Christmas Stitching...well it's red and green at any rate

I am resisting the many urges to begin a Christmas sampler. I have stacks of Christmas designs, mostly Blackbird Designs, that I would love to begin. But I am anxious to finish something sometime soon. At any rate, the reds and greens of Ms. Rambo are satisfying to stitch this time of year.

Goals are my downfall, but I keep toying with the idea of stitching Christmas designs all through 2012. That should last until about January 2.... :P

I hit the 1/2 price jackpot!!

I have made the tiniest bit of progress on Susan Rambo. I chose to use DMC 500, 501, and 3013 as the main greens.

Saturday, while visiting my grandmother's nursing home, we drove by a cross stitch store. I have not been in a cross stitch store in ages!! My mother had told me marvelous tales about the shop's 1/2 price bins, and they did not disappoint! I was thrilled to add to my Carriage House Samplings collection. Some of the charts I had considered before - I loved them, but not in a full-priced kind of way. The lady and her husband who owned the shop were VERY kind, especially considering that I arrived 1 minute before they closed, had them drag out and then rejected all their 40-count fabric, and stayed for a LONG time. They closed up shop around me, and I do not exaggerate when I tell you their keys were in the door as I left! It was a very nice treat!

I Cross-Stitched!

Yes, I am amazed too! I don't even want to do the math to figure out when I stitched last.

This week we are HOME, and I plan on stitching some more this afternoon.

This is Susan Rambo from SANQ. For some reason or other, I decided to change around some of the colors. I obviously thought I would recognize the colors months later so I did not jot down my changes. Argh. I'm not even sure I like the changes I made, but I am not picking anything out!!

I'm going to heat up my coffee, watch Mapp & Lucia on Netflix, and get stitching!

Seeing Red

I finished this french marking sampler from the Summer 2011 S&ANQ while I was avoiding Ann Pennsylvania Peacock. I used DMC 3831 and 356.

I think I finally found a pretty good match for the sampler thread on Ann's dress. It still stresses me though. Look at the warped band on the house. I can't decide whether it bothers me enough to actually rip it out and restitch it though!

My Name is Michele; I am a Compulsive Starter.

I am almost finished with "Sarah Harriet Stephenson" from SANQ. So what's a girl to do? I started two new projects. I think I have a problem.....

Forget counting sheep and drinking milk! I like to look through a few older issues of SANQ as I prepare to drift off to sleep. Of course, then I want to start all the samplers I see, and I stay up way too late. *yawn* The above design is "Isabella Johnstone Sampler." I don't know why I find this sampler so appealing, I mean, I don't ever remember wanting to stitch a big red cow in the middle of a band sampler before...

I also started the "Scottish Companion Sampler" from an older edition of the digital magazine, "The Gift of Stitching." The colors are much softer than they appeared in the picture in the magazine; the main green was so soft that it was really more of a soft gray. I changed it to a sampler thread I had on hand, but I am waiting to see how the other colors play out. Late last night, I realized that I left a row out of the little peacock's neck. If I were stitching with good old DMC, I would pick the stitches out. Overdyed threads are just too expensive to pick out, as well as too much trouble to put in. So I think I will be okay with little ewok-peacocks!

In other new, Buttercup's hair has gotten really long and sparkly. ;)

How Ratty Neat Are Your Stitches?

I have had a bit of trouble with Miss Sarah Harriet Stephenson. I fell in love with the look of the sampler as photographed, but the charted colors are very different in some cases. I was so excited to stitch with DMC 505! I had never seen this color before. Beautiful as it is, it looks nothing like the photo. I have seen other photos online that do seem to match 505, but I fell in love with the cover photo! So there has been a lot of this...

I love the bright yellow and green fill for the leaves, but I cannot seem to make the stitches look neat when I use light and bright colors. I know to use a short thread, let it unwind, and "railroad," but it still looks lumpy. What are your best tips for non-lumpy, non-ratty stitching?

Get Ready to Drool...

My husband ran his first triathlon this morning. He was #58 out of 856 participants!

While he was running, I was spending time with my adorable nieces and planning a mad dash into my LNS. It is not "local" enough to go very often, but I am so thankful to have one within driving distance. I crashed the Saturday stitch-in at The Stitch Store. While the owner, Terri, was leading the gift game, this lovely lady was cutting my fabric. When I mentioned that I was taking a few pictures for my blog, she introduced herself to me as DaisyGirl!

Terri herself.

I did not have nearly enough time to browse the wonderful selection, and I had my children coming in to use the restroom and tell me to hurry because, "Daddy doesn't look happy."

I picked up two Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly issues that Terri had ordered for me.

Doesn't the cover design look like it would fit perfectly with a Jane Austen theme?

I have decided to start stitching this tonight. I need a little break from "Mary, Queen of Scots," and I think this will look great on my red & green/Scottish sampler wall.
I might have swiped this BBD pattern and threads from my mom...I got the fabric for it today. I would love to finish it this summer.

Well, I need to go get stitching! I hope Brit Coms will be on this evening!