Ornament Action Shots

 I can't remember if I have posted these, but I can't find them, so if I did, you get reminded of them!  

I love how my friend Heidi added my snowflake one to her Yule altar.

This pattern is from Stitch_X_Love on Etsy.  I made it for my sister.  

And everyone's favorite (Again for my sister)- Ernamernts!

DNHTNS

 I do love cross stitching on colored fabric.  I got this aida on Amazon, and have had it sitting just waiting for the right pattern.  I found it!  I think I'm gonna take this one as my "white elephant" gift for our Yule ritual!  

Pattern is by CryBabyCrossStitches on Etsy. I love love this color of aida.  I think I got it from Amazon.  

Our house is a mess right now and it's making me crazy.  But at least I have all my Christmas shopping and stuff done.  I wasn't able to do as much this year as we normally do, since we're moving and now trying to save money for a move, but I was able to do enough :)  I'm really looking forward to going out to Coldspring and spending some time with my family.  I feel like I'm really gonna be needing them over the next year with how stressful everything may be.  I'm very lucky to have them in my life!  

Anyway... post again soon!

Come and Get It!

I don't really have a lot to write about right now, but I am happy to have finished this cute little piece for my 50s aesthetic friend Anja!

I believe this is from a vintage pattern I found online.  

I'm getting both excited, anxious, and really sad for Christmas and our move.  I love Christmas and I'm really sad that this year, I don't have a tree up, and I didn't even decorate.  I haven't felt like it's Christmastime at all.  It's unseasonably warm, and I haven't seen a bunch of Christmas ads on TV.  I have only seen my favorite one a couple of times and it seems like I've seen one version that's updated and not the same.  It's the one with the Hershey's kisses where they ring the kisses like bells to the tune of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  It's my favorite Christmas commercial and has been since I was a kid.  I love that it's one of the older ones they still air.  I really like Christmas commercials (although by the middle of January, it's time to retire them, folks...).  It's almost as if the world is "Meh" about Christmas this year.  And that makes me sad, but in the US, I get it because we're scared of what's gonna happen when what's gonna happen on January 21st happens.  I can't even speak it's name.  

Another reason I haven't decorated, of course, is that we are packing up our house to move, and so there is really no place to put a tree or decorations.  But I'm really looking forward to seeing the tree and Mom and Dad's, and they also have a tree at the "old house", which is sweet.  So, I'll have a tree at some point at least anyway, and then next year, I am confident we will have a home and I can put up decorations and my tree again in 2025!

Stitching Christmas

I love to make cross stitch gifts for Christmas.  I have a few friends who really appreciate them, and so they get these from me.  

I made this one for my friend Leslie.  She is amazing AND... she loves her margaritas.  So I thought this was appropriate.  It was really fun to stitch up.  I can't wait to give it to her!

Pattern by StephXStitch on Etsy.

I did this one for one of my witchy friends.  Stitches are a little wonky but... oh well.  Pattern by MiNiceStitch on Etsy.

This one is for my friend who is a huge Swiftie.  Pattern by mirrorballxstitches.

I made this one for my absolutely magical friend Donna.  Pattern is by CrybabyCrossStitch on Etsy.

This one's for another witchy friend.  I bought this pattern a long time ago and again, I don't know who designed it. 

And as it's Thanksgiving and I finished my stitches at my parents' house, here is the charcuterie board I put together, and I don't even eat meat and cheese! I'm quite proud of this.  We had a LOVELY Thanksgiving.  Lots of food, my sister's BFF from high school was there, I got to see my silly nephew, and it was just nice to not think about everything that is stressing me out and making me sad.  I was too busy to be sad, with the stitching, cooking, eating, and hanging out with friends and family.  

Don't Let The Muggles Get You Down

 I am in a mood today... not a great one.  I am having a hard time dealing with everything going on in the country and I'm honestly a little scared about what's gonna happen.  Will we even have another election?  I'm afraid to say anything in case it puts me on a list or something... and I'm trying to stay positive and kind of just live my life the best that I can.  

So this helps... don't let those Muggles get you down!  I finished this one on Saturday.  

Pattern by ThatDarnNeedle on Etsy.  

Update date to our life upheaval- we have decided we will be moving to Colorado next year after we sell our house.  For now, we will be moving in to my parents' old house.  They moved into my grandparents' old house last year, so the house I grew up in is free and fully furnished.  So, they have graciously agreed to let us stay there, rent-free, for as long as we need.  I am beyond grateful for my parents.  They are sad that we are moving, but are supporting us as much as they can.  Luckily we work remotely so we will still be employed, and we are going to pay some bills, but as the house is paid off completely, there will be no rent due.

I'm actually really excited in a way, because I LOVE spending time with my parents.  They are so much fun.  So I'm looking forward to many tex-mex and karaoke nights, coffee by a fire outside every morning, and just being back home for a while.  It's quiet, it's not crowded, and I'm looking forward to being a forest witch again for a while!  We are moving in late January.  

Anyway... thinking about all of that makes me really happy, so I think I will continue with it and... not let the Muggles get me down!

Busy busy!

 Hello!  

I have been kind of busy of late.  Doing what...?  I can't really tell you. It just seems like I have not had a lot of time to blog.  There are a lot of things going on that I don't want to get into because this is a craft blog and not a political or sadness blog.  

That being said, we are taking steps to move up north.  We have actually been doing that, but now it's more urgent.  We are getting estimates to fix both gates and our driveway, and then we will start taking things off of the walls and patching holes and then I guess we'll need to paint but we can do that after we move stuff.  We want to really spruce the place up so we can sell for a decent price.  Not that it's in bad shape, but under all this pretty stuff are a bunch of holes in the wall!

We plan to move to Coldspring until we are able to find a place up north, and that will give us the space to save money if we need to save for a new place (depending on what we can get for this place) and also pay off some debt.  I'm excited, a little nervous, and very sad.  It's like a house break-up and it's painful for me because we have worked so hard to make this home perfect.  But... sometimes things happen and you have to move on.  

I'm also a bit sad that I won't be decorating for Christmas.  We will be packing so there is really no point.  

ANYWAY so that is what we have been doing.   Cross stitching and embroidery bring me peace and happiness so I have been concentrating on that as much as I can.  I did this one, because I am feeling quite angry about things.  It's a pattern from VanCityStitchCo on Etsy that I've had for a while and it was time to do it. 

I have also decided I am no longer doing cross stitch by request for free.  So many people want me to do these and it takes time.  I LOVE doing them, but dang, I gotta get paid too!  So I have opened up commissions.  I doubt I'll get any (because when I open commissions around the holidays, I never get any but the rest of the time, I get people asking me to do stuff), but that's okay.  The option is there for people.  I will still do some for gifts for people, but no longer will I do requests for free.  

Anyway, I'm working on a great piece now, and hope to finish soon, and I'll post it.  I have started a list because I always think "I'm gonna do this one next" and get distracted and start another one and then before I know it, it's months or years before I do the one I had planned.  

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: The Yeti

I think we all know what the Yeti is!  Also known as the Abominable Snowman, the Yeti is an Asian Bigfoot found in the Himalayas.  Inhabiting Nepal, Tibet, Russia and India, the Yeti is probably the closest living relative to Gigantopithecus, a prehistoric ape that lived in Asia 300,000 years ago.  The Yeti is said to be a muscular bipedal creature covered in white, grey, or reddish-brown  hair and weighs between 200 and 400 lbs.  Though shit is the most common form, reported Yetis have come in a variety of shapes.  They have been sighted in the Himalayas from the 6^th Century to the present.- The Witchy Stitcher, Cryptid Wiki, Live Science

I usually hate doing backstitching, because I don't think I'm very good at it, but I did a pretty good job on this one!

New Stitches

Hello there!  It's been a while since I have written.  I went on vacation to Savannah with my sister and Mom, and then had another week off, so I got a lot of stitching done.  Plus, there was Halloween merriment to be had!  I went to Randy's for Scary-oke and dressed as a bearded lady.  We had a blast!

Savannah exceeded my expectations.  We went on a ghost tour, a few cemeteries, a plantation, and we went to a museum of oddities that had weird taxidermy, freakshow stuff, an Anton LaVey room, a room of cult stuff, and there was a little Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy tour/talk they did.  It was my favorite part.  We ate lots of good food and walked a TON.  We had brunch on a river boat.  I was TIRED when we got home but I had a blast and I'm so glad we got to spend that time together!  

Then I came home and just did a bunch of relaxing and I got a few embroidery and cross stitch pieces done.  And now I don't know what I want to do next.  I'm usually into holiday stitching but I think since it's still summer outside, I don't feel much like the holidays.  I think I will do the Witchy Stitcher Yeti from the Cryptid Stitch-A-Long tonight.  

I finished this cutie on Halloween!  I got the pattern years ago from Andrea Zuill/BadBird.  

The next couple are Sublime Stitching patterns.  The first is from the Tara McPherson collab and the second is a free one I got from her site.

I've been in more of an embroidery mood, but I did manage a couple of cross stitches.  The first is from AlexStitchins on Etsy.  I finished it on Halloween too!

This last one is from Largodargentoshop on Etsy.  There is also a squirrel and a pumpkin one in the set, and I decided to start with the tea set!

Hopefully I'll get more into the holiday spirit and stitch up some ornaments soon, but regardless, I'll post what I do here! 

Weekend in Coldspring

Happy Monday!  I have a short week this week since I will be going on vacation and then I have all of next week off!  I haven't decided if I'm going to take some embroidery to do with me on vacation or not... I may take at least one project.

This weekend, I was so disappointed in the weather on Saturday.  It was hot as fuck.  We went to a car show and I wore a really cute outfit, but it was all black, and heavy fabric, and the sun was out in full force with not one cloud in the sky.  UGH.  I got overheated.  I'm not super into car shows, but we went because my dad likes looking at old cars, and my sister and I dressed up to get pics and didn't end up getting many because we were so hot and miserable.  The one I got is horrible and I am probably gonna end up deleting it.

After we went back to my parents', everyone took a nap (except for me) and then we had dinner and then came back and hung around by the fire.  I made it an early night because the heat just took it out of me, and I was finding that I was almost falling asleep by the fire!  It was a nice fire, though.  

Sunday, we all got up and drank some coffee... again, around the fire.  My dad loves making fires and when it's cooler out, he makes one every morning and he and my Mom sit out and drink coffee by the fire.  I love doing that too.  All in all, I had a nice weekend.  I love hanging out with my family.  

Saturday night, I got all comfy in my pajamas and then got ready to do some embroidery, but then realized I was too tired, so I decided against it.  I didn't get any embroidery done until last night after we were home, rested and had dinner.  I started the Sublime Stitching stitching lady last night watching The Penguin and then finished her on my lunch break today. 

Then I think I'll work on the Badbird Jackolantern girl, or I may actually save her for my trip so that I don't have to take a bunch of different colors of thread, and I'm sure there will be downtime during which I can do some more embroidery.  I have a nice piece of orange fabric I can use for that one and since it's all black stitching, it should go fairly quickly.

I got a used copy of Carina Edvolsen-Harris's Stitched Blooms book.  The patterns are simple but very, very pretty!  It came with a CD so you can download and print the patterns, but laptops seem no longer to have a CD drive, since we don't really use CDs anymore.  I can always just trace the patterns, I guess.  Or scan and print them.  I'm excited to flip through and see what pretties she has in there.  

I also just found these cool embroidery stitch practice cards on Amazon that I've put into my Amazon Christmas wishlist!  If I don't get them for Christmas, then I'll just get them on my own, but I would like to learn a few more new stitches. 

Friday I'm in Love...

 ... with this Tara McPherson/Sublime Stitching collaboration!!  

I stitched this up back in 2009, I think (If you care to go back that far, you'll see it) and gave it away and decided I wanted to make one for myself when I saw that one, so I did!  

I did this one much larger than the first one and put it in a 10" hoop. I'm very happy with it.  

This weekend, we're going to my parents' house.  I have a half day today, and then we will get there kind of early.  Right now, I'm not in the best mood, and I'm tired and also a little mad at myself and embarrassed that I slept in and didn't get off my fat ass and go for my walk today.  I don't know why I didn't, I just didn't feel like it.  I've been in a really weird mood lately, like sad sometimes and just completely fed up other times.  Maybe the weekend in the woods will help make me feel better.  

Tomorrow there is a car show at Wolf Creek Park and I don't care about car shows but my sister wants to go and get a bunch of pics of us dressed up like pinups so I'm all for that.  

We were supposed to be doing a mini class reunion this weekend, with homecoming being tonight and all, but no one has mentioned anything else, even after a bunch of us have been questioning it, so I guess it's not happening.  But that's okay, more family time for us!

I have a couple more Sublime Stitching patterns I want to do and a Badbird jackolantern girl I have all ready to stitch up this weekend!  I just wish it would actually get cold again.  It's not gonna be hot, but it's still not fall weather here, which I think also may be part of my weird mood lately. I'm very disappointed that it's not autumn yet, and that we're gonna be in the 90s again next week, at the end of October.  That is unacceptable to me.  But I can't do anything about it, so I shouldn't be mad, but I can't help but be very disappointed.  

But anyway... what can ya do?  Sit in the house and stitch, I guess!  

Happy Tuesday

Hello there, and happy Tuesday!  

I am having a hard time deciding which embroidery piece to do next.  I printed some Christmas ones out for tiny ornaments but I will probably start working on those when I am off the week after next, since I have a whole week and a half off work. 

I started this one yesterday after work, and then Eric and Haylan came for a visit, so I finished on my lunch break today.  It's another of the Japanese embroidery patterns from that book I got years ago, and if you have seen older posts, you may recognize it as one I also put onto a onesie.

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I had a huge amount of leftovers from when I stopped selling at Moxie.  That was not a good experience.  The lady who owned the shop had absolutely no idea what she was doing.  She didn't want to market or advertise, because she wanted it to be a "word- of mouth store that only the cool people know about", which is the one of the worst business models I can imagine.  I never made much money, and I don't do this for money but it sure would be cool to be able to make a little on the side whenever I want to do some pieces.  I have made more from commissions here and there than I ever did selling there, or even selling on Etsy.  Also, she didn't want us taking inventory (I found that very strange and I eventually insisted on doing my own because I didn't want people taking stuff from my booth and not paying).  That was a huge red flag.  

I ended that arrangement right before the store closed, and I can't really remember when that was.  Maybe 2010 or 2011?  It was kind of a relief, honestly.  I kept trying to sell on Etsy but wasn't very successful.  I think there was a lot of competition out there and since it's not my only source of income, I didn't do a lot of marketing or advertising either.  Also, someone stole my shop name and Etsy did nothing about it, and their fees got high and when I did sell something, I wasn't making much money in the end, and it was so much hassle for nothing so I eventually pulled everything off Etsy too.  I learned that making your hobby something you are obligated to do may not be the best idea.  

Anyway, the point of that long babbling bitch session is to say I had a bunch of embroidered pieces, onesies, and little t-shirts left over from Moxie and Etsy, and I had them in a pink milk crate thing that I think my friend Rebecca gave to me.  I remember distinctly having it in this house, but I have not been able to find it anywhere.  I am hoping I didn't have a moment of insanity and donate it all, but I am afraid I may have.  I would love to have some of those little ones back.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to redo them.  I think I may work on a Tara McPherson/Sublime Stitching one next.  

Stitchy Weekend

Happy Monday!  I had a great weekend.  I spent the ENTIRE day on Saturday (except for lunch at Usta Kababgy with my cute lil hubby) drinking coffee, watching horror movies/true crime documentaries, and doing embroidery!  I also spent half of Sunday stitching, and the rest out with a friend.  

Here are the fruits of my labor.  

This one is a Cate Anevski illustration.  I did it a long time ago on a hot pad for a friend, and decided I need one for myself!

This one is from the Sublime Stitching/Black Apple collab.  My idea behind it was that the little hedgehog guy came to say hello.  He's so cute and look at this stylish little hat!

This is another from the Sublime Stitching/Black Apple collab and about halfway through I remembered I have already done this one and it's currently hanging in my giant collage.  Oh well, now I have two and I can hang this one in my office.  It's super cute anyway!

The last two I did are from a Japanese embroidery book.  I have done the girl and the cat on a onesie before but this time, I added a pattern to her dress.  

Those are the ones I completed this weekend.  I am looking forward to doing a lot more soon, and revisiting some of these patterns to keep for my own.  Then I can do Christmas ones starting in November!

Pimp Stitch

 I used to LOVE the Pimp Stitch group back in the day.  They had a blog and featured embroidery designers, and also provided free (and some for sale) patterns that were just SO CUTE!! 

 

I’m taking you on a stroll with me… I was looking for my Kawaii Fruits embroidery pattern, because I discovered that I needed a password to access it.  I reached out to the shop owner and she no longer had the pattern or the password.  But I went down a rabbit hole that led me to my very old email address and there it was! 

I downloaded it to my computer and named it with the password as well because you can’t access it at all without the password.  I’m so happy to have it back!! Now if I could only get the goddamned printer to work…

Anyway, I was going through some of my old embroidery patterns that I have saved on my laptop, and I found one for a Holy Cupcake… by Pimp Stitch!  So I was like “OH RIGHT! I remember them!” I got so many free cute patterns from them back in the day when I first started embroidery in 2009.  Well, they have a Flickr page where people used to post their pictures. 

I haven’t been able to find another community like the ones back then.  Feeling Stitchy and Pimp Stitch were two of my favorite places to find patterns and inspiration.  The blogs are no longer active, sadly, but the archives are there!

And now I’ll leave you while I go down a rabbit hole of my own. 

R.I.P., Pimp Stitch.

Final Facebroidery (For Now)

 This is the last of the Facebroideries for now.  Green is my favorite color and I thought this piece of green fabric would be great for a green Facebroidery!

The Stick N Stitch is good for some things, but I think I may give it a rest for now and go back to tracing, and maybe just use Stick N Stitch for pieces with long straight lines or circles (you know, the things I can't trace worth a shit), because if I'm using a dark color over the lines, I can't really see how straight the stitches are.  Or maybe I can use it and just not do dark colors.  

Another issue is that I can't get the wrinkles out of the fabric after rinsing.  Anyway, I do think this one is pretty cute.   I chose to not fill in the eyes on this one. I like how they look a little hollow.  I also used some more etoile thread but as usual, the sparkles are not showing up in the photo.  It sure is pretty in real life, though!  

Recent Facebroideries

I have finished a few more Facebroideries, and I have one more to go and then I think I will have done most of the ones I really like. These will go in the giant collage that's in our bathroom.

I have really gotten the embroidery bug again, and I think it's due to reading over my old posts. I started that one in my early 30s and since I'm now in my late 40s so of course, I have grown in a lot of ways. I think back when I started this blog, I was trying to mimic other popular bloggers. Now, that's not at all important to me, and no one even reads this blog I'm sure, but I'm no longer doing it for others. I'm doing it for myself and if people happen upon it, that's great and if they don't, that's not a problem. Since embroidery and cross stitch are such a huge part of my life, I just like to have them to look back on, and to read what was going through my mind at the time I completed them. I have learned a lot since I started the blog. I try not to critique myself too harshly anymore, because who cares? It's something I do for fun. It's not a competition and I don't sell my pieces anymore. So what if there is a stitch out of place? I may, now and then, say something like "Oh the stitches are wonky" etc but... sometimes I may not! I try not to critique, I said. 

I feel like this one is just about perfect. I am happy about the colors I chose. This is the fabric I was talking about in my last entry, over which I probably narrowly avoided getting my ass kicked.

This one is pretty good too. Not as good as the other one, but it's still cute. I'm happy with the fabric I chose for it. I got this fabric during the same trip where that girl at the fabric counter acted like she wanted to assault me, and I thought it would be cute to do a facebroidery on it, because it would look like freckles, but then I decided to do this animal one. I'm not sure what he is, but he's cute. I may do another human facebroidery on the other piece of the fabric.

I started that one on my lunch break yesterday and finished it watching the season premier of 1000 Lb Sisters. That is one of my guilty pleasures. I don't normally do reality shows, but I like the ones with very obese people. It's fascinating to me how one gets to that point, and also watching their journeys to losing the weight is really interesting to me. So I love these shows! I understand that this one and the 1000 Lb Best Friends is likely staged a bit. The ones like Too Large and My 600 Lb Life, however, are more serious, and I really like those too. I only see one season of Too Large, and I'm not sure why. I liked that one. I also like Hoarders. Okay, I'm getting WAY off topic.

There is one more I have printed out on the Stick N Stitch stuff that I will probably work on today and then post it.  I'm very excited to revisit some of my earlier pieces after that one!  I have a lot of fat quarters (I hoard those) and since I like to do the Cate Anevski stuff on them, I think I'll probably do a couple of hers that I did in the past but gave away.  I may not even get around to Christmas stitching this year, other than the Wild Olive ones I've already done!

Stick N Stitch

I think I have talked about this before, but if you don't know, they make this stuff called Stick N Stitch. You can use your printer to make stick-on embroidery patterns, which eliminates having to trace them. It's a really cool thing. The only issue I have with it is that after I wash it off, some of my stitches are loose, as you can see in the picture below.  

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to keep working with Stick N Stitch to get the right tension. I don't like pulling my stitches too tight. In fact, I taught myself not to! This is a re-do of a Cate Anevski Facebroidery that I did forever ago. I do like how it came out, except for the loose stitches here and there. The lines are straight for the most part. You can't really tell, but I stitched some of the hair using etoile thread so that some of it sparkled. I LOVE that thread, but it's hard to get the sparkle to show in pics. I should use more of it. I also realized that you can't see all of the stitches in the picture for the hair.  The thread I used is almost the same color as the fabric.  You can see them in real life, but in the picture, they don't really show up.  It's a pity, really...

I'm working on redoing some of the Facebroideries, because some of the ones I did long ago look terrible, or I gave them away and I would like to have some for myself. I am working on a really cute one right now on the prettiest fabric, for which I have a funny story. 

I went to JoAnn on Friday to look at some fat quarters. I usually go to the one at Arbor Walk, but thought I'd try the Round Rock one. It is awful. It's really messy and disorganized. They barely had any fat quarters, and they are not organized neatly like they are at the Arbor Walk store. I was going to look for some hoops and also for some fat quarters because I like doing the Cate Anevski patterns on patterned fabric. 

I picked out a few fat quarters, and then saw this pretty fabric. It's kind of a dusty rose color and it has random half moons on it in black and white. You'll see it when I post the finished piece. It was on a fabric bolt rather than a fat quarter, so I took it to the fabric counter. The girl at the counter was folding some fabric back onto bolts, so I waited patiently. She looked at me and acted as if I was interrupting her. I get that her job is probably hard, dealing with customers all day, so I really wasn't that upset about it. Then she turned around and started doing something else, and after a few seconds, said over her shoulder, in a really aggressive tone, "I'll be with you in a MINute!" to which I replied "Oh, no rush", because I wasn't in a rush, and look, JoAnn is my happy place, so I'm not really mad if it takes a little longer. Then she turned around and gave me a look.. it's hard to explain. I want to say it was a challenging look, as if she were daring me to say something about her service. I said "Hi, can I just get a quarter yard, please?". She took the bolt and measured, and kept giving me disdainful looks. Then she cut the fabric, and measured it again, and then gave me another look, as if to say "I dare you to say something about what a cunt I'm being right now".

