Christmas Gifts

My good friend and I exchange stash goodies a few times a year and Christmas is one of those times. We decided to stitch a book mark, send a pattern, and a needleminder. Here is what I received:

Bertie's Stocking by Shepherds Bush

The Bookmark
I must say this is gorgeous! We also found it a little funny as she sent me one that says The End and the bookmark I sent her said Once Upon A Time so we had the beginning and end all covered.

Needleminder and a great smelling sachet pack.

I just love having a stitch friend to exchange with as they always know the perfect gift to give.

Weekly Stitching and Haul

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I sure did, lots of time spent with family and eating good food. So, I have to know-what did you get?? Please comment below.
I only received one stitch gift, my mom said I put my request in too late, as she already had my gifts purchased. So, I am already planning to let her know much earlier next year!

I received the Autumn Sampler kit by Janlynn.

The last time I posted 272 Words, this is where I left off.

I was able to work on this piece quite a bit over the weekend and this is where it is now.

I started a new project yesterday. A friend gave me this in one of our exchanges and the colors are just beautiful. The linen is so soft and was just a joy to work on yesterday.

I am gearing up for new starts on January 1. I know that I will start the first Brookes Books Advent Animal ornament and possibly the Henry VIII kit, but I may change my mind before then. I can't wait to hear what you are starting.

Christmas Wish List

Only one more week until Christmas! I hope everyone is getting ready to spend some good time with family and friends and eat lots of goodies. I didn't stitch one bit this past week. I have been taking a medical coding course and I am determined to get it finished by the end of the year so I have been concentrating on that. So, I will be all ready to go January 1 with some new starts and plans for the Year of WIPS. I did want to post today as Monday is normally my update day. So, I was thinking, did you have stitchy items on your Christmas list? Last year was the first Christmas I gave a wish list of stitching items and I thought well why not? I would much rather have that than anything else. I would love to hear the items you have on your Christmas wish list. I have asked for any of the Janlynn Seasonal Kits, except Winter, as I already have that one.

Please share your wish list with me! If you don't have one, please tell me what your long sought after item is.

2017 Stitching

I have been looking over many SAL's and events that have been posted on facebook recently, that will take place in 2017. I have been trying to decide which ones to sign up for. I would love to know about the ones you are doing and perhaps it will give me others to choose from.

As of today, I am planning on these.

Year of Starts 2017-In this one, you start a new project on the 17th of each month. It is an event on the Stitch Maynia facebook group.

Year of WIPS-This event started in October and will end December 31, 2017. This event was set up by Melanie Watkins of Soulful Stitchers on Facebook. All of the participants picked a number of wips to get finished during this year. I chose 20 and I have finished one so far and pretty close on a couple of others. You can go to this post to see the wips I selected.

I am going to be stitching The Frosted Pumpkins year long SAL. I haven't purchased this yet but will before it starts.

I am going to be stitching the Clouds Factory year long SAL. I also haven't purchased this one yet but will before the start date.


A Canadian friend of mine is joining me in a SAL to stitch the Brooke's Books Advent Animals as ornaments. The patterns are FREE. Please join us!


A stitch friend of mine and I have decided to do a SAL with the Janlynn kit Seasons. Here is the winter kit on Amazon. A facebook group will be set up for this one.


The Stitch Maynia Facebook group has several monthly SAL's and I have decided to do the Color A Day SAL. The one is to stitch on a piece that has the color of each month's birthstone color. The piece for these are to be stitched on the 15th of each month.

I am in a Stitch from Stash group and they are hosting a Color Weekend each month where you stitch on the color of each month's birthstone color, so I will combine this with the Stitch Maynia SAL.

There are other SAL's for each month on the Soulful Stitchers group to include Nora Corbett SAL, Full Coverage SAL, Blackbird Designs SAL, and Northern Needlework Expressions, just to name a few. I will more than likely be participating in some of those as well as I do have wips in most of the categories.

I would love to hear about what SAL's or events you are participating in next year.

Weekly Stitching and Haul

This week I stitched on a bookmark that I will be giving as a gift but I will post that here after it has been received. The person it is going to, reads my blog, so I have to keep it a secret for now. I also continued working on 272 Words.

This is where I was at the last posting.

This is the progress made this week.

I only had one item of haul this week so I am combining it with this post. I received my November fabric of the month from Under the Sea Fabrics. It is called Aphrodite and I plan to use it to stitch Snapdragon by Mirabilia.

George Has Arrived!!

I had posted previously about this project and I had been eagerly anticipating getting started. Well, now it seems more real as my package arrived on Friday with my supplies. But just to refresh you, dear readers, I am participating in a large project of George Washington Crossing the Delaware. There are 112 stitchers that are each stitching a panel for the piece. Once all the panels are completed, they will be put together to make the largest cross stitch project stitched to date. It will be going to a museum and will be in the Guinness Book of World Records. We do not have our start date yet but it should be soon and we will each have five years to stitch the panel.

Wichelt donated the fabric and Sullivans donated thread, thread cards, needles, needle threaders, and a needle holder. Please support these businesses for their great generosity. I am posting pictures below of the supplies. The first picture is my portion of the pattern.

Stitch from Stash 2017

I have signed up with a group on facebook to attempt to Stitch from Stash in the first 6 months of the year. You can sign up for 6 months and then sign up again for the last 6 months of the year when the time comes. The purpose is to set a budget of under $30 a month to spend towards new stash and use the stash that you already have to stitch on. There are several rules for the group if you want to be entered in a giveaway at the end of the challenge. I have decided not to participate in the giveaway as I am only doing parts of the challenge in hopes of curbing my spending some and getting some of my stash completed.

I have decided on a budget of $25 a month for stash and to work diligently on finishing wips and ufos that I have at the moment. It is my hope that I will only need to buy thread in colors I run out of on the projects I am working on that are already started/in my stash. In the rules, any stash that you buy to gift to someone will count towards your budget. However, I am not going to use that rule for my monthly budget. I do a gift exchange with a stitch friend a few times a year and I just don't think that should count in my stash budget since it isn't stash for me that I will be using.

I would love to hear if you participate in any groups like this and how well you do at keeping on budget for buying stash.

Weekly Stitching

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all getting ready for Christmas and cooler weather. It has gotten quite cold here the past few days and I can't believe it is almost Christmas! I am way behind on gift buying this year and I haven't decorated at all. I didn't stitch much this past week so there isn't much to show. It was a rough week at work and when I got home each night, I relaxed and watched a bunch of videos on flosstube.


272 Words at the point I started this week.

272 Words at the point I stopped at last night.

I hope you all have a great stitchy week!

Prayers for Gatlinburg

I am sure many of you have seen the news about the fires that have now burned about 500 acres in the Smokey Mountain National Park. I have been to this area many times and and am deeply saddened by this. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, while a major tourist attraction, is still a place that I find full of peace and tranquility. You can go shop and explore and take part in a plethora of activities, yet the spirit of the mountains just sinks into your bones and fills up your soul and puts a stamp on you that you can't forget or give up. That spirit just seems to draw you back to the area so that you can once again become refreshed and renewed by its offerings. For me, it is a place that I really feel God and the beauty that He brought forth in His creation. Please join me in praying for the area and the people as the fire is not completely out and there are so many that have lost everything.

Weekly Stitching and Haul

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. I sure did! I feel like all I did was eat!

I was able to get in some stitching around the time I was eating though.

272 Words-The first picture is where I started from.

And this is where I got to. I just love this piece and it is stitching up pretty quickly.

I worked on America the Beautiful by Sue Hillis for the first time in quite a while. I haven't shared this one since I first started my blog. I was able to complete Iowa, Wisconsin and start on Illinois. This piece is also one I have included in my Year of Wips project in hopes that I will finish by the end of 2017.

I started this stocking in March at a retreat and needed to have stitched it over 2, but I had started it over 1. So I ripped out the small amount that I had finished and restarted. It is my goal to do all of the Shepherds Bush stockings and I am loving this one. I think it is going to be my goal to have one of these going at all times until I can finish them all.

It will look like this when completed.

I am combining the haul with this stitching update as I don't have much. I took advantage of the Joanns 4 for $1 sale on thread. I was able to get thread to kit up three Mirabilia's and the thread needed for the Brooke's Books Advent Animal ornaments.

Haul

I am trying hard to slow down on the haul in preparation for the Stitch from Stash challenge in 2017. This week I bought thread for Henry VIII and European Landmark Buildings and then I purchased the Winter Sampler kit by Janlynn. There are four seasonal kits in the set and it is my plan to do all of them. My friend Denita and I have decided to do a SAL to stitch all four and we will start next year. We are going to set up a facebook group for these and would love for all of you to join us. As soon as the group is set up, I will post a link but I wanted to go ahead and tell you about it so you could start planning and purchase one of them before the new year.

Weekly Stitching

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I love Thanksgiving and very excited that it is here and I only have to work three days this week. I hope you all have a fantastic day filled with food, family, and stitching.

I worked on London this week. The first picture is where I was when I started on it this week and the second picture is where I stopped. The area of the clouds is blank right now and I am stitching around it as I realized I didn't have the thread I needed for that part.

I have a new start! Surprise, right? I often have new starts. This is European landmark buildings. I love the colors. I kept checking several times to make sure I was using the correct color as it didn't seem like I was a few times. However, I came to realize that is the pattern and it is all so colorful and meant to be that way. There is a ton of confetti so it will be slow going but I think it will be great once it's finished.

Do you know Nell?

As many of you know already, I love watching flosstube. I discovered someone I had not watched before and this past weekend I started binge watching. I have almost watched all of her videos so far and just love her. Her name is Nell (aka-Little Yellow House Crafts) and her stitching is gorgeous! I just don't think mine looks like hers at all and wish it did. I like to think that if we lived closer, Nell and I would be stitching buddies and she could teach me how her stitching looks so much better than mine! Nell also makes project bags that are so cute and a great price. So you have to run to flosstube today and watch her first video, I promise you won't be able to stop.

Brookes Books

Have any of you stitched a Brookes Books pattern? I think so many of them are so darn cute and I own a few but I haven't yet stitched one. However, I was watching a flosstube video over the weekend and saw where someone was doing the Advent Animal patterns. There are 25 of them, of course, and they are FREE patterns. I have no idea how I would want to finish them but I want to stitch them all. So, I thought maybe there were others that would like to do a SAL with me in 2017.

The SAL would start in January 2017 and go until we all finished them. It will be at your own pace and I plan to do one or two a month, depending on how quickly they stitch up. If you would like to join me, just comment below. I can set up a facebook group for us so we can talk and share as we do these patterns.

Haul

I am really trying to slow down on the haul as I get ready for the Stitch from Stash 2017 challenge and here is what I received this week.

I have been on the autoship program with The Silver Needle for the set of ABC Sampler by Little House Needleworks. There will 9 in the series and number 5 was just shipped out. I am doing these as individual pieces and I think will finish them all as small pillows to display in a pretty basket.

The fabric for the ABC piece.

I am a huge fan of England and everything related and I have wanted to do this pattern for several years. I am very excited to get it. Henry VIII and his Six Wives.

My friend Cindi sent me a great gift this week. She had a qsnap cover and bootie that she was using on her 272 Words piece and I commented on how I liked the Americana fabric, so she made me a set. Aren't these fantastic??

I hope you all have a great week with some goodies that arrive in the mail!

Weekly Stitching

Good Morning! I think it is going to be a beautiful day today, although a bit cool. We had to turn our heat on yesterday for the first time and I just hate that. I like the cooler weather but I am not ready for winter. I try to keep a positive attitude though and think about all the stitching I can get done when it isn't so nice out.

I worked quite a bit on 272 Words by Primrose Needleworks over the weekend. The first picture is the picture I posted of where I was last Monday.

This is where I stopped last night.

I signed up for a couple of Christmas ornament exchanges this year and I stitched a small ornament over the weekend. It isn't completely done as I am going to get some type of embellishment to attach to the top of the tree and possibly something to attach to Santa's hat.

I think I will work on another project this week but I haven't yet decided on which one, it will be something in my Year of Wips challenge. I would love to hear what you are working on.

Heaven and Earth Designs Veterans Day Sale!

Do you love BAP's? I do! You should go and check out the half price sale at Heaven and Earth Designs. The sale will end tonight at midnight. You know I had to check it out as I can barely keep myself from purchasing from them and when there is a great sale, I must purchase. This is what I got and I would love to see what you purchased.

Mini My Little Red Riding Hood

Mini Montmartre Spring

Haul

I am very excited about the haul I received this week. I had ordered most of it a while ago from Leslie at Under the Sea Fabrics and they were in the process of getting moved and the boxes of product accidentally got loaded on the truck that was taking all of their belonging to their new home. But no worries there as it wasn't like I didn't have about 50 other projects on the go right now! Leslie has such great customer service and these items were all from a sale, so it was like an extra special gift arriving. If you are thinking about doing a fabric of the month subscription, I highly recommend Under the Sea.




Belles of Ireland by Mirabilia

Snapdragon by Mirabilia

Embellishment pack for Cassiopeaia. I have her started so I can't wait to put these on.

Embellishment pack for The Raven Queen.

Embellishment pack for Gwen.

Embellishment pack for Eva.

Embellishment pack for Bella Butterfly and Bella Bee

Embellishment pack for Minerva.

Embellishment pack for Snapdragon.

Embellishment pack for Belles of Ireland.

September Fabric of the Month from Under the Sea Fabrics. I do the wish list option so I can get specific pieces of fabric to use for patterns that I already own. This piece is called Apollo and I plan to use it for Blossom Goddess by Mirabilia.

Mermaid Scales Needleminder from Gina's Unique Boutique

I received some money for my birthday and I have been wanting this lamp for a good while. A friend of mine has this one and I tried it out a few months ago and fell in love. It is the first lamp with a magnifier that didn't make me nauseous to look in. I used it for the first time this weekend and I don't know how I ever stitched without it. You can purchase on Amazon.