Oh my word…it happened.  I went overboard!

I’ve been pretty good with my cross stitch stuff.  Of course, I buy more than I’ll ever stitch but in the scheme of things and from what I see on Floss Tube, I have always thought I was pretty good.  Yes, I had extra linen…yes, I had extra patterns…but I always thought I was in pretty good control.

Then not too long ago I was watching Rachel from Needle and Flax.  She is a linen dyer and also has a Floss Tube channel.  She had said in the past that there were shortages of linen.  I mostly heard her talk about 32 count linen.  I don’t use that so thought nothing of it.

Then she started talking about shortages of 40 count linen.  Well, that’s what I stitch on so that got my attention.  Still, I didn’t think a lot about it…but then I decided that maybe I should try to buy a couple of extra cuts of my favorite linen just in case the shortage got worse.

My favorite linen is Vintage Country Mocha (I had two pieces of that so felt okay) or linen from Picture this Plus.  I started looking online and oh my.  There was no Picture this Plus linen to be found.  I ended up looking over the course of a month or so.  I finally found some at Spun Sugar Quilts on Etsy.  I ordered a couple of pieces.  I found the colors Fog and Vellum.  I love Vellum and used it on my Floral Motif Sampler.  I had not tried Fog but I heard a couple of Floss Tubers mention it as one they liked.

The linen came and I thought Fog was a great color.  I went to order another and then saw that they had Legacy which is a color often used by Blackbird Designs.  I had a piece but you guessed it…I ordered another.

About then I heard from yet another dyer on Floss Tube that 40 count linen was hard to find.  AHH!!  I was nowhere near that but the thought of not having linen was one I didn’t like at all.

Well, then I watched Olivia at Pumpkin Hollow Quilts on Floss Tube and she had just finished The Winter is Past by Blackbird Designs.  I just loved hers and she used the called for Picture this Plus Oaken linen.  Darn.  I had lots of other colors but not Oaken.  I ended up calling around trying to find the linen.  No luck.  I decided to call The Attic.  They didn’t have it and then told me that if they order linen from the company Picture this Plus, the wait for linen is about 10 months.  She said they were at about month 5 of their waitlist.  UGH.  In the meantime, I ordered the chart and floss from them.  They told me it would be a bit before they got my order out.

I hunted around trying to find the linen…then… Continue reading →

I had grandkids every single day this week.  YEP, every single day…and two overnights.  That leaves little time for stitching or sewing which is totally okay.  I love the kids and so enjoy time with them…but that explains a bit why I didn’t accomplish as much as I typically might have.

Last week, I was working and trying to catch up on my Blessed Stitch Along piece.  Rather than fill in the pumpkins as I went, I decided to leave them as-is.  Then when I had grandkids and needed to sit with them at naptime, I could fill in a pumpkin without having to worry about counting or changing colors.

That worked out great.  I was able to get three of the pumpkins filled in.  That means I’m officially caught up with the month of April.  I’ve got a start on the May assignment.

I left it here and decided that I’d work on it next week.  I feel better that I’m not behind anymore.  I know it’s not a race but let’s be honest, if I’m hosting a stitch along, it’s a little embarrassing to be behind.  I know you all understand that my life gets pretty crazy and won’t hold it against me…but still, if I’m hosting, I do like to be “on time.”

My hope is to finish this over the next week…or at least by the end of the month.  That way I’ll be ready for the new stitch along.  For those wondering, the new stitch-along starts on June 1st.

I’ve heard that most people already have their kits and are chomping at the bit wanting to start.  I don’t blame them, I’m excited about this too!!  If you missed the info about it, you can find that HERE.

I went back to working on… Continue reading →

Last Friday when I gave you a cross-stitch update, I told myself, I couldn’t work on anything else until I was caught up on the Blessed Stitch Along.  So like a good girl, Friday night I worked on it and got this far…

I did the stems on the white pumpkin, did the leaves and vine around it, and started the next pumpkin.  Two of my leaves are off a stitch but it really doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t affect the design at all.  Life is way too short to fuss about it.

That overnight is when I got really sick and I couldn’t pass off my crappy feeling as anything else except the flu.

So…Saturday when I woke up, I told myself that I felt so crappy that I could stitch on anything I wanted.  So I stitched most of the day on Saturday while I binge-watched Yellowstone.

Any guesses on what I stitched on??  If you guessed… Continue reading →

Have you been stitching along with us?  Judy from Patchwork Times and I have been hosting a stitch along for this Waxing Moon design.  We’re stitching the one on the bottom left.  Judy has been doing awesome…me, not so much.  Judy is doing so awesome as she is already finished.

By request of many of you, Judy and I started a Facebook group.  You can find it HERE.  I’ve had such fun seeing all the work the stitch-alongers have been doing.

Rondalin finished her pillow.  The trim on this is cute!

Carol finished this piece…
Continue reading →