Category: cross stitch

What I Am Up To
Black Forest Pixies · cross stitch · Fabric · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Nora Corbett · Pixie

What I Am Up To

My Time Stitching30 Comments

It’s been a busy summer so far, but I have still managed to fit in the things I love to do.  Over the weekend I picked up this little beauty from my local needlework shop,  Stitches N Things, where I had her framed by Juanita, at Way Cool Mats:

Blossom Collector framed

I love her!  The frame is perfect for her. She is Blossom Collector by Nora Corbett.  I stitched her on a One of A Kind fabric from Fantasy Dyed Fabrics, 16ct Aida.  And she is even up on the wall in my craft room, along with Queen Anne’s Lace.

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I can’t wait to see what Pixie I will do next…I have lots of wall space.  I have been purchasing fabrics from Fantasy Dyed Fabrics for all of the pixies I want to do.  Just look at all the beauties:

wheel of FDF fabrics

I have 2 more that arrived since this photo and 3 more on the way.  All but 2 of the fabrics have plans to have something stitched on them.  Just love her fabrics and can’t wait to see what pixie will get my attention next.  But it won’t be before I finish Aphrodite. Here is my progress on her:

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The shell seems to be taking me forever!  I did some major stitching on it yesterday but it still seems far from finishing.  But I am determined to finish her before switching to another project or starting a new one.  Once I get past the shell, I am hoping going upwards will be much faster.

And since a few of you have asked to see some of my stamped creations, here is one of the make N take cards I had at my Stampin’ Up! Open House a couple of weekends ago.

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So that is what I have been up to lately.  What is taking up your time these days?

Good Things are Happening in June
Craft Room · cross stitch · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Stamping stuff

Good Things are Happening in June

My Time Stitching41 Comments

Hello my blogging friends.  It has been a busy month for me.  I don’t know if you know, but I am a demonstrator for a company called Stampin’ Up!.  I teach people how to create their own greeting cards and scrapbook their memories with stamps.  April 3, 2016 marked 15 years as being a demonstrator.  And on June 1, 2016 I reached $200,000.00 in career sales. It may not mean anything to most, but for me, these are  2 goals that I wanted to meet,  and I did.  And within months of each other.  And June 1, 2016 was the launch of the new Stampin’ Up! catalog, so I have been busy making new samples and planning a New Catalog  Open House which I had on Saturday.

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The Open House went well and everyone that attended had a great time seeing new products, creating a couple of cards using new products and getting freebies.  Now I can get back to a normal kind of routine 🙂  I also had another exciting thing happen this month.  On June 1, I received an email from a company called Stamp N Storage that my new craft room photos had won May Studio Showcase!  I won $75 which I chose as store credit because there are 2 more storage items that I want for my craft room.  You can read about my craft room win and see phots here.  I LOVE their storage units.  My room looks a little different even now, because I keep moving and adding things to better suit my stuff, LOL.  Once I get the last 2 items I will take a couple of more photos for you.  Hopefully that will be the end of rearranging.  I am having fun creating in my new space.  It is my own little piece of happiness 🙂

I have been so busy, and I had 2 little vacations in the middle of everything, that I haven’t been able to do much stitching. During vacation time I didn’t stitch at all!  Seven straight days with no stitching.  I thought I was going to lose my mind! This last week I finally had some time to stitch a couple of nights. But I was only able to put in 12-25  stitches before my eyes drooped too far to see anymore.  But here is how I left Aphrodite last night (my best stitching day in a long time 🙂

Aphrodite progress

Not a whole lot more added since my last post about her, but every stitch counts, right?  I am hoping to stitch a lot more this week. So sorry I have been out of touch, but what have you been working on lately?  I’d love to see 🙂

A Pixie Finish and More Fabric
Black Forest Pixies · cross stitch · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · New stash! · Nora Corbett · Pixie

A Pixie Finish and More Fabric

My Time Stitching21 Comments

Blossom Collector finished

Isn’t she a sweetie? I finished her Sunday night.  She was a pretty quick stitch, taking me only 19 days! I just love her and can’t wait to get her framed.  She is Blossom Collector by Nora Corbett.  She is one of the Black Forest Pixie’s and my first Black Forest finish.  I stitched her on 16ct Aida one of a kind by Fantasy Dyed Fabrics. Here are a few more pictures of her:

Blossom Collector 2

Blossom Collector 1

Speaking of Fantasy Dyed Fabrics, I picked up a few more of her beautiful fabrics:

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This one is a beauty! 16ct Aida in  Blues and purples with a hint of brown and cream.  Love it!  I have plans to stitch Nora Corbett’s Sweet Pea Pixie on this one.  I also picked up this one:

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This one is 28ct Monaco,  beautiful blue and white with a hint of purple.  I do love the colors, but this fabric looks like linen to me and not sure I would ever stitch on it.  I do not like linen  at all.

