Harry Potter tree & Sojourner

Hello Friends! It's crazy that's its the end of September. It gets darker earlier and so far we are still having HOT weather. Hope it changes soon. But I knew to get a jump on and decorate - our Halloween/Fall tree is up.  First I am sharing with you my progress on Sojourner sampler.

This top I'm sharing with you for a reason. Back in the late 1970's my parents took our family to Mexico. My mom bought me this blouse. I loved it for all the embroidered flowers stitched in different colors. This was my inspiration for my next band on Sojourner.

 I finished the last band. This is a traditional Mexican band with Satin stitches & Rhodes stitch details.
It was charted in green and white. But for me I wanted more color. Took me forever to think.... and then it hit me. I remembered the beautiful top mom had bought me.

 I'm so happy how it turned out. Both my parents are gone. This is a special meaning to me so when I look at this I instantly think of the fun vacation with my family from waaaaay back when.

 There is still lots of this sampler to be stitched. Like the strawberries (Queen stitches) and more satin stitches that will fill in the saw tooth border all around the bands. Now I'm stitching the left side of the floral's.

 Harry Potter Tree - for Halloween & Fall. 

I finally put up the Harry Potter tree. I know I have talked about it before in the past and now its up.

Our son had been a fan of the Harry Potter books since the very first one came out. Then as the years went by HP products came out. I saved lots of stuff and many many shopping trips collecting ornaments. 

In the first HP movie there's a scene where in the great hall it shows floating candles and pumpkins for their Halloween feast. SO I have added pumpkins to the tree. 

 There's Harry's trunk that I filled with large jewels (remember the houses were tallied with jewels), Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Hedwig, Hogwarts Castle that plays the movies theme song, sleds that were in the film used for students in the Winter time.

 No matter where you look at the tree there are lots of different ornaments to see.

 I love Harry with his Chocolate Frogs! 

 Do you see Ron and Hermoine?

There's also Harry flying on his Nimbus 2000 broom, Gringott's bank, the Mirror of Erased, Harry and his invisible cloak and candles that flicker on and off. At night the tree is really beautiful all lit up.

I have a new stitching project that I will be starting tomorrow for our sweet friend Mouse. She will be making a Memory Quilt and asked if anyone would like to stitch a block for her. I said YES right away. So off to study some charts. If you would like to learn more of her project you can read it on her post HERE.
Thank you for stopping by!
With my love and appreciation - Annette