Winter Cross Stitch Camp 2023

I’ll be joining in Winter Cross Stitch Camp with ColoradoCrossstitcher (Sheri).  You can find the parameters of the Camp challenge at her website for her shop ColoradoCrossstitcher.com at this link.  No need to buy anything – the challenges she does are always broad enough that so many things fit into them which makes it fun and I knew as soon as she announced it what I would stitch and it would all be from stash.  But go to the link for details and suggestions on various types of series because it does not need to be a series of charts like I’m picking from.  And you will also find the ashtags to use on Instagram.  She also talks about it in her latest flosstube.

It starts tomorrow and the theme is “series.”   As you know I’ve been stitching the Lizzie Kate stockings.  I have two of them done and one more started.    Here’s a peak at the charts.  It was getting dark outside so I had to snap a quick shot of them to post my start tomorrow on Instagram because it will be too dark by the time I get home.

On the top chart on the left  – 2013 stockings – I have already stitched the top one (Twas the Night) and the middle one (Noel).   I also have a small start on the chart pack just under it, the middle stocking where you can see two deer.   I will stop working on that one for the time being and start a new one for Winter Camp – the bottom one on the 2013 chart called ABC Christmas which looks like a sampler with the alphabet letters scattered around on it and some motifs.

So here’s where I am tonight showing the two finishes and that third start and tomorrow when I get home I may get started on the ABC Christmas. They stitch up really quick and have till the end of the month to get it stitched so I may just continue to work on my Sunday Stitch, All Bundled Up, and its snowman of never-ceasing white fill in.  I’ve been working on filling in the snowman since Sunday and at this point I really just want to get that all done.

Or I may need to start on the stocking tomorrow night to save my sanity and get a break from the rows and rows of white on that snowman.

8″ of snow

Rumor has it we got 8″ of snow between late Friday night and this morning.    The guys who do the snow removal for the apt bldg came thru and snowblowed the sidewalk a little bit ago.   I’m hoping they come back to shovel the cement slab outside my door but they have not been real good about doing that.  I can do it – I just am having a pj day so not dressed to do it.  It looks like they remembered to do the steps that go around the side of the building so that’s more important.

Yesterday I got the quiche made in time for dinner which was yummy (ham/broccoli/mushroom/onion quiche).  Cleared out the bananas in the freezer and made banana bread – which was a little disappointing.  I normally make banana bread using butter but I was out of it (or so I thought, I found some in the back of the freezer after I made the bread) so I found a recipe using oil.  I don’t use butter for much but there are a couple things I make that I use it in and banana bread is one of them.   Recipe I used is with oil is definitely not as good as my usual one (note to self – watch for butter sale and restock).  Too much oil in it compared to flour, etc I think.  I have some quiche heating up in the oven at the moment for lunch today which is smelling good.

Here’s what I stitched on last night – got all the words finished on Three Things.  Thre’s a little arrow that goes at the end of the second line.  So I’m happy with my changes o make it just four lines of text instead of eight and how my centering turned out.  I may make one little tweak to it but will wait to decide that later.

A Snowy Saturday – 1-28-23

It’s snowing – my computer weather bar tells me “heavy snow soon”. I don’t remember what the last forecast was as to how many inches we might bet today but I think it was supposed to snow off and on all day and we could get 3″ – 6″. It’s a pretty snow to look out at but its 17 (feels like 10 with wind chill) so I’m glad I only have to look out at it and not go out in in! Brrr. I just cranked the heat up a notch.

Last night was of course my usual Friday nite, stay up really late, stitching and I finished the second of  the seven little stockings I want to stitch and got a small start on the third one.  This is Twas the Night (for obvious reasons).

Flora McSample 2013 Twas The Night Stocking – S1-25-23 / F1-27-23

I just cannot get a good photo of this fabric – is more tan over all with pretty mottling.   The kit embellishments for this chart were the red beads around the edge of the wreath and the cute little angel charm to hang in the center. Here’s a close up of the charm.

I have one more to do from this particular chart but decided I wanted to start one from one of the other charts so just have a few top of stocking border lines stitched so nothing exciting to show yet.  I’ve been asked where I got the charts and thought they might be hard to find (they were when I was looking for them) and I didn’t know if they would be restocked anywhere since they were from 2013-2017, but I got a notice from 123Stitch yesterday that at least two of them that were out of stock were restocked so if you are looking for them, you may want to look there.

Don’t know what I’ll stitch on later today – I may put the stockings aside for a bit and pull out Cardinal Points. But first, I’ve been hungry for quiche again and I think some banana bread to go with it might be tasty so I may have to get busy in the kitchen.

As I was adding the latest stocking finish photos to my 2023 finishes page, I realized that in addition to things I have stitched on but not yet finished, in January I had started and finished the stitching on these five projects.  A very good stitching month indeed; I did decide that I will finish the crow sampler in some other way rather than that frame it is shown with.

The Home chart re-adoption has ended and I have commented on that original post and emailed the lucky recipient Sherry (we have several Sherry’s that are blog readers so check your email to see if you got an email from me).  Carol, I will pass along the mailing address once I receive it.  Thanks again for re-homing the chart.

Little stocking ornaments

I came across this chart one day and instantly loved them.  What’s not to love about tiny stockings to use as ornaments, especially when they are done sampler style.  They are old charts from Lizzie Kate so I had to do some hunting to see if they were even still available since Lizzie Kate is no longer an in operation design company but I got lucky.

New stocking charts were release for a couple of years and then a random stocking in with some other smalls so I think I have the charts for all seven different stocking designs.   I started and finished the first one this week – the Noel one – and have started on the one with the wreath.  The charts each come with some little bead and button packets.  On the stocking below, there are beads in the top sections to represent the berries.  I put in a quick running stich to outline where the seam line should go when I finish it and I will use that as a general guide to make a plastic template for finishing.

I know I say it about nearly everything I stitch but this was really fun to stitch and very quick too.

Crow’s Corner finished

Here’s my finished stitch of Crow’s Corner.   I haven’t decided yet if I will put it in this 6″ frame I had on hand – it’s a wee stitch – or if I will finish it some other way, but I love all the color changes I made.

Crow’s Corner S1-7-23 / F1-22-23

 

A Hop off the wagon for a second

Well, you know my goal for 2023 is not to buy any cross-stitch supplies.  Here it is, January 21, and I had to quickly jump off the wagon as it was still moving, order something, and then run to catch back up to the wagon and hop back as it was trundling down the road.  I was watching the latest flosstube  for Justkeepstitchin’ (Pam & Steph for those in the know) and they showed a chart they received from a designer (JBW) at a recent retreat they attended and it was just the absolutely perfect chart for a special gift. The chart is being sold exclusively at Keepsakes for a limited time and they have created an online shop (they are a brick and mortar shop  in Sharonville, Ohio, not a full online shop) to make available only things exclusive to their shop. You can get all the info from their Justkeepstitchin’ flosstube #284, skip ahead to probably about 50 minutes in (I don’t remember the exact minute) if you want to get all the scoop on the chart – where/how to get it and how long it’s available for sale, etc.  I don’t plan to hop off again anytime soon but I simply could not pass this up.

 

We have a repeat FCA today.  This chart was originally FCA’d previously by Carol P. and she has stitched it and asked if I wanted to do a FCA on the blog and then she will send the chart on to the next adopter.  Here is Carol’s finished stitch and it’s lovely.  Green – you know I love green – so even her frame is perfect.

Here’s the chart cover image so you know what to do if you are interested in this FCA. I will get the mailing address from the recipient and pass that on to Carol and she will mail out the chart.  Thanks Carol!

 

As for my stitching progress last night – 

 

Here’s the reminder of what the original chart looks like. Last night I finished the flowers and leaves in the pot and added the owl. Got the squirels done and changed the pumpkin one of them is holding to an apple.  Right border is done and I’m currently working on the top border – which you can’t tell for the image but there’s three rows – each one a different color, making up that border.  I’ll get all the borders done and then decide if I’m going to put those background larger x motifs in but I’m pretty sure I will leave them out.

Friday nite stitching – 1-20-23

So here is where I was when I posted my progress on this project on Wednesday.  House done – started the pot of flowers; I still am undecided if I’ll go back and stitch in the windows but I probably will.

So in addition to changing up the colors, I clearly decided to change up part of the design as well since I didn’t stitch the pot as charted.  There should be a double row of zig zags – one above the one I did but I got carried away filling in the black and by the time I noticed it decided I could just make a design change so continued the way I had started.  So it looks like I have one row of zigs and little flowers on top of each point.

I also added more colors to pot which were supposed to be back and maybe a brownish color – drab.  I like my Spring looking pot.  The color around the crows I picked was Sockeye.  The called for was a very carrot orange but to me the chart looked more coral/pinkish so this is exactly what I was looking for.  I think I should be able to get the rest of the motifs done tonight and start on the borders.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Another damp and gray day but that’s winter in Wisconsin.  It rained yesterday and it’s just very overcast today so far.  But I’m not really complaining – there is no snow (or ice) on the sidewalks, or anywhere really except for maybe a snowbank in a parking lot that hasn’t completely melted.  When other places in the country are getting massive rain and snow, I’ll be content with gray and overcast days.

First up, I got the fabric I ordered from a new dyer, Cedar River Linen and Design that I had ordered in the latter half of December when she opened her new business – cedarriverlinen.com.  It is very pretty and has the lovely soft hand that I like since it’s a Zwiegart base.

Two of them are 18 count and two are 20 count.  The colors are very pretty – the one on the bottom is not a bright white – the flash is messing with that but you can check out the colors on the website if interested. And just a heads up to anyone who may be “scent” impaired (I’m allergic to practically anything scented), this does have a mild scent which I’m hoping will dissipate if I just leave it out in the sewing room to “get some air.”   I did email the dyer a nice note about the lovely fabrics I received, and mentioned possibly adding a note to the website that the product she uses is scented would be helpful to those with allergies like me.  I got a very quick response thanking me for my note, that the scent is in the linen rinse she uses after dying and may look into if that product is available unscented. So if you want to support a new dyer, check out the website there are a couple other colors that I didn’t get but she was so inundated with orders when she opened her website (good for her, another small business woman off to a good start) that her wait times are 4-5 weeks until they get caught up and this is noted on the website.

I do have plans for two of those fabrics – tho I won’t be starting them soon since I’ve got more than enough projects going at the moment and a couple I want to start sooner rather than later.

The rusty sort of color is called Red Cedar and I’ve been waiting for the right fabric to come along to stitch this Scarlett House design.

I think that one will be perfect.  I think I will likely change the tan and white colors of floss in the chart to something else tho – maybe add some of my favorite gold or who knows what other colors might look good on that fabric. Then again, I haven’t actually looked at the flosses used yet in reality so I may like them when seeing them pulled because they do not always look like the chart cover. I’m also not loving that row of strawberries so would leave that out.  I love the top alphabet and everything from the heart border down so I may just only stitch that part, who knows.

But when I saw the Red Cedar fabric I knew I had finally found the fabric that I wanted to stitch this design on because that fabric color in the chart is one of the reasons that this chart jumped out at me.  The dark green I am envisioning a one color chart on.

Here is my progress on Winter Birds as of when I put it away yesterday.    The chart is printed on four pages so basically the bird on the right side down to where it ends on my stitching and the branches behind it is one page, the branch with seeds and leaves and second bird head is another page so I’m making good progress but it’s putzy, confetti-type stitching that I need to use my magnetic board and ruler on to make sure I fill in all the random stitches across a row so I put this away last night and picked up  an easier stitch to work on last night.

I pulled out Crow’s Corner (Scarlett House) and finished off the bricks, the mortar, window with shutters, door, roof and started that basket.

Now – speaking of scented stuff – I have something scented that I would like to pass on since I can’t work with it.   Xjudesigns also uses a softener on their dyed stuff that is scented. This scent is much stronger than the other dyer and although it sat out  to “air” before I tried to use it, and it’s been sitting in a canvas project bag for over a year rather than plastic, it still bothers me even if I only work on it for a short period of time so not worth it to try to continue.

So I have two FCAs today,  FCA#1 (and in your comment you should just refer to them as FCA#1 or FCA#2 if you are interested in adopting them – all other FCA rules apply which can be found at the tab at the top of the blog) is for the Xjudesign floss that came in the kit, the Xjudesign  aida which is 14 count Marbled Pointer, and the canvas project bag that has an image of the chart on the front.   YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE THE CHART – Cardinal Sampler was a Twin Peaks Primitive Limited-Edition design and not available for purchase now.  As to the fabric – you can pick out what I stitched if you want to use the whole piece  or cut off the area I stitched on, toss it and there is still enough for a small or two  on the remainder of the fabric (so if you want to try this dyer’s aida this is a good way to do it for free), the flosses (which I didn’t get a good photo of all the colors)  you could easily substitute them into projects or smalls .

And canvas project bag front looks like this – its a nice large bag with zipper top.

As for the FCA#2 – it is an entire limited edition kit (minus the needle minder that came with it) for another Twin Peaks project (bought when I still thought the Xjudesign scent would dissipate over time and it does not (or at least not enough for me to work on it).  Here’s the chart image – a lovely patriotic sampler.

The one thing I would definitely change (just from looking at the chart image) about this sampler is in the middle on either side of USA there are lion-ish sort of looking motifs but the front half in white doesn’t show up in the chart.  However, that being said the fabric included in the kit is Xju Summer Khaky which is a darker fabric so the white will probably show up really well on that.

So FCA#2 includes the chart, the Xju fabric, flosses, canvas project bag with the chart design image on the front, and even the matching floss drops to put the floss on.

Edited to add – fabric for this is 16 count.

EDITED 1-18-23 AT 5:24 pm  – FCAs have now ended.  Congratulations to Sherry Bobak (FCA#1 recipient) and Pam B (FCA#2 recipient).   I have both of your addresses so will get those out in the mail next week!

Winter Robins

The Winter Robins are coming to life.  There are about 12 different colors that make up the robin.  One robin done (well except for a bit of the tail that is printed on a different page). The fabric I chose for this one is Fabric on a Whim in Silver Fox.

Sunday – 1-15-23

After straightening all the floss yesterday, I did get a start on Winter Birds.  Much easier to find substitutes for the called for flosses when all the not currently being used flosses were back where they belonged.   I didn’t take a photo of it tho since I was mostly working on branches in the background and a lot of confetti stitching.

I did get a couple emails asking about the peg board/hanger the floss is hanging on so thought I would just answer those here.  It’s plastic peg board from IKEA I got probably four or five years ago.  I have two other sections up on the other side of the closet door that holds quilty things.  Very handy indeed.  The other question was what type of hanger the floss on is.  That is a tie hanger.  It has little metal arms that slip out on each side so it could hold a whole lot of ties/belts/scarves, etc. and it can hold a lot of floss.  I could actually put twice as much on it since the metal arms on the side against the wall are folded in flat since I didn’t use them.

Since today is Sunday – I’ll pull out a Sunday Stitching project to work on later.  I think I will work on All Bundled Up today.  This is where I left off the last time I worked on it.

Haven’t decided if I will finish the hat and work on the cardinal on top or if I will do some of the snow fill in.