Happy Birthday to us!

 

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans! I've mentioned before that I don't really stitch patriotic designs. Being a military family, we are surrounded by flags and other symbols of patriotism every day of our lives, so for me, I don't feel the urge to also stitch them. And as such, my stash of patriotic designs is almost nonexistent. 

However.

I am getting excited about our 250th birthday next year! And our 250th year starts today! So, since I have plenty of time on my hands and nothing else I need to stitch (that was a joke) I've decided to throw in a few patriotic designs here and there over the next year. Since I really don't have any, I've been on the hunt and I've found some I really like. I'm interested to see what designers come up with to celebrate our 250th. 

I was just barely old enough to remember the Bicentennial and can remember it being a very exciting time. We were stationed on Guam at the time. I would never have imagined that 50 years later I would be a military wife myself. I'm looking forward to stitching a new-to-me theme and sharing them with you. Stay tuned!

Happy Stitching and Happy Independence Day!

Spring Tiny Village

Behold! A finish! Y'all, this pretty little spring village by Crocette a gogo took me two months of a few stitches here and there when I felt like it. Finally done! I had been eyeing the winter village for a while but I must confess I was a little weirded out by the giant snowmen. I loved the spring village and picked that up immediately. There's now a summer village in the series, and I've noticed the summer issue of Punch Needle & Primitive Stitcher magazine has another version of summer village that has a patriotic American theme. I may stitch that, haven't decided yet. I may go ahead and stitch the winter village as well. Of course, what I'm really waiting for is the autumn village. I hope I like it. 

Anyway, thought I'd share this charming series for those who like series and seasonal stitching. These would be nice for summer travel: easy, only a few colors, bigger than an ornament but not too big for a small bag.

Happy Stitching!

Summer of Finishing: Christmas

 

My Summer of Finishing is well underway! How exciting! (Well, for me anyway!) I decided to start with Christmas because wow, do I have a backlog of unfinished Christmas stuff! 

First up is this cheery little fellow I stitched last Christmas when we were in Texas. He's from this Etsy shop, which has the cutest animal designs on Etsy, hands down. I stitched a bunch of them for my 2021 Christmas Open House. He's stitched on 32 ct. Weeks Red Pear.

Next is this adorable wee Christmas mole. I stitched him on 32 ct. grey Basalt Splash and since he looks like he burrowed right out of a Dickens novel, I used a very fussy trim that makes me think of the trim on a Victorian lady's dress.

Cardinal Santa by Mill Hill. I rarely stitch Mill Hill kits but every time I do I wonder why I don't do more of them. They always turn out so pretty. The red paper is what I used to finish him. (Here's my tutorial for finishing perforated paper.)

And finally, Winter Treasures from a now-closed Etsy shop called Homestitchness. I did some poking around and found the designer is on Instagram and Facebook, but I don't know if she still sells her designs. I stitched this several years ago, on 32 ct. Butter Pecan.

Stay tuned... more on the way!

Makin' Stuff

It is so nice to be making a mess in my sewing room again after such a long time. Thank you for all your sweet comments and well wishes. One of the things I'm told often is how this little blog is a quiet stop on your regular walks around the web and that you worry when I'm not here. I worry when I'm not here, too! This is one of my happy places and I miss it when I can't be here. Thanks for being patient with me. We're back!

And we're makin' stuff. Nothing amazing. Just little things I use in my stitching. Remember those beautiful Czech glass beads I was going on about in this post? I finally got a few maids-of-all-work made (link to those in that post) and also some lemony counting pins and a lemon slice needle minder. Very summery.

Speaking of needle minders, I haven't made any in a long time. While I was digging around in my finishing stash I ran across some pictures I had saved from the envelopes that Lang calendars come in. On the back of the envelope, all the months of the year are shown in very small pictures. I saved them thinking they might make pretty needle minders. I also got out my 1" round punch, some 1" wooden disks, some Diamond Glaze, and some magnets. 

Pretty new needle minders for summer!

The Diamond Glaze gives them a nice, shiny finish.

This one reminds me a little of sweet Tiger Lily.

I'm also elbow-deep in finishing and will have some things to share soon... it's extremely Christmassy in the sewing room!

Happy Stitching!

Saturday Sampler: Summer Of... Edition

 

Y'all.

Okay, nevermind. Let's just look at pictures first. Then we'll talk about the train wreck I have been.

I am ever so proud to share some little framing projects! Y'all have no idea (well, you might in a few minutes) what an accomplishment these are for me. Cookies for everyone in celebration! 

A couple of additions to my beautiful bird collection: American Kestrel by Crossed Wing Collection (28 ct. PTP Eek) and First Snow by Sprouting Lupine (28 ct. Twilight Mist Jobelan). 

And a couple more wee projects: Pansy Petals by Just Nan (32 ct. Weeks Lilac) and a baby fox from an Etsy shop that no longer exists (32 ct. Murano Fleur).

Back in 2020 I started my "Summer of..." tradition where I choose a theme and spend the summer working on it. I think I've only missed one year.

2020: Summer of Halloween

2021: Summer of the WIP

2022: Summer of Me (emotional repair work during an extremely tough year)

2023: *frantically working on big 10th annual Christmas Open House*

2024: Summer Birds

Sooo... I've been staring--with a mixture of longing and frustration--at an embarrassingly large pile of finishing and framing work. Back in the early spring, I dragged it all out, arranged it by category, photographed it (for reference during shopping trips), and fully intended to tackle it without delay. And then we had a bereavement in mid-March that leveled us. Immediately after the funeral I got sick and was down for a month. 

I think this is where we left off last time.

Ten days after my last post, I got food poisoning and when I tell you it absolutely destroyed my system... y'all. I have been sick more in the last few months than I have been in the last ten years. Food poisoning. Come ON. So I had to struggle back from that for a while. Then I had to re-catch-up on the stuff I didn't get done around the house. 

Needless to say, absolutely zero sewing room playtime has happened and almost zero stitching. Since I have been going bonkers looking at that finishing pile, I decided this year is my Summer of Finishing. I'm almost afraid to type this because Every Single Time I do this something goes pear-shaped and I don't get anything done, but... there it is.

2025: Summer of Finishing. 

These 4 little framed projects are my start. How far will I get? Who knows? Am I worried about it? Nope. Did I thoroughly enjoy a few hours working away in my sewing room? Yep. Am I happy to have something to share with y'all? Always.

Someone smart once said, "You don't have to be perfect, you just have to start." And start I did. Wish me luck!

Before I get back to work, here are some werewolf pics. 

Bonus bunny pic

I apologize for being gone so long. Thank you for sticking with me, and to those who checked on me, through comments and email. It's been one of those seasons.

Hope to be back soon with more finishes.

Spring Fog

 

I'm still here! I figured I'd better show proof of life before some of y'all called out the dogs! Thankfully, I am fully recovered from whatever virus I had, but I was sick for a solid month. A number of people have told me they or someone they know had a similar experience this spring with something that just hung on for weeks. At the time of my last post I had been sick for about two weeks and thought I was nearly done with it. Little did I know I was only halfway through. I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to catch up on things that I didn't get done while I was sick. Between losing our friend in mid-March and getting sick immediately after the funeral, I feel like I've lost the entire spring. It's like I've been in a fog for the last two months. 

I finally picked up my stitching again a few days ago. I was so busy trying to catch up with other things, I didn't feel I could just sit and stitch, but I eventually got enough done to slow down a bit. I wanted something bright and pretty to work on in these last few weeks of spring. More about my project when I get a little further along. 

Speaking of projects, I've been doing a lot of planning for Christmas Open House. This year's theme is chosen, of course, but also 2026 and 2027. I've been going through my stash and also doing a little shopping to fill in gaps. Next year's theme is going to be really special and I'll probably start working on it alongside work on this year's Open House, as soon as I get all my supplies together. So exciting!

Of course, throughout this spring fog I've had my girls. They've fully mastered their nursemaid duties at the tender age of two and a half. They are ever so affectionate and snuggly and purry. 

Mr. Wonderful was TDY last week and we were unsupervised. If you've been reading here for a while, you probably know that when I'm left unsupervised I always use the time as an opportunity to catch up on finishing or something stitchy. This time I was using it to catch up on housework. Boooo. I have my finishing all laid out in my sewing room and not being able to get at it is driving me nuts. I'll get there eventually, I guess.

So that's the update from our house. I'm recovered and back to stitching and pretty much caught up on housework. Mr. Wonderful is home safe. Babies are sweet and snuggly. Hope all is well with y'all. I'm so far behind on reading blogs and need to catch up on that, as well. 

