To-Do Tuesday 8-1-17 | July Summary

Happy Tuesday, friends! I am writing this post on Friday since we will be very busy on Sunday and Monday preparing to head back to Arizona. We actually stayed a week later here than we usually do, since the kids are older now and school shopping isn’t as big of a production as it used to be. We will pick them up from their dad on the 5th, two days before school starts. It was nice having the extra week here, but we are definitely gearing up to get out of vacation mode and back to a schedule!

This past week I finished Ghostly Encounters by Stitches Through Time. I really seem to be drawn towards Halloween type charts lately. This was a fun, quick chart to stitch, with only three colors, and only one of those three being a specialty floss. The chart calls for a small amount of beading, and actually came with the called for beads. That was fantastic, because the only extra thing I needed to order, besides the fabric, was the Weeks Dye Works floss.

This was stitched two strands of floss over two threads on 32 count linen in Ale by Picture This Plus. Going from stitching on 26 count linen to 32 count linen was interesting, and it took me about an hour to get my tension right. I absolutely love the way the sides of the border and the center chandelier post look like the vertebrae of a spine. I also love those two skulls. My absolutely favorite part, though, are those beads. I haven’t beaded much, so I didn’t really understand the difference between clear beads and silver lined beads. Let me tell you, if you want a bit of glow, use silver lined beads. No matter which direction you look at this piece from, whether it’s in a well-lit area or dim, the candles look like they’re glowing and the eyes on the skulls, raven, and spiders glow in the same way. It’s a fantastic effect, and I love learning new things when stitching!

Of course, I have to show off the back… I love a neat back! I don’t always accomplish it, but when I worry that any threads drawn across the back may show through to the front I make sure to end off and start the next motif fresh. I plan to finish this off as a flat fold using Vonna Pfeiffer’s tutorial. She also has a step-by-step youtube video of the process. I’ll be fully finishing this one off sometime in the next month or so.

One thing I started participating in is Stitch From Stash. I signed up at the beginning of the year for Part A (January to June), but failed so miserably in the first month I didn’t even try the rest of the months. I decided to sign up again for Part B, but this time putting a serious effort into it. I signed up with a $15/month budget. All expenses for stitching come out of this budget, except for some tools (needles, hoops, qsnaps, scroll frames, & stands) and framing costs. Shipping costs do not count against the budget either. Any finishes add credit to the budget. Since we just finished the month of July, I wanted to be publicly accountable for whether I’m managing my budget well or not. This month I spent more than I intended (two charts, the Just CrossStitch Halloween issue, and all of those thrift shop finds), but I had enough finishes (Sleepy Hollow, Ghoul Tidings, and Ghostly Encounters) that it just covered all those expenses! Whew! Thank goodness for my stitching time this past month!

This week we’ll be traveling home and preparing to get the kids. I may or may not have some sewing time, and there’s something very special I want to participate in that I will talk about next week. This post is already overly long, and I want to give that project it’s proper due. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I most likely will not be responding promptly to comments or visiting your blogs due to our plans for next week, but I will try and get to them before the following week’s post!

This week’s To-Do list:

• Safe Travels
• Acclimate to the bake-your-face-off heat
• Possibly make some blocks for special project

Now it’s your turn! Write up your post and link up using the InLinkz linky below.

Rules:

1. Link up to this To-Do Tuesday blog post using the InLinkz linky below. Don’t forget: you can link up Instagram photos! The link up is open all week, and you can link any post for the week even if it’s written on the prior Sunday or Monday. It simply needs to be related to setting, working on, and/or completing your weekly goal(s).
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4. You do not have to follow my blog to participate, but if you do decide to follow me… thank you! I appreciate it!

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