Halloween Blog Hop 2020

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Date31 Oct 2020
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Comments3

Happy Halloween and Happy Fall from me and my Just Nan Owls!! Today I’m participating in Jo’s (of Serendipitous Stitching) Halloween Blog Hop! It’s a chance to Trick or Treat at the participating blogs. Your treat is some fall/Halloween stitching AND a letter. Collect all the letters and return to Jo’s to submit the secret message you discover!

This week I finished Oakley Owlet up into a little friend for Mr. Nutley Owl, who I stitched a couple years ago. Isn’t she cute?!

I didn’t want to put a hanger on her as pictured because she will sit on a shelf. I made the Happy Fall sign into a little flag which I can remove when it is not fall.

In Arizona, in the Phoenix area where I live, we have had a week of fall weather. Here, we can count on 90-100*F degree temps regularly until Halloween, but this year we got a respite from the heat a week early! It’s been in the 60s-70s! The kids claim they are freezing! 🙂 (our tender little Arizona babies!) We even had several cloudy days. It has been so nice, and I have actually felt like getting out some fall decor and drinking hot tea-unthinkable during “extended summer.” I’m hoping it will stay cool enough through the weekend. We are not going trick or treating this year, but we will play some Halloween games (bobbing for apples etc.), have a fun themed dinner (I never have time for fun holiday themed dinners usually because I am busy finishing costumes and carving pumpkins on Halloween) and make a fire to roast marshmallows. It will be different from the usual trick-or-treating but I’m looking forward to it. And then it is supposed to warm up again next week.

And now after I’ve blathered on, here is what you’ve come for, your Trick or Treat letter!

That’s right, letter C! Now, to collect your next letter, go to Grandma Cathy’s. Have a fun weekend!

October 2020 Smalls Check In

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Date30 Oct 2020
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Comments2

My 1st small finish this month was unexpected and not what I planned! I needed a project to grab quickly and take along with me as I knew I would be waiting a while, and it turned into one of my smalls for this month! I have finally finished my crewel rocking horse ornament from Jiffy Stitchery!

If you remember, I spent a lot of kids’ swim supervision sessions on this over the summer, but then it got set aside-no reason, it probably just got buried in my WIP basket. It turned out to be a quick finish. I just have the blue reins and mane and tail left to do on it after it is sewn together. My littlest daughter is so excited “her prah-dject” is done! I will try to get it FFO’d for November.

I also finished the stitching on Just Nan’s Lady Scarlet Secret Garden.

Not without some drama though! I can’t believe as I was finishing the beading last night I noticed I had stitched the lightest pink in the top flower with WHITE instead of pink! Well, when I was putting it in, I attributed the lightness to a weirdo dye lot. Nope, turns out I used the wrong color altogether. So I pulled out my handy little frogging scissors. (I bought mine from an estate-here are some that are more like snips than scissors but the same concept) These really are the best for cutting out mistakes. The curved bottom blade hooks the thread and snips it perfectly so you don’t slip and clip something you didn’t intend to. I highly recommend them if you want to add something REALLY USEFUL to your tool kit.

So now I have 2 fiddly little finishes to work on for the November FFO gallery! Yay!

What have you been stitching? Thank you for joining the SAL!

A Finish, a new WIP, and Orange Silk

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Date24 Oct 2020
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Comments3

Today I finished the stitching on Oakley Owlet.

I will get it finished up into an owl shape in the next day or so. I have done one of these owls before and it is not too hard.

So, I started another Just Nan small, this is the needlebook called Lady Scarlet’s Secret Garden.

It is the piece that goes in the enamel lady bug trinket box, part of a series of fancy kits Just Nan had many years ago. I felt super lucky when I was able to snag this kit secondhand for a decent price. The stitching is very minimal so I hope to have it done to show for my small next Friday!

Finally, my orange thread came! There is a clear winner:

I wasn’t going to mess around this time. I got the called for Valdani cotton that I’m trying to match (in the ball) to compare against the silks. I am going with the second from the top, Thread Gather’s Glowing Embers. Choice 1 is too dull, choice 3 is obviously too dark and choice 4 is just…wrong altogether. All these looked almost identical on my screen so it’s very good to have bought them to see in real life and not take a chance. I was actually pretty sure #3 would be the best choice based on the screen! And I thought #2 (Glowing Embers) would be too much-too orange, not enough variation. I feel sure 1 and 3 will be useful in other projects. For #4…well, maybe I’ll stitch a big melon someday! (it’s not bad, just bad for this project!)

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Welcome to Mary’s Thread!

I started this blog in 2016 to chronicle my stitching life. My Grandma M. taught me to cross stitch when I was 7 and I’ve had a project (or many!) going since then. I am mostly a cross stitcher who makes forays into other types of embroidery. A lifetime ago I studied French and art history but now I fit my stitching around a busy life raising 5 young kids with my wonderful husband. Thank you for spending some time at my blog!

2020 Stitch-A-Longs

2020 Stitch-A-Longs

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