I’ve been so tempted to order more cross stitch stuff…the struggle for me is real.  I told myself that I needed to fully finish something…it didn’t matter what or how easy-but I had to finish something before I could even look at cross stitch stuff online.

So I grabbed this project that I stitched spring of 2019 when Kramer was in the hospital.

I pick up finishing pieces when I go to the thrift store and originally thought this frame would work well….

The brown of the frame and the brown of the letters was perfect together.  But, I got the glass out of the frame and shucks….there wasn’t enough fabric to flip over.

So, back to my container of possible finishing pieces I went.  I found this…$1 at the thrift store and I was liking it.

I measured the inside of the cutting board where the words were.  It was exactly 6″.  My plan was to cut some sticky board (find it HERE on Amazon) at 5 1/2″ and mount the cross stitch piece on it…then cut a larger piece of sticky board, cover it with fabric and then mount the cross stitch piece of it and put them layered on the cutting board.

I got the stitched piece in place on the cutting board and then hot glued the edges down.

I ended up previewing it on the cutting board and liked it as is.  I added a bow and and heart shaped button.  What do you think?? Continue reading →

Karl had July 3rd off and on Thursday night at supper he asked me what I was doing on Friday.  I said work like usual…write blog posts, manage the house, and sew on a deadline project.  Karl told me he had Friday off and thought that maybe I should take Friday off too.  I said, “What could I do?  We really can’t go anywhere?”  Karl said, “Mom, if you could do anything you wanted at home tomorrow, what would you do?”  I said, “Cross stitch”.   Karl said, “Mom, take the day off and cross stitch.”  So I did.  I seriously NEVER do that.  I didn’t write a blog post.  I didn’t clean anything.  I just did cross stitch stuff.

I didn’t necessary do cross stitching.  I kitted some stuff up and did a lot or organizing.  I keep my project in these zipper bags.  I love them.  I have the smaller letter sized ones, find them HERE and I have the larger legal sized paper ones, find them HERE.

A blog reader sent me a couple of these about 6 months ago. I loved them and worked to find more and finally found a place on Amazon to order them. Now, all of my projects are in these bags.  Kelli loves them too.  They are so inexpensive too.

I had bought this pattern a year ago and about 3 months ago ordered the floss for it but I didn’t have the floss packaged up.   I use Floss Away bags to store my floss (find them HERE).  I write on the bag and keep the floss for a project all together with the big binder rings.  Over the years I’ve stored floss many different ways.  This is what has worked best for me.

I have a renewed interest in the project as I’ve been watching Nicole’s Needlework on Youtube (actually binge watching from her first video) and saw her complete this.  There is nothing like seeing a completed project to make me want to start a new project.

I treated myself to this chart after I finished Seeking Refuge.  I already had the linen for it but I needed to see what I needed for threads….I had most of the DMC and I took time to wind it on the bobbins.

Thanks to those of you who have sent me floss in the past. I so appreciate it especially when I am kitting up projects and know I have thread and don’t need to buy much. It’s so appreciated.

I treated myself to this chart when I last went to Rochester for doctor appointments.  Do you notice and trend here?  Treating myself to charts.  Ugh.  It’s dangerous.  I might be spending much on fabric for the sewing room, but cross stitch supplies, yep, that’s my weakness right now.

I love the design but think the linen is to dark.  Hmmm.  So that lead me to the computer to look for linen for that…and the missing floss I needed.  Here was my list…yep a mumble, jumble mess.

The problem from there was that there is no where-seriously-no where at all that has blue corn from Classic Colorworks.  UGH.  It’s not like I needed to start the project.  I just wanted to have it all kitted and without that color, I can’t…I’ve heard another color substitutes well….we’ll see.  The unavailability is due to covid.  Doing all of thkitting and organizing work took me much of the day as there were other projects I was reviewing and looking for linen for.

It’s gotten a little hard for me…I’ve gotten so I like higher counts of linen and much of what I previously had kitted I picked a lower count linen for.  I’m still debating on lots of projects.  We’ll see…

Right now I’m working on Newcastle Bouquet by Teresa Kogut.  I just started so I have a long time to ponder future projects.

I’ve been so excited about this ever since it was released at spring cross stitch market.  I had been trying and trying to finish my last piece so I could start this.  I have to say this though.  That border scared me.  I’m more or less a beginner cross stitcher again.  Yes I stitched back in the 90s and started up again very casually two years ago…but there is a big difference between stitching something like this….

which is stitched on 28 count…to stitching the big samplers like I currently want to stitch.  One stitch off on the border on a piece like this Lizzie House Needleworks Season’s Greetings is not noticeable…but a stitch off on the big samplers especially on the border can really be a big deal.

So after I kitted things up and placed an order on Friday, I decided to try tackling that border again.  You might remember that I was off and had to rip out a little…well this time, I was determined to do it right….

I stitched and stitched and stitched.  By 11:45pm on Friday, I gave up.  I still wasn’t all the way around….but I was fearing it wasn’t going to line up.

I ended up going to bed and decided on Saturday, I was going to conquer that border….Not the whole thing.  Just get the line I was working on to match up.  Sad news….I stitched some more and crap.  I was off….by two stitches horizontally and two vertically.

Crap. What could I have done? I was so frustrated. So I started counting and recounting. I finally found the mistake and I was going to have to rip out the entire bottom and much of one side. If you’ve ever cross stitched, you know, ripping out takes MUCH longer than putting the stitches in. I remembered to take the picture when I got to the bottom row.  I had actually stitching about two sections on the side already.

I stitched and stitched and stitched.  No joke, I ripped and stitched ALL of Saturday.  ALL of Saturday.  At about 7:30 that night I was this far and realized I was one thread off…I didn’t completely match up but I was okay with it.

Darn it.  I decided I could fudge that.  It happened in the perfect spot to hide the extra thread.  No one (except all of you reading this) will ever know.

I’ve always wanted to spend a whole day cross stitching.  I’ve always wondered how much someone could get done if they stitched all day.  Well…if it’s me, you don’t get far.  I only got a little farther than I was when I started stitching 24 hours earlier.  UGH.

As frustrating as it all sounds, I’ve VERY-VERY happy.  I have border fear.  Border fear is a real thing for cross stitchers.  I always worry that my border won’t match up and I’ll have to do exactly what I did on this project….waste my stitching time correcting a mistake….

So anyway..not only did I take Friday to cross stitch…I took Saturday too!!