A SAL finish--yay!

I am very happy to say that Histoires de Moutons en Hiver is done!

More importantly, the rest of that last alphabet finally showed up in the final part--phew!! I really had so much fun with this design, but it also feels good to have it finished and to move on after having it on the go for two months. As soon as it was done last Wednesday, I took it off the Qsnaps and loaded up the fabric for Chatelaine's Rose Lights; here's my small start at the end of the first day:

And my progress as of last night:

After stitching all that black and off-white (two shades of it) in the border, it felt good to move on to some colors yesterday. I'm really happy with the fabric color so far, as I think it looks good both with the off-white and the black, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the colors look on it.

I did get a bit more done on You Were Hatched before I started Rose Lights:

I do want to continue to make progress on this, but right now I'm in the grips of "new start-itis" on Rose Lights and it's hard for me to switch my focus away from that. But if I need a break from that I can work on this one, or maybe I'll make myself take one day each week to work on it--I still have plenty of time to decide (for now!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Ending in sight

I am ready for the 14th and final part of Jardin Prive's Histoires de Moutons en Hiver--still hoping that the rest of that last alphabet is included!

This has been a really enjoyable stitch along, perfect for adding all kinds of little buttons (and jingle bells!) and a couple of black sheep, but I'm looking forward to having it finished later this week. Once it's off the Qsnaps, I'll be able to start Chatelaine's Rose Lights.

Once part 13 was done last week, I went back to work on Purrfect Christmas Santa and now he's finished:

The kitty is supposed to have a white tail, but the 18ct perforated paper I used only comes in white (the kit came with 14ct brown), so I gave him an orange tail instead. I recently stocked up on the 18ct paper, because I don't know if the perforated PVC that's replacing the paper is going to be offered in 18ct, though I sure hope it is. Here's a size comparison between two Santas of the same stitch count, one on 14ct and one on 18ct:

Once Santa was done, I started a new stitch along that I just saw last week, which is Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden:

There are six parts, releasing on the 15th of each month; the first part took me three days to stitch, so this should be really easy to keep up with. Here's part 1, before and after back stitching:

I'm using Dark Cobblestone Belfast, which is a great color; I wanted to order some more, but 123Stitch no longer has it on their site, so I don't know if it's been discontinued. I need to do a bit of searching to see if I can find some elsewhere, because it is a really nice, darker neutral color to have on hand.

That took me up until yesterday evening, then I needed something to work on while I watched the Bears lose (😭), so I made a small start on You Were Hatched on black Belfast:

I'm glad I picked a small Wentzler design, because between the confetti, the blends and the back stitching, I'm pretty sure trying to stitch a big one while also trying to get Rose Lights done (or mostly done) wouldn't have been a good idea!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

V, W, X, Y and Z...

...better be filling in the space below the wreath and red house in the Jardin Prive SAL, or I'm going to be feeling very twitchy!

My OCD is already acting up because I stitched a partial alphabet, but my hope is that it will be completed in the next part of the SAL. 🤞🏻 There are only two parts left, which I'm looking forward to seeing, and I'm glad that I was able to catch up fairly quickly after joining late because it has been a really "happy" stitch. This should be finished by next weekend, and while I'll be a bit sad to be done with such a fun design, I'm also looking forward to putting winter stitching behind me and start thinking spring.

I spent this past weekend watching football (Go Bears!! 💙🧡) and working on Purrfect Christmas Santa:

I should be pretty close to finishing this by the time the next SAL part drops, so that'll be another Christmas/winter piece done. 

I thought I wouldn't be stitching Wentzler's "You Were Hatched" after all, as I didn't get an acceptance email for the retreat next October, but then I found out that for some reason the email had been bounced back to the organizer. It's all good now, I've already paid the fee and have added it to my list of things to look forward to. I'm waiting to use the Qsnaps from the SAL piece for Rose Lights for the Chatelaine retreat, so if Santa gets finished soon, I might start "You Were Hatched" in the meantime.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone's 2026 is off to a good start, and brings all (or at least, mostly) good things to you and your families, including lots of stitching time!

I don't set out really specific stitchy goals for the year, because that seems like a lot of pressure and it sucks the joy from it for me, but I do have a few projects that I'd like to work on (aside from my goal of stitching one page of HAED Fairytale). I'm signed up for Queen City Stitch Retreat's Chatelaine weekend again this July, so I'd like to start Rose Lights soon so I can have a (slim?) chance to finish it before then:

I have also put my name into the lottery for their retreat in October, which is centered around Teresa Wentzler's designs. While I have a lot of her patterns, I've never actually stitched one--most of them are pretty big, with a lot of blended threads and confetti, so they seem like they would take a long time to finish. If I get accepted, I've decided I'll stitch You Were Hatched, which is a nice, small design:

Another project I've been mulling for a while is to stitch Jim Shore's 2025 set of holiday gnomes all together in a row on a piece of fabric, then chart "Gnome for the Holidays" to stitch below them:

The final project I have in mind right now is Amy Bruecken's Lucky 13:

I enjoyed her Warm Wooly Welcomes so much, and I know I would have just as much fun with this project. 

For now, my goal is to get back on track with Jardin Prive's Histoires de Moutons en Hiver, which had to be put aside while I stitched a Heart in Hand model. I finished part 10 yesterday:

And started part 11:

Part 12 is released on Wednesday, so I should be caught up by then, and then there are just two more parts. Once this is done, I'll probably put Rose Lights in the Qsnaps and see how that goes for a while.

Finally, I can share that one of the Heart in Hand models I stitched last October has been released; it is Cecilia's annual Collector's Heart:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week (and year!)!