Cross Stitch Update

I am at the retreat…  I thought I’d share a few things that happened earlier in the week that are all cross-stitch and retreat related.

When the girls were home last weekend, we made pincushions for all of the retreat attendees.

These are my ort jar pincushions with the Oui yogurt jar on the bottom.  Here is our collection…
If you want to make one for yourself, you can find the pattern HERE.

I bought some pins to put in them.  I put them in while the boys were here.  I had the tote on the dining room table.  I put the pins in like this, thinking they looked cute.

I walked out to the kitchen because Carver was calling me.  I helped him and then went back into the dining room.  Gannon was there near the pincushions.  He said, “I help you Grandma Joey.  I do this.”…he was pushing the pins all into the pincushions.  Oh, that silly boy.  What a “help” he is!!

I went with Kalissa when she took the boys to swimming lessons.  We stopped at the thrift store.  I ended up buying a few frames or things I could use for finishing cross-stitch pieces.

Now that I figured out how to chop saw, I plan to frame stuff myself.  I want to have a good collection of frames so I can find the perfect one when I want to frame something.  I’ve found that religious pictures often have old frames that are detailed…so I’ve been buying those when I see them.

The shelf is actually for dishes but I think I can hang a quilt from it.  I plan to take the cup holder off of it too.

I also got this little picture frame.  Originally I got them at Hobby Lobby.  I bought enough for the grandkids I had at the time…plus a couple of extra just in case I had more grandkids.  Well, I was looking at the shelf the other day and realized I wouldn’t have one for Kalissa’s new baby.  I was sure Hobby Lobby wouldn’t have them anymore and hoped they would at least have something similar.

Well…thrift store to the rescue!  They had one there and I snapped it up.  Now Kalissa’s baby will have a frame.

I really need to update the grandkids’ pictures.  This is my shelf…

Now on to the actual cross stitch…I was busy working on Seasons of the Heart by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread.  I’m doing the Christmas one now…

Here is where I was at.

Can you believe I was wrong on the vine along the bottom and had to rip it out?  I did.

I squeezed in time here and there and got this far…

I’ve been hoping to have a project that I would do quite a bit of fill-in to do while at the retreat.  This isn’t a lot…but some and I’m so happy to be taking it with me.  I’m assuming unless I get really distracted that this might be finished while I am at the retreat.

I only need to finish the border, fill in the house which is completely outlined, and put trunks on the trees along the top.  This has been so fun to stitch.  I want to do the others in the book in the near future as well.

Other projects I’m taking with me to the retreat include…

Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut.  I stopped pouting about this piece long enough to start restitching the top.  I have fill-in work I could do on this while at the retreat too.  I’m not sure I want to stitch on the border. I don’t want to make a mistake on it again.

I plan to finish sometime.  Likely not by the end of the year as I previously hoped…but some time.  I felt so bad when Kayla came home and I was complaining about the piece and the problems I’ve had.  (read about that HERE if you missed it)  Kayla did a lot of work to re-chart the words for me.

Kayla quietly said, “If it’s really frustrating mom, you don’t have to finish it on my account.”  Oh my no.  I am totally going to finish this someday…I’ll keep SLOWLY plugging along on it.

Another project I am taking is my All Creatures Great and Small.  I’d love to get a few more stitches into that.  This one I do have a goal of finishing by the end of the year which means I should really stitch on it if I’m going to get it done!!  The year is over half over!!  Happily, I’m over halfway done!

At this point, I’m pretty confident I can finish this by the end of the year.  I might have to quit getting sidetracked on other things but fall is coming and I always stitch more in the fall.  I am hoping to pick this up and do a little stitching on this at the retreat…who knows.  Maybe it will only be one motif but I’ll settle for that.  I think I want to work on the right side third row down.  There is corn along with words in that section.  The corn here in Iowa is tassling and SUPER tall.  It’s the perfect time to stitch some corn.

If I need some mindless stitching I might work on the border too.  It’s all in place and I have the leaf pattern memorized so I could easily fill that in.

I looked up two projects online both by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread.  I am hoping they are in stock at the Stitchery Nook.  I plan to purchase them both.  I had held off but then caved.

Both are so cute.  I went online and found a shop that listed the thread colors that were needed.  I went through my stash and pulled all of the colors I had then made a list of the colors I don’t have.  I plan to buy these charts while I’m there and get the needed threads.  Aren’t these so cute??  I’ve been seeing people online finishing them and I’d love to have them finished too.  I did see someone use more of a brown for the squirrels and I’m leaning towards that too.  We’ll see.

I’m not a Halloween kind of fall girl.  I’m totally a fall girl with leaves, pumpkins, and thankfulness.  These two charts are more of that kind of fall.  I plan to have a small fall-themed piece going on in between my big samplers all the way through November.

At one point I had planned to write a few blog posts while I was at the retreat but then I decided not to.  I do have my laptop with me in case I change my mind though.  It’s my time away and I want to make the most of it.  There are blog posts for you to enjoy for the entire I’m gone so I left you all in good shape.