I had a busy week and stitching didn’t happen for a good chunk of it. I had family here every day this week. I had people overnight or stayed late for 4 nights which limited stitching and brought my progress to a snail’s pace. But I am a firm believer that I’d rather have people time than stitching time.
Before I get to today’s projects I’m answering a request from a blog reader. She had a piece of linen that wasn’t labeled and wanted to know how to figure out what count her piece of linen was. I took this picture to show you how. I put a pin into my fabric. I used a ruler and measured one inch away. Then I counted the linen threads between the two pins. There were 31 threads…I’m sure the pin was placed one thread over and that this is 32-count linen. That’s how you figure out what count your linen is…count the threads in one inch of linen.
I worked on my Apostle’s Creed piece this week. I am stitching this on a 40-count Thornfield by Needle and Flax. It called for Harvest Basket by Gentle Arts for the words but I am using Trail Dust by Classic Colorworks for the lettering instead. Here is where I was last week.
I just did the minimum stitching on this which is one row. You all are likely sick of seeing it.
I am getting really excited about this piece. I have 19 rows stitched and 14 rows left to go. I know I am drawing it out into a long stitch, but so far, stitching all of those letters hasn’t gotten boring for me. It’s making a project last longer and I’m not getting bored with it, I’m all okay with that. I’m starting to get the feeling that this one might end up with a big push to the finish. So many projects I just inch along and then suddenly I put everything into it and push to a finish. I probably have another month on it and then I’m pushing it through. I want to get to the row with the angel!
I’m making a goal to stitch two rows on this over the next week.
My Come to the Garden project by Teresa Kogut got… a little bit of stitching done on it. I am stitching this on 40-count Vellum by Picture this Plus with the called-for colors. Here is where I was last week.
You might remember that I made a commitment to put some thread into this each week. It was okay even if it was a tiny bit…that’s what I did…a tiny bit.
The photo above is the natural colors. Below it’s washed out. I stitched on this one short night. I got the flower with the curlicues done and the two flowers below it. Then I stitched the wings on the bees…that’s it. I’m totally okay with that. It’s slow stitching with lots of color changes and color changes eat time. I’m starting to feel like I’m about half done with this…likely more. Whew. I’m going to keep my goal of just plugging along. It will eventually get done.
Most of my stitching time went into Keeper of the Pins by With Thy Needle and Threads. I’m stitching this on a scrap of Vintage Country Mocha in 40 count. I am using the called-for floss colors. This was my focus project this week. Any extra time I had, I stitched on this.
Last week I was stitching this one…
I ended up finishing it.
Then I stitched this one up too.
The last one left in the book for me to stitch is this one…the one with the buttons. This one shouldn’t be too hard as all I have to do it stitch the simple tomato.
My goal was to stitch all of them from this book before the end of February. It’s totally do-able. Yahoo!!
While I am at it…I think I’m just going to keep going and stitch these other pieces that are stitching-themed. The two are from With Thy Needle and Thread and the paper in the back is from Lila’s Studio and is a freebie. I am not going to push through those like I did the ones above but I’ll be keeping one of those in my stitching rotation until I’m finished with them all. I don’t think either of them will take too long.
Those are the only projects I stitched on. My other projects got ZERO attention. It’s okay. I did shoot a Flosstube video. You can watch it here if you didn’t see it yet. You can hit the play arrow and watch it here or you can save it HERE and watch it later on your television or device.
My Flosstube videos and blog posts don’t necessarily coordinate. I never know when a video will get edited or when it will load so they don’t coordinate.
That’s what I’ve been up to. This week I’m hoping to get some stitching on my Spring Messenger Stitch Along and my Seasons of the Heart Spring. My daughter Kelli is coming tonight and we have a stitching night planned. I’m debating what to stitch on. It sounds like I might have a good chunk of time to stitch. I’m pretty excited about that.
You did a lot of stitching considering how busy you were with family. I truly enjoy watching your pieces grow to completion. Please take care of yourself too.
Maybe it’s just me? I did check my phone and desktop and I am not seeing all of your pictures. As I was reading your blog you mention ‘the photo above’, but nothing is there.
I’ve been having the same problem the last few days (using my laptop). If I refresh the page (sometimes multiple times), I can usually get the photos to appear. But I agree, something is not working like it usually does.
Glad it isn’t just me. I am on my laptop and not all of the pictures are there. I noticed it the other day and just passed it off as my computer. Thanks!
I had the same problem. When I turned off Ad Block I was able to see the photos. That worked for me. Good luck!
I was wondering the same thing about your photos. Noticed it before this post also. Really enjoy seeing every post you do. I often tell my husband of things going on in your life. Thank you for your faithful writing.
Not to be the cross stitch police but there is a selling error in the fort one “deed and buried” above the row of red flowers.
I zoomed in on the picture and it is properly spelled “died and buried”. Thank you for keeping an eye on it… I’d appreciate a different set of eyes on my projects once in a while as well!
It says”died”. I think Jo changed it. Maybe the way her church says the Creed.
YES. You are right.
Chiming in to say that I noticed some pictures were not coming in last week for me.
Teresa F.
You really accomplish so much even though it may not seem like it to you. The Keeper of the Pins is so cute. I’m looking forward to seeing how you finish it.
Hi Jo,
Question: Have you ever tried changing the color of Aida Cloth to look more like linen? I am very new so it will be a long time before I can tackle linen but I don’t like the “boring” Aida colors. I was thinking about dampening Aida in some tea. Do you think it would take out the stiffness?
Hi Mary…One of the reasons I was so attracted to linen is because of the wonderful colors that linen is dyed so I understand what you are saying. I have no experience with this but do know that I have heard people on Flosstube saying that they dye Aida themselves. I know of two Flosstube duos, The Sew and Sews and Linen and Scraps. Both of those Flosstubes have gals that stitch on Aida and it’s always beautiful. You might want to watch them. I was listening to Annie Beez Folk Art on Flosstube and one of her daughter’s stitches on Aida. She was saying that she get dyed Aida from Needle and Flax. That might be an option for you. I am guessing some stiffness will be lost.