Cross Stitch Update

I didn’t cross stitch much this week and have very little progress to show.  I’ve been making a HUGE push on the garden and outdoor work as the temperature for several days was absolutely amazing.  It’s been cool with little humidity.  Beyond that, it’s the time of the year that if it doesn’t get planted in the garden, it won’t make a crop anymore so that was my other motivation.

I have this other thing about cross stitch…It feels “right” to me to only stitch when it’s dark outside.  If it’s light outside, I feel like I have to be working…Right now it’s about 9 pm when the sun goes down so I don’t start stitching until later.  You all have asked how I get so much done…part of the reason is just what I wrote.  I feel like I need to be productive from the time I get up to dark at night.  I’m totally okay with it but this time of year, my cross-stitch struggles.

Here is where I was last week with Forever and Ever piece by With Thy Needle and Thread.

I am stitching this on 40 count Eureka by Fox and Rabbit.  I love their linen!

The goal for this is also to get it to a complete finish by the end of the month.

Last week I told you that I was going to do the flowers and basket.  My apologies.  I unintentionally lied.  I stitched the house instead.

Here is where I am at…

The house is so cute with the little flowers in front of it.  It was so fun to stitch.

That’s the only thing I got stitched on it though…
I’ll say it again…I think next week I’ll work on stitching the basket with the flowers.

It seems every cross stitch piece I stitch has some sort of “hitch” when it comes to floss.  See the bird on the chart?  It looks very blue to me and I love the look.  Look at the two colors of floss I have pulled.  Those are the called for colors.  BLAH.  The dark one is very teal (Bretheran Blue) and the light green is called Mountain Mist.  I don’t love the colors.  I really want blue like the colors on the chart.  So…I need to figure that out but haven’t had the time to putz and do that.

I’m not keeping up at all on my  Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut.  Here is where I was last week.

I outlined that basket the flower is in and then moved on and started stitching more border.  I left the basket and will leave the flower.  I’ll fill those in when I go to the retreat.  It will be nice easy stitching without worrying about counting.

I keep telling myself that I’ll accomplish more once September hits and I believe that to be true.

I found this little box and thought to put this little piece I stitched from Blackbird Designs on it.

I think it would be a good fit…but I’m unsure about what color to paint the box.  Black, dark red…what do you think?

I didn’t stitch at all on my Red Bird Sampler so have nothing to share there.

Earlier this week I made an announcement about the next stitch along.  It is also called Red Bird Sampler.  It might be confusing for a bit.  HERE is the information on the stitch along.

I’m so excited about this!!!

Before I can even think about that, I have to get my piece for the retreat stitched.  For the retreat at the end of July, stitchers got a kit for an exclusive design from Waxing Moon.  They are cute little Christmas ornaments.  Liz is going to do a little finishing demo at the retreat so I want to have at least one of those finished.  I think it will be the ice skate.  There’s no picture with the chart so I can’t share a picture.

If anyone had last-minute plans that changed, there is still room at the retreat for more participants.  We actually have a low turnout.  Part of me was super sad about that but then I realized that with a smaller turnout, I’ll actually get to know the people much better than with a large group and we should be able to go to eat together more easily.  AWESOME…But…you’re still welcome to join us.  It’s at the end of July.  Here are the details.

As you’re reading this, I’m having a Grandma day with the big boy grandkids…but we’re meeting Kelli and Kayla with their kids and going to Elkador to the Nature Center.  It just so happens that Elkador has a bakery and a cross-stitch/quilt shop.  So believe it or not, we’re going to try to sneak in and check it out.  We’ll have 7 kids with us so wish us luck.  HA!!  I’ll tell you how it all went next week.