2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #82 - Four de Lys by Ink Circles

This will be the last Fleur-de-lys for this year I think. Possibly the last pattern I have? Although a friend told me about a Restash store in the local city and I've got to check that out. They have just crafts that need a new home that were donated by the owners and their families to clear out their stashes. I think I can probably find some stuff to donate there too if they accept donations from anyone. 

Today's chart is another fun Ink Circles pattern. I don't remember when I picked it up, but it's the physical chart vs a digital one, so likely at a LNS. 

I debated a lot on fabric and threads for this one. I have a couple traditional blue fabric/white thread ones already, and then I found this fabric in my stash:

I think the design would fit perfectly in the middle, which is a bit of a wrench given how much fabric it will leave at the top and bottom, but those bits will be good for small charts, so it's okay, I think. 

Too late anyway, I've started it:

Four de Lys by Ink Circle

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen club exclusive by Chromatic Alchemy

with Silks4U unknown thread (advent?)

It does look really good so far. This is 2 full threadlengths of the Silks4U. I love their thread, so nice to stitch with, and it's nice to use up the advents as well. This is 3 years or so that I've been in their advent club, and it's nice to be using up some stash. 

I think this could be a quick finish when I get back to it as well. Hope you've had some good stitching days!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #81 - Alphabirds by Crossed Wing Collection

Clearly I've chosen too many big ones, but this one is really cool, and I'm excited to start it. Again, this might be for my parents when it's finished. 

Since it is a big one, I only had one piece of fabric that would work, which is a pretty big piece of light grey/blue 25ct. Therefore I needed to adjust the colours of the letters since they would have been almost invisible. I went with some light purples and it stands out well. I also chose a nice green for the leafy border and here's where I got to:

Alphabirds by Crossed Wing Collection

stitched 2 over 2 on 25ct grey evenweave

with DMC 210 and 211 for letters and Silks4U PR 130

This is a giant paper chart that you have to unfold for each letter. It's kind of involved, but fun to work on as well, besides one of my cats deciding it had to be his hidey hole and tried to dig through it. He's a little odd, inherited from a co-worker going through some medical issues. He's not 2 years old yet though, so the kitten is still strong in him. He's much cuddlier than my other 2 cats which is nice, and he's getting along with DD really well. 

Bandit

He's learned quickly that cross stitch is not a toy, so that's a good thing. Even my older cat likes to chase the threads sometimes while I'm stitching if he's on my lap. 

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

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #80 - First Encounter No. 8 by Crossed Wing Collection

I love the detail in the Crossed Wing Collection charts. It does make them somewhat time-consuming to stitch, but they look so good! Today's start will likely be a gift for my parents if I can make it into something, possibly framed as it is in the chart photo. 

I managed a decent start and got in some greens for the leaves. I think it looks pretty nice on this fabric, another from the vast stash of Chromatic Alchemy I have from when I was in her FOTM club. 

First Encounter No. 8 by Crossed Wing Collection

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Celeste by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC as charted

This will be one that takes a while, but it is very fun to stitch, so it will be enjoyable as well. I love the fabric and it has enough colours that it could be from almost any kind of sky/flowers/trees background in a sort of Impressionist way. 

In some ways it's hard to believe I've started 80 projects, but when I look at the banker's boxes full of them, it's easy to see it as well. I think I'm still at a good pace to get 100 completed, and am now debating if number 100 should be the Chatelaine I purchased ages ago and finally received the threads for last year. Hmm, it's an idea. Although pulling out a lot of the smalls to try and get more finishes before the end of the year would be nice as well. 

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

Happy Stiching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #79 - Pig in a Blanket by Designs by Lisa

Here we are again, another Designs by Lisa chart! She has so many fun designs, and I'm glad to be able to find a chance to stitch on some of them. This one will hopefully be for a friend who loves pigs. 

