Category: Fiber Arts Joy

If all goes according to plan, then while you are reading this post I will be beginning a cross stitching marathon. Even though I have the opportunity to cross-stitch every day, for which I am very grateful, I’ve never had the opportunity to go to a retreat. Recently, I’ve seen several posts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as several Flosstubers, regarding stitching retreats and how much fun they had. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to go to one, but in the mean time I started thinking about this idea of doing my own personal retreat. The opportunity has presented itself this weekend as my husband will be visiting with a friend from out of town and they will be attending a model train show all day on Sunday. Since, I never work on Sunday and the only housework I do is washing the sheets, it’s the perfect day for me to have a personal stitching retreat. So while you’re reading this, hopefully, I will be sitting on my porch, listening to an audiobook or watching flosstube and cross stitching away. Make sure you check out my Instagram feed, as I will surely be posting pictures throughout the day. Now let’s move onto the nitty-gritty of this past week.

What I’m Stitching

Thank the stitching angels, I have finally finished the white background section of the second quilt on my Spring Quilt pattern. I have to say that I hate DMC B5200! I don’t know what it is, but it just always seems to get dirty very fast it’s the only thread that always knots on me. But since I’ve already started this piece using that thread, then I’m going to suck it up and finish the piece, but I’m going to start exploring some alternatives for B5200. Anyway here is my progress so far:

Moving on in my rotation I am pulling out my Happily Ever After piece. As I mentioned last week, I’m determined to finish this piece on schedule in 2017. Haven’t had very many finishes this year, I’ve had a few smalls that I finished, but nothing requiring real commitment and I really would like to have this one done this year. So I am determined this month to stitch my heart out on Happily Ever After and hopefully only have the final installment in December to finish when it is released on December 1. Needless, to say this is the piece I’m going to be working on during my personal stitching retreat so here is my starting point:

What I’m Reading

This week I started reading Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. Although, I’m still in the beginning of the book, I know I’m going to enjoy it greatly. Stalking Jack the Ripper is Kerri Maniscalco’s first novel and it is actually the first book produced by James Patterson’s new publishing house. However, that is not what attracted me to the book in the first place. It was noticing her second book in the bookstore that made me want to pause and read the first one. Anyway, Stalking Jack the Ripper is starting off to be a fabulous interweave of historical context from the time when Jack the Ripper was leaving his mark on the world and some fictional characters thrown in there with a little bit of creative licensure. I love the main character Audrey Rose; only 25% of the way in and I love that she is going against the stream for what is acceptable for women of the time and challenging society’s views on the role of women. Anyway, a book review will be coming soon; once I finish the book of course.

What I’m Watching

With Halloween being Tuesday, I wanted to get into the Halloween spirit so I started watching Supernatural. Surprisingly, I never rally watched this show before. A year or so ago, I watched the first season then got distracted.

But for Halloween I thought I’d celebrate by watching Supernatural and I chewed through the whole second season and I’m now up to the third season and still enjoying it. However, I’m not gonna beable to binge watch through all 13 seasons right now, so I’ll probably have to take a break soon.

This Week’s Highlights

Three years we have lived in North Carolina and I still can’t believe 80 degree weather in November! Thursday and Friday were absolutely beautiful and we all took full advantage of the sun and the warmth!

That’s all for now I hope you have a great week and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

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First let me say, I’m sorry; I’m sorry that I have been MIA for so long. It’s been a hot minute since I posted anything, in fact my last post was a brief one about World Cross Stitch Day back in August. Then I just fell off the blogosphere. No real reason, just a lot of little things all happening at once, including work changes and health issues. Things right now seem to be settling and for the moment I can return to a some what normal routine. That of course includes blogging and I have several drafts waiting to be finished and scheduled for posting, so there should be a steady stream from me for a while. Now that we’re back together, let’s take a look at what I’ve been up too!

What I’m Stitching

As I type this I have two active WIPs, but I am about to put one away and rotate. The first WIP is my Stormtrooper Sugar Skull, by Stitch Line on Etsy. I purchased this pattern sometime last year, then kinda of forgot about it, but for my birthday I wanted to start something fun and just for me, enter Stormtrooper. Because purple is my favorite color, I decided to stitch this piece on 14 count Aida, hand dyed purple, that I picked up at Stitch By Stitch in Cape May. Here are a few progress pictures:

Additionally, I am working on my Spring Quilt, from the Five Seasons Of Quilts by Leisure Arts. While I enjoy this piece while I am stitching it, for some reasons it seems to require an effort on my part to pick it up. Maybe I’m just not in a Springtime state of mind. Whatever the reason, I plan on finishing the section I am currently on then I’m going to switch the Spring Quilt out for Happily Ever After. I really would like to finish Happily Ever After this year and need to get caught up with the SAL. Here are a few pictures of Spring Quilt:

What I’m Reading

Despite being well under my 2017 Reading Challenge goal, I still have a pretty good reading bug in my system. This past Thursday was my monthly Mystery Book Club meeting, where we discussed Below the Belt, by Stuart Woods. Check out my review here.

More recently, I finished reading The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, by Phaedra Patrick. A review is forthcoming, (click here for my review) but I will say that this was such an enjoyable book. The story is bittersweet in all the right ways, and the main character, Arthur Pepper, is one I fell in love with and was sorry to say goodbye to when the book was over.

What I’m Watching

Actually, I haven’t been watching that much television lately, instead I’ve been reading, listening to music, or watching YouTube. However, I do have a current favorite show: The Good Place.

This is the second season and it is just a really great sitcom. Season 1 was fantastic, and the reveal in the last episode was shocking. Season 2 takes that revelation to a whole new place and makes for some fabulous comedy.

This Week’s Highlights

This week has been fairly uneventful, however, I still working my way through the Konmari method, from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Although, I do have to adjust some tasks and techniques to accommodate for my back, I am slowing make my way through the categories. Currently, I am “tidying” my crafts and I am really trying to thin down the amount of supplies that I keep on hand, only keeping those that “spark joy”. If you are interested in this process, there are loads of bloggers and Youtubers who have done reviews and step by step break downs of the process, I am not planning on taking that on right now. But, here is a before shot of my craft area, which will hopefully look much better by next weekend.

That’s all for now I hope you have a great week and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

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Hello fellow stitchers! Let me wish you all a very Happy World Cross Stitch Day! This year I am very lucky to be able to have the day off to spend stitching, sparing some time to have coffee with a friend! This is the fourth annual World Cross Stitch Day and if you would like to read more about it you can check out the website: World Cross Stitch Day or the Facebook Page. For this year’s celebration, I am holding my second mini project day!

If you recall, I had my first mini project day on July 4th, celebrating the holiday by completing the July mini sampler from 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs by Kooler Design Studio, check out that post to see the finished piece. So today, I will be starting and completing the August mini sampler. Again, this will be stitched on 14 count Aida with a finished size of 2” x 3”. Throughout the day I will be sharing progress pictures on my Instagram, so make sure to check that out and follow me. So, where ever you are, I hope you find time to enjoy needle & thread and the frog stays far away.

Happy World Cross Stitch Day!

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As I write this post, we are two hours into an eight hour drive to Cape May, NJ for our annual summer holiday! This vacation comes at the perfect time, as I have been dealing with a lot of crap with work lately, and while I have made a decision about that, I need some breathing room. Surprisingly this morning went fairly smoothly, despite getting out of bed 45 minutes later than planned. Both the hubby and I are so excited, we so enjoy our week every year and I personally am looking forward to much reading and stitching time, including a haul from Stitch by Stitch at the Washington Street Mall! Here are a few of the things I have to look forward to this week:
Sip & Stitch Spot for the Week

Stitching Project – June & July in the Year of Celebrations Series

Reading Selections – Truthwitch (never finished), Serafina & the Black Coat, plus backups on the Kindle

Having as much fun as last year!

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Once again it is Monday and I am writing & posting my “Sunday” post and you know what, that is okay. Sometimes life throws things at us and we need to be able to adjust in order to stay sane. So what was thrown at me this, or rather, last week? Well, the majority of my chaos and stress came from issues with my professional job. Then my husband and I rescued a stray dog that I found off of a main road in triple digit weather; hungry, thirsty and covered in fleas. Right now she is happy, clean, and has been with us for the past couple days. But my week ended on a good note with a trip to Cape May, NJ for the weekend. Our week long vacation there is quickly approaching, but we were due for a visit with my parents and both hubby and I needed a day to catch our breath and relax a moment. It turned out to be a good weekend. Here’s my Project Life page for the trip:

Arriving home late last night, I’ve just now finished the unpacking and chores, getting to my blog at last. So here’s the break down from last week.

What I’m Stitching

Finally, finally, finally, I finished the March section of the Happily Ever After SAL and I’ve very happily moved on to the June section, which is Around the World in 80 Days. Love, love stitching up the hot air balloon. I have a certain fondness for hot air balloons, even though I am petrified of heights. While I had the fabric off the Q snap, I took a picture of the whole piece, and I think it’s coming along nicely. Over the weekend I also worked a little bit on my Mill Hill Princess Carriage.

What I’m Reading

On the way home I finished up The Keeper of Lost Things. I couldn’t figure out why it was taking me so long to finish this book and then I realized it’s because I didn’t want it to end. This book is possibly the most wonderful piece of literature I’ve read in my adult life. There will be a book review post coming soon.

Now I have   officially started reading Truthwitch and I’m looking forward to Fantasy Book Club on Thursday.

What I’m Watching

This week is all about dance & ninjas! Dancing is one of my favorite forms of artistic expression and I love watching crews & soloists perform and compete. Right now I’m all caught up on World of Dance and So You Think You Can Dance. In addition I am all caught up on American Ninja Warrior. However, the greatest thing I’ve seen all week was the Kinjas’ Duels performance on World of Dance. Absolutely amazing! Check it out:

Highlights

Obviously the highlight for this week was having the weekend in Cape May New Jersey, but highlight of that highlight was that I made a trip over to Stitch by Stitch in the Washington Street Mall and picked up a couple things for myself. Not a huge haul, because I am saving my budget for the Picture This Plus sale, but I did pick up a new Mill Hill kit: Ice Castle. It is beautiful and caught my eye right away. Also, I got some Weeks Dye Works floss for the Clouds Factory Famous Women in History Stitch Along, which I haven’t started, but I’m planning on having it as my birthday start this year so I’m working on kitting it up now.

That’s all for now I hope you have a great week and thanks for taking the time to read my post. 

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This has been quite a week. We had a nice long weekend at the beginning due to the Fourth of July holiday, and then a very hectic end of the week, also due to the Fourth of July holiday. Yet, hubby and I did find some time to have an afternoon date on Sunday at a new local café. It was a lovely café with good coffee, good food and a nice atmosphere, we will definitely be going back. This coming week will be hectic again as we are preparing to go away on the weekend, but hopefully we will find time to breathe in between the chaos.

Before moving on I thought I would share the Project Life page I made for our Fourth of July holiday:

While I was at it I played a little catch-up and made a quick page for Mardi Gras back in February:

Onto the nitty-gritty…

What I’m Stitching

So I shared on Wednesday that I celebrated the Fourth of July by completing a mini sampler from the book 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs by Kooler Design Studio.

Here is a picture of that finished piece:

Also, I am finally finished the month of May from A Year of Celebrations series! I have no idea why it took me so long to get May done except for the fact that the frog has been around for a long time.

Here is the finished May pattern:

I also threw together a quick slideshow of my progression through the piece you can check it out on YouTube:

What I’m Reading

I’m trying to finish up The Keeper of Lost Things, by Ruth Hogan. I only have about 150 pages left and I’m not sure why I haven’t been able to finish it yet, because I love the story. The only thing I can say is that I’ve not really been able to focus well this past week.

 

Anyway I hope to finish it up in the next day and move on to the book that is slotted for fantasy book club this month, Truthwitch by Susan Dennard.

