All Set for Summer Reading

Not cross stitch related, but definitely hobby related. Our local hospital's Auxiliary holds an annual book sale every June and it's huge! On the last day of the sale, the price is a flat rate of $5 for a yard of books. It's one of my favorite events of the year. Here's my haul from this year, books for both myself and the kids.

Last Month's Stitching

I've been working on the same project for the past month or so, a new start for my boss at work, who is currently out on maternity leave after having her third child. The theme of the baby's room is elephants and I found this perfect Dimensions kit - Baby Elephant ABC. The design is so cute and I swapped out the Aida for a cream evenweave. It's been a pretty quick stitch so far. Most of the elephant is complete and I'm getting ready to start the ABCs next. I think I'm going to leave out the stripes in the background from the original design - I don't think they really add anything and it will save me some time.

I love the color palette in this design, especially the turquoise and tan! It has a more modern feel than some other kits. I also love the presorted floss card. I wish Mill Hill would do that for their kits.

2015 Finish - Wedding Gift

Here's a finish from September 2015 - Heart in Hand's "Mr. & Mrs." - a gift for my cousin's wedding. It's stitched on 28 ct. tea-dyed Monaco with the called for overdyed threads. I finished it by mounting it to a regular artist's canvas from Michael's. You can't see it in the pictures, but I trimmed the edges with a burlap ribbon, the same ribbon I attached at the bottom of the framed piece (to offset my off center mounting, but I think it worked). It really matched her rustic/country-themed wedding. I actually took these pictures at the wedding since I forgot to take any before we left! It's sitting on the gift table in front of the burlap-covered box they used as their card box.

Christmas Ornament Finish

This ornament - "Christmas Morning" from the 2012 JCS Christmas Ornament issue - is deceptively simple looking and yet, it kicked my butt not once, but twice. I started this ornament over a year ago and there was a major mistake in the border, which I started to tear out, but set aside. I picked it up this past Saturday and decided to try again. So I tore out most of the border and started stitching it again. But when I got to the bottom of the border, it didn't match up and there was another mistake in there somewhere. It took me forever to find it, but when I finally did, I thought, "There is no way I am tearing this border out again!" So I purposely made the same mistake on the bottom of the border that was messing up the top and all is well. I don't think anyone would notice it unless I point it out, so I went on to finish the rest of the ornament on Sunday.

Fast Finish

I think this is the fastest amount of time I have ever started and finished a single cross stitch project, especially one that's a bit larger than just an ornament or a Mill Hill kit. On Friday evening, January 29, I started "Alsatian Redwork Heart" from the February 2016 issue of Just Cross Stitch. I worked on it quite a bit over the weekend and just a little bit during the week, and then again the following weekend. By Super Bowl Sunday, I was very close to finishing it and was able to complete it on Thursday, February 11. While it's not framed yet, I never thought I would finish it before Valentine's Day and I have a red wooden frame waiting for it. This project was relatively frog-free for me and I liked the variegated DMC floss. Not having to change colors really made for some speedy stitching! Stitched on 28 count evenweave with DMC 115 variegated garnet floss.

Blizzard Stitching

Wow! I can't believe I didn't post AT ALL in 2015! Well, what better time to get back on the horse than during a historic blizzard and being snowed in for four days? This is Mill Hill/Sticks "Cherish Family." I started it last year and I think I kept setting it aside because there are so many color changes and the chart was too hard for my now bi-focaled eyes to read. So after struggling with it on Saturday night, I finally had the brilliant and obvious idea to blow up the chart. Things progressed much faster after that! I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday working on the sun in the upper left corner.

Football Stitching Week #1

The NFL season started last Sunday and that means football stitching did, too! An afternoon of mostly uninterrupted stitching. I got off to a slow start, but picked up steam into the evening. My before and after photos include Monday night football stitching, too. I don't know how much I'll get done this week. We had a soccer game for Little H at 2pm, right in the middle of the afternoon, so I haven't even started yet and I wanted to get week #1's pictures posted, too. This is Mill Hill's "Tree Farm" from the Christmas Village collection.

Before:

After: