Never following instructions!

My wreath turned out fantastic! I LOVE IT. It is 90 degrees outside, but fall is on my door.

I used one of those straw wreaths. I took off the plastic. I am not sure if I was supposed to because I now have straw all over my house. I didn't cover the base but I think it works out ok. I guess I could have and that would have kept the straw from scattering. The tutorial called for an 12 inch wreath but when I saw it in the store I knew it would be too small. I went with 18 inches. It is large, but it looks good.

As I keep looking at the picture, I may adjust the ribbon. I like using the ribbon over, but it is smooshing the felt. Hhmm. . . need to think about this.

All the makings of a 'Karen' project

I shared my story with a friend of mine and below is her response. It made me laugh and a little proud.
"As I’m reading your email today, all I am thinking is how this project has turned into a typical Karen project. J And not in a negative way! Just that you always have a plan and good intentions, and then the project gets tweaked along the way and finishes up slightly differently than expected. But maybe that is just crafting in general. We all do it."

If I have a couple minutes to spare while waiting around or if I can't sleep I browse Pinterest. I found a felt wreath I liked and a tutorial to go along with it. You cut circles of felt, fold them in half twice and pin them onto a wreath form. I should put a disclaimer that I only half read instructions. I read just enough to get started. I started cutting Wednesday night. Hancock fabric had 40% off their rotary cutters so I picked up a circular cutter to make my life easier. It was going well. I am still getting used to using the circular cutter but it is still MUCH faster than using scissors. So I was cutting along. Cut about 40 circles and then decided to check the instructions on how  to really use the cutter. On the back it says ‘set at 2 inch for 4 inch circle’. Uh oh. I wanted 3 inch circles but I set it at 3 inches so that is 6 inch circles. I look at the picture of the circles in the tutorial and sure enough mine are HUGE. Well, I cut a 3 inch circle and it was tiny and would take FOREVER to cut so I decided that I am ok with my 6 inch circles. It will be more peony than coxcomb. So I set my cutter for 3 inches (6 inch diameter) and start cutting again. As I was piling I realized these circles are smaller than my previous 6 inch ones. Sure enough they are! The first set are actually 7 inches because my 3 inches was really something else. Who knows what. So now I have divided them up into 4 piles of oversized and correct sized circles. I am going to divide my wreath in quadrants and start pining so one side doesn’t look more peony than the other. I think I will get the rest cut tonight.

Two hundredth post!

This is my two hundredth post. I am a bit of an erratic blogger, but I do try to be honest in my posts even if they just say 'I am not doing anything'.

So I talked about the Halloween Sampler cross stitch earlier and working with variegated thread. They suggested working every 'x' individually. I couldn't do that; it would have caused a very messy back. I went with two stiches at a time. I did / / like normal and then went back \ \ going lower right to upper left and then upper left to lower right. Hope that makes sense. I can't do little arrows to make it clearer. It worked out really well and the gradation showed up nicely. I pull each thread from the skein and then put them back together. I had to remember to put the same ends together so that the two threads were the same gradation pattern. The thread itself is nice to work with. I did have to do a fair amount of unpicking because I made a mistake and then my square didn't come together. The sparkle held up pretty well. The fabric is very stiff and the holes are now clogged (for lack of a better word). I don't mind the stiff fabric, but when you make a mistake it is very obvious what areas have been unpicked. I tried taking pictures that show up the sparkle, but I don't think it shows up well. In person it is pretty.

It has been beastly hot here the last couple days, but my roses are doing really well because of it. I do have to spray every couple days because of Japanese beetles. Those things are evil!