Oops I am so bad with names

Well it is 11:45 pm and I was watching the late night news, they were showing Ocean City Maryland and how the hurricane hit pretty hard there, it is worse than they expected. And then I realized that I called Mary by the wrong name. Her name is not Kelly :( sorry.  So I had to get up right away and fix my last post. Sorry Mary, I am bad with names so if I ever forget someone else s name it is not intentional, that is just the way I have always been.  Off to bed now :)
donna

Update about the Salty Yarns Annual Event

This is just a little quick post about my trip to Ocean City Maryland. 

I had a great time there teaching at Salty Yarns annual event

Sara was wonderful to pick me up at 11:45 PM on Thursday. The air flight was not to bad just a bit loud   for the layover in Philly trying to watch and hear the presidential debates . When I arrived at the Lankford Hotel my room was so spacious and the bed was like a cloud, it was so comfy.

The next day I slept a little late and then went downstairs to meet people, do some shopping and go for a walk. The food that evening and the reception was great. I also spent some time with the other 2 teachers there for the event,  Theresa from Shakespeare Peddler and Belinda from Blue Ribbon Designs . The next day was spent teaching 2 classes with great students and then a little hanging around the living area in the evening where everyone was busy stitching and talking. Sunday morning early I had one more class and then last minute shopping, and I had a nice time in the rocking chairs on the porch with some ladies taking in the last of the view.  Then it was time to pack up, get a ride to the airport to go home. The next day I was so tired I slept until 11:00, but it was a great time and I met some pretty nice people. I have never seen so much fiber, floss, charts, and all the extras we can not live without in a stitching shop before. If you are ever in the Ocean City area stop by and say hi to Sara, Mary and Sally (the mom). You will be there a few hours just looking at everything. I also enjoyed the yarn section because I am so into crocheting at the moment so the goody bag I left with was filled with yarn and crochet hooks, I was so excited to check it all out at home. I will never forget my trip to Ocean City and all the great people I met. Here are some photos I have to share. And yes the hurricane is going by there today so pray for everyone that all will be well , 

donna 

Front Door  of the Lankford Hotel

What a view from the porch

So many places to sit, talk and of course stitch
I just love to rock 

Quite a few shops at the motel and of course the best one is the Salty Yarns

I would have taken the long walk to the rides but it was closed

View from the beach looking at the Lankford

Large sitting room with so many comfy chairs, plenty of light
and good food ! 

Mary was such a lovely hostess always smiling and so helpful

My trunk show in the window

More of the trunk show in another  window

This beautiful finish is from Amanda

These are more updates of our SAL, I just love all of them and I will post more of the finished ones as they come in. We are getting ready to see what we get from the hurricane, the weathermen are still not sure but we can always be prepared. And Liam is coming to visit, He is in the first grade know and such a big boy, I will post more tomorrow so have a good day

donna 

Raffaella's progress

This is from Megan and I just love the side photo showing so much detail

Arcadia's progress

Anna's progress

Free Mystery SAL at an end . Here is Part #4

Good evening everyone, I have part 4 for you and I am sad it is over, but the Holidays are upon us and we are all so busy. I hope you enjoyed this and we can do another but not until after the new year, just so much to do. I am also not up to date on the emails that you have sent with your updates, I will get to those in a couple of days so please be patient.
I will have another update by Friday night :)
So just click on the word SALPART4 to connect with the 4th and final part.
have a good night
donna

Sharing Parts 1, 2, & 3 of the SAL

This is from Cemavi

Good morning, I received a couple of the photos of the SAL that are complete up to part 3.
They are looking great and just one more week to go. I wonder what could be next in the scene !!

This is from Char

I am still busy catching up from the trip to Maryland but I will post pics soon. Have a great weekend and I am off to do allot of stitching :)
donna

Part 3 of the Mystery SAL and update of photos

This is from Arcadia in France

From Meari 

From Annika in Sweden

This is from Char

From Anna, she is so creative in her photographs

From Cemavi in France

Thank you everyone for sharing all of your work, I am just catching up on my emails. I had a great time in Ocean City MD at Salty Yarns giving a class. I will post photos tomorrow and share more.  I had to bring hubby to the hospital yesterday and came home last night and then we had an earthquake. Just enough to shake the house and make us think that the furnace exploded and the house was rumbling but all is well.  I am sure you are waiting for the 3rd part of the SAL. I am sharing some of your work first

This is from Raffaella in the Dolomiti Mountains

This is part 1&2 from Amanda in Cornwall UK

 So here is part #3 -  click on the word SALPART3 to be directed to the location for the chart.
This is fun seeing all of your work, have a good night
donna

Part 2 of the Free Mystery SAL

Happy Wednesday to all of you. Here is part 2 of the SAL for Fall. I hope you are joining us and enjoying this FALL thank you from me to you for following me on this blog. Click on the word SALPART2 to be taken to the download for this chart. Well I am getting ready to head to Ocean City MD to visit everyone at Salty Yarns and give my class. Cant wait but I still have so much left to do so I am off to get ready and send me those pictures of your progress on the SAL.
donna

more to share.......

