2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #55 - Forever & Ever by Cottage Garden Samplings

I suppose you could call me late to the party on these, as they came out a few years ago and many, many people have stitched them. I couldn't decide if I liked them or not really. Then I decided they'd make good pillows and maybe I could make some for my parents. I picked birds that they see often, and decided to start with this one, mostly because I had it about half-kitted up from the LNS I purchased it from. 

My dad's favourite bird is the female cardinal because of the depth of colour it can have, so I wanted to stitch these with the Weeks Dye Works threads they call for. 

I worked on this for a couple days and I've ordered the other threads I need for this one and a couple others, so I'm looking forward to getting back to this at some point. 

Forever & Ever by Cottage Garden Samplings

stitched 2 over 2 on 32ct Lily of the Valley

with Weeks Dye Works as called for

These are definitely not small projects, but the printed chart is massive, and it's been an easy stitch so far. I managed to get a full threadlength in of 3 different colours, plus a little extra of WDW Ivy. 

I'd like to start the others, but I'd also like to have all the threads that I need on hand, so I can be patient. I think I'll pick up something smaller for now. 

Hope it's been a good few days of stitching for you!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #54 - Azure Medallion by Mill Hill

And now for something completely different! Or at least a little different. There's still stitching involved after all. This is the first time I've attempted a full beaded project from Mill Hill. I believe I picked this up from the LNS that was closing in southern Vermont several years ago. 

The tag for sale looks familiar from others from that lot that I picked up a long time ago. This is a great time to start it though, and dare we say, get finished for Christmas? Probably shouldn't jinx it. 

I debated a bit on this after reading over the instructions, and I decided to try and use up all the beads from one bag when I worked on it. There's 3 bags with 2 colours each, so this bag had ice (white) and sapphire. I used a bowl, dumped all the beads into it and ended up using 4 strands of doubled thread to use up all the beads called for from that bag. As is typical for Mill Hills I've done, there are enough beads left to do another 2 or 3 of these I think! 

Here's what 2 colours of beads complete looks like:

Azure Medallion MH21-1912 by Mill Hill

stitched 2 over 1 on perforated paper

with kit white thread and beads

You can definitely see the pattern emerging, so it will look great when complete. This was a few hours of work total, so I don't think a finish would be too difficult to get. 

This kind of made me want to get out other projects to work on, but most of the others aren't fully beaded and something sort of similar with less counting, etc. was where my mind was during that stitching session. So far no changes to my proposed starts besides eliminating a couple that aren't going to be fun to stitch when I actually took time to look at the chart. Too many fractionals, that's my least favourite type of stitching. 

I hope you've all had some good stitching days over the weekend!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #53 - Cobweb Tree by Urban Stitches

I think this is the first pattern by Urban Stitches in this epic year of starts. I still have the massive Starry Night to catch up on, and the pattern is still being released, 3 weeks a month. We get one week off from the pattern release to catch up. I was doing pretty well until I got distracted by other pretty charts. 

So back to the land of backstitch we go with today's start. Eventually the pattern will look something like this:

I know, white on black, not the easiest as our eyes get older, but in general I usually do okay. That seems to be the case so far, and I love how gorgeous this is, but wow, theres's a lot of stitches!

This is after 2 nights of work:

Cobweb Tree by Urban Stitches

Stitched 1 over 2 on black 28ct? evenweave

with DMC perle 12 in B5200

Pay no attention to the specialty cat hair fibre on this project either. :) So 2 nights only got me this much, but it is beautiful and I'll be happy to work on it with good light when I have lots of time. 

Hope everyone had a good few days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #52 - I Can Drive a Stick by Lizzie Kate

Time for another Lizzie Kate! And another fun saying. Her lettering is so much fun to do. I think I actually have 2 copies of this chart, so clearly I like it. 

I found a fun fabric to use in my Chromatic Alchemy stash, and dug out some Gentle Art threads to stitch it instead of just DMC 310. I had a busy weekend, but also needed some relaxation, so managed to get this done over 2 days of stitching. 

I Can Drive A Stick by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Helikonios by Chromatic Alchemy 

with The Gentle Art Sampler Threads in Soot

Clearly Mega Maynia has made me reach for smaller projects. This was another fun finish. At some point I need to track my finishes and WIPs, but no time for that yet, too much stitching to do!

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #51 - Christmas Motif Sampler by JBW Designs

Another repeat designer! This is the third design that I've worked on by JBW, and like the other 2, this one is also a finish. This time I pulled out Christmas Motif Sampler, and the chart looks like this:

I had one more of the Zweigart cloths that I used for the reindeer, and thought this chart would fit well on it as well. Here's my finish!

Christmas Motif Sampler by JBW Designs

stitched 1 full strand over 2 on 18ct Zweigart Tannenbaum

with Silks4U PR111

This was another fun stitch. I enjoyed this one also, and only being one colour means it wasn't very complicated and was more relaxing on my brain. I'm glad I managed to actual count correctly this time and the pattern seems to be perfectly centered. 

Again, this one just needs some interface or other backing and some ironing and it will be complete. Hopefully I'll manage that before Christmas and then I'll have 2 nice mats for either gifts or decoration. 

I hope you've all had some good stitching days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #50 - Unwrap the Joy by Lizzie Kate

I think this is my 3rd Lizzie Kate design in this year of starts. I have a fair few, since they're usually not too expensive and deceptively small, so it seems like you can stitch lots of them. I probably have more to go in the pile? And here we are at the halfway mark! 

The big 50th start is kind of a milestone, but since I started so many larger projects last month, I decided to just keep going. Maybe the 100th start will be something special? We'll see when we get there. 

Eventually this one will look something like this:

Going through my fabric stash is always interesting, like why do I have so many shades of blue and green and not many neutrals? Obviously I tend to buy those colours because they're my favourites, but there's only so many charts that work on those colours. I did find a scrap of fiddler's cloth (I think) and decided to work one over one since 2 over 2 seemed a little weird. Possibly only because I'm used to evenweave. 

Here's my progress photo:

Unwrap the Joy by Lizzie Kate

stitched 1 over 1 on 20ct? fiddler's cloth

with DMC as charted mostly

The beard is charted in Wisper, but that doesn't really work on this small of a count, so I went with DMC 3865 for the beard and sideburns, then B5200 for the cuffs and faint snowflakes. I worked on this a fair bit and only managed this much of it, but it's a decent start. 

Definitely not my favourite fabric and I should have chosen maybe blue for the snowflakes, but it's fine for now and I'll get it finished some time. 

Hope you've all had a good day or two of stitching!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #49 - Moose Be Love by Designs by Lisa

What was I saying about more Designs by Lisa charts? :) Here's another one!

I think this might be a gift for my cousin and her spouse. I usually stay with them when I visit my hometown and he loves moose. They even have a big metal moose head sculpture. Much better than an actual moose head. My undergrad had one, so weird. 

My Chromatic Alchemy FOTM stash is pretty vast, and I think I found the perfect outdoor type fabric for this one. Here's my start: 

Moose Be Love by Designs by Lisa

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Aventurine by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC threads as charted

I'm debating about putting their wedding date on this somewhere, but haven't decided if it fits or not. Maybe in tiny backstitch underneath? I like the dimensions of it, so didn't want to expand the border, but haven't decided what I want to do yet. There's still time! 

I hope you've had some good stitching days, and suggestions always welcome!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #48 - If Nothing Ever Changed by Designs by Lisa

I thought I had already posted about this chart, so sorry there was a longer gap than usual for the smaller starts. I think this is my first Designs by Lisa chart in this group of starts, but I have a few more in the offing. She's got some very fun designs, and they're generally not very big, which is helpful right now. 

Here's the cover of the chart:

And although it has some specialty threads listed for colours, I didn't have any of them, so chose a different variegated thread to work the border and lettering. I managed a decent start so far:

If Nothing Ever Changed by Designs by Lisa

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Meredith by Chromatic Alchemy

with Jodyri and DD threads so far

I do have an error I need to pick out. If you're looking closely, the little loops on the right side are not matched on the left. I need to pick out the outermost backstitch row, although I'm fairly sure I was stitching both somewhat together, so probably both vertical rows, and figure out the right placement for the loops. It won't be too much effort to unpick that. That's partly why I left a hanging thread, I realized I'd have to frog a bunch there, so didn't want to stitch any farther with the thread I'd need to remove anyway! 

I made another counting error, but I don't think it will show up, so I won't mention where it is. It was far enough back I wasn't about to undo everything, and I believe I figured out how to make it work without having to frog all the way from the top. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to this and determining what colours I might use for the butterfly. 

Hopefully you've all had good stitching weeks!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #47 - Love is Best by Lizzie Kate

Time for another Lizzie Kate start! I have several of her patterns, as I'm sure many of us do. Most of them are smallish, although this one had some decent stitching to put into it. 

Here's the cover photo:

And I jumped at another chance to pull out some of my stash threads and fabric. I don't remember what scrap fabric this is, but very likely Chromatic Alchemy since I was in her FOTM club for many years. 

I debated a few colour choices, as well as how long I wanted to have this out. In the end I stuck with it till I had finished it. It was a few nights of stitching to complete and I'm happy with the finish. 

Love is Best by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct evenweave unk name

with WDW Crepe Myrtle and Cylcamen, Jodyri Over the Rainbow and Carrie's Creations Bliss

I think most of the colours are fairly obvious, but for the CC Bliss, I fussy-stitched and fussy-cut so the colours were more aligned than they are in the actual thread. The swirl near the bottom is stitched with Bliss as it is on the skein, so that's how the colours would normally work together in the variegated thread. 

I didn't intend for the interesting colour pattern that resulted in the largest heart, that just happened as I stitched along in my normal 4x4 way of stitching with variegated thread. 

The end result is 4x6ish inches in size, so a little large for a card, but maybe a box top, etc? I haven't figured out what to do yet, but it's a finish!

I hope you've all been having a good weekend and a good start to the week. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

May 2026 Stitching/Crafting Update

Another month, and a bit, has passed us by. It's been a little busy (understatement) and things have been a little off the rails. Everyone in my family is healthy, but a co-worker's spouse was in a terrible car accident and things have been a lot recently. Also DD played at a local baseball team's game with their band and they did a great job with the National Anthem. That took out one day of stitching, although I did get a lot of knitting done at the game. 

Without further ado, my knitting over this past month:

First, a finish!

Fair Winds hat by Celeste Knitwear

knit with 3.5m needles after 3.25mm for ribbing

in Malabrigo Rios Purple Majesty

This was a fairly quick one and I'm not sure if I love the decreases for the crown, but it's complete and I used up about half a ball of DK Rios, so I can make another hat with this really nice colour. 

Next, I managed to almost finish one ball of yarn on the scarf for my mom:

Cold Snap by Angeline Webb 

knit with 3.5mm needles 

using Great Adirondack Yarn Co Cotton DK in Hydrangea

You can see the colour a little more accurately in this photo than the one from last month. I don't know if you can tell, but the edges still curl a bit, so this will need to be blocked, although I think it's more difficult to block cotton yarn maybe? 

Speaking of blocking, I managed that for 2 other projects once I got my blocking pins back from a friend. I'm going to put the unblocked and blocked photo for the first project, so you can see what a difference it can make:

Very Merry KAL by Claire Slade

knit with Fiberstash superwash sock yarn

Please ignore the colour differences, and it's subtle, but the top and bottom edges of the cowl especially needed work, so they're much straighter. The pattern is also easier to see compared to the unblocked version. Possibly it's easier to see in person too. 

I also blocked another project that's been waiting and waiting for blocking so I could finally wear it:

Farpoint by Vanessa Smith Designs

knit with FiberStash fingering weight yarns

Just in time for summer here! So it will wait, but I am looking forward to wearing it. It was a very different project for me with lots of stitch differences, etc. Plus bobbles!

And that's the month. Not too much accomplished, but a lot of time went into the massive cross stitch projects, plus, it felt like the month disappeared fairly quickly. 

I hope you all had a good May and have a good stitching weekend!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #46 - Book Dragon by EmJayP and Paine Free Crafts

Here it is, the last week of Mega-Maynia! I didn't hit 3500 stitches on this one, but I did manage around 2K, so I'm happy with that. It was quite a busy week, so I'm happy I managed that much. 

To refresh our memories, Book Dragon will look like this eventually:

And here's my progress:

Book Dragon by EmJayP and Paine Free Crafts

stitched 2 over 1 full cross on 25ct Easy Guide

with DMC as charted

If you can tell, that's the top left corner. I'm not sure how many blues I stitched with, but it was a lot! Many different shades, and it looks pretty nice. Good thing it's my favourite colour. 

Back to normal, somewhat smaller starts this week, although it's another busy week. 

If anyone is interested in life/local news, I was in Montreal this past Saturday at the Montreal Victoire Championship Parade! It was amazing. So exciting to see women's hockey do so well and get such a good turnout for their parade. There were 20K+ people there! 

I'm way at the back, but I saw them bringing the Walter cup in, so that was exciting too!

It definitely cut into stitching time though, since it's about 2hrs each way, plus the event was about 4 hours. I got some serious stitching in the next day while resting my feet from all the standing and walking on Saturday. It was a beautiful day, as you can maybe tell from the photos. About 16C, not much breeze there since we're surrounded by buildings, but enough to keep it comfortable with all those people around. 

Hope you've all had a good week, and with more starts I should get back to posting more often as well. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #45 - Kirby by Walking Melons and HAED

As I mentioned, I had asked DD which full coverage project they'd like me to start next, and they chose this one:

I took a look through all my easy guide fabric stash, and could only find a piece of 32ct easy guide to fit the size of this project. It's so teeny! I've been using 25 or 28ct on my other full coverage projects. I did manage to get a little over 3500 stitches into this one and I think it will be enjoyable. There's confetti sections of course, but there seems to be some big sections of one colour that help break up all the fiddly bits as well. 

Here's where it's at now:

Kirby by Walking Melons and HAED

stitched 2 over 1 tent stitch on 32ct easy guide

with DMC as charted

You can see the indent where Meta Knight's sword will be, so you can tell I started in the top left corner. It's been enjoyable so far, not too much dithering and works well in Pattern Keeper. I've had to frog maybe 50 stitches or so where I miscounted, yes, despite having easy guide, but that's not too big a deal for me. 

For this week I chose another enormous project, I know, I know. But I've been eyeing this one for a while and can't wait to start, even though it looks more confetti heavy than Kirby. This will be this week's new start:

So cute! I love this one. I think I have a few other charts that have books and dragons in them, so not surprising that I have this one too, but I'm finally starting one! 

I have the kit from Paine Free Crafts and that will help me stay somewhat organized as well. 

I hope you've all had good stitching weeks!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #44 - Punch of Color Girls 6 by HAED and Hannah Lynn (Mega-Maynia)

Another full coverage start this past week! I've had this chart for a while and it was just waiting for the right time to start. I have another Hannah Lynn that I've started, but it hasn't had much progress yet. This one will eventually look like this:

I found a nice fabric from BeStitchMe and I managed to get 3507 stitches into it, all black. I thought that would be the easiest way to get a lot of stitches in. I think there's still about 10K black stitches left though!

Here's where I got to:

Punch of Color Girls 6 by HAED/Hannah Lynn

stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct Scroll by BeStitchMe 

with DMC as charted

I like this one a lot, it's the only chart where I've seen someone in glasses and with a book. I think it will be a fun one to finish, but I'm not getting ahead of myself, there's a lot of stitching left to go. 

DD was looking at what I was doing and really liked the look of it as well. I asked them if they'd like to pick the next one, and after a lot of thought and a couple false starts with charts I've already started, they settled on Kirby! 

If you don't play video games, you may not have heard of him. Kirby is a video game character that sort of swallows his enemies and gains their abilities. The opponent shown is Meta Knight, one of the fierce enemies you have to battle. This chart is discontinued, so not sure if it's available elsewhere. 

Hopefully I'll get some good stitches in, although I'm going to have to use easy guide, so this one will take a long while to get finished. 

I hope you've all had good stitching weeks!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #43 - Basset Hound Night by Unconventional XStitch (Mega-Maynia)

Here it is, my first Mega-Maynia project. My goal was about 3500 stitches, and I got close. I ended up with 3450, and since that was a nice round number, I stopped there. Again, eventually, it will look like this:

And this is some of the top left corner:

Basset Hound Night by Unconventional XStitch

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 25ct easy guide

with DMC as charted

This is my first Unconventional XStitch project and so far it's been great. Easy to get into Pattern Keeper and the colours seem to flow well. That could be how the design is, or their charting, not sure. It seems easier than the HAED SAL project, but again, could be I'm comparing different things. 

Anyone else notice differences between full coverage designers? I don't think I've stitched enough of them to know much difference at this point. 

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

What is Mega-Maynia?

Like many other stitchers, I often participated in Stitch Maynia, and I think a lot of stitchers have carried on some kind of tradition even after the FB group closed. There's lots of ideas on FlossTube, and I decided to keep it part of my new starts for this year and do "Mega-Maynia". 

I dubbed it that since I'm going to spend one week on 4 large projects, be it full coverage, or just really large stitch counts. 

First up is a new designer to me, Unconventional XStitch! I found this amazing project on their page and started it this week:

I have some easy guide 25 count that will work well, and will use my DMC master set for the week. I'm interested to try a different full coverage company. I've stitched HAED, Cross Stitch 4 Everyone, and Cross Stitch Collection. 

My loose plan is to stitch 500 stitches a day for 1 week, or a total of 3500 stitches, and try and keep that up on each big project. Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

April 2026 Stitching/Crafting Update

Another month has passed, and time to see what else I've managed to work on besides all the new starts!

