you can still get an idea of how big it is.  And it was a beautiful building.  I felt so touristy taking pics in this quaint little town, so I tried not to whip out my camera too often, which is why this is the only pic of this building that I took.  

This is a little shop along the main street in Woodstock.  Suspended over the river.  So cool.  So peaceful.

This was just a little cafe that I walked past on my way to the local coffee shop, and I loved the flower boxes and the umbrella tables. 

That's all I have of lovely Woodstock, VT.  Oh, and Bookstock wasn't as thrilling as I wanted it to be.  I'd hoped to snag some Nancy Drew books in the original printed text, but I didn't see one Nancy Drew in any of the places they were having the book sale.  Oh well.  I'll just have to keep my eye out at antique shops & such.

After I was done with Woodstock, I decided to go to the Shaker Museum in Enfield, NH.  This was...interesting.  I don't really know what I expected when I went here, since I knew absolutely zero about the Shakers going into it, but I still figured I'd stop by since I wasn't far.

The surrounding area is beautiful - the museum is right on the river - and must be stunning in the fall when the leaves change.  I didn't take any pictures of the building, since you had to call ahead to ask permission to take pics, which i didn't know, so I just took the tour.  There are no longer Shakers there - in fact, there are only 3 remaining Shakers in the entire country, & they're in Maine - the property was sold to the La Salette order of Catholic missionaries, who owned it until the 1970's.  So, there's a beautiful Catholic chapel on the premesis, which is a far cry from the very plain Shaker building.  

Belinda Karls-Nace, of Blue Ribbon Designs, taught a cross stitch class here last fall, and designed a teaching piece specifically for this location.  To read more about her teaching experience (and I believe she was able to take some pretty great pics), go to her blog posts about it here and here.

That's it for today!  My little side trips through VT & NH before heading to my wonderful baking class at KAF!!!  

Have a wonderfully creative day everyone!!!!!

Much love ~~~

J :-)

A finish, a work in progress (WIP, if you will), and....FABRIC.

Hello to all you wonderful people out there in blogland!  I've been so incredibly busy with work lately, that I've struggled to find time to do anything other than sleep and eat.  BUT, last night, I took some time to sit and stitch...something I haven't done in quite some time.

So, without further delay, here is the latest Little House ornament that I finished stitching --

It's called "Bringing Home the Tree".  I think she is just adorable, and that doggie is beyond cute!!  She has a lil' pink collar and booties!!  I love it!  LOVE!  I just have to get some backing fabric for her, and find some time to sit at my sewing machine and finish her up.  I stitched her on 40 count Maple Sugar by Lakeside Linens.  I used this awesomely amazing lil' tool called the Stitch Starter by Blue Ribbon Designs.  Belinda, if you're reading this, I absolutely LOVE this instrument that you have created.  I cannot go anywhere without it.  

I have this up next to my stitched piece so you can see the size of it done on 40 count linen.  I know some of the ornaments out there can get a little big depending on what stitch count you use, so I figured I'd give you something to gauge how big this one actually turned out to be.  The "Baked Goods" one that I showed you all here a few days ago was also done on 40 count linen, and is the same stitch count, so it is the same size as this adorable little piece.  You must all run out and get a Stitch Starter!   I blogged about it previously here, and Belinda has since created another set of sleeves you can stitch for your starter, all holiday themed.  Love it love it love it.

My WIP is something I've been trying to get finished, but just seem to find other things to do instead...like the 1400 Christmas ornaments you've all been seeing.  However, this piece is totally cool, and I think it's turning out spooktacular....

This is "16 Men on a Dead Man's Ship" by Cricket Collection.  I love so many of her designs, including the seasons pieces of which I've finished Summer, Autumn, and Winter.  Spring is another WIP.  Check out older posts from my other blog to see the pics I posted over there of those finished pieces.  They turned out so great!  I'm still trying to decide if I want to finish them all as pillows, like I did for Summer, or if I want to frame the rest.  Decisions, decisions....

Now that I've shown you my WIP (how cool is that!), I have to show you this amazingly fun and fantastical fabric I found whilst visiting a quilting shop near me that I'd never been in before.  It's not far from my LNS, so one day when I had to pick up something those dear ladies were holding for me, I stopped in the quilt shop to take a peek.  

I went in with the intention of finding fabric to make a nook cover (which you can see a sneak peek of here). When I entered, they had adorable Halloween fabric on display in the front.  So...I naturally had to grab a quarter yard of two of those for my Halloween projects which are still in my stash...not yet stitched...

(ahem)movingon.......

So, I'm coming around one of the display tables, and I see that they have Christmas fabric.  Now, Christmas is my absolute favvvvorite time of year, but it always makes me somewhat crazy to see Christmas stuff on display in SEPTEMBER.  Can we have Halloween and Thanksgiving, Mr. Crazy-retailer-giant-who-won't-let-me-enjoy-fall-before-shoving-Christmas-down-my-throat???  Pretty please?!  With powdered sugar on top of my gingerbread snaps????  No?  Ok, well...I tried.

That said....I start looking at the Christmas fabric because I absolutely cannot control myself because of my love for Christmas, and I found THIS.....

OMG.  THE GRINCH.  Now, my sister will attest to the fact that I know every.single.word to that Christmas special.  Every one.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm forced to watch it alone these days because I recite the entire daggone thing without even realizing it.

Ok.  So.  Not only is the cover from Dr. Seuss's amazing book on this panel....but so are 10 OTHER images from the book!!  

OMG.  I have so many ideas running through my head for this fabric I can't even hardly stop myself.

Greatness, amiright??  Love this fabric.  LOVVVVVVVE.

Now, I did buy adorable other Christmas fabric with which I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I couldn't pass it up.  Sadly, it now pales in comparison to the awesomeness and excitement that The Grinch creates, but I'll share them with you, too --

Cute, right?  I love the little presents :-)  The marshmallow kabob looks deeelish.  Now I want some...haha!

On that delicious note, that's all the creative I have in me for the moment.  I'm hoping to get some more stitching in this weekend, since I'll be able to breathe again for a little while, so stay tuned for more creations!

Have a fabulous fall day, and do something creative today!!! :-)