Amityville House

It got pretty scary around here last night. It was like a sign of The End Times or maybe the house was possessed or something. Where are Sam & Dean when you need them? Rick went out last evening to work on his motorcycle and listen to the ball game on the radio. Within a few minutes the entire garage was filled with flies. Thousands of flies. OMG They were everywhere. Rick hung up four sticky fly traps and in a few minutes they were covered and still...there were flies all over, crawling on the ceiling and walls, flying all around. Egads. Rick went out early this morning and bought a bug-bomb and some spray and we gassed the little suckers. Truly, it was creepy! I've never seen anything like it.

Happier subjects: I've been doing some exchange stitching and other little projects while waiting for October to get here so I can start the next Crabby block. Yes, girls, Zombies is my favorite block too and I've been waiting and waiting for it to come up!

Here is a little Halloween WIP I've been stitching. Silly kitty! This is an Amy Bruecken Designs, Just a Quickie ~ Treat. I'm stitching it in DMC on a 28 count Crossed Wing linen called Rainforest. I am NOT fond of this fabric. Although the color is delicious the weave is so flimsy & loose it drives me nuts.

Don't miss Tammy's first blogoversary giveaway at

I Want to do One More Stitch!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Wordless Wednesday

Crabby for Autumn

I'm exhausted.

Do you see the huge pile of Leaves I've had to deal with this month? It must be Autumn if there are this many leaves about! My favorite time of year. Crabby All Year's Leaves was fun and although that enormous leaf pile was a booger, it went really quickly once I settled myself to it.

Now for the requisite quarterly photo of Crabby All Year. This one means I am three quarters finished! WooHoo!

Truly enjoying this project. I don't think I've ever had as much fun with a project. I will be rather sad when this year is over and Crabby is finished. What could I ever stitch next year that could top this???

>^..^<

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Exchange stitching

The Lizzie* Kate Exchange I sent the other day has been received. My partner for this round was Michele...who had sent to me in the last round. What a great chance to pay her back for the gorgeous floss tag she made me! Since it is getting close, I couldn't resist stitching this silly Halloween kitty. I dunno why I never saw the fuzzy smack dab between kitty's eyes.

Design ~ Peek-A-Boo

Designer ~ Lizzie* Kate

Fabric ~ 28 count Jobelan, dyed green by me

Fiber ~ DMC

Finish ~ Ornament

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Dreary Crabby Weekend

It is a dreary, rainy, cloudy, Crabby weekend. Incessant rain, coming up from Texas, doesn't look to be ending any time soon. Simply perfect weather to sit down with a cuppa tea (thanks Denis & Frances) and pick up my stitching.

First up is the Harvest Pumpkins floss tag. I finished it! I was thrilled to find a copper colored eyelet in my stash as it matches perfectly. This little gem is packed up ready to be mailed tomorrow as a little surprise for someone that reads my blog. I'm linking this post with the free cross stitch posts, to show the finish photo. Sorry for those expecting another free pattern!

I had another finish yesterday as well...my Lizzie Kate Exchange is complete and will be in the mail tomorrow. It turned out way too darling and I really, really wanted to keep it for myself. Damn, am I greedy! I can't wait to show you the picture when it arrives.

After all that finishing, I was ready for some serious stitching. Here is where I am on Crabby All Year September. As of last night, anyway. I hope to get chronic stitch-ass by bedtime tonight.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Harvest Pumpkins Floss Tag

I've been having fun with PCStitch Pro again. This one turned out so cute! I couldn't wait to actually finish this into the floss tag before sharing it with you. However, the backstitch lines for seam sewing are written into the pattern and put your eyelet in where the X at the top is. Or you can just stitch it up and finish it how you'd like. I'll try to finish up my floss tag soon!

You like free patterns, right?

 Harvest Pumpkins

 

Please email me at: daffy-cat AT hotmail DOT com to receive a copy of the pattern. Please, put "freebie request" in the subject line and tell me the name of the pattern you are requesting.

You must have the free Adobe Reader program installed on your computer to view/print the pattern.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A stitching room to die for

OMG Julie at I'll Cross That Leg When I get To It has finished her wonderful new stitching room. You must go see, it's really awesome!

Miss Taco has been to see the vet. She got a shot and some liquid antibiotics (oh how much fun that will be) and she should be fine in a few days. The vet couldn't say what is ailing her but said she did have a very sore throat, probably drainage from the sniffly nose.

"Mama, I don't like car rides. I gets all dirtys."

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

The Sisterhood, bread recipe and lots of sneezes

Wow, Jill finished her version of the Traveling Pattern in record time! Be sure to stop by her blog The Purple Peacock for your chance to join the Sisterhood and to admire Jill's lovely stitching!

Now, about that bread in my last post...I am not a Martha Stewart wannabe. I rarely feel like getting all homemaker, cooking and baking bread, I'd much rather sit and stitch and play with stash. When I do feel like baking...I seriously cheat! I use frozen bread dough. Put the frozen dough in a greased pan (any shape,) grease your plastic wrap, cover and put it in the fridge overnight. About three hours before you'd like your bread ready to eat remove it from the fridge, cut it into about 8 pieces. Dump about 3/4 of a cup of sharp cheddar cheese and a half cup sliced jalapenos over the dough and kind of mix it up. Make a pan shape out of the dough and put it back into your greased pan. Re-cover with the greased plastic wrap. This sits on your kitchen counter for about three hours for the dough to rise and then bake it according to the bread dough package's instructions. Easy peasy and oh, so yummy.

To answer a question...the fabric I tea dye usually gets about 10 to 15 minutes to soak. It really just depends how impatient I get. I'm pretty sure the longer you leave it in the tea the stronger the color.

Someone has the sneezles. Little miss Taco has been sneezing since Saturday morning. Big, wet, honking sneezes. And her eyes are a bit puffy and watery. I looked it up online and found out sneezing usually means a cat has an upper respiratory infection. Of course, kids and pets only ever get sick on a holiday weekend. When the vet opens tomorrow I'll make her an appointment and see why my kitty is sick. Poor baby Taco!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Time for Tea

I was looking for something to do while my bread baked. Tea dyeing a piece of Jobelan and taking photos for you seemed to fit the bill!

Start off by putting six or eight tea bags in a large pot of water and start it a-boil. I have several boxes of various teas used just for dyeing. Not because they are untasty teas or that they dye better but because Rick bought me like 20 boxes of tea for Christmas one year. I can't drink that much tea! After sitting a few months...tea just tastes funny. So it's great tea for dyeing. I think I've been working on these teas for five years??? ROFLOL

Now, once your tea is boiling, wad up your fabric. I'm serious...stuff, crumple, crinkle and really wad it up. This is what gives fabric the variations everyone loved in my Sisterhood fabric. Secure it with a rubber band.

Now dunk it into the hot tea. Use tongs to push it under. You can turn off the heat once the tea bath has boiled. Don't move it around too much but do turn it over a couple of times. Moving it around will reduce the blotches, splotches and speckles and we don't want that!

If you time it just right, your jalapeno cheese bread will be out of the oven at this point. Mmm!

While your bread cools, use tongs to remove the fabric from the bath to the sink. Take off the rubber band and give the fabric a wash with laundry soap.

Lay the cleaned fabric out on an old towel and iron it dry. It will look very dark when it is wet but it lightens up after it is dry. Rick never fails to say, "Wow, that's really dark!" before I've dried a dyed fabric. Every. Single. Time.

Didn't it turn out pretty? Naff photos today...it's very overcast and dark outside but it hasn't rained.

>^..^<

I've been working on my Lizzie Kate Exchange so I can't show you any stitching. I also started Crabby September but unless you really, really want to admire boring rows of border stitches, I'll wait until there is more to see!

*****

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox