I’m finally caught up!
Wouldn’t you love a camel ride past a pyramid? I’m sure in reality it’s hot and smelly, but in my mind it seems like the greatest adventure ever!
Now to get caught up on some geek-a-long knitting. If only I can pull myself away from Pokémon Go long enough…
I’m working hard to get caught up on the Pumpkin Passport stitch-a-long by Frosted Pumpkin. I’ve fallen a few months behind but am almost back on track.
Here are May and June’s installments – Greece and Russia:
That means I’m half way there! I’m almost finished July and if I can get a bit of stitching time in today I’ll be fully caught up!
Frosted Pumpkin recently released two new stitch-a-longs, one is Halloween themed and the other is a trip through six national parks. I’ll admit I’m rather tempted by the Halloween one, but between this project and the Lattes and Llamas Geek-a-Long I think my craft-a-long quota is maxed out. But it’s always so hard to pass up these adorable designs, so I may end up caving after all.
It’s completely ridiculous, but between the Pumpkin Passport and the Lattes and Llamas Geek-a-long, I have been spending so much time crafting lately that I haven’t had any time to actually photograph or post what I’ve been working on! Time to remedy that.
The April installment of the Frosted Pumpkin Pumpkin Passport takes us to Switzerland. Okay, I’ll admit it, I know nothing about Switzerland, except that my boss has gone there to ski a couple of times, and she always brings back excellent chocolate. And really, what more do you need in a country than excellent chocolate? Maybe the cutest sheep in the world, but Switzerland happens to have that too.
The March installment of the Pumpkin Passport has us riding past a tulip field in the Netherlands. And what a wonderful view it is!
It’s definitely on my bucket list to see the tulip fields someday, but for now, the cross stitched version will have to do.
I’ll admit that I finished this before the month of March was over, however it took a few weeks to get posted since my life is currently being sucked away by Stardew Valley. I will not admit to just how many hours I have already put into a game that was only released six weeks ago, but it’s obvious that blog posts have fallen to the wayside because of it. I have lots of projects to post – I’ve made good progress on squares for the Lattes and Llamas Geek-a-Long, and even finished off a crocheted baby blanket for a co-worker. So hopefully I can pull myself away from my virtual farm for long enough to get those up here sometime soon. No promises though… there are crops to plant, animals to feed, villagers to woo, and a mine that needs exploring…
I am clearly a sucker for craft-a-longs. How else can I explain talking myself into yet another year-long Frosted Pumpkin stitch-a-long? Like the WIP pile wasn’t already big enough! But this year’s stitch is travel themed, and like everything Frosted Pumpkin, just too darn cute to resist.
Here’s a shot of the full piece after I finished stitching the January & February installments. I really love that the layout is horizontal and that it’s clearly going to be a full scene rather than individual framed motifs like the last two stitch-a-longs.
Here’s a close up of the January and February stitch:
An interesting side note is that I have actually been to both London and Paris. These are likely to be the only cities in the Pumpkin Passport that I’ve actually visited!
Yippee!! I actually managed to finish the Frosted Pumpkin Story Time Stitch-a-Long before the end of the year!
The final piece is a scene from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Much though Scrooge is gosh darn cute, I sadly, must admit that I wish the final square in this piece hadn’t been Christmas themed. But at least it has a reason to be there since A Christmas Carol is a great story. I guess I’ll just have to learn to love it.
Here’s the finished piece:
The only books featured that I haven’t actually read are The Phantom of the Opera and A Christmas Carol. I guess those will have to be the start of my reading list for next year.
The final piece is about 7 3/4 by 10 1/2 inches stitched over two threads on 28 count, hand dyed lugana from Picture This Plus (the colour is called Storm).
It really was a joy to stitch with each month’s installment easily completed in just a few evenings. Next year’s stitch-a-long is travel themed. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll join in or not. I’m sure I’d enjoy stitching it, the problem is always what to do with it when it’s done, and how many samplers I really want to frame and put on my wall! I also bought the pattern for the 2014 sampler which was fairy tale themed, so I may start into that one instead. Or just focus on some of the WIPs and kits I already have taking up room in the craft cupboard. Too many choices, but it’s such a wonderful problem to have 🙂
Yay! I finished the Frosted Pumpkin Christmas Town stitch-a-long in plenty of time for Christmas!
Sadly, I have no idea what I’m going to do with it now. It’s roughly 11″ by 6″, so a standard frame isn’t going to work, and I don’t really want to pay for custom framing. I think it would look pretty cute stretched over a canvas, so I may see whether I can track down some appropriately sized stretcher bars or fake having woodworking skills well enough to make my own.1
Or, I may bribe someone with a sewing machine and some sewing expertise2 to see whether it can be made into a wall hanging.3
Regardless of how it ends up finished, I’m really pleased with the stitching – it couldn’t be cuter. And the photo does not do justice to just how beautiful the Picture this Plus hand dyed crystal fabric actually is.
1I actually had to Google ‘woodworking’ to see whether or not it contained a dash. That demonstrates the extent of my woodworking skills.
2I have neither of these things.
3I’m looking at you Mom (hint, hint).
I have been so caught up in posting about Creativ Festival projects that I have quite a back log now of other projects that need some blog love!
First up is the Frosted Pumpkin Story Time Sampler, which, apparently, I haven’t given an update on since August. So here are the characters from September, October, and November, which happen to be based on three of my very favourite books: Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women.
I think my favourite detail is Jo’s crooked smirk.
It’s hard to believe there is only one month left to go in this stitch-a-long. And harder still to believe that I’ve actually made it all the way through!
Well, this is a little embarrassing. I think I finished stitching the August installment of the Frosted Pumpkin Story Time Sampler in the first week of August, but it has taken until now to make it to the blog. Better late than never?
August’s scene features the Phantom and Christine from The Phantom of the Opera.
The Phantom of the Opera was the first large-scale, musical production I ever saw. I actually saw it twice in Toronto when I was a kid (I believe both in the same year – once with my family and once as a school trip), so it can be credited with helping inspire my love of musical theatre. Sadly, since I’ve now seen many, many more shows, it actually ranks among my least favourite overall. I don’t know why, but the music and the story just do not speak to me.
I also remember reading an adaptation of the novel while I was in elementary school but really don’t remember much about it. I’m guessing it was a version aimed at children and likely had very little in common with the original text. Since I have (so far) read all of the stories in this sampler, and since English translations of the original novel are readily available online, I’m trying to convince myself to read the original. But, I’ve clearly been trying for almost two months and it hasn’t happened yet, so I may decide that the children’s adaptation counts and I’m off the hook! This one is obviously in my “stitching it is way more fun than reading it” pile!
I finished the first instalment of the Frosted Pumpkin Christmas mystery stitch.
It really is adorable (Frosted Pumpkin’s speciality) and I love how the overdyed threads turned out (the red used for the door and Santa, and the green used on Santa’s bag). I don’t have a lot of experience using overdyeds so it was a bit of a challenge to remember to stitch one stitch at a time, and to not use the loop method to start my threads, but in the end it was worth it.
The only thing I don’t like about this stitching so far is the fabric colour. I would have picked a darker colour so the white of the snow would pop a little more.
The next part of the pattern (there are four parts in total) arrives on August 26th. I can’t wait!
Craftscapades 