“Halloween Cat Bitty HS5772 by Heartstrings -- February 27, 2010”

Hello Everyone!

I’ve been busy catching up on life and work after our series of major snow storms. I’ve also been spending a lot of my evenings watching the Olympics and doing some new stitching which I hope to share with everyone soon. I finished one small project and I’m almost done with two more!

I’ve also started working again on the great “Needlework Organization Project” and I realized that I didn’t share with you all two of my recent finishes!

I finished the Halloween Cat Bitty, HS5772 by Pat Thode of Heartstrings on December 28, 2010. As you all know, I just LOVE Pat’s designs so this was a fun stitch.

Halloween Cat Bitty, HS5772
Designed by Pat Thode of Heartstrings
DMC Floss, DMC Perle Cotton #8

The second picture is of the threads that I added to my Totally Useless SAL container when I finished the Halloween Cat Bitty. So these are actually threads for the December, 2009 TUSAL. Okay, I know I’m late but since I took the picture I figured I would share it. LOL!

Totally Useless SAL
December, 2009

I’ll be back tomorrow with the second project that I finished on December 31, 2009.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are having a fun Saturday!

Cynthia
A Somewhat Snowy Windy Meadow

“Heartstings Bittie Pumpkin” -- February 21, 2009

First finish of 2009!

I just finished the outline stitching on the Heartstrings "Bittie Pumpkin". Wahoo!!!


There was a narrow black border around the design which was stitched with black Kreinik braid. I decided that it was a little skimpy so I stitched an additional 3 stitches in black DMC braid in Basketweave all around the ornament to make the border a little bit more prominent and to aid in finishing.

I’ve been spending a lot of time doing basketweave on several projects and I hope to have a progress picture on another project for you soon!

Glad you stopped by my blog and I hope you enjoyed my stitched Heartstrings “Bittie Pumpkin” ornament!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Heartstings Drum Nutcracker” -- January 24, 2009

I started working on “Drummer” over the Holidays but I haven’t gotten very far.



Pat Thode of Heartstrings includes stitch suggestions with all of her designs and I enjoy using her ideas. For the Drum Nutcracker she suggests stitching large and small Thodes stitches in the black border using black Kreinink metallic. The rest of the black border will be stitched in Basketweave using black Impressions.

This is working up very well but I need to stitch it during the day with daylight and with a red piece of fabric underneath. Unfortunately, we have not had too many sunny days when I was home and I had time to stitch here in Windy Meadow!

So glad that you could stop by today!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Heartstings Bittie Pumpkin” -- January 22, 2009

I’m not quite done on my Heartstrings Bittie Pumpkin but I’m close! I’ve finished stitching the design and I’m adding two to three rows of white Splendor around the outside for finishing. Should be completely finished soon!



Then I’ll write the journal entry and put it in the box to wait until it can be finished.

Hope you earned Heartstrings Bittie Pumpkin!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Stars in the Sky” -- November 22, 2008

I’ve finished the May, 2008 Canvas of the Month club. This one is by Margaret Bendig and is offered by the Rainbow Gallery.

I enjoyed stitching this design and it worked up very quickly. I added two additional rows of basketweave using the Old Gold for finishing.


I’ve had several questions about the Canvas of the Month projects. These were offered by The Stitching Post which is located in Catonsville, Maryland. They will be offering a Bargello Christmas Ornament Club again next year. This time you will be able to choose between 18 count canvas or 18 count linen. You can read about the club in their quarterly newsletter at;

http://www.the-stitching-post.com/documents/Newsletter-December2008.pdf

I’ll be signing up for the 2009 club but I need to get the rest of this year’s ornaments done. On to June’s ornament!!!


Comments, Questions, and Answers:

Pierrette,
Since I usually do rotation stitching, the Heartstrings “Chimney Santa” will probably not be finished by the Holidays. He’s actually not that little. He’s apx. 5” by 7” and that doesn’t include the background. Though I might decide to pull him back out again soon! :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I enjoy reading everyone’s comments!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Heartstrings Chimney Santa” -- November 16, 2008

I’ve been able to make some progress on my Heartstrings Chimney Santa!

When you last saw him, I had finished the face and was working on his coat. I was able to finish his coat and the fur on his coat last week! I’m planning on stitching his mittens, stocking, tree, and the star during his turn in the rotation.



Pat writes great stitch guides and even though I’m comfortable choosing my own stitches for painted canvases I usually follow her stitch guides.

The main reason that I make changes to a stitch guide is that I like full stitch coverage on my canvases. Now, before you all comment that lighter stitch coverage is perfectly acceptable and that it allows the painting to show through let me add that this is a personal preference and that I prefer to cover most of the canvas. And, yes, I’ve tried lighter stitches but I just don’t like them. :-)

I’ve modified my rotation a little bit as I’ve been playing with different options during the last few months. I’ve already discussed that rotating based on a set time doesn’t work as I can’t sit down for an hour at a time. What I’ve found that is really working is to stitch a section or sections on a project when its turn comes up in the rotation. During another post I’ll share with you how many projects I actually have in my rotation. It’s quite a few! LOL!!!

A quick note about the Mill Hill kits as I’ve been receiving some questions. For those who are interested in these kits and who have not tried them before, they are very well written and are a quick and easy stitch. The line is now carried by Wichelt Imports, Inc. To find a retailer near you, visit the Mill Hill site at;
http://www.millhill.com/

I’ve been stitching and collecting the Mill Hill kits for many years. When the Holiday decorations come out of storage again, I’ll share my finished pieces with everyone!

Madonna,
The stitch on the cuff of the “Peppermint Stripes” stocking was called Woven Ribbons. I’m not sure if it’s in Father B’s stitch book as right now my copy is deep in the reorganizing pile!

Beth,
Yes, I love the Mill Hill kits and I’ll be sharing a picture of “Merry” soon!

Jane,
Yes, the “Moonlight Ghost” is a Mill Hill kit. If you can’t find them locally, you can view the line at the Mill Hill link above.

Judy,
Thanks for letting me know about the new pens and your high tech testing methods! If they don’t run after all of the things that you have tried, they should be safe! :-)

Thanks for all of your comments and emails and for stopping by and visiting my blog!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Shopping at my LNS & Princess and Me -- April 29, 2006

Well it’s been one of those weeks and I haven’t been able to pick up a needle! Argh!!!

On Thursday was “Take a Child to Work” and I took our daughter and son. Both of our children are very well behaved and they loved spending the day at work. There are all kinds of activities and demos to show the children what goes on. But that evening we all three were exhausted! I think that anytime that you do anything out of your normal routine it’s tiring.

But I was able to go to my LNS today for their anniversary sale. The Princess and Me trunk show which was scheduled for next week was there today! More stash enhancement! I didn’t realize that every one of their canvases comes with a stitch guide... More fun… I can see if I like the fiber selection or substitute my own!

I know that I can be a bit, ummm AR, but I think it’s funny that I’m putting the canvases back in numeric order as I’m going through them… Sigh… At the LNS they think I’m funny but thank goodness in a nice way!

When I went to check out everyone gets to select a small piece of paper to see what our special anniversary discount will be. I picked 15%... Yeah!!!

You can see the “Princess and Me” designs here;

http://www.princessandme.com/

I picked up the following ones today. All three of these are discontinued and I couldn’t find any of them on the “Prince and Me” website.

“Christmas on the Fourth” C310, a fourth of July Stocking.

“Red, White and Blue!” C376, a Patriotic Candy Cane.

“Fishing for Compliments” C317, I’m not that much into fishing but he’s really cute!

After some searching I found “Fishing for Compliments” on the PFOS website. It’s low on this page;

http://www.pfos.com/Needlepoint/PrincessMe/page4.HTM

and then again on the Needle Nook of La Jolla website;

http://www.needlenook.com/designers/princess_me/index.html

Sorry I couldn’t find the others…

I love the Heartstrings Designs by Pat Thode so I picked up HS5710, “Stocking Santa Ornament” today. You can see him at;

http://www.needlenook.com/designers/artist_collection/ac_page3.html

Soooo….. even though I haven’t had time to stitch, I’m still having fun!!!

Cynthia
In Windy Meadow where we need to see who won the HGTV Dream Home!!!

Originally Posted: April 29, 2006