Fierce but Friendly

I had such fun this week stitching W. Herr Wolfe's face and fur. I loved seeing his face come to life with each color and stitch. I think he's probably more friendly than he is fierce, don't you think?

I'll be finishing up the green French knot ground cover this evening which will allow me to go ahead and complete the bottom straight line borders. I practiced a few of the twisted Lazy Daisy stitches to be used on the pumpkin stems and found that I need to practice a little more. I didn't have a problem with them when we used them on Stirha's logs under her cauldron but, since we are using a different thread this time,  my threads aren't stacking up like I want them to. 

My Autumn Trees canvas arrived from Ruth Schmuff this week. What fun this canvas is going to be! I love the thread kit as much as I love the canvas - hot pinks, oranges, reds, Swarovski  sequins and beads - it's so colorful!

Andrew and Anna were here for the weekend and are, sadly, on their way back to Jacksonville. Anna and I had fun yesterday attending a Christmas tree decorating workshop at a local store, Cudos. Their head buyer/store decorator gave a great hour-long demonstration of different tree decorating techniques. It was pretty amazing and so interesting to see how all of those "professionally" decorated trees in the stores get that way. Here's the top one third of a tree that we were shown how to decorate yesterday -

There are no ornaments in this upper part of the tree - just floral picks with either sparkly greenery or glittery green and red stars and balls. The bright green object on the upper left is a lighted top hat. There were some color co-ordinating lighted gift boxes scattered throughout the rest of the tree. The decorator's advice was not to "overthink" the decorating - just go for it! He told us that he lives in a small 2 bedroom bungalow and has a total of 13 Christmas trees decorating his house. Can you imagine?  He has one Christopher Radko tree that has about 300 ornaments on it! All of the decorations used on the trees in Cudos are available for purchase but it's a little overwhelming trying to decide which ones to add to the decorations you already have. I'll have to go back when the store is a little less crowded. Andrew brought all of my decorations down from the attic so I can begin the decorating process any day now or at least the planning process. When do you start your Christmas decorating? Or have you already decorated?

Hope you all have a great week and find some time for stitching!

Halloween Isn't Over, Is It?

Well, the calendar says Halloween is over, but in my little stitching world, Halloween never ends. There are still three Halloweenie characters to finish and a Haunted House as well. Then there is my "boo' canvas waiting in the wings and the autumn trees from Ruth Schmuff that will arrive any day now. Can't forget the two Halloween-themed ribbon candy canvases by Melissa Shirley, either. One of these years I will get around to a Christmas theme - my Christmas needlepoint is severely lacking!

I put away the Halloween decorations today and had the same feeling that I usually have in January when the Christmas decorations are packed away for the year. The house looks so empty! But, just for a couple of weeks and then I can decorate for Christmas. Poor Thanksgiving gets lost (decoration-wise) between Halloween and Christmas.

I may try to remedy that situation in part by signing up for Amy's 2011 home study featuring Melissa Shirley's Thanksgiving banner. You can see the Thanksgiving canvas here. Very cute!

In the Halloweenies world, W. Herr Wolfe is pleased to have the major work on his pants and jacket finished and his tombstone, too. This afternoon I'll get started on his face. The stitching on this character seems to be moving along more quickly than some of the others. Hope you're finding the same thing in your stitching as well. Here's the werewolf's latest photo:

Why is it that you take a photo of your stitching and all of your mis-stitches (for lack of a better term) immediately pop out at you? Is it the different lighting? Or is it a case of looking at something so much while you stitch it that you really don't see it anymore? Does that make sense? There are a couple of places in the stitched areas that bother me (but not enough to make me want to rip them out and start over) that I didn't notice until I took the current photo.  I suppose we are our own worst critic!

That's it from a chilly Augusta - 33 degrees and a light frost this morning! Have a wonderful week!

The Bride and Groom Return Home and Other News

Bridezilla and her Groom returned home yesterday! What a wonderful surprise! They're sorry they missed Halloween but it was a low key one around here anyway, so they didn't miss much. But, I'm thrilled that they are back! Marlene worked her magic again and they make a lovely couple.

They were anxious to see Stirha and Frank and renew their longtime friendship. Everyone posed on the mantle for a family portrait.

Seeing the four of them together made me realize that the mantle will be a crowded place once all of the Halloweenies are finished.

The UPS man has no idea how happy he made me yesterday! Not only did he bring me the wonderful package from Marlene, but he brought me a package with this in it from Amy's:

I resisted this canvas as long as I could (which wasn't very long if the truth is told). I'll finish the XOXO canvas first before starting this one, I promise. I love these striped canvases by & more. So much fun! Check out the snazzy zebra print tissue paper that my goodies were wrapped in!

The other highlight of my day was finding out that Pat Conroy has a new book - My Reading Life - and that he will be in Jacksonville (Neptune Beach, actually) on December 7th for a book signing. Guess where I will be? My Reading Life is a work of non-fiction for Conroy and is about the books and characters that have influenced him in some way or another. I downloaded My Reading Life onto my Kindle this morning and am looking forward to a nice cup of Tazo Chai Tea as I sit down to begin reading it this afternoon. Conroy says that he will never own a Kindle - he likes the way real books feel, look, and smell. I do, too, but I wish he would give it a try. Even though I have downloaded the new book, I'll be buying the hard copy as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I think I should probably go do some work. Too many needlepoint and book distractions today!

I voted - did you?

Happy Halloween!

Boo, y'all! Hope your Halloween weekend has been a wonderful one - mine has! I just drove home from Jacksonville where I spent the weekend with Andrew and Anna and their kitties, Buddy and Elvis. While I hated to leave all of them, I needed to get home to my own Little Girl who spent the weekend home alone. She (and the house) seem none the worse for the wear. She is an indoor/outdoor cat, so for her to spend the entire weekend inside by herself is quite a change. At the moment, she's happily lounging in the sun on her favorite chair on the patio.

We were an unhappy group Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of the Georgia-Florida game. Our Bulldogs lost in overtime. This afternoon I think I was passed on I-95 by every Georgia fan heading north out of Jacksonville who attended the game. I've never seen so many silver, black, and red cars decorated in everything imaginable that featured a bulldog or the Georgia "G".

W. Herr Wolfe didn't get to make the trip to Jacksonville this weekend, but I took a photo of my progress Friday morning before I left home.

I think I made some nice progress last week. My work schedule has eased up recently so I had more time and more energy to devote to stitching. I love the pumpkins as always, especially the one on the left since we haven't used that stitch before. The darker pumpkin has such rich colors which look great next to the blue pants and green jacket. In Amy's Tips in the stitch guide, she notes that the fabrics are supposed to have a thick, coarse look to them. I think she certainly achieved that look with the stitches and threads she chose for the jacket and pants. Both stitches move along easily. For the pants, once I had stitched the initial dark lines in continental, I chose to start the main stitch for the pants with the continental stitch portion of the pattern. It just made it easier for me to see where I needed to go with the pattern. Tonight I look forward to settling in with the stitching on the upper portion of the jacket.

Don't miss Amy's November newsletter that was just posted. There's lots to read about our Halloweenies project. I must go out and buy the eyelashes for use in the next phase of the Haunted House. Have you bought yours yet? Be sure to check out Colleen's photos of her finished Halloweenies - they look great!

Speaking of finished projects, look what was waiting for me when I returned home:

Marlene did another great job with my "merry christmas" canvas which I purchased from Amy's last year. The fabric is a small white on white stripe with a pale green cording around the pillow. The cording around the needlepoint itself is red, green, and white. It looks so beautiful on my white sofa in the living room but it will be just as pretty on my white bedspread in my pale green bedroom.

Bridezilla and her groom didn't make it into the box from Marlene's. I had not really expected them to but I hope it won't be long until they return home.

Hope you have a great week and I hope no tricks are played on any of us tonight!

Goodnight Dr. Acula, May You Rest In Peace

Say goodnight to Dr. Acula as he prepares to find a nice dark place to rest while his friend, W. Herr Wolff, steps up for his time in the spotlight.

I finished Dr. A on Saturday after receiving some last minute beading suggestions from Amy. I appreciate Amy and Robin trying to help with my struggles with the peyote beading on the coffin handles. But, as you will see from the photo above, despite Amy's attempt to help, I was unable to stitch the coffin handles in the peyote beading technique called for in the stitch guide. I could never get my beads to stack correctly or get the tension correct. After a total of about three hours spent on the beading and being unhappy with each attempt, I finally decided to just go with the string of beads on the two rows. I think it looks perfectly acceptable and much better than if I had continued with the peyote beading. The coffin handles rank right up there with Frank's pants on the frustration meter. Both defeated me!

On the other hand, there was so much I loved about stitching this character. I loved the shading and stitches on the coffin itself and the knobs. I think Dr. A's kitty is adorable in her matching coffin with the green lining. I also really enjoyed stitching the puffy orange lining of Dr. A's coffin. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I was surprised at how prominent the candelabra became in the scene once it was stitched. I was glad we had some previous experience (Haunted House) with the stitch for the candelabra

before tackling it. The other element that I enjoyed was the background stitch. I could have kept going with the X's!

So, many thanks to Kelly Clark for another great Halloweenie design and to Amy for creating a wonderful stitch guide and thread selection!

Now, it's on to our werewolf friend. Despite the fact that I didn't get started on him until after the full moon had passed, W. Herr Wolff is pretty pleased with the moonlit nights we have been experiencing lately. We stayed up late last night stitching the bottom border and waited until this morning to add the moons and stars.

I'm not thrilled with the moons I stitched and the stars are just ok. I think I would have preferred using the moon and stars charms that Robin used on Katt Z. Witch. The second border is moving along very quickly - always a nice thing!

We have had another beautiful weekend here in eastern Georgia. I've spent the greater part of the afternoon on the patio. An added advantage to that is that I haven't had to listen to the phone ring with one robo-call after another from all the candidates running for office. Election day can't come soon enough - in so many respects!

If I go back inside, I may give in to the temptation of fixing the Betty Crocker Chocolate Molten Lava mini cakes. It was one of the Buy One, Get One Free items at Publix this week. I have had hard time passing up the BOGO items.

Well, that's it for me. Hope you all have a great week and squeeze in some quality stitching time!

Have You Been to the Pumpkin Patch Yet?

Or are you waiting for the Great Pumpkin to pay a visit? It won't be long now!

This is the pumpkin patch at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I would take any of these glass pumpkins home. They were available for purchase in the garden shop - about $200 each. Not surprisingly, I didn't take any home with me!

Night time in my kitchen when the lights are off and only the candle is lit.

I'm off to go work on the last little bit that needs to be finished on Dr. Acula. Check back tomorrow where hopefully we will all see a finished photo of Dr. A. It's too beautiful a Saturday to sit inside and stitch so Dr. Acula is going out into the sunlight one more time. It's really killing him, though. Just kidding, no vampires were hurt in this stitching project.

Dr. Acula Caught Out in the Broad Daylight!

What was I thinking taking the good Dr. A out in the broad daylight this afternoon? I was thinking that it was too beautiful an afternoon to spend inside stitching the background for Dr. A! We had the most beautiful weekend and I tried to spend as much of it outside as I could. I had to bring work home again and fortunately it was work that could be done at the table on the patio.

For background entertainment, the annual air show that takes place at the airport about a half mile from my house was in full gear all afternoon yesterday and today. I have seen lots of airplane acrobatics, a precision flying team, and parachutists without leaving the comfort of my own patio. I didn't see this,  but I did hear/feel the jet truck that roars down a runway at 325 miles an hour racing (and beating) a plane flying above it. This is one of those events that always signals the fall season for me. It makes me a little wistful, too, as it was a tradition for my father to take my son to the air show. My father passed away several years ago and my son is now grown and has moved away to Jacksonville. But, the air show keeps on going!

You are probably growing weary of reading that I haven't made much progress on Dr. Acula. I continue to think that my work schedule will slow down but I suppose it really won't until college football begins to wind down. I can't remember if I told you that I work for a company that produces a novelty product for the collegiate market. We're thankful to be so busy, but really! All this work is cutting in to my stitching time!

Dr. A survived his trip outside in the daylight but is much happier to be back in the house. He isn't accustomed to be stitched in daylight hours, especially outside. I'm making progress on the background and would love to think that I'll finish that part this week. I keep forgetting all of the beading that needs to be done for the coffin handles. There are little bits and pieces of other things to be finished - hands, Rhett Reviens, single line borders, and the big spider web in the upper right corner. Nothing major but it all adds up. W. Herr Wolfe is being very patient as he awaits his turn to be stitched.

I spoke to Marlene in San Francisco on Friday about my "merry christmas" pillow. We talked about the finishing and decided to go with a white on white striped fabric and red/green/white cording. We also talked about Bridezilla and the Groom (the honeymoon continues, I hear). They will be coming home from San Francisco soon! She couldn't promise them in time for Halloween, but that's ok.

Another weekend is drawing to a close. Can you believe October will be drawing to a close soon, too? Gosh, that means Christmas can't be far away! Oh, dear!

Have a good week every one!