Saturday, October 1, 2022

Goodness, where did September go.  It seems to have gone by very quickly.  We’ve had our first chilly nights in the upper 30s low 40s this week and I do love the crispness in the air. It’s in the upper 50’s right now, sunny and I’ve got the door cracked over to let in some fresh air – so a beautiful day here. I do not like the darkness lingering when I go to catch the bus now and all too soon it will be dark when I get off the bus.  But nothing I can do about that so I shall just enjoy the trees that are starting to change colors.  I saw a gorgeous maple on the way home earlier this week totally ablaze in red and oranges and golds – beautiful!

So, was I successful with my Sampler September stitching?  I think I was very successful.   My initial plan before the beginning of September was to start a project for Stitch Camp, then about mid-month start a second sampler (just because you can never have too many samplers) and then at some point in the month, work on my New Years Sampler that was a start-along with Judy last Christmas.

The first project I started was for #SamplerCamp2022 with Sheri at the Colorado Crossstitcher.   Camp runs thru the end of December so I didn’t have to have it finished by the end of this month.  I started it a few days early (Aug. 29 I think) because this year we could use a WIP if we wanted for Camp.  If you go to that hashtag on Instagram, you can see all kinds of lovely samplers, big and small, in the works and already finished from other “campers” that are participating.  Except for the left side border, I think the rest of this was stitched in September and here’s how far I am now.

So about mid-month I was trying to decide what second sampler I wanted to work on.   Judy had been talking about this chart, which I had already kitted up with floss, so I found some fabric in the stash and started it September 17.  Here’s how far I’ve gotten on that.   I’ve stalled on the covered wagon I’m stitching on it.  I’ve stitched and ripped and restitched a good portion of it about three times now trying different threads to get the “canvas” of the covered wagon to show up on my fabric.  I think I may rip this white out and try one other color and I may end up having to backstitch just the canvas portion of the wagon to make sure it shows up but will cross that bridge when I get to it.   This one is in time out until later in the month after my other plans are finished.

Then a week ago I pulled out New Years Sampler and will continue to work on this one until it is finished before going back to the other two samplers.  Here’s how far I got last night.

Those two longer motifs under the two cardinals in the center took forever to do last night — or maybe it was because I was watching a good movie at 2AM and had to pay attention to the movie so I didn’t miss something, so was stitching slower.  🙂  But I love how the greens look in that motif directly below the cardinals – the way the greens seem to alternate lighter and darker in each section.  That is all one piece of floss and the reason why I love this project so much.  The design is beautiful but the hand dyed flosses from Owl Forest make it even more beautiful.

So that’s my Sampler September stitching.    I do have one small project I might want to start in the next few days as I think I have it slated to be a gift, so best not to leave it to last minute.  That is Olga’s Tart.

She looks like a rather independent cat with a cattitude and I love that she’s striped (even tho I am not a cat fan myself, Plum Street Samplers has several charts featuring Olga that are really cute).  And I have done one tart pan finish like she is and really liked it.

So plans for October – always subject to change and where my whims take me –  but first and foremost in what I want to accomplish is finish the New Years Sampler.  I need to make sure the couple things for Christmas gifts are well in hand and maybe do some finishing on those as well.