Lots of Progress!

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Here is my latest progress photo of the mystery project.

This chart is from a magazine, so it is cut up into 5 pieces for saving space. That’s why I am kind of all over the place on this one. I am almost done with the 4th section. I have been getting a lot done in the last few days. Unfortunately, I made two errors. The first was in the grass on the lower right. It was supposed to be mostly light green, but I accidentally used the wrong color. When I went to stitch the second symbol, I realized my mistake. I had done so much work, I decided not to rip it all out. There are so many different shades of green that I wouldn’t have even known what to rip. So I kind of improvised and scattered the remaining area with light and dark green. The other mistake was on the very left edge. I started at the bottom row and stitched one cross stitch more than I should have. So when I got to the top of the light purple area by the green stem, I was off. Since I stitched side to side, not top to bottom, I would have to take out ALL of the light purple and start again. I looked at the top left part of the chart and it was pretty sparse, so I decided to just leave it and now I will have to add one extra row on the side all the way up. It shouldn’t be hard because it is just foliage, but I will have to remember when I stitch that part to not start on the left side and work towards the center! If I do that, following the chart, I will be off by one. What a mess! This is what happens when you stitch with kids around and get in about 5 or 6 stitches in between “I’m hungry”, “I’m thirsty”, and “I have to go potty”! I knew I just had to fill in with purple, so I wasn’t looking at the chart. If I had been, I would have noticed right away that I was doing one extra stitch between the edge and the green stem. Grrrr!

XXX
Carrie


Friends Forever

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This is another project I found somewhere, can’t recall where. I have no idea who stitched it. But it will go in my “to finish” pile, since it is so close to being done. All that’s left is some charms and beaded snowflakes, and then the ends have to be finished off with a tassel and the hanger. Super cute! We STILL have snow, so I am thinking it is definitely not too soon to be thinking Christmas! 

XXX
Carrie



Where Is Spring?

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It is April 12, and yet another snow day. We got about 10 inches of snow last night. It seems like spring will never be here! But while cleaning out my stitching stash I found this stamped pillowcase design that I started years ago.

There are two pillowcases, and one has not even been started yet. The other only has a bit done. I guess I just lost interest because it is not counted cross stitch. Stem stitches got kind of borning after a while. But maybe I should keep this out to work on during those nights when I am too tired to count stitches. I doubt I will get even one of these finished before the flowers outside start to bloom, but if this weather keeps up who knows!

XXX
Carrie



What a Great Day

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This morning I woke up to two great emails. The first was from Pinterest, letting me know that The World of Cross Stitch Magazine is now following my pins. I was pretty impressed with that. I subscribe to their magazine, and it is one of my favorites. I know it’s not a huge deal, but it means my shop must be getting some attention.

The second great email was from the editor of Cross Stitch Crazy, another British magazine that I subscribe to. They want me to be on their reader panel for the July issue! Woo-hoo! They sent me a list of questions to answer, along with a preview of the magazine’s contents. I need to pick my two favorite projects and let them know what I like about them. My profile (along with a picture of me) will be at the beginning of the magazine, and then my comments about the projects will hopefully be listed next to the project details. That email really had me jumping up and down. My husband had no idea what I was so excited about. Other than my kids, cross stitch is pretty much my life. If you’re reading this, I probably don’t have to explain; you probably get it. And now, to work on those questions…

XXX
Carrie


The Littlest Cross Stitcher

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Yesterday my 3 year old watched me cross stitching and decided she needed to try it. She has done one project in the past – I found a plastic canvas circle and gave her the full 6 strands of DMC and a really large, blunt needle and let her have at it. They were all straight stitches, all over the place, but she had a ball. This time I figured I would teach her the real thing. My first cross stitch project was on a piece of pink gingham fabric when I was 5 years old. My mother drew large X’s in the shape of letters to spell my name, and I stitched on top of them. I actually had some pink gingham in my quilting fabric stash, so I decided to do the same thing for Adrienne. Since she is only 3 and doesn’t have the greatest coordination (or attention span for that matter), I decided just to do a letter A. I helped her with the first few stitches but then she got the hang of it.

I was right about her attention span, though. She quickly tired of it. But today she wanted to work on it again, and did much more. This is how far she has come:

Looks like we definitely have a new cross stitcher in the family!

XXX
Carrie