RIP Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum

I just saw in the Nordic Needle's weekly newsletter that Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum of Told in a Garden (and Lavender & Lace and Butternut Road) has died. I've only stitched one of her designs to date - Celtic Christmas - but I have several others in my stash that I intend to get to one of these days. Thankfully her talent lives on in her daughter, Nora Corbett of Mirabilia Designs and in the many beautiful projects her fans have stitched, and will stitch, from her designs.

Marilyn L. Imblum obituary from the Finger Lake Times.

Fifth Blogiversary!

I feel a little ashamed to be celebrating the 5th anniversary of this blog given that I update it so infrequently!

I thought I would have some time over the summer to get more stitching done, but the time just didn't materialize. A combination of a really busy summer at work and the fact that it wasn't atrociously hot this year just made it fly by. This year the summer was pretty mild other than a short stretch in June and we've actually had some rain. And, most importantly, everything's not on FIRE here in central Texas this year.

I really haven't done a lot of stitching since the last update, but here's the little Halloween haunted house that I've been working on sporadically:



I have one or two small Halloween projects in the queue and then maybe, just maybe, I'll tackle some of those larger projects that I've only barely scratched the surface on.

Stash enhancement, but at a great cost

And I don't just mean the amount of money I spent (which was a little higher than my usual stash enhancement experience, even with everything on sale). No, the real cost was that my local needlework shop, Ginger's Needlearts and Framing, is closing at the end of July. I get their email newsletter and when last week's arrived I started skimming it as usual and noticed that EVERYTHING was on sale. So, yeah, I had missed the top of the email where she said she had decided to close the shop. The reason was that the landlord had raised the rent again, this time to the point that it was no longer viable for her business. She had already had to shrink the size of the store once because of this, but now it was just too much. It's really a shame since she had the only shop in town I know of that really catered to cross stitchers. We do have some needlepoint and quilting shops, but not much for the other forms of needlework. I can remember at least two stores that have popped up that had cross stitch supplies but neither made it. (Which is a shame since one of them was really close to where I live now.)

I admit that I occasionally shop online for supplies or would buy at big chain stores, but I was still a loyal customer of Ginger's for about 20 years and I'm really sad to see the store close. Best wishes to Ginger and her staff and here's hoping that eventually someone will decide to try to fill her shoes.

No stitching updates this time since I didn't have much free time for needlework last week!

Fall owl

I managed to squeeze in another quick finish before heading back to work tomorrow! This is another one from the 2011 JCS Halloween ornaments issue. I used DMC for the stitching except the border, which is a Weeks Dye Works thread that I had bought for another design that I thought would look cute here (and the colors did match great!). I still have two more designs from that issue in the works, but I have no idea when I'm going to get around to finishing them since I have a feeling this is going to be a fairly busy summer, at least through July. I'm really hoping for a calm August since it's usually so hot outside that it's a good time to sit inside and stitch!

Witchy Kitty

"Witchy Kitty" from the 2011 JCS Halloween Ornaments issue.

I usually take a little time off between semesters which is a chance to catch up on movies, books, and stitching! This design had been on my lapstand for a while now and sitting there taunting me and making me feel guilty for not getting any stitching done this year (although I knew going in that this was going to be a busy year - and I wasn't wrong). So I was glad to finally finish it up. I used DMC floss and I wish I had chosen a slightly darker green for the "potion" so it would show up on the gray fabric a little better, but too late now.

I have a habit of occasionally pulling out all of my WIPs and putting them on my craft table just to see how many projects I've got in various stages of completion (not including things that need to be framed or made into ornaments) and this round was kind of sobering. I have A LOT of WIPs - although not as many as when I first started stitching and put about a dozen stitches into about 20+ projects and then left them in a box under my bed for 10 years (I tossed a lot of those after a point since they were all on Aida cloth and I now prefer linen/evenweave). So I'm making a pact with myself to not start any new projects until I finish at least three of the current unfinished ones. We'll see how long that holds up when this year's JCS Halloween ornaments issue shows up at the end of the summer. ;)

"By the Full Moon" Finished

Although the parts have been sitting on my craft table for several weeks, I finally got around to doing all the glue today. It has been taking me way too long to do the finishing on these things - I did the stitching back in September 2010!

I have three other things that are *almost* complete - I'm still working on the final trims. Part of the delay has been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. I have the perfect trims for all three but I'm still figuring out the best way to attach them!

Time for another apology post

But first let me start with Happy New Year!

I had high hopes of getting a bunch of stitching done over the time off over the holidays, and while I did do some, it wasn't a whole lot. No pictures today, but I'll post one once the ornament I mainly worked on is finished. I also did a little work on one of the Halloween designs I started back in October and I started a *really* old Christmas kit. Given the rate at which I'm stitching these days, I seriously doubt I'll be doing many designs in their appropriate season (unless I want to end up with a whole lot of "in progress" projects).

I did wash and press some of the little designs I did in the later part of 2011 and maybe, just maybe, I'll get around to making them into ornaments or whatever over the long weekend coming up. I probably shouldn't make any stitching resolutions for 2012, but I would really like to get some of those old finished items out of their basket and into frames, etc.!