Leaving on a jet plane

I leave for Tulsa and The Silver Needle retreat this Thursday, which seems a bit unreal. For the retreats I've previously attended, I've known about them for at least six months to a year ahead of time, so this seems really sudden. I need to start thinking about what to pack soon and figuring out which summer clothes still fit after several months with little to no walking and too much comfort food--ugh!

I finished Heart in Hand's Nativity Tiny Town and Frill after my last post a couple of weeks ago:

I really enjoyed working on this one, and it is already at the finisher waiting to be "drummed", along with Frosty Tiny Town and More Any Town Tiny Town. Faye said she's running about two months out, so I'm hoping to get them back towards the end of May.

I didn't do too much stitching for several days after I finished, and when I did, I made a start on Any Town Tiny Town. I only worked on it for a couple of hours, but then Hands on Design's Ladybug Picnic started calling to me and I was helpless to resist! 🤷‍♀️ And I did end up changing my mind about the fabric I was going to use, as the one I originally picked just seemed too bland; I ended up using PTP's Rubious 32ct Lugana, which even had some mottling that formed a kind of circle, and I'm very happy with the result:

After that was done, I started right in on HOD's Botanical Bee. I was hoping it would be finished by the end of the weekend, but I couldn't quite make it:

This one is being stitched on Needle Bling Design's Wapo Blue 32ct linen, which is a great, bright aqua that makes me happy just to look at it. This one should be done by the end of the day; after I get back from the retreat, I'd like to try to get these both finished as rounds, though my finishing skills are not great and I don't really enjoy the process.

I doubt I'll get much more stitching in before I leave on Thursday, but Any Town is still in the Qsnaps so I could put a few stitches in that if I do end up with some time on my hands. Wish me luck as I try to figure out what to pack, and hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to share when I get home.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Missed it by THAT much!

I couldn't quite finish Nativity Tiny Town last night, though technically I guess I did finish it because the Nativity Frill is a separate chart and that's the part I haven't completed. I have to say that I wish the wise men had been designed a bit smaller so they didn't appear quite so disproportionate, but I understand they were made that way because they needed to "fill" their own design space if stitched separately.

I'm hoping to send this one and two other completed towns to a finisher to be made into drums soon, and once it's in drum form, I think the size difference will not be quite so obvious.

This should be finished later today, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to work on next. My guys are travelling this week, so I have the house to myself and I'm planning to get some spring cleaning done (though it's snowy and windy outside right now!), so I probably won't stitch very much this week.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Taking shape

Nativity Tiny Town is progressing well; the top of the manger is the halfway point, so I should pass that sometime this week as long as I can at least stitch for an hour or two each day:

I'm in love with the critters and can't wait to get to the camel; I really hope Cecilia does an animal tiny town at some point because her animals are just so cute!

Hands on Design's Ladybug Picnic arrived a few days ago and I have all the threads now, so I've picked fabrics for it and Botanical Bee:

Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind if another option comes to mind and I like it even better than one of these!

I really need to start thinking about starting a Chatelaine design soon if I'm going to have any appreciable progress by the time the retreat comes around in July. I was going to start Rose Lights, but now I'm thinking about Little Tuscany Mandala. I've had the supplies for years now, and it's small enough that I could probably get quite a bit finished by July:

Just this past weekend I signed up for another retreat, this one in April at The Silver Needle in Tulsa with Amy Bruecken and Weeks Dye Works. I'd been toying with the idea of going for a while but had decided not to, and then the deadline to sign up passed about a month ago. Recently I saw Amy mention on FB that this would probably be her last class, and I regretted that I would never have a chance to meet a designer whose work I enjoy so much. Then last Thursday I got The Silver Needle's newsletter and they said four spots had opened up due to cancellations, so I called the next day and signed up! We will be dyeing linen, thread, wool and velvet to make this project (or something similar):

I'm very excited for meeting Amy, working on the project and being able to look through the shop, and it's really nice to have something fun to look forward to in less than a month now.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Unexpected good mail

Last Thursday night I finished Heart in Hand's More Any Town Tiny Town, so now I only have six more towns to stitch to get caught up! 🤣

It's stitched on PTP Demoiselle Belfast with the recommended over-dyed threads. I was planning to use petite beads for the stained-glass church windows, and then I decided I'd also use them for the theater marquee:

I'm using the same fabric for Any Town Tiny Town, which I'm stitching again as charted since my previous version was personalized with some local buildings, so Friday morning I put the fabric back in the Qsnaps and was ready to go. Then the mail went and I got a surprise package from Cecilia with some of her Market releases, including Nativity Tiny Town, and I had to change my plans and start that right away! I stitched a little bit Friday night, not much on Saturday since I had to make a trip to my LNS for a few of the threads, and not at all on Sunday, so I'm not very far along, but I'm hoping to make good progress this week:

The fabric is Zweigart's Stormy Night Newcastle linen and I'm using the recommended over-dyed threads. I think I'm going to add the wise men to the far right of the design, since they're traveling from afar.

These are the other charts Cecilia sent:

It was so nice to receive a pleasant surprise, as I'm having a hard time dealing with some of my mom's affairs. The USPS has still not correctly forwarded her mail to me after four in-person attempts since December 16th and I feel like I'm living out the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. One of her tax forms never got to me because of the mail issue, so now I'm stressing about that because of the time factor...ugh! So, a gift of stitching was much appreciated, both for the charts themselves and for the kindness behind them.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Almost time for Market releases

As a stitcher, this is an exciting time of year with Nashville Needlework Market happening this coming weekend. The older I get and the larger my stash gets, I find myself not adding a lot to my wish list, but I will be getting a few of the Heart in Hand releases. The one I'm most excited for is Nativity Tiny Town, and the corresponding Frill:

Cecilia is also releasing Bumblebee Etchings, of which the bee is my favorite part:

I did stitch the skep for her on 20ct linen over-2 with pearl cotton #5, which she had finished as a pillow that is just as cute as can be:

Another design I'm looking forward to is Ladybug Picnic by Hands on Design:

Last year I had picked up Cathy's Botanical Bee at a retreat but hadn't gotten around to stitching it yet, so last night I pulled it out and went through some fabrics looking for a couple that might work for these designs:

Once I have all the floss I'll make a decision, but I'm hopeful that at least one of these will work for each piece. I've commented on Cathy's FB post that I would love to see a firefly in this series, so maybe that will strike her fancy and happen in the future.

I'm currently still working on Heart in Hand's More Any Town Tiny Town and passed the halfway point once the tree to the left of the toy store was done:

I'm hoping for a finish this week, then I'll decide what I feel like working on going forward. Murphy finished his pain meds last Friday and seems to be back to normal, so I'm hoping to get back down to my craft room soon so I can finally do some more stitching on Mirabilia's Merry Merry.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Bittersweet finish

I finished Amy Bruecken's Warm Wooly Welcomes last Friday night, and while it has some very sad memories attached to it, I still really love it. The adorable sheep and bright, happy colors really appeal to me, and even the back stitching was fun because it brought each design to life. Here are the final progress photos and the big finish:

I took the final photo under my OttLite, so the fabric color is pretty true in it; it was a piece of Belfast from Nicholas Flamel Designs in his Fragrant Lilac Collection. There were two pieces in the set, and I used the other piece for Amy's A Little Batty SAL:

I think purple lends itself well to designs with bright, primary colors as it seems to mesh with any of them. I'm going to send the sheep to Rensel Studio to be framed, since they did such an amazing job with Batty, and since they take over a year to get to a project, by the time I get it back from them the worst of the sadness should be past and the happy should come to the forefront again.

I recently went on a bit of a spree and picked up five of Amy's SALs that I didn't already have (I've had Lucky 13 for quite a while now), so once I get some other stitching done, I'll have the pleasure of choosing which one to work on next. I'm leaning towards Lucky 13, and I have a piece of PTP Crystal DaVinci (purple, of course!) that might work really well for it.

Murphy's movement has been improving, but he's still on a pain med and a muscle relaxer for a few more days, so I don't want him trying to go up and down the stairs to my craft room because the meds make him a bit woozy for a few hours after he takes them. So, since I'm still "stitchin' in the kitchen" I pulled out Heart in Hand's More Any Town Tiny Town yesterday and worked on it for a while. I had started this last May at the same time I started Warm Wooly Welcomes with the intention of switching between the two, but I loved the sheep so much that I just stayed with that one. I had stitched just the cloud back then, and here it is as of last night:

Last year I was almost caught up with all of the Tiny Towns, but now I am woefully behind. I have both of the Any Towns to do, as well as Thankful, and Nativity Tiny Town is being released at Market very soon. Cecilia has also released Frills for the Christmas and Big Hearted towns, and a Frill for Blooming is also coming out at Market; this means that I want to stitch all three of those again so I can add the Frills to each one, so I now have seven to do to get caught up again!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Dreaming of sheep

I finished Quaker Impressions by Smitten by Stitches on February 4, so I'm going to call it a blessings sampler because I could really use some good vibes these days!