I didn't say a word. In fact, I was slightly amused, because it's fabric and it's Friday evening, and I'm full of Tex Mex dinner I just had, and I'm really not bothered by your being a jerk. Then she folded the fabric and shoved it at me, and gave me ANOTHER look like "You gonna say something now?" 

 Finally, she created the fabric ticket for me to take to the register and literally slammed it down onto the fabric and walked off. I said "Jeeeesus..." and walked off. Again. I have worked retail. I know it sucks. But she was a real fucking bitch to me, and I'm proud I held my temper. I mean, seriously, I wasn't even mad. I thought it was kinda funny, the way she looked like she was just waiting for me to say something about how incredibly RUDE she was being to me for absolutely no reason. And I also wasn't going to taint this cute fabric with attitudes. 

 When I checked out, the cashier was SUPER nice, and we talked about embroidery while she was checking me out. A customer came in and asked where the spray paint was, and the cashier told her and then called "Torie" on her walkie talkie thing to tell her that someone was coming back. "Torie" was the fabric demon. So I thought "Yeah, good luck with that, you'll be lucky if she doesn't spray the paint in your face".

Like what just happened??? LOL Oh well, I got some cute fabric so whatever!

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: Jackalope

I finished this cutie from The Witchy Stitcher's Cryptid stitch-along. 

During the days of the Old West in Wyoming USA, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, Jackalopes (or Frankenstein Rabbits) could often be heard mimicking their voices.  It is said that they may be caught by putting a flask of whiskey out at night.  The Jackalope is described as a jackrabbit with antelope/pronghorn horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant’s tail.  Scientists suspect that people who saw these horned rabbits actually saw creatures that were affected by a papilloma virus that causes horn-like bumps to grow from their heads.  – The Witchy Stitcher, Cryptid Wiki, All That’s Interesting

I found these great 4x6 frames at Hobby Lobby that fit these perfectly and I have been using them to frame each one of these. The only thing is that they are not meant to hang on the wall so when I hang them, they sometimes fall a little crooked. I may have to just glue hangers on these to hang them. There is a cute song about the Jackalope by Shonen Knife I wanted to post but I can't get the link to show up... if you wanna listen, just look up "Jackalope" by Shonen Knife. It's worth it. G'bye!

Weekend Stitches

Friday night, I stitched up two more ornaments from Wild Olive. I traced these, again, so the circles are wonky and I may actually do another one of each, because I can print it on Stick N Stitch and not have to worry about crappy lines and bad circles. On the little reindeer, I put teeny tiny white beads to look kind of like snowflakes and I like how they look!  

The C Word

I love "the C word"- Cunt, not the other one that kills people. I don't know why people are so offended by it. It's just another curse word. But it sure feels good to say it. I say it a lot. In Scotland, it's a term of endearment... kind of sometimes. Why do we hate it so much? ;) Of course, there are people who I will not say it in front of- children, my parents, old people, people who have told me specifically they find offense. But it's just a word... I dunno the big deal. I found this one online and copied it because I couldn't find the actual pattern to purchase.

Wild Olive Christmas Ornaments

 I have been working on my Christmas stitching and trying to get back into embroidery again, and I found these cute cute patterns from Wild Olive, so thought I'd give them a go.  I traced these rather than use Stick and Stitch so this is what I get. 

I'm not sure what I'll do with these because they're a little big to hang on a tree.  I'll figure something out!

