First I’ll let you know that there will be a spoiler farther down this post so if you ordered the Halloween Surprise box from Kitten Stitcher and don’t want to see what’s in it, scroll carefully. Once I show the little ornament stitch, the photos after that will be what was in the surprise box.
It is a beautiful fall day here; just after noon and nearly 70, sunny and a bit of a breeze. A far cry from that 20-degree morning less than a week ago. I know the warmup won’t last long but I’ll take every day of it I can get. This morning I was headed out with a friend to (1) get the latest covid shot (2) and then off for breakfast. As we drove to our destinations, I would say our area is at about peak colors for the trees and it was so pretty.
So here’s what I’ve been stitching on this week. It’s another chart from KittenStitcher.com – an exclusive chart for her shop from Hands Across the Sea (so when its gone its gone and won’t be sold elsewhere so if you like it you might want to check it out on her site) and a SAL started October 19 for this chart. I got the chart and the DMC pack and then found some fabric for it from my stash. The fabric is Forbidden Fibers 18 Count in the color Spearmint. It is the very palest pale blue and in most of my photos just looks whitish. I put in a few stitches in it on Oct. 19 when the SAL started but not much. Here’s where I am after three nights of stitching (although one of those nights I spent time winding all my floss for this and getting it on floss tags). There’s a surprising number of colors in this chart.
I started in center bottom and worked my way towards the right bottom corner. Actually I started with the center bottom border and stitched about a dozen stitches. I didn’t think the color of the border was going to show up as well as I wanted so I decided to leave the border till last – or at least until I was farther along with the other stitching – to see what I thought then and maybe change the color of the border. (The few border stitches I stitched is covered up by the floss ring I just noticed.) I do plan to make some other changes as I stitch it as well. I’m not in the “must stitch a reproduction sampler exactly as charted” camp. That’s fine for people who want to do that. But, the name of the little girl who stitched it, the date she stitched it and her age is something I will be leaving off. I loved this chart because of the flowers and vine design and the pictorial image of the little boy – so the words and the line of initials below that, some of which are really ghostly and don’t show up well, will be altered. I realized after I stitched it, that the red viney thing is probably really a letter – I may or may not leave that there. But you can see the start of the initials line – first two initials PD – and after that D is an M (which is one of the ghosty letters). I’m going to use that D and M – my first and middle initials – and I’ll add an R and leave out the rest of the initials. Looking forward to stitching that pictorial scene once I work my way up to it. I also discovered the lightest blue shade I’m supposed to add to the blue flowers doesn’t show up on my fabric either so I’ll substitute a slightly darker shade and need to pull out my color chart to see what might be good.
This is my progress on the second wee little full coverage ornament taken from the December Prairie Schooler chart. The face was stitched in a gold color, and I did that but no – that was too crazy looking so I ripped it out and will redo. But I think it’s all just fill-in work now for his coat, snow for the ground below the trees and a dark might sky above the trees and of course the face. There’s also a little backstitched bow that goes on the package sticking out of the pack on his back.
Now on to the Halloween Suprise box (last I looked there were still more available). The item description told which designers/makers items were included in the box but not exactly what they had contributed.
So here’s the first photo from the Halloween Surprise box.
The Pumpkin House is a Liz Matthews design. It’s stitched on two different fabrics – I love this design but would not stitch it on two fabrics – and am torn between stitching it as two separate items or stitching it all on one fabric. That will definitely be a fall project for next year. The Plum Street Samplers barn has pumpkins and vines and of course that cat. The item that says Witch Village on it is from The Bee Company – I’ve used their wooden buttons on many things in the past (you might remember the year I embroidered Christmas trees and then decorated them with wooden buttons and beads, etc. – those buttons were from the same company). Anyway, it includes two charts – 1 cross stitch and 1 embroidery for an outdoor scene (which I have mostly covered up) of bare tree and a bit of fence and tall grasses with the words stitched on it and the button houses get stitched along the bottom, and there’s also a little witch’s broom button to lean against the trunk and a witch’s hat button stuck up in the tree. Also in the photo is a packet of Halloween-themed Kathy Barrick labels for the back of finished framed stitches with space to write who made, when, chart, and other info to include, and next to that a package of Dames of the Needles mini chenille for finishing in the color Cauldron’s Mist.
And the rest of the items in the box:
The wooden pumpkin guy statute stands up on his own as a cute decoration. Witch Hazel is a cute La-De-Da chart with the crow holding sort of a moon/fall themed staff and obviously her finest fall hat. And the Ghosts and Goblins chart by Scarlett House is so cute too. The round item above that and the oval pumpkin head are both stickers. So there you have it – a fun surprise box indeed. I have been saving a little round metal tin – can’t remember what came in it – but it was a good size for keeping pins or other small things in and not long ago I thought I should stitch something to put on the top of it. But I think that round label might be the exact size to fit on the tin lid. If so, that may be my tin for keeping all my cross stitch needles in.
Justquiltin with Denise Russart 