I also special ordered this one:

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I think that this has to be my most favorite color combination; pink, blue, green all in pastels.  I do keep coming back to this combination.  This 16ct Aida piece was  a bit small for what I wanted, so I have re-ordered a 2nd piece 🙂 And I am keeping this one. I just couldn’t send it back!  I LOVE it too much.   This one I plan on using for 2 of Nora’s beautiful Pixies:  Lily and Rose. The other larger piece that I will receive is for a Joan Elliott mermaid. If you haven’t checked out Fantasy Dyed Fabrics, or haven’t visited this week, check it out!  She is always adding more beautiful fabrics and this week she added some gorgeous Opals!

So now I am back to stitching on Aphrodite mermaid  and still loving her and her colors.  I will post an update photo of her this week.  So what project are you working today?

Pixie and Mermaid Progress
Black Forest Pixies · cross stitch · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Nora Corbett · Pixie · Uncategorized

Pixie and Mermaid Progress

My Time Stitching10 Comments

So last week I told you I put down Aphrodite to start stitching on Blossom Collector.  I was going to switch back and forth, stitching on them both.  But I have been smitten with Blossom Collector and have stitched solely on her for the last week.  Here is where I am with her:

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She is going rather quickly.  After just one week, I am about halfway done with her.  I just love the Magenta hues.  The strands of what I think are the blossoms she is collecting, are stitched with Caron Waterlilies and I just LOVE stitching with them.  So soft and silky and the strands just glide through the fabric so smoothly!  I think it would be fun to stitch with them all the time.  If they just weren’t so pricey.  Oh well, I will enjoy stitching them when I can 🙂

And here is how I left Aphrodite a week ago:

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She is another sweet stitch that was going quite quickly.  I can’t wait to get back to her and her gorgeous colors.  I was just starting on the shell when I put her down.  She won’t be abandoned for long. I miss stitching on her.  Wouldn’t it be cool to stitch on 2 things at one time?

So what are you stitching on these days or what can’t you wait to get back to stitching on?

A New Fabric Dyer Has Emerged!
Black Forest Pixies · cross stitch · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Nora Corbett · Pixie

A New Fabric Dyer Has Emerged!

My Time Stitching16 Comments

My very best stitchy friend has decided to give dying fabrics a try.  She knows what we all want in a hand dyed fabric; We want what we see and we want it quickly.  She sells one of a kind fabrics on her Facebook page and Etsy shop.  You can find her on Facebook at Fantasy Dyed Fabrics. And she will ship to you within 3 days! Now that is service!  So go check her out and join her group so that you will see when she adds new fabrics to her page and check back often as she will post photos of new fabrics as she dyes them.

I received one of her fabrics in the mail yesterday and couldn’t resist stitching on it right away. So this is my new start on her fabulous fabric.

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This is a 16ct Aida pale blue fabric with gray and magenta.  I thought it would be perfect for Nora Corbett’s Blossom Collector. She is another one of Nora’s sweet Pixies from the Black Forest Pixies.

So go and check out Fantasy Dyed Fabrics and let me know what you think.

There’s A New Mermaid on the Beach
cross stitch · Cross Stitch Patterns · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Mermaids · Mirabilia · Nora Corbett · Romanitc · Uncategorized · WIP

There’s A New Mermaid on the Beach

My Time Stitching42 Comments

Mirabilia came out with a new pattern on the 15th, and Nora did not disappoint!

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Introducing Aphrodite Mermaid.  I just love her!  And while I wanted her, I was going to refrain from purchasing her until I completed something.  But my wonderful hubby went and ordered her, the bead pack and the specialty threads and she arrived in my mailbox on Friday.  And while I tried to continue on with the Mira Mystery, Aphrodite was singing her Siren song and I couldn’t resist!

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Now we all know that I am weak when it comes to mermaids, so a new start it is! I started stitching her Monday night.  I am stitching her on 16ct Aida Kaleidoscope by Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.  Just love all the colors in the fabric and knew it would be perfect for Aphrodite.

So this is how I left the Mira Mystery:

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I spent so much time frogging this one the last few days I worked on it.  So it was time to put it down for a rest.  I am thinking I should put all of my WIP’s into a rotation so that I can get some finishes in.  I probably have 8 or 9 cross stitch projects going now.  Eeeek. I will tell you, working with DMC again is wonderful!!  The coverage is so much better than the Weeks Dye Works.

So, how many projects do you have going right now?  And does it bother you to have more than one project going at a time?

Stitching Update
Afghans · Crochet · cross stitch · Mirabilia · Romanitc · Stitchy Gifts

Stitching Update

My Time Stitching25 Comments

Hi!  I’m still stitching along with a ton of other things; stamping, scrapbooking, putting pages in albums, and reading.  But let me show you how my stitching is going on the Mira Mystery.  I am finished section 1!  Finally!  Took me about a month, but I finally can move onto section 2.  Here is how it looked last night:

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While the above picture shows the stitching colors better, the photo below shows how the fabric actually looks:

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I have seen the mystery stitched in full by other stitchers on the facebook group, and she is a beauty!  Just wait until you see that sweet face!

