Frolic Finish for me!! It's an Owl.

Hello Frolic Friends!!  I am finally posting what I believe is my second or third Frolic.  So how are things in your part of the world?  Here it is going to be a very hot day for us in north Texas, we have had several days of hot temperatures this week.  Really I should not complain, it has been a decent summer.  Usually we are hitting 100 degrees in early May. I guess I am just worried because we had new sod put in the front yard and it looks fantastic, the 5-year drought really did in our yard.  Now our front yard is all green and lush.  Hope we don't see another extended drought for a long time.

Today, I have a cute little finish to share, at least for me a total finish since once the stitching was done I packed it up and sent it to Pennsylvania.  One more piece for the Quilts for Older Children and Adults group.  I love stitching for this group, it fulfills my love of cross stitching and it provides a someone with a gift of love created by many hands.  We are always in need of stitchers and quilters.  This group supports  people and similar stitching groups all over the world.  We have stitchers in Australia, UK, Brazil, France, and USA to mention a few.  You can get more information about the group here on Yahoo or here on Facebook.  This design is from the same designer, Anna Nolfina, as my post on 5 July, you can see her patterns here on Etsy.

Owl

14 Ct White Aida

DMC Floss

One last thing before I go, I am having a giveaway on my blog it is open until midnight Central Standard Time in the USA. It is open to anyone anywhere. Don't hesitate to check it out here.

Enjoy!!

CJ

My Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Frolics for 2017...

Obviously, I DO need to be more organised each Saturday to post about my Friday Frolics!  Note to self: Do better.

Anyway, this post is a Fourfer - four weeks of Frolics in one!

Twenty-third Frolic: June 16th

I remember that I had a really productive day for my Twenty-third Frolic, I actually had nothing on that day (amazing in itself), so I spent most of the day pottering around in my Girl's Nest and catching up on my Masterchef watching. 

This is what I worked on:

I finished the stitching on "Accept this trifle from a friend" (which is a freebie from Plum Street Samplers) and then I searched through my fabric stash to find the perfect green fabric for the backing (it matches the bird exactly) - very happy to find it.

I also FFOed, Singin' in the Spring (CCN) - again with fabrics from my stash - this time I used bright 1930s fabrics.

I also did a bit on my Nutcracker Sampler

I also pulled out this Happy Halloween UFO but I put it away again as I couldn't find the relevant threads but maybe it will come out again soon for Friday Frolics.

(Psst! If you are wondering what the real reason is as to why I put it away again, it is the fact that the pumpkins are stitched using Smyrna Crosses and it was Soooo fiddly getting them right - and there are still two more to go - yikes!)

I also pulled out this UFO ...  Snowmates by Blue Ribbon Designs from the JCS Christmas Ornie Magazine 2015.

.... and worked on it a little more.

So, a very successful Twenty-Third Friday Frolic.

Twenty-fourth Frolic: June 23rd

For this Frolic, I picked up Afternoon in London by CCN, this is a gift for a friend's 60th and I really need to get a wriggle on as she is going to turn 61 at the end of July!  (Only a little late with this one, but it did take us a while to find the right design for her tastes.)

I managed to get quite a bit done on that Friday and over the rest of the weekend, as you can see.

Loving stitching this one, gorgeous muted palette and the fabric I am stitching on is a dream to work with. 

Twenty-fifth Frolic: June 30th

For this frolic, I thought that I should get a wriggle on with my Red Robin pouch.

So, I went from here....

... to this....

I am really happy with how the red Japanese beads make the design pop and give it that real Christmassy feel.

Twenty-sixth Frolic: July 7th

On July 7th, I picked up Afternoon in Paris by CCN again, as I do really need to get it finished very soon.

So, it went from this ....

.... to this...

Getting so close to a finish now!

So, that is four weeks of Frolicking for you, I am so looking forward to picking up another WIP this coming Friday - only two more sleeps!

hugs, Kaye

Giveaway on Mini's blog

I'm having a little giveaway on my blog. Have a look.

