Bon Voyage!

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere--but my stitching will be!  The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery has just announced their theme for the 2016 sampler, and it is Pumpkin Passport.  Every month will feature an adorably rendered version of a world landmark.  I'll admit that I am worried that it will be too similar to Satsuma Street Design's Pretty Little City patterns, but it will still be fun to work on.  

It will also be a nice way to remember all the trips I've been on.  I've been to 17 different countries!  My last trip abroad was for our honeymoon in Venice and Jerusalem.  My next one will be to London, which will be free since I am going as a staff member.  I love traveling to different countries, exploring the history, sampling the food, and seeing if I can speak from the phrasebook well enough to fool locals.  I can't decide what my best moment of speaking Hebrew was--telling the bus driver that I was sick and needed to use the bathroom at Masada, or asking a soldier to move his gun so my dad could take a seat on the bus.

Join me as I stitch around the world.  I might be able to share pictures of me in the featured cities (though some of the trips were so long ago that I haven't digitized them yet.)  At this point, I think we all need a reminder that the world is a wonderful place.

WIP Challenge Update

I've been making great progress on my WIP list.  I get a lot of satisfaction from checking things off of lists.  So far, I have been finishing an average of over one project a month.

First, here is the final result of my Steotchalong 2015 project.

This one is going on my husband's work desk.  It is definitely the most complex cross-stitch project I have made so far, and I am really happy with the results.  You can see pictures of my progress, along with pictures from other people, in this video that the Steotch designers made as a tribute.

Just in time for Halloween, I finished Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Spooky Sampler.

This is the Halloween equivalent of the Christmas Celebration Sampler I made a few months ago.  I sent this to my sister-in-law and nephew because they love seasonal items.

I just finished this alphabet sampler for my friend Angela, who is a sushi aficionado.  I keep kosher, so this is the only way I can get involved with shrimp tempura.

We are winding down on the Story Time Sampler.  October was Anne of Green Gables.

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

The Pumpkins said they will be releasing details about their 2016 sampler in mid-November.  I am now counting down the days until "mid."  They put out a survey asking for opinions on what theme people wanted.  Some of the options were Weather, Cities of the World, Historical Women, and Fairy Tales 2.  I voted for Historical Women, because I need a kawaii Emma Goldman in my life.