2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #9 - Green + White by Bent Creek

Time for another Irish themed stitch! And a nice small project too, I told you I had some in the boxes. :)

I had a scrap of what I think was 14ct aida in white, so chose that and two of the advent threads from Silks4U. 

Then, as I was stitching, I realized I didn't actually need or want to do the white/cream colour, so I stuck with only the green, and it's a finish:

Green+white by Bent Creek

stitched 2 over 1 on 14ct scrap white aida

with Silks4U advent thread

A nice quick finish, and with any luck I'll actually turn it into a card to send for St. Patrick's Day. We'll see. That might depend on how the rest of the month goes. 

I hope you've all had good stitching days,

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start # 6 - Irish Sampler by The Sampler House

The next new start might start to look familiar over the year as I think I've accumulated a lot of these Irish themed projects since my parents had a vacation in Ireland. They said it was the best place they'd ever visited, and they've been on quite a few vacations to different locations around the world. 

This is what the project will look like when completed. It has some specialty stitches and instead of just green and white I plan to throw some orange in there as well, so it will have the colours of the Irish flag. I managed to find some close colours in my stash of Silks4U Advent threads and will be using them on some stash fabric. I believe it's 25ct Jobelan since it's a looser weave than some evenweaves I've used. 

Here's my start after a couple threadlengths were added:

Irish Sampler by The Sampler House

stitched 2 over 2 on 25ct stash fabric

with Silks4U advent threads

I'm fairly happy with this start, although I kind of wish I'd stitched the zigzag line in orange. I didn't think of it till it was almost complete though, and it's not worth frogging the whole thing. Accents will be fine. I will very likely not stitch the alphabet on the bottom, although maybe I'll come up with something, like my parents initials or something like that. There's already a beautiful Irish phrase, so I don't think it needs another one. Unless I want to throw in something a little naughty? Pog mo thoin perhaps?

Probably not if it's going to be a gift for my parents. My dad would definitely look it up to see what it meant. 

This was lovely to stitch on so far and I'm looking forward to getting back to it. Hope your stitching days have gone well. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #3 - French Country Reindeer by JBW Designs

I think many of us have accumulated these little charts from JBW Designs over the years. They're small, monochromatic and have so many fun little details in them. I believe I've stitched some in the past, but can't remember for sure, however, I'm happy to start this one. I picked up this unusual fabric somewhere and decided I could use it for these charts to make them useful for decoration as well, therefore less finishing work will be needed! 

I don't love stitching on soft, afghan style fabric, but with the Qsnaps I was able to get this tight enough that it wasn't too difficult to stitch. This is 18ct Zweigart Tannenbaum, which I stitched over 2, so ended up being 9ct. This was pretty fun to do, and although I did get off center a bit and changed up where the words go, I'm happy with the start and finish!

French Country V Reindeer by JBW Designs

stitched over 2 on 18ct Tannenbaum by Zweigart

with Silks4U PR 126

I'm thinking this will be a gift, but there is one more JBW with this fabric in the box, so we'll see if I keep this one or that one. I believe just some interface on the back will make this finished enough for use, although possibly something iron-on to make it look fancier would be nice? Suggestions welcome as always!

Hope today was a good stitching day!

Tiffstitch

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #2 - Walk With Mom by Handblessings

I have a very scientific way of picking my next project. I open one of the boxes they're all stored in, and look through till I find one I want to start. We'll see how this experiment works throughout the year, and if I end up changing anything out. 

I was definitely feeling like something fairly easy, so although this is a little larger than Start #1, it could be done with just one colour. I decided on 2, in a similar way I finished it's companion piece several years ago. Here's the companion piece:

    

Walk with Dad by Handblessings

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct scrap evenweave with WDW Lucky and DMC 895

I've had this chart for a while, but it was finally time to start Walk With Mom!

I pulled some of my Silks4U advent threads to use and had a decent start:

    

Walk With Mom by Handblessings

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Bryophyte by Chromatic Alchemy

with Silks4U Advent Box threads (2023 and 2024)

I've received the Advent Box from Silks4U the last few years, and I'm so impressed they managed to still get it out last year with all the postage issues. I'm not sure if they're having one this year, and I might skip anyway as I'd like to work through all the threads I have. This will definitely help. 

It might be obvious, but green is DH's favourite colour, and blue is my favourite colour, so that's why the colours are different for each one. 

Hope things are good and you've had a good stitching day!

Tiffstitch 

2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #1 - EduCATed by Bent Creek

I've started a few projects, but hadn't had much time to post, but here we go with the first start of 2026!

I have a fair amount of small projects, but some larger ones as well to work on over the year. I'm hoping I can keep doing a WIP down and finish up some of my older projects as well as some of the new small ones. 

Starting the year off with a smallish project, EduCATed by Bent Creek. Here's my progress so far:

EduCATed by Bent Creek

Stitched 2 over 2 on scrap 28ct evenweave

with stash threads, WDW and Gloriana so far

This was a fun little one to start with. I have lots of stash threads hanging around, and I found a decent amount of variegated grey which should turn into a nice look for the cat fur. The books should be easy to make moderately colourful, so I'm looking forward to getting back to this one. 

I have 2 banker's boxes that are almost full with all the projects I'd like to start this year. Once I start them, I put them back in a box at the front, so I know which ones I've started. 

Hope everyone had a good stitching day!

Tiffstitch