I was changing some decorations around. I finally went to the basement and got the box of Valentine decorations. It was a small box as I don’t have a lot but in there were three Valentine cross stitch pieces that I made last year.
It made me so happy to put them out in my dough bowl.
These were all freebies. I stitched the Valentine with the lace in 2020 but finished making it into a pillow last year. I think it was a Lizzie Kate design. HERE is the link for that one. The other two are from Primitive Hare…also freebies. You can find them HERE. For those, you will need to scroll through the page to find them.
Well, that got me thinking that I don’t have any cross stitch pieces in my piece on the dining room table, alas. Then I remember that I’m really not focused on stitching anything right now. I’m kind of all over the place floundering. So…wouldn’t that be a perfect time to squeeze in a few other small Valentine pieces??
So Friday after Gannon went home, I pulled out a Valentine freebie from Hello from Liz Mathews. You can find the chart HERE. I sat down and started stitching. I watched one floss tube while I stitched. I got this far.
That evening I sat down to stitch again. I got to my stitching chair at about 7:15 pm. I started stitching and before I knew it, I had stitched it. This will be turned into a pillow.
I had more time so I pulled out another freebie. This one was from Hands on Design. They have lots of Valentine freebies. You can find “Love you More” HERE. This will become a pillow too.
Can you believe the same night I pulled yet another one to start?? This one is also a freebie from Plum Street Samplers. You can find this freebie HERE.
I stitched until I was out of thread…it was about 9:55 pm and I decided that was a good spot to stop for the night. Right now when you look at what I stitched, it looks like it’s going to say 1930 something. It won’t. The 3 will become an 8…for 1986, the year Kramer and I got married. I’m a little nervous to do the sewing on this to turn it into a stocking but…I’m not going to fret and just do it.
Well…the next night I sat down to stitch and ugh. My plans changed. I didn’t leave enough room for this to be a stocking. AHH!! See the bird and the toe end of the stocking?? There is not enough room.
I took the piece out of the hoop and realized what I did. I started stitching from the wrong orientation. I should have started at the left and stitched down to the right. BLAH. Then I looked closer and decided that I was just going to make it into an ornament instead. It’s no biggie. I have some keys and will likely attach a key to the bottom. It will all work.
After that revelation, I stitched this one…it is another Hands on Design Freebie. You can find the freebie HERE.
My weekend goal is to get all of these finished and in my decor to enjoy. Hopefully, they will all come together okay.
I know I’m not going to have a chance to enjoy these a lot this year but…I remember how happy I was to open the box this year and have these to put out. Next year, I’ll have that same joy…totally worth it!
I also stitched on A Changed World. Here is where I was last week… My goal was to get the border done so I could take it with me the next time I go to The Stitchery Nook and get a frame ordered.
I got over to the right side and UGH. I am one thread off. Hmm. I’m so frustrated. I looked all along the right side and don’t see anything wrong. I decided to fill in the white flowers on that side with the hope that maybe as I stitched in the flowers, I might catch the error. Nope. I didn’t find it. Now I am going to REALLY inspect the left side and see if I can find the error.
To be honest, even if I do find it, I don’t know if I’ll go back and fix it. Being it’s only one thread, I can easily fudge that and no one will know. I would like to find the error though so I don’t use whatever side it’s on as a reference point to start any other stitching.
This is where I ended. I never did find the one thread that I am off. It’s okay.
Remember I wrote my blog post about learning to fudge and that I don’t stitch perfectly…this piece is going to be another example of something stitched that’s not perfect!! If you missed my post on fudging, you can find it HERE.
I ended up pulling out my All Creatures Great and Small. Here is where I was with that last week…
I stitched a bit more on this. The color in the bottom photo is terrible. Everything is more colored as in the photo above. Now I’m at the point where I need to decide on the red color.  The called for red is a little pinkish. I have seen Lori Holt and Cynthia for Stitching in the Light both change the red to more of a red than a pink/red. I messaged Cynthia and she used Anchor 20. Lori Holt used DMC 347.
This is Anchor 20.
This is DMC 347.
My house is more antique-y so I decided to go with the Anchor 20…so I ordered some. I’ll just stitch on something else while I wait for that floss to come.
