Back to Normal

Phew!  Back to normal.  The kids went back to school this week - and only 1 day later than planned.  Due to the visit from Hurricane Irene, a few schools were without power on the originally scheduled first day so it was postponed.  Most people in town have had their power restored.  We have been much luckier than so many other people affected by Irene.   My prayers are with the folks who have lost so much from this hurricane.

I've been stitching away and kitting up even more stitching projects.  The Halloween Collection book from Just CrossStitch has been out for a week or so now.  It has some great designs from well-known designers.

My favorites so far include Knock Knock designed by Marie Driskell from Blackberry Lane Designs.  It is the piece near the bottom of the cover picture stitched on the orange hand-dyed linen.  You can't really see it in this picture, but there is a black cat inside the Jack O Lantern.

Another favorite is A Spirited Mandala designed by Tracy Horner from Ink Circles. This is a section of the design - I love the pumpkins, ghosts and spooky trees incorporated into the mandala.

And a must-stitch for me is the Penelope Pumpkin Witch design from Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books.

I love the little broom made with Kreinik ribbon.

These will be fun to stitch.

Happy Stitching.

A Little More Progress

Here's a little more progress on Moonlit Kitties.  I really like how easy it is to stitch on the perforated paper - especially if you need to grab your work and go.  It has been really convenient - although I guess that will stop when I get to the beading.  Otherwise, I envision tiny little beads all over the car.

While sorting through some charts today I found some Brooke's Books charts for Fauna the Fairy Witch, Trixie the Halloween Witch and Polly the Pirate Witch.  I found an even older Gwendolyn the Great chart as well. I think I'll start on one of these next.  They're all really cute though I'm leaning towards Fauna or Gwendolyn.

Gingerbread Friend

Here's an update my Gingerbread Friend from Brooke's Books Publishing. I need to get the stitching completed before the weekend so that I can work on the finishing with the Girl Scouts. As you can see, he will definitely benefit from some backstitching which I'll do when the cross stitching is complete. When I've actually had the chance to work on him, the stitching has progressed pretty quickly. I should be able to finish the little girl before Saturday.

Rather than finish the back as instructed, I think I will embroider a name on a piece of felt and use it for backing the stitching. Then I'll have an ornament/gift tag.

How is everyone's holiday stitching going?