2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #96 - Evergreen Topiary by Mill Hill

Time for another Mill Hill! I've been debating my last 5 starts and this one was just calling to me, so it was time to start:

I had a kind of odd occurrence happen while I was stitching on this one, so please let me know if this has happened to you. The last few weeks have been kind of odd with work, where I'm seeing people complain of things I've almost never seen, or usually see once or twice a year, and it's happening multiple times per week. So it's been a lot, and somewhat draining, which explains some of the smaller starts that have happened recently. 

With this one, I was determined to start, despite feeling tired. However, that wasn't the smartest idea. Can you see the issue?

I literally fell asleep stitching and stopped when I was "too tired" and went to bed. Then when I looked at it the next day, I realized I hadn't stopped soon enough!! It was easy to frog fortunately. Here's my finish!

Evergreen Topiary MH18-235 by Mill Hill

stitched 3 and 2 over 1 on 14ct perforated paper

with kit threads

If you've got eagle eyes, you may notice something is missing from this one. It came with a tiny bell to go on the ribbon, but somewhere it got lost. I haven't given up looking for it, but it doesn't really need it, so it's okay if I don't. 

I'm happy to have another finish! This was a good feeling after having so many starts and no recent finishes. I have some good options for the last 4 as well, and I'm still leaning towards the Chatelaine for number 100! 

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

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #95 - Nothing Worth Doing by Circus Stitches

This is one of the first projects I had picked out last year, as I really like the message. I had initially chosen a very distinct fabric for it, but couldn't decide on thread colours. So last night, I decided to choose a different fabric and then it was easier to find the right colours quickly. 

Sorry it's teeny, sometimes it's really hard to find good photos of these charts on Etsy. 

I'm using a different colour palette than I often do since I tend to stick to blues and greens most of the time. Here's my start:

Nothing Worth Doing by Circus Stitches

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Amortentia by Chromatic Alchemy

with Silks4U advent thread and PR105

This chart went into Markup R-XP easily as well and I know this is about 20% complete. So with any luck it won't take too long to complete once I get it back out again. I haven't used that line in a while! :)

We're getting so close to the end, only 5 more projects to go!! 

Hope it's been a good stitching day for you, 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #94 - Predator by Oh My Stitches Shop

Another good movie series, and an enjoyable adversary for the most part. Unlike Alien, Predator has some intelligence besides propagation, so the movies tend to be more interesting from that aspect. There's also some books about the Predator culture and I read a series of short stories that were interesting. It was about the Predator species visiting Earth in different timelines and how each dealt with the alien element. The Viking one was most memorable. 

Again, sorry for the blurry photo, but this is what I have. For anyone who hasn't seen the Predator films, this is what they look like for most of them:

There is a very strange looking face underneath the mask, but you can look that up if you're interested. I don't want to shock anyone that's not ready for that kind of disturbing image. 

I managed a little more stitching into this one, so you can see the central character emerge:

Predator by Oh My Stitches Shop

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct white Monaco

with DMC 310 so far

There will be a lot of stitching in these, so potentially I can go colour by colour to see if that's easier. These are the first 2 projects I've tried to stitch using Markup R-XP and it seems to be working well. I kept hearing about people trying it on FlossTube and I thought I'd give it a try. They've been saying it's easier to get paper patterns into Markup than it is in Pattern Keeper, so I figured I'd try it out. Another option if you've been looking for something for paper patterns. 

Hope it's been a good stitching day for you!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #93 - Alien by Oh My Stitches Shop

I've been a fan of this series, mostly the first movie and some of the more recent ones, definitely not Aliens, the second movie, that was not a good film to follow the first one. 

Sorry these are blurry, but it's the only photo I could find without showing the chart. Today's post is about the top left one, the xenomorph from the Alien movie and book franchise. I enjoy the books as well, and one of the best posts about the Alien movie I've ever seen was:

Hopefully I'm not spoiling anything for anyone with that! It's a good movie, very suspenseful, and because of budget issues, there's not a lot of music, which helps build the tension. Plus you don't see the Alien a lot, again, budget issues. 

I stuck with plain white Monaco for this one since it will be fully stitched. 

Alien by Oh My Stitches Shop

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct white Monaco

with DMC 310 so far

Since I've been reorganizing, some of my threads are more difficult to get to, but I still have my cone of 310 in a prominent place, so easy to get a few threadlengths into this one for a decent start. 

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #92 - Blue Dot Carl Sagan by Taylor and Cromwell

This chart also piqued my interest while I was going through my patterns. It's a great quote by Carl Sagan and always timely as well. 

I debated a bit on the fabric and threads, and finally found some only to realize my fabric was too small. Good thing I had doublechecked the size! So, I had to search for something else. I like the idea of having it seem like space, so I decided to try a dark fabric with some opalescence. And I ended up starting this twice:

This was the first start. I tried 2 over 2 with the letters, but I think they're more difficult to read, so I started it again with only one thread:

Blue Dot by Taylor and Cromwell

stitched 1 over 2 on 28ct Nox by Chromatic Alchemy

with Silks4U threads

I'm still not 100% sure this is the right combo, so I decided on one thread only for now. I had already tossed a couple threads from the first attempt, so this was enough stitching on this project for today. I'll have to decide if it's worth adjusting the fabric and threads again or continuing on as it is. Thoughts always welcome!

Hope your stitching had less complications!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch 

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #91 - Blackwork in Blue by Elizabeth Almond and Lakeside Needlecraft

Another smaller start today! I went through what I had remaining from the projects I'd picked out last year and a fair few of them were pretty big, so I had a look through my digital files to see if anything else caught my interest, and happened to be a bit smaller. I came across this one, which was a free SAL from Lakeside Needlecraft. 

The next decision was what fabric to use and if I wanted to keep the colours the same. I decided to keep the palette similar and chose a light blue/grey neutral from my fabric stash. I also found some of the Silks4U threads I had from advent calendars would work, and managed a decent start:

Blackwork in Blue by Elizabeth Almond

stitched 2 over 2 and 1 over 2 as charted on 28ct Bryophyte by Chromatic Alchemy

with Silks4U threads

Choosing fabric was a bit of a challenge with my new "helper" that we're fostering for a friend going through medical issues. 

Bandit lives up to his name, and is generally mischievous while awake. He is more cuddly than our other cats, but also more destructive. He is still only a little over a year old though, so the kitten is strong in him. 

Hope you've all had a good stitching day and have less destructive helpers!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #90 - Who Dunnit by Bothy Threads

Another kit from my visit to Paine Free Crafts! This was a new one for me, I'd never seen this cut-thru before. I've always been tempted since they look so fun, but when I saw this one, it was a must.

Again, it's all kitted up with threads, fabric and a needle:

I've had a lot going on, so I didn't get much started, but I did get a few colours into it: 

Who Dunnit by Bothy Threads

stitched 2 over 2 on kit fabric

with kit threads

I think I'll likely do one thread of one colour at a time to get it all filled in. I know there's a lot of backstitch in these, so I'll maybe get a bunch of colour in, then do some of the backstitch, etc. 

I really love the idea of this one since my favourite book genre is murder mysteries. I read all the Agatha Christie books when I was young and that clearly got me hooked. I read fantasy and sci-fi as well, but especially enjoy a good murder mystery. 

For modern murder mysteries, I've been enjoying the Richard Osman books, both the Thursday Murder Club and We Solve Murders. There's lots of other good ones, but that would be my top recommendation. I enjoy how he writes characters. They're never one-dimensional, you get to know the character without necessarily reading "He had brown hair and was a bit over 6 feet", etc. 

Hope it's been a good stitching day for everyone!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch