Picture post!

I know, two posts from me in a month? What is this? I wanted to share some of my recent finishes. I focused on one project all summer, my Soul Music kit, but I got a couple other things done. Mostly smalls.

I finished this design earlier in the summer. It's by Falling Star Primitives. I want to make it into a pillow for Halloween, but I haven't found the right fabric. Everything in the colors I want doesn't match the prim feel of the piece and they don't make the more prim-y fabrics in the colors I want. I will keep looking:

 

I think I finished this in May. Miss Kitty's Dragons, by Just Nan:

This took a lot longer than it should have, but it was fiddly. At least I finished it without losing the charms. I think we all know this is a very real threat in my house, LOL. Not sure what I'll do with it. Does anyone else stitch stuff without a purpose for it? Other than to enjoy it?

And my masterpiece, Soul Music, by Dimensions:

I have had this kit forever. I think I bought it in 2004 or thereabouts. Everyone was posting it and I thought it was so beautiful. You don't see it so much anymore. I understand why. It's all tweeding and half stitches. Like 95% half stitches. I don't want to do half stitches for a while. It was for a stitch-a-long on Cross Stitch and Discuss on Facebook. If it had been whole stitches, I wouldn't have finished it so quickly, but then again, I might have been able to count better and not had to rip out so much. I will give Dimensions credit, they give plenty of floss.

I was also in another SAL, but didn't finish.  I was working on our wedding sampler. The wolf puppies were more important. I hope to pick up the sampler and work on it some in the next few weeks, but I'm not sure.

I have actually been kitting up a lot of things lately. I went through and found a bunch of projects that needed specialty floss and splurged one night at my LNS. I felt so decadent, LOL.  And then, a month or so ago, I decided to kit up a few projects with Sullivans. I have a love/hate relationship with that particular line of floss. I love the look it brings to prim pieces, because it doesn't have the same sheen that DMC has, it's more like the linen flosses they used to sell and I love it for things like Country Cottage, but I don't like that you just can't convert more complicated DMC to it. They may say you can, but I have made that mistake, and if there is shading involved, it doesn't work so well. Not to mention, only Hancock carries it, and the closest Hancock is disorganized and doesn't keep the floss stocked. On Someone Small's birthday, we drove to the one in Glen Burnie and picked up a bunch for some older charts. Going to see how this works out. I saw the special in JCS about a whole set of it for $99, and that seems like a good deal, but . . . . I have to see how this works out.

Friday night, I kitted up Michael Jolly's Little Women design. It was a PITA. I really get annoyed when charts don't list the floss in order.  It makes it such a joy to run back in forth in front of the DMC, trying to make sure I have the right floss. Especially with a toddler in the shopping cart. But I also picked up the stuff to do a reindeer pillow from Cross Stitch Christmas 2012 in my new favorite Christmas colorway, turquoise and true red, with rubbed bronze beads. It will be stunning. As I was driving home, I realized I didn't get much done out of the giant box of projects this year, and here I am kitting up more, but I think this is truly it for a while. At least I hope. I did kit up Noah's Sub, but I have determined I can not start it til I have 5 larger UFOs completed: Soul Music (now done), Santa's Pets (still plugging away), Sleepy Hollow (one more part to go), In My Daughter's Eyes (half done) and my Needle's Content floss tags (a set of 12, I've done 3.)  Those may be my 2016 focus pieces, but I'm not sure yet. They do need to be finished. I'm kind of tired of the house being full of large UFOs.

Anyone else starting to formulate their 2016 goals?

RIP Beazer

A sad post today.

On 1 August, we made the decision to let my sweet Caesar, known to the Internet and us as Beazer, cross the Rainbow Bridge. He had been fighting, gallantly and elegantly, hemangiosarcoma  since last October. We were told 6 weeks back then, and he gave us 10 months. It was a gift. I would have given anything for the chance to have that much time with any of the other pets I have lost, or my dad, but it doesn't make it any easier. I miss him. I was there when he left. He was as kind and loving and strong as he had ever been. Just hard to sit in a room with your dog and realize the only breathing in the room is yours. My daughter keeps asking when he is coming home. We told her he was in Heaven, but she didn't realize he couldn't come back. I told her she can wave to him, she just won't see him, but he's busy finding another dog for her to love and when it's time, he'll send him down to her. I probably say that more to myself than her. This is the first time since 1990 I haven't had a dog in the house I lived in, but I'm not ready for another yet.

Anyway . . . .


Since I have been laptop-less, I have been getting more adventurous in my social media. I joined Instagram for one thing. Still learning how it works, but it's phone friendly. My username is Rachel.spory (I know, exciting and unique, but it's hard to figure out who people are sometimes and my family is on there as well, so it's not hard to find me this way). If you're on Instagram, follow me!

I finished a major WIP the other day. I joined Cross Stitch and Discuss on Facebook and they host a lot of SALs.  I did a Dimensions one, since I have so many kits and need to start one or twenty. I chose Soul Music, a kit of wolf cubs howling. It was all tweeding and half stitches, but I managed to finish it in the time of the SAL. I will post a pic as quick as I can.

I'm still trying to figure out this laptop. It's funny how you get used to not having a real computer to use, and then, when given one, it's intimidating. But I'm trying to get back into it. It will just take a little time.