And I made a small start on this one on the top rows. I decided on a mottled mostly blue fabric with bits of beige/brown in it for the background and I think the colours will show up well. So far it's only the borders though:

Pig in a Blanket by Designs by Lisa

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct evenweave

with DMC as charted

This design also calls for Sullivan's threads, but I don't have any of those, so I'm sticking with DMC. I don't think this will be too long to finish, it's a lot of solid colour with some backstitch, so it will be okay. 

I just realized in the photo of the stitching you can see a pillow kind of glowing in the sunshine, ignore the bright blue bit, that's not on the fabric, but seen through it! I'll have to watch for that next time. That's one of those "mermaid" pillows, where it has sequins that you can flip from coloured to silver, and that one is bright blue to silver, and it will occasionally catch the sunlight and drive the cats a little bonkers trying to catch the light. 

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

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start # 78 - Celtic Circle Knot by Frony Ritter Designs

Another small start, but not a finish yet. Time has been a little short lately, but I did get a start into this one. This is another new designer for me, and it looks like it was a sale/clearance chart as well. I have so many of these from the LNS closing here in Vermont. Good for my stash, but not so much for the area. 

Here's how it looks so far:

Celtic Circle Knot by Frony Ritter Designs

stitched 2 over 1 on 22ct white hardanger

with DMC as charted

I was debating about doig all the blue outline, then figure out the rest, but not sure if it makes more sense to work on the border first since it somewhat connects? It's a question for when I bring it out again. 

I've been thinking about next year plans and what to do with all the WIPs. A lot of the Flosstubes I watch are using wheels to choose their projects, so I'm thinking about maybe a wheel for all the full coverage and pick one for the week to stitch on at least 1000 stitches, then maybe a couple non-full coverage to work on as well. But would it make more sense to have all the smalls on one wheel and larger projects on another? Or just all together? Ideas welcome!

I hope it's been a good few days for everyone. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #77 - Fleur de Lis by JBW Designs

Time for another Fleur de Lys! The last time I worked on one was back in 2023 and finished an all backstitch design. 

Fleur de Lys by Brodeuse Bressane

stitched 1 over 2 on 28ct blue Zweigart linen

with Caron Wildflowers

And this time I started another JBW Design:

Which is a small design, except I decided to make it more difficult for myself and use a small piece of scrap fabric, which meant I had to stitch it 1 over 2 on 40ct linen. So it's not a finish, but it's a decent start:

Fleur de Lis by JBW Designs

stitched 1 over 2 on 40ct linen by BeStitchMe

with DMC 5200

I do love the colour of the fabric, but it's not easy for me to stitch on linen. But it's a decent start and fits on the fabric scrap, so it will work and be a finish at some point. 

There may be another Fleur de Lys coming up later this year, if I can find the right fabric and thread to make it work. Again, DH is French Canadian, so a good Fleur-de-Lis is always appreciated in our house!

Hope you've all had good stitching days and a relaxing Labour Day weekend/or weekend!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #76 - Santa Stocking by Durene Jones

I'm sure we all know Durene Jones' patterns. She has a flair for creating colourful designs and I have so many of her patterns. She also often has 50% sales at her Etsy shop and I've purchased patterns from there frequently. I'm glad to be starting another one, even though this is a big one!

You don't stitch the beige colour, and I think I found a pretty good match for the pattern image. I also like that this doesn't have as much backstitching. I didn't get a lot of stitching into it, but that will come. Everyone else has a handmade stocking from me, so it's time to make one for myself as well. There's so many choices out there, but I'm happy with this one. And there's not a ton of colour changes, so that will help when I get back to it. Here's my start:

Santa Stocking by Durene Jones

stitched 2 over 2 on 27ct "370" by BeStitchMe

with DMC as charted

I think you can tell by this photo that I've started in the toe, but just in case, this is the very bottom part of the toe on the left side of the pattern. I was debating about how to start, but in the interest of less counting to find the right spot, I figured I'd start at the bottom left and work my way up. 

This pattern is somewhat okay in Pattern keeper. You have to do a little finagling, and add the thread colours into PK, but there's not too many, so it works out well. I really love being able to use PK again after using some paper charts. 

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

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch