September GG ~ Stash Enhancements, Hats, and a Just Jo SAL!

Hello, world~  It's time for our monthly installment of Gifted Gorgeousness!  Are you curious about the Just Jo SAL?  I'll get there eventually~  There hasn't been any progress on the last side of the MH3U husband cube as I've been a bit busy with other things that can't yet be shown to the public eye.

click for more info

I got an awesome package in the mail last week -- a nice pile of new-to-me knitting and crochet magazines!  A friend was clearing out some of her stash and asked if I needed wanted any.  Of course!  I took all she offered and anything that doesn't entirely tickle my fancy, I'll take with me to our local "yarn and yak" group.  Thank you, Awesome Friend! :D

yay!

I adore the Jane Austen Knits magazine!  I'll eventually update my ravelry patterns page with the ones I'll be keeping.  I'm getting quite the collection on there but it makes it so much easier to not wind up with duplicates~

In the spirit of giving instead of hoarding receiving, I made another "flowering hat", this time for my husband's grandmother's birthday. She's in the Red Hat Society and I thought this might work for some of her gatherings. The flower is again removable and she's already mentioned using it as a pin on a dress! How nice to hear a gift is already being used. :D

best hat pattern

I actually had a rather difficult time trying to get this color to show properly! It's actually a deep wine red.  There's also a small button at the center of the white flower holding everything together but that got washed out trying to bring out the red.  I went up a hook size for this hat and am much happier with the result.  It's so soft!  The flower might be a bit too big with that hook though...

Technical Details

• "Ridge Hat with Brim" freebie pattern by Kool Stitch on ravelry.
• Hook: 4.5mm.
• Yarn: Caron Simply Soft; Colorway: autumn red, purple, and white.
• My ravelry project page here.
• Started: ??  Finished: August 24, 2018, unknown hours.

With this finish, I have finally surpassed last year's crafting finishes (this is #16) and am on my way to surpass my most productive year (2016: 18 finishes).  I'm not a very fast or prolific crafter so this is really exciting for me.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

winner, winner, chicken dinner (?)

Here are the results to the poll from the last post regarding y'all's preferences over comment settings.  Embedded seems to be the most preferred setting!  I would guess this is because it allows people to easily reference the post they're commenting on.

I have no idea how long this poll will last, or even if it's still open to vote!  The site says they eventually clear out inactive polls but didn't specify a time.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★
Now it's time to contribute in a different way to GG!  Surely by now y'all know I love thrift shopping and can often spot fun things I don't desperately need. I also watch for potential giveaways for pretty charts I know I'll never stitch but think will make someone else happy.

Just Nan - Morning Meadow band sampler

This time the giveaway is for a Just Nan chart: Morning Meadow.  I had originally offered it to our GG hostess as she sure seems to stitch a lot of Just Nans, to the point where I started calling them Just Jos!  Jo already has this particular chart but hasn't stitched it yet.  So, win this chart and have a SAL with Jo and get to count it for all sorts of Gifted Gorgeousness!  :D

what's a meadow without grasshoppers?

This giveaway is just the chart; unfortunately no fancy beads that sometimes came with them.  It's a nice, clean chart with no markings though there is a thrift store price sticker (it's a bonus? :D).  Since shipping is open worldwide, this will just be the chart, no little extras tossed in.

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines

1. Be a minion follower (upper right corner of my blog)!  Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it!  I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
2. Comment and tell me you would like to win!
3. Open worldwide! 
4. Closing date: September 30, 2018, 23:59 CST.  Closed a little early on September 27 and will ship to the one entrant!  A popular name means a lot of people have it already haha :)

Thanks for reading this edition of Iskabibble Babble and good luck to anyone entering! \:D/

Birthday Rambles and FotM - May Edition!

Hi! Did you survive May? Do you believe it's June? I'm still in denial. :b

I have safely made it through another birthday and even managed to get stitchy related stuff this year which is really exciting! I am never sure if gifters want to be announced "in public" so I have left out the names but I LOVE YOU GUYS! ;u;

The first was so completely unexpected that when I received the package I didn't understand why it was even coming in the first place haha. I opened it up and saw the little parcel wrapped in lovely blue paper and my husband, being the kind derp he is, decided that he needed to open it even though it was clearly addressed to me. o well, he opened it and I just gasped.

crystal whirlpool by picture this plus

:D Isn't it lovely?! I tried so hard to capture its loveliness but those of you with special fabrics know how that goes. It's a Picture This Plus fabric in Crystal Whirlpool, 28-count Lugana. My friend decided I needed it in my life and she was right!  It's such a big piece too! With SPARKLES~!  :D  Will I stitch one big thing? Will I stitch a million little things?! The possibilities are amazing! :D  I can even use this for Gifted Gorgeousness once I figure out what I'll put on it, eeeee!  :D

I may have blown up her Twitter feed in my excitement lol.


Next, way back in January I was RAK'd a $10 gift certificate to Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery! I knew (hoped) that they'd have their sale around this time of year and they did (code is SUMMER if you want to join in the fun too wink wink)! I have been wanting the Christmas Celebration Sampler since forever and figured since I had the gift certificate I might as well splurge a little and get one of the minis (lookit the kitty!). I did debate getting one of the SALs but I am very fond of display typography so the Christmas Sampler won out.  But when I went to check out, there was no where to enter the gift certificate code!  I think PayPal was glitching as it also said that I'd have a chance to review my order but nope, it just ordered directly.  I emailed them immediately after purchase because I was so puzzled why I didn't get a chance to enter the code. They were super sweet and applied the gift certificate amount after I sent it to them. 10/10 will definitely do business with them again!

three varieties!

Lastly, these aren't exactly crafty items though it is another hobby I love. I was complaining to my mom about a particular part of the yard that is awkward to mow/trim yet stays shady for about 80% of the day. She thought hostas would do well there so that's what she got me!  I look forward to mostly ignoring that corner now haha.

Also these lovely new pots. I teased my husband that I need more plants for them and he teased me that I should give the ones I have upgraded homes lol. We'll see who wins this battle. ;)

before

after

Now enough bragging and a shameful update on the still-incomplete February Violets. I did work on them more since Muppets are done.  I don't know what it is about this piece but they are very stubborn to stitch!  It's not a super confetti piece.  It looks cute.  What is it?!

I have also ran into a snag -- Hobby Lobby no longer carries the showcase huck towels! I liked buying them there (not only because they are the only store in ~50 miles to have anything needlework) because I could use the 40% off coupon. Now they don't have them! And they're not on the website! I have tried searching online at other stores with the cheapest being $6-8/towel. I feel unreasonably grumpy when supplies I like go out of production, how about you?

Hmm.... I almost feel like a new start...

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

The Arrival of a Fridge Magnet!!

Back in my 2015 Ambitions post, I mentioned that this is the year I would like to get a needle minder so I can stop losing needles to the couch arms / carpet gremlins / whatever it is that steals needles in this house. I got completely RAKd by Justine who not only got me a needle minder, she got me one that I had wanted even before I had put it up on my revamped wishlist to remind myself of it! I'm sure she knew it arrived because my squeals of delight were loud enough to reach across the puddle, right?!

:D

:DDDDDD

If you don't know who this little kitty is, her name is Chi from Chi's Sweet Home, a Japanese manga series detailing the life and adventures of an adorable kitten getting used to being a people cat! I love it, THANK YOU SO MUCH, Justine!

Whoop-de-Doo and Dickory-Dock

Hello, world~ I feel like I've been silent for too long. The blame lies totally with our ISP which oddly improves when it rains. Luckily we have a rainy Christmas Eve! (It's Christmas Eve, eeeeek.) What better way to spend a rainy day than catching up on stitchy blogs (sorry for the comment spams)? I've gotten the entries down to 100 but I can tell my Internet is starting to die with the load so I had better get this posted before I lose everything (autosave doesn't play well with bad Internet)!  So what have I been up to?

COOKIES! I always make cookies to send out at Christmas and this year I decided to make double batches of everything so we actually have some left over for ourselves after shipping them all over the country. I spent 12 hours one day just making all the doughs, then the next two days baking and creating. This year's lineup was Thin Mints (not like the USA Girl Scout variety, more like peppermint patties), Cocoa Crinkles, Snickerdoodles, Cranberry Almond Bark, Rocks, Cran-Orange Shortbread, and the ever popular Snickers (a mini Snickers candy bar wrapped in peanut butter cookie dough). I ran out of the mints much to my husband's Great Sadness so I made up another batch a few days ago just for him. :b  I didn't take a picture of the finished hoard but I had every tupperware thing I own filled, plus a pitcher and an 8-quart stock pot!  This is also the time of year I desperately wish for a KitchenAid mixer haha.

Crochet World: Aaaaaaaaaaaa I have a scarf! And of course I ran out of the white mystery yarn two little lines from the end. I found a tiny ball of a close lookalike, enough for one line. Then I found a skein of not-quite-as-close lookalike for the last line. Should've just bought new, laaaaaa~~ >_> But! I have enough of the blue and definitely enough of the sorta-close white left over that I may attempt to make a matching hat!

with inspiration gloves

As you can see from the picture, the last skinny line on the right side is not quite as white as the others.  Sigh.  It can be the hidden part, right? :)  Also present are the inspiration gloves (not at all created by my haha).  The scarf wound up being 66" long and it honestly could've been longer (original plans were 60").  I like to bundle up into a Rosey Ball when I am forced out into the cold. 

I listened to everyone's advice on this post, thank you muchly! I had four votes for evenweave and two for linen. I rummaged through my stash to see if I had either before I went shopping and this is what came out of the black hole of stash.

options!

From left to right in a very horrible picture (sorry!), MCG Textiles 28-count evenweave, white; Zweigart pastel linen, pink; Flamingo Mills 22-count hardanger, white.  It's amazing what one can find in a thrift store (Rosey Motto?)! The evenweave was bought on sale at Micheal's though... I think. It was quite a while ago. Anyway, pink isn't gonna work out for this piece and I use the hardanger for my FF pieces so with everyone's votes and the process of elimination, we arrive at evenweave, weeeee~

tossin' bobbin

I feel like this is a fun floss toss; I love all the bright colors. Out of the 30 the pattern selected, I had about 10 so I got to go shopping for floss~ And then wrap some bobbins~~ I might hire myself out to wind bobbins; I love doing it. Some (most) of the colors are still pending judgement. The pattern maker I use is a bit hit-or-miss with picking appropriate colors so I have to see what I'm up against when I actually start stitching.

someone stole my spot

I think I've talked myself out for the non.  I'll try to get up a post detailing 2015 stitchy shenanigans if I survive tomorrow.  Merry Christmas to you all, and to all a... sleepy kitty?

REVIEW - 22-Piece Crochet Hooks w/Case

No stitchy stuff in this post; it's just a review of a set of hooks I ordered on Amazon that I thought may be of interest to at least someone. :) More experienced hookers are welcome to chime in.

Since I'm new to crocheting, I don't (didn't) have very many hooks. I found this set on Amazon for a whopping $5-6 which is much cheaper than one can find around here. It shipped free from China so it had a month-plus delivery date; no big deal as I'm patient, especially for cheap things. It arrived in roughly two and a half weeks. It has a purple zippered case to store all of the hooks in. The case isn't spectacular but it's handy and holy moly did it smell like stored plastic! A little time in the sun cleared that up. I cannot see it holding up well with heavy use; even after having it for a couple of weeks, the plastic holders are a little bent from taking out/replacing hooks.

They came oriented this way in the case and for some odd reason, this really bugged me. Maybe because the open zipper was at the top. So, I flipped them all around.

I must admit I do not know a lot about hook quality. The colored hooks are aluminum and seem to be comparable to the ones that can be found in local big box stores. I had a few Boye hooks before and they're the same weight and hook dimensions. They only list the size in millimeters on the hook (so no letters for USAers). I'm not particularly bothered by that because it seems that most patterns give both the letter and size anyway. If it becomes an issue, I can always print off a little chart to keep in the case with the hooks.

The little silver hooks are of a more questionable quality. I felt the sizes were somewhat random and I'm honestly not sure if I can trust those sizes. The 1.05mm size looks smaller than the 0.6mm size! A few of the sizes were off centered as well, making it difficult to read. The throats look somewhat rough. I attempted chaining with them and a random bit of crochet thread and they did not snag so looks may be deceiving! I'm guessing I'll get to the point where the size on the hook won't really matter and I'll just use what feels "right" at the time.

All of the hooks feel sturdy and I find them comfortable to hold.

The sizes listed
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.8mm/0.9mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.15mm/1.25mm/1.40mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.75mm/1.90mm/2.10mm

The sizes received
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.6mm/0.75mm/0.85mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.1mm/1.15mm/1.4mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.7mm/1.75mm

Would I recommend? Yes and no. If you have a bunch of hooks, this set probably won't bring you anything new. The questionable quality of the steel hooks would probably bother more experienced crocheters. I do, however, think it's a good set for a beginner (hi!) because it has the common "normal" sizes. I'm having fun just making stitches with the different hooks to see what happens. And that price just can't be beat!

November MMMM #1

Aloha~

I decided to go ahead with MMMM for November (this time hosted by Justine!) because it's fun getting these minis stitched up! Of course, that is if one has the time to sit down....

before

after

Such amazing progress, right? sigh It was a busy week again. Things should be winding down soon. I hope. My poor lazy bones need more lazy-ing than they have been getting lately!

But! Look! I finished a crochet thing! Remember this square?

my first square...

...is a potholder!

I made a second one and attached the two together and made a little loopy thing. It's a little wonky but for a first larger project, I guess it's okay. The first side I attached I think I may have gotten overzealous with the stitches lol. I think there are twice as many in that side than the others, oops. :D I love the colors in it but they don't really match my kitchen so I know a Very Wonderful Mom who will probably receive this for Christmas. She was saying she wanted a larger one anyway! And it is quite large; the lamp it's displayed on is about 1.5-2 feet tall. And if for some reason this Mom is reading my blog, shoo! Don't look at the picture you've already looked at!

a thing!

I also started a new project that will hopefully wind up being a scarf. It's a bit wide but I get cold easy so the larger the better, maybe...? I'm stitching it with Yarn Bee Soft Secret in navy and some mysterious white that I had in my stash. My goal is to make it match a pair of gloves I have... and I love matching things! Because I'm still a noob, using the Soft Secret instead of the regular worsted Red Heart is an adventure. It's so... slippery! And soft! I love to just fondle the skein ahaha.

And look what I found!! On my quest to obtain a rainbow of floss boxes, I stumbled upon this on eBay:

purple!

It was a little beat up but has the hinges instead of plastic flaps and came with that rather random assortment of floss. I'm not really sure what the two gold flosses are as they aren't numbered. Maybe some sort of Kreinik? So now I have blue, purple, pink and the ever-so-findable clear boxes. I can finally start winding the rest of my floss.

Well I can guarantee your stitchy fingers have been more productive than mine for the past week so uhhh here's to next week? :D

MMMM #4

Hellooooo~

Despite it being IHSW, I got very little stitching done. In fact, I got very little of anything other than walking and eating done! My husband finally (finally) got some time off of work so we took a mini vacation and walked all over a million places like good tourists. Who knew vacations could be so tiring?!

bluuuuueeeee~!

Since we were in a "big city", I had a little stash enhancement. My friend found lovely blue and purple floss boxes and informed me that they were available at Micheal's and Jo-Ann's respectively. I bought the blue one but I wasn't willing to spend $7 for the purple (which was also designed a bit different). I also picked up a skein of E940 which is glow-in-the-dark floss (and is hiding in plain sight)! I'm excited about it because I can't find it anywhere around home and all online places mark it up something ridiculous. My first impression (besides squeaking like an overly-excited dolphin in the middle of the aisle) was that the skein feels weird, hah.

Of course it's time for my rather late MMMM update! The spiffy button was made by Alyssa who always manages to find the most amazing freebie patterns!

Anyway, here is the progress I made over a week. Isn't it amazing? Perhaps some of you recognize the pattern already (there have been a few adjustments) as I did a similar one before. :) Once I found a needle that I didn't have to shove through the perforated plastic, stitching on it became so much easier. I won't impress you with the amount of mistakes and picking outs that I had to do just to get this thing started. I don't know what it is about the plastic; it completely screws up my already screwed up counting abilities. I was also entirely too exhausted to be stitching. I dozed off a few times with needle in hand!

Most definitely you've had more productive fingers this week! Until next time~

MMMM #1

Aloha new (and old) friends~ I think I have you followed back but if I don't, feel free to kick me in the pants with your URL!

At the end of September (wasn't it just May?), I went rummaging through my kit drawer to figure out just what I'm gonna stitch for Mega Mini Month Madness. I pulled out anything and everything that looked "mini". Then I went through my stash of magazines/books/leaflets and marked interesting small things. Then I went into my Internet folder.

I don't have a huge stash (unless one considers the online folder) so there's not much to choose from. Even still, I probably shouldn't make any particular goals. One a week would be great but then y'all would have to be watching for those flying pigs again. ;)

As you can see, I started with the tiny kit on the bottom right. I decided I needed to torment myself and "adjusted" the white to contain a strand of light effects floss. Which I cannot for the life of me railroad. !@#$%&

Anywhoodle, despite my first world floss problems, this is a super simple stitch that will hopefully be done over the weekend. Fall is always a busy time of year for me so I am glad to have an excuse to sit down and stitch... assuming I don't fall asleep when I sit down! :)

Hope y'all have productive fingers again~ ZZZzzzzzz...

Cross Stitch Tag - Part 2

Here is part 2 of the cross stitch tag rambles! The first part can be found here~

Question 9: Do you stitch for gifts or keep for yourself?
As of late, it seems like it's been nothing but gifts! Don't get me wrong, I love making gifts for other people but I have very low confidence in my abilities. It terrifies me to give handmade stuff to people other than my mom (because all moms love stuff from their kids, right?). If the gift is going to a known-to-stitch person, I'm less afraid because I feel that they will appreciate it. I do keep all my Final Fantasy stuff; after all the designing and stitching and tearing out my hair I'm never going to part with them!

Question 10: Favorite finished stitched piece?

Southwest Spirit

I found this piece in a thrift store back in 2010 with the border and a bit of the background started. All of the floss was included in little floss-a-way baggies and the pattern was in pretty decent shape. It smelled horrible. I had to wash it at least twice because I was nearly overwhelmed with cigarettes. Admittedly, I purchased it mind of picking out all the stitches and using the fabric for something else. My mother saw it though and really liked it, so I decided to finish it up. I am glad I did because it was so much fun to stitch! My absolute favorite part was that little brown pot on the left. It was also the first piece I ever stitched on a floor stand and that may have contributed to the love, haha. It's so much easier to stitch using both hands.

Question 11: Worst experience while stitching?
Washing a finished project... that bled! After some panic and frustration with less harsh methods, I bleached the spot. Turned out fine!

Framed, and in sunlight!

Question 12: What do you love and hate about cross stitch?
Hate: FROGS. There is nothing that can demoralize me faster than a stupid counting error. It's like a downward spiral of frustration and despair until I'm convinced I'm the most worthless human on earth for not being able to count. Then projects get half-abandoned until I put on my big-girl panties and stop sulking. :)

Love: I MADE A PRETTY PICTURE! But seriously, there is something incredibly satisfying about making a picture come alive with nothing but a needle and "string" (as my husband lovingly calls it).

Question 13: Have you introduced anyone else to cross stitch?
Hmm, I don't think so. My friend recently picked it up but she's crafty anyway so I don't think it counts. She's already blazed way past me with all her Q-snaps and adorable needle minders and making her own Q-snap cozies ahaha.

Question 14: The first project, did you finish it?
Alas, no. The afore mentioned stamped kit is still unfinished and will probably never get completed. There's a childish sort of charm about it, I suppose.

Question 15: How do you store your floss?
Bobbins, bobbins everywhere. After picking up a 1000-pack of plastic bobbins off of Amazon, I find myself using them to relax between those odd jobs around the house. Harvest the garden? Wind a bobbin. Trim the sidewalk? Wind a bobbin. I definitely need more plastic bins to store my floss but I'm being horribly picky and wanting bins in different colors (I can only find clear around here.). A friend found purple and blue ones at a Micheal's or Jo Ann's but the nearest one of those is over two hours away. Not an easy trip by any means.

BOBBINS

Whew! I hope you survived my longwindedness. I need to get my tiny IHSW report up (timely as ever~) with an equally tiny stitch. I am happy to announce that the pink is completed on my slightly larger project and it didn't wind up being two full skeins. VICTORIES.

Seventeen Hours and BOBBINS!

I haven't done an IHSW in so long~ I didn't sign up for this one as I wasn't really sure what was going to happen this past weekend (plans? who makes plans?) but it turned out I got around four hours in on this Final Fantasy piece. In case you haven't guessed it yet, it is the Final Fantasy III (DS remake) logo, one of at least five (shhhh) games I'm currently playing. If you would like to see what it will look (somewhat) like when finished, you can click here.

Anywhoodle, this is where I left off just over a week ago:

seven and a half hours!

And the march of progress:

nine and a half hours!

thirteen and a half hours!

seventeen hours!