See you soon. Happy Stitching!

Recovery Stitching

 

Well, that didn't go as planned! In my last post I mentioned I was about to get into some finishing and framing. Even as I was typing that post on Saturday, I had had a sore throat for a few days and had lost my voice. But I had no other symptoms, so I wasn't bothering about it much.

And then Monday, the worst head cold I have ever had knocked me flat. After suffering all week with useless cold medicines, I discovered you can still get real cold medicine from the pharmacist if you show ID and sign for it. Did you know the FDA has known for 20 years that the active ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicine doesn't work when taken orally? For you young 'uns, back in the day, you could have a cold and still function because cold medicine actually worked. Then the FDA required the removal of the ingredient that did the trick, and the replacement ingredient has never worked. It isn't that it wasn't as good, it literally never worked. Anyway, off went Mr. Wonderful to get some real medicine for me and what a difference that made. 

I carefully avoid ranting on my blog, but I had to make an exception here in the interest of preventing needless suffering and wasting money on medicine that doesn't work. Perhaps everyone knows the good stuff is available behind the counter if you're willing to sign for it like the old fashioned poison books, but I didn't. I almost never get sick and when I do, it's usually not much of anything, so less-than-effective cold medicine hasn't been an issue for me. But this cold... wow. I was desperate for relief, so I started doing some research, namely, "WHY doesn't all this medicine work?!" Needless to say, I was pretty angry when I read the article I linked above.

So I've been sick for a couple of weeks and got nothing done. I didn't even stitch until this past weekend. I still wasn't feeling great but I needed something small to work on so I pulled out this little sweetie and stitched him up. Isn't he cute? 

I think I'm finally starting to get over this, but slowly. And if you're wondering, I did test negative for Covid, never had any fever or aches, but did have that lovely burning in my nose and eyes that goes with a good ol' rip snorter of a head cold. I think I caught it at the funeral (there were 300+ people there) and my suspicion is that I was exposed more than once and got a very high viral load, which is what caused it to be so bad.

Apologies for being so far off topic, but I felt the need for a Public Service Announcement. Also, product endorsement: Puffs Plus Lotion tissues have saved my poor nose.

Y'all stay well and Happy Stitching!

Saturday Sampler: Spring Stitchy Goodies Edition

 

Happy Saturday, y'all! Got a few new things over the last couple of months so it's time to share and enable! 

First up, for my birthday I got a couple of new floss organizers. I absolutely love these things and have a collection of the 12 and 20 bobbin sizes. This time I splurged a little (30% off sale!) and got a 25 bobbin size (the white one). These are hands down my favorite way to organize DMC for a project and they come in lots of sizes. She has sales fairly regularly. 

It's sparkly!

Next, Market goodies! I don't usually get much from Market, some years just the cookbook, so this year is kind of a haul for me. 

I literally gasped when I saw that Blue Flower bird design and couldn't wait for it to get here! It's such a perfect addition to my bird display!

Speaking of birds, this beautiful hand painted fabric is Woodland by Crossed Wing Collection. It's for a bird project. It was impossible to photograph accurately so I had to actually fiddle with the color, which I never do. 

I found some very pretty Czech glass beads to make counting pins & maids-of-all-work. I'm a little picky about the size and feel of the beads I use for those (the maids, not the pins) and these are ideal.

The perfect size, complete with a small indentation that fits my finger so nicely! Don't you love it when you find *exactly* what you're looking for, even if it's just a little bead? Makes me so happy.

And those are my latest goodies. I've spent almost no time in my sewing room over the last few weeks. In mid-March, we unexpectedly lost a dear friend and the shock and grief have been a bit staggering. I know many of y'all know this feeling. I've settled down somewhat now and am looking forward to pulling out my pile of finishing and making a giant mess in my sewing room. I find the finishing process very absorbing and therapeutic--if I have the brains for it! I think I need that at the moment. 

Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have some pretty things to share with you. In the meantime...

Bonus Pretty Werewolves!

Wilbur Wednesday: He's Finished!

What a fun stitch! Here's Wilbur, in all his toofy, goofy glory! He's available in this Etsy shop. I stitched him with the recommended DMC on 32 ct Sandbar by Under the Sea Fabrics.

Sunday Smile

 

Have a great week, y'all!