At least it wasn't a full month

No, it hasn't been a full month since my last post, but I am darn close.  Since my last post I steadily stitched away on a piece I can't show you right now as it's a gift.  I finished it last week and got it to the framers the same day as (1) they were having a lovely sale and (2) I wanted it back before Thanksgiving.  After I finished that piece, I pulled out an almost oldie, but definitely a goodie and finished:

Tenth Day from Plum Street Samplers.  I think I may focus on this piece as I would very much like to have it finished for this Christmas.  I really do need to work on my color balance as the fabric is Vintage Autumn Gold from Lakeside Linens and is by no means this washed out.

I have also been collecting ideas and supplies for my holiday crafting and baking blitz.  It will take place the week of November 28th and I am looking forward to spending the entire week creating.  Of course, the collecting ideas part of this brings us to the other reason I haven't been reading or posting as I should - Pinterest!  It really is an evil place and should be banned!!  I have found so many wonderful ideas there.  Of course whenever I see one of those wonderful ideas, the chronological challenged part of my brain says "of course you have time to do this" and the rest of me just goes along with it and I spend hours planning and searching the craft room and house for things to us to make it and suddenly it's midnight and I have lost an entire evening day hour.  I will say there are some amazingly creative and talented people out there and thank them for sharing their talents with the rest of us (even if I do end up chasing rabbits).

I've even done some stashing!!   and .  The first is Christmas Baskets by The Drawn Thread and the second is Halloween on the Farm by Kathy Barrick.  The fabric for Halloween is a mocha color so much richer than shown.  In addition to stitching Halloween, I may steal the cat to use in my attempt to finish a series.  Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle designed two pieces  and   (if you can't read them, they are Cape Cod girls they have no combs, they comb their hair with codfish bones and Cape Cod boys they have no sleds, they slide down hill on codfish heads), based on the sea shanty Cape Cod Girls or Bound for Australia.  There is an additional verse of, "Cape Cod cats ain't got no tails, they lost them all in Cape Cod (or nor'east) gales". I am going to try to use bits and pieces of the first two to do the third, but I need a primitive style cat, which Halloween has.  Stay tuned for the next ten or fifteen years for the results.

There are two SAL check-ins coming up,  and  so I might as well be early for them.

 is hosted by Melissa at Measie's Musing and has been going strong since 2012.  This has been a wonderful, low-stress SAL that provides the encouragement needed to work through those works-in-progress so many of us collect.  Hmmmm, that's an idea, I could call it a collection and then nobody would really expect me to finish them would they?  I mean, nobody asks a stamp collector when they are going to use their collection!  While I am thinking on that, I will continue stitching.  Looking back at my October WIPocalypse post, I have had no progress on my chosen pieces.  Sad, sad, sad.  Fortunately, Melissa does give us questions each month to liven things up a bit and this month's is:  What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list?  For sheer size, Sistine Chapel as charted by Heaven and Earth Designs is my pattern.  Given that I am lucky to do two or three pages a year and there are 55 or 60 pages in the pattern - well I'll let you do the math.  For designer, anything Teresa Wentzler. Not that her pieces are complicated but they do require some concentration and determination.  I have many of her patterns in my stash with Holly and Ivy Sampler at the top of my list to start.  If you're interested, Melissa has said she is going to continue WIPocalypse into 2017, so keep your eyes on her blog for more information.

Jo at Serendipitous Stitching hosts  so that we have a place to thank those that have gifted us with stitching bits and bobs or to show things we are stitching as gifts.  I, again, have no update on the pieces that were gifted to me and I can't show the one I am gifting, so while it's a check-in, it's not a very exciting one.

One more load of laundry to finish and then I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon cruising Pinterest stitching on either another 12 Days block or maybe Santa and the Mouse.