Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #8 - Squirrelly

I did it! Another new start and another finish. I was enjoying Wings and Things from the previous week so much that I purposely chose a small chart so I could hopefully finish it and get back to Wings and Things for a finish.

The title of this post has nothing to do with the craziness of the new start binge that Rachel, Annie and I are participating in and Jo has joined in with some Just Nans as well, especially in April.

I chose Autumn Harvest this weekend, a kit that I think I picked up at a small LNS, Battenkill Stitchery, in Sunderland, Vermont, USA. Her shop has a lot of needlepoint and she said most of her shoppers stitch that exclusively. Her cross stitch section had a ton of charts that I didn't have enough time to sort through, but that would be fun given unlimited time.

Since it's a kit, everything is included and here is the finish:

Squirrelly from Autumn Harvest Collection by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 as charted and 2 over 1 for beads

I have a friend from the Cross Stitch Forum that goes by Squirrel, so I'll make this into a card and send it to her for her birthday. Hopefully it will arrive in time, it's in July and she's in Australia.

And I went back to Wings and Things again and it's now here:

Wings and Things by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 with Dinky Dyes Down Under Blues and Kreinik 001 #8

stitched on 28 ct Lugana Haunted

and I think I've moved on in the Wish Ornament since you've seen it last as well:

Wish Ornament by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 on kit fabric (16ct Aida?) as charted

And that's where we're at so far! If I have a good stitching week maybe I can get Wings and Things completed and that would be one less WIP added to the pile. 

I hope you all have had a good weekend and stay safe in the U.S. over this Memorial Day weekend. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness 2020 - May Edition

It's a little past the 15th of the month now... but the fantabulous host Jo gives us till the end of the month, so I have a little time yet. I finally remembered and had time to post today. I hope you've all had a good month despite what is going on in the world. Stitch Maynia started for some, and I'm still working on the new start binge.

Time to talk about what's been gifted and what we're stitching on for gifts, etc. I've had a couple finishes since last time, so here we go:

Love You to the Moon - for DD

 by Waxing Moon Designs

stitched with the CC threads and fabric requested (I hated the fabric)

see more here

Letters from Nora - H - for DD

Letters from Nora S and H

stitched 2 over 2 as charted with CC threads and Kreinik

on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

This is an ongoing project for DD. I have 2 letters completely finished except for the beads. There's one more to go! I started this way too long ago and would like to get it finished this year if possible. S was finished last year. 

Wine a Bit - for a friend

 by Sue Hillis

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct scrap white evenweave

A friend had her 50th bday during this pandemic. The plan was originally that their family was going to Paris, France. She's fairly disappointed, so I made her this card and bought her a bottle of Veuve Cliquot to commiserate. 

Mini Faery Tales - for DD

 stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct beige Aida as charted

I've hit over 8K stitches on this one now, so that's a pretty big step. I was originally thinking I'd hit 20K by now... ha! I'm still happy with the progress and will keep going. 

Princess and the Dragon - for DD

 stitched 1 over 1 (310) on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

This is on Pattern Keeper as well now and it tells me I'm over 60% complete! That's very impressive and I think this year might be out, but maybe a goal of 75% is possible?

I hope you've all had good stitchy days and weeks and please check out everyone else's posts over at Jo's blog. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #7 - Wings and Things

Hello everyone! The new start madness continues for Rachel and Annie and me, so please check out their blogs, linked above, for their new starts as well.

I wasn't feeling like starting any of the projects I had earmarked for this event, so I chose one that's been sitting in my stash for a few years now. I've wanted a good excuse to start it, and even though I didn't pick it on the first go for this, I'm very glad to have started it now. It had the right feeling I needed for stitching this weekend.

I purchased the chart, fabric and threads from Thread & Eye, a now retired LNS in London, Ontario. It was the first store I'd seen that had Dinky Dyes on the wall, and that was a lot of fun to check out all the different colours in person vs. online. I settled on Down Under Blues and had some stash Kreinik for the central spider web. It looks like this so far:

Wings and Things by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 on Haunted, maybe PTP? 

with 001 Kreink #8 braid and Dinky Dyes Down Under Blues

I hope you've all had a good stitchy weekend, whether that's joining in with us or Maynia, or however you enjoy this hobby, happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #6 - Ode to Snowflakes

Time again for another new start. I hope you all had a good weekend. We had snow! Snow! In May! In... Vermont! Okay, maybe it is not unusual after all. :)

I did use the weather to help choose my project and picked this one from Glendon Place with a nice wintry theme:

and the floss toss:

This came kitted with 28ct Cashel linen. I am so done with linen right now, so I chose this 28ct evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy, called Abyss


And after spending a fair bit of time yesterday stitching, hey, it was Mothers Day after all, I have a finish!

Some close-ups of all the beads if you are interested, there was over 350 of them!

Please check out Rachelès blog for her post as well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #5 - Dimensions Wish Ornament Kit

The craziness continues this month as we move into May! Although maybe some of you have your own Maynia plans that are a little more out-of-this-world than these new start weekends? I hope you're enjoying stitching things, which is all that really matters. I try not to create deadlines or "goals" any more for myself.

Whenever deadline stitching comes around I always this of Douglas Adams famous quote

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

I hope you'll check out Rachel's great post on her new start as well, it's one of a series of five she plans to start over these weeks, and this is the first one. 

I shook things up a bit after the last 2 so-called easy starts turned out to be anything but. I decided to pull out a kit I've had for a good ten years or so. At some point I was considering stitching it for my Grandma, as I had stitched one of the others a few years back. It wasn't easy last time, so I was more mentally prepared for a challenge this time. 

This was my start:

I stuck with the kit aida, as stiff as it is, since I thought I might stitch in hand. I ended up going to a q-snap for part of the weekend and managed a good 1200 or so stitches on it. 

I'm debating about sticking with it for a finish, although that's still a good week or so away. It would be nice to finish though. I feel better about how I'm stitching this on than the last one I finished. That seemed more difficult for some reason. I think I kept switching out colours instead of stitching with one colour until I finish it, so that might be the difference. 

I hope you all had a good stitching weekend!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

People's Choice SAL - May 2020 - Fire

It's the first weekend of the month, and that means it's time to post about the chosen topic. This month it's Fire, and please check out everyone's posts over at Jo's amazing blog!

I thought this might be difficult, but I found a few ways to shoe horn in some fire or heat related projects. 

Victorian Tree

 by Mill Hill, stitched as charted, with candles! 

Spooky Halloween

 by Durene Jones, stitched on Icarus - see what I did there? ;)

Finding Happiness

by Circus Stitches and isn't fire a type of light? 

Old Fashioned Tree

by Mill Hill, also candles on this one

Colin Firth

from one of the XS magazines, I forget which one does the portraits and this was sent to me as a single chart from the magazine. And obviously, including because he's hot! :) 

Wash Your Damn Hands

 

by Kincavel Krosses, modified to fit on a towel and including this as a "hot" topic right now

I hope you're all having a good Maynia if you've joined in and a good stitchy weekend all around. I enjoyed shoe horning in these ones, and hope you do too. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch