July Activity

I really was planning on writing every week since it was summer.  But the best laid plans of mice and men....  I didn't get to do what I wanted.  So here is what I did all summer.  I worked on the last plastic canvas seasonal stickup.  Bridget had cut the guy out for me but I hadn't finished him.  So, I worked on him and finished him on July 4th at almost midnight.  I think he turned out pretty cute.  I used the smaller version and a couple of pictures online to create the one I stitched.  You can't see but the entire back of the guy was stitched in blue.  Then I put two yellow Rhode stitches for the buttons.  I was thinking that Uncle Sam usually has on a coat with tails, so I stitched it that way.  That same weekend, I put the spots on Theron's Yoshi egg.  I thought he wanted light blue but he choose royal blue instead.   Now I need to crochet his Yoshi amigurumi.  The first full week of July I participated in Vacation Bible School.  We had a great time.  Only a total of 10 children showed for the week with 6 coming every day.  Our theme was "Mighty Kingdom".  The kids had a great time painting, gluing and putting stickers on things. 

As for my crafting and stitching I worked a lot on stitching and some on crocheting.  First up is my Rose of Sharon.  The progress you see is from June.  I was at Jennifer's house early in the month stitching on it. As you can see, I was working one color at a time (which is kind of difficult for this pattern).  The lower front section of the dress that is a few rows, I had to take out and put back in.  Because this is such a color changing pattern, I made a copy of the chart to highlight my progress.  Well, I decided to try to fill in the areas rather than run one color down the full length of the pattern.  So, I was highlighting my progress on this pattern when I dropped my bright pink highlighter on the dress.  I had to pull out a small section of thread.  Then, use a Tide pen on the fabric to remove the color.  And, finally restitch the area.  I was so upset, I almost threw it away.  I didn't but I can still see the slight pink area on the dress.  My friends say that they can't see it.  I hope they are right.

Next up is the Tiramisu.  I am behind again.  In June, I finished April and May's band.  I still have to finish June and July's band.  June's band has two colors and is about as wide as May's band.  July's band is a single color and about the size of the second band.  August starts tomorrow so I need to get busy.  I love blackwork; it is very easy to stitch but you have to follow the pattern carefully.  I chose to stitch it using several shades of one color, orange.  I signed up for this class though EGA twice but didn't get enough finished to turn it in to be evaluated.  Now I hope to finish it by December.   I look at the pattern and think man this is going to be hard and a lot of work.  But, when I start, the stitching goes really fast.  I just have to make myself sit down and work on it.  I think I will work on this today.


As you know from my previous post, my mother had found several projects that she started but hadn't finished.  I started with the ones that were nearly finished.  So here they are.  One was the Hip Hop pattern and the others were seasonal kitchen towels.  The Hip Hop pattern, Mom had stitched the letters A through N and part of the rabbit.  I finished it quickly once I figured out where I made my mistake.  She is very happy with the results.  She had me put both of our initials on the fabric. The first towel was the gingerbread people.  My mother was stitching it for my sister Bridget.  The gingerbread people were nearly finished.  I finished them and the border.  The jingle bells towel I'm not sure is finished.  I finished outlining the words but we couldn't find the pattern.  The Thanksgiving towel, I finished the border, added the g on the end, and outlined the words.  My mom gave Bridget her towel and put the other two away.




 




    

As you know, my sisters, Jennifer and Bridget, our friend Theresa, and I attended the stitching retreat at Silver Needle.   We drove up to Tulsa for the weekend (a 11 - 12 hour trip).  The week before I had gotten my contacts and tried to wear them.  I burned my eyes with the cleaning solution (I didn't realize that you were suppose to wait after using the solution before putting them in your eyes).  My eyes were horrible.  I had to wear sunglasses all the time and when I walked the wind hurt my eyes.  They are better now but still slightly light sensitive.  Anyway, Jennifer help me finish the JABC pumpkin with our buttons on it so we could display it on our table.  It turned out adorable.  Sharon from Chicago (she sat with us this year and last year) said that it made her want to finish her pattern the same way.

