2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #33 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by The Witchy Stitcher

Through the short story by Washington Irving, the Disney short film, the Johnny Depp film, and the TV show, I think most people  have heard of Sleepy Hollow. Do you know it is an actual town still? It's located in New York state, and I've been through it a few times when I worked in southern NY. It was also known as North Tarrytown during the Industrial revolution and was likely called "Slapershaven" originally (300+ years ago) by the Dutch settlers. More info here!

Somewhat related to this, when I was working in southern NY, my parents and aunt and uncle came to visit and almost got locked in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery. They happened to get to the gate just in time for the gatekeeper to let them back out. 

Anyway, on to the stitching! Here is what the finished piece will look like:

And I managed to get an entire strand of DMC 310 into it, so this is where it's at now:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by The Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Midas by Chromatic Alchemy

with charted DMC

Not a bad start, and lots of black to go. It's an interesting one and I'm looking forward to getting back to it. I really like the fabric I had in my stash as well. Being a member of the FOTM club from Chromatic Alchemy is really helping out for all these new starts. And yet, there's still some fabric left! 

I hope your day is treating you well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

March 2026 Stitching/Crafting Update

Another month sped by and here we are in April. Although we're still getting occasional snow up in the Northeast US, hopefully the weather is better wherever you are. 

First day of spring where I live

A new pottery painting place opened in the nearby city, and the whole family went to check it out. There were many painting options, and I ended up choosing a knitting bowl. The finished projects were ready during March, and here's what mine looks like:

KNITTING is around the outside

BECAUSE MURDER IS WRONG on the inside

I was debating on colours, etc. and finally figured out a good phrase to write in this one. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it. 

The 2024 Advent KAL (knit-a-long) is getting close to completion as well, only a few more colours to go:

2024 Advent Mystery KAL by Renee Strout

knit with fingering weight sock yarn scraps with 3.5mm needles (you need 2 sets)

I only worked on the HAED SAL for WIPs this past month. And not too much work on it either, but I think you can tell a difference. Here's where it was:

and now:

HAED SAL - Whisper of Wishes

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct easy count

as charted with DMC

I'm somewhat focused on finishing a page, and it's maybe 1000 or so stitches away from that at this point. I will get back to i t, but I keep wanting to stitch on the new starts instead right now. I figure I'll go with what my interest is for now. 

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #32 - Joyeux Noel by Susan Ache

Today's start is one of those epic projects designers came up with in 2020 when a lot of us had more stitching time all of a sudden. This is still free from Aurifil on their blog. Although I have some Aurifil, I don't have the colours they asked for in this, so I'm going to try and use up more of my Silks4U Advent threads. Here's what the project will look like eventually:

And my floss toss looks like this:

I managed a bit of a start over a couple days of stitching as well:

Joyeux Noel by Susan Ache

stitched 2 over 1 on 20ct opalescent aida by BeStitchMe

with Silks4U Advent threads

I was debating about the green, it has a faint hint of blue to it, which I think holly leaves do sometimes,  so I think it will work out well. The floss toss shows the full hanks, and I only took about half a hank for most of the colours and set it aside with this project. I don't think I'll need a full hank for this, even though there's a lot of stitching to go. 

This is probably going to be one of the ones that sits for a while since there's so much more to go, but that's okay. It's about getting to these projects that I've really wanted to start, not so much about the finish. 

I hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #31 - Stained Glass Christmas by Ink Circles

Time for another Ink Circles design! I think this is the first time I've used a designer twice in the 100 starts frenzy. I really love her designs though. Here's another one of my Ink Circles finishes from a few years back: 

Wings and Things by Ink Circles

Stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Haunted by PTP?

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

Tracy Horner has brilliant design ideas and excellent colour sense. I purchased this from her website a few years ago, and this seems like a good time to start it. 

I haven't quite decided if I'm going rogue on the colour scheme with some of my stash threads or will stay with her charted colours. For right now I plan to do the black outline first, then deal with the colours another day, probably far in the future going by my start. Here's where it is so far:

Stained Glass Christmas by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct light blue Jobelan

with DMC 310 so far

Not much of a start yet, but I think you can see that I'm working on the chart that is in the top left. These are Pattern Keeper friendly, which is very helpful. A long way to go on these though, so don't hold your breath for a finish any time soon. 

Hope your stitchy days treated you well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #30 - Your Future by Lollypop Stitches

This is one of the charts designed for the Michelle Bendy Stitchy January 2020 Fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Fittingly, it's a quote from Back to the Future, one of the best movie series out there. Eventually it will look something like this:

I think I'll stitch the side parts since it has the flux capacitors, but I was most concerned about the right fabric and threads for this one. DH and DD helped with the floss toss and here's my start:

Your Future by Lollypop Stitches

stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct opalescent Bedrock by BeStitchMe

with Silks4U threads

I really like the look of it so far, and maybe the colour will pick up the blue in the flux capacitors as well. It's interesting to switch between aida and evenweave. I think I still prefer evenweave over all other fabrics. 

Hope everyone had a good stitching day!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #29 - Be A Cupcake by StitchLife

Does anyone remember StitchLife magazine? I had joined for a while, they were on Patreon I think and it was fun for a while. I don't think they still exist, I couldn't find much online. I still have some of the patterns that came with the subscription, and I thought this one would be a fun start. 

There were a few different options as far as chocolate or vanilla icing, and I chose vanilla, here's the floss toss with the vanilla icing:

And my total progress:

Be A Cupcake by StitchLife

stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct mauve aida

with Silks4U threads

The fabric got a little washed out in this picture, but fortunately I took a photo of how well my cat was helping me stitch, and the fabric is pictured correctly there:

Such a good helper right? And why all my stitching has "specialty thread" added, whether I want it to be or not. :)

Hope your stitching day went well! 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #28 - Antisocial Cryptid Club by Witchy Stitcher

Time to get out the black Cone of Doom! For yet another all-black Witchy Stitcher pattern. I actually am not using DMC 310 on this one though. Here's what it will look like when it's finished:

I had some fun fabric for this one, and instead of DMC 310 I grabbed some of my Madeira black silk. I picked up several skeins on deep discount when Stoney Creek was getting rid of them, and the coverage is better than DMC, so it should look great on this pattern. 

I didn't get as much done as I hoped, the lighting wasn't great at the conference, and this was the second day of it, after not sleeping well for 2 nights, but there's definitely a start. 

Antisocial Cryptid Club by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Midnight Tryst by Chromatic Alchemy

with Madeira black silk

Although the first cryptid is likely intended to be Nessie from Loch Ness, in my head it will be Champ, our local cryptid lake monster that was discovered before Nessie, by Samuel de Champlain, who Lake Champlain is named after. I believe Lake Champlain is the largest lake after the Great Lakes in North America. 

Here's a bit more on the Champ legend if you're interested. There is a photo of Champ that people use as evidence:

The person who took the photo disposed of the negative and didn't remember exactly where they took the photo, so that leads to some question about it. Plus the lake isn't very deep in that area apparently. 

More cryptids to come when I can get back to the stitching!

Hope it's been a good stitching day,

Tiffstitch