Another Post

As promised in my last post, I am going to show you the other things I've been doing this year. Some you may have seen before as wips, some you haven't. These are in no specific order:

31

 "31" is from Pine Mountain Designs and it's stitched on 28 ct Lugana called Lycan's Moon from Under the Sea Fabrics, with all DMC floss. The color of the fabric is fantastic.

Blackwork Easter Bunny

 Blackwork Easter Bunny is a small design from a Cross Stitch Collection magazine by Lesley Teare on 28ct white even weave. If you look closely you can see the little gold accents I added.

Bunnies Galore

This little cutie is just one of the three designs included in the Britter Cup Designs Bunnies Galore chart. I just love those floppy ears. It is stitched on 28 ct off-white evenweave, I used Weeks- Havana and GAST- Cranberry for some needed variegation.

Remember Me

 Remember Me is one part of the Cape Cod Keeps chart by Plum Street Samplers, stitched on 28ct Lugana called Gossimer. I used one Classic Colorworks and the rest is DMC. I also love mermaids.

Diamond Mystery SAL

This is one of my oldest and favorites, it is Connie Gee's (Connie Barwick) 2015-2016 Diamond Mystery SAL. I used all DMC variations and Coloris flosses on 18ct Ivory Aida. I loved seeing how each of the diamonds would turn out with thoses flosses.

Cross Eyed Cat

 The Cross Eyed Cat is another old one, I started it back in 2016 and I have no idea why it took me this long to finish it, other than the two cats it all letters and zigzag lines. It is from Notforgotten Farms on 14ct marbled Aida with DMC 310 floss

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Frankenstein

 This little monster is from a collection of Halloween ornament designs called Creature Feature by Sue Hillis. He is on 28ct Jazlyn in a dark purple from Needleworker's Delight, I also used all DMC flosses.

It's In The Bag-Coffee

As you can see I actually FFOed this one, it is one of two designs from Noteworthy Needle. I picked this chart up at a retreat I went to last year.  I stitched it on 14ct Oatmeal Aida and to get that burlap affect the bag is stitched with a mixture of two different colors. I added brown beads to the bag of coffee beans for a 3D affect. I had a lot of fun with this one. A wonderful lady sent me this coffee bean fabric I used to make the little pillow.  I love it!

Johnny Appleseed

 Johnny Appleseed from Silver Creek Samplers was fun to stitch, it was mostly letters but there were also pictures that added a little something different that attracted me. It's on 28ct Lugana in Truffle from Picture This Plus and I used all DMC.

Mini Strawberries & Shoe

 I wanted to make some small items for my salad bowl display these were really quick. The Strawberries & Shoe designs are both from Pineberry Lane stitched on 28ct Mushroom evenweave.

Seafarer's Globe-Seven Seas

 Seafarer's Globe was an older wip you've seen many times. I got this chart from a Cross Stitch Collection magazine March 2016 issue.  I fell in love with it at first sight.The design is by Maria Diaz Designs stitched on 18ct Ivory Aida with all DMC flosses.

These Old Bones

 Last but not least is These Old Bones from Lone Elm Lane stitched on 28 ct Cashel linen in Charcoal Grey.  As you can probably guess I kind of love Halloween. Hopefully I'll have this fellow FFOed in his box before then.

As a challenge I issued to myself, I attempted to make some project bags. The white zipper front was interesting to make and not too difficult, with the lining and having none of the seams show. I think I did a pretty good job on this one. The clear-front bag is another story. If I decide to use up the large piece of clear vinyl I bought and try another, I may have to make some adjustments to the guide I followed or at least read it all the way through first. Now the last one is inspired by the "Finishing Guru" as I call her Vonna Pfeiffer also known as "The Twisted Stitcher".  After watching her video tutorial, if I couldn't make this bag there was something really wrong with me. She made it so easy to do. Thank you Vonna!
Well I think I have bored you for long enough so I'll return now to making some wonderful little xxs. Have a great day and happy stitching!

Happy Easter and Wip Update

To all of my followers and visitors I hope you had the Happiest Easter ever!
I know I missed the Wipocalypse for the month of March so to make up for my neglect, I present a full wip parade.

Advent Animals-Brooks Books

Bella Butterfly-Nora Corbett

Christmas Dreams Blue Santa-Joan Elliott

Coffee Quaker-Heartstring Samplery

Dead Girl- Lovemystitch

Elphaba-Joy Egan, Keenah's Cross Stitch

Four Freedoms - Little House Needleworks 

Frankie The Thinker-Glendon Place

Hogwarts Crest- Colleen Carrington

Hot Chocolate-Alessandra Adelaide

Just Me- commissioned by my niece

Mademoiselle Rose-Jardin Prive'

MLKing Memorial-Posey Collection

On Wednesday We Stitch Black-The Primitive Hare

Pray-Teressa Kogut

Pretty Little Chicago-Satsuma Street

Seeds Of Freedom-Silver Creek Samplers

Three Kimonos-Joan Elliott

Vixen-Alice Alan

I have been busy stitching away and I have 12 small finishes for the year but I'll save those for the next post. The question asked for the Wipocalypse was "Do you use stretcher bars, hoops, q-snaps or lap-frames and why? My answer is I use q-snaps, hoops and scroll frames.  I recently purchased my first set of Rolaframes, but I haven't used them yet (would require another new start) I am very impressed with their workmanship. I used to only use hoops but I found it hard to get the circles out of my pieces so when I found out about q-snaps I switched to them and I love that they are so light weight and I can hold the small to medium size in my hand to stitch. My Linen and Threads Mystery Sampler was the largest piece I think I've ever worked on and I used my scroll frame.  I have not used stretcher bars before but I've heard they work great for really small items. 
Well I guess I should go and make some more wonderful little xxs. Thanks for visiting and happy stitching.

March 2018 TUSAL

This little milk jug is quickly filling, there are a few more since the last time.

2017 Has Gone Bye, Bye

Before I get to my 2018 stuff I want to say a final farewell to 2017. As for my blogging, it was a very short year, I think I had taken on too many things with no organization and some things just fell by the way side. However if you have waited for me to get my act together I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for still being here. I have started posting my 2017 finishes in a separate page at the top of my blog so I won't take up this whole space. Here I will show a couple of special finishes from last year. In my last post I showed a picture of "Sea Goddess" from Joan Elliott I was working just finishing up the back stitch, well she is a special finish I want to show here:

All of her beading is done and she is ready to be framed. I also showed a new mermaid I was working on in my last post and she too has been finished and is ready to be framed.

The last special wip I finished in 2017 was the Linen & Thread 2017 Mystery SAL

I put the last stitches in this one on the 27th of December, I think I stitched a couple of weeks on this one exclusively just to finish it before the end of the year.  It was a real labor of love and hopefully I'll get it FFO'd later this year (probably a wall hanging). It's stitched on 32 ct. Lugana and is still 31 inches long, framing would be really expensive.
 There were several other new starts that I also finished in 2017,take a look in my page up top for those. I only have three finishes for 2018 so far they are:

Cape Cod Keeps- Remember Me by Plum Street Samplers

Connie G's 2015-16 Mystery Diamond SAL

It's In The Bag- Coffee

Well I will stop rambling and go make some wonderful little xxs and I'll be back soon to show all of my current wips.  Thank you all for following me I really appreciate it that you find me and what I have to show interesting.  Happy Stitching!

What's New?

I know it has been a very long time but I think you will forgive me after you see what all I have to share. I had not mentioned this in any other post but sadly our little "Bud" was put to rest back in February. It is only now that we have decided to get another pet, so we adopted a kitten. His name is Smokey and I affectionately call him the "smoke monster" from the old TV series "LOST".  The smoke monster attacked quickly and silently, which is Smokey.

Okay, lets get to what you are really here for... STITCHING!
We will start with my current WIP report, I will show pictures of the wips I actually worked on. The first is Marquise by Jardin Prive'

I have added several of the small motifs to this one. I would have gotten farther but I ran out of the outline floss so of course I had to move on to something else. The next wip is Hot Chocolate by Alessandra Adelaide.

As you can see it no longer looks like an owl, there is steam from the hot chocolate and part of the cup rim. Stitching on this fabric ( Coffee Bean) is sometimes a little difficult to see, but I love the way it looks.  Next is Pretty Little Chicago by Satsuma Street.

Chicago is definitely living up to it's nickname "The Windy City" I can almost fill the chill. Next is my old friend the Sea Goddess by Joan Elliott.

All of her back stitching has been done and she is now on my scroll rods waiting to have her many, many, many beads to be added. I did get a start on my August-Snowflower Diaries SAL.

It was put aside so I could finish the back stitching on Sea Goddess and something came over me and I have not picked it back up. I have the chart all printed out for this next one Linen & Thread Mystery SAL, it's complete thru July

but I have been consumed but a couple of things. One is...

and the other is a NEW Start:

This is another Joan Elliott mermaid called Belle de Mer

I am absolutely loving stitching this one. It started as a Facebook SAL and I can't put is down even knowing my other two SALs will get behind. I also have a few other new starts, they are Four Freedoms by Little House Needleworks.

This was one of my starts for July which everyone on Facebook is calling patriotic month so I had to join in. The other one is called Seeds of Freedom by Silver Creek Samplers. Stitched on coffee and tea dyed fabric following Vonna Pfeiffer's bake and baste instructions.

I also drank the (koolaid) or should I say coffee and started the Coffee Quaker from Heartstring Samplery. Also on bake and basted fabric.

I think June was everything coffee month, this is one of my recent finishes, it's called This Is How We Brew It, part of the Cool Beans series from Hands On Design

I have the other charts for this 9 part series to be stitched at a later date. I also finished a small ornament for a Christmas in July SAL piece, it is 'Twas the Night from JBW /designs.

These are quick small designs and make great ornaments, I made three of them last year. I didn't forget to finish stitching the May, June and July pieces from Snowflower Diaries.

Last but not least is the finish of Frida Kahlo, one of Mexico's greatest artist.

It is a simple design but I think it is perfect. I will share when I have it in it's perfect frame. 

Well thank you all for staying and reading this whole post and for following my blog. I really do appreciate you all.  Until next time I will be making those wonderful little xxs.

Drawing Day!

As promised, today is drawing day!  There were 4 designs being given away in my last blog.  I received seven comments requesting to be included for the drawing and the winners are as follows:

"Holy, Holy" from Lone Elm Lane goes to Michelle-ozark Crafter

"Earthly Treasures" from Plum Street Samplers goes to Marilyn

"Giving Thanks"from Little House Needleworks goes to Vickie Niggmann

"Needlework School" from Little House Needleworks goes to Mii Stitch

CONGRATULATIONS!       CONGRATULATIONS!          CONGRATULATIONS!

To all of the winners please email me your addresses and I will get your winning chart in the mail right away.   Thank you all for participating and if I could I would give all seven a prize.
Oh wait!  I can!  To Calamity Jr, Bekah Bannister, LeShawn and Dru Pendlebury please email me your addresses I have something for you too!

No stitching pictures today, but they are coming xxs!