An End of the Month Post!

Hi! :D

Here I am with an update on the pretty Flower of the Month series~ I thought it a bit silly to say I'm posting for the SAL when it has moved to facebook but the end of the month is a convenient two-ish weeks after GG (or before, whichever direction you're looking) for posting updates on things!  I think maybe two posts a month is enough, right?  As long as I talk a whole bunch in each one, right? :D  Plus if I post at the end of each month, I can tell you all how scandalized I am that yet another month has gone by (February tomorrow what).

before

after

What a difference (sun)light makes.  I will say this, these salmony pinks aren't too bad (please watch out for flying pigs).  And for some reason, these particular pinks are like magic to stitch with.  I'm no floss snob but gosh for DMC they're downright soft and smooth.

before

after

And even though IHSW didn't officially happen, I also worked on FFIII! :D :D :D Two more letters done.  :D  I'm sort of feeling like I'm avoiding the "important" part of this by working on the letters but all parts need done!  Plus they're relatively mindless stitching which is always helpful to a tired mind.  Maybe I'm just terrified of making another mistake and throwing this piece out the window.

the impossible table

Do you recall my "trashy" Singer 201-2?  I spent hours upon hours trying to find any dregs of information I could as to what the heck the table/cabinet is.  There are scarce few pictures of this particular table online and even fewer had actual info other than the sewing machine itself.  Luckily I eventually stumbled across the right Google wording and found an image that led to this blog post and there it was.  It is a Singer Student Base N90!  Apparently these were designed for classroom use which explains the slightly "cheaper" wood.  Mine appears to be missing the little cutouts in the corners of the legs but after crawling around on the floor under the machine (lol) it appears that the little strip of wood at the base of the... face? has been either replaced or somehow flipped (the nails are a bit too shiny).

I am just tickled to death I actually managed to find out what it is.  I am mentioning it here in case there's someone else out there who is all "what the heck is this thing?!" and could find this info helpful.  I wish I knew more about it though!  I can't find any old adverts or manuals or anything with info on it.  It's a fairly simple (utilitarian) design which is fitting for a classroom setting.  Anyone out there take a home economics class that used these?  I'll probably keep my eyes open for a beautiful No. 48 cabinet because I like cabinets that open up and then there's extra things to open up in the opened up cabinet.  Spaces in spaces!

Okay!  I will stop rambling now! :D 

August Edition: GG, IHSW (Part 1), TUSAL

That's a lot of acronyms! I would rather have everything in one large post than several smaller ones. Apologies to those of you who have gotten comment spam from me lately.  I have been trying to catch up on blogs and have decided the easiest way to do this is just go down the list alphabetically instead of chronologically!

click to join the fun!

Firstly! Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by the Serendipitous Jo. I have continued on with Rathalos after finding a pinkish sort of brown that actually looks right (for the interested it wound up being DMC 758 lol). I felt kinda silly having my husband pick out a matching color (since this gift is for him!) but I think he had fun playing with all the floss in the store haha. :D

before

after

He finally has his full lower jaw and it is finally not being frogged. I've also started progress on his wing. There's really not much left to him!  I've been saving his fireball for last since he really doesn't need more weapons right now.

click to join more fun!

Next(ly) part 1! IHSW hosted by the Random Rambling Joyce! It appears I wasn't the only one curfluffled by the "full" weekends in August.  We'll have two this month though I don't know if I will get much done next weekend due to prior engagements.  Final Fantasy III came out to see the light of day but not a whole lot got accomplished this weekend.

before

after

I managed to fill in more of his cape in the previously-frogged area above the I and N as well as finish the F in Fantasy. I am hesitating on the rest of the cape as it seems like the next color, as much as I love it, is clashing with the rest of them. I need more time to think on it.  Luckily "Fantasy" is a long word. :b

Next(ly) part 2! Singer sewing machine!  I think I may have borrowed some serendipity from Jo. Would you believe I found attachments for it in my last foray into a thrift store?  I think they must be from the same people as the machine -- the buttonhole attachment was missing the plate adapter... and guess what was in the drawer of the Singer!  :D  It's funny how the things have wound up in different places.

joyous finds

If you cannot see from the picture, the haul included:

• Buttonhole attachment and five cams (green case)
• Zigzag attachment (unfortunately not the automatic one with all the really neat cams for different style stitches but I will keep watching for it!)
• Eight packages of needles, different sizes (9-16)
• Blind stitch attachment
• Hemstitch and Picot attachment (!)
• Stocking Darner
• Multi-slotted Binder foot
• Lubricant and motor lubricant, both still sealed though I'm unsure if they can still be used.  I shall contact Singer directly and see what they have to say.

All for a grand total of $7.50!  I could barely contain my joy.  And every single one has the original manual and all are in such good shape.  From the manuals, I've been able to identify some other odds and ends that were in the drawers of the sewing machine, too.

join all the fun!

Lastly! TUSAL!

one of my favorite manga

I feel like there's all sorts of stuff in there since last time, most of which are the frogged bits from Rathalos and FFIII. So my TUSAL progress is mostly negative stitching progress!  What fun is that!  >:|

And that's all she wrote~ Quick, run away before she finds more to talk about!  :D

IHSW - July! And a Few Finds!

Hiya, hermiters! I hope you were all productive enough for your tastes!

click me for more info!

I had progress... and negative progress! I work on FFIII during IHSW and this time, the mistake finally showed itself! Doing the letters worked! This is more exciting than it really should be being that I spent a good portion of my stitchy time frogging haha.

before

after - FINAL(ly)

wrong!

A close up of the area before I picked it out. The letters are to have a 1-block "border" around them where the color touches. The top left corner of the N does not! But, the right side does. So at least I knew the mistake was everywhere to the left of the N which wound up not being too terrible to fix, especially since I start out the colored portions in half-stitches only (see, I learn from previous mistakes lol).  I took out the entire area above N just in case though; in the after picture, you can see the outline of the frogged area.  I put a small length in before I started stitching the I... not letting another mistake happen again (famous last words :b)!  I am very pleased that this mistake is gone, Gone, GONE!

☆*･゜ﾟ･* \(^▽^)/ *･゜ﾟ･*☆
Since I don't have a lot of IHSW to show off, how about some of my thrifty finds? If you don't know, I get most of my crafty supplies in thrift stores.  I am definitely my mother's daughter when it comes to spotting bargains!

most were 25¢ each

Crochet books, leaflets, and magazines! I adore the older Star/American Thread Co. magazines and squeal like an overly-excited dolphin whenever I find one.  I was particularly happy with the "Doily Bouquet"; there are some truly stunning pieces in there.  Unfortunately they are not always in the best shape!  Some are missing covers or are falling apart at the seams.

tatting supplies - $5

A tatting kit! My great-great-aunt was a prolific tatter and I love the delicate look it produces on the edge of things. I was tickled to find this in the thrift store. It came with two large balls of thread, two small balls, and two different shuttles, all with the original prices lol. Anyone know some good resources to learn this amazing art? Preferably books as our poor Internet does not much like YouTube.  Though if there is an absolutely amazing tutorial I will haul my laptop to the library and practice with headphones!

front, minor cosmetic damage - free!

This is probably my most exciting discovery. Since we live in a rural area, we do not have trash or recycling pickup. So, I take my recycling down to the center once a month and always toss a glance at their bulk trash pile. There's usually some interesting things, though almost always broken. This time, I noticed a nice little desk looking thing (only the back was visible). I like old furniture so I snooped. It's a sewing machine! I am unashamed to ask for trash (lol) so the guys helped me load it into the truck.

cast iron glory - free!!

After spending a few hours looking things up and taking a "what is it?" sewing machine quiz, it is a 1951 Singer 201-2 (potted motor).  I am unsure if it is the original cabinet but knowing the area, I would suspect it is. It was obviously well-loved at one time, and came with a great little diagram on how to thread the machine written on the back of an envelope. :)  It also came with an assortment of feet (including 4 hemming feet of different makes lol), spare bulbs, and a tiny mountain of metal bobbins.

I had low expectations of it working (it was put out for recycling after all). BUT IT WORKS. There is just something about older machines' sound that I just love. It does need a good cleaning and I'll have to get some fresh oil and grease for it. I think I will have it rewired as well. Most of the wiring was intact but from the machine to the pedal you can tell it's showing its age.  I really look forward to playing with it and sewing again.  More to learn! Maybe I'll finally be able to create some finish-finishes!  :D

beautiful!  FREE!!!

It is really amazing what people will throw out. Those of you who thrift shop or perhaps get lucky in recycling centers, what are your great crafty finds?

Have I talked you to death?  Maybe I should stop rambling.  I'll just leave you with a friendly reminder about my little giveaway!  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely life this week~! :D

IHSW: Progress!

Hello there, hermiters! I hope you all had a fabulously productive time and properly shoo'd away any distractions that came your way. We had a horrifically rainy start to the weekend followed by ridiculously hot, humid weather. Bring back spring, please.

click me for more info!

Anyway, rain and heat definitely helps me want to stitch as I find myself wanting to do nothing else but stay inside and be cool. I contemplated what to work on this time. I could work on Rathalos to show off next Gifted Gorgeousness. I could work on the Flower of the Month SAL and catch up. They're the only two projects I have goi--- No! Wait!

do you remember this?

Yes, I finally pulled up my britches and decided to tackle Final Fantasy III. For those of you who may not remember, it was set aside back in March/April 2014 as I'd somehow made an error that's probably going to be rather troublesome to pick out, especially as I can't seem to find WHERE the error is.  So, I decided to start in an error-free zone and work my way over to the offending area and see if that pinpoints the problem.  I had made more progress since the last photo but I didn't realize I hadn't taken a picture of it before starting this weekend.  I have only made progress on the lettering... and have yet to find the mistake!

For any newcomers who don't recognize this project, I have taken it upon myself to stitch all of the logos in the main line of the Final Fantasy video game series.  That's currently sitting at 14 titles, yikes.  I have FFVII and FFVIII done so far.  All of them are done on 22-count (hardanger) fabric, 1-over-1 for colors, 2-over-1 for black and the patterns are designed by me.  The colors get started in half stitches because I find it easier to make the random color transitions this way.  The patterns are not yet available to share with the world!  Depending on the logo, they're anywhere between 5-30k stitches.  FFIII is about 10k give or take a few. :D

This piece will be come a focus piece for IHSW so I can work on the other two projects the rest of the time.  Three WIPs is about all I can handle before I start getting... twitchy.  I might throw in a micro project here and there just for the Finish Status Buff.

Anywhoodle!  I look forward to seeing everyone's lovely progress which most definitely didn't involve any frogging, right?

March TUSAL, IHSW(?) and Special Fabric!

Aloha, world! I am completely timely, right? Well, at least I have a good excuse this time. This past week was our 2nd anniversary so my husband took some much needed time off and we disappeared! We went to stay with a couple of good friends and explored a different part of the US, lazed about their house with video games, and visited not one, but two cross stitch stores.

First off, welcome to my new followers!  I am creeping ever closer to that elusive 100 mark and that just tickles me blue. :D  I'll be catching up on blogs over the next week or so~

I will admit to being completely derpy about this month's IHSW!  I couldn't even remember if I signed up (I did not).  As most of the weekend was spent traveling, not a whole lot of stitching went on.  However!  The violets came with me on our trip. I suppose I got a lot accomplished on them though not enough to finish.  I keep telling myself this piece is now about halfway (possibly more since it's bottom-heavy) but man. It seems like I'm getting nowhere fast on it. And now that we're back, it will probably be neglected again as I try to cram more Muppet letters into my life hahaaaaa. sigh

But cross stitch stores! Stores dedicated to cross stitch! Who knew there were such wonders in the world! And to top it off, they were freshly filled with goodies from the Nashville Market! I was good. I limited myself to $20 and wound up with $23 of delicious fabrics and flosses I would never be able to find around here. It could've been much, muuuuuch more, especially as there was a large piece of delicious blue and sparkly fabric that I fondled for a long time before sadly putting it back.  I was informed by Madame Enabler that the shopkeeper would cut a smaller piece but something that lovely must be kept whole!  Right...?  I'll probably kick myself forever for not getting it. :)

two Silkweaver fabrics and four WDW

I picked up two fabrics and four skeins of discontinued Weeks Dye Works to try.  I'm a bit frightened of the fabrics because they're 32 count which will probably result in me stitching about 2" from the fabric.

Silkweaver - blue/purple 32 count evenweave

The first is this lovely blue/purple hand-dyed evenweave that I had to take outside to get even a little close to the right color.  It's not very large ( 9" x 13") but at 32 count I could probably get a lot of use out of it especially if I decided to go crazy and do over-1.  Who needs eyes?!  :D

Silkweaver - 32 count evenweave

And the other, the other.  Oh, the other.  13" x 18" SPARKLES.  This picture does not do it justice.  It is a lovely creamy white. With SPARKLES.  Oh, I could just hug it.  I think it screams a winter piece.  Maybe a redwork.  Or, knowing me, bluework.  Or I may just frame it as is because SPARKLES.

three chart leaflets and a card kit

And since cross stitching seems to be much more plentiful in that area, there were a few thrift store finds as well!  I found a few Christmas leaflets, a little card kit, and a welcome chart.  The welcome design is really pretty but my favorite are the towel designs.  There are some real cute ones in there and I spent a whopping $3 for the lot.

layers upon layers of ORTy goodness

And here's my TUSAL update! There's quite a bit of yellow Muppety goodness in there with a healthy cap of February violets sprinkled on top.

I hope you have a wonderful day and SPARKLES! :D

February IHSW

Hello, howdy, hi! I'm a bit late for IHSW posting, forgive me!

First, let me say I am completely shocked how many of you do not know what snow ice cream is! I thought this was a delight known everywhere?! All you want is fresh snow, milk (I use evaporated but according to the great Internet, you can use regular or even condensed), sugar, and vanilla. The best ice cream comes from the best snow -- you know, the perfect snowball-making snow. Ours was kinda dry this time but snow was snow at that point. I do encourage you to give it a try, even if it's just for the novelty. It's really fun to dig out a container of it in the middle of summer. :)

click me for more info!

Now for IHSW! My goal this time was simple: Finish another Muppet letter. This was because I knew we were due for icky weather Friday night which would probably leave us with work to do. We got hit by a somewhat substantial ice storm (I love snow but I do NOT like ice). And this was on top of the still-present mountain of snow we got last week. So, we were locked at home and needing to dig a path to the highway. We went out and tried getting our truck out -- we'd get so far, have to stop and shovel, go a little bit more, shovel some more. A quarter-mile driveway is not so fun on ice-covered snow. We got it to where we were able to get out and back in by staying in our shoveled ruts and called it a day. Shoveled the ice off the sidewalks and tried not to collapse upon entering the house. I started a late lunch when my husband asked if there was a tractor rumbling by? I said no, it's probably just the snow plows out on the highway and we paid no mind. Here one of our wonderful neighbors took pity on us and plowed our driveway! I called around asking if different neighbors did it so I could shower them with baked goods of gratitude, all no!  We apparently have a ghost tractor working for us.

Anyway, with our new-found freedom I finished a letter.  There's been a few changes on this guy since my last post.  I picked out the bottom left portion and made it more D-like (hopefully?!) and made him one row higher to match the heights of the other letters.  Dunno how I missed that either.  I'm not overly thrilled with his hat because Dr. Teeth has a big hat not a little boater ahaha.  But there are size limitations to contend with so I did the best I could with the space available~  After I have more done, I may go back and tweak it some.  I did fish out my gold metallic floss for his tooth, a whopping six stitches.  I survived.

But I wasn't done there! I finished another letter (no picture).  I started the next letter (no picture again).

I started (finally) FotM - February Violets. Not looking too hopeful for a finish this month. :<   I'm still good because I have March's finished.

Whew! I hopefully didn't exhaust my productivity for the next few weeks!

IHSW and TUSAL!

Hello, world!

It was IHSW! A magical three-day weekend if you were in the USA and lucky enough to have a place of work that honors MLK Day.  I wish I could say I had a fabulously productive time but I did a whole lotta nothing.  I went to our not-so-local craft store on Saturday to get a replacement for my botched fabric... and they didn't have any!  *cry*  I have one more place I'm hoping to check but if they don't have it, I'll just have to bite the bullet and order online. What a frustrating mess I've put myself in.  :D

But I do have my first TUSAL picture of the year! If you're unaware what TUSAL is, we save our little end bits of floss over the year to do whatever with. Quite simple, really! Since 2013 was unproductive and 2014 was a little better, these ORTs are from 2012 to now. Yikes. Maybe they'd look more impressive if I didn't feel the need to squish them down. There's bits of fuzzy yarn in there from my crocheting escapades, and the top layer of flosses are from Dolphin Trio and FotM - January Carnations.

Wish me luck on finding that elusive fabric! Whodathunk plain ol' white evenweave would be so difficult to come by!?

IHSW & November MMMM #3 & Giveaway Win!

Well hello again! This is a somewhat late IHSW update so I've combined it with MMMM.

creepy cute as made by Moonpie!

First, looky what came for me from the wilds of England! Aren't they cute? And so well made too! The ever creative Steph at Show and Tell made them for her All Hallow's Read giveaway. Heaven knows I have enough books but there are never enough bookmarks so this is delightful~ :D The little one is a pin too which is great as my Halloweeny pins are sorely lacking! Thank you, Steph~!

before!

after!

Would you believe I'm still not done with Mrs. Frankenstein? Of course you would! :b I can't stitch long with the black on black without my eyes going NOPE NO THANK YOU so as you can see, I have about half her hair attached. I guess I should look into a directly over my head lamp of some kind instead of turning everything on in the room and angling my work. So maybe IHSW was a bit of a bust.  Can you find the picked out thing that was bugging me so much? :D

For my next mini, I would love to work on this little thing. It's a brooch! I found the kit in a thrift store and, at the time, I thought it was just a tiny frame for an ornament. But no, a brooch. I was so thrilled with this (I put pins/brooches on my coat lapels a lot), I went back to the thrift store and bought the other kit haha. I'm not too fond of the pattern that came with it so if anyone knows of some oval-y cute 28 x 32-ish freebies, let me know. It doesn't have to be Christmas themed though I think I would like either holiday or seasonal.  I wonder if I could make a collection and switch them out! O_O

In the crocheting world, our class has finished. I managed to get enough little snowflakes made for all the ladies in class but completely underestimated how long they would take to dry after being starched! So they got bundled up in plastic wrap and baggies and apologies but the ladies were delighted. It seems I was the only one willing to venture into the world of thread crochet haha. And would you believe I forgot to take a picture of them all, ARGH. Instead, please admire this rather goofy picture of them being blocked (yes, I know my blocking needs work; I used what I had and what I had was not appropriate). I hope they turned out all right because I think the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water was like syrup! I think I would use less sugar next time.  But each one is different like snowflakes should be. :)

daffodowndilly

In our last class, I attempted to make a daffodil, from a free pattern I found on ravelry. It had some new stitches in it (crossed double and double treble) and I wanted to make sure I had assistance available when I got confused. But! Look! It turned out fairly well for a first attempt. I just made the flower but I'm not sure if I want to make the whole square. The cup sticks up quite a bit so it wouldn't make a very good potholder (which is a shame as my kitchen is daffodils) but maybe I can whip up a long simple swatch to make curtain tiebacks. That could be kinda cute maybe. I am not sure how much I like the round petals though; they just don't seem daffodowndilly.  I did find a project modification that looked spectacular though, so I may try that next.

braaaiiinnnsss...

No pictures of my scarf progress though it's just over two feet long now. Instead, have my blob of yarn.  I've been trying to organize my inheritance of yarny supplies and as you can see, some are a mess.  I haven't quite discerned if that is two or three skeins in that alien life form.

Until next time assuming I haven't been devoured by the zombie yarn~

Mega Mini Month Madness Sign Up!

Hello, world! My Pink Project is on its way across the puddle so I will soon be able to show proof of accomplishment! Eek! Please watch out for pigs flying. :)

This was IHSW but it was spent making a pattern! I'm almost ready to start gathering supplies for it so knowing me, that will take a month or five. I think I will be able to post a few WIPs of it; the pattern is turning out quite cute (tooting my own horn lalalaaa).

To tide me over and possibly kick my butt into gear, I've decided to sign up for the Mega Mini Month Madness SAL hosted over on Pull the Other Thread. I know I have a drawer full of small things that could use some love. If you're looking to use up some of your stash (or buy new stash, I don't judge), you can find the rules here and sign up here!

excuses, excuses

So as to not leave this completely pictureless, have a day's worth of my garden goodies. I've been busy canning and pickling and eating! That was only a small portion of cucumbers. Before my vines contracted a dreaded infection, I got 7 quarts of regular dill pickles, 3 pints of relish and 2 pints of bread 'n' butter pickles cooked up. There's really nothing like fresh veggies, especially in the dead of winter when all you want is a sun-ripened tomato.

Until next time~ I hope you had a wildly successful IHSW!

Completely Timely IHSW

What, it's only a week late, shhhh...


I didn't do much over the weekend. Lately my husband has been working tons of overtime with us waking up at 5am 6 days a week. We are both sooo not early birds even though it's better to accomplish things while it's so cool in the morning. I finished my larger, secret gift and am still in the planning stages of my next gift so I wanted something quick and morale-boosting.

roses, not female anatomy...!

Of course it was a thrift store find. :) These little kits are easy, quick, and usually need adjustments to their patterns. The lettering on this particular pattern was positioned weirdly so I moved it around trying to get a better "flow" between words / lines. I also changed the little blue dots to French knots (they were just regular cross stitches) because I needed more practice with them anyway! I cut off the hanger on the frame and filed the rough edges. Instead of that, I glued a small magnet to the back of the piece and it is now a fridge decoration.

Technical Details

• "Mother's Love" by the New Berlin Company #30526
  
• 2 over 1 on 18-count white Aida.
  
• Finished size: 2" x 3" (5,1cm x 7,6cm)
• Started: August 16, 2014, Finished: August 17, 2014. Unknown hours.

November TUSAL & IHSW WIP!

I feel like I need more acronyms in the post title, lol!

I'm always so timely with these things but first up we have a delicious TUSAL. If you have no clue what TUSAL is, head on over to Daffycat's blog and join the fun!

om nom nom

I don't often buy doughnuts. They're tasty but eating just one is almost impossible! We have a doughnut-loving guest however, and I'll happily supply them as long as I don't have to eat them all, haha.

And another month of IHSW! I did poorly in my participation this year but some is better than none, right? :) This is a little kit I picked up in a thrift store (surprise, surprise!) a year or so ago. I've been wanting to stitch it for a while but was always busy and / or distracted. I had no idea how it would look completed as I have only the black & white pattern to go by. I'm terrible at imagining finished products. Maybe this is a skill that will come with time?

Gray brick with a tail!

Gray brick with a tail and ... head?

Oh.

Ohhhhhh.

:D

And there I stopped. I'm not sure how I feel about the weird yellow post color. I need to deliberate on it for a little while. I don't think I'd like a Christmas-y mailbox that a passing dog took a leaking to!

Now I'm off to oooh and ahh over everyone's much more substantial progress! Your fingers were indeed very productive.