While we were at the retreat we had a great time meeting Amy Bruecken and Miranda Weeks.  Even though I am allergic to wool, I had a great time dying the wool and making the project.  While stitching, the girls and I played a sort or game.  We all brought 10 projects along to stitch on.  Every hour we would draw a chip out of cup.  The chips were numbered 1 to 10 or 3 chips had words on them.  The words were "seriously" which meant the person who drew the chip picked the project, "awesome" which meant take a snack break, and "yeah yeah" which meant shopping for an hour.  When you look at what I brought, it doesn't look like I stitched a whole lot but I did a lot of the borders on all of the projects.  Well one of the projects that I brought was one of my mother's.  She had completed the red part of the apple and the leaf at the bottom.  I put in the white spots on the apple and the two leaves at the top.  I didn't finish it at the retreat but the Monday after we returned home I did.

Last but not least, my friend Sharon from Louisiana came to visit this week.  She drove up Monday and stayed until Wednesday. We had a great time. I gave her the grand tour of Sumrall (15 minutes) - Monday Night and of Hattiesburg - most of the day Tuesday.  For lunch, she didn't want to go to any fancy or expensive restaurant; so I took her to Glory Bound.  We had the trio appetizer (we chose chipotle lime, sundried tomato pesto, and original humus) and the surf 'n turf gyro.  It was delicious.  At night we sat around looking through her patterns and talking.  She has recently moved and wanted to deplete her stash.  So I, being the craft hoarder that I am, accepted everything she didn't want.  We also stitched and I tried arm knitting.  Arm knitting is really easy to do.  I knitted this scarf in about 40 minutes.  The scarf was for my friend Liz.  I told her if she didn't like it that I would take it out an crochet her a scarf.  She didn't like it; the hole were too big.  She said that she would get caught in it.  I agreed.  I really didn't like the scarf but I love the shawl pattern and the cowl pattern.  So I will take this apart and crochet her a scarf.  Then I going to buy the yarn and arm knit myself the shawl and cowl.

Now that I have bent your ear (or strained your eyes) long enough, I will say adios.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Sharon

Plastic Canvas complete (well almost)

Welcome.  I finally finished all of my plastic canvas (well almost all) on February 10th.  First up is the Reindeer.  I finished him on the 6th.  He is very cute but has a funny nose.

Large Santa

On Sunday the 9th, we had two birthday parties.  My nephew Tyler who is 4+1 (5 but not 5) had a present opening party.  (He doesn't want to turn 5 because he doesn't want to go to school).  Then our friend Theresa had a stitching party for my sister Jennifer's birthday.  At the party, I finished the big Santa, the small snowman, the pilgrim, and the angel.  Then I realized that I didn't have a small Santa.  So, I created my own small Santa using others (like the witch and leprechaun) as my guide.  On Monday, I colored the fabric covered wire black and made all of the smiles.  The almost part is I need to get an orange marker to color the fabric to make the smiles & whiskers for the cat and the spider.  Also, I am waiting on Bridget to finish cutting out the Uncle Sam so I can stitch it.

The Snowman, Pilgrim, & my Santa

all of the Holiday Magnets

Ink Circles Celtic Mystery Stitch-a-long
DMC Floss on

Since all of the current projects were finished, I pulled out another project from the box.  And the winner is ... Ink Circles Celtic Mystery Stitch-a-long.  I actually started this project in March 2008 (when they release the first piece).  But, I didn't get very far.  When I picked it up this time it looked like the picture here.  Well, I worked on it all week last week and this weekend.  Then I spent all of Sunday and Monday pulling out what I had put in for the upper right hand corner.  I started stitching on it last night and redid all that I had pulled out.  I will post again on Saturday what I have completed then.  Also, I am still working on squares that are for Michelle's afghan.  My sister-in-law, Katie, helped me figure out the Fisherman's Ring Square so I will work on it this week.  Tonight "we bowl".  So I am going to work on the granny squares.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed the visit.

Sharon

Bent Creek's Summer Snapperland Complete!

I really enjoy cross-stitching patterns like Bent Creek Summer Snapperland.  The patterns contain a theme and are easy to stitch.  I have stitched several series like this one.  I have completed Bent Creek's Red Thread Series, the winter snapperland and Snapperville.  I generally use hand-dyed fabric but regular DMC floss.  Sometimes I use the recommended specialty thread, if there is a large piece to cross stitch.


As for my project, I pulled out the parts of Mario that I have started.  I had completed both hands and the mustache.  I had part of the hat, part of the head, and part of the body started.  On Tuesday, I started working on Mario.  I thought about taking it to bowling because last week at bowling, when I crocheted I bowled well (134) for me.  When I was playing games on my cellphone, I did horribly (90).  I didn't take him though, rather I crocheted squares for Michelle's afghan.  I finished crocheting all of the pieces on Saturday and started putting Mario together.  I lost the mustache and his hair.  After I attached the newly crocheted mustache, I found the old one in the trash.  How it got there I do not know.  I still haven't found the hair.

So here is the almost finished version.  I need to attach the eyes.  But I need to buy some at Hobby Lobby.   Look at him, he turned out cute!  Tomorrow I will get some eyes for him, then completely finish him.  I left him for Patrick at MawMaw's.





The next cross stitch project that I am going to work on is the Ink Circles Celtic Mystery Stitch-a-long from 2008- 2009.  I really like this series, the bold and bright colors.  The geometric shapes.  It appeals to the mathematician in me.  I don't know why it has taken me so long to finish it, but this year is the year.  I will spend an hour each day working on this and the rest of the evening on the next project from the box.  I hope to finish it soon.   Here is a picture of what I have completed so far.





Once I finished Mario, I pulled out another project from the box.  I am to complete the Holiday Stick-Ups.  They are plastic canvas holiday characters.  There are 8 characters: Love Bug, Leprechaun, Easter Duck, Easter Bunny, Witch, Turkey, Reindeer,& Santa.  I have completed the Love Bug, Witch, and Turkey already.  Today I have been cutting out the pieces for the rest of the characters while playing Wii U Mario with Theron and Skylander Swap Force with Leif.  I hope to finish them this week (Week #4).  These are fun to stitch since you only have to do half cross-stitches.  To the left is a picture of one of the characters I have completed.


Well got to go.  I need to go to play Skylander Swap Force with Leif.  He is getting between me and the computer to talk.  Thanks for stopping by.

Sharon

Beware! Genius at work?!?

I am so mad at myself right now. I was transferring my pictures from my camera to my laptop and lost over 70 pictures. Most of which were pictures of my nephew Leif's first birthday. Well it is not like the "Clarkarazzi" didn't take a bazillion pictures. But, I deleted all the pictures I took this month. With my mom's digital camera, you connect it to the computer with a wire then move the pictures to the computer then delete the pictures. With my camera, you take out the memory card and put it into the computer then move the pictures. Well I moved the pictures from one folder then deleted it. The problem is when I deleted that folder the computer deleted all the folders on the memory card. Darn it!!! I tried to undo and all it did was put the photos I moved back on the card. I'm waiting on my brother Pete to call me back to see if there is a way to restore the pictures.

On a lighter note, I completed a couple of things. The first one was the next installment in the Kick Back and Stitch Geometric Club. The name of it is Forest Glen. It didn't take long to finish it, but I didn't stitch much the last couple of weeks. I have 5 more to go but since it snowed I chose to start the Snow Day pattern next. (I skipped one pattern.) I will be glad to finish this club and start back on my Halloween Pudgy club. I have eight panels to stitch and have only stitched 1/2 of one. I hope to finish stitching and have it put together before Halloween this year.


The second thing I finished was a plastic canvas love bug. I finished it on the 13th right before Valentine's Day. I have two pattern books that are seasonal. The first one was given to me by my friend Lorrie. The patterns are suppose to be window hanging with suction cups on the front, but I put magnets on the back to hang them on the refrigerator. The second book is actually designed to be magnets. They are smaller and egg shaped. I had already completed the lovebug years ago. I designed the Mardi Gras egg based on the candy corn egg. But, as you can see my nephew Theron got a hold of it and made it pretty. Actually there were Mardi Gras coins glued to the egg where the garland is missing but he removed them to play with them. I have to fix it.

I have stitched the face and started the arms on the Rose of Sharon pattern. I ran out of "Dark Chocolate" before finishing the border on my Red Thread series. So I started stitching the words in Gentle Arts "Cranberry".

Thanks for stopping by

Sharon