Some stitchy progress to report!

 

Here I sit on a gloomy Monday afternoon.  I have been working on finding free designs to post on my Facebook group Needle Free 4 All.  I do create my posts and schedule them to appear at a future date and that builds the group to have new freebie posts even if life gets in the way, like a sickness or family need.  It allows me to post really quality designs I find and I do find terrific ones.  I have May completely full and am working on June now.  I like to have 2 designs a day but I go thru and fill in the entire month with one design and then go back and add a second.  I have to keep track of postings so I don't double post a design or miss a day.  I love doing this for my group and they really enjoy it too.

Stitching wise I am working on Jardin Prive "Welcome Easter".  I am coming along slowly but enjoying each little motif of this magical fairy Easter village. The houses make me think of crazy mushrooms and I love how prevalent pink is in the design.  The rooster with pink feathers makes me smile. Here are a couple of photos a little closer up.

I am stitching it with the called for DMC floss colors on 32 count evenweave in the color "parchment".  I started it on Wednesday, 28 April 2021 at 8:30p.m.  Thank goodness for my stitching journal I discussed earlier this month. Anyway, there is absolutely more cuteness to come.

I did purchase from DMC some square wooden hoops.  I do like them but the 10" is really 9½" which sort of bummed me out.  I think they should measure them according to the stitching surface not edge to edge of the hoop.  I also bought an 8" wooden hoop.

That is all the excitement for me here in the dreary and secluded folds of my Lilac Thicket.  The smell of Panda Express will soon envelope the inside of our home.  Hubby called and is swooping down the roads with Chinese goodness for our American palettes.  So my lovely stitchy friends, until next time, God Bless!

Festive Feathers and recent finishes

This is one glorious Sunday!  The view out my Happy Room window is stunning with the bright sunshine, tree leaves appearing, red bud flowers and the most amazing blue sky!  God really know how to treat us right on a blessed Sunday morning.

This morning I have been lurking about the free designs on the internet and posting to my Needle Free For All Facebook group for future posting.  I post two free designs most days and have April almost filled up.  I have to keep track on a calendar page which is also a free calendar at Free Printable.net to try to avoid posting duplicates! (They have free graph paper there too!)  Why buy when you can save money to buy other things with?  

I am always surprised by what free designs elicit  comments.  The designs that I love get no comments and then the ones which aren't appealing to me, do.  That is the beauty of the world, the breadth and width of differences in this universe.

I was not feeling well for the first half of the week so there wasn't any stitching or Skyping with my bestie Leslie on Wednesday.  I did manage some stitching on Friday and Saturday.  I am about half way done with my cardinals breast on Festive Feathers. The color of the fabric is more accurate in today's picture then previous posts. I didn't use a flash when I took it.  I really had fits with it on Saturday as the damn floss kept knotting and I spent half my time picking them out.  It is beyond frustrating.

Last November 2020, Leslie and I talked about just working on holiday designs as a way to assuage the depression that seems to to effect us as the days gets shorter and shorter.  I actually did follow though with that, Leslie didn't 😛 !  Shame on Leslie BIG TIME!  I really enjoyed it!  I chose to stitch free designs I had found and shared on my Needle Free For All.  Here are those finishes.

The top row: Christmas Greetings from iStitch and to the right Village in the Snow from Le Grilles de Maryse.

The second row: Thankful designed by Hands on Designs, Noel 2014 Medallion from Le Grilles de Maryse and the last two are from the Brookes Book's Advent Animal series, Mary Mouse and Duncan Dog.

I was really cuffed with myself getting so many stitched in two months time.  That is not very Sandi Jo'esque!  I will share the particulars of each design next post.

This is my latest free design finish, Shamrocks, by a French designer Brigitte DaDaux.  I stitched it using supplies I had, a piece of white 28 count evenweave and Dye is Cast hand dyed cotton floss in Grace Kelly.  Dye is Cast has been out of business for a decade plus. I really loved Brenda's floss.  I added a small bow from some silk ribbon I had plus a lady bug button.  It is so cute and one day I will fully finish it and share.

I will mention all the free designs I mentioned in this post are still available.  On the left hand side of the blog is a list of sites that offer one or more free designs.  You can find the designs I stitched that way.

I think that is about all for now I will talk with you later in the week.  Enjoy each stitch and God Bless.

Spring blog clean-up!!

Well it is spring 2021 and I have now been retired for darn near 10 months.  I have enjoyed every heavenly and stinkin' moment of it!  I have gotten my pantry together and stitched and spent untold hours swinging on the porch swing in my sunroom pondering everything and nothing.  I decided today to dust off this blog and try to update it and refresh everything, links, wallpaper, and the whole 9 yards! So let's start with my Needle Free For All!

I created a Facebook group called Needle Free For All.  I love to peek around the internet looking for free designs.  I have spent untold hours doing just that and I love unearthing treasures.  I decided to share what I find with other stitchers, so I created a group on Facebook to share my finds.  All are legal free designs and I do try to assure that they are not infringing on anyone's copyright law.  Right now I am posting 2 free designs a day and I have been doing this for 4 or 5 months now so there are quite a lot of designs there.  If this is something you are interested in joining please request to join the group at (20+) Needle Free For All | Facebook.

Tomorrow I will blog about the current project I have in my hoop.  It is "Festive Feathers" by Hannah Dale.  It is a Bothy Threads kit and I will tell you why I will never buy a Bothy Threads kit again. 

 So tah-tah for today and may your day be blessed with lovely small miracles.