Going stitch crazy!

Well, I might not be able to stitch all of the things but I'm sure having fun trying! I'll start with Heart in Hand's Christmas Tiny Town, which I finished on 11/18:

It's hard to get a good picture of the entire piece because it's pretty wide, so here are a couple photos of smaller sections that show the fabric color better (PTP Dwarf Cashel):

I did use the recommended threads for this, though I made a few minor changes within the design, including "lighting" all of the windows instead of leaving some dark--for some reason I have to have them lit up. I will definitely be getting Patriotic Tiny Town when I place my next order at 123Stitch, and am looking forward to stitching it as well.

As soon as this one was done I pulled out a Lizzie*Kate chart that I had gotten about a year or so ago. It's in the November 2014 issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (I found one on eBay but the digital version is also available) and I just fell in love with it when someone posted their finish in the L*K FB group and immediately had to find the magazine; actually starting and stitching it took a bit longer but it's done now! It's called Christmas Sampler, and it's on PTP Crystal Heroic Lugana:

That was finished on the 23rd, and I wanted to start Cats in the Rain but I had a Covid booster that day and felt kind of off on the 24th so I didn't stitch at all. I still felt a bit under the weather on Thanksgiving so my sweet husband did most of the cooking and I was able to do some work on The Rooky Wood part 5 which was released that day, and then finished it on the 26th:

On the 24th Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs posted a freebie on her blog which I thought was really cute, so instead of starting Cats in the Rain I pulled some threads and fabric and started My Frosty Friend on the 27th, finishing it yesterday:

Since Belinda had pointed out that it complemented her ornament from the 2020 JCS Christmas Ornaments issue I decided to stitch that next, since I already had fabric and threads at the ready; this is Rejoicing Reindeer, finished just this morning:

These were both stitched mainly with Silk'n Colors from The Thread Gatherer in what has become my favorite combination of Christmas colors, which are SNC280 Kringle's Coat, SNC230 Forest Berries (especially love how this looks in "Christmas" in the finished ornament) and SNC181 Golden Pines. I had stitched an ornament with them four years ago, and when I went through my stash to look for colors for the BRD ornament they still called to me more than any other colors:

So NOW I think I'll start Cats in the Rain and work on it tonight and tomorrow, then on Wednesday we are supposed to receive part 1 of The Cookie Exchange SAL by Hands on Design and I will be working on that. No clue what it's going to look like, but I am ready to go:

I bought that embellishment pack five years ago because the little cookie cutters were just too cute; now I'm hoping this is the year I finally have a reason to use them!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I want to stitch all of the things!

I am currently feeling almost giddy with stitchy choices as I sent a model back last Friday and now should have at least a month with no models in the house--so exciting! The first thing I did was get caught up on the Rooky Wood SAL, which had part 4 released last Thursday:

Saturday I took a ride up to my LNS in Green Bay, The Stitching Bee, and came home with some goodies. I've been looking at Heart in Hand's Christmas Tiny Town for a while now, and as Kendra had it in the shop I finally bought it; as an added bonus she even had all of the over-dyed threads in stock. So that evening I picked a fabric and made a start on it; this is where I left off last night:

I'm already thinking I'll get the Patriotic Tiny Town, and the designer has said there will be more in the series so I will be watching for those in the future. Sometimes a simple design like this where you can have small finishes within a larger piece is just so fun to work on.

Another design that I had on my wish list for quite a while was Madame Chantilly's Cats in the Rain. I leave things on my list for a while and then once in a while I go through and either delete or buy some of the items--this one made the "buy" cut. I'm thinking I will start it after I finish the Christmas town, so it is ready to go; I'm changing the yellow coat to pink and the blue umbrella to purple as those colors seem to go a little better with the fabric I chose (the little kitty needle minder was another find at my LNS):

I'm going to change some of the kitties colors a bit, and I was going to make the girl's hair a lighter brown like mine used to be but then I thought I'll make her hair white like mine is now (I'm "only" 54, but my hair turned white in my forties so I've learned to embrace it by now!). Hoping to start this one later this week.

After these I might try to get another block done on Black'd Skie, and I'd also like to get another CEC mitten stitched up soon. It's been a while on these now so I still have a spring-themed one kitted up, even though I'm more in the mood for Christmas now. Speaking of Cross Eyed Cricket and Christmas, there is a cute Christmas freebie now available on her site--another one I'd like to stitch! I can already feel my free time slowly slipping away...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Mira Mervember

A few years ago in the Mira, Mira on the Wall group on FB someone came up with an event called Mervember SAL, which basically meant that you started a Mirabilia or Nora Corbett mermaid design on November 1 and tried to complete it by October 31 of the following year. I was asked about it by a member recently and after determining that there was interest in doing it again I created an event for it in the group. However, events can now only be set up for a maximum of two weeks and of course most of these mermaids are going to take much longer than that to complete so I ended up creating a new group for the SAL that can run for a year. It's up and running now and people have started posting their starts/WIPs, so please feel free to come over and check it out.

I have at least one of the larger mermaids started (several years ago now) but I decided to stick with one or two of the smaller Nora Corbett designs--they both call for the same flosses, so as long as I've pulled the materials for one I figured I might as well stitch both. These are the two I plan to do, and now I just need to figure out which one to put on this orphan fabric from Ship's Manor:

I need to get some cleaning done today but I'm hoping to make a start and at least stitch for two or three hours tonight.

Last week I was hoping that the second block of Black'd Skie would be done on Wednesday but it actually took until Friday night to complete:

I then spent a couple of days getting caught up on part 3 of The Rooky Wood:

The house (?) in this part is what drew me to the design in the first place so now I'm really looking forward to parts 6 and 7, which should have the main part of it included. Deb's designs are always so nice to stitch, and relatively easy to stay caught up with because each part usually only takes two or three days to complete.

Last night I spent a few hours on the new Rosewood Manor model, which is only about 10" x 5" so I won't even have to add extensions to my Qsnap for it--makes for a nice change from the big ones once in a while.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, and happy Mervember!