Back in the car, everybody! Last leg of the road trip and we're off to The Badlands of South Dakota!
Badlands National Park, South Dakota:
...to bring you a couple of Christmas ornament finishes! Consider this a rest stop and stock up on snacks and stuff. Or stash.
If you're new here, we have a tradition at our house where every year Mr. Wonderful and I each choose an ornament from the current issue of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Special Issue and I stitch them up. We've been doing this since we married in 2000, so our collection of stitched ornaments is pretty big now and we put them on their own tree. Here are this year's ornaments, ready for finishing.
Mr. Wonderful's choice:
*stitched on 32 ct. grey/white Basalt Splash by Zweigart (love this stuff, available at 123 Stitch)
*Since I went with grey, "snowy" fabric, I omitted the white swirly bits.
*I stitched the berry sprigs with DMC Etoile for a bit of sparkle. The twigs are C3799 and the berries are C814.
*I went a bit lighter on the backstitching and used DMC 3799 instead of black, and also used only one strand for all the backstitching, whereas the model called for two strands in some places.
*****
And my choice this year. When this issue came out, I knew I'd be stitching this buffalo. We've had our trip to South Dakota planned since the spring and I had been so looking forward to seeing buffalo on the Plains. It was just as spectacular as I'd hoped, and this year's Christmas ornament couldn't be any more perfect.
Road trip resumes shortly!
Buckle up! We're back on the road! Wanna see Mount Rushmore from every possible angle? Of course you do!
First peek through the trees of the Black Hills National Forest:
Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota:
Bonus goodies! Picked up this great Mount Rushmore needle minder (and an adorable Santa fox!) from this Etsy shop as a reminder of our trip. These are on the larger side for needle minders and are great as scissors holders as well.
Just got home from a much-needed road trip. We were supposed to go in the spring, but had to cancel when the military issued an all-stop on travel due to the pandemic. Prepare for vacation pics!
Scottsbluff, Nebraska:
The High Plains:
Custer State Park, South Dakota:
A finish! This is Autumn is Coming Mini Quaker (available here) stitched on 32 ct. Flax with the recommended threads, except I did swap GAST Pebble for GAST Parchment.
Two things, if you stitch this:
1) If you have to buy your threads online, you're probably going to see photos of the two purples and think, "That can't be right. Those are dark grey." I was a little concerned that the threads I was seeing online (I checked several shops) were not the beautiful smokey purples in the model. But they are, they're just really hard to photograph.
2) If you're stitching this 2 over 2 on something other than the recommended 1 strand on 40 ct. linen, get TWO skeins of the Weeks Stepping Stone, just to be on the safe side. I'm pretty frugal with my thread, and I didn't run out, but I did come close.
This is my first Quaker, and while I'm not wild about the Quaker style in general, this one just spoke to me. I adore the colors, I love the unique shape, and it was a fun, relatively quick stitch. I may pester the designer to give us the other three seasons!
Happy Stitching!
Grab a cup of tea and settle in, I have a lot to share! I was getting together some photos for a post and the number kept growing and growing. I thought about splitting them into a few different posts, and then I thought, "Nah. I'll just do one big, happy, autumn-y post!"
Snuggle down... I've got a WIP, a wee finish, retail therapy finds, fall displays, fall freebies, and even a recipe. Here we go!
