2025 Re-cap and more

Hi everyone! Welcome to my annual re-cap of the doings on my blog. BTW, on the 21st, I celebrated 15 years of blogging. Sometimes I think I'm going to stop but then change my mind. I don't know about other stitchy bloggers but I like to go back into mine to read through the years of what I was stitching. So you're all stuck with me!!

Today before I do the update I'll show what I've been stitching and I even have 3 FFOs. After the update, I'll talk about my plans. So grab a drink and get comfy!

On Black Friday, I started Christmas Carol Sampler by the Primitive Hare. I've picked it up in the month since and have some progress...

I have now gone past the halfway point at the top border. I want to get that top border done and then drop down to go backwards. Mostly, I stitch left to right. Even on 36ct, she'll still be a good size.

I also had a Christmas day start. That's the Santa's Coming to Town sewing roll by Stacy Nash...

Stitched on the called for fabric of 36ct Aspen by WDW, I tracked it down and found this fat quarter on JensStitchingNiche on Etsy, the last one in stock. I'm using mostly the called for floss but I have some subs for the WDW floss of other over dyed floss companies. I nearly have the roof finished and that's taken me the entire time since Christmas day! Lots of filling in of that background color which is WDW Dirt Road. One of my substitutions I wasn't crazy about is the color of the reindeer and the sled bottom, that dark color. It's WDW Chesapeake which I thought was a very dark blue but it's actually very dark green. The DMC sub is what I used and that's DMC 500. I'm still not crazy about it but in Stacy Nash's infinite wisdom, she thought it was a good color! So I'm sticking with it. It's used further down on the trim of the windows. 

For the rest of the pattern, she says to use 2 over 2 for all the snow and on the sides of the house; I can't do that!😁 I am a 1 over 2 stitcher on 36ct🤷🏻‍♀️ That's it for my Christmas start.

I have a bit of progress on my Gingerbread Man bonus pattern, this is how it should look...

 And here's mine. My fabric IRL looks like that of the model. I have stitched in more of that tall skinny house on the left. After I press publish, I'll get back to stitching on this until midnight where I'll start my new start.

Carol, I'm joining you on your 12 Christmas ornaments SAL in 2026, and here's what I have planned...

The fabric is 40ct. The called for count is 36 but I thought the measurements could afford to be tweaked a bit. I'll start this at midnight.

Why am I joining a Christmas ornament SAL? Because here in the next 4 days, I'm off and I'll have time to FFO a few more Christmas ornaments that I have. Carol's SAL will keep me in ornaments for next year.

Btw, you could probably start a drinking game with how many times 'Christmas' appears here on this blog!

What's next? My FFOs!

😍😍😍 They're wonderful and they make a good size for display. On the left is O Tannenbaum by Pineberry Lane Designs. I believe she's on 36ct Cocoa by WDW. Stuffed with sawdust and a black pin holding the bell in the corner. I tend to subscribe to 'less is more'. On the right is, ahem, Christmas Alphabet by the Scarlett House. On 36ct WDW Grey. I stuck 2 red and 1 green pin into this. The picture is not great because it's gloomy out...

I'm at the library.

The 3rd FFO I have is Soot-y Santa by Notforgotten Farm...

Yes, it's a flat ornament, and yes I managed to find a piece of sticky board in my craft/bedroom to fit him on. On top of the chimney and on his tree is Kreinik silver braid. It was easy going until the last bit of the tree and then things got awkward! I'm not a fan of Kreinik but it's all I had. I trimmed him with that pretty faux pom pom and attached a rusty bell at the bottom.

The backing fabric is a favorite but I now have just a small piece left.

Surprise! I have a finish. This is Sweet Pleasure by October House Fiber Arts Designs...

Once again, a few subbed floss for this. I used 36ct Sheep's Straw by R & R. Measurements are 5" x 9". I will mount this on sticky board and set it on a easel display on my kitchen counter.

Carol, I laughed about your comment on pie making! I'm right there with you. I once made, or tried to make, a Pecan Pie. It was a disaster. It was best eaten with a spoon!

Now's a good time to mention the Great Sweetened Dry Cranberries Search! So, 1 of the gifts to a coworker, my daughter and SO, and their roommate was a mini loaf of Cranberry Pumpkin bread. Sweet breads are what I can bake and they turn out great. I waited until the 23rd to buy the cranberries. My favorite store...nope. The Veggie Man said they didn't have dry, fresh, or even frozen cranberries in the store due to problems at a warehouse, wherever that's at. He also said Safeway was probably going to be out too. I went anyway! Nope...the guy says I might have luck at Trader Joe's. We also have a Sprouts here so I went there. Not a cranberry in sight. So off to Trader Joe's where I managed to find dry cranberries but Unsweetened cranberries! What the heck, maybe they'll be find. My coworker is 79 and has some chronic health issues so I thought the less sweet the better. I made her own loaf with the unsweetened. Now I had to think of how to sweeten those cranberries. Voila! Simple Syrup! I had to Google that, lol. One part water to one part sugar. I thought 1 cup sugar to 1 cup of water would do it. Boll it then pour over the cranberries and let them soak. I soaked them for an hour and then baked the loaves. According to the gifteees, the bread was delicious! The recipe is found at Libbys. Whew!

Update time!

I started out the year doing my 61Bday SAL. I was turning 61 and thought it would be fun to start 61 pieces. The previous year I had worked on almost all WIPs. I started 17 projects and actually finished 9 of them. I stopped in May to stitch an exchange piece and had too much fun starting things and WIP-ping after that. I never went back. 

All those starts didn't do too much damage as I'm left with 23 WIPs on this last day of 2025. 

Finishes I had 22, including those SAL finishes. Not bad.

As for reading books... just one🫤 the same book I started the year out with and I'm only a little past the halfway point. I used to be a voracious book reader. On Goodreads, I'd join the challenge and read 15 to 20 books. Now I can't get through 1! It's stitching, it's taken over, lol!

Plans for 2026! Finish that book!!

I am all over the place with stitching 2026. At first I was joining WIPGO, then Christmas WIPGO, and now no WIPGO! I did pull out a couple WIPs to work on though, and these are...

Martha! She's so small! I'll take a week in between my ornament stitching to get some progress going. The other is...

The Noel Sampler by WTN&T. I've seen this on so many flosstubes that I thought I should just get back to it. I may even add another old WIP to my month so I'll have 3 WIPs to stitch each week and the ornament SAL the other week. 

Sounds like a winner!

Thanks as always for commenting, thanks for joining me this year for my stitching adventures. I'm coming up on 62 years in January. I don't think I'm retiring just yet. I may hold out to 65 but we'll see.

Take care and see you in 2026!

Many wishes for health and happiness and lots of stitching!🎊🎉🤗 

Christmas 🎄🎁

Greetings from a balmy day in AZ. Hope those of you in winter conditions are staying warm and cozy.

Turkey Day was wonderful! We had a lot of food including a turkey and a spiral ham. I ate leftovers for 4 days😂

So Jingle Ball has came and went. I didn't get to watch the Stacy Nash video for the Gingerbread Man piece but I can still access it in January. Like last year, my daughter gave me Christmas cash early and I spent it in Stacy Nash's shop, lol. 

I also bought from Heartstring Samplery and a PDF from the Annie Beez shop. Stay tuned for my Christmas day start, it could be from my new stash of Stacy Nash. I've really become a huge fan😍

So once again, I've been tardy with another post, just about a month lost. I've been under the weather for 2 weeks but last Friday I felt terrible. A couple days before I noticed my throat feeling irritated. I thought it was from sour candy I'd been eating. Needless to say I've been coughing my lungs up, one nostril runs and then it plugs up and then the other begins running. But it's the coughing that's been hard to handle. Nyquil is allowing me to sleep at night finally because that Friday night I don't think I slept at all. It was horrible. Added to that is a constant headache. Tomorrow I'm calling the local urgent care and see what they're charging for a COVID test. I work at a school and the last thing I want to do is set off a firestorm with that! 

I called out of work tonight and now I'm trying to put a blog post together🤷🏻‍♀️wish me luck!

The Christmas stitching marathon continues! Let's look at what I've been working on..

I finished O'Tannenbaum by Pineberry Designs..

Isn't it pretty?! I'm pretty certain the fabric is Weeks Cocoa 36ct. I was watching the Periwinkle Stitcher Sian's flosstube before this and she held up her sampler by Mani di Donna that is on Cocoa and I thought Yep, that's it! The tag said Confederate Grey but that's a mistake. I've got it sewed up but needs to be stuffed and embellished. 

I also sewed up Christmas Alphabet by the Scarlett House...

She looks wonky because I have partially stuffed her with sawdust and need to finish that. It's sooo messy though. 

How about a start or two? Sometime after December 1, I picked up this HOD piece, started and finished it, all in 3 days...

My picture is not so great🫤but this is my favorite of the 3 that I have stitched up, North Pole Trading Co. I need 6 more patterns in this series, White Christmas. I have the finishing pack for all of them and the templates to cut the mat board. This picture is not giving this sweet little design due justice. 

Another start after Dec 1, is Sweet Pleasure by October House Fiber Arts. I can't tell if I bought it or it's a freebie but here it is...

On 36ct Sheep's Straw by R&R. Christmas pies, right? I have since stitched in the mixing bowl that is to the lower left of the flour sack that is all white. I had to do some substituting with DMC or other hand dyed floss but it's coming along. It took me no time to stitch in the words. Looks like I'm 2 thirds of the way done👍🏼 

How 'bout 1 more start😁here's that bonus chart that Stacy Nash added to the chart for the Gingerbread Man. Using WDW Parchment, I just started this earlier this evening. Using the same fabric as for the G Man, 36ct Cocoa by Blackberry Primitives, here's what I've done...

I'm stitching the wall of a taller gingerbread house on the left. There'll be another tall and wider house on the right. I had to center start this because I didn't trust my placement of my starting stitches. I'm hoping to finish this before December is over. It'll be a pillow, albeit a big pillow! I want it to look like the model. I don't have a picture but if you go to Stacy Nash's IG and scroll down to her post of her Jingle Ball class subjects, you'll see it. I think I want to add small off white pom-poms to trim it. Eventually, I'd like to have a Gingerbread vignette for next Christmas going. I have a Gingerbread pattern from Stitching With the Housewives that I won earlier this year. I'll probably be in my new place by the 2nd week of January and you can bet I'm going to go all out with decorating with all my cross stitch goodies😍can't wait!

And the last start was my Black Friday start...

Here's the Christmas Carol Sampler by the Primitive Hare, on 36ct Thornfield by Needle & Flax. I'm enjoying this, watched the movie with Jim Carrey while stitching. That top border is at the halfway point across. It's still going to be a good size, even on 36ct. 

That's it for all my stitching!

I recently broke one of my readers so I bought another...

A 3.25, I'm styling! The frame is NyQuil green, lol, which is fitting since I've been living on that vile tasting stuff for nearly 3 nights!

Since I'm moving soon, I thought I better start packing stuff. My bedroom/craft room is going to be the first room to get packed...

I have another box of that same size filled with pin pillows, hanging pillows, and flat ornaments. I had everything hanging on 2 walls in my room and now they're bare. The walls look sad as do these boxes. I still have to box up my cube finishes, my tall plastic storage tower filled with trims, ribbons, buttons, rusty bells, etc etc. I have 2 and 3 drawer plastic storage things all lining 1 wall, some are empty. Three bookcases, 1 is tall. That's all just in my bedroom! I can't forget my bed!😂

That will be my life from the last week of December into January🙂

Alright! I believe this is it! Hooray for my phone sticking it out with me. 

Thanks to all for commenting on the last post! Jackie, so glad you stopped by and left a comment! Honeybee, I'm still trying to get through your past years Christmas Open Houses! Last but not least, all of you who read my blog! Thanks for dropping in🙂

Just 10 days before Christmas, I should be back before Christmas to show some Christmas FFOs.

Take care and see you soon!