Aug 17 2022

Give Thanks

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After ripping out the wording because it was too low and got in the way of the border, then restitching it, then ripping out more because I STILL didn’t have it right, I am finally done with this project! It took much longer than it should have to complete, the border was really boring to stitch, and some of the colors that came in the kit were just awful and needed to be replaced (the pumpkin was supposed to be stitched with DMC 975!)… but now that it is complete I just love it. I am usually not a big fan of buttons as embellishments but the green heart button is really cute. I have another Bent Creek zippers kit to work on for Halloween but the pumpkin on that one uses the same dark brown floss, so I am going to replace it with a Weeks Dye Works color like I did here. But since one skein was exactly enough without really having any extra to spare, I think I am going to have to order another one before I start. And actually, I should order two skeins and use both of those and keep the one I have for something else, since the dye lots will likely be quite different.

XXX
Carrie

Aug 14 2022

The Last Supper

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I was recently able to visit my parents at their home, for the first time in 3 years. While there I got to see the beautiful Last Supper picture that my mother stitched (from a Leisure Arts booklet). I had seen it as a work in progress but then we went into lockdown and couldn’t visit. I think the framing she chose compliments it wonderfully!

Jul 31 2022

Pumpkin Time

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It’s still summer, and I do have that new bicycle project to start on. But sometimes you just need a break to work on something really simple. I love these Bent Creek Zipper kits because they are stitched on 18 count fabric over 2, and with pearl cotton – only one strand! Woo-hoo! The kit came with a really dark brown shade of DMC for the pumpkin, which I thought looked really off. So I found this skein of Chrysanthemum from Weeks Dye Works in my stash and it looks like a wonderful pumpkin shade!

But after I had stitched quite a bit of the pumpkin, I realized I was probably going to run out of floss, and I didn’t have another one. I could order one, but the odds that it would be an exact match would be pretty slim. So I started strategizing. I stitched the far right side of the pumpkin, then the far left side. To do the middle sections I would stitch a couple of rows, jump over to an empty spot, and stitch a couple of more rows. This way if I had to pick 2 solid colors of DMC to fill in, they would not be all in the same place. As I stitched more and more, I filled in the empty areas I had, in a sort of zig-zag motion. When it was getting close to the end I could finally sigh with relief and I completed the pumpkin with about 7 inches of floss to spare. Whew!

The photo doesn’t clearly show the colors. The raven is black and the stem is dark green. The star is a brown color stitched with the only variegated floss that came in the kit. The pumpkin is made up of two shades, orange and coral.

XXX
Carrie

Jul 11 2022

Halloween Special Issue 2022

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It’s one of my favorite days of the year! I’ve waited so long for this gem from Just Cross Stitch magazine to arrive! I have a new idea for this year… I am going to see how many items from this magazine I can make in a one year period. I think I will give myself time to go through the magazine and make a list of what fabrics, floss, and embellishments I will need to create these designs, and order whatever I don’t have. And then I will start stitching on October 31 and stitch through October 30 of 2023. I probably won’t stitch them all because there are a few designs that don’t appeal to me, and I don’t have anywhere to hang the really large designs. Plus I will want to stitch other things besides Halloween. But this will give me a great large assortment of smalls to display for Halloween next year. In the meantime, I should also try to finish off the Halloween smalls that I have stitched throughout the years that are just sitting in a box and have those ready for display for this Halloween.

All in all, I think the majority of the designs in this issue are right up my alley!

XXX
Carrie

Jul 5 2022

A New Summer Stitch

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Getting the supplies together for my next project! I can’t wait to start on this new project from Tiny Modernist. I did notice that the American flag was backwards, though… you would never see a flag with the stripes attached to the pole; the pole would always be attached to the union. I was debating how I could flip the flag, or flip the entire design, or use the chart for the Canadian design (which is already flipped) but then I would have to change the colors to be US colors. But the I went on the Tiny Modernist website and found that there was already a “corrections” page for this flag! So I printed off the correct flag chart and now I’m good to go. This is such a cute design!

XXX
Carrie

Jun 24 2022

Wow!

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While organizing my stash I found over 450 full skeins of Needlepoint Inc silk threads that I got from another stitcher over a decade ago. She was quitting the design business and getting rid of all of her stash. I completely forgot I had these! Now the big question is, do I keep them or destash them? On the one hand, there is only one skein of each color and it may be the entire collection of colors. It would be impossible to build a collection again in the future if I decided to re-purchase them. And they run about $5 each retail nowadays. On the other hand, I have only stitched with silk one time and it kept snagging on my fingers because my skin is always so dry. Decisions, decisions!

XXX
Carrie

May 9 2022

Oops!

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Whoops! I forgot to add the “bling” to Santa’s cap! The design called for a single strand of green floss to make a pom pom, but I wanted something more 3-dimensional. At first I thought about doing a green pom pom in turkey work, but then I found that I had these teeny little jingle bells I picked up at Hobby Lobby last Christmas, “just in case”. I think it looks adorable!

XXX
Carrie

May 7 2022

Autumn

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While I love stitching quick and easy designs, especially smalls that I can use to decorate my home throughout the seasons, the downside is that they usually take about as much time to stitch as they do to kit up! Finding a design, printing it out, gathering the floss, finding the right color and count fabric in a large enough piece (while not being so large as to ruin something that would be perfect for a large stitch), oversewing the edges on the sewing machine, and mounting in a hoop or frame is very time consuming! I feel like I will have to soon kit up a bunch more designs. But in the meantime, here is the start of my new stitch, another freebie from Cheryl McKinnon (Tiny Modernist).

I love how her free designs only use a few colors and have no fractional or backstitches. These are the perfect projects for sitting on the couch watching TV or waiting in the car or doctor’s office. This design will have a pumpkin, squirrel, a couple of leaves, and an acorn on one side which will all be reproduced mirror image on the other side.

XXX
Carrie

May 6 2022

Stripey Santa is Done!

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My stripey Santa from a Durene Jones design is done! My first thought was to use these wooden snowflake buttons in place of the smaller white stitched snowflakes, but they were much too large. So I will work them into the finishing somehow when I turn this into a pillow or flat fold.

I decided not to stitch the bottom row of white that Santa is stitching on, because the white really doesn’t show up well on this Vintage Blue Whisper fabric from Zweigart. Instead I may use a piece of lace stitched onto the fabric, or come up with some other way to show him off.

XXX
Carrie

May 1 2022

Stripey Santa

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I’ve started this new freebie from Durene Jones called Stripey Santa, but I’m not liking the chosen shades of red. It seems like they are too similar instead of creating a distinct “striped” look. I think I am going to leave the lighter color since I already have so much of that done, and rip out the darker and try to find a color in my stash that is even darker yet. Stay tuned!

XXX
Carrie

Apr 30 2022

Witches Brew

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Now that this is done I am very pleased with how it turned out, although I am a bit disappointed about there not being any purple in the design. But I’ve already found myself a new Halloween freebie to work on, a Durene Jones design that I think will look amazing on some linen I hand dyed purple a couple of years ago.

This design is a freebie from Cheryl McKinnon at Tiny Modernist.

XXX
Carrie

Apr 28 2022

Nice Haul!

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I have to show off my great finds for the day… first Hobby Lobby had Easter stuff 90% off! I like to make up small stitched pieces and display them for the seasons. The plastic eggs and fabric carrots will be so cute with my spring stitches. And I go through a lot of ribbon… the 2 rolls on the left were only 50 cents each! The sewing charms were in the jewelry section and were half price. Then I went to Dollar Tree and could not believe how much ribbon they had! Everything on the right is from there. Usually my store has half a dozen rolls of really thin plain colored stuff. I don’t know if this is a new thing they can stock now that they have raised their prices to $1.25 or if it is just a spring thing. But I will definitely check out Dollar Tree in the future when I need ribbon!

XXX
Carrie

Apr 24 2022

Witches Brew

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I started another new freebie from Tiny Modernist and got this far and just had to laugh. This sums up how I feel about spiders pretty well!

I adore this project but I wish it had some purple in it. If I had planned ahead better, I would have done the wording in purple because now the pumpkins and cauldron below need to be done in black. Oh well, it should still turn out cute.

XXX
Carrie

Apr 3 2022

New Projects

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I like to have a bunch of projects kitted up so that any time I need to start something new or just need to take a project with me to keep me occupied during a long wait somewhere, I have plenty to choose from. I was down to just a couple, so I spent part of the day picking out threads and fabrics for new stash projects.

In a couple of days I will be spending most of the day (9 am to 3 pm) in town due to doctor appointments, so I definitely needed something to take with me. Now the only question is, which one to choose first?

XXX
Carrie

Mar 31 2022

Forest Wolf

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I started this new project by Durene Jones of a forest scene that is designed to look like a wolf’s profile. It will fit in perfectly to the area where I live! I am enjoying this project because it is whole stitches only with no fractionals or backstitch and it does not contain many colors. There are large areas of one color and the counting is very easy due to my magnetic board chart holder with magnetic rulers that keep my place line by line. I need projects like this when I am in a lot of pain and can’t concentrate well. This one will probably take a long time to finish, as the last couple of weeks my back pain has been acting up something fierce and I have been spending most of my days laying flat on the hard floor to help relieve it. For every 15 minutes spend sitting I am finding I need a good 45 minutes of laying. Now if only I could figure out a way to stitch while laying down! But it is hard enough even being able to watch TV that way, so I think stitching will have to be a rare treat for the time being.

It took about 10 days to get from the top photo to the bottom one.

After

My brain fog is bad and I can’t recall which magazine I got this out of, although I am almost certain it is one of the British ones. I will have to look it up and post once I figure it out.

XXX
Carrie

Mar 19 2022

A Treat for Rudolph

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I love the colors in this project. Although the stitches were a bit harder to see than usual because of the fabric, I think it turned out wonderfully and I can’t wait to get this stitched up into a “burlap” sack that I can add some reindeer feed to for next Christmas. (The “feed” will probably something non edible to ensure it doesn’t go bad!)

The pattern is from CrossStitcher magazine January 2022 issue and was designed by Cheryl McKinnon of Tiny Modernist.

XXX
Carrie