Well I’ve wasted most of the morning. Stayed up way too late last night stitching (the story of most days around here) and then I couldn’t fall asleep which is always so annoying. Then about the time I decided I’d just get up, I conked out and slept much much later and have been slow moving ever since. But I’ve been puttering doing laundry and folding laundry and finally started the coffee pot (note to self it should NOT take this long to make a pot – it definitely needs a vinegar cleaning later today). Exciting start to my Sunday, right? 🙂
I did get the sewing room table cleared off yesterday and everything that was on it put in its proper place or tossed out so that was progress. Now at least I have room to organize the rest of the stuff that needs to be put away. While putting away framing, cross stitch stuff, I pulled out a piece of some 25 count Lugana that I had gotten to see how it was to stitch on with one thread over one stitch and if it would be too small for me to see. I had been contemplating using Lugana for a chart that is quite large so that it would end up being a smaller finished project but wanted to do a test run. So last night I pulled out the Jack O Lantern Jubilee collection by Brenda Gervais I had shown not long ago which as cute Halloween-themed projects in it.
I decided to make Broom Hilda. If I were using 14 or 16 count Aida which I would normally do for smalls like this, the stitched area would be 3.25 to nearly 4″ tall. But on this Lugana she will be a wee 2″ tall once her broom and everything else is added.
She’s got a little white pumpkin in her hand but it’s not showing up well so I think I’ll rip that out and make it a different color. Her dress was supposed to be blackish gray but I happened to come across a purple I liked instead. You can see my stitching at the top of her dress is a bit more even than at the bottom. I started the project at the bottom of her dress so there are spots where the fabric shows thru due to my pulling stitches a bit too much and moving the Lugana out of square since it gives more than Aida and of course due to the photo being zoomed in it shows more – in looking at it normally you can’t see that. So just a little bit of different tensioning needed for me to stitch on Lugana. And I can see 25 count without the magnifier.
And once again it’s Chart Adoption Sunday. If you are new to Chart Adoption Day, go to the top of the blog and click the tab for “Chart Adoption Information” so you know the rules. Last week’s chart up for adoption was Simple Gifts. The random number generator has picked Christine Hartman. Congratulations! All five adopters of the charts from the previous week have contacted me with addresses but just a heads up to them, I was only working at the office 2 days this past week and didn’t get them in the mail before I left. I’m working from home all this week so they won’t get mailed out until after Labor Day when I’m back in the office. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished off any charts lately so there is no chart to put up for adoption this week but remember to check on Sundays since that is the day I post any charts that are up for adoption. When I get to the point of culling out some of the quilting patterns I have already made or decide I will never make, some of those will go up for adoption as well in the future.
Now to refill the coffee cup and delve back into that disaster I call a sewing room to see what else I can get cleaned up in there. I also need to clean up the area around my stitching chair. Yesterday while cleaning the sewing room I finally finished putting together a little wooden side table I had bought to put next to my chair to hold my stitching stuff. Finally the plastic storage tub I had been using (when I broke my arm I pushed out a tub on wheels to use as a catch all surface for stuff I needed at hand and that’s been there ever since) can go back in the closet where it belongs since it’s filled with finished knitted items.
And, while cleaning the sewing room I’ll be contemplating (1) do I want to start a new cross stitch project for Sampler September (who knew there was such a thing?! – not me until recently). Are you starting a new project for Sampler September? I think I may just work on getting a Changed World finished and there’s also the Dog Declaration sampler I need to get back to. And (2) I’ll be contemplating what fabrics on those fabric shelves do I want to use when making Halloween Silhouette – the pattern I showed yesterday. Hope you have a lovely Sunday, contemplating things that make you happy!
Justquiltin with Denise Russart 
Love the purple dress too!
I had a similar Saturday night – Sunday morning. My sleep was interrupted at 1:30 by a smoke alarm that was beeping intermittently. We have five in a small area, and I couldn’t figure out which one it was, finally at 3:30, it was the one in my sewing room. I nodded off stitching later in the day, not an official nap, but I felt a little better.
Those designs are so cute! Hate to keep asking questions but what color did you use for the black dot in the baskets (upper ones near the words) for A Changed World? I was about to start working on them and there’s nothing in the legend and says what color the black dot is. This is my first current pattern after about a 25 year break from cross-stitching and I’m finding so many mistakes on this pattern and wondered if that is common these days. It wouldn’t be so aggravating if the designer had an errata section on her website.
That black dot in the baskets should really have been a bold X symbol so use whatever color you are using for that symbol.
Thank you!!