Older's Cross Stitch Work-In-Progress

A Work In Progress and Completed Stitcheries

Clouds have lingered these past few days. Today the sun shined through, just for a bit before sunset, enough to take a few pictures of my projects ;-). 

Above is where I'm at on my Give Thanks project from Stitches from the Harvest book by Kathy Schmitz. Done with the chain stitch on the yellow pods, and practically 2/3 done with the brown stems/branches. Might work a bit more on it this weekend.

These, above, are all the completed stitcheries, and the WIP on the first picture.

Above is this month's One Stitch at a Time design. It was stitched by my daughter on a flour sack kitchen towel by Colonial Patterns. She used DMC threads.

From these ones, the Quilt on the Line and the Hop Along Stitches were also stitched by my daughter. She used Artiste variegated thread in Sugar Plum, and for the house with the quilt she used variegated Valdani 3ply thread in color M66. The other two were stitched by me. Fruit basket was August's One Stitch at a Time design, stitched with DMC Color Variations no.4129. For Skippy's Green Jumper I used DMC Color Variations no.4068, all these patterns are by Kathy Schmitz and available as PDFs on her shop (link at the end of post).
Last but not least is Mrs. Gardening Hen, my daughter stitched this towel as well!

Teaching her a bit about finances, I commissioned this towel from her. The colors were the ones requested and she did a nice job on it.... cash well earned! She did so much stitching this summer that it rekindled her interest in hand embroidery, even said that she was enjoying it! I thought to myself: "Mission Accomplished!" ;-) By the way the pattern for the hen is Aunt Martha's no.3942.
Maybe next time I have some cross stitch progress to show, also hoping to finished an English Paper Piecing project from last year's autumn. Enjoy the weekend! Until next time!

Notes:
Kathy Schmitz's Etsy Shop 

Skippy, August OSTC, Give Thanks, Harvest, and Count Your Blessings

Stopping briefly to add a better update on current projects.
Above is the actual progress (mentioned on previous post) on the Count Your Blessings by Country Cottage Needleworks cross stitch design. No current progress on that one. You can also see the Bitzy Bob 2 recently purchased from ThatsSoKelly on Etsy to keep my cross stitch project work in progress floss organized, handy and portable. Recently placed an order for the original Bitzy Bob for my small hand embroidery projects, like the Once Stitch at a Time Club monthly embroidery patterns by Kathy Schmitz. It fits in my purse or just in bare hands nicely, and it is very light.

Above, ready to go, is the Give Thanks design also by Kathy Schmitz, from her book Stitches from the Harvest. It is the project pictured on the book cover. Used a Sublime Stitching iron on transfer pen to traced the design after it was printed. Traced from the back in order to keep the same orientation as the original, then ironed onto Moda Crackle (color: Linen) fabric. Didn't need to use the light box or a window, just placed a white sheet of paper behind the printed one and it was easy to see for me to trace. Will be using the DMC conversion instead of the designer threads called for.

It's been stormy/rainy here these past few days, so the picture above and below don't show as well. Haven't been able to keep making progress in any of my embroidery WIPs or start new ones because my hands are a bit sore, but will show you these two littles, above, that were finished few days ago: Grateful Bounty (August 2018 One Stitch at a Time Club design), and Skippy's Green Jumper 3" design (PDF on Kathy's shop). Need to dissolve the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Hoping to start on Harvest (PDF on Kathy's shop) soon along with the Give Thanks, that's the one you can peek on my tablet. I guess preparing projects count as progress! ;-)

Also my daughter is helping me out with the stitching of the September's 2018 One Stitch at a Time Club design. Printed on Sticky Fabri-Solvy, now called Stick'n Stitch by Sulky. She's doing a great job, if I may say so myself ;-)... look only the squirrel left and she started it yesterday. This one is enlarged, printed onto Stick'n Stitch, and pasted onto a white flour sack kitchen towel by Colonial Patterns. My daughter is using DMC to embroider it.
As I have mentioned before, I do not stitch for holidays since we do not celebrate them, but totally love doing seasonal stitcheries... all these patterns are perfect for this upcoming Fall/Autumn months! What is best, I might be on schedule to finish all of them on time! Take care! Until next time!

Dd's Earth Embroidery Project

After 2:00AM and I am still awake thanks to a terrible chest pain caused by wicked acid reflux mixed with the feeling that I've swallowed an inflated balloon :-(. 

