Once Upon a Time.... there were Three Little Pigs

Just in time for the end of the month, I finished up the March block on Once Upon a Time Sampler. Yep, totally not what I usually stitch, yet I am really enjoying this one. I know it is going to be cute in my office sometime early next year. Not sure which of my three offices I will choose for it.... I had to run outside in the cold and take a pic in early AM daylight and then run back into the house. For some reason, the linen does not want to flatten. No interest in pressing it right now ;-) Anyhooooo, so glad I got to stitch the wolf on this block... totally did not want to stitch another cutesy princess this month :-)

Oh, and my orts so far, as of last night. I am a total floss miser... teeny tiny little pieces of floss... collecting my orts this year gave me my first actual impression of how very little thread I leave behind. German frugality!!

I am sorry - I had put the info about Once Upon a Time up when I first started it, and had not thought to do it in this post.  The SAL can be accessed here:  The Frosted Pumpkin Once Upon A Time Mystery SAL

What Month Is it?

It is March, and it is very early into spring here... and a possible "snow bomb" to hit us tomorrow night because... well... Mother Nature is angry with the Northeast US?? I dunno, cannot figure any other logical explanation. Some day, if I ever dig out of the cold and the snow here, I shall wave and say hi to you all..

In the meantime, I received some beautiful Halloween ornaments from exchanges this week...  

This beauty is from Roberta for the current round of the HoE Halloween Ornament Exchange. I think this must be by Notforgotten Farm... just LOVE it!!! Thank you so much Roberta! Wow!

And another BEAUTY from my dear friend Karen - we decided to do our own personal Halloween Ornament Exchange... she stitched this colorful delight for me. I think it is from a recent JCS Halloween issue... I shall say it again... LOVE it! Thank you my friend!!! Cannot wait to hang these for Halloween!!

And on Monday the 17th, the new May 2014 issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework arrived.  I was waiting on this!!  I ran upstairs, pulled the floss, got online and ordered the WDW Boysenberry that I did not have, and worked on this all week as I got a moment here and there... and finished it right before bedtime last night.  I love, love, love this sampler!!!  I am almost half way through now, and no block has been a disappointment!

Happy Spring... to those who have spring weather! We will catch up with you in August, I suspect... 

Bonus Time!

Last night, I finished up the third block on Anniversaries of the Heart. This one is a bonus chart that BBD supplied to be placed here in the center of the top row. No personalization for this one. I noticed as I was stitching it that the lower case alphabet is missing a couple of letters...lol Guess that is fine, artistic license for BBD! I absolutely cannot tell much difference between the CC Cinnamon Toast and the CC Jakey Brown in the alphabets... might be my skeins, or just might be that way with those colors? On to the next block later today...

I heard yesterday that my dear friend Karen has received the little Halloween ornament I made for her. She and I decided to do our own personal Halloween ornament exchange... I chose one of my all time favorites to stitch for her...

Witch's Pantry Plum Pudding NeedleArt JCS 2012 Halloween Issue 32 ct Cameo Belfast Linen, DMC Floss

Oh My Heavens!

Saw in my friend Margaret's blog that she has been working on And They Sinned, and I realized that while I put an hour or so into mine at times, I have not posted an update in quite a long time. Margaret is much farther along than I am - take a peek at hers :-) I am a bit mired in the sky/Heavens in the top section. I think I will keep this pulled out and put a little time into it this weekend. Might be time for me to go back to using a rotation with my stitching??

This sampler is great fun, and I really hope that once the blob of the sky/Heavens is finished, I will really love having a whole slew of little colorful motifs to stitch next.  One problem for me, though, is that I am using a skein of GAST Tarnished Gold that is a fantastic color lot... very tarnished.  But it is years old and from Gentle Arts' earlier days (I can tell by the sales tag on the skein - where I bought it has been closed for a looooooong time). Problem?  Some of the threads are much thinner than they should be.  Not sure what happened there.  Half or more of the skein is unuseable.... unfortunate.

OK...  kinda determined to finish the blob here...

More snow today. So exciting.  Who wants Spring anyhow??/ (strong, strong note of sarcasm is required here)...

Valentine Rose

First two blocks of Anniversaries of the Heart are now complete. This second block, Valentine Rose, is dedicated to my husband...

Halloween Time for Melissa

Melissa has received the Halloween Tree Ornament that I stitched for her for the HoE Halloween Exchange... I stumbled across this cute freebie while surfing one day, and here is the result...

R.I.P. Ornament

The Stitcherhood - chart is here 

Kiwi Illusions 28 ct Pumice Lugana, DMC Floss

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time... I was on Facebook and somehow ended up at the page for Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery... how? I have no idea. Perhaps FB decided it was a page I would like and had it in my newsfeed? I can figure no other way... But I visited there, and somehow clicked to join a year long mystery SAL called Once Upon a Time... and here is the first two months (very, very unlike me kind of choice) -

So, this sampler is charted in what I think the designers call a "kawaii" style... may be misspelling that, but I guess from what wiki says it is some kind of new fangled Japanese art style... simple and cute.  So why did I choose this??  I think it has to be my childhood love of fairy tales.  But I always liked the darker elements of fairy tales... no dark elements here... yet!  So we have Snow White and two of her dwarves doing the laundry in January, and then we have the Princess and the Frog Prince  hanging out with flowers and pastries in February... hmmm.... awfully big eyed, little girl looking princesses, if you ask me.  March is different...  no princess in March and a villain shows its face.  Irregardless, I am having fun stitching this up on PTP 40 ct Gold Doubloon linen with the called for DMC floss.  The designers charted this for PTP 28 ct Gold Doubloom opalescent cashel linen... I like the high count fabrics, and felt this does look a lot like a piece of parchment paper, like the page of a fairy tale book. Did not feel like using opalescent, and glad for that choice.  We shall see where this goes.... in the end, I imagine this will hang in one of my therapy offices.  I see quite a few kids in treatment, the little girls will giggle at it...  sigh, sometimes we never grow up ;-)