 

What I’m Watching

Currently I’m not binge watching anything. I just have not been in the mood for massive consumption of television. I am keeping current with American Ninja Warrior and World of Dance, but other than that I’ve really just been hanging out on YouTube during my stitching sessions.

Highlights

A couple weeks ago I shared my discovery of and quickly developing love affair with my Mini Happy Planner. Well, the saga continues. While there are an extremely large amount of free printable’s out there for page layouts, monthly layouts, weekly layouts, and stickers, I have been finding great joy in designing my own stickers and printables. Using Adobe Photoshop Elements, I created templates for myself and have been using digital scrapbooking techniques to personalize my Mini Happy Planner.

Here’s a picture of my favorite layout design with a happy camper theme using a free digital scrapbooking kit from Harper Finch:

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

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Happy Fourth of July to all my friends who celebrated with barbecues, swimming pools and vacations down the shore. If you didn’t notice, Sunday came and went without a post from me, that’s because I got a little tied up over the weekend and didn’t have a chance to write anything down. This was a pretty typical Fourth of July, at the Rutko Refuge. We don’t really do too much for the holiday, all of our family is out of state and we do not like to travel on the holidays because of the crazy traffic, so we usually just hang out at the refuge and maybe do something locally. In true stitch fashion, I celebrated the fourth by taking a break from my current WIPs and working on a mini sampler for the month of July from the book 365 Tiny Crosstitch Designs by Kooler Design Studio.

I was inspired to celebrate the holiday this way by Stitch Maynia’s July Patriotic Stitch Along on Facebook. It was just happenstance that I checked the group page and found the stitch a long event and while I don’t have any plans to participate all month, I thought it was a great idea to do something just for the day, plus I’ve been meaning to do these little mini samplers anyway, there is one for each month in the book. This one I stitched on 14 count Aida, because well that’s what I have around the house, so I just cut a scrap piece off and didn’t even bother to fray check it, I just threw it in the hoop, center marked it and started stitching.

Most of the floss I had in my stash, but I did have to make 2 substitutions, the green and red. The finished piece is about 2 x 3 inches, which I I think will look great in one of those cute little 2 x 3 frames you can pick up at AC Moore or Michael’s. Since I do plan on doing all the monthly mini samplers, I’m thinking about doing a monthly mini day where I start & finish one small piece that day, and the mini samplers would be great to start off with especially, since I already have July done.

Here are some progress pictures of the July mini sampler:

Be sure to look out for another mini sampler coming to you in August.

I’ve also been working on my movie making skills, using some apps on my iPhone, and for fun I put together this cute scary movie-ish movie trailer, featuring my fur babies. If you like you can check it out on YouTube:

Thanks for checking in & happy stitching!

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This week I needed to spend time finishing up some continuing education courses in order to renew my license, so it only gave me a small window for stitching so far. Luckily, I finished all that today and will have more time the rest of this week to devote to stitching, which is a good thing because this week I have been attacked by the frog! (more…)

This has been a busy week for me & hubby, including this weekend, which consisted of running quite a few errands. Since hubby was driving, I spent some time working on one of my purse projects in the car: a Mill Hill kit from the Autumn Harvest Collection, Princess Carriage. Since I spent so much time, this weekend in particular, sitting in the car working on my purse project, I though I would take this episode of Sunday’s Stitches & Stuff to revisit a post from last year on the topic of my purse projects and mini project pouch. (more…)

So this week I sacrificed my stitching time on Monday & Tuesday to read my book for my mystery book club meeting tomorrow. I started this book kind of late this month. Usually I start reading my books on Friday night or Saturday morning and then I am usually done by Wednesday night or Thursday morning, but for some reason I wasn’t able to start this one until Monday. So far I’m about halfway through now and should be able to finish it up this evening. Unfortunately, since I sacrificed my stitching time in order to have time to read the book I didn’t make any progress on any of my current pieces. Therefore, I thought this might be a good opportunity to just share a rundown of all my current WIPs and where I’m at with each piece (more…)