That nasty stitching frog has been visiting!

My goodness I have been doing an awful lot of frogging. First I started my grandson's Christmas stocking this week. The center is the little boy's head. I happily stitched away on the first two colors that were just fine. Then I got to the third color. Ugh, the color that was supplied was more brown than a darker flesh color and it looked like the little boy had a dirty nape and jawline. I checked the provided color and it was not even close to the stated DMC 3778 color. So I went to may stash and found the correct color. This looked a little dark also, but I decided to give it a try. Okay, it still looked dark and quite pink, but maybe it would be better once I added the brown hair. Nope, it was impossible to tell the line between the face and the hair. Double Ugh! Now I go back to my bobbin stash and try to find a color that I think will work better. As I am perusing my flosses, I realize that the first face color is not anywhere closs to the DMC 758 that it is supposed to be, it is much closer to DMC 752. Okay, what if I use DMC 758 that is a darker version of 752. Bingo! I removed all the pink stitches and stitched that area for the third time.

Now I had to go to the chart pages and make notes as to what color I thought was being used and what color I now substituted. A whole lot of work for the start of a new project. I am happy with how the boy's face looks now and will continue with the hair. I hope the rest of the colors are true to form. I am afraid to check.

I have a finish! The first Charmed Santa from Mill Hill is finished! This one is for my granddaughter.

Of course, I had to immediately start the one I want to make for my grandson.This is when that frog made another visit. I have stitched the first row three times.

 For some reason accurate counting eluded me.

Finally, I decided to finish the table topper that my mom had hand-pieced several years ago as it has some Fall colors. You may recall that I was hand-quilting it while I was visiting her. It has been sitting unfinished in my sewing area and I had to move it a few times lately. I saw it when I went to work on my daughter's quilt (that didn't happen) and decided to get it finished. First I had to find a fabric to use for binding. Thankfully, Mom had some 2" folded strips of the orange fabric. I think she used it to bind another quilt at some time. There was just enough when I pieced it together to get around the table topper. It is 18" per side.

Guess what, that frog visited again. For some reason, despite refreshing my memory by reading some instructions, I didn't sew the corners correctly to miter them. After I had the whole binding sewn on, I had to use the seam ripper to take out the corners and restitch them. All is well now.

I have decided to call this Celtic Autumn as my mom had made it with a nod to her Irish heritage....the green, white and orange of the flag. She had even added some shamrocks in the corners, but they were too small and she didn't like them. One reason she never finished it.  I quilted the center as a nod to a Celtic knot. I plan to use it as an Autumn table topper, hence the name. 

Let's hope that nasty stitching frog stays away for a while. 

Thanks for stopping by!