I am finally opening some e-mails that I have had for a while and I found a beautiful surprise. This is from Lynda and she shared a photo of a freebie that I gave away a few years ago. I just love the frame and thank you Lynda for sharing this with me :)

This is from Catherine from France and she is already for another section tomorrow. It looks  great

This is from Jill and she used DMC Variations 4130 instead of WDW 2234, she also did the Rhodes stitch in the lawn . 

This is from Cemavi and she lives in France close to Paris.  She used Newcastle fabric Zweigart grey

This is from Donna and she used skylight blue perforated paper and changed the clouds from Ecru to

 DMC 168

thank you everyone for sharing these with us. I really enjoy hearing from everyone

have a good day and until tomorrow

donna

This one is from Anna, she lives in Minsk, Belarus. 

She used 32ct Belfast linen color 309 and DMC Variations for the leaves color 4130

Looking good :)

next Bird of a Funky Feather idea & progress on the SAL

This is from Char and it is her progress,I love her color choices. Here are her changes: she used steel grey cashel linen.  Substituted for the WDW 2234 to Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe - variegated peach dark.   Also changed the DMC 3371 to GAST dark chocolate.

I also wanted to share with you that the next :Birds of a Funky Feather is going to be a partridge with pears. This would be great for Christmas too and I will have a surprise for you in this chart.So watch for peeks !
Have a good day
donna

First Pic from the SAL

I received a picture from Amanda of her finished section already, I love it and here are some of the changes she made. It is stitched on a 28ct greyish linen fabric and she used a gorgeous Annick Abrial cotton floss for the leaves (Ocre de Provence) and used GAST limited edition Smores for the branches instead of the DMC 3371.
  Thank you Amanda for sharing.

New Free Mystery SAL For my blog readers :) starts today!!!

Welcome to our Fall SAL.I think everyone enjoyed the summer one so much that I said I would have one for Halloween but that changed to Fall. I do hope you enjoy this one.

• The stitch count is 84 x 56. If you do this on 28ct linen or 14ct Aida it will be a 6 x 4 and this would fit great in a 7x5 frame. This design is wider than taller.
•  I would choose a grey color fabric for an autumn sky and you want to make sure the clouds will show up,  they are Ecru. 
• Also do all of the stitching first for all of the 4 sections that you will be downloading. You will save the long stitches for the tree branches, fence, sheep, and pumpkin stems for last, This way you can tape all of your charts together and that will make it so much easier for you to do that all at once, :) 
• I also suggest that maybe for the pumpkins you could do a Rhodes stitch or maybe you could still cross stitch the area but after you could make long straight stitches over them to give more dimension to your pumpkins. 
• I also suggested Weeks Dye Works #2234 "Autumn Leaves" for the leaves in the tree and the pumpkins but if you have another over-dyed floss or fall color that you would like please substitute it. 
• In the part of the lawn that I used DMC 830 on you will notice that I have small squares with DMC 829. I did this because you know how much I love dimension and the Rhodes stitch is one of my favorite along with french knots. So maybe you could use a Rhodes stitch or if you do not like any other stitches but cross stitch then feel free to use cross stitches in these areas. 
• Here is a floss list for you: DMC: Ecru, 160, 502, 613, 742, 829, 830, 832, 834, 3371,  Weeks Dye Works #2234 Autumn Leaves
• The charts will be on-line every Wednesday for 4 weeks starting today.

I will be adding all of your pics that you send to me of your progress on our SAL page, please be patient if I do not get to them right away, I am going to be doing some teaching during this time so I am a bit busy. But I am doing this because I enjoy hearing from all of you and I appreciate you. This is not a SAL that you have to sign up for it is free to everyone. But if you are stitching along with us it would be great if you did  reply to this post and tell me so that I have an idea of how many people are with us.
Thank you for joining this SAL. I hope you enjoy it and you can send me pics to stitchbythebay at g mail dot com ,
donna

Click on the word SAL to be directed to the chart in PDF form and print from home, 

Getting Ready for the SAL, Happy news, sad news

I am almost ready for the SAL to share with you, The sad news is that it is not really Halloween. I just could not get in that mood for designing lately but it is for fall. I hope you will like it. It will be in four sections and the stitch count is 84 wide by 56 high. If done on 14 ct or 28ct linen it will fit great in a 5x7 frame.  I also used a Weeks dye for the fall leaves, I am sorry I still have more photos to add to the summer SAL and I need to catch up on that.
So I am off to do errands and drop off models for classes. Have a good day and I will post the first part of the Fall SAL tonight :)
donna