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!

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!

I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm | Cross Stitch

I'm absolutely one of those stitchers who stitches Christmas all year round.  I don't have too many winter-themed pieces, however, so I've been starting to stock up on those.  I want to remain festive after Christmas, but don't necessarily need to keep all my Christmas pieces out through February.

Although, I have been known to keep my Christmas tree up at work year-round...

Ahem.

I don't remember where I saw this graph, but I fell in love with it and had to have it.  It's a Heartstring Samplery graph, and was modeled after traditional Blackwork embroidery.  The stitched model is done in black with red hearts, but I chose to make it softer for winter, and used dark blue and a rosey color instead.

I stitched this on 40 count Pewter from Picture This Plus, which was perfection for this piece.  The graph calls for WDW threads, but since I went with different colors, I decided to use NPI silks instead.  Silks are glorious to work with (albeit expensive! so they're a treat), and these particular colors turned out fabulous on this fabric.

Some of these patterns have such intricate details, almost like lace, that it took much longer to stitch than I anticipated.

Worth all the work, however.  I love this piece, and can't wait to have it framed.

I hope you guys have a great weekend, and are staying safe and warm! 

Mychal's Prayer | Cross Stitch

Hello!  Happy Thursday! Man, what a state we're all in, huh?  I've been teleworking for what feels like decades.  Although I am fortunate in that I have the ability to work from home, it has absolutely taken its toll.  There's something to be said for getting up and going to work each day.   This is an entirely different kind of exhaustion.

Anyways...onto more fun things, like stitching!  I chose to start (and finish!) Mychal's Prayer from Silver Creek Samplers a couple weeks ago, since I was in a patriotic mood.  I took out my remaining piece of 32 ct PtP Heroic and got to work.  I used all the called-for threads - of which, you'll need 2 skeins of Ruby Slippers and 2 skeins of Picket Fence, if you choose to stitch this using the overdyed threads.  I used what was in my stash first, but quickly ran out since I didn't have a full skein of either, and had to place an order with my LNS for additional thread.  So, to be on the safe side, I recommend getting two of each, just in case..

I love this angel - she reminds me of the Jim Shore angels.

I also love how the words alternate between red and white, as the stripes on the American flag, with the blue square in the corner.  And Sam the Eagle!

This was a cool piece to stitch, and took me longer than I anticipated.  I'm glad I got this one - I would pick it up almost every time I was in my LNS, and finally one day, I just bought it.  

The designer's inspiration for this sampler was a prayer said by Father Mychal, a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest.  Here is what the designer wrote regarding Father Mychal:

    "Mychal Judge (11 May 1933 - 11 September 2001) was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department.  While serving in that capacity, he was killed, becoming the first certified fatality of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  The inspiration for this sampler came from a prayer said by Father Mychal: 'Lord, take me where you want me to go, let me meet who you want me to meet, tell me what to say, and keep me out of your way.' "

Stay safe out there, friends.  I think we're in this quarantine mode for a long time to go yet...

Miss Christmas Eve | Cross Stitch

You all know by now how much I love stitching Mirabilia pieces.  I love them.  The detail is incredible, and they never disappoint. 

As usual, when I start a Mirabilia piece, it's hard to put down.  I swore I wouldn't start anything new (HAHAHA) until I was done at least one piece, but last March (I honestly can't believe it's been a year since I started this piece), I couldn't stand it any longer and had to start Miss Christmas Eve.  I hoped to be done by this Christmas (no easy feat when you have 6 or 7 projects going at once....all the time....), and actually met that goal!  I only now just got around to posting her in all her glory.

The greens that make up the evergreens in her dress (like a Christmas tree!) drove me a bit batty.  It took me a while to see the difference in the reds and realize that they were giant bows.  I felt like I was in that Seinfeld episode where they're all talking about those illusion pictures (remember those?  back in the 90's?!), and everyone saw them....except Elaine's boss, Mr. Pitt.  Drove him nuts.

Then, all of the sudden, I saw the reds as huge bows and now I get it. 

As usual, the beading makes this piece, along with the straight stitches around her face and on her gloves.  I think my favorites to put on were the gold beads.  They were squared off rather than round, and they were the perfect shiny gold.  I didn't care for the bugle beads.  They don't lay right (I didn't like them much in Snow Queen, either, quite frankly...), so they end up looking all crooked, like I wasn't paying attention as I stitched them on.  Ugh.

