Cross Stitch Update

I had a great week of cross-stitch.   As I sat down to write I thought I did pretty well as there was only one night I didn’t cross-stitch.  Then I remember that was the night I went with my daughter Kalissa to the ER to take my grandson in for croup…and I cross-stitched in the waiting room so I guess I can say I was able to cross-stitch every single night.

Before I jump into what I stitched, I have a question from a blog reader.

Connie asked:
“The new Blackbird Designs book has lovely designs! I’m curious about your process when you kit something up for future stitching. Do you get all new threads so you have the complete set with the pattern or do you keep a list of all your threads so that if more than one design uses the same color you can make a note that that color is with another kit? Just trying to imagine how you organize all your threads!”

Hmm.  I rarely buy all new threads for a project.  Most of the time I go into my thread and pull the colors I have then order the rest.  I’ve been stitching for a while so I have a good stash of floss.  These are my fancy flosses.  I have another huge drawer of DMC.

After I am done stitching a project, I faithfully put all the threads back.

I don’t kit a lot of projects way far in advance.  I know some people kit everything with all the threads as soon as they buy the chart.  I don’t.  I might have 8 big projects kitted…which is still way more than I’ll likely get stitched in a year but that is a comfortable amount for me.  Once those are kitted the threads stay with that project until I stitch it and I don’t keep track of the threads that are in the project.

I do like to stitch small seasonal things.  I typically kit a few up as the season rolls around.  I’ve learned a designer often has their favorite go-to colors.  For example this Fall I kitted several Brenda Gervias projects from With Thy Needle and Thread.  There were three Fall projects of hers I thought of stitching.  All of the used:
Oil Cloth
Olive
Oscar

Because of that, I have started selecting three or so projects for the season and putting the thread for all of them on one ring.  I like doing that because there have been times I didn’t like the shade of orange that was called for but had other oranges on the ring and pulled one of them instead.

I probably should worry about it more or be more diligent to keep track of my spending on floss but to date, I haven’t.  It’s something I should probably get better at but for now, I’m okay with it.  I have gotten much better about not insisting I have every called for floss and don’t mind subbing in an alternate thread.  I want to continue doing that.

So here’s what I’ve been stitching.

Here is where I was last week on my project We Live in Hope by Blackbird Designs.  I am stitching this on a 40-count Picture this Plus linen called Legacy.

I worked on the bands that go across the piece.  I am just loving stitching on this.  I’m so excited about it and am truly enjoying it.  When I was stitching on Come to the Garden I just didn’t have the excitement.   This one, I really have it for.

I am using all of the called-for colors.  My hope is to get the alphabet rows finished and then move on to another part.  If I concentrated only on this, I really don’t think it would take me a long time to finish.  It’s been smooth sailing as I’ve been stitching.

This is the tribute piece for my grandparents that came from Sweden.  I’m going to stitch the bigger motifs on the bottom, figure out how to personalize it, and then stitch in some smaller motifs to fill in the space.

I continued working on my Christmas stitching project.  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 was stitching this …on a scrap of linen that was labeled as Ale by Picture this Plus.  I used the Belle Soie silk in the color Cranberry.  This is where I was last week.  I had made some mistakes and was improvising my way through it.

I ended up finishing it.  Then I pulled the Merry Christmas piece.  I had the “Merry Christmas” already stitched but finished the other part.

I ended up getting both of these finished into pillows.  I didn’t get the finished pictures yet.  I’ll put that together for an upcoming blog post.

I also did some other simple stitching of initials that I’ll tell you more about in an upcoming post as well.

The other project I put time into was Heartstring Samplery Apostle’s Creed.  I am stitching this on 40-count Thornfield by Needle and Flax.  It called for Harvest Basket by Gentle Arts but I am using Trail Dust by Classic Colorworks for the lettering instead.  Here is where I was last week.

I told you that I am loving my piece We Live in Hope…I am equally loving this.
My goal has been to stitch one line of the alphabet every week and I did that.  I was also able to stitch two of the crowns and do a little more with the flowers along the top.  If I can keep this pace, I’ll get it done even though it’s not a fast pace.

Here is where I ended the week.  I’m enjoying this so much.  I’ve LONG wanted to stitch this piece and it’s finally happening.

After I finished the two Christmas pieces, I found this when I was sorting through the drawers in my Martha Washington cabinet.  I had started this on a fabric I wasn’t really impressed with.  I ended up restarting it on this

I am not going to stitch the very top vine…just from the basket down.

As I was looking at this, something looked off.  I was stitching this in the waiting room at the hospital look what I did!  I am spelling needed wrong.  UGH.  I’ll have to rip that out.

I also took time to kit this.  Once the above piece is stitched, I am starting this one.  I’m going to leave off the candy cane and make the nose on the deer black.  I’ll leave it out all Winter.  I’m hoping this is a quick stitch.  I have so many projects going on now so who knows?

I am gearing up for my New Year, New Start stitch along.  I know many of you are stitching along with me.  I got my kit from Stitchery Nook.  They can still get a kit together for you if you want to join in on the fun!

I got looking at it all and decided that I think I am going to substitute the linen.  I have a piece of Dirty Teacup by Needle and Flax.

I laid everything out together and I like the Dirty Teacup more than the linen that came with the kit.

So…Dirty Teacup it is…

Starting on this is only a weekend away!!  Whoot.  Whoot!!  I’m so excited to be stitching this.  We’ll just be stitching 1/4 of it every quarter of the year.  It’s doable as the sampler isn’t huge.

Here is a suggestion of how you could break it down but feel free to do it however you like.  I’ll likely stitch the border first.

I ended up taking the linen from the kit and am stitching the snowman/deer piece on it.  I never mind subbing in different linens.

That’s the news from my cross stitch needle…I’ll catch you next week with more stitching news.