Halloween Stitching

With the weather cooling down at my house (which here means falling below 100° F.) I feel like Halloween is on the way. Here are some of my current and past Halloween projects.

Kerry Ince from We, Of The Needle in Brea framed "Ghoul School" by Glendon Place for me. I added glow-in-the-dark blending filament to my ghosts. The characters were easy because all their heads are buttons.

  Next is a project I'm planning to start called "Corn-elia" by Ann Strite-Kurz. This is designed to be an ornament but someone in Inland Empire EGA has already finished it as a needle book. It's just the right size for a scissor case, too.




Some past Halloween Projects:

I don't remember the designer but I did this a few years ago. I added the red letters over the cat. Isn't he fierce! He's framed in a shadowbox with Halloween accents.

 "Remember Me" by Birds of a Feather. This was my first time stitching with over-dyed thread. The motto is one of my favorites. It's usually in some flowery Victorian-style sampler but it really rocks with a witch and skeleton. This was framed by Bob at Needles and Niceties in Upland.

 This little Mill Hill kit is stitched on paper. Again, I added glow-in-the-dark to the ghost. It was the first time I'd done that and I felt so clever.

This Mill Hill kit is stitched on fabric. I liked the look of it on the stretcher bars so much that I just left it on.

"Scared Silly" by Bird's of a Feather.  I like her designs. I bought a frame to put this in before I started stitching it. Yeah, I stitched it in 2010 and yeah, it's still not framed. Now THAT'S scary.

Broken Leg Stitching

Yup, it's been a while since I posted. I'll try to get some of my finishes for the last year up. But the current news is that I broke my ankle on October 1.

I'd love to report that I broke it by doing something cool, like outrunning a mountain lion or jumping over a stream while back country hiking. But I broke it by slipping in the shower. Fully clothed. With shoes on. And the water was not running.

See, our shower is leaking into the kitchen ceiling below so we have to have it rebuilt. That means we have options to change the bathroom. I was measuring the tub-shower spaces and when I stepped into the shower, I skidded on the non-skid mat. In my defense, the tiles are VERY slippery (hence the mat), the mat is weirdly soft, and the tiles under the mat were still wet. The irony is that if I'd been barefoot I might have felt the moisture and been more careful. Anyway, I ended up with both my tibia and fibula broken. Surgery to pin everything is scheduled for tomorrow morning. In the meantime I'm watching a lot of television and doing a lot of stitching.

I'm nearly done with Ghoul School from Glendon Place. The stitched area is about 11 inches square. I've used DMC for everything except the moon, which is stitched in Caron Waterlilies silk. I'm stitching one line at a time so I get the right color mix from the overdyed color. I also added Kreinik glow-in-the-dark to the two ghosts. I thought about adding a yellow glow-in-the-dark to the moon, but I don't want to mess up the silk texture. I may add some glowing "highlights" to the moon when it's done. You can't really see the characters much, but they're missing their heads! They're actually buttons that will be added when everything is done.