Cross Stitch Update

I didn’t have much time for cross stitch this week.  I did get a little bit of stitching in every day though so that is a WIN!!  Sometimes it was only for half an hour or 45 minutes but I’m okay with that.

The piece I worked on most is Autumn Alphabet by The Scarlett House.  I am stitching this on a piece of 40-count Heartland by Picture this Plus.  I had thought about giving up on this and pulling it out for next year but our son Buck was here with the kids and they wanted me to watch a movie with them.  I ended up pulling out this and working on the border as I didn’t need to look at the pattern to know what color or where to stitch.  The border pattern is way easy to memorize.

Lucy, my five-year-old granddaughter wanted to stitch with me so I positioned the needle and let her pull it.  She is really good at it and actually has perfect tension.  It was so fun and I loved that I could share my hobby with her.

She helped me finish the border stitching.

Isn’t it a pretty border?

I sat down another night with only a short bit… of time to stitch so I just started on the pumpkin.

I didn’t get very far.  I really love the colors of this and will finish it before Fall of next year.  I’m keeping it out and will work on it whenever I only have a short time to stitch.

I continued working on my Christmas stitching project I had a tiny start last week.  This is Samplers and Primitives project Primitive Christmas.  I’m not sure but I think this is a company that does PDFs only.  You can find it HERE on Etsy.

I am stitching this on… a scrap of linen that was labeled as Ale by Picture this Plus.  I am using the Belle Soie silk in the color Cranberry.  This is where I was last week.  Only two thread lengths were stitched.

I got further this week but WHAT A MESS.  I am all screwed up.  ALL THE WAY.  If you look quickly you can’t tell…and in the end, only someone who compares the chart and my stitched piece will notice.

If you look at the chart you’ll notice that there are two snowflakes above the deer.  I mistook the upper snowflake as being the lower snowflake and stitched the deer in the wrong place.  I didn’t want to rip it out.

So then I had to move the T over…then all of the words moved over.  WHAT A MESS!!  So…I am stitching the words and the outer line of motifs and will then stitch the outer border and fill the center in with some random small motifs but they won’t be in the place they were originally intended to be.  It’s a pain…but it’s all good.  I can see now it would have been MUCH easier to just rip the deer out.  UGH.

If you compare the top picture with the bottom picture of the chart, you can see my error of stitching the reindeer un

This is where I ended up…I’ll keep stitching on this.  It hasn’t soured me on the piece thank heavens.

I had another night with only a little time and I ended up pulling out my Christmas Garden piece.

It is Christmas Garden by Blackbird Designs.  I am stitching this on Flannel Flower by Fox and Rabbit.  I pulled it out and put in a few stitches in September.  I was hoping to do a stitch-along and have it finished by July of next year when we retreaters get back together again.  A few of the other girls wanted to stitch it too.

At the rate I’m going, I will not have it stitched.  I had stitched the border on the left back in September.

The other night when I sat down, I stitched the top border.

You can find the pattern in this book Home for the Holidays.

I am planning on working on this over the weekend.  It’s the first weekend of the month and that is Blackbird Designs weekend.  I will at least make a little progress on this.  My goal is to get around and get the framework of the border to match up.  I always feel better once it does.

Then maybe I’ll go around and start adding some of the details to the border.

A bunch of cross-stitchers worked over this last year and stitched all of the stockings from this book.  I had debated on doing that but didn’t.  Maybe someday.

I’ve been thinking and making plans for the new year as far as cross stitch goes.  I’ll share them all in another blog post.