November Finish

 Here it is all finished up and I really love how it came out. I hemmed and hawed about what threads to use, in the end I used Carrie's Fall Splendor for the leaves in each corner, and the lovely Knitty Gritty hand dyed thread from yarnplayer on Etsy. I used Poblano Pepper by Crescent Colors for the house, Indian Summer by Weeks Dye Works for the month and the shutters, Crescent Colors Dark Chocolate for the border, roof, windowpanes, trees and turkey as well as the acorns in between the leaves where I omitted the flowers. I did the acorns in satin stitch and the remaining leaves in Knitty Gritty.  I debated about the turkey for a while, finally found a freebie online and did it in one over and changed the tail a bit to fit it in. I think this is my favorite block of the whole year, (my birthday's in November so maybe I'm biased..lol). On to December!

Progress pic

Well I am not as far along as I should be, we had a visitor come stay. A small brown bunny came literally to our door! I look out our front window and saw a  little rabbit hopping up to our door. We thought it belonged to the daycare next door but they said it had been wandering the neighborhood. I caught fairly easily and we got it settled  in a cage for the time being. We cannot keep it but we will make sure it gets a good home.  He or she now has some deep bedding, pellets, timothy hay and a new big water bottle. The pic was taken right after we caught him.

On the stitching front I LOVE the hand dyed thread from yarnplayer called Knitty Gritty. I tried some Carries thread for the leaves and the colors were so off so I frogged out the few test leaves and went back to my first choice that I had second guessed..lol The Knitty Gritty is perfect and so now I am back on track.

Progress pics, more color decisions

Still plugging along and changing colors as I go..went with Crescent Colors Poblano Pepper for the house and deciding on threads for all the leaves...

November Cottage Floss Toss and Start

Here is the floss toss with the called for colors. I wasn't keen on the tomato red oddly named Grapefruit for this so I traded it out for a deeper red WDW Indian Summer. I also didn't care for the green but haven't found a replacement yet, have to dig through my stash. I traded out the Simply Shaker Harvest Moon for WDW Marigold.  I am leaning toward doing all the leaves with  a one off hand dye by yarnplayer. Diving into stitching, the roof is done in Dark Chocolate by The Gentle Art. More color changes in the border as well later, just have to see. Just for fun here are our two cats being puddle cats in the heat. ONE more day of 98 degree weather here in Southern Oregon and our fall weather finally begins. I can't wait for rainy days of stitching curled up under a blanket.

October Cottage Finish

Here is my October Cottage Finish. I loved this one, it felt really good to get back to stitching again. This one I changed quite a few things starting with the colors, the border and added the moon with clouds and cat in the O. I also made the door look as if it were slightly opening and left off some of the leaves on the tree. The moon is done over one and I used quite a bit of Glissen Gloss blending thread to make the moon sparkle. I'll have November Cottage Floss Toss tomorrow and start pics as well.

Progress pic

Here is a progress pic of the October Cottage, coming along and not much left to do. Feels very nice to be back at stitching again.

Hand Dyed Thread Sources

If you're like me and are addicted to beautiful thread, I thought I might share some of my secret sources for cool hand dyed thread. None of these shops or links are associated with me other than I buy stuff from them because I'm a thread-a-holic..lol.

The first is Bath Tub Studios on Etsy. I love this shop, there are lots of different types of hand dyed thread available including embroidery thread but also tatting, crochet and others.

Second is yarnplayer, which those of you who do tatting might already be familiar with. She also makes some just gorgeous hand dyed floss as well. 

Third is therainbowgirl also on Etsy. She does such colorful and amazing hand dyed threads, I just drool. Her embroidery floss is listed under stranded cotton as she's a UK shop. 

Finally last but certainly not least is Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. 

This shop is on Ebay, they have a wide range of colors and she also designs samplers and kits. I've only bought the threads but they are lovely and reasonably priced. 

I hope you enjoy these links, again no affiliation and I didn't receive anything from these stores I didn't buy myself (again thread addict here..hehe). 

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe