Happy Halloween!

Hello and Happy Halloween!

It's going to be a chilly one in my neck of the woods but I hear other parts of the country will be colder and wetter so I guess I best not complain too much.  I wouldn't complain at all if I was planning to stay inside where it's nice and warm but I've been told that is not the plan for the evening. Our neighbors have invited us over to sit in their driveway around the fire pit, cook dinner over the open flame and hand out candy.  Maybe it's just me  but that sounds an awful lot like camping.  I realize it doesn't include sleeping on the hard ground and having bugs crawl all over me but it's still in the realm of camping and in case you didn't know it...I AM NOT A CAMPER!  Dan however told me to suck it up and enjoy it so I guess I'll bundle myself up, grab the marshmallows and some kind of alcoholic beverage, get tipsy and scare all the little trick or treaters!  Gotta be some reward for roughing it...right?  I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Last January, I set a goal for myself which at the time I thought was pretty reasonable but with the whole neck thing happening I have to admit to feeling this summer that perhaps I would not be able to meet that goal.  What goal was that you ask?  It was a finishing goal.  Not a finished finish goal, just a finish the stitching goal.  I have a few, okay a lot of unfinished objects (UFO's) wandering aimlessly around the house in various stages of being finished which I am sure everyone out there in blogland can relate to.  So waaay back at the first of the year I quietly, yes I said quietly, (cuz the last thing I wanted to do was announce it to all of blogdom only to have to fess up that I was unable to follow through), set a goal of finishing 2 of my languishing UFO's before the end of the year.  I chose Tuscan Rose by Sampler Cove and Midnight Watch by Blackbird Designs to be the two pieces that I would attempt to finish.  As you have probably guessed, I am thrilled to report that I was able to finish up Midnight Watch just before retreat!  I can't wait to get it framed and hung, probably at the shop so I can see it everyday.

stitched on 40 ct Silkweaver's Moondust

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this piece except for one thing.  There was not enough space left for my initials which happen to be some of the largest in the alphabet, so I had to finagle quite a bit to make them fit.  I guess you say this is a pet peeve of mine.  Write this down designers...please please leave enough room in the design for the widest 3 letters of the alphabet if you are putting initials into it.  Not everyone is able to figure out how to move things or crunch them together to make the initials fit and having only two initials on a sampler looks funny to me.  Thank you.

Tuscan Rose is coming along nicely also.  I have only the last 2 bands to complete and I am partially done with both of them so I believe I will meet my goal on this piece also.

Since this experiment went so well I think I will set a similar goal for 2015.  Haven't decided which UFO's will be the lucky winners and I probably won't announce it either just in case I am totally unable to achieve the goal I set for myself!  LOL!!  I hope some of you out there will join me in my quiet goal and choose a couple of your UFO's to finish next year too.

Dan has chosen his next piece to work on and it is a beauty!  I love this piece but somehow I just don't think I would ever stitch it so when he said he would do it I jumped at the chance to have it stitched...by someone other than myself!  Yes!!  There is a cross stitching God!.  It's called Scenic Farm and it's a Dimensions kit that is now discontinued.  I have seen it stitched and it is gorgeous!

As you can see he is not very far yet but he'll get there.

And finally I will leave you with a picture I took last week of my lone re-blooming Iris.  You just have to love an Iris that will bloom in October!

Take care till next time!

Julie