Unfortunately, what you can't really tell from these pics, is that the fabric is a crystal fabric.  I stitched this on 32 count Crystal Legacy by Picture this Plus.  I love using the crystal fabrics for winter and Christmas pieces.  It gives the piece that extra oomph :-).

I haven't decided which Mirabilia will be my next...I have quite a few in my stash to choose from...and I'm already itching to start another.  Maybe I'll do one of the Red Ladies...or possibly the Dressmaker's Daughter....

I hope you're all staying healthy, and may our needles and thread (or other creative ventures!) keep our anxieties at bay through this tumultuous time.  May a vaccine be found quickly for this crazy virus!

I'd love to hear what you're all working on, whatever creative thing it is.  Be it reading, painting, embroidery, quilting, you name it! 

 

Snow Queen | Cross Stitch

Holy Heatwave, Batman.  Did you guys cool off yet?  Good Lord it was hot this weekend.  I like summer, but not when you could legit cut the humidity with a carving knife.  It's too much.  I was dehydrated yesterday morning at 7am, and all I did was sleep.  All of this means it’s only appropriate that I post my most recent finish to help us think of cooler temps (which should be here tomorrow): Snow Queen. 

I actually finished her last year, but only recently took her to be framed. 

I’m not a huge fan of matting, so most of my pieces are framed without it. I felt that this piece needed to stand alone without anything detracting from the fabric or the piece itself.  I may change my mind in the future, depending on the piece, but for now, I'm sticking with mat-less frames.

Let's start with the fabric.  Could you die?!  I stitched her on 32 ct Mystic by Picture this Plus, and it is so incredibly perfect.  The called-for fabric was too light - you could barely see her hair and the lovely purples.  This?  This makes them all just jump out.  Plus, since it's got the purple dye in the dark blue, it pulls out the purples in the sash.

How about her reindeer?  Omg.  He's heavily adorned, to include large teardrop gems that fall from his reins.  Can you even?!

And then there are the beads all over her and her dress.  The snowflakes were a bit of a pain - it was tough to get all those bugle beads to sit right, but in the end, worth it.

The frame is a bit tough to see, but it's a creamy white, with a small silver inside edge.  Perfection.

This piece was, by far, one of my favorites to stitch. The dark fabric took a little getting used to, but once I got going, it was easy to work on.  As always, I encourage you all to use different fabric, and even change some (or all!) of the threads, if you're just not liking what's showing on the model picture (see my Skeleton Crew for some inspiration on switching out both fabric and threads :-)).  I will say that to date, I think this is probably the best fabric switch I've made.

Also, huge shout out to my LNS, In Stitches, for their framing services.  It turned out gorgeous, ladies!  Thank you again!

*This post was updated on 18 March 2020 to reflect the actual PtP fabric used.

 

 

Patriotic Poppies | Cross Stitch

Well, it's been a minute since I got it together and posted something, so without going into alllllll the gory details of why these past six months have literally flown past my eyeballs, I'll just dive right into my latest finish.

Patriotic Poppies!

I've been holding onto this pattern for a long time now, and finally decided to just do it.  I have a few WIPs (but, i mean, for real, who doesn't...), and despite them all, I got this out after the new year and went to work.

I stitched this on 40 count Alchemy by Picture this Plus.  It's the perfect blue-grey to bring out the lovely shades of red, white, and blue of this piece.  I used all the called-for threads, with the exception of WDW Caper in one spot:  the sheep.  I thought it was inappropriate for him to have a green nose and legs (maybe older dye lots of Caper were more brown than green?), so I switched it out for GA Muddy Puddle.  Much better.  The graph also calls for you to make little wool felt poppies for I think two or three of the flowers (pattern to trace is included), but....I didn't really like that idea, so I took one of the reds used for the stitched poppies and instead stitched them in where the felt ones were supposed to go.  You'd never know ;-)

I've been on a bit of a patriotic kick lately - the more recent graphs I've purchased have pretty much all been patriotic ones - so I'll likely be posting more USA pride here in the next few months as I get working on them!  

Christmastime is Here and Gone.

I swear it was last week that I was down in New Orleans, taking a billion pictures of gorgeous houses draped in Spanish moss in the Garden District.

No, really.

Yet, here we are, spring is in the air, and Ash Wednesday is next week.  Time flies, my friends.

