Weekend Stash Enhancement and A Very Little Stitching

The weekend did not include all that much stitching since Saturday was a long workday with morning and afternoon classes instead of just the usual morning sessions. Then on Sunday, I finally made the rounds to Joanne's and The Happy Quilter for fabric needed for holiday finishing.

I have very nearly finished stitching Brightneedle's Esmeralda's House, only half of the front parlor on the first floor to cross-stitch and all the French knots to add on all the floors. I am going to be very sorry to finish stitching this piece ... it has been so much fun what with all the little unexpected details. The first picture is the tout ensemble and the second is a close-up of the first floor ... which I have now been working on for nearly three weeks, sad to say. Life and work do tend to get in the way of stitching goals. But it really is time to move on if I am ever going to finish TW's Autumn Faerie in time to have it framed as a Christmas gift for Angela. I found the perfect fabrics at The Happy Quilter for converting Esmeralda's House into a wall hanging. The colors work very well with the overdyed Silkweaver fabric on which the piece is stitched and pick up all the autumnal tones in the piece itself. And one more picture of a Halloween piece. I decided to make up the Cherry Wood Design Studio Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet as an ornament instead of as a tote as originally planned.

These two fabrics were purchased specifically for Sue Hillis' Annual Santas. Though the metallic creates quite a lot of glare making it hard to see, the medium and deep roses in the bottom fabric match the colors of Santa's clothing perfectly. I have the first four annual Santas stitched and want to make them up as flange pillows, in time for this Christmas ... since I never got around to it last year. The pillow forms are taking up an awful lot of room in my sewing finish basket. Once the pillows are made and displayed on the couch, the basket will look nearly empty which will give me a considerable psychological boost even though there will still be nearly a dozen projects left to sew. I figure this will be my Thanksgiving Break project, along with the finishes on the LHN Seasons of ... pillows for which I already have all the forms and buttons. All I need to do is assemble these four pillows.

The fabrics pictured below are fabrics purchased without a particular project in mind, but I am sure they will come in handy during my Christmas sewing. I also picked up some mattress tickingto finish up Sailor's Jig into a book tote which I shall stuff with books as one of my husband's Christmas gifts.