Signs of Spring

The early spring sunshine has found Tiger Lily.

The hosta is finally peeking through the earth.

The tree outside my sewing room window is putting out its little red buds.

The day lilies are awake.

Aaaaaaaand... it's snowing.

{sigh}

Bliss

The best days are the days when the mailman brings stash, especially when two orders come on the same day, and when you've been waiting for one of them for two months! Here are the new charts that came today.  Notice there are some more of Cathy Jean's little baby critters in there!

And here's the fabric I'll be using for Brooke Nolan's Advent Animals. It's 28 ct. Cashel Blue Whisper. Much prettier than the picture. It's a very soft, mottled blue.

So today I've been pulling colors for the first animal in that freebie series, Katie Kitty, and also for my next quilt square for Cole's Quilts. A couple of months ago, Linda Z (who makes all the beautiful quilts) said she was foregoing the deadlines for a while because she was somewhat behind getting the quilts made, but she still needed stitchers for about 20 children. In a moment of madness, I signed up to stitch for six kids. Six. What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking, "Hey, no deadlines!" I figured surely I could finish one per month. I got February's square for Ava finished, but I haven't even started March's square for Logan. Today I pulled colors for his green dinosaur. The chart is for a blue dinosaur, but he liked green, so a green dinosaur it will be. I hope to finish it before the end of the month so I can triumphantly claim I'm still on schedule... at least for my Cole's Quilts commitment.

Here's the Stitchy Supervisor helping choose greens that coordinate with the light sea green Aida I'm using.

It's a gorgeous spring day out there...

First Day of {ahem} "Spring"

SnowPatrick's Day

We have 7-8" of new snow on the ground. Spring starts on Thursday.  Allegedly.

So I haven't picked up a needle in almost two weeks, which is why my little blog has been so quiet. I'm really far behind with this month's stitching goals but I do have one little finish to show off. Here's the Button Up Birdies Cardinal. I have two birds left in this series and I'll be caught up. Two. T-w-o. Two. 

And now that I have the end of this series in sight, what am I about to begin? Guess.

Yup. Another series. Have you seen Brooke Nolan's Advent Animals series? So, so cute... and even better... free! And fits in perfectly with my Christmas year. It began this month and runs until October 2015. One--sometimes two--critters a month, for a total of 25 little Christmas animals. Twenty-five. I think it's safe to say that if I fall behind with these I might never catch up! Stay tuned to follow my progress, and chime in if you'll be stitching them, too.

SAL Update: The High Seas

I'm all the way down to the waterline! Putting the whitecaps on the waves, then on to the keel.

In Which I Defy Winter...

...and dress up my blog for spring, even though we have another winter storm staring us in the face. *sigh*

We're ready to come out of hibernation.

Correction: Some of us are ready to come out of hibernation.

Miss Pinky

Here's Brooke Nolan's Pinky the Peppermint Angel, minus the wings and her little goodies, which are stitched but not cut out yet. 

I'm on track for my Christmas year! If you can call two whole months being "on track." Pinky is my Christmas finish for the month of February, and so far I'm still looking forward to working on all my little Christmas projects, but what I'm not looking forward to is more winter. It snowed today--just a little--and is supposed to snow a little more tonight, and maybe a lot more next week. I don't know about y'all but I'm looking forward to spring! With that in mind, a little spring-y stash in anticipation of some of next month's projects:

That's a skein of Caron Wildflowers-Cantaloupe (I can never spell that word without looking it up!) and that pretty bluish lavender Kreinik is #9294. Aren't they pretty?

And finally, is GAST Buckeye Scarlet the best red ever?

Yes.



Happy Stitching!

Poodle-y

A Cole's Quilts finish for a little girl who loves dogs and puppies.

Happy Valentine's Day

Snow day!

Last night: Tiger Lily excitedly waiting for the big winter storm and a snow day!

Four o'clock this morning: Snowing like mad. 

Eight o'clock this morning: Snowed in!