One big knitting finish was completed, one small start and finish, and two new starts were begun, so let's start there. 

I finally finished the 2024 Advent KAL!

Logamancy (2024 Advent Shawl)

by Renee Stouts

knit with 3.5mm needles and scrap fingering weight yarn

This was a really interesting knit. You start with knitting a triangle, hold the active stitches on one set of needles, then use another set of the same size to pick up one edge and then create a rectangular shape, hold the needles on the active edge, use the other set to pick up a knit edge, and knit another rectangular shape, etc. I used a sock yarn I had an excess of, Unicorns in Space by a local yarn dyer, FiberStash to give it a sort of theme and then used random sock yarn scraps or mini skeins to get the rest of the colours. I still need to block it, but otherwise it's done!

Next, I started on a new scarf/shawl for my Mom. Her birthday is coming up next month, and I think i can get it completed? This is where it's at so far:

Cold Snap by Angeline Webb 

knit with 3.5mm needles 

using Great Adirondack Yarn Co Cotton DK in Hydrangea

My Mom isn't allergic to wool, but finds it scratchy on her neck, so this is all in cotton. It's a really pretty colourway and you need to use 2 skeins. Another new thing for me is the Andalusian stitch. You're mostly knitting in stockinette, but every 4th row is K1/P1. I believe the idea is that keeps the scarf from curling as much. When I first learned the stockinette stitch and realized how much faster it was than garter, I knit a whole scarf in it. And it constantly rolled into a tube! I've added a garter row in other projects that I freehanded in stockinette, but this is a more attractive stitch to use. 

Next new start is a free hat pattern from Celeste Knitwear. There are several free patterns on their site, so I left the link if you're interested. This is the Fair Winds hat, and I have a small start on it so far. 

Fair Winds hat by Celeste Knitwear

knit with 3.5m needles after 3.25mm for ribbing

in Malabrigo Rios Purple Majesty

I've been doing some spring cleaning/organizing and it's made me want to use some of the yarn that's just hanging around. Possibly all the cross stitch is making me want to change up crafts as well? Whatever the reason, I have several hat patterns saved from Celeste Knitwear and I'd like to use some of the DK/worsted I've had sitting around for years now. So here's a start!

For the last finish, I made a dishcloth from some of my dish cotton yarn. I've been collecting it for probably over a decade, maybe 2 at this point, so it's good to get some used up. I'd like to try and get a dishcloth done after every medium/large project, which right now means after everything that's not a hat. 

I didn't get any other stitching done since I've been concentrating on the new starts, and DH isn't going to the bimonthly group any more, so I haven't found a chance to work on his project. Maybe I'll find a time this month though. 

I hope you've all had good months and stay tuned for Mega-Maynia!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

 

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #42 - Don't Cry Because It's Over by Lizzie Kate

I'm fairly sure this is the first Lizzie Kate this year, which is amazing since I have several, as I'm sure a lot of you do too! Fortunately her patterns are still available through 123 Stitch, but it was a sad day when she retired from designing. She definitely has a gift. I've always loved her lettering. 

Do any of you remember these phrases that were sold in CD cases? It was quite a while ago, well before streaming I think, when we all had CD cases hanging around. I think if I gave this to DD she wouldn't even know how to open it. Here's what the cover photo looks like:

 

This also included the bonus bunny chart and a charm and some beads for the smaller design. I don't have any plans to stitch that at this time, maybe next year for Easter? It's not too big a chart. 

My floss toss since I wanted to brighten up the colours a bit:

And although it's on the included linen, which was stiff and definitely not my favourite fabric to stitch on, it's such a simple design that I stuck with it until I finished. Here's what it looks like:

Don't Cry Because It's Over by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen included with the chart

with stash threads, DD Oops, WDW Cyclamen, Camellia, and Blue Bonnet, and Soie Cristale

The yellow/orange SMILE stands out better in person. The linen was curling on the edge, so I had to hold it, and that made the colour more washed out in the photo. I'm happy with the finish and although I'm not sure if I still like the statement as much as when I first purchased it, it's nice to have a finish. 

If you're eagle-eyed, or have stitched this yourself, you may have noticed I skipped the underline on "happened" and a few little stitches. I don't think it's need the extra, so I left it out. 

Hope you've all been having a good day of stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #41 - Did You Take Your Meds Today by Subversive Cross Stitch

Time for another quick stitch to use up more stash thread and fabric! Another fun one from Subversive Cross Stitch. They have so many fun patterns, and as someone mentioned once, I do tend to like to stitch letters, so these are perfect for me. This is the photo from their website:

And I picked out some stash fabric and threads and took 2 days to finish this one up. Here it is:

Did You Take Your Meds Today? by Subversive Cross Stitch

stitched 2 over 1 on 14ct scrap Aida

with stash threads, Dinky Dyes, WDW

It's a fun one that I was thinking of for a gift for a friend that tends to forget to take their medication, but then I wasn't sure if it would seem like nagging? I tried to use cheerful colours that are similar to medication colours, plus did some fussy stitching to try and make the tablets look more like medication. 

For now it's in the finishes drawer and maybe a flat fold would be a good idea if I do give it away? Or something that could be hung near where people keep medications? Ideas are always welcome. 

Hope you've had some good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #40 - Vermont Mini Block by Hinzeit

And another designer makes a return to the 100 starts year! I think I might have been able to do 100 starts with all different designers, but that's maybe more than I was up for. So many of these patterns have been hanging around just waiting for their opening, and I'm so glad 2 Martini Stitcher did this last year to give me the inspiration for this year!

The previous chart, the Canada Mini Block, had a lot more stitching because each charm will be on a maple leaf. I was debating about that for this chart as well, since the "colours" are always a big deal here each autumn. However, in the hopes of actually finishing more projects this year, I left them off and stuck with the pattern as charted. Here's their mock-up of the design:

And I stuck with this one for 2 days to get it finished! I stayed up a little later than maybe I should have last night attaching the charms, but it feels so nice to have it complete. 

Here's what it looks like:

Vermont Mini Block by Hinzeit

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Bridget's Garden by Chromatic Alchemy

with stash threads, Jodyri and Silks4U

In case the charms are difficult to see, in order from left to right, there's an evergreen tree, an apple, 2 skis and 2 poles, a maple leaf, a cow, a canoe and the Vermont state shape with a maple syrup bottle. 

The charms are well made and I did a kind of buttonhole stitch around the hanger so they would be secure. I do like this finish. The outline looks like the mountains here in autumn:

And the darker green fits the "Green Mountain" translation of Vermont. 

This one definitely needs to be finished, just have to decide how. Possibly a horizontal flat fold? For now it's in the "drawer" and someday I'll get the inspiration to finish it. 

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #39 - Winter Evergreen by Fireside Originals

I think we've all been cross stitching long enough that we've seen some of these older patterns, the ones that were hand drawn and photocopied? I picked up this one several years ago, possibly over a decade ago, again I think from a LNS that was closing near where I live. Check this out!

Definitely the old style design and the finished design photo is an actual photo with the photo data of 1996 on the back. The copyright on the chart is 1983! 

I had the feeling this one would take me longer that it did, and I'm not sure why. There's not many colours to it, possibly just the hand drawn chart was throwing me off? Anyway, I ended up finishing this in a different way than it's charted, and please let me know your thoughts. 

Winter Evergreen by Fireside Originals

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct scrap fabric

as charted with DMC

If you can tell from the finish photo, there is dark green (DMC 895) in between the white areas of snow. I finished all the white first, then the cardinal and the highlight green, but after that I kind of like how it looks without the dark green stitched into it. So I'm calling it a finish. It somehow makes me think of my Grandma, she had a big blue spruce tree in her yard for many years, and loved cardinals of course. 

Let me know your thoughts! 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #38 - Holly Jolly Mandala by Ink Circles

Another Ink Circles pattern! This makes 3 Ink Circles starts this year I believe. I've had this pattern for many years, and had it kitted up, but for whatever reason I'd never made time to start it. That time is now! Here's what it will look like when finished:

I haven't found a good way to photograph paper patterns to make them entirely straight, but this is pretty close. I really like how this one has both winter and Christmas motifs. 

I really enjoyed stitching on this one and ended up using an entire skein of DMC Blanc. The pattern calls for 3 skeins, so this is about one third complete now:

Holly Jolly Mandala by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 on opalescent 28ct Flotsam & Jetsam

with DMC Blanc

Despite having a paper pattern, I don't think I've made many errors in this one. I had one counting error so far, but that happens with Pattern Keeper too sometimes. It's certainly possible this one could be finished by Christmas. I was wondering if there was some way to make it into a 2-sided pillow, with one of the Halloween style mandalas on one side and this one on the other side. I'm not the best at finishing, so this will take some brainstorming. 

I hope today has been a successful day of stitching for you!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch