Halloween Spirit!

It has been a fun week for me to follow along on other folk's stitching, they always come up with such great ideas.  I love it when someone makes a change to a stitch guide, it makes me look at a piece in a whole different way.  Check out my Black Cat candy pail (part of my Vintage Halloween series) stitched with RibbonFloss rather than Arctic Rays:

Stitched by Elizabeth Hurd

If you look closely you can see the color she chose is a red/black blend called "Night Ember".  It is a really clever use of the thread and only enhances the "Vintage" look-- great choice Elizabeth!

I have also been following along as two Facebook buddies, Karen and Shelly, challenge each other to come up with stitches for each stripe on two of my Halloween Topiary designs.  Karen is stitching along on the Black Cat tree:

Her pal Shelly has the Bat tree and this is her progress so far:

It's been a blast for me as I wait to see each new photo of the next stripe.  I certainly do like what they have done so far and look forward to see what they will do for the black and white stripes and for the little characters on the bases. 

All this is certainly motivating me to pry myself away from the tail-end of unpacking and get back to stitching.  I have a Challenge myself that I need to start-- over on Stitcherie we have a design-your-own Counted Canvas Challenge going on and I really need to get started on it, especially since it was my idea to do it!  (How's that for pressure, like not showing up for your own party!) I have some cute new Halloween buttons that I picked up at my Hobby Lobby (love that store and this is the first time I've ever lived near one!) to try out on a canvas.  Hope to post some pictures of my own soon!  In the meantime, Happy Stitching!