A few more boxes and the Beale finish

Greetings!  Hope everyone is doing well.  First off, the finish.

 

, If you decide to do this chart, they are a several errors but easily figured out.  One that I didn't see until it was too late is the top of the lion's mane.  There should be a green stitch to the right of the left ear as on the other side.  I followed the chart and after checking the photo, realized the error but it's staying. So now what?  The chart shows the  finish with a pleated ruffle and covered button in the center.  I would really like to create that soft, sensual, plump, curved shape that I love so much.  The donut.  Something tells me I will be purchasing a few tomorrow.  I don't know who invented it, but God bless them.  I really need to think about how to sew this because I would like the center open.  I'll probably be reinforcing with mylar to hold the shape without a lot of bulky fill.

 

The bottom area where the stitcher's name should be worked out nicely with two larger words.  There weren't many appropriate five letter words to balance with peace and I thought unity worked with the lion/lamb. 

  I chose three fabrics for the backing until I realized (about 30 seconds ago) that I would prefer velvet.  Piping would be nice too, but I have to wait until the frustrations from technology calm down.  This will certainly test my patience and I don't want to take any chances.

Remember no way Hannah Way?  She was lost for a long while but I found her the other day.  But what's next is designing the Christmas Pear and getting it stitched in a day or two.  Too much going on at one time!  I added this 4", 6", tall oval, and set of 3 to the box page.  Thursday will be the day for purchases and I'm listing the photos ahead of the sale because many of you wrote to say you've missed out before.  I can't take orders because I've had problems with availability, especially the 5".  I was planning on Thursday at noon, but they changed my injection and testing to 10:45 so I'm not sure if I will be home by noon.  I better say 7pm to be fair, just in case there is a problem, and I will open the comments to include anonymous readers for the sale.

Right now I better get out the graph paper and try to remember the pear design, or maybe just start over.

Have a great day tomorrow, stay safe, stitch happy.

Thank you all for everything.

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The good mood is fading fast

Good day all.  Good mood - not so much.  I have wasted 4 solid days with labels.  Some were printed out months ago but the majority that I lost or transferred have been frustrating.  The colors are printing in awful hues when sent from the new computer.  I've wasted over $50 in ink and half a ream of card stock trying to correct the mess.  I'm done.  I have more blanks but I put them away.  If you are interested, check the Sampler Box page under my header.  I will open comments on that page for sales Thursday morning.  I may do more, but I really need to cool off.  The new tall oval is what I am interested in working with.  I would like to do strawberries for the top with simple alpha labels.  The photos were coming out weird when downloaded to the computer, Blogger wouldn't let me upload to post, and Picasa rejected half of them.  AUGH!!!  Some of the photos are a little off in color so if you would like another, just email and I'll take a few more.

 On top of it all, this is what I've been seeing in the mornings.  White crap.  And I was reminded of another reason I hate winter.  I'm nice and warm, a flash comes along and I become soaked, then I'm chilled.  Being wet in the summer temps doesn't cause a problem like the stupid fricking rotten frigid temps of winter.  But surprisingly, my mood really hasn't returned to the snarky wild woman my family knows well.  Really?  Anyway, I'm tired and going outside to burn a lot of paper and card stock, come in to a cup of coffee, and finally sit down to finish my wreath.  I'm glad I chose this design instead of another santa.  Love it.  I can also catch up on blogs which except for three or four, I haven't read for days.  Oh!  I have to work up the Sampler Pear design that was lost and stitch it before December 1.  Maybe tomorrow.  Tonight it's just me and Mary Beale.

Hope you survived the shopping weekend.  Thank you for taking time to visit and stay safe. 

Talk to you soon.

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Silk winner!

Hi everyone.  Hope your Thanksgiving was enjoyable.  The winner drawn for the silk thread is Carol from Stitching Dreams.  Many times in the previous giveaways the winner did not have a blog, but Carol sure does!  I'm sure you're all familiar with her fabulous monthly bowl of ornaments and wonderful finishing ideas.  Thank you all for participating.  I didn't remember until this evening that I had changed my settings to not allow anonymous comments and I apologize for that.  I am loaded with spam daily and it was getting to be too much. 

Not much stitching happening because I've been busy with boxes.

I plan to have them all finished this week but there are so many I may have to do it through Etsy.  Otherwise, it may be too confusing.  The remaining sets of 3 will be available here but probably not the individual boxes.  I plan on stitching right now and relaxing the rest of the evening.  It turned very cold and s*** is predicted.  Can you hear my good mood shattering???

Thanks for visiting and to all who participated.  Hope to be back with the wreath finish in a few days.

Stay safe and happy stitching.

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Face off

Hello world.  I'm still in a good mood.  Has the earth shifted on its axis?  Geez.  The sun is once again gracing my area with a beautiful day and warmth.  Aside from finding more outdoor chores to take advantage of the weather, I found a few more box sets, and returned the smaller ones.  Well constructed, but I wasn't pleased with the size.  Shipping to and from was more than the boxes!  These may be the last of the sets and I will probably be offering them next week as orders. 

Now for stitching.  I wasted the entire evening on the angel's upper body.  There are lines of gold in the dress that didn't make sense (to me) so I removed them and will just keep the straight line down the center bodice.  But I'm also having problems with the face.  Charted would look something like the left, and my changes are on the right.  She made end up somewhere in the middle.

 

 

This is my method for trying a design change before stitching.  I use graph paper that is the same size or an uncharted area of the original, and lay out the stitches.  Then I position it over the area to see how it would look.  Decision time is near.

