Winter Fairy update October 2012

Well, here we are at the end of October already.  Halloween is upon us - and, unfortunately, so is Hurricane Sandy. I hope all of you out there in her path will stay safe in the next several days.  We are at the edges of her proposed path, so not expecting the severe damage of the coast.  We are, however, already experiencing weather from the storm out of the west.  It's been raining since Friday night and is due to continue through Wednesday at least (I'm posting this on Monday).  Our fear here is that the saturated ground combined with expected high winds will bring down trees and cause power outages.  Flashlights, batteries and generators at the ready!

Meanwhile, I am stitching along and very pleased with the amount I've accomplished on Winter Fairy this past month, especially considering the time I took out to make the Reformation Banner.  (The banner made its debut at church on Sunday and was very well received.)  I am more than half way through page 3 of 4 on WF, which is exciting for me.  Since, for reasons I won't go into here (I'm still very annoyed about it), I do not need to make a gift tag for our office gift exchange, I will have time to keep working on her.  It would be wonderful to be on the last page by the end of the year!  This month's picture is slightly darker, but I like it because it shows a little bit of glitter from the gold thread in her dress.

I probably won't post till after Thanksgiving, so let me wish you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Reformation Banner 2012

In between stitching on Winter Fairy (I'll post her update at the end of the month), I have been working on a banner for church.  I was inspired by a free cross-stitch pattern by solascripturaneedlework at wordpress to create a Reformation banner.  Reformation Sunday is the last Sunday of October so I wanted to have the banner finished by then.  It's all done in felt, approx 3' x 5'.  The white felt I got for the background wasn't heavy enough so I sewed two layers of it together, then sewed the red (where the pole will go) at the top.  Red is the parament color for Reformation Sunday, so I used it for the accents - I thought a full red background might be too much.  I also sewed the bottom of the fortress.  Everything else is glued.  In case you are not familiar with the words, they are the opening of a hymn written by Luther himself.  I printed the words in as large a font as I could, then blew them up about 300% to get the size I needed.  Cutting out the letters can be a challenge, but I discovered that if I basted each letter onto the felt instead of pinning, it went along pretty quickly.  I had the basic idea and did all the physical work but my hubby and daughter both contributed valuable advice on the design.

October 2012

So our fall weather has arrived.  After such a hot, dry summer, it is a bit of a shock to have cool, rainy days.  I'm not complaining, mind you!  We need the moisture.  I've been very busy with housework (we were one of the hosts for a progressive dinner for our parish this past weekend) but am carving out quiet time most Sunday afternoons for stitching.  A cup of tea, some '40s music in the background and my cross-stitching - what more could I ask?

I am planning to post updates at the beginning of each month.  I've been moving along on Winter Fairy - 20 minutes here, an hour there - and am excited to see her continue to take shape.  As you can see, I've finished her bodice.  The white spots are alternating white stiches and places where beads will go.  I don't want to put in the beads or do the backstitching on the wings until everything else is done (although I'm really anxious to see how they will look).  The backstitching is with metallic thread and I'm afraid it would get damaged because I roll up my piece whenever I'm not working on it.  I don't think all the rolling and unrolling would be good for the thread.  I hope to have a lot more progress to show you all at the end of the month.  Sometime in November I'll start stitching a gift tag for my office Secret Santa exchange and I'll post that when it is done.  Meanwhile, hope you each have a wonderful month and a fun Halloween.  Happy Stitching!