So, how are all of you?  I've missed you!  I haven't gotten much stitching done, or really anything done, really.  Oh!  I have done a lot of reading, though.  So many books, so little time.  There've been a couple that I started and just couldn't get through.  Two of them were ones that the whole world seems to be raving about, yet I just could not get into them.  The Summer Before the War and All the Brave are Forgiven.  I love period pieces, but these....I just couldn't do it.  Right now, I'm reading The Nix.  Has anyone else read this?  So far, I'm liking it, although the pace is a little slow.  Tana French's new book came out a couple months ago, so I gotta make sure to read that soon, too.  

Anyways.  I have been stitching, despite not finishing much.  Not long before Christmas, I finished "Coffee Saves Lives."  I loved loved loved stitching this piece.  I love coffee (duh), and the coffee theme plus the coffee-colored threads?  Totally in love.  And the next in the series is coming out at the Nashville Market!  I cannot wait to get my hands on it!!

The sass with the coffee cup!  Get it, girlfriend.

I stitched this on 40 ct. Purely Primitive.  If you stitch this, I highly recommend getting two skeins of Pecan Pie and Cocoa.  The graph does not designate how many skeins you need of each, but since I just went through this debacle, save yourself the aggravation and a separate trip to your LNS (although, is that really all that bad?! I mean...I ended up with a new Plum Street Samplers graph....so.....) and get two the first go-around.  If you stitch this on larger count, I would venture to say you'll need three of each Pecan Pie and Cocoa.

Next up, "Snow Queen".  

The model is stitched on a light greyish blue, but as always, I can't do that.  I can't just use what is in the picture.  I did a thread pull at the shop, and chose Picture This Plus "Dusk". 

Oh my God.

Look at the way those colors just jump off the fabric!!!  I can't.

There is a dark grey that is tough to see up agains that dark blue, but for the most part, it's just an outline, or it's surrounded by beads and lighter colored threads, so I decided that foregoing this fabric just because you couldn't really see that grey was ridiculous.

I mean, look at those purples!  Stop yourself.

I've also been spending a considerable amount of time ripping out two blocks of my Shores at Hawk Run Hollow and re-stitching them, but I'll update when I actually start a new block.  That effort has been killing me, because it's all due to being ONE ROW OFF on the lighthouse in Block One.  You have NO idea how angry I was at myself when I figured that out, and subsequently how long it took me to actually pull out that project again to start fixing it.  (sigh)

Anyhooter.  I've missed you guys.  I need to figure out a better blogging schedule than once every six or eight months.  I may need to get planner pages and write it all out, but I will make this happen. Promise.

Raven Queen in All Her Glory.

This piece is, by far, one of my absolute favorites that I've stitched.  I've done a lot of cool pieces over the years, but since this one looks so much like Maleficent, my all-time favorite Disney villainess, Raven Queen ranks high on the list.

This dress.  If it wouldn't cost me my vital organs on the black market, I'd commission this for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball this year.  Because, OMG.  Those greens are insane against the black.

And these beads!

Freakin' awesome, amiright??

I stitched this on 32 count Picture This Plus "Storm", which I think really provides a great contrast for the black and the greyish-purples of the castle in the background.  I was afraid it would be too close of a match to the greys in the stone wall, but it ended up being perfect.

I want that necklace and earring set.  Just sayin'.

Building Castles.

I've been spending a ton of time feverishly stitching Raven Queen.  She's at the point where, even though there is still a good amount left to stitch, I feel like I'm so close to the finish line, I can see it.

I'm also terrified if I start another project, the three I currently have going at the moment will be neglected.  And trust me when I tell you, I have sooo  many that I want to start...

This weekend, since I had to take it easy after my first cervical spine adjustment at my new chiropractor, I spent a lot of time stitching.  In that time, I built the castle in the background of the queen.  The silks are gorgeous, and, as always, perfect.  

As I stitched the castle, in my head I kept repeating the line from the Paul McCartney song, Beautiful Night, "Some folks got a vision/of a castle in the sky/and I'm left stranded/wondrin' why."  Have you heard that song?  It's on his Flaming Pie album.  If you're a fan of Sir Paul, you'd like that album.  He was definitely the yin to John's yang when they wrote for The Beatles.  But I digress...

How gorgeous are those silks used for the castle??!?  This is definitely one of those situations where you need to take the plunge and get the silks.  The DMC conversion wouldn't do it justice.  The teals and purples in her dress is also a silk.  Gorgeous.

The skirt on this dress!  I can't even. 

I wonder if I can find someone to commission this dress for me for the USMC ball this year....and not have it cost me my first born......

Wishing you all a wonderful Monday and peaceful nights to curl up and stitch :-)