I also finished this yesterday:

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The baby shower is on Saturday, so I finished in great time.  I really love how this turned out!  The pattern is beautiful and while I didn’t think the colors would be great together when I started, I am loving them now.

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So it is all ready to be packaged up.  Just have to add a tag and washing instructions.  I also made a card to match.

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The nursery theme is owls in these colors, so this card is perfect.

So that is what I have been working on this week.  What have you been creating?

Lots of Stitching Going On
Afghans · Crochet · cross stitch · knitted scarves · Mirabilia · Nora Corbett · Romanitc · Uncategorized · yarn

Lots of Stitching Going On

My Time Stitching14 Comments

I have been so busy this week and getting quite a bit done, too.  Yesterday I put together all of my tax stuff for my home business so that Hubby can start on the taxes this weekend.  What a job.  I promise not to wait until the last minute for this years taxes (fingers crossed I can stick to this one) I have also been getting in some stitching.

First, I finished this over the weekend:

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The colors remind me of cotton candy!  Love it.  I have so many balls of scarf yarn, and my goal is to get them all stitched up by the end of the year.  I have already stitched several and gave them away.  But not a big dent in my pile yet.

I am still stitching on the Mira Mystery.  I picked up section 3 over the weekend.  I am still on section 1, so I had better get moving on this one.  Here is where I left it last night:

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I also picked up my back ordered Weeks Dye Works Threads so I am trying to fill in the blanks.  Mostly the green vines and the darker green leaves.

While out shopping this weekend, hubby bought me these:

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I’m not sure I would be any good at knitting and crocheting little things and turning them into something, but I love a lot of the items in each of the books.  The items on both covers are really interesting and pretty.  I’d like to give them both a go sometime.

And while out shopping, I picked up some yarn and a pattern for a baby blanket.  I have a baby shower coming up in a few weeks and I wanted to make the Mama to be a blanket for her baby boy that will be here soon.  Her nursery colors are Turquoise, purple and brown.  I had quite the time trying to find those colors in a baby yarn or sport yarn.  I spent so much time looking for patterns and then yarns to match. So I ended up picking worsted weight Red Heart Yarn.  This is what I ended up with:

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I already love the pattern and it was quite easy to memorize.  So I will be able to take it on the go if I need to.  Just hope I can finish before the shower. Oh and I am the photographer at that shower!  No, I am not a photographer.  I just love to take pictures.  So the mother of the Mom to be asked if I would come and photograph the shower.  I am really nervous about doing it.  Not something I have done before.  I have so many “what if’s” in my head, but now I am telling myself to just do what I would do at any family function.  So I will try. Then I will teach the Mom to scrapbook the pictures so that she can make a scrapbook to give to her daughter when the baby is born.

So, that is all my stitching news for now.  What projects are you working on?

Pixie Anne All Framed Up
cross stitch · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Nora Corbett · Pixie · Uncategorized

Pixie Anne All Framed Up

My Time Stitching36 Comments

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I picked this sweet thing up from the framer this last weekend. I was really surprised at how small she is.  I think it is the smallest thing I have ever had framed!   I think the frame is awesome!  A little different than what I have chosen in the past, but I think it really sets Pixie Anne off beautifully.  I can’t wait for hubby to hang her in my craft room tonight.  I am having a problem picking exactly where I want to hang her. I have so much empty wall space to choose from 😉

In case this is your first time seeing her, she is Queen Anne’s Lace by Nora Corbett.  This pattern was in the April issue of Just Cross Stitching Magazine.  I stitched her on 16ct Aida Carmel Macchiato from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.

Believe it or not, Queen Anne’s Lace was my very first Nora Corbett Pixie that I have stitched.  I don’t know why.  I have just about all of her Pixie patterns, but haven’t stitched any until now.  At one point I was going to stitch 9 of the flower pixies on an afghan.  I have since abandoned that idea since the beads would not be a good idea on a blanket and I just couldn’t stitch a pixie without all the beautiful beads and metallic threads.  I wonder which Nora Corbett Pixie I will stitch next???

Who is your favorite cross stitch designer or what is your favorite subject to stitch?  If you are a knitter or crocheter, what do you most like to stitch?

My Mira Mystery Start
cross stitch · Mirabilia · Nora Corbett · WIP

My Mira Mystery Start

My Time Stitching20 Comments

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So this is my Mira Mystery start.  Not much, but still a start.  I have mixed feelings about this one.  I am stitching this on 16ct Aida Pink Impatiens by Silkweaver.  The color is actually a little darker than my photo, but the stitching colors are pretty accurate.  I am using the called for Specialty threads (Weeks Dye Works and Classic Colorworks)  I am thinking that they may be thinner than DMC because I am not getting good fabric coverage. Any thoughts on this?  Since I have so much $$ invested in this one, I will keep going with it.

So, what are you stitching on today?