Fields of Strawberries....

I've spent some time working on Blackbird Design's Strawberry Fields Forever.  I seem to be in a groove.  The small motifs go quickly since they're not nearly so solid as the house was.  The GAST and WDW are definitely shining with their slight color variations.  Maybe I'll be able to give it to the husband for Christmas!

Cross Stitch Roulette

After painstakingly whittling down my WIPs a few years ago, I suddenly have a whole crate of them!  Sometimes, I spend a bunch of time trying to decide which one to do next and I've tried several rotation options.  I had an idea yesterday.  There is not a customize-able spinner app for Windows but there is a flashcard app with a "random" option.  So, I put all my WIPs on flashcards in the app and now I just hit random and I have to work on the one that shows up first on the app.  Call it Cross Stitch Roulette if you will.

First up was my Contemporary Wedding Sampler.  I decided to rip out my new colors choices and go back to most of the original color scheme.  The lavender will have to come out but I'm using it as a placeholder for the moment.

Next up was "Strawberry Fields Forever" which is now pretty much 1/4 done.

Stitch from Stash Update - October

Month: October
Total Spent: $23.15
Total Earned: $10
Carryover to November: $42.22

I noticed that I've only posted twice so far for October.  That has to be a record low.  This was a busy month with my mother coming to visit.  I got in a bit of stitching while she was here but not much.

I decided to take a break from Country Grace this month to do some ornaments.  I finished three although they still need to be properly finished for the tree.

I also worked on a UFO Ink Circles ornament I started last year.

Here's where Country Grace stands.  I'm not sure I'll finish it by Thanksgiving.

I have one new start.  There's not much to see.  Stitching over 1 on 32 count is a bit hard on the eyes.

As for purchases, I'm still paying on the Christmas book but I also went to Jo-Ann's last night and picked up this

Maybe now I have all the solid colored DMC colors.  I won't hold my breath though.

I've Been Away...

This past week has been busy because my mother came to visit. We did the zoo with the kids (and fed the giraffe!) and baked cookies and did early Christmas shopping.  I think the girls will be sad tomorrow when she leaves.  We're going to do the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas tomorrow before she gets on the train.

I managed to have a little bit of time to work on this ornament and I finished it up today.  It was charted for NPI but I used DMC instead (I already had the blending filament left over from something else).  One of their conversion colors was really off so I found a conversion chart online and used that color instead which looked much better.  I used some of my 32 ct. champagne linen instead of the charted 36 ct.  It makes it a hair bigger but still well within the appropriate size for an ornament.

Ink Circles

I started this last year some time.  I've never done anything by Ink Circles before and I figured this was a way to try out one of their designs in a small setting.  It's solidly stitched.

Ornament Finish

Here are the two ornaments I stitched up.

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Reading Challenge - September

I had the time to read some more Newbery books as well as a few series and the new Bill O'Reilly "Killing" series book.

To Be a Slave by Julius Lester - A Newbery Honor, nonfiction account of what slavery was really like, from the early days of slave ships to sharecropping after the war.
The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith - I liked The Cuckoo's Calling and book three is coming out next month so I had to read this.  A good mystery.  Will keep you guessing.  Definitely not for kids though.
Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West by Bill O'Reilly - I have enjoyed O'Reilly's "Killing" series and listened to this on Audible.  Very interesting biographies of some of the Western legends.
Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis - A pair of sisters spend the morning on the roof of their aunt's house, reliving the circumstances of their baby sister's death in flashbacks.
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy - A nonfiction book about the Great Chicago Fire.
On My Honor - Tragedy happens when two boys go for an ill-advised swim in the river.
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant - Summer misses her deceased aunt.
Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers - A dying, escaped convict spends time with his estranged son before he dies.
Killing Reagan by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard - A look at Reagan - his days as an actor who went into politics, his almost-assassination as president and his decline into Alzheimer's.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith
- The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs - Van Igelfeld is mistaken for a veterinarian with disastrous results.  He also has adventures in Italy and on a cruise ship.
-At the Villa of Reduce Circumstances - Van Igelfeld has adventures at Cambridge and Colombia.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
-The Selection - America is chosen to be one of thirty-five women chosen as potential brides for the prince in a post-apocalyptic Bachelor-type contest.
-The Elite - America makes the cut to the final six girls but she is still unsure if she loves the prince or still has feelings for her first love, who is now a palace guard.
-The One - Tensions with the rebels continue to get ugly and the true nature of the current king is revealed.  Who will the prince pick to be his bride?
Star Trek New Frontier by Peter David
-The Returned (Parts 1, 2 and 3) - Captain Calhoun leads his ship into a pocket universe bent on revenge against the race that wiped out his planet and finds an even worse race.  Meanwhile, Robin Lefler and Mark McHenry return to New Thallon.