I have to share with you all. A stitching friend posted a link a few months back about a 9 month club, sponsored by Bedecked and Beddazzled.com. They are calling it Gadgets, Gizmos and great inventions and the premise is  Nine months of cool gadgets, gizmos and must have stitching accoutrements.
These are my must-have tools of the trade. Yes, we can buy every gadget that comes out, but some truly are better, more useful than others. These are the best of the best. The ones I really use. I’m not a gadget girl so it had to work hard to make my list. Some are new, some you have seen before.  Even if you’ve seen them you won’t mind having a second for your stitching bag.
Today I recieved my first package and OOOOOHHHHHH what fun stuff a zippered project bag, lotion, needle threader, a very sweet needle minder (you see it on the white card) and  butterfly thread organizers. What a wonderful group of gadgets to start off this club. I already have a project in the bag and the needle threader out and ready at my stitching cocoon. the lotion has been used and in my stitching travel bag. This is going to be fun to see what else they can find to add to my stitching gizmos.

WIPocalypse.....September

Oh the Blood Moon would have been beautiful to see but of all nights we had overcast skies........boo

September Question.....Where do you buy most of your stitching supplies?

Well that is not an easy question, for my specialty threads and some charts I have a LNS that is just 20 minutes away. Terri is fabulous with helping pick just the right color or texture to make my finish wonderful so I always buy what I can from her. For my DMC I do not want to pay more then I have to so Hobby Lobby or Michael's for those and fabric and most charts I will buy from the internet. If 123stitch.com or Patternsonline.com do not have it I am in shock. Both of these companies are fabulous when it comes to customer service. I use a few others but they are just when my regulars are can not help me.

What have I been stitching???

Frank's Family Portrait by Glendon Place is coming on well. As is my HAED Christmas Cottage by Dona Gelsinger

I have also started 3 new projects Friendship Compass by Glendon Place Facebook Group, Warm Winter Wishes by Waxing Moon and a self made pattern that will be a gift for a friend. The last one I can not show you a picture of as I am hosting a contest on my blog that involves that project.

 

I also have 5 finishes.... another of the squares for my sons quilt It is a map of England with an English Nutcracker. I finished the pumpkin canvas I bough from my LNS at one of her trunk shows. The Cottage of the Month "June" by Country Cottage Needleworks and Women who behave by Sue Hillis this is a gift for a friend. And finally Boo from Just Cross Stitch magazine Halloween issue

I plan to make this into a very unique finish....at least I hope it comes out. I have this image in my mind and this week-end I will work on it. Stay tuned for updates. That gets you caught up with my stitching for the last 2 months.

My Blog Contest

I have decided to do a contest to try and boost my Blog. I have a new start and I do not have a picture of the finished stitch. This is a pattern I made myself with suggestions from a couple of other stitchers. And help from a lady (designer) that was nice enough to help with finishing touches. I could not find a pattern that worked for my needs and so I had to do my own designing. I really hope it turns out to look like what I have in my mind.

So the contest......guess the finished design. whoever is able to guess what I am stitching will receive a brand new never been stitched pattern from my favorite designer. I will also supply the fabric, that you can use if you if you want to, to stitch the pattern on.

What do you need to do to enter the contest? All you have to to is become a follower of my blog and post a guess. Easy peezy. I will post a new picture once every 2 weeks with a hint. You can make as many guesses as you like. This is all for fun and to get a few new followers to my blog.

So the first picture and hint

HINT: Think outside of the box. I know what this looks like and it is not the obvious choice, it is not an owl......

Good luck to all of you that choose to join in the fun this is part of my rotation of stitching so I hope I can stay ahead of the guesses and have a new picture for you in 2 weeks.

New starts

I have 2 new starts to share with you. The first one was a start because I just needed a small quick project to do a couple evenings this week. We have had 104 degree days all week and I just could not handle having my large projects draped all over me so I went to the 2015 Halloween Just Cross Stitch Mag and found a quick project and started that . I used several pieces of aida I have in my stash and I will find a fun way to finish them.

 

 

The second new start is an SAL. On facebook I joined a group for Glendon Place Patterns. It is a fun group. This week Cheryl Granda (the owner) said that when her page hit 500 she would share a free pattern that she designed just for the group. Well we all got super excited and share the news all over facebook and over night she passed 500 and 600 and is now at 970 members. So on Friday she posted the freebie. it is a small mandala that she named the Friendship Compass. To make it as fun as she could she did not make a key code with specific colors she left that open to each persons preference. All she did was explain that there were 6 thread colors and 4 bead/metallic colors. I am not a fan of beads in my stitching unless they are as an accessory. And I want to finish this of as a pillow cover so I chose to use only DMC threads on mine.  My favorite colors are green and yellow, green being the most favorite. So my pallet is DMC 699,905,3348,3894,772,3815,3821,744,444 and 310. I prefer to start my project from the middle and this one is perfect for that style of stitching. I stitched on it for a bit Friday night and then off and on Saturday and this is what I was able to finish so far.

New completions

It has been a while since I have updated you on my projects. It has been a crazy few weeks and I have not had the time to sit down and type a report. But with the long week-end I found some me time. 

The first thing I have finished, just today is the England square for my sons quilt. I love how it turned out and is a perfect memorial to his grandpa.

 I completed the stitching on these other 2 pieces several weeks ago and today I was able to get in the sewing room and finish them off. First I sewed up the June cottage so I can send it off to my daughter with her birthday presents. I only had to do a quick sew around the edges and put the velcro strip on the back. Easy peezy........

 

I also wanted to finish the pumpkin that I had stitched a few weeks back. I have seen others finish their completed work into a box they look so cute and I thought this would be perfect as a Halloween decoration. I used a piece of styrofoam from Joann's and I found some really cute ribbon and other trims, for the little feet I used some small black buttons.

I have also been working on Frank and the Mrs. they are looking fabulous.

 

I will be starting on a new project tomorrow since I now have room in my rotation. It will be a Christmas gift for another friend. I will post the new project next week.