Trying again with blogger

I don't floss tube but I do enjoy those who do so I have for a long time used a blog to share my love of needlework with the general stitching community. with Instagram and Facebook groups this way of communication has waned but I want to continue to share in this format where I can share questions and thoughts about what is going on in my little corner of the woods. It looks like blogger is doing a better job finally with allowing me to attach pictures which is really what I want to use this for basically. 

I stitch in a rotation and this year, as every year I make changes to try to be more productive. I stitch  slowly but am trying this year to be more consistent with my stitching. So currently I do one thread a day on a WIP, rotate weekly on 4 different projects and do a different Saturday and Sunday piece. I am slowly participating in 3 SAL's slowly but continue to work on them. 

First up in my one thread a day piece. February began Winter Cross Stitch Camp with Colorado Cross Stitcher on YouTube and shop of that name. I did a BBD freebie Petites Lettres Rouge from their blog 2009. I used Camelot's Lady a deep rose color that looks red in the photo but which is a rose shade that I favor. The fabric is antique white 32 count Belfast. I so enjoyed this piece. Sad to see it finished but YAY my first finish of 2022. Will frame it if I can find a frame for it. They are hard to come by up here. 

Next I pulled out the Quaker Turtles to replace it from the WIP pile, it had gone into time out because I thought I had a counting error and could not find it. After forever in the black hole of WIP land I looked at it and could not find anything wrong with it so I  put in the rotation as my once a day stitch for an hour piece. I have one half of one shell done as each shell has two pieces. Juniper WDW on green fabric of unknown name. 

I auditioned thread for the next freebie when the turtles are complete and I downloaded this freebie from Jan Hicks Creates entitled This is Home. I did not want to use DMC as a lot of my current WIPS are in DMC so I checked with her and for her personal one for her home she used Vicki Clayton silk which I do not have. So I raided my stash and found two colors of needle necessities I have used before and know they look good together so I pulled those out and into the future small start bag I keep at the ready. 

One new thing I started this year is doing stocking Saturday. It was a thing long ago in a totally different platform of message boards and I did Kathy Barricks Quaker Stocking because in my world it is stitch all the Quakers. They are by far my favorite comfort stitch. The next on I decided to pull out and finally revive, at least for me, is Stocking Saturday. It allows me to pull other a new start and at least get a few hours a week. Our weekends are super busy so not as much stitching time as I do during the week. This chart is being stitched On Elegant Bean Linens 40 count from Lady Dot Creates on Etsy. This is my go to linen and was super excited when Lois started adding it to her shop. 

On Sunday I am following Lori Holt's lead and stitching a Sabbath Stitch. On one of her last cross stitch floss tube's she discussed doing a Sabbath Stitch and a Christmas stitch on the 25th of the month. I chose a huge piece (no surprise there) that I am using for both and Started a Nativity design from Stoney Creek that I saw someone stitching years ago. Sadly I was not able to ever connect with that lady again to see her finish. I had the chart and it is stitched in what fills like hundreds of DMC but I have a lot of DMC so I kitted it up. It was my Christmas Day start in 2021 and has continued as my Sabbath Stitch and my 25th of the month stitch.

Next up in the weekly rotation is Winter from Cross eyed Cricket. It is stitched on the no longer available morning fog from R&R fabrics with the called for DMC. This has been a totally fun stitch for me. It uses a lot of DMC but that is what I bought it for and I am happy to be able to stitch as often as I can.

Next up is gift and or small stitching and I used that for me Winter Cross Stitch Camp piece I showed earlier. Next week in my rotation is Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. This is a very stitch dense project but it the perfect piece for me to pick up when I just have a few minutes to stitch or when I am stitching on a Zoom call because it is so much fill in with the same color. This is my current progress from the beginning of February. I am enjoying this on as well on Lakeside Linen, which is my second favorite fabric and am fortunate to have a stash of it. Still have the bottom to fill in with one color that I am leaving for a phone time or just pick up time during that week as well as the regular rotation stitching. This is using NPI silk and fabric as called for on the chart. 

 And last but not least is my Sampler of Stitches from the Drawn Thread kitted up long ago with called for linen and silks. It is almost all specialty stitches which I enjoy learning. This does take longer to stitch than the other pieces but it is good. This is the progress I made over January to February with the start being just the H being done in the beginning. 

Well this is picture heavy as it is so from now on I will just show progress on it as I go and see how Blogger works. Hope this finds you well and with needle in hand. Have a great stitching day and I will check in again soon. Marjo

 

Stitching all the things

 October has been a month of many fun needlework gatherings. Courtesy of Zoom I was able to attend a gathering at Winterthur Museum where there were several lectures and live panels that we could send in questions to the panel and they could respond. It was great to someone like me who love the history of stitching but is fairly isolated from that type of education where I live. I have also been able to attend several meetings of a Sampler group I below to in another state and I love it. I have gotten to meet a bunch of people that I had seen their names in the newsletter and have people to stitch with that have similar interests in samplers. I have an absolutely lovely group of ladies I stitch with in Alaska that meet most every week to stitch and chat. Even though many of our members have moved away we discovered Zoom and once a month we get together whoever can join in and chat. It has been wonderful for us to be able to do that. I am blessed I know but it has been fun to expand to different types of stitching as well. I am also attending another presentation by a group call Relics in situ online who offer lectures in regards to needlework. This one offered a small kit of one of the projects for I got that from their Etsy shop. It is all very interesting to me. This is the kit I am getting this time.

I am also joining in for two classes with the Shining Needle Society an online educational group. One is with Catherine Theron and it is a strawberry purse piece. and the other is an annual Christmas ornament that is offered by Barbara Jackson and it is a Colonial Pineapple ornament. I will share a picture when the kit arrives. None of these kits are large and they give me a break from the really bigger designs I always gravitate toward. 

My focus piece continues to be Mary Wigham. I so want her on my very small Quaker wall. Once I realized it was on 45 count linen and not 40 it made sense to me why I was struggling a bit since normally I don't have any issue with 40 count linen. 45 is a different ball of wax for me and I have to be sure I am counting the threads correctly. This is where I am currently. I love it. I love the feel of the fabric, and the colors of the threads. I can never get quite the right colors in my photos but in real life the colors chosen by the Attic Needlework ladies are just lovely. I wish I had started a needlework notebook for keeping details way longer ago but moving forward I will be able to look all these things up. 

So I am having ongoing issues with blogger. I found that as I was updating the links and lists on the sideline that someone had imbedded in my list of blogs I follow a non stitching link that I did not subscribe to. When I went under my tools to delete it that blog was not on the list but the link was definitely there when I went back. I tried cleaning up the list but that one persisted at the top of the list so for now I have deleted it because it was not a blog I wanted linked to my blog in anyway. I will add that feature back on once I figure out how to make sure that doesn't happen. My apologies to anyone who clinked on a link and went to a non stitching related blog that I did not subscribe to.

Back to rotation update. I am continuing with the current rotation until the end of the year with class pieces thrown in and will update with pictures as I go. Hope you have some stitch time in your day. Marjo

Trying again

I am focusing on trying hard to get my WIP count moving down to the current astronomical number to a more manageable number and to get them finished. The current very loose rotation I am working on is And They Sinned spurred on by so many recent finishes or near finishes from folks I follow on Instagram. So this is where I started this rotation in April. I have worked on it on and off until yesterday when I decided it was time to move on. 

and this is where I ended up: this is the end of the first page which is equivalent to 2 regular pages for most charts. 

The next thing I have in my rotation is Mary Wigham from Needleprint. I have been working on this for a really long time but it is slow going. I love it, I am just a slow stitcher. 

This is where I am starting back on Mary. The colors of the linen in any of my pictures is much grayer than in real life but the thread colors are pretty true to life. After going back to old posts about Mary I realized she is on 45 count and has been a WIP for far to long so she was my focus piece for Sampler September. at the end of September this is where I ended up. 

I have also been working on The Bluebird Trail by Crossed Wing Collection. The linen is their hand dyed option for this design and I think a couple of more of their designs. It is the perfect rendition of the sky in my humble opinion. 

But there is far too much gray to be stitched but no ever going to get finished if I don't keep working on it. My good friend just finished her's and it is beautiful. This will stay in rotation next year. I have got to get some more progress on this one. 

Fall in my little corner of the world comes quickly and leaves even quicker. We are full on headed to winter up here with cold mornings in the 30's and not getting out of the 40's most days. It is beautiful though. 

My stitching with friends piece. This is a freebie from JABCO if you bought the buttons. It is the December teacup of 12 months of teacups. There is also a series for teapots that I got offered as kits from Drema from Needlecraft Corner. She often has little kits offered on her site and since my stitching friends and I always had tea when we met it only seemed fitting to get these kits. She has quite a few SB kits of their freebie designs and many others. Great for quick stitches to fill a bowl or decorate with, I think this will be a stand up when I finish it. 

A picture taken by a friend from her house of the Knik Arm and Sleeping Lady in the background. The sky has given us several dramatic sunsets this year. 

This is Anniversaries of the Heart by Blackbird designs. Second on Valentine House. This is my Friday off the Grid floss tube stitch. I usually only stitch on it when I am watching Caroline. Since she posts daily but for only a few minutes while she is at the cottage it gets some frequent work but not long periods. 

I started an old chart that I have had in my stash for a very long time for High Tea and the #HRHsal2020 with a group on Instagram. First new start all year so I felt that it was okay to have one new start this year of only stitching from stash. Like many people (at least I don't think I am the only one) I have more stash than I will ever stitch. I have sold a lot of it and continue to weed out what I know I will never do and just keep the ones I love. Still have way too much but slowly getting my stitching room into someplace I can sit and stitch. 

and lastly my lone knitting project. This is my first attempt at a shawl. It is the Wellington worksock shawl by Sam Lamb. It will be bordered in a color other than the called for creme. 

Well until next time I hope you have lots of stitchy time in your day. Marjo

No excuses, just progress. (Picture heavy)

I am trying my best to update my blog to be current with what I am working on but let’s face it. I just can't keep up. 2020 has not been kind and my needlework, now more than ever brings me just a bit more joy. So in an effort to share where I am and what I am doing, here we go. Last year was the year of gift stitching,  and I literally spent the year working on Wedding gifts for two couples very dear to me. I let the brides - to - be pick the patterns and that is what I stitched last year. I am not a very good deadline stitcher- my life does not lend itself to that very easily- but I made great effort to stay on task and I got it done on time and delivered before the weddings. By then it was end of 2019 and about all I stitched after that was Christmas ornaments. I did however makes lots of plans of what I was going to stitch in 2020.

My Big Toe Design The wedding Sampler

Kooler Design Co. Wedding Sampler

I have so many WIPs that I decided that no new big starts until the WIP pile was decreased at least a little. Lofty goals for someone like me who is a slow stitcher. I am however very stubborn and have so far resisted any temptation to start something new. I have a few to share. These are all long ago started, still very much loved and now they are finished. First up is Alpine Garden from
The Drawn Thread. This was long ago started (reallyI have no idea) and I made a mistake with the top tree line and into long term timeout it went. I finally pulled it out and finished it in 2020. One of my next finishes was Random Thought also by The Drawn Thread. This just needed me to finish the hemstitching in order to be done. Blogger will not let me upload that picture so that will have to be next time.

Alpine Garden by The Drawn Thread

For some reason blogger is giving me fits with uploading photos so I will end with these two small finishes. April from the ladies at Shepherds Bush; the second is a Little House Needleworks Ornament Pine Tree Inn. 

For now I will close and hope this finds you well. Take some time time to put needle to thread and see you soon. Marjo 

Progress, progress and more progress!

during lunch I have decided to spend 15 minutes stitching after I grab a quick lunch in order to get more progress on my extensive WIP’s that are calling to me from the black hole. . I have a big sampler, Mary Wigham that I have been working on forever. So in addition to that I am going to keep stitching on the BBD stockings, I may make them my lunch travel piece because they are easier to stitch in lower light. I need to pick 2 more from the pile.... it is such a huge pile. Finished little House Needlework Sheep Virtues. Loved stitching this piece.  This a series of 12 sheep that was a SAL sponsored by the ladies of Shepherd’s Bush with a fabric and floss conversion they chose. I have loved stitching these. Each one felt like a finish.

 Mary Wigham from Needleprint. This is done on 40 ct unknown linen with Belle Soie silks from a thread conversion by the ladies of the Attic. I love Quakers and have enjoyed the journey with this piece but I have set it aside far too long.

Stitched a wedding sampler for a young friend who is getting married and hard at work on a second one for my Brother-in-law. No pictures yet on those. I had a rotation going up until the weddings came along. Once I get the second wedding gift done I will go back to these Mary Wigham and a smaller design. This one is for my husband’s office. It is Michael’s Prayer- a Prayer for chaplains

I have gotten hooked on flosstube! I think I get more stitching done watching along with some of my favorites! I have binged watched a few and have thoroughly enjoyed them.
Hope you have some stitchy time in your day! See you soon , Marjo

Gifts and organization.

I wanted to share with you a piece my best friend Elaine stitched for me for Christmas last year. I love it. I finally got some pictures of it so I could share with you and I am going to add it to my Craft Journal. I decided I need to keep a written journal of all my stitching and what I used to stitch it and when. I am having fun with it. We will see how it goes. 

Lizzie Kate design stitch by my friend Elaine

Now that it has been delivered I can share the little Lizzie Kate I did for a good friend who lost of beloved pup of many years. This is one of three frames the other two are their personal pictures that I won’t share but it just fit a little square part. And she was pleased with it.

I have been working on getting my stitching room organized aka the black hole. It is a mess. I started with fabric and moved onto threads. My DMC are baggies in numerical order. I was struggling with my Hand dyed fibers so they were next. They are in floss away bag in boxes in color name order and by company. Trying hard to keep them up to date. 

I got a new app Xstitch, to keep up with my flosses and fabrics and what I need to purchase.  I had one I had been using but unfortunately it was unable to keep up with the updates that the phone had so I lost all my inventory. I made a copy of the inventory of each kind this time so I have a paper copy this time. No more losing all that work again.

So finally all my threads are in the right box and organized. Now this is not all the thread but all I could find of the specialty threads. As I continue to dig out the black hole I am sure I will find more but this is the bulk of the overdyed cottons. My DMC are already in their place (again most of them) but have silks yet to go. But not that many of them so those won't be such a big deal.

Moving along with my WIPS Very picture heavy

I have so much stitching to share! I have made some time to get some stitching. I went on vacation and got a good bit done. First up is BBD monthly stocking March.

Next I had a piece that was actually the first project I stitched when I first moved to Alaska. I sent this out to be finished and I love it!

 

With My Needle My Favorite Basket by Ellen Chester

After months and months of looking for all of my patterns to finish LHN Sheep Virtues that I started back in 2013 (I think) I decided to just keep stitching in the hope the last two would turn up. FINALLY thy turned up in the black hole of my stitching room. I am so happy to be able to make some progress on this one. This was done by the folks at Shepherd’s Bush and they changed up the fabric and fibers. I am loving it. I am getting close to a finish and that is wonderful!!!!

This one is number 11 of 12 so getting close. 

I apologize but blogger would not let me edit this from my iPad so I had to wait for my ancient laptop to open to be able to correct this last bit. I had more to share but since it is so hard to upload the photos I will end here and start the next one with more updates to come. If I could do this on my iPad I could get so much more done. But at any rate I hope you have some stitchy time in your day. Marjo