Squirrel?????

The squirrels have been busy outside my door for weeks now – hiding the walnuts they find on the hill outside my apartment.  My neighbor’s patio chair, when he picked up the top cushion thinking it had fallen over, had walnuts stacked under it.  There’s a wooden shelf unit next to my patio with unused flower pots and stuff stored on it – so far one pot is filled.   I’ll leave them there – I think they belong to “Hop-A-Long,” a squirrel I see a lot that must have a bad foot/leg because he hops along not using that one and has been a regular visitor outside my door since last winter.  He is also a nosey squirrel and often if I have the bottom of the blind up on the door will come see what I am doing.

So those are the squirrels outside but any cross stitcher knows that announcing a “squirrel!!!” means they have gotten distracted from what they are working on and their attention is now on the next project they want to work on.    I did finish one section I had to fill in on Peppermint Bark but I got to thinking about some turkey charts I’ve been wanting to stitch, hence I now have to decide which of these I want to start and pick out the fabric and pull flosses to start on it later tonight.   So here are the two in contention for my attention:

Turkey Love  by Plumb Street Samplers

and the other is Thankful Quaker by Bent Creek.

I love them both and they are both about the same size but I think I’m in a mood to settle in with one I don’t have to be constantly changing colors on and Quaker motifs you need to pay a bit more attention to.  So, I think it will be Turkey Love that gets started first.

Are you doing and fall/ Thanksgiving themed stitching?

October 29, 2022 – another lovely fall day

I would be happy if we continued this kind of weather until oh, say, mid-December!   It’s a pretty fall day, although our leaves are not getting past peak and the colors are not as pretty as the leaves are definitely falling, but it’s at least mid-50s if not a little warmer at the moment and sunny.

Friend Judy had stitched this chart and I decided I wanted to stitch it for the friend who has one Christmas tree with all dog ornaments on it.  I’ve got two ornaments with dogs done, so this will be added to those.

So I started it

 

 

This was a piece of 20 count left over fabric, which is actually tighter than 20 count due to hand dying, and it just wasn’t fun to stitch on at night (which is when I do most of my stitching) and although it doesn’t look bad in this photo, the white was not really giving the coverage I wanted.

So I restarted it

The fabric color is not showing up correcting – it’s a brighter green and very pretty.  This is 18 count and one strand was not giving the right coverage and then I restarted it with two strands, and these stitches look too crowded and scrunchy and uneven.  So I restarted it again……

Again – fabric looking little washed out.   It’s 14 count PTP in the color Lupine using two strands of floss.  The floss I picked from the stash are two Victorian Mottos, Ribbons and Bows (red) and Traditional Wreath (Green) and then DMC B5200 for white.  the B5200 is a super bright white and shows up well and the coverage on this piece is excellent.  However, as I was putting in the lettering last night, I decided it’s really large on 14 ct for an ornament if I do the wording and the green along the bottom.  So I decided not to finish the lettering and my plan is to make this a stuffed ornament sort of following the shape of the dog and then adding a hanger loop to the middle of his back.  So the lettering will be cut off and I just need to fill in those two white sections on the body and the stitching on this one will be done.  

I also did a bit of stitching on The Huntsman border and should be able to get a finish on that this weekend – unless I get distracted by some other stitch (which you know is always a possibility).