See ya, February!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd get in one last post for February. Hope you're doing well!

I have lots to talk about so let's get going!

First I want to say a big welcome to Solstitches, via Carol's blog. I hope you'll like it here. As you can see I like to stitch on all sorts of styles. Samplers to Primitive with a few Lizzie Kate- type designs thrown in but mostly primitive.

Carol/Stitching Dreams mentioned the work and the emotions involved in cleaning and moving furniture etc out of a house. I get it. There's 40+ years of accumulation here. I look at it all and think how am I going to do this? It'll be another year before that happens but I've begun getting rid of things that fit in my trash container, or donating, or setting aside for a moving sale. I will miss it here, my daughter still lives in the neighboring town, and four seasons! I'm going just 45 minutes away but it's in a valley and can be almost as hot as Phoenix in the summer! This winter though it has snowed down there a couple times so it can still get a little chilly.

So let's talk stitching!

I'm still in two SALs, one ends in two days, the other goes the entire year. The SAL ending soon is the #wintercrossstitchcamp on IG, hosted by the Colorado Stitcher. I started a Christmas ornament called The Nutcracker Dancers and here it is finished..

I think that might be Clara at the bottom. I used mostly DMCs with a couple hand dyed floss. The pattern had all these squiggly shapes in between the ballerinas in different colors but I just used B5200 DMC for snowflakes and stars. The fabric sure looks and acts like an evenweave. It's more blue than the pic shows. Very cute. This design is found in a JCS Christmas preview December issue 2021.

After I finished the above, I pulled out Peace which was handy anyway because I'm stitching it for the year long SAL in a FB group and for my own personal SAL. Here's Peace...

I'm not sure what fabric I used but it's done! So the dark stitching in the words and the door and windows are 2 different floss colors! I didn't do my homework! The windows and door were GAST Tin Bucket, I didn't have it so I substituted it with the DMC listed which is 413. Well, I didn't notice that it practically matched the floss for the leaves in the corners, the dark ones which is GAST Otter Creek! So it all looks the same, lol. Oh well, outside of me and you, nobody will know! Up in the right corner is a space for an initial but I held off on it.

Peace is found in the 2013 JCS ornament issues. Because I have a bunch of marked designs I want to stitch in this issue.....

I'm going to continue stitching ornaments from this magazine, and the ornament that I'll start March 1 is O Night Divine by the Sampler Girl...

I have the overdyes, I just need to gather the DMCs needed. The fabric looks to be a white evenweave. For the rest of the ornaments in this issue, I'll have to go through my small pieces of fabric remnants.

The year long SAL I'm in is called #idareyousal2023. We either start a new project or work on a WIP. I'm doing all WIPs. I have my next victim chosen and will start in the 1st. 

In addition to those 2 finishes above, I started and finished a new piece to add to my Valentine's Day display. It's like some of you said, I'll get my numbers up! This is Always, a freebie by hello from Liz Matthews...

To get this, you'll have to sign up for her emails. I'm not sure of any other way to get her freebies. I used the called for GAST Brethren Blue on 36ct WDW Straw. I stitched it in 7 hours; it didn't take long at all.

I now have 3 finishes for the year.

So I wanted to talk about the recent blog hop hosted by Jo/Serendipitous Stitcher. I found out who had my PSS freebie stocking with hearts on it...

Astrid/Dragon Stitches and Stuff is my other stitching sweetheart! See the bird at the bottom, looks like a Robin. I'm seeing lots of them in my yard. 

I had Leonore/Needle, Pen & Sword's Valentine heart...

Love it on the petit point fabric!

Here's progress on Frosty Forest on that 8th block....

I'll be building the cabin when I pick it back up, most likely this spring. I have an ulterior motive for finishing FF because I'm joining stitch from stash again in July and this piece will give me a huge credit!! Ha!

I wanted to show you another design I want to stitch from the December 2021 JCS magazine. This guy (or girl)....

Yep, not hardly any ornament! I have fabric for this there on the left but need overdyes with DMCs. I'm not in a hurry to kit or stitch it though. You get different pieces spread throughout 6 issues. These are them: February, April, June, August, October, and December 2021. It says these other issues can be found at AnniesCraftStore.com. I found my issues on eBay. It's a gorgeous colorful Quaker. Maybe a Christmas 2023 start.

That's it for the stitching.

We've had some crazy storms blow through here, 4 of them last week with the 5th just last night....

About 3 inches I guess. Last Tuesday, we had a bad windstorm with 60+ mph gusts. A few times they hit 77mph. Not far from me, it was 88mph. I did not sleep at all that night. Luckily, it was a snow day at the school I work at so I got to relax and stitch a little. We have yet another storm coming in Wednesday with 5-8 inches of snow. 

I don't know about you all but I'm ready for spring!!!

That's it for now. I don't think I forgot anything. Hope you are all healthy and stitching up a storm (no pun intended!)

Take care!

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

Good Morning and Happy Valentine's Day!! It's also the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop today! Hosted by Jo/Serendipitous Stitching. Here's her link:

 https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2023/02/secret-stitching-sweetheart-blog-hop.html

Go to her blog to see the list of participants.

My secret stitching sweetheart stitched this very cute piece...

I don't have many finished Valentine's Day stitching but I will be taking care of that. Here's what I do have...

I'm off to find who has my sweetheart stitching!

Have a great day!

Just start all the SALs

Hi all! Hope you're all well! I tried to tune in a week ago but things got hectic. So here I am with the story of joining all the SALs and or challenges. I guess I've lost my mind because I usually go so far in SALs and then jump ship. So find a comfy spot to sit with your favorite beverage, this might be a long one.

Here's what I've joined: #weekend4by4, #idareyousal2023, #wintercrossstitchcamp on IG, and my own person SAL stitching every Christmas ornament that I have marked. Yes, I'm having trouble keeping track of it all!

The #weekend4by4 is put on by the Camping Stitcher in her FB group. The Camping Stitcher is also on flosstube by the same name. This challenge is 4 hours Saturday and Sunday to stitch on 4 items. One hour each or be creative. Here's what I stitched on....

A new start, the Bertha Mae Brown Sampler by Chessie and Me. It came as a kit from Country Sampler in their club Threads of Time? I could be wrong. I just basically threw money at them and said sign me up without knowing the particulars! Like when and how many kits are sent out. This kit came last Monday and I was champing at the bit to start it and then came the Camping Stitcher. That top stitching is long arm cross which I hadn't done in 10+ years but I picked up the rhythm right away. All those pinks and hearts, perfect February stitching!

Next new start is Moonlight by LHN...

On 32ct raw Belfast using the Belle Soie silk. Super pretty. It's been in my kitted box for a couple years.

For this challenge, I pulled out 2 WIPs, here's the first...

Look familiar? Peace from the 2013 JCS ornament issues. Last time I stitched on this, I only had the upper left dark green flower with some of the vine. I've come to a quandary on this. The words and that dark green flower are two different colors. The words on the bottoms are half one color and the substitute DMC floss for GAST Tin Cup is exactly the same color. I have to find a lighter gray for part of the words. I am also stitching this for another SAL. I'll just have to pick another lighter gray for the letters.

The 4th project and 2nd WIP is Frosty Forest...

I'm building a roof right now. For today I want to get some serious progress on the house (cabin). This is the 8th block; one more to go!

For the #idareyousal2023, Peace is being worked for it as mentioned. Last month, though, for this SAL, I worked on Song of the Seasons by LHN, and I did really well stitching on it for the entire month of January. Here it is...

Amazing! I ran out of 2 floss and had to order it. Sometime back, I decided to leave off a bottom box below this portion that contains flowers and vine and the alphabet. After some thought, I'm stitching it all in. I still have floss to do that and it makes sense to add that. Here's how it looked January 1st...

There are so many mistakes in this piece, haha. I watch flosstube while stitching so that leads to mistakes. I have added stitches vertically because the charts were confusing, made mistakes on the houses! It will still look great when I'm done and I can't wait!

For the #wintercrossstitchcamp SAL, I haven't started the ornament yet.

I also haven't started the ornament for my personal SAL, the same as the one above.

I did get quite a bit of progress on my new year start, Grace Bridges....

I made my way down to the peacock and that's the tip of her feathers over on the left. At first I wasn't sure of this fabric, it's parchment by Weeks. I'm beginning to like it now.

My other start, My Early Days by PSS, of all things, I have lost the first 2 pages of the graph! It just disappeared. So it's in time out.

Well, I thought this post was going to be a long one. Not really.

I have unjoined Stitch from Stash also. With the club pieces from Country Sampler and a FOTM I'm in from GaRon Stitchery, it was dumb for me to stay since I'm not staying with my budget!

 With the last of the Christmas money my daughter gave me in November, I bought a small trunk that goes with a design by the Kittenstitcher. I'll show that next time.

What you all didn't know is I was going to a stitching retreat in Florida with GaRon Stitchery this May. I was looking forward to flying to Florida but I had to pull out middle of January. They refunded me the fee I paid back in September. I might be moving this year, just 45 minutes away. I live in the family home of 44 years. Both my parents are gone, my daughter lives in the neighboring town and both brothers live in Phoenix. I'm sure I'll have help but there's 44 years of accumulation here. We'll be putting this house up for sale but I have some legal things I have to take care of. So traipsing off to Florida is not in the cards right now. Maybe next year.

Well that's all she wrote! Not too long, right? My stitching for today will be Frosty Forest. I'll be back on the 14th for the Valentine's Day blog hop hosted by Jo.

Thanks for stopping in, leaving comments. Take care!