Barbara from The Flashing Scissors 2017 #4

Hello Friday Frolickers,

Gosh! It's been so long since I posted here, I'd completely forgotten what I'd worked on last time! Although, as you might guess, I haven't been working on the same things since .... Oh, except for the bee hive, which is finished now, but not FFO (fully finished off).

I thought that, rather than show you something you've seen before, I would dig out this little project that has been hidden in the Dreaded Cupboard for so many years! (Well I hope I haven't shown this before, but I can't be certain, you know what it's like ..... once it's typed I'm never quite sure whether I've written about a particular subject or merely considered writing about it!!!)

I must have started stitching this ..... oh no, I can't tell you it's so many years ago!

Well, it's s-o-o-o-o  nearly finished! All the cross stitch is done.

"What stopped me???? " I hear you say (or maybe not) ..... it was simply because I'd never made a tassel!

Truth be told I couldn't see the point in them, and this project calls for 3 tassels!

The instructions for the tassels are included with the pattern - although they weren't terribly clear, or maybe it was just me!

Pattern from The Textile Heritage Collection -

Elizabethan Nosegay, Designed by Anne Orr

Actually this has taken a few Friday nights to work on ..... one week I decided I needed to practice making a tassel before using the threads from this kit (don't want to run out of the right cottons) and so I found some nice pink thread, cut another piece of cardboard and started winding!

I read more about tassel making in The Magic of Crazy Quilting by J. Marsha Michler (and, as ever ..... I have no affiliation here, it just happens to be the first "Crazy Quilting" book I discovered at my local library..... quite a few years ago ..... and when I started blogging the library no longer had the book so I  bought a copy on line to help me with my stitching.) and my pink practice tassel worked out well 

So another Friday night I set to and made the 3 tassels, and the cord to hang the sachet from. Trouble is I'm not very good at reading instructions and I now have some extra cord to use elsewhere!

The sachet itself is not going so well. I machine stitched the sides together, but they didn't match very well, so the frog has visited, and now I need to stitch it together by hand. Maybe that is next Friday's job!

Anyway, I must dash now I want to FFO a couple of other projects tonight.

Hope everyone is keeping well and enjoying lots of stitching this weekend.

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

My Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second Frolics for 2017.....

Here I am again, with a Threefer for you this time (is that even a word?????) .... I swear the days and weeks and months are just spinning by so fast in a whirlwind of family, friends, work, home and lots and lots of other things that seem to keep me busy and away from my blogging.

But, anyway, here I am right now and I am ALL yours, ready to give you Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics updates for my Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second Frolics for 2017.

Twentieth Frolic: Friday, May 26th:

For my Twentieth Frolic, I picked up this gorgeous WIP, "Peas and Qs" by The Cricket Collection.  

 Now, I cannot find any record on my main blog, Kitten Stitching, of when I started this gorgeous design and you can see from the photo below that I didn't get very far when I did start it (oh, I am so very easily distracted by other stitching!).

But for FF, I did manage to get a bit more stitched and a bit more colour into the design - I cannot wait to get back to this piece one day very soon. (The fabric is a much prettier green than this photo shows, I must say.)

This is a better picture of what this lovely design will look like once finished (in a year or two at the rate I go with focusing on one piece!)

Twenty-first Frolic: Friday, June 2nd:

For my Twenty-first Frolic, I picked up The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which I am stitching for the Christmas Ornie SAL blog.  For June, I needed to finish Six Geese-a-layin'. I am quite happy with how this month turned out.

The piece so far.....

Twenty-second Frolic: Friday, June 9th:

For my Twenty-second Frolic, I picked up Lizzie Kate's "A Very Scary SAL", which I last stitched on in April this year.

My re-ordered WDW floss had finally come in at my local LNS, Lazy Daisy, so I was able to move on with my stitching of this piece.  This is where I got up to after my Friday evening of stitching.....

.... and then I stitched a bit more throughout the weekend and got up to here....

Feeling very happy to have revisited this particular piece again - I hope that I manage to get back to it again before year's end.

