With the State Fair, a cross-stitch retreat, a birthday, getting two kids to school and a trip out of town to see friends, August was a fun-packed whirlwind. I have lots to share today and hope you enjoy.
Early in the month, the Indiana State Fair opened. This was my third year to enter items in the Home & Family Arts competition and I selected 14 items to enter, I think the most I've done. I had a mix of quilting, embroidery, cross-stitch and crochet and am happy to say that I came home with a ribbon of every type!
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| Honorable mention for my Penguin embroidery |
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| Honorable mention for This Is Halloween by Primrose Cottage Stitches, finished as a wall hanging with hanger from Ackfeld Manufacturing |
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| Honorable Mention for Ghostyard Goblins, a stitched piece with specialty stitches |
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| Honorable mention for Quarter Log Cabin quilt |
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| First place for my Airy Lace Shell in the Adult Crochet Vest/Shell category |
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| Second place for Star Spangled Birthday in the Other Counted Work category |
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| Third Place for Urban Pods in the Lap quilt, machine pieced and long-arm quilted category |
I was so pleased with the results and really surprised by the first place in crochet, the newest of all the crafts that I entered. If you'd like to see all the pieces I entered (and my mom's too) and hear what the judges had to say about our work, you can watch our State Fair Special episode on our Flosstube channel.
Right after my visit to the State Fair, we had our annual Indy Summer Stitchers cross-stitch retreat that my mom and I have hosted since 2019. It's a great time with 30 stitchers who chat and laugh and eat and get a little stitching done. I worked four different projects while at retreat and finished one of them there.
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| Beach Please by Hands on Design - stitched on perforated paper with mostly called for DMC threads (although I made a few small adjustments, like making the sea star orange). I plan to finish these in a shadowbox like Cathy shows on the pattern. It was such a fun stitch with a finish just about every hour! |
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| Sunny and Glowing from the 2024 Just Crosstitch Summer magazine You stitch on two pieces of fabric and finish it two sided. |
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| Bosco Booberry by Mosey 'N Me Designs - as you can see, there is a little problem with the linen for this piece. Many years ago (and two dogs ago), my dog decided to munch on my stitching one night. I was heartbroken and just put it away thinking I'd never finish it. Well, thanks to the plethora of finishing techniques that are now used, I finally decided to pull back out this cute ghost and finish it up. I plan to FFO it as a stand up. Most of the tooth marks will not wind up in the final piece, but if a few do, that's okay, it will be a good reminder of a dog I loved and a piece I finally finished. |
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| Purranormal Activity - from the 2025 Halloween edition of Just Crossstitch I stitched this on a very light purple piece of 14 ct. Aida with the called for threads. It was a fun and quick stitch, started and finished in a weekend. This one will be a gift. |
I had one stitching FFO and one quilting FFO for the month.
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| Hello Summer by Primrose Cottage Stitches I stitched this on 28 ct. Vintage Poinsettia with the called for threads, finished as a pillow with rickrack sewn "flat" on the edge of the pillow. |
I finally finished my Sandhill Sling on August 3 - it was a great bag pattern and I took it to the State Fair for it's first use. It is a great size bag to carry a bottle of water, wallet, phone and sunglasses. I've been toting it around ever since and I really love having a "purse" that's completely hands-free. I think I'll make this one again with decorative webbing. I'll keep my eyes out for heavier fabric as I am out and about for another version of this bag. One thing I really liked about the pattern is that she suggests which side to add the clip to based on whether you're left or right-handed. As a lefty, I really appreciated this!
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| Sandhill Sling by Noodlehead patterns, made with Cotton Twill fabric |
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| Inside of the bag. The back is a full pocket and there's also a zipper pocket on the front which is the full length of the bag. |
In addition to all the crafting, we sent both kids off to school. My daughter drove herself in our van this year. She'll keep it until Thanksgiving and then we'll bring it home so that it's here over the holidays.
My son is a freshman at University of Cincinnati. We got him all moved in and he sent us home after lunch. It was very quiet when we got home and the pets were a little confused. There was so much activity and they left two days in a row, so it's been a big change. We are all adjusting and both kids are happy at school. We look forward to seeing them both over the holidays.
I think that's just about everything for the month. I used a little fabric for baskets which I finished in September.
Here are the stats:
Stitching time with Kate at Life in Pieces: 27/31 days with at least 15 minutes of crafting = 87%
Stash Report with Donna at quiltpaintcreate:
Fabric added this month: 0 yards
Fabric used this month: 3/4 yard
Fabric added year to date: 4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 11 1/8 yards
Net fabric used: 7 1/8 yards
Project Completion Tracking:
Stitching projects: 4 finishes, 1 FFO = 43 projects waiting to be fully finished
Quilting projects: 1 finish, 0 starts = 6 projects waiting to be fully finished
Thanks for stopping by as I wrap up August near the end of September. I plan to be back much sooner to share my September activities. In the meantime, hope you're getting a taste of fall.
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