Back from the stitching grave! And PUPs! and TW! And WIPWednesday!

Long time, no see!

Of course long time, no stitch, as well.

This past weekend I went to visit some friends and have a stitchy get together.  I'll blog all about that later (tomorrow?  Friday?  I dunno!)   I'll even blog WIPocalypse soon, because I have an actual update (yippee!)  But for now, let's talk about PUPs

PUPs is something my friend Terri said she does with her quilt guild (I could be wrong, don't thwap me if I am).   Their group has Poor Unfinished Projects, and people bring a few to the guild meeting and they have to focus on finishing it over the next timespan.

My stitching group decided to adopt PUPs and (some of us, the deadline isn't for a couple of weeks) put some PUPs up to vote on finishing by next year.    I chose Fantasy Sampler, BoInk, and Freshwater Pearls.    I had intended to finish them up this year, but then house stuff and health stuff and puppers got in the way (I'm not sad about the pupper, because she's great, I am a little miffed about the house issue, because it had to do with someone else not doing their job and I will never hire that handyman again... I digress).   Oh, and Diablo.  I've been playing a couple of the seasons, I SWEAR I'll get to Level 70 Greater Rifts someday!  In the meantime, I'm just having fun being a Necromancer ;)

Back to PUPs...
Here is where the three of them currently stand:

What totally surprised me is that (so far), BoInk is off to a VERY strong lead (5-1), so it looks like BoInk will most likely be my 2018 PUP.    I think that because it was a mystery broken into smaller blocks, I can break it down into nice segments; but I'm super happy I have a reason to focus on it.   To be perfectly honest, I thought that Fantasy Sampler would be the one.

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Which brings me to another topic:  Teresa Wentzler.

The topic was brought up in the TW group on FB that she had taken down all of her dragon patterns from PatternsOnline.   Someone asked her about it in the comments of a recent blog post and she mentioned that she'd taken them down and would not care to discuss it, but used language that pretty much screams "religious reasons."      I'm not gonna lie - I'm super bummed about it.   I do not have a lot of love of religions, particularly not more strict or extreme ones.   I also remember how much she would enjoy talking about her dragon designs and she expressed a great fondness for dragons at various stitching shows where I met her.  I think it sucks.   I had also sold a few charts because I thought "oh well, I can always get them on POL" only... maybe not so much any more.   I did keep the most "important" charts (those I think I have a real shot at doing), but I suppose I'll have to stop drawing on my originals. 

I remember being heart broken when she announced her retirement.    We had a glimmer of hope when she posted a small shot of Illuminata way back when, but I know she's stopped stitching because of her arthritis and she likes to stitch her own pieces (not just design them on a computer), so we'll never see that piece. 

I think when I work on TW pieces, it'll be with a little stab of sadness that she doesn't take the pride she should in some amazing designs.

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And because it's Wednesday, let's end on a positive note with a WIP Wednesday!

Zenia by Mirabilia!
I won't be stitching the "frame" or whatever that was around her.  I just want the witch in a beautiful red dress with a cocktail in her hand.   She's being stitched on Storm by PTP, and I'm liking it so much that I'm thinking I might use it for Red when I get around to stitching her.

April IHSW & another bonus TUSAL

This weekend was IHSW - the International Hermit and Stitch weekend hosted by Joysze at her blog and on Facebook.   I stayed at home, nursing a sick puppy (Mona is off her arthritis meds and on prednisone, which makes her sad) and watching a bunch of Netflix (mostly Marcella).

I meant to work on finishing my Hearts of America, but I was way too lazy to straighten up the craft/guest room enough to get to the machine, so I worked on Deco Spirits instead.

I was here (working on Water):

and now I'm here:

I usually wait to do the metallics later (all of that blue and the gold is kreinik and PTB), but because there was so much, I decided to get it over with a little early and then get back to the white.   I had to take the picture at an angle because it just would not show up in straight on photos.

My stitching has been super slow, because a certain Tiny Monster keeps demanding attention.  And if I don't pay attention, she starts running off with threads, kreiniks, etc.    And I've also discovered the joy of having a black haired dog.  I used to just find white hairs stuck in everything that I couldn't quite remove.  Now I have fine black hairs in the mix with those white hairs.  Oy vey!

And as a bonus, I also remembered to take an ort/TUSAL shot (TUSAL, the Totally Useful Stitch A Long hosted by Daffycat (also on Facebook), where we show off our orts). I have to keep pushing down the orts, but I'm getting a nice Deco strata in there ;)

2017 WIPocalypse wrap up

So here's the yearly wrap up for the WIPocalypse, which isn't as much as I expected originally, but a new job, move, house projects, etc. will do that to you.  Which is to say, yes, it's less than I expected, but I'm certainly not upset about it.

I always use WIPocalypse for existing WIPS (as of  Jan 1) only, so that left this original list:

1. Epic RR
2. Fantasy Sampler
3. Deco Spirits  - TINY bit of progress!
4. Desert Sunsets - PROGRESS!
5. BoInk
6. Freshwater Pearls - PROGRESS!
7. Celestial Dragon
8. Stained Glass Zelda  - Progress.... of a sort?
9. Fortunate Traveler 
10. Enchanter 
11. Chinese Dragon 

My goal was to finish at least three of these, I was looking at Desert Sunsets, Freshwater Pearls, and Fantasy Sampler as my big three finishes, but I finished none ;) 

That's not to say I didn't get anything done, I did get a few things finished/done/framed, and they're in the "Finishes" tab, I just don't consider them part of my WIPocalypse SAL.

So here at least is the progress:

Deco Spirits - I started on the Air block.  that's it!  But it's something ;)

Desert Sunsets:

I started approximately here with one:

I finished it!

And I started and got a good bit done on the second (excuse the fuzzy photo, I'm too lazy to take another).

I'm absolutely confident that I will finish this one this year, mostly because I want to pass on the patterns to a friend.

Freshwater Pearls saw the most amount of progress this year, from this:

To this:

I might get this one out of the way this year, we'll see.   

And I decided to not continue with Stained Glass Zelda.  I did not get very far on the piece, and I'd like to keep the fabric for future use (hey, I use good fabric, no reason to waste it, and there's not enough done on the piece to bother adopting it out, imo).

So until next time, which should be in about a week! :)

#TBT - Mirabilia Holiday Fairies

Way back in the day, when they first started coming out and were really hard to get a hold of, I started collecting (and stitching!) the Holiday Fairies by Nora Corbett (for Hoffman Distributing).  They were Limited Edition (I wonder if that's still true?  I see a number of them for sale new?).  These were kits that came with 32 Zweigart linen, Kreiniks, Crescent Colours threads, and any of the beads you would need.    Initially they seemed to sell out really fast, but I had a local needlework shop (Judy's Stitchery in Harlingen) that ordered them for me, so I managed to snag them all pretty easily.

I tried to stitch them in order of the holidays to start, but burnt out after the third one.

The first one I completed was also #1 in the collection - the Christmas Elf Fairy.   I do love the little Christmas tree that she was carrying.   The only issue I had with it (and I had this issue with all of the kits) is that the Bella Rosa thread used for the skin was super pink.   Because all of the kits came with full skeins of all needed colors, and I didn't need very much, I took the lightest of the skeins and tried to use that for all of the fairies.

I really also like the reds in the dress.  It's just so freakin' sweet.

I finished this one on December 10, 2006, nearly 10 years ago!

Miss Valentine Fairy is probably my least favorite, but I'm not much of a pink person, and I"m not a huge fan of her ratty looking skirt.  I do think it's cute how she's holding what I think of as a giant heart box of chocolates, but so much pink!

I finished her second on February 8, 2007

I love the Easter Fairy because of the adorable robin's egg blue actual egg she's holding.  I think this one is probably the twee-est of the whole series.

She was finished on April 28, 2007

And of course, I actually have already blogged about the others in the series I most recently finished:

• Halloween Fairy, July 28, 2014
• Miss New Year Fairy, October 13, 2014
• Thanksgiving Fairy February 14, 2016

I haven't decided how I want to finish them yet.  Because of their size, I think a simple frame would work, but flat folds would also work.  I'm a little worried about flat folding these, though, because they were a bit costly and I do really like them.   It'll eventually, maybe, end up as framing, but for now they live in a portfolio book, which I can leaf through to look at my finished and unframed pieces:

February WIPocalypse

Wow - Two WIPocalypses in a row, let's see if I can keep on my roll!

I have actually had a fair amount of progress, which makes me super happy.

First I finished Thansgiving Fairy by Mirabilia

Then I finished (Celtic) Ferret Knot

And now I'm working on WWKCD

Previously, I just had the letters done (chopped off above because of a fold in the fabric holding it in the Qsnaps).  

I'm working on one color at a time, I have done 2 and I have 3 left.  Huzzah!

I am working on the "easy" ones.  I have a lot of TWs and larger pieces, but I've learned that I can stitch on my downtime at work, and so I've been keeping that limited to "easier" pieces so I can put things down quickly.

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The Topic for this month is:
If you have any of your pieces on display in your home, which attracts the most plaudits.

Probably Luna Moth or my Letters from Nora - S, because they're both in the front hallway.   

If people are spending any significant time at our place (meaning that they're spending the night and will therefore be upstairs), then they see Story Teller, who would *probably* get the most love if he were on main-hallway-display ;)

This weekend we will be hosting a game day on Saturday, and on Sunday I'm hosting a tiny get together for some Craftivism - we'll be working on the 5.4 Million and Counting project, so that should be interesting.

I'm hoping to finish WWKCD this week, but of course, it will all depend on work.

Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy!

I finished it!  And she was "only" a little over a year old.

Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy by Mirabilia (Nora Corbett); Fairy Holiday Collection #6 for Hoffman Distributing Co.

Started 1.15.2015
Finished 2.14.2016

On the kit fabric, and my only "beef" with that is that this kit fabric is different from all of the others, and one of the things I liked was the consistency between the pieces (but I clearly didn't care enough to sub out the other fabric).

This is a kit I bought way back in the day (from Judy's Stitchery Nook in Harlingen, TX - one of the best stitching stores I've ever been to, staffed and owned by the most awesome ladies).   I only bought this one as an act of completionism, as  I really didn't like this fairy, but I grew to like her.  My least favorite part of her is the purple dress, but I don't mind it or anything.  I do love the bundle she's carrying.

There were a couple of errors in the chart (like a bead placed near her elbow that made no sense).   So I did some intentional fudging.  I was looking online and couldn't find very many pictures to see if other people subbed out the bead and the other areas I thought were wrong.

I am not the biggest fan of the pink bead choice, but again, it wasn't that big of a deal and worked out OK.

I love the wreath and feather

I lost the Black Coffee for the shoes, but all of the other kits used it as well, so I had enough left over.

I loved the vines, but I was worried for a bit I would run out of beads - I think I ended up with about 15 left over.

And here, have a fun gif because I kind of love gifs that show progress... A couple of them were distorted because not all of my pics could be cropped to 1:1 and I was too lazy to throw in some white space to balance it out ;)

No I'm going to try to decide what to stitch on next.  Ferret Knot is next on the rotation, but WWKCD is already in snaps.

February TUSAL

I joined the Totally Useless SAL hosted by Daffycat again this year. I think it makes the perfect companion to WIPocalypse. To find out more info click here (or, you know, the button in the sidebar).

After my "emptying of the ort jar", I've already started refilling my juice jar! (although with my decluttering going on, I'm hoping to make a snazzier Ort container soon).

Here are my orts!

And here is a little bit more progress on Thanksgiving Fairy. With my not-quite-gone head cold, I'm just feeling too gross to go out in public, so cleaning and stitching it is. She grew a little hair and her wings are filling in :)

On a Roll!

With this irritating cold, I've been such a bum, just binge-watching Netflix and stitching.

I finished another RoundRobin piece, which means once I stop by the PO tonight, I'll finally be down to one in my possession!  YAY!  And I know what I want to stitch on the last one, I just need to chart it out.  I'm going to give myself a week or two before I get back to that one (unless the next one gets mailed to me, in which case I'll have to hurry again ;) )

I did a band from Esther's Waves by Northern Expressions.  I picked a band I liked, and I chose colors from fibres in my collection.

I used a Needle Necessities I originally acquired for a custom piece I did (of my uncle's artwork), Sassy Brass (by Crescent Colours), and Bark (WDW).

I love how it came out - it looks SO MUCH like Tiger's Eye, which is my favorite semi-precious gemstone.  I kind of hated to give the Round Robin back, because I loved it that much.

Here's my band (colors are a bit off, it was late when I took the picture):

Here's the whole piece:

And here's Mona, "helping" me.

I also stitched on Thanksgiving Fairy while hanging out with some friends while watching the SuperBowl (poor Panthers, oh well).

WIPocalypse - January

So I'm a week late... oops ;)

My main goal for this year is to start as few projects as possible.  At first I was on a total "new project ban", but then I realized that there were a few small things I'd like to start/finish and I didn't want to guilt myself.

But in the meantime, I'm still trying to plug away at WIPs/WIsPs/UFOs.

So far this/last month, I put a few stitches in my WWCKD and Thanksgiving Fairy by Mirabilia, as well as the Round Robin that I've fallen so far behind on.

I have already chosen what I want to do on the next RR (I have two more in my possession), and I know what I want to do on the last one, but I have to design it first, so I'll be doing my RRs slightly out of order.

Here is Thanksgiving Fairy!  I finished her skirt and started in on her wings.  I was out of town when I was working on her, and somehow the Black Coffee that is used for her boots was MIA, so I'll get to that later.   Because she's so small, I bead as I go.

Here is my contribution to Kay's RR.   I used the octopuses from Hands On Design's "Octopus Dance" from their Square*ology "Ahoy" series.   I stripped everything down to one octopus and then flipped it and placed them next to each other.  I used Weeks Dye Works Bethlehem for the main color, and Argyle Socks for the other shade.  I reversed the angle of the stitching so that the varigation came out opposite on each octopus (does that even make sense?  Well, you can see!)

Here is the whole RR:

January 24- Topic: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

Hallo!  I think this is the third? year I've tried to participate in WIPocalypse.  In 2014, I was off to a great stitching start.  I got a little derailed last year, right around March, but now I'm trying to get back to it, and my only real competition is that I got a PS4 for Christmas, and boy do I love me some videogames. :)   I am still plugging away at PS3 games (most notably the Assassin's Creed series), and I fell into Diablo III on the PS4 (I had never played before).  I really want to play Grim Fandango again, though - I had that back when I was a PC gamer ;)

I have all of my WIPocalypse goals listed here, and most of my pictures of pieces here.

I'm going to try to get back on "schedule" with Zodiac Mystery.   It's a 12 month mystery, and I stopped stitching on it after February, so I will try to pick it back up in March.

As far as non-stitching goals, I do have two quilts I started last year that I'd like to go ahead and finish, one is Bonnie Hunter's Allietare mystery quilt, and the other is a bloomin' 9 patch that I started at my quilting store.  That's about it, which isn't too bad..

Late Late-July WIPocalypse

Oooh!  I haven't had one of these for a while... but I have progress!

Last WIPocalypse (March!), this was Celtic Ferret:

I had just started filling in the gold in the neck and had done a bit of the brown in the fore-arm.

And here he is now:

I took him with me to a GTG and pretty much just worked on him because it was mindless and I wouldn't mess anything up while I was talking, laughing, or engaging in any other shenanigans.
I finished all of the arm cream and brown, the rear leg brown, and got a lot done with the fill in.  I'm pretty confident I'll be able to finish him this year.   He's been my go-to easy stitch whenever I don't feel up to a challenge (which seems to be all the time these days ;) )

And here is the before for Thanksgiving Fairy by Mirabilia (technically not part of WIPocalypse, but really should be):

I finished the outlines in the other colors and just need to fill out the lightest purples, get the beading in and I'll start moving up the dress to the head... I always seem to do these fairies the same - below waist then above waist/head then wings.
(and I won't go into how much I hate the change to google photos editing, oh well).

Since that was my first WIPocalypse since March(!), I'll get caught up with the other months' questions, too.

April: Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects? Which do you dread?

I love specialty stitches in general.  I actually adore french knots, which everyone seems to hate.  The only stitch I really hate is backstitching.  I think I'm not alone in that one.

May: I would like to know if you look for LNS’s when you travel. What is the favorite shop you’ve ever found?

Yes.  Always.   I've even been poking about the DC area (though I don't consider that "travel"), and I'm threatening to go to one in SC next time I need to go down to Charlotte.   So far my favorite is Stitcher's Paradise in Las Vegas.  They're SO well stocked, really nice, and have a fantastic fabric room.  I love those ladies!

June: Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?

Definitely in the winter.   When it's cold I don't seem to have as many activities going on, and I'm not doing as many house projects.  Just sitting on the couch, bingewatching TV or movies and hanging out.  The holidays help, too!

July: Reality or Fantasy. Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract?

Fantasy.  Abstract.  I love bugs and fairies and (nevermind the Mirabilias), for the most part, non-human subjects or patterns (samplers, mandalas, etc.)

July 31 – Topic: What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece? 

Honestly, it's looking at pictures, especially online, especially other bloggers.   I think that's why I've made my own blog so image heavy.  I like looking at things that I'd like to get back to - seeing progress by others is a HUGE, HUGE motivator, and just looking at mine, the progress in the past, where I'd like to go, and what made me fall in love with it in the first place.   Although I adore having readers and commenters, I have this blog for me, to keep me going and keep me motivated and see my progress.  

#WIPWednesday

Last time, Thanksgiving Fairy looked like this:

And then #MirabiliaMonday happened and another thread or two was added.

And here she is for #WIPWednesday (I stitched another thread or two before crashing last night).

#WIPWednesday

A couple of weeks-ish ago, Terri suggested Mirabilia Mondays, and I was not going to take part initially, but then I figured that I could at least go ahead and add just one thread on Mondays to a Mirabilia (as I always seem to have at least two Mira WIPs at any given time).   In the name of laziness I'll cheat and give out my #MirabiliaMonday picture as #WIPWednesday

I also told myself that I'd work on Deco Spirits as that one-thread Mira... and so here's Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy.

Before

One Two threads at a time.  I actually managed another length last night, but didn't take a pic.

IHSW, Post-holiday&friends weekend

 I know a number of people used the 10th as their YOTA weekend, since the first of the year gets a bit crazy for most people... and since I was working that weekend, I thought I would belated-YOTA-it (I think only one of my SALs is strict, and it's a FB one, so that didn't matter as much for blog posting).    But it was definitely IHSW, and I failed in that hanging out with a bunch of people wasn't necessarily hermiting, it was all about stitching, so I hermited from non-stitching.

I met with a few friends and did a bit of stitching & shopping this past weekend, and I'm happy to say that I'm here with plenty of not-quite-in-focus camera-phone pics to show for it ;)

First, let's get the stitching out of the way:

I wanted to start on Steampunk Angler Fish (technically the Steampunk Sea Serpent, but, well I'm a trained zoologist, I just can't) by SamSarah Designs, but it was late and I wanted something easy, so I started on Mirabilia's Thanksgiving Fairy instead (large blocks of color, yayz).

So that was my first night of stitching (after a day of other stuff).   This is the last of the Holiday "LE" (are they really LE?  I mean, they sold out initially, but I don't see a shortage of them now or anything) kits that I have not stitched, and I have to say that when I started working with it, I got a bit miffed.   I did not change the kit fabric (which I would have enjoyed doing), because I wanted to keep consistency between the pieces (consistency being a bugaboo of mine for series), but this particular kit has different fabric than the rest!
Nicer fabric, for sure, but still, it's still totally different.

This is the "natural" linen by Zweigart, and all of the other fairies came with "natural" linen, but I swear, all of that was the same fabric, and this one is utterly, utterly different.  Annoyances.  Oh well, at least this particular linen is a lot softer and nicer to work with.  Still.  Feh (and now that I've gotten that out, I'm over it).  I do note that this is #6 in the series, and I bought them as they came out - I don't know if all of the fairies are on this linen now, or what.  I do think I'm the only one I know that actually has been using the kit fabrics.   So that's the start on her.

rawr!

The next night, I broke out the Steampunk Angler Fish, and I stitched the scales along the back first, and as an avid Dune fan, of course my brain went to "sandworm" as I finished my second night of stitching.

The color of the linen in this picture is much more true than the next one.   I did a floss toss to pick this fabric, but I'm suddenly not quite sure about it.  I'm hoping I like it when it's all said and done, but right now, I'm feeling nervous.

This piece does crack me up, though, because I am once again running into the disconnect I have sometimes when hand dyed flosses are involved with the model stitch on the front of the chart and the actual threads not matching.  That "Daffodil" is really bright (and not so much on the stitched model on the front of the chart).    I'm fine with the colors working together, I just think it's funny how that happens.

And after another night of stitching (plus stitching on half of my flight, which seemed to fascinate my seatmate, who watched, but didn't ask), this is where I am with this piece.

The fabric in this pic looks way more tan than the purple it is - it's actually Shale, by Picture This Plus.  I originally looked at Ancient, but when I saw it in person, floss tossing, I hated it.

The inner bits will all be stitched in a dark color, so all of those bits and gears will pop more when I get back to it.  So far, it's been a thoroughly enjoyable stitch.

I think changing between all of the gears and little bits are keeping it fun - frequent swapping, but no confetti, so it's not like I'm struggling with each piece.  I just pick a color and go.    I keep thinking, though, that the fabric I picked up is entirely too large (fat quarter), but this is just part of the body (I just hate wasting fabric).  And of course as I'm stitching it, I realize that I didn't need more fabric, I had some fabric in my stash that would have worked quite well.   And I wonder why I end up with so much extra fabric.




And finally, I wanted to stitch all day yesterday, but I was actually quite productive, doing all of my laundry and putting this away (I'm usually a total slacker that takes a week or two to get everything put up, tripping over that luggage for the two weeks before I finally get around to it).  Heck, I even folded all three loads of laundry!

I wanted to stitch on Fantasy Sampler, but I discovered that I didn't want to use the working copies I had made, and figured that since I have the Best of TW books, I would just write on the original, but I couldn't find that either, so I'll have to make new working copies out of the Best of book.   The symbols are the same, but they're typed (vs the handwritten original), so it will at least be easier for me to read.   I actually briefly pondered buying the pattern on PatternsOnline, and then realized that would be foolish as I have no (working) printer at home.   So my January YOTA goal is shot, but that's cool, I'll catch it next month.

So I decided to work on Celtic Ferret Knot instead; this one will probably get finished first, as it seems to be my "go to" for "oh dear, I can't stitch on what I want for _____ reason."

It calls for DMC, and I decided to go with overdyes, and the hand/overdyes go together, but aren't really anything like what the DMC color is, but I'm OK with that, though every once in a while, I feel like I should have gone with a darker tan (there's a "chocolate" somethingerother Crescent Colour that I think I might have liked better, but when I look at the colors I did choose, I'm still content).

But I got a good chunk of those sections done while watching Godzilla, so yay for progress (I like it so much better filled out - the linen annoys me less)

Other than stitching, I went on a bit of a shopping binge or three.

First up, are most of the goodies I bought at the stitching shop.  I am so utterly happy to have 1.  A brick-and-mortar shop to visit and 2.  Friends and people to help me figure out and decide fabric colors.

I picked up Growth Rings by Ink Circles, even though I have the magazine, because I just hate having an entire magazine hanging out when it's not really necessary.  I really want to get to that one sooner rather than later, and of course I'll be changing the colors.

Red Riding Hood is a piece I've been looking at a *lot* on Etsy from Primitive Hare.  I just adore it.   Without any kind of frame of reference, the finished photo makes it look a lot smaller than it is - when I opened the chart I was a bit shocked at how huge it really is, not that I love it any less.

The two Glendon Place Baroque Beauties are Millicent and Elizabeth.   I think there are 4 or 5? of those floral pieces out now, but these are the only two I like I didn't see Isabel which is the other one from the series I quite like, and I not only like them, but I adore them, especially Elizabeth (the bottom flower).  They use a lot of kreinik, so someday when I'm at an LNS again I'll have to work on conversions to Petite Treasure Braids.

And finally, Cherry Wine from Keslyn's.  I actually saw it as I was sauntering my way to the check out counter - I just love all of the specialty stitches.   I really want to do more canvas work or samplers, because I really miss all of the specialty stitches I used to do.  As much as I love my little xes, I need a bit more sometimes.

And of course, when I saw the Margaret Sherry box (well, there was more than one, but I didn't want to hold anyone up), I had to look for some adorable mice, and there they are.   I especially love the dandelion one.

And here's where my trip got expensive ;)

I really, really, really, really, really, really (no really) want Tiramisu by Glendon Place, but I have been resisting.   But I hate buying fabric online, so since they had the threadpack (which I was not going to buy, oops),  I did a bit of floss tossing (I don't like the peachy fabric it calls for), or at least the lady at the shop did a little floss tossing, and I really liked this "Bone" color.   Because of the piece, I didn't really want or need any kind of mottled fabric, and I was quite happy with this.

So now I have the threads and the fabric, and no chart, which I admit, isn't the kind of situation that I usually find myself in (they were sold out of the chart, or I would have it, and probably would have started it).

The other picture shows the two Nora alphabet fairies charts and the fabric I picked out for them, though honestly, that fabric has to be one of my all time favorites, and as I'm stitching the letters for others, I might try to weasel different fabric in there from my stash so I can keep that Queen Anne's Lace for myself.  For heaven only knows what, but it will be mine!  It's just so pretty (and OMG, so soft!), but really, I think that fabric is great for those letters.

The last of the stitching trip acquisitions was this piece of fabric.     Once upon a time, I saw Mirabilia's Red (gods I hate the Mirabilia web re-design) and I thought it was pretty but not for me (red being my favorite color, but Mira's ladies not being my favorite subjects), but when I read the story that Susan wrote for it, I fell in love with the piece.   So now I have to stitch it because of the story.    And because of the story, I want Red to be on a dark fabric, like she's walking at night or in the forest.

I expressed this to the very patient woman who was helping me with my fabric and she immediately pulled this fabric.  Apparently someone who frequents the shop wanted the same kind of feel to the piece and this is the fabric she used, and they said it was absolutely stunning.   I've tried to color correct for the fabric, but it's a deliciously stormy forest color.   I think I'm pretty on board with this color, but I was also thinking of Bayou from Sparklies, though I might chat with Kate about it, because I'm not sure I'm ok with the yellow accents (though the fabric is definitely killer, just not quite perfect for Red, I had purchased a swatch during my great search).

And just when you think it was done, more shopping happened.

I got this from the quilt store - I'm not a heavy quilter, but I have some ideas and picked out some pretty fabrics.   The three fat quarters of pretty horses is so I can make a stitching bag (pattern in the photo), and a couple of the other fabrics are because I have pairs of fat quarters at home and these round it out in case I want to make the case (and if not, there are other cases I'm thinking of making, which I needed a third fabric for anyway).

And finally, I fell into a Vera Bradley sale.  I'm not a Vera fangirl, but I had gotten a wristlet-wallet thing and it has taken a serious beating, and it's holding up like a champ.    And stitching friends taught me the value of the Miller bag and how it's perfect for storing and traveling with stitching, so I bought one of those.   And because those pieces have both proven to be really sturdy, I've been looking for a work bag... and then we went to the outlet store where everything was on super sale.  And then (there are a lot of  'ands' and 'and thens' in this whole story), a friend who quilts convinced me of the practicality of a hanging organizer for quilting stuff, and since I am taking my second quilt class in a month or so, it made perfect sense (I struggled with dragging things back and forth and keeping them organized), so I ended up with a Miller, a hanging thing, and a small-ish tote bag (Villager?) for work.  At least they were all in the same pattern?  I do find most of the patterns hideous, but black and white should work pretty well (and show all of my dirt - hah!).

This is my current magical Vera, in the only pattern that I actually like (well, almost the only pattern I like), and it traveled with me on the plane.  I removed the several projects and books from the bag and put them in my checked bag so I'd have less to carry on the way bag home - I knew what I'd be doing on the plane on the way home so I needed less stuff, on the way out, I had everything in there, because I'm always so excited I can't just focus one one or two things.

But OMG, the POCKETS!  they have so many pockets!

Here are the Veras I managed to purchase.   I'm really torn, because now I want a Miller for "active" projects and a Miller for "on deck" projects... but I am thinking I should save the new one for the quilting class.  I probably will just switch usage, but geez, I love these bags.

So matchy-matchy

So after all of that, the only things I managed to NOT buy that I was hoping for were more qsnaps (mine are getting so old they're cracking or just won't work well, even using the dishwasher trick) and Tiramisu.   I ordered Qs from Amazon, but I'm avoiding the purchase of Tiramisu (even though it kinda hurts ;) ), because I know if I get it I will immediately start it, and I'd like to think I have some semblance of self control.