This was my first time working with threads from Cottage Garden Threads, and while I love the colors and the rapid color changes in the variegated skeins, I do wish they would cut the threads longer than they currently do. They come pre-cut at about 20" long and I usually use lengths of at least 30", so it feels like a lot of extra starting and ending threads. But I'm very happy with the finished piece, as it's like a little bit of spring in the midst of a cold, snowy winter.

I also finally got around to adding a beaded hanger to The Giving Season by Val's Stuff, so it will be ready for my Christmas tree this year:

I would love to be working on Merry Merry by Mirabilia but my Murphy hurt his back on February 7 and is supposed to be resting, so he can't do the stairs to my craft room (and absolutely HATES to be carried!) and I don't really have a good spot upstairs for working on a design the size of a Mirabilia. I spent a couple of days just snuggling with him and not stitching at all, but as he started to feel better I brought out Amy Bruecken's 365 Days of Warm Wooly Welcomes, which I can work on while sitting at my kitchen counter. This is where I had left off last September:

This is a difficult one to work on, as I spent a lot of time with it while sitting with my mom in ERs and during her procedures last year; she even said how it would have a lot of "stuff" stitched into it, so it was hard to start on it again now. But it really made me happy last year, and I'm hoping that it will again as I get closer to a finish. Here are some progress photos from the past week:

The fabric looks weird in the last five photos, because they were taken in my kitchen instead of under my OttLite, which gives a truer color. I should be able to finish this one this week, which will be a bittersweet accomplishment. Murphy is on the doggy equivalent of bed rest for another week and a half, so I'll have to find another project I can work on upstairs after this one. Here's my little guy following doctor's orders:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Almost a blessings sampler...?

When I started Quaker Impressions from Smitten By Stitches I thought it was too late to make it a blessings sampler, which is supposed to be started and completed in January, but as I stitched I started to think that maybe I could get it done in time even with a really late start. It might have happened, but then I got sick, so that put paid to that idea! I'm still not feeling great, but well enough to stitch yesterday, so here is where I am right now:

I need to finish four and a half flowers along the edges and then I'm going to use some beads to add just a bit of sparkle. I probably won't have a lot of stitching time today, but this should be done by tomorrow at the latest.

Back in September I was getting ready for the Friendstitch Gathering, which was a very fun event. It is put on by the designers from Heart in Hand Needleart and Bent Creek, and this time they had the ladies behind Primrose Cottage Stitches as guests. I stitched three of the models for the box of goodies, including the drum design from Primrose Cottage:

I haven't taken any pictures of the box contents yet, and at this point it will be like discovering them anew as I have very little recollection of what was in there. Maybe this week I'll work up the ambition to pull it out and take some photos. I don't think they've released any details for this year's event yet; maybe after Market has taken place.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A new designer

I am really excited for my friend Akshay, who has taken the plunge and published his first cross stitch design under the company name Smitten by Stitches. It's currently available for sale at Fox & Rabbit while Akshay works on creating a few more designs with an eye to opening an Etsy shop in the future. Some people are doing a blessings sampler SAL, though I didn't discover it in time to participate since it's supposed to be started and finished in January. I love playing with one color designs, so last Friday I pulled some floss and fabric that I thought would look good together:

Of course, then I had to stitch enough of it to see how they all came together, and I am pretty happy with the result so far:

Aside from the Threadworx floss, the remaining colors are from Cottage Garden Threads, specifically their Daydream collection. While I've had some of their threads for a while now, this is my first time using them and I am really enjoying them; they have a nice feel, and I like the rapid color changes in the variegated skein. I'm looking forward to playing more with this design this week, though Merry Merry will most likely be my main focus.

I spent Saturday and Sunday stitching on Merry Merry, though not a lot on Sunday because the urge struck to work on cleaning up my craft room (i.e. organizing WIPs and putting stash away that had been piling up over the past six months or so), so I spent several hours doing that. I'm making good progress on her though, and it's almost time to extend the Qsnaps:

The chart calls for Mill Hill treasure 12162, which is a medium snowflake, but when I went to place it in her headpiece I found that it was too large to fit in amongst the surrounding beads. I looked at the model photo on the Mirabilia site and it looks like that one actually goes over the bugle bead to the lower right of it. Here is the best fit I could get with that treasure:

Luckily, I had a 12161 treasure in my stash, which is a smaller version of the same snowflake, so that's what I ended up using:

I'm stitching mine on 32ct fabric, so it's possible the treasure might fit on 28ct, but if it doesn't fit I would suggest eliminating that bugle bead to the lower right of it, or using the smaller version.

I'm planning to fill in more green on her dress this week, attach some more beads to the finished area, then extend the Qsnaps and maybe start some of the white underskirt--I have a feeling that's going to be less fun to work on than the rest of her, so I might try to intersperse that with parts of the rest of the dress.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!