Snow day = Stitchy day! Ready with my tea...

... and a square for Cole's Quilts.

Does it get any better than this? 

Nope.

Birdies, Babies, and Baby Birdies

Remember all those Woodland Babies (Victoria Sampler) I stitched up last year? Well, there are two new leaflets, Woodland Birdies and Farmyard Babies. Here's my first finish from Woodland Birdies, the owl.

I seem to be addicted to Cathy Jean's birds and little critters. I've got three birds left to stitch in her Button Up Birdies series, two more Woodland Birdies, and three Farmyard Babies. The question is, can I get them stitched before she releases any more new ones? Every time I am almost caught up, new designs appear, and I remain... not caught up. But this is a good thing. Always something to look forward to, always something to busy the hands and quiet the mind.

Back to birds...

SAL Update: Hoist the black flag!

The masts are finished!

I think it's a Christmas year.

So when I did my stitchy planning for 2014--I always do stitchy planning for the coming year in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day--I decided to tackle my little pile of Christmas designs. I don't think of myself as particularly drawn to Christmas designs, but over the years I've accumulated a tidy little collection of them, almost all of which are ornament-size. My plan is to spend this year whittling down my pile of Christmas smalls. We'll see if I'm still feeling Christmas-y by April. 

Here's my 2013 Christmas ornament, Brooke Nolan's Ho Ho Santa from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. Yes, I'm a month late. But my neighbors still have their Christmas lights up, so there's that.

I liked this little Santa because he looks like an elf... "a right jolly old elf" (The Night Before Christmas) and most Santas don't. I hadn't worked with the DMC Memory Thread before and was a little skeptical I could reproduce the look of the model, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's easier to work with than I thought it would be. Also, if you're on pins and needles about the glue I used, it was Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue (purple label). It's great stuff. Instant stick.

Happy Stitching!

Happy Birthday, Panda!

Happy Birthday to the Stitchy Cousin!

In celebration of her dual obsession--cross stitch and pandas--here's a sweet little panda freebie. 

Cake for everyone!

Pretty Little Blue Haired Girl

And if you're going to have blue hair, it may as well be sparkly, too. I finally finished Wendy (Brooke's Books) and she took me the better part of two weeks! She has a fancy little hat that I haven't stitched yet, but I wanted to show her off without it anyway so you could see her pretty blue hair.

Here she is in all her glory.

A dainty little skate and a beaded hem and petticoats.

The pictures really don't do her justice. She's so sparkly and frosty looking. And speaking of a pretty girl whose pictures don't do her justice...

Winter Blues

"Blues" as in the color, not the mood. I love winter, love snow (in inches--not in feet), love being "stuck" at home. I don't love blue, which seems to be the go-to color for 90% of winter designs, so I'm always converting my winter designs to pale green, which I do love. But! I am   working on a winter design with lots of pretty blues--Brooke Nolan's Wendy Winter.

Why are most winter designs blue? Because this:

Look at all that blue! This is the view from my sewing room window today. It's frigid out there. Here's Tiger Lily watching the birds have their breakfast this morning.

Sweet little bird prints.

Back to Wendy... and my blanket!

Happy New Year!

My first finish of 2014. This is a freebie which can be found here. I stitched mine on 28 ct. raw opalescent linen with DMC 5200, Kreinik pearl, and Threadworx 011471 and 01087. The snowflakes are Mill Hill Treasures.

Can you tell how sparkly this is? You know we are all about sparkly on this blog.

Wishing you a Happy New Year with tons of finishes!

Happy Stitching!

Finally, a finish!

Finally! It seems like forever since I've had a finish to show off! It's Mr. Wonderful's Christmas ornament for this year, "Small Town Christmas" by Julia Lucas from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. This little thing took me waaaaay longer than I hoped it would, but it's done. Late, but done. It's stitched in DMC on 32 ct. Winter Sky. 

Merry Christmas!

First Day of Winter