What am I stitching on?

 Actually I have been working on stitching free designs.  They are quick and provide the variety I am looking for at the moment.

Meet Yankee Doodle Duckie.  He was designed by Handblessing and honestly I never had seen him until recently when I found a bunch of old newsletters on-line with lots of older free designs in them. I  started him on June 22, 2021 and he was finished June 30, 2021. He is stitched on Zweigart 28 count lugana in white.  I used stashed Six Strand Sweets floss in Mulberry Wine, Patriot Pop, Bluebery Pie (2 different color lots), Toffee and Spiced Orange Cider.  His eyes are black petite beads.  He is so blessed cute and he makes me smile.  The link to Yank is: NewsletterJune_2011.pdf (myfiberworks.com)

This design is called Flag City by La D Da and it was stitched in 2018.  I just fully finished it into a hanging pocket. I hung it on our front door with some red, white and blue flowers which I had.  I love how it turned out. The vintage pillow ticking fabric I had purchased at Hobby Lobby is just perfect for it.  The link to this free design is here: Free charts from La-d-da Cross Stitch Designs

Next in my parade is a Heart in Hand free design from Cecilia Turner called Spooky.  I started this on June 7, 2021 and finished it on June 8, 2021.  I stitched it on a hand dyed fabric from an unknown company however the color was called Over the Hill 27 count linen.  I used Weeks Dyed Works Merlin, the purple black color; Gentle Arts Ruby Slipper for the orange red; Crescent Colors Honeycomb for the gold and DMC white.  The wee ghost's eyes are French knots.  It was a fun little stitch.  Finishing is unknown at this time.  The link to the newsletter the free design was in is: spooky-2.pdf (heartinhand.com)

I love this bookmark, it is perfect in my bible.  This design is called Alleluia and it is designed by Nancy Bandzuch.  I found it on a site called Catholic Sprouts.  I started this design on May 19, 2021 and fully finished on June 20, 2021.  I used a silk floss from Silks 4 You, a maroon to raspberry color PR044 and Rainbow Gallery Fyrewerks Metallic Braid #F3. I  stitched it on Crescent Colors 28 count evenweave in the color Vanilla Bean.  I moved the cross from below the wording to before the wording to make the bookmark longer.  Then I stitched the buttonhole stitch all the way around with DMC perle cotton #12 in white.  This took forever because I kept putting it down.  I fringed the ends and as I said I couldn't love it more. The link to this design is here: Free Alleluia Cross Stitch Pattern for Easter | Catholic Sprouts

This design is from a new designer to me, Pinker 'n Punkin.  I adore her free designs.  This design is called Bee Sampler and I started this on June 9, 2021 and finished it on June 20, 2021.  It is stitched on Weeks Dyed Works 30 count in the color Parchment.  I used Gentle Arts Sampler Thread color Wood Trail for DMC 434.  The rest of the floss was Old Willow Sampler Threads, Quaker Swan for DMC white,  Black Cat for DMC 310, American Quaker Gold for DMC 783 and Chocoholic for DMC 838.  I had so much fun stitching this and plan on stitching many more of Pinker 'n Punkin designs.  The link for this free design is: Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching: A Little Bee Sampler - Freebie

So this free design caught my eye.  It is by Alita Designs and it is called 4th of July Heart.  I really liked the way the stripes flowed.  So I pulled some Valdani floss in Natural, Rich Wine and Sea Deep.  The Valdani floss reminds me of the old flower thread by Ginnie Thompson and DMC.  It has that linen floss look but stitches more nicely.  Remember DMC linen floss, it didn't last on the market very long. It was awful to stitch with.  I chose  a fabric in 28 count, a Country French linen in the color Goldneedle.  I started it on July 1, 2021 and you can see where I am. 

I really like how it looks.  I am thinking I will stitch "1776" instead of "4th of July".  Here is a link to this free design: 4th of July Heart cross stitch pattern (alitadesigns.com)

So you can see, as I now can, that I indeed have been busy.  I was intending on reorganizing my Happy Room this week as hubby is on vacation and prowling the house.  I wanted to let him prowl and I would hide away in here.  Well I have barely started the reorganizing...lol!  I hope your summer is wonderful and your stitching sublime.   Until next time, God Bless!

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!

The Merry Month of May, what shall we say?

And spring is in full swing here in the wild and gentle folds of our Lilac Thicket.  Hubby has now mowed the yard 3 times!  We have had the most magnificent blue skies as of late.  It is a heavenly deep sky blue which soothes the eye and soul.

I had to set down Festive Feathers.  That kit floss was driving me insane, knotting constantly.  I have started a new project however.  I wanted something fun and whimsical and started on Jardin Prive's "Easter Welcome".  

It is a delightful design and I love the houses that remind me of mushrooms.  All the eggs are brown and tan and there is my beloved pink front and center.  I have just started this with the called for colors and have the top left house and daisy stitched.  The different elements could be easily pulled out and stitched to create a sweet card too.  I will post a progress picture at a later time.

I also managed to get all my loose DMC wrangled up and put away. I found a big box of DMC down in the basement in a cupboard I highjacked for storage of my paper products, toilet paper, paper towels and facial tissue.  I didn't know anything was in it.  Hubby must have snuck stuff in there.  I am slowly working on the pile o' crap in the Happy Room and getting it sorted.  I am terrible at putting things away in here.  I spend 80% of my waking hours in here and you would think I would be more vigilant in keeping it neat.   Well that is wishful thinking.

Just a quick update in the sanity of my beloved home in the healing folds of our Lilac Thicket.  God Bless!

Birds, temperatures and journals

This is a glorious sunny day with flowers, birds, blue skies and 70° temperatures here in the wilds of our Lilac Thicket. I was up late today after a late night of farting around with stitching. Yesterday my lovely bestie Leslie and I Skyped and an hour in I was disgusted with Festive Feathers. The floss kept knotting and I have made an error somewhere which won't be noticable but it is irritating me to no end. So I set it down to start working on something else. Above is the picture of progress to date. I have maybe a smidge less then one-quarter of the breast left to stitch.

 

I started putting together a temperature project, which is offered as a free stitch along at Jardin Prive.  I got so excited when I first saw it.  In 2020 this SAL was floss bobbins and this year it is houses.  It is similar in principal to the popular Stitching Mommy's Temperature Garden, if you are familiar with that.  I have it pulled together but I am going to change the temperature colors that I initially pulled.  I want pinks, blues, greens and purples for my neighborhood.  I just love this novel idea and it is different in looks then what a very lot of people are stitching.  If you are interested in stitching this too, head on over to Jardin Prive.  While I was over there I purchased 4 patterns I must stitch.  

I had been pondering all my cross stitch projects since I started stitching in 1986.  Many things I have stitched are just gone.  I don't know what happened to them but some of it could be pieces were destroyed in the fire I had at a duplex I rented in 2002.  I had started stitching when I lived there and then rented and moved into a house on SW 1st Terrace.  In 2016 Orin and I bought the home we currently live in.  So it is understandable that stuff has become lost in transition and of course destruction.  I don't know why it wasn't important to me to keep track of what I was stitching, I was just having fun stitching. Details weren't important then but somehow they have become important to me.

So, I printed off pictures of projects I have stitched as wallet sized photos on my printer and I grabbed an old composition book and tore out the first few pages and began by taping the pictures on the pages of the book.  I then began going thru my blogs looking for any details about the projects.  I have about 5 years left to look thru on my old blog and I am also going to tackle Facebook and look thru posts there.  My notebook is filling in and I am gaining some satisfaction in having information consolidated into one place.  It is a good feeling and although some folks would have a heck of a lot more stitched in 35 years, I am not worried about that.  As Leslie and I say, it's not a competition (as it is with others).  This is a journey of happiness and joy watching my work grow and helping to guard my peace of mind.  When I die just shovel all my stitching stuff into my coffin and a few of you may need to sit on the lid to help the mortician close it.  Hell I may need several more coffins to get it all in and buried with me.

May your spring days be filled with the peace, joy and happiness that God is truly with us, watching us stitch, enjoying the fruits of our love of the needle and thread.  God Bless.

2020 Holiday Depression Buster finishes and Spring blooms at the Thicket!

The Lord has gifted us with an amazingly beautiful spring this year.  Our backyard is our refuge from the hustle and bustle of the world outside.  Yesterday two women showed up at our threshold from the county assessor's office to verify information for taxation.  They followed me thru the garden gate to measure our sunroom.  Both were absolutely enchanted by our secret garden.  It really is a place you can get away and dream.  Orin and I love feeding the wild birds and watching them come and go.  I saw a robin gathering grass for it's nest and laughed when the grass resembled a mustache on that sweet bird.  Bear with me as I share a few pictures I took this morning.  Pictures taken in the morning are so soft and stunning with the promise of a new day fresh after a good night's sleep.

Our willow tree looks so lovely against the blue sky.

The dogwood tree is filled with flowers that are just opening.

Lovely Paper Whites line our fence.

My beloved Lilacs!  Some clusters are wide open, however you can see some clusters still have themselves tightly closed to the world.  These cool nights will make the blooms last much longer and the scent, need I say more?

Not a lot of stitching going on here. Festive Feathers is coming along slowly. Leslie is much further along then I am.  She is having knotting problems also, so I know it is just not me but it is the floss.

Below is Mary Mouse and Duncan Dog.  Both are part of the Brooke's Books Advent Animals series.  They are stitched on 28 count Reflection by Silkweaver in the color "Beach".  They were two of the finishes I had in my depression buster project this past holiday season.  They really are darling.

Next in the Depression Buster Project was the free design by iStitch called surprisingly enough "Christmas Greetings". I used 2 different colors of floss from two different defunct floss companies, Olde Willow Stitchery and The Dye is cast. I chose a 28 count Quaker linen in "natural".  I love the vintage look of this design.

"Thankful" was a free design offered by Hands On Design.  I stitched it with the called for floss on a charcoal colored 28 count evenweave.  It stitched up quickly, even for me.  I love how it stitched up.

This free design is from Les Grilles de Maryse and is called Noel 2014 Medaillon.  I used The Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors "Green Leaves" SNC 090 and Kreinik Silk Mori Milkpaint color 0116. It is stitched with some random vintage colored evenweave I had in my stash. I love how it turned out. I want to stitch it again in all blue and also want to stitch in all white.

This is the last finish in my Holiday Depression Buster parade.  It is called Christmas 2017 Village in the Snow designed by a favorite French designer Les Grilles de Maryse.  I wanted the snow to show up so I chose a grey 28 count evenweave in my stash.  I stitched it with the called for DMC floss however I sparkled it up with a opalescent blending filament in random white stitches throughout the piece.  The effect was just what I was looking for.  I love this piece.

The weekend is almost here but then being retired every day is a weekend for me.  I will continue to enjoy my beautiful Lilac Thicket, maybe do some reading or even baking.  One thing I do know I will be doing is thanking the Lord for a life filled with peace, joy and happiness.  God Bless you!

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.

My newest start "Festive Feathers"!

I love cardinals.  We have over a dozen pair that visit our Bed and Breakfast in the backyard.  I associate them with my brother Rick, who went to heaven in 2014.  When I saw this design stitched up by a poster on Facebook I had to get it.  It is a Bothy Threads kit which come from the UK and are costly.  I do not generally buy kits but it was the only way for me to acquire this design.  I paid $42.00 for it on sale at Stitch! 1-2-3.  It would have been $49.00 at regular price.  That is a lot of my money so I expect QUALITY!!  Which is something I will get to in a moment.

I opted to pick a piece of fabric from my voluminous stash instead of the fabric it came with.  Had the fabric been a lugana or other evenweave fabric I might not have done that.  I chose a Picture This Plus color of Crystal Twilight in 28 count lugana.  It is an opalescent darker blue with a tinge of green in the blue so a deeper peacock blue.  The red fibers are stunning as you can see below. I started it Friday March 3, 2021 and you can see my progress to date. I love it and am savoring every stitch. I have about 1/3rd of the breast complete.

As I said earlier I was expecting quality and I was sorely disappointed with the cheap way this kit was put together.  My best friend Leslie is stitching it with me and we both are disgusted with Bothy Threads.  I know I won't be purchasing anything with their name on it ever again.  

  
Let's start with one stinking needle, ONE NEEDLE is all that came with this kit.  Now I know most kits only come with one but they aren't $50.  How much more would have cost to include 1 or 2 more?  Not much I assure you.  

Then there is the flimsy cardboard stock thread organizer.  I appreciate the fact the floss colors were separated, I detest guessing which color is which  Look at how they punched the holes to hold the threads!  The thread is constantly tangling with other colors and it is a struggle to get another length of floss to load your needle, not to mention how easy it would be to get confused with the floss symbols.  I think this is the cheesiest, cheapskate thing of the whole kit.  It angers me that they don't tell you what brand of floss they are using AND the color number so that if I run out I can easily get more from my stash. I know I can e-mail Bothy Threads to get more floss but who wants that wait, oh my gosh it takes forever for stuff to come from the UK to the US. I did spend about an hour matching the floss with DMC so I can get more if need be.  There is also something wrong with the floss that I did receive in the kit.  It tangles at the drop of a hat and it is fuzzed out like it has been dragged in and out of the fabric several times.  I know how to prevent knots, I have been stitching for 35 years but this stuff is awful!

The chart needs to be enlarged!  I took mine to the copy place and enlarged it to fit a 11x17 sheet of paper.  The one on the left is what came in the kit and the one on the right is what I enlarged to.  My eyes are getting old and charts are getting hard to see.  That is not Bothy Threads fault but I think everyone would like their charts to be larger.  I do appreciate that there is a second chart with the back stitching but if the chart was larger they might not have to do that.

I knew this kit came with aida, but it would have been nice to be able to choose my fabric for my kit.  I would expect a premium priced kit to offer that.  Also I believe that this should be offered as just a chart with no supplies at a cheaper price. I have no doubt they make a grand killing on these kits and at the most would add no more then a couple of dollars to the kit if they truly wanted to be a premium company. These kits are on quality par with what you get from China and that is stinkin' bad quality.  

You may disagree with me and my assessment or you may have more improvements I have not mentioned.  I absolutely love the design, the price point sucks eggs as does the kit quality.  I usually am very satisfied as a customer but in this situation I feel that making a buck is more important then putting together a great kit.  I will continue to enjoy stitching this beautiful design but I won't be purchasing Bothy anything in the future.  In my house we vote with our dollars. 

Thank you for reading 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.

Destiny

Destiny is by an artist who wishes to remain anonymous, beautifully depicts Jesus as a young child in Joseph's workshop.  The nail spikes and the shadow of a cross foretell the events to come, the destiny that Christ came to fulfill. Here is a link to where prints can be purchased:

http://www.christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/anonymous/destiny.htm

June 2, 2017

August 4, 2020

September 8, 2020

September 15, 2020:  About 5400 stitches

October 22, 2020: About 9100 stitches and current area stitched measures 5½" long by 9¼" wide

I started this piece in 2017 and set it down.  I picked it up again in August of this year, over 3 years later.  I have enjoyed working on this so much.  I fell in love with this print and it was not available as a cross stitch pattern so I paid someone on Etsy to create this pattern for me .  There is so much black in the print that I decided to stitch it on 28 black lugana and will not stitch the black stitches.  The design size is 18.6" by 28.5" in size.  The stitch count is 260x400. The design is made of of 116 different DMC embroidery floss colors.

This print really speaks to me as there are many elements in it which foretell this baby named Jesus' future.  I can picture a baby over 2000 years ago puttering about his father's workshop as his earthly father, Joseph, works on a project.  This is a work of love for me.  I love God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with every fiber of my being.  That love is encapsulated in the stitches I place when I pick it up.

Retirement Bliss

You are gazing upon the image of a blissfully happy lady.  She retired on June 12, 2020.  She has become a gratefully happy and blessed recluse in her home.  She putters about her home engaging in whatever activity suits her at the moment.  These activities could include needlework, something vaguely resembling crochet, swinging in the sunroom watching the birds, squirrels, bunnies and chipmunks visiting the bed and breakfast facility in her back yard, reading, baking, reorganizing her kitchen, cooking, doing laundry, watching Ghosthunters on FYI channel and only on Mondays.  Most days she naps and plays a game or two on the internet and all days she is the person in the song "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Baha Men.  Yes, this blessed retired lady is ME!!!!!

So my Just Nan plan which was to stitch exclusively on Just Nan designs was foiled by the evilest of demons...boredom!  You see where I have stopped.  Yes I will be picking it back up but I would lay odds this beauty will not be completed for Christmas 2020.  The cuff is completed and I had begun the vertical rows.  To this point the lace I stitched in the cuff is my favorite.  The bead drama was well worth the trouble and I love the bead choices I have made.  

This was the culprit that diverted my single minded Nannyness!  It is an old Birds of a Feather design called Pink Hare Sampler.  I just had the chart and no color key.  I tried and successfully chose floss colors that I thought appropriate.  I even had some silk ribbon which was very lovely and fit the bill perfectly.  The button was in my stash and again perfectly matched the look I was going for.  

Do you remember Destiny?  This was a wonderful print which I found and had professionally graphed by someone on Etsy.  I started this about 3 years ago and after about 2000 stitches put it down.  After a blather with my bestie, the wise and lovely, Leslie, I picked it back up.  I am still working on it and have about 4000 stitches in it now. I am currently working on the window in the upper left of the design.  I have quite a ways to go before I bump into Joseph but I am still going strong and slow with it.  I am focusing on laying my floss strand perfectly down for maximum coverage.  This design is an image of love for me.  There are so many elements which speak to me such as his shadow foretelling Jesus's future and Him the spike in his hand which will eventually pierce his hands and feet.  The wood in the corner reminding me of the cross he will die on.  Then looking at His earthly father with the hammer in his hand.  Every time I look at this print I find it speaks to me in a way I haven't experienced or thought of before.  It is a spiritual peace for me. 

I can guarantee this will not be done, not this year or next either.  That is okay with me because I am a retired lady with plenty of time to enjoy what I want or when I want.

 I love poinsettias!  I was checking out the different cross stitch designs up for sale on E-Bay several weeks ago and found this lovely doily kit.  I bought it and was very tickled when it came in the mail.  The doily is soft aida and has a velour type texture and I love the flowers.  I can't tell you how old the kit is but I would say maybe late 1980's. It is a Willmaur Crafts Corporation kit.  The address says Willow Grove, PA.  Don't you love the name of that town "Willow Grove".  It conjures lovely images.  I think I may pick this up around November 1st.  It would be nice to have it finished for Christmas along with a platter with a variety of Christmas cookies I hope to bake.

I cannot promise to blog more often, don't forget, I am a retired lady and I never know what activity will capture my attention at any given moment.  God Bless you and may all your stitching be perfect!