So, that's three weeks of Friday Frolics and here we are, nearly at Friday again!

I wonder which UFO I will choose to stitch on tomorrow?

Stay tuned!

hugs, Kaye

My Nineteenth Frolic for 2017...

The night of my Nineteenth Frolic corresponded with Friday Night Sew In (FNSI), hosted by the wonderful Wendy from Sugarlane Designs.

Unfortunately, I seem to have missed the last few months  of FNSI posting (oops!  I actually haven't had a FNSI post since January!!!!!) but I actually managed to get my act together this month!  And now, I have a bit of a serendipitous story to tell.

Once upon a Friday, it was time for May FNSI and as it was a Friday, it was also Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics night, so I went to my Girls Nest and pulled out this UFO project.  I started this at the beginning of 2015.  My dear friend, Marie (of Sunday walks fame) was doing some clearing out and she was going to throw out his gorgeous wooden photo storage box.  Now, I thought to myself, I can do something with this and I started stitching like mad to create a memento or personalised sewing box for myself.  (Good idea, hey?)  I managed to finish five "windows" before the project somehow ended up on the back burner.

(I just checked back and the one and only, very brief, mention of this project was on my Kitten Stitching blog at the end of this post way back in March, 2015!!!!!)

Anyway, here is MY box as it is looking now:

 Now, as luck would have it, that very Friday morning, I was reading dear Carol's lovely blog, Stitching Dreams, where she showcased a very special piece that she had stitched for her dear Mother's 90th birthday.  

It was a gorgeous freebie from The Snowflower Diaries.  Now, this design (sans border) looked perfect for my memento box, so I quickly printed the design and off I went.

However, I did change the word "loved" to "blessed" and added a third baby bird to represent my third child.

\\

... and every fairy tale has a happy ending (or dance), so here is my finished piece.

I am so pleased that FNSI and FF inspired me to get this project out again - who knows, maybe it will be a FFO very soon?

Thanks for visiting, everyone and if you would like to see what everyone else got up to for FNSI, please click on the pic below:

hugs, 

P.S.  As I am super busy the next three days (doing fun things, of course) - there is still time to join in my Merry Xmas in July Exchange , which I am running on my Kitten Stitching blog.  Just click on a present below to sign up.

My Seventeenth and Eighteenth Frolics for 2017

OOOh, running a bit behind with my FF posts - so here is a Twofer for you....

My Seventeenth Frolic (Friday, 5th May) was a real bust!  I picked up an old UFO from a few years ago - Bothy Threads Cut Thru' Castle and I did start stitching on it again BUT!!!!!!!

I had to face reality - I had made a bad error right at the start, in the background stitching (making a cross stitch over three threads, not two - rookie mistake, I know) and instead of biting the bullet at the time and pulling it out when I found it - I kept trying to fudge it.  But, of course, I knew that the mistake was there, but I kept compounding it by trying to stitch around it and so the project was abandoned.
When I picked it up for Friday Frolics, I just couldn't ignore the mistake any longer and I started frogging it - which was a thankless task.  I think that now I am going to abandon it altogether - I will use the unused portions of the fabric for smaller designs and just ditch the stitched part. 

A shame really but I have so many other things that I want to stitch that it seems to be the best plan, really.  Maybe one day I will return to it, maybe not - who knows?

(The mistake is somewhere in the light blue background, to the right of the red and white striped pole.)

My Eighteenth Frolic (Friday, May 12th) was a lot more successful - a new start!

   Walk through our Village by UB Designs.

... And this is my progress pic.....

Don't you just love the red roof?

So, that is all for me for now.

I wonder what my next Friday Frolic will bring?

hugs, Kaye

P.S. I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange,which I am running on my main blog, Kitten Stitching.  

Just click on a present below to sign up.

My Sixteenth Frolic for 2017....

... was most successful as it turned into a Happy Dance!

... and a FFO.

The Snooty Parrot Sampler Fob

Barbara Ana Designs

28 ct Mocha linen

Suggested DMC floss

hugs, Kaye