September Smalls

 Only one small was completed this month but it was an important one and all my other ideas were pushed into the background. I originally planned on stitching some new autumn or Halloween smalls. I even have some lovely new (to me) designs by Early Workes the I especially ordered for this purpose. 

While I was checking out my new purchases, I noticed a pile of loose charts that I had put aside on one of the shelves in my cross stitch room. So I pulled out the charts to have a look at them and figure out why they hadn't been filed away yet. Perhaps they were being considered for future stitches? As I looked through them I came across one in particular called Oh Mother Dear, designed by The Sampler Girl. Bells started madly ringing in my mind as I realized that this particular chart was based on the children's tale, The Three Little Kittens. 

Why was this so important? Well, it just so happened that my daughter-in-law's baby shower was coming up mid month and instead of including cards with our gift we were asked to bring a copy of our favourite childhood book. Yep, you guessed it! Mine was The Three Little Kittens! It's no longer in print but I had found a copy in excellent condition from an antique book shop on Etsy.

Having come across this particular chart was absolutely perfect. I decided to stitch it to accompany the book. I've included a pic of the original chart to show you. The poem is based on three kittens who lost their mittens and therefore should have no pie. The original chart includes the kittens and the mittens but also a key. I replaced that key with a small cross stitched pie since it's an integral part of the story. I also personalized the design with my initals, the year and the baby's initials. The addition of a small heart button completed the piece which I finished into a small pillow to place on the shelf in the baby's room. I found the perfect backing fabric for it in my stash too!

I think perhaps that this book may have influenced me more than I realized. Take a look at the illustration on the final page. Could it have anything to do with my current obsession?!

The chart for this piece was very simple and didn't take long to complete but my month has been taken up with working on the birth sampler, a couple of other samplers and then a trip home to Windsor, Ontario to check on my mother who turned 90 in late August. 

This pic was taken with my niece. I loved the balloons and the Birthday Girl badge that they pinned to her shirt.

It's very unfortunate that my middle sister and her family were unable to join us because they live in the US and the border remains closed between the US and Canada due to the pandemic.

Watch for my WIPocalypse post in a few days to see the rest of the stitching which has been occupying my time. See you then!

November Small SAL and WIPocalypse

The full moon (WIPocalypse) and Smalls SAL both fall on the same date this month for reporting so this will be a combined report. I'll start off with the smalls.

It's been a few years since I have stitched any ornaments for my granddaughters so I decided that I should get back to that this year.
They're getting older and are more interested in my stitching now. I decided to do 2 ornaments taken from the Prairie Schooler Evergreen leaflet.

The girls were here this past weekend for a visit so I gave them to them to take home so they could put them on their tree before Christmas rather than wait until they saw me during the Christmas holiday. They loved them and have already picked out which ornies they want me to stitch next year!

My next small finish was a new design by Lori Ripley of Homespun Prims. It's called A White Christmas and I plan on making it into a pin pillow.

In addition to stitching the above designs, I finished off two designs that I had stitched sometime during the past 2 years. I found these sweet little tins in my friend's gift shop. They actually had chalkboards in the center for writing a message but as soon as I saw them I knew they would work for a cross stitch finish.

This is Little Women Christmas by The Sampler Girl. I finished this for a birthday gift for a stitching friend. Unfortunately I don't think these designs are available any longer.

 
 This is So This Is Christmas, designed by Jenny Hoffman of Country Rustic Primitives.

When I saw how easily these finishes came together, I headed back to my friend's shop and bought the remainder of her tins. I plan on doing several more of these.

For WIPocalypse this month I have concentrated on two designs......Plum Street Samplers Autumn Fraktur and Kathy Barrick And Heaven and Nature Sing. Here are some updated progress pics.

 

And Heaven and Nature Sing is part of a SAL which I'm doing with some of the stitchers from the Facebook group Prim Stitchers Society. This piece is done in Needlepoint Silks. I chose to use up some Vikki Clayton silks that I had in my stash. It didn't take me long to figure out that I was going to run out of the dark brown silk. So what I have done is to stitch in one direction with a slightly lighter brown silk and then go back over it with the darker brown. It's working out pretty well so far and I should have just enough silk to finish this off but it will be close! I will be using red beads instead of stitches for some of the area within the wreath around the deer's neck.

That's pretty much it as far as stitching is concerned for this month. As the holiday season creeps nearer and nearer there will be less time for stitching. I will probably just work on some more small finishes until the new year.

We were treated to a rare sight this past week. Our area is on the flight path for the migration of the Snow Goose so we often see them flying over or at a distance in a farmer's field. This year though they decided to settle in a pond at a gravel pit just up the highway from us. They were there several days in a row so I managed to get some great pics.

It was a real treat to get so close to these beautiful birds as they make their way south for the winter. I look forward to seeing them on the return trip again in the spring.

Last weekend my son and granddaughters dropped by so that we could celebrate the youngest's birthday. Summer will be 9 on the 27th. I was supposed to drive to their home (a 3 hr drive) but as some of you may know I have been ill off and on since late September. A cold and sinus infection lowered my immunity and then things progressed into viral pneumonia and bronchitis. I'm slowly recovering but I'm trying to avoid crowds right now so I don't pick up anything else. So Jeff and the girls landed in Saturday night and we had a very short but sweet visit.

 

I will take this time to wish all of my friends and family in the U.S. a very Happy Thanksgiving!! We Canadians celebrated ours in October but I know I always looked forward to watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on T.V. I know there were several times when we played sick as kids so that we could stay home from school and watch it!  Enjoy your day my friends!!

February Smalls SAL

It's been a very snowy month since my January post so I thought it only fitting that I stitch up these two sweet winter pillows.
Both are designs from The Sampler Girl. They were quick stitches and I love how they turned out!

 It's hard to tell from these photos but the fabric I stitched these on is an opalescent. I wanted the effect of snow in my background. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll add a hanger to either of these. I have thought it would look great on Gone Sledding. I could hang it in my entry way and greet my guests with my message!

Here's a pic of my latest finishing project. You may recall I stitched this last year and it's been hiding in a drawer ever since. The design called for a small skeleton key charm with it but I found this cute little birdhouse charm sitting in my stash. Perfect! It was time to get this sweet one on display.

I'm already looking at some St. Paddy's Day stitches or perhaps another spring or Easter themed small for next month. I find it easiest to start work on something for the next month right after I've posted this month's finishes. That way they get completed on time, right down to the final finishing.  See you next month!

It's Not All That Bad!

Stitching on 35ct that is! For weeks now I've been putting off starting With Thy Needle & Thread Birds of a Feather. You may remember that this is the piece that my friend chose for me to stitch for her as a thank you gift for all the time I spent using her sewing machine. She really preferred the 35ct which I had never stitched on before this. So fabric and floss were ordered and then promptly banished to the drawer of kitted projects once I got a look at the fabric up close. "There's just no way!", were my thoughts. "My eyes can't take working on such a high count."  Would she even notice the difference if I ordered the 30ct and stitched on that, I wondered. Yeah, she would, if only because I didn't want her too!

So this week, after finishing up Maisonnette aux Fraises, I dug it out of the drawer and with a determined attitude, I forged ahead. To my surprise, the stitching started off smoothly and continued in this way just as long as I didn't remove my little magnifiers. Okay, I can live with this! It's going so smoothly in fact that I'm even considering giving the 40ct a try in the near future. 

I didn't start off with the border on this as so many did but rather the centre which is my preference. So here's my progress so far.

I'm using the fabric and floss called for by the pattern. I will really be glad to be done with the tree though. I'm bored with the two colours already and anxious to move on.

As I mentioned above, I also had a finish with my Maisonnette aux Fraises. I love the cheery colours in this one but haven't yet decided how I want to finish things off.

Speaking of finishing, I also had another first last week. For the first time I sewed up a pillow using my very own sewing machine!
I haven't threaded a machine since highschool home economics class so my friend and neighbour, Michelle, came over to get me started. She went through the basics with me, checked out the tension and then had me practise following the seam allowance as I sewed.  When I'd gathered enough confidence, we brought out the pillow to be finished off for my giveaway. I can still use a little more practise but I was pretty pleased with the results. I only hope that Daffycat is!  The design is by The Sampler Girl and I added two of the lovely pins which I'd purchased from Nataly. It's winging its way to you as I write, Sharon.

The Sampler Girl Busy Nothings

The weather here continues to be hot and humid. Last night the weatherman promised rain but so far only a small downpour has taken place and the sun is out once more. So for now I sit in air-conditioned comfort and think of so many who don't have this luxury. The gazebo remains too hot to sit in during the day but I do manage to stitch there in the early morning with my coffee and again in the evening when the sun starts to go down.

Thank you for all of your well wishes. My bronchitis seems to be on the way out now and I'm feeling much better. Now I'm off to do a bit of straightening up. We had a successful garage sale on the weekend and there is still some cleanup remaining from it. Enjoy your day!

And the winners are.......!

Before I show you who the winners of my giveaway are I expect I should show you the prizes, right?
First up, the stitched item. I stitched whenever I had a chance this weekend in order to get this finished by today. Although the stitching is now completed, I haven't had the time for the final finishing. This will be done within the next few days. I've set myself a deadline to have this mailed out by the end of the week.
This will be a pinpillow when completed. It's resting on the fabric I'll be using for the finishing. The design is from The Sampler Girl and is titled Busy Nothings and as the pattern reads, is inspired by Jane Austen's verse from Mansfield Park that reads:
It was a quick succession of busy nothings.

The Sampler Girl Busy Nothings

I changed up a couple of the colours required in this because I didn't have what was needed in my stash. 


Second prize: Some finishing fabrics from my local fabric store and a package of adorable bug buttons.

Third prize: A pair of bunny scissors and some retro buttons.

Sorry I didn't get these pics up earlier. After I announced the giveaway I came down with a nasty case of bronchitis so I didn't feel like doing much of anything. A good dose of antibiotics and cough syrup has me on the mend now and I'm feeling much better.


Now for what you've all been waiting for! I decided to use a sequence number generator to pick the numbers for me. This way none of the numbers get put back in the pot for draw 2 and 3.
Here's the sequence it picked. As it says, the numbers are generated from left to right across the columns. If you click on the pic you can read this better.

So are winners are:

First prize: comment #34 - Daffycat
Second prize: comment #2 - Beth
Third prize: comment #26 - Mindi

Ladies if you could please email me your snail mail address I promise I'll get these off to you by the end of the week. You can find my email in my profile. Keep in mind that Canada Post doesn't break any speed records with its mail. Your parcel should arrive in 2-3 weeks.


Thanks to all of you for participating in my giveaway. I enjoyed hearing how you love to spend your summers. It seems there are a lot of gardeners out there. I'm not sure if there are any gardens left though after all this heat! I hope you all have a wonderful week!