Whew! I feel like progress is rather slow on this but I'm not going to get discouraged. The more I stitch, the fiddlier this pattern seems so it takes some staring and thinking and fretting over what color to put next. While I love all the colors in this, I'm scared about the blue. It seems so dark. Unless it's under a bright light; then it looks right~ @_@

My absolute favorite time to stitch is when my husband is playing video games. He plays games I'm not necessarily interested in playing myself but I like to stitch along and get the story. Stitching ... or winding bobbins. Because I got bobbins. 1000 bobbins!!

BOBBINS

Amazon finally had them on sale ahaha. So, 1000 plastic bobbins of joy. While I don't think I (and I kinda hope I don't) have 1000 skeins of floss, I do have a huge amount. I tend buy it when I find it in thrift stores or yard sales and they're usually of a questionable age and shape. Putting them on bobbins seems to satisfy my deep-seated urge to tidy up spaghetti blobs.

Of course, now I'm running out of storage... I have one clear box and one pink one. I cannot for the life of me find another box in a different color -- does anyone know if they're even made anymore? My mom had the highly-coveted teal one but she gave it to my niece.

Anyway, please enjoy your productive fingers this week too!

EDIT - Derpy me didn't include the link to the bobbins! I bought them on Amazon (US) here, where they are currently going for $10.87, the cheapest I've ever seen them. I, however, try to stick with Amazon over 3rd party sellers and they're currently at $12.82 which is still pretty cheap for the amount.

They are Darice brand instead of DMC and my initial impression is that they are a shade thinner than the DMC variety. This may just be my imagination... or that the DMC bobbins I have are so old they were made thicker. They're bundled into little bobbin stacks of 25 with a rubberband so you don't have 1000 bobbins running amok all at once.

Blog Hop #11, a Visit To the Framers, and a Finish!

Once again, I'm grateful for Blog Hops to break me of my radio silences, haha. I'll jump right into it, iffins you don't mind!

What has been your most unusual or most interesting stash acquisition to date?

I pondered my (frequent) trips to various thrift stores and the wealth that they sometimes bestow upon my stash... as far as interesting (to me), I think I would have to go with floss. On one excursion, I picked up a sandwich-sized baggie of floss. Being the hoarder stash builder that I am, I think "yay floss!" and don't even bother to go through the baggie. When I get it home and start playing with it, I discover that they aren't all new, but Star (3 for 10¢? Can I go back to those days, please?), Brillanté D'alger (French DMC?), and some older labels of DMC. I know they're not really unusual but for someone who only has new DMC and Sullivans around, they were kinda neat to look at. Maybe someday I'll get lucky and find specialty flosses at a thrift store!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
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Next up in my excitement was... are you ready? A trip to the framers! (!!!!!) That was a fun experience, playing with all the various frame pieces and mats and how to put them all together. I had no idea there were so many options out there. Nor just how expensive framing is, omygosh! Even with various discounts, it will still be $160 and that is really a lot of money to me. I went ahead with it as I had already picked out everything but is this really a normal price for framing? I suppose it's a good thing that I finish things slowly. And it's apparent that I need to make figuring out framing a high priority, lol! Anyway, I'll pick it up in a couple of weeks as I only get down to that area on weekends. It'll be so nice to have something to display on the wall!

Lastly, I haven't been entirely neglectful of my stitching. It's Sprite Stitch's 5th birthday so they're having different challenges on the forums for the month of November. I've always shied away from participating in the challenges because I feel as creative as a potato next to the talent there but I thought I could at least give the mini challenges a try! I couldn't post WIPs of it because it was a challenge, but the first one was "something birthday" so here is what I created:

More video game stuffs here! :D

I got the idea from my friend who reminded me of this blog post on SS who in turn got it from @Shereebedee on twitter. Even though I didn't win, it was a fun little stitch and I think it would work great as a birthday card for the geeky group. :D If you can't read it, it says, "This time, the cake isn't a lie." which is a little play on "The cake is a lie." from the video game Portal. The black forest cake is resting on a be-doilied Companion Cube which I already had made a pattern for ages ago. In a flash of inspiration, I added little turrets shooting into portal holes... and thus, each other. Silly turrets. I don't hate you.

That's all I got for today, folks! I'm sure you're tired of reading anyway. :D May your fingers be productive until the next time~

Possibly Another Halloween Kitty

Hooboy! We finally have Internet at our place! I spent quite a while catching up with blogs; I hope I got everyone! Blogger still likes to "hide" posts from me once in a while.

Well, apart from having Internet, the electric company was out replacing poles in the corn fields so we were without power for a few hours over a couple of days. What better time to stitch, right~? :D

It's a raaaaainbow!

Wait, that's not stitching...

...

Turns out, having no electricity also makes good time to work on rainbows. I decided to take the opportunity to wrap my floss from FFVII up on bobbins instead of letting them get all tangled up in the baggies. I'm not very fond of pink but I like that my box is different from the usual white / clear ones.

I need more floss.

Cute Level: MAX!

And here's what I worked on! I apologize for the abysmal photo; the camera refused to focus and get the colors right at the same time. Anyway, this super cute kitty was a freebie pattern made by the wonderful Carolyn! I seem to have a thing for Halloween kitties, especially witchy Halloween kitties. She has a whole series of these little guys in various adorable outfits on her blog and dA.

I made a few changes to the pattern as I didn't have all the colors listed. I chose a medium gray for the body, a darker gray for the outline, and black for the cape and hat. I like gray kitties with green eyes, so that was another change. I also stitched the hat buckle in gold metallic because all witch kitties need bling. Another change (not shown) was the bow. Because of the cape edit, I decided to make a little bow out of extra floss.

This was my first attempt using perforated plastic (and stitching on anything black!). I'm harboring some mixed feelings about it! I think my main trouble was not having a needle the right size. I had to really shove it through the hole even though it was 14-count! Also, it was a little uncomfortable to hold. Otherwise, it's awesome. I like the stiffness. Even if I left it as-is, it could've been considered "finished" but I can't let the world see the back of my stitching now can I?

I had an idea how to finish it using felt for a backing. I started stitching it on with a blanket stitch and then for some mysterious reason, decided there was too much felt and cut it to size. A size too small! Aaaah. I have tons of scrap felt (yay for being a teacher's kid -- all kinds of crafty access) so all I have to do is rummage out another piece and not get so crazy with the scissors.

Shh, I'm hiding.

I'm in the middle of fall cleaning and had tossed that camo jumpsuit out of the closet I was working on. I turn around and there's Peanut, happy as can be, making a little Kitty Nest and enjoying life.

Until the next time, enjoy the rest of your week and may your fingers be productive~

S.E.X. Update!

I apologize for the radio silence; near the start of the month we had a trip to Chicago for an extended weekend of family and dinosaurs! We had a lot of fun in the Windy City (I didn't find it windy, how sad~) with going to the awesome Field Museum, eating epic pizza, and finding a Jamba Juice near our hotel.

If I had planned it better, I would have inquired about nifty needlework/craft shops up there as I was completely unfamiliar with Chicagoland. Despite my unfamiliarity, we managed to find a number of Goodwill stores up there, and they yielded a number of exciting finds for my Stash Enhancement eXperience!

Because the phone pics load up so tiny with the app, I'll list what I dug up! :D

I managed to find some white hardanger (12" x 18") for $1 and that is what I use for the Final Fantasy stitches! Next is a piece of ivory 11 count Aida (also 12" x 18") f or 50 cents. I haven't a clue what I'll use it for, but hey, 50 cents! Next is a sheet of navy blue 14 count AidaPlus (9" x 12"), something I've never heard of before. It appears to be regular Aida with interfacing on the back. It's quite nifty but I need to think of a suitable project for it. Lastly, I picked up two small kits, both Christmas decorations. One is a cute Santa crewel kit with a plethora of French knots, and the other is a little kitty under a Christmas tree.

Goodies from Goodwill~

While I had fun with the needlework supplies, I also managed to enhance my "everyday" plate set! I love the Spring Blossom pattern from Corelle and I'm working on acquiring service for eight. I found the large and medium sized plates, and already had the saucers. It seems impossible to find the bowls and dessert plates! Maybe one day! I also found two Farberware saucepan that match the lonely one I picked up at a yard sale a couple of years ago. I love that saucepan so finding the others was squee-inducing! :D

Well, that's all for today's rambles.  I have the next blog hop prompt addressed but I have to wait for the weekend to post it correctly. Too much extra coding necessary to post from the phone. Until then! :D

My new old plates!

Edited June 24, 2012!