Whatchaupto?

Hi, stitching friends!

Whatchaupto? (Translation: What are you up to?) I closed my Facebook account about a year ago, and since then, my blog has become my only "social networking" medium for keeping in touch with my family and friends. (Hi, Mom!)

Here's what I've been up to the last month:

1. Halloweening...

Continuing work on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow, and I'm on track to finish by my September 1 deadline. Square five is so colorful, and with the nautical theme, I think it's my favorite. It took a long time to stitch because except for the strip at the top, it's fully covered in stitches. I was relieved to finally finish it, but it was so much fun. I thought about changing the color of the mermaid's skin to be more flesh-colored and less white, but then I thought, no, when I'm underwater, I look pretty bleached out, too!

Square six is half of a two-square spread in the middle of the design. It was hard for me to stop at that hard line on the right and not go pull out the pattern for square seven. I don't like leaving things unfinished!

2. Tracking Time...

I've put in 31 hours on the Summer Schoolhouse SAL with RJ and Mary from Stitching Friends Forever. (For my non-stitching readers, SAL stands for "Stitch-Along.") This is my first SAL, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm using the called-for fabric and threads, stitching over one on 28-count mushroom lugana. Do you like over-one stitching? Sometimes when I start I groan a little bit, but then I get into it and stop complaining! You can read more about the SAL and see photos of RJ's and Mary's progress at their blog linked here: Stitching Friends Forever.

This is the first time I've ever tracked hours on a project. It's mind-blowing to consider how many hours go into a project, isn't it?

3. Gifting...

Many of you have experienced firsthand the generosity of our friend Robin in Virginia. When Robin heard that I wasn't going to do the SAL with RJ and Mary because the patterns were cost-prohibitive at the time, she sent me the entire series. I'm still simply over the moon and in awe of her kindness. I asked what I could do in return, and she suggested that I make an ornament for her wrought-iron ornament tree. So, I made this little guy for her....

The pattern is called "All Dolled Up" by Little House Needleworks. I stitched him while we were on vacation in Oregon in December last year and finished him just for Robin. The "coal" eyes and buttons are matte black beads. I stitched the ornament on 28-count coffee/tea-dyed linen. The ornament is laced onto foam core, which is mounted on a fabric-covered backing. Handmade cording, a fabric bow and a fun "2019" charm finish it off.

I used the called-for threads, except I substituted coffee-dyed white thread for the white in the snowman. (To do this, take a skein of DMC white and drop a little bit of strongly brewed coffee on the thread here and there - a little goes a long way. Let the thread dry and voilah - a rustic white thread.)

4. Reconnecting...

April has been a great month so far. I've reconnected with a friend from high school I haven't seen in almost a year (or more?!). I spent a weekend with my husband and friends at their cabin in Crouch, Idaho. I spent Easter weekend with my mom, and we celebrated my niece's 19th birthday. My niece has grown into such a lovely person. She is a freshman at Boise State studying chemistry, and it was awesome to be able to help her celebrate.

5. Gardening...

I started a garden. We have a large (24' x 36') garden spot in the backyard, but I'm just not up to anything that big this year. My husband dug up a 3' x 3' spot for me, and we pulled out a 2' x 4' raised bed we used several years ago. I planted onions, carrots, kale, lettuce, beets and ONE cherry tomato plant. I LOVE growing a garden - from the planning (see the diagram to the right - I am a total planning nerd when it comes to the garden), to the day when the first little sprouts peek through the soil, to the harvesting and especially the eating....

This year's garden is scaled waaaay back from years past, but the last garden we grew was such a disaster that I needed some time to get over it. (We brought home some organic tomato plants, and it turned out they were all diseased. One by one, every plant in my garden died.) We usually have great success, so fingers crossed this will be a good year. We are only planting one tomato plant - we are still a little wary from last time.

6. Dreaming...

And, hmmm.... what else? Oh, yeah! Shawn and I booked our next trip to the Oregon coast for December. Don't you find that the anticipation of a vacation is almost as good as the vacation itself? So for the next eight months we will be dreaming of the beach....

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your spring is bringing you fragrant flowers, hopes in bloom, warm weather and lots of time to stitch.

Happy (Belated) Spring!

Hi, stitching friends!

Yesterday was apparently the first day of spring. I missed it. I've had it in my head that spring is some far off fantasy time of year that only exists in my dreams. I have ventured outside in the wee hours of dawn a few times in recent weeks, scarf wrapped tightly around my neck, to walk the poor dog, who has been cooped up for months. Yesterday I did some spring decor shopping at Michael's, thinking I was well ahead of the game (so forward-thinking of me!), some bra shopping (yuck) and shopping with the boy for some new Levis.

It was a lovely mid-60s kind of day, and I had every intention of going to Costco, too, but then the winds picked up, like a March lion, angry and fierce, and suddenly my eyes were dry and itchy and I just felt wiped out. I scurried home to the warmth and comfort of my craft room. It got so windy that Thomas complained he couldn't play basketball outside because the wind kept blowing his shots away from the hoop.

When Mr. Wonderful came home from work, he mentioned in passing that it was the first day of spring. I had to check the calendar because I didn't believe him.

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow Update

I'm making good progress on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow. I finished block four last month and am working on block five. I love the effect of the long, straight stitches on the bats' wings.

Block five is almost fully covered in stitches, so it is taking a bit longer than the others, but this block is my favorite of them all. I have been looking forward to it. I think the details stand out better when I stitch the background first and then fill in the objects above; otherwise, if I stitch the smaller objects first, they get "buried" by the background stitches and I lose detail. (Does that make sense?) Plus, it's fun to guess what's coming by the silhouettes in the background.

Adobe Creative Cloud is my new best friend

Last time I posted, I was agonizing over losing Photoshop and trying to decide if an app called "Acorn" would work in its place.

While it did work, I couldn't get used to it. I decided to download the free trial of Adobe Creative Cloud's subscription-based Photoshop CC 2019. I love it. I get access to the entire line of Adobe fonts as well, and I'm a font junkie. So this makes me really happy. The new Photoshop is waaaaay cooler than the version I had, and whenever they update the program, I get instant access to the new updates as well.

So I've been doing a little digital scrapbooking on the side, something I used to do a lot of and I miss. Most of the time I tend to scrapbook baby photos, but I have been trying to use current photos more often in my layouts. But who am I kidding? I just love those baby photos! Here's a layout of my nephew holding Thomas when Thomas was four months old:

So. Much. Fun! My nephew has a temporary tattoo on his forehead, in case you're wondering what that red blob is. My sister-in-law is standing behind them in the photo.

Special Thanks

Sending a shout-out to Carol of Stitching Dreams for helping me with a cording question. She sent me a step-by-step, photo-intensive tutorial that she created, and it has helped me immensely. I am actually looking forward to finishing some ornaments thanks to Carol, and that's really saying something. I usually think of "finishing" as a four-letter word.

Carol will be posting her tutorial soon on her blog, so watch for it. It's awesome!

Another very special thanks to Robin in Virginia for sending me the Summer Schoolhouse series charts. I'm doing a SAL with RJ and Mary of Stitching Friends Forever and I'm loving every minute. Watch this space for updates.

Until next time, dear friends. I hope you are seeing beautiful signs of spring. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. I have enjoyed getting to know you through your comments and emails.

Goodbye, Old Friend

Hi, stitching friends!

I just finished erasing the hard drive on my old buddy so I can send it off for recycling. I'm sad. It's still so pretty, and we've spent a lot of fun hours together.

Part of me wants to keep it around, just in case it really isn't failing. But there are definite perks of the new iMac:

• The retina display is a-MA-zing.
• It's sooo fast.
• My favorite game loads and runs really fast (but since that distracts me from housework and stitching, that may not be a good thing).
• It doesn't randomly put itself to sleep while I'm working.
• It looks just like the old iMac, unless you look at it from the side. It's so... thin.

But there is one HUGE drawback:

• Photoshop won't work.

I found out (too late) that Photoshop CS5 is not compatible with the latest Apple operating system. I've tried the fixes, but it still won't load anything without crashing. I can pay $10 a month to use the new Photoshop online, but before I go that route, I'm trying out a new graphics program for Mac called Acorn. I've used Photoshop for about 20 years, so learning something different feels like learning to cross stitch with my left hand. While walking AND chewing gum.

Fellow bloggers, what photo- and graphics-editing software do you use?

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow update

Block 2 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow is going great! I want to have it stitched and framed before Halloween, and since I started in mid- to late January, I need to stitch three blocks (of the 12) every two months. I'm ahead of schedule!

Block 3 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

I finished block three late last week.

Blocks 2 and 3

Block 4 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow
with my Charlotte's Web needle minder from Mad for Minders on Etsy

I started block four last Friday. I had the border, words and lightning finished when we left town to spend the weekend with friends at their cabin in Crouch, Idaho. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted that we were going to the cabin? We ended up cancelling then because of snow, and then our friend Rob got a nasty cold.

We went this past weekend instead. We arrived to find three feet of snow on the ground! It snowed all weekend, and when we left Sunday morning, there was a fresh foot of snow on Rob's truck. (Thank goodness for friends with four-wheel-drive!) As we pulled into Boise, it was raining, and I'm sure people were wondering where we brought all that snow from.

Image from With Thy Needle and Thread blog

Stitching Friends Forever SAL

I'm gearing up to start the "Summer Schoolhouse" SAL with RJ and Mary from Stitching Friends Forever next month. A reader was very generous and sent me the first three patterns in the series, with the fourth to come later, and I have my fabric and floss ready to go. Just waiting to hear the ready, set... go! If you want to read the story behind this series, you can on Brenda Gervais' blog here.

Until next time, friends. I hope that wherever you are, you are warm and safe with promises of spring peeking up here and there. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!