I used some tiny beads for the snow on this one so it's extra special!  I may start adding beads on other ones for a little razzle dazzle.

Creepy Cute Stitches

In the spirit of the first day of October, I am posting creepy embroidery from back in the day. This one is from Wild Olive.  These are not really her style but I really love them!  I honestly don't remember when I did this one because I didn't take a pic of it for some reason until recently.  I remember doing it in the smaller apartment we lived in, in the Chevy Chase apartments in Austin, so I would estimate I did this one in 2010 or possibly 2011.  

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: Frogman

 The Loveland Frogmen, also known as the Loveland Lizards, derive their name from the area they inhabit, which is Loveland, OH.  The amphibious anomalies have shocked and terrified kids, businessmen, farmers, and police officers.  Sightings began in 1955 and as recently as 2016.  They are bipedal frogs as made evident due to their leathery skin as well as their webbed hands and feet.  They have frog-like heads with wrinkly skin on tope of them.  They are reported to have the ability to use sticks like tools.  However, they also have another ability to use those sticks to emit sparks like a wand.  - The Witchy Stitcher, Cryptid Wiki, Charleston Terrors

Crybaby Cross Stitch

Sometimes I see a cross stitch piece that's only for sale in a kit or as a finished piece. I don't do the kits because I waste too much floss and stuff doing them, and I don't buy completed pieces because part of the joy of a cross stitch piece is knowing that I completed it myself. So I often find myself copying the piece and stitching it up for myself. I never sell them and I always give credit where credit is due. Sometimes I don't even post them. Crybaby crossstitch on Etsy has some great patterns. I think these are the first of hers I did. This one is a finished piece she is selling, but I wanted to stitch it up for myself. I was actually experimenting with marking the aida before doing the cross stitching and seeing if it would show through or not, so I grabbed a scrap piece of glittery aida and stitched it up. Then I decided well, I can't just leave it unfinished, but I couldn't find a hoop or frame that fit it, so I made a frame from Perler beads.

I purchased this pattern from Crybaby Cross stitch. I have several in queue to work on. I love the fabric. I purchased it at Needlewerkes in Copperas Cove years ago, but it was a smaller piece and I while I loved the color, it was kind of pricey and I was saving it for the perfect project. This was it.

More Spookies!

Here are some pieces I did last year. I did this one for my friend Lynn. I worked really hard on it, and she still hasn't framed it, which annoys me, because I feel like it's just gonna sit somewhere and not get framed but oh well.  Pattern by Night Spirit Studio

Bats at the window- I miscounted somewhere and so I didn't have room to put a moon in one of the windows and had to improvise.  Pattern by StitchXLove.

This one is by BlackWaltzStitching. I actually ended up giving it to Allen's cousin John, as he really loved it.

I think I found this one on Pinterest.

This one is by JagerAndYarn.  I have scraps of fabric I like to use up and so sometimes, I have to leave out bits or otherwise alter a pattern because the fabric is too small.  On this one, however, I just cut it way too small in the first place.  

Wheel of the Year

I normally don't have the focus to work on something that is (or that I consider) stitch heavy.  I get bored easily and then put it off and since my brain won't usually allow me to start on a project before I finish the current one, I get in a stitch stop.  This one was a bit different, because I could set very clear goals on where to start and stop.  

This is the Wheel of the Year.  It's the 8 Pagan holidays celebrated each year.  I decided I really wanted to do a Wheel of the Year piece, and this one by The Witchy Stitcher is just beautiful!  So I said I would start one sabbat/holiday and aim to finish it by the time that sabbat/holiday rolled around.  The only one I didn't finish before was Ostara, that purple rabbit, and I actually started and finished it ON Ostara, so it counts!  SO it was basically 8 mini projects, plus the pentagram in the middle.  It took me less than a year to finish, because I started on Samhain around mid-October and finished Lughnasadh, the last one, in August.  So I guess technically that is the one I didn't finish on time but whatever.  It's done, and I really love how it came out.