Stitching witches

Well, it was off to the gym bright and early this morning to meet with Brooke. Can you believe it's been almost three months since I last worked out with her? Why? I was on vacation, then traveling, and now she's much busier than before! ACK -- I have to go on Thursday at 5 AM, not Friday, because someone else has that slot. 

And it was another productive day. The odd job is done and waiting to be picked up later today. I spent the afternoon doing some sewing, and everything turned out well. I'm also trying to read this monster fantasy book that someone recommended. DH also highly recommended it, and the storyline is good. I find that too much backstory is being brought in that we don't really need. I'm sort of skimming over those parts. But I'm down to 1/4 left to read. I should be able to do that in 4 days! One hundred pages a day! 

I don't have a lot of time to write today, with a dentist appointment and a one-time Zoom call tonight, so my schedule will be a bit off. 

I thought I'd share a project I finished a while back. At the Buckhorn Quilt Show, I was embroidering a witch. I ran out of thread near the end of stitching her face, as you can see from the slash in this picture. I thought I might embroider a bandaid there, or give her an eyepatch, but decided not to do either. I managed to get the same thread color, but in a 40-weight, not the 30-weight that I had used initially. It was the thicker thread (less on the spool) that got me into trouble in the first place. 

Ran out of thread for the face

The design was still in the embroidery hoop, so I pulled up the embroidery design to get started. I used the projection system to line the design with my stitching. 

Using the projection system

And this is what it looked like after the "patch" was stitched. I knew I'd have to go back and restitch some of the areas. While at the quilt show, I continued stitching, despite the big gap in the face! 

The entire face is now stitched

I also chuckle when people tell me how carefully they choose their colors. I just open the box and randomly pick something I like! 

My tangle of threads

Once the face was redone entirely - well, only the bits that needed to be redone - I was able to appliqué the hat on. 

Stitching the hat in place

Then I had to cut the excess fabric away. 

Cutting the excess fabric

And finally, I got out the embellishment attachment and my container of ribbon, which is so nicely organized. 

My container of ribbon 

And there is the completed witch - just in time for Halloween. 

The witch

If you look closely (you can't see in this picture), there are a couple of minor glitches resulting from my wild process to put this back together. I think part of the problem was that I didn't choose the same witch as I started with. There are three different ones, each with different hair. I'm not sure why I switched, and when I realized it was slightly off, I should have gone back to the original one. However, the misalignment is so slight that if I didn't mention it, I bet you wouldn't even notice it happened. And yes, if you look closely, you can see the "scar" on her face, but it all adds character!!

I'm pleased with it, and it's one more piece of machine embroidery done, and the hoop is now free. I have about four other machine embroidery projects on the table that I'd like to complete! My first priority is to finish prepping for those classes! One presentation is almost finished, and the photos for the second are done. So I'm in good shape and still have two entire days to work on that. 

I love having "free" time. 

I also have a dentist appointment, and I know the dentist is going to yell at me. So be it! 

OH -- something bad happened yesterday. OK -- it wasn't bad at all, but a friend I met on a cycling trip sent me a link to a hike. Obviously, I've not done this hike. It's on a different continent, and OH --- should I go? I'd better get my butt into the gym five days a week to train for it! I'm still debating and need to do a bit more research. 

This is the SECOND invitation I have for a hike for 2026. Hmmmmm - I need to think long and hard about each. But not before chatting to the two people and then doing some research on both! 

Ooops -- I forgot to post the links to the Virtual Retreat this weekend. 

Saturday, October 18  --- Starts at 6 PM EDT

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82693702241?pwd=QpQkm8Ppppy1XwCPOqva1bcgJCWKdP.1

Meeting ID: 826 9370 2241
Passcode: 795071

Sunday, October 19 - Starts at 3 PM EDT  (anyone want to start earlier?) 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81073536036?pwd=uxRqMnK1aSKrmrcSO78w8QQs5g44eA.1

Meeting ID: 810 7353 6036
Passcode: 596838

And on that note, I'm out of here! Dogs to walk, dentist, and sewing! A fun day!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!