That color will be used in the barn and on the flowers on the outer border.
Here is where I left off on All Creatures Great and Small…
I didn’t get a lot done but some progress each week is all I’m looking for. Little by little, I’ll get a finish.
I debated about stitching something that was one-colored as Colorado Stitcher is hosting a Winter Cross-Stitch Camp. People who want to participate are supposed to stitch a project that only uses one color. The goal is to start in on the 1st and finish it on the 28th. I ended up not starting anything, yet. I have a project in mind…just haven’t started, but now it’s late enough that I don’t know if I will.
This coming weekend is “Blackbird Weekend”. Many stitchers work on a Blackbird Design piece over that weekend. I have one piece that has a tiny little start on it and I think I am going to pick that back up and commit to stitching it the first weekend of every month. I’d love to get some progress on that as I have a goal to stitch that over 2022.
Oh, my word…I think I need to put some type of limit on myself. Only this popped up too…
Remember I told you my daughter Kayla caught the stitching bug?? Well, did she ever. She ended up ordering this pattern and the things to make it. This is Consider the Lilies by Heartstring Samplery. This piece is HUGE…and very densely stitched. So…Kayla is wondering if I wanted to stitch along with her.
I do…but oh my. This is a bigg-en. I’ve always wanted to have this one stitched. It is on my bucket list. I actually have the threads already…so, I think I’m going to stitch it. The called for is 28 count but I think I’ll be stitching on my tried and true 40 count. Being the piece is so big, I would rather stitch on 40 count as I don’t have the wall space for something huge and it would be huge if I stitched it on 28 count.
Happily, Kayla is new to cross stitch so maybe I can keep up with her?? We’ll see. I’m making no commitment to have this stitched in 2022…hopefully I can finish it sometime in 2023 though.
I so enjoyed stitching on The Floral Motif and this reminds me of it a bit although there is more symmetry in this one.
I hate having too many projects going so hopefully I can buckle down on A Changed World and finish that being that is the closest project to a finish.
Who knows…all of my plans might change before the next week. I’m not one who is good with keeping my cross-stitch plans.
Your cross stitch is amazing! Because of you, I have fallen in love with small sampler-type patterns for the walls of the rv. As for the fudging on the one, I’ll bet if you hadn’t mentioned it, no one would notice ;-)
Love and prayers
Such cute valentine finishes, they will look great in your dough bowl. I cant get over how much detail is in the one that Kayla is going to work on, wow!
Jo, the least of your co.cerns is your crafts. You have family and from everything you write family comes 1st last and always. So plans can change so fast. By the way how are Eli and Emmet doing. Praying for all of you.
How fun to have made all those little cross stitch projects. Your dough bowl looks so nice! You always do such a great job of decorating and finishing projects.
Oh my Jo you sure get a lot stitched. Will I be addicted too? I got my strong readers for the Blessings SAL and kit. Anything else I need to do before we start? I have a lap hoop and a handheld hoop.
Beautiful! Here you are not feeling 100% and you are still stitching and creating. As for fudging, no one would ever know! The other day I was watching a flosstube video in which the person admitted she doesn’t work on a quilt project or stitch if she knows she can’t make it “perfect”. How sad. I’m with you…enjoy the stitch, enjoy the journey…perfection is overrated. Stitch on and continue to feel better!
I love the photo of you holding “Always” with Rosie snuggled in on top of the quilt the child care kiddos made for you. It looks like you are surrounded by love, both now and always.
Well thank you, Jo. I just downloaded a good amount of freebies! How fun! Still waiting on the Blessings pattern. Looking forward to stitching some smalls. How you’re feeling better each day, you and the little ones. Take care
As Brenda says “stitch what you love”. The Hubs and I are heading to Florida for his work conference and I wanted something easy that I could stitch in any light and without magnification. So I went to the “Magical Cupboard” and pulled out the “Tier 1 have fabric” project charts and pulled 9 charts. I kitted all 9 and have started 7 of them so far this week. One is even a red sampler. I will make my final decision of 3 or 4 to take along later today when I pack. I am bored with over dyed threads on over dyed linen so all the charts I pulled are DMC on 28 ct linen. It is so much fun. I had forgotten how beautiful good, old plain cotton floss and plain linen can be. All the charts are from older magazines. It is so satisfying to be working down that bucket list.
As Brenda says, “stitch what you love”. The Hubs and I are heading to Florida for his work conference so I wanted to take along something easy to stitch without magnification and lighting. I went to the “Magical Cupboard” and pulled the “Tier 1 have fabric” charts and kitted up 9 charts. I even pulled a red sampler! I’ve started 7 so far and hope to get #8 started today. I will decide which 3 or 4 to take when I pack. I am bored with over dyed floss on over dyed linen so all are DMC on 28 ct linen. I had forgotten how beautiful good, old, plain cotton floss on plain linen can be. It has been so much fun. All the charts are from older magazines and it has been very satisfying to work down the bucket list. Other than Christmas ornaments, I’ve never been a smalls stitcher but I may have to revisit that after seeing your collection. But given the choice, I’d rather work on Kayla’s big sampler than a bunch of smalls. My fingers are beginning to itch to stitch.
Those are some cute finishes you have there and I’m looking to see how you finish them. I’m doing the one color project (Alphabet En Blanc) and have had to rip out parts of the border so many times already since I began on the 1st. Last night I found an error in the pattern and I started ripping out before I thought of just leaving it as it didn’t affect anything else. Oh well…what’s one more time ripping out? lol Hopefully this is the last one and then the border will be done and it should go better after that!
I love all your stitching!!! Take care!!!
jo, you do beautiful work.
I use to Xstitch a lot many years ago and watching you has me wanting to pick up the needle again. Thank you for connecting us to so many free smalls today. No matter how I tried I wasn’t able to get the link for the Hands On Design Love YouMore to work. Oh, well. Plenty of other things to focus on. Be Well and God Bless!
I used to Xstitch a lot years ago and watching you has me itching to pick up the needle again. Try as I might, I was unable to get the link for Love you more to work. Oh, well. There is plenty other pretties to focus on. Be Well & God Bless!
Jo I always keep my Valentines bowl fillers and wall hangings up until March some time. Just so I can enjoy them and plus don’t we need to share Love all of the time? Thanks for sharing all of the links for the freebies. I am hoping to stitch some more smalls. . .
Also have you seen the Lori Holt Vintage Housewife sampler at FQS? I just started it and, although it’s not your usual style, I think it would look great in your kitchen with the red countertops. I did color changes on mine-I’m using 30s fabrics and colors as my guide-but it would probably be a quick stitch for you!
Jo, i usually keep my Valentine bowl fillers and wall hangings up until March. That gives me more time to enjoy them and also don’t we all need more love?? Thank you for showing your smalls and giving the links to the free patterns. I’m very slow at stitching so I’d like to try some smalls.
Also have you seen Lori Holt’s Vintage Housewife sampler at FQS? It is so cute and I think it would go great in your kitchen with your red countertops. I changed up the floss to match some 30s fabrics. I bet it would be a quick stitch for you.
I am not a cross stitcher, but my cousin did extraordinary cross stitch. She had a method for marking the center of her project with a vertical and horizontal line and then counting up and down and sideways from the center. I never heard her mention ripping out because I think that technique kept her aligned and on count.
She was so caring and intuitive. She was a good listener and not afraid to offer help or advice when needed. She died of cancer last April and I miss her so much.
So sorry to hear of your loss, Sandy. It’s very hard to lose people we love. Perhaps you could give crosstitch a try as a way to remember her? There are so many lovely smalls. Anyway, just a thought. Take care.
Hi Jo I’ve been scratching for several years but it has been. Just in the last year that I’ve worked on fabric other then aida. I’ve worked on 28 & 18 count linen but nothing larger. I would like the link you use to purchase the corner block to figure where to start on the fabric and also the needles and thread to use on different fabrics. I believe you had that information on one of your blogs but I can’t find it. I used to live in Riceville Iowa for 8 years prior to moving to California. I now live in Utah due to the passing of my husband. XStitch keeps me happy and I enjoy it very much. I e would be so glad to hear from you