Do I like the smaller letters with four words, or the same size letter as the other areas and just one word?  I'm thinking one.  The other side could be Unity, or Love.  After last night, I'm anxious to get this completed.  Her charts are hard for me to read and I had a heck of a time and had to remove the bodice several times before changing it.  Following details in a small area has always been difficult for me, even with multicolored highlighters, but when I can't seem to make sense of the placement, I just spin my wheels.

After the dentist this morning I stopped at the antique shop and found a few more pewter pieces and decided to bring this home with me.  It's been there for quite a while and had a bunch of horns and hunting gear in it.  I emptied it all out and really need to clean it.  My FIL's house had several of these nail kegs filled with old rusty nails but I couldn't lift them and certainly couldn't use my hands to remove the contents. 
I'm still having a few computer issues and Jamie, thank you for the great suggestion.  I never thought to just run down the blog list of ones I follow!  Here's something I can't figure out.  I have always clicked on your name from your comments and I am taken to your profile page.  I can't email, follow, comment, or see any posts.  I've tried everything and even searched under your blog name and nothing comes up.  Is it because you are Google+ or something?  Just wanted to say thanks for the great idea, but you are no-reply and I can't get to your blog!!  So I'll thank you here.
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.  I'll be back Friday with the silk floss winner.  Stay safe!
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Cloves and comments

Greetings!  First off - answers to several emails about studding pears. I buy my cloves in small bottles at my local grocery.  The name is Spice Supreme and you can find them online by searching Spice Supreme Whole Cloves.  To make it easier, I'll give the link to one online grocery company where you can order these.  You may need three jars since they reduced the size again to 1.75 ounces, but maybe two is enough for one large pear.  Many have the heads missing which is common unless you order the top quality super pricey.  Those cloves are used on the pear's bottom and I also keep them in a bowl which the pomanders sit in since they are just for decoration.  I only use Bosc pears (or oranges and lemons) and I don't coat with spices.  If you want to, don't until it's completely dried.  The other thing I wanted to mention is if you are asking a question, I'm more than happy to reply. Except you may not realize when commenting or clicking to email, your Blogger settings apply.  Here's two ways to change that if you would like.  First - if you want your comments/emails available for replies, click on your name in the top right corner of the dashboard, then click Blogger Profile (or just go to your Profile page).  When the page opens, click the orange Edit Profile on the top right.  Check Show my email address.  Make sure you hit Save at the bottom. That's it!  Another way to have your email available in your profile - click your name, then Account Settings. Click Edit profile directly under your name, then Change contact settings, check Allow for email/messages from your profile page. Since we're talking computers, the tech came and I'm really happy with him. I have a clean slate, no additional programs, and none of my files could be recovered.  My fault since I tried a recovery disc when he failed to show for the first appointment. Pear charts are lost, all Favorites, photos, blogs, emails, scans and labels.  I may still change Mr. Smarty pain-in-the-pants 7 to Vista.  A very simple trick he showed me to correct the viewing size of blogs and webpages.  You probably know this but I'll tell you anyway.  On your Menu bar at the top, click View, go to Zoom, and make sure it is 100% or increase to whatever % you want.  It stays that way!  No menu bar?  Right click the very top and check Menu Bar.  Now that it's over, again, I'm sorry if I missed a request, failed to post your finished Pear photos, or haven't visited your blog.  It will take a very long while to build up my bookmarks again.  I relied on those easy clicks and can't possible remember all the blog names - I stored hundreds!

Here's the link to the cloves - sorry - got off track. 

http://www.groceries-express.com/default.asp?UPC=7611438025
You can find them in bulk on Amazon and other sites too.

I did get a little stitching time and need to decide on what to have in the bottom vines.  It is charted for your name on the left, and "her work" on the right.  I don't like to have pieces other than samplers with names and it would be a difficult fit anyway.  Because of the lamb and lion at the bottom, I'd like to use Peace, so maybe Peace Love on one side, and Unity Hope on the other.  Same amount of letters so it should balance and fit.  Well I'm glad that just popped into my head because I've been wracking the brain for a while and couldn't come up with anything!  

I hope those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving have a wonderful day with family and friends.  There will only be a few of us, which means - more pie per person!!!

Thanks for visiting - stay safe!

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Look what I got!

Hello people!  The sun is still shining and the tech kid is coming this afternoon.  Thought I better do a post to let you know.  The next post, whenever it may be, could be from my yard while sitting in broken glass.  Nah.  I'm still in a good mood.  Yesterday, Mark took me to various shops we never visited before, all a disappointment, and I yakked the whole way.  Never shut up.  He just kept looking over at me and saying "uh-huh".  When we came home, look what I found in my mailbox.

I absolutely love it!  Loraine from Sew Be It won the pink giveaway and made this for me.  Because of my computer problems I haven't been visiting blogs and didn't see her photos of the others until today.  Aren't they fabulous?  Thank you so much Loraine!  It's now in a bowl of gourds and walnuts but I really like it against the black plate too.

Here's my meager stitching progress.  My brain is already trying to process the task of making this into a wreath.  The pattern has a button in the center, but I'm removing the center to make a wreath. 

Anyone that is drying pears with me - here's mine.  Already hardened and almost completely dried.  These were more ripe when I studded than usual and they dried faster than ever.  Not sure if that was the reason, but I found a few more nicely shaped (taller and thinner) to work on this week.  Hmmmm.   Maybe one of these would be a nice offering?  Better yet - get the damn programs back to what I understand so I can redo the pear charts!

That's it!  I'm hoping this young man techie knows what he's doing.  Lots of horror stories out there about computer repair.  I'm going to have him work on this one - my only one left - to change the OS so if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why!

Enjoy your Sunday, stay safe, a big welcome to new followers, and happy stitching!

Thank you for visiting!

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