To cheer things up a bit let me share my oldest's latest embroidery project!
About three weeks ago my oldest dd was learning about the Solar System.
In addition to the various activities in her curriculum, she also asked to embroider a planet... her favorite, Earth!

A while back I added this embroidery pattern (by Wild Olive) to my stash, dd used it to trace planet Earth into a piece of a Sticky Fabri Solvy and pasted it onto a black t-shirt. This was her very first time stitching on this type of material and she got a bit discouraged. I promised to give her some pointers, but since we have been so busy lately we have not had a chance to go over them. Perhaps this coming week!

Hopefully she will endure and finish embroidering Earth!
PS: Mollie has a freebie of another version of only planet Earth on her blog. Just in case your favorite planet it's also Earth ;-)!

Just A Couple

As promised, here are my daughter's
wip's. She only have two!

The 1st one is from the same Aunt Martha's transfer that I used
a couple of months ago,
here and here.
She is stitching on a floursack towel (aka: dish / kitchen / tea towel) from the same company. She is stitching this one as a thank you gift for family friends that we went
to visit few weeks ago.

Her second work-in-progress
embroidery project is the
Barney Park printed stitch sampler
from Charlotte Lyons.
We are kind of stitching along
on this one :-).

Here is a picture of her
finished Fridge Magnet alphabet after washing off the Sticky Fabri Solvy
and ironing it a bit.
This one is a Sublime Stitching pattern. We were kind of stitching
along on this one too but she
beat me on it, lol.
She wants to make her baby sister
a doll quilt with it!

Next time it will be my turn to
do a bit of show and tell ;-)!

Dd's Embroidered Alphabet and Stash

I've been a bit under the weather so today it's all about showing and telling
about my daughter.

My little one completed her alphabet back in September! I'm so proud of her! Now I'm the one that needs to find the time to finish mine.
She wants to complete her other wip's: a towel and the Barney Park sampler. Then she says she'll like to go through her stash and stitch from
patterns / transfers she already have before adding new ones.
(Obviously she didn't get that from me,... perhaps I should get a hint from her and do the same... perhaps.)

Ok, so back to my little one's stash, She inherited ;-) the basket
I was previously using for my
stash of embroidery transfer patterns.
Mine are now in a larger basket :-).
She wanted me to take pictures of her stash before putting it in her
basket. She also have some other printed samplers that are not on the picture.

Here they are all tidy!
**Note to self: Must respect what she wishes to do and resist the temptation
to fill her basket out. sigh**

She now keeps them in her room instead of the playroom. Now she'll be able to work on her projects whenever she pleases, previously that wasn't possible do to the safety concern of her curious baby sister getting too close to her supplies
(needles and scissors). Now she doesn't need to wait for the baby to be napping in order to embroider.
On my next post I'll show you my
daughter's current projects and will upload another picture of her finished
alphabet without the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Until next time!

Darling Dachshund

My oldest dd was able to finish her darling dachshund wip into a softie rattle -that also squeaks, for her baby sister. She even wrote a sweet note to go along with it! Once her baby sister was up from nap, dd presented her with the softie and read her the note. Baby girl was so happy & grinning especially after dd finished reading her the note, (which made me think she must have understood what was going on) it was so sweet to presence such a beautiful scene!

Above are "in the making" pictures of the darling dachshund and below of dd's crafty space, which I believe I may have posted on a previous entry.

She's already making plans for her next solo project. We also have plans to continue our alphabet samplers SAL plus we'll be starting Barney Park stitch samplers (by Charlotte Lyons) soon, more on that later.
Great end of week to all!
Until later!

A Brief Progress Update

Working slow but steady.

Here I was about to rip out the window treatment/drapes/curtain and replace it with the color on the spool.

Im hoping to add a few more stitches today's evening.

Here is my daughter's progress.

She says she is really enjoying stitching on her sampler and learning new stitches. She got the French-Knot down on her 1st try!!!

My perlé cotton stash grew considerably do to this sampler ;-)! Im using Finca Presencia in size 8.

Dd is using her Sublime Stitching thread.

With that I leave you until next time.
Have a great week ahead!

Barney Park Sampler

Dd & I started another stitching-along! We are working on one of Charlotte Lyons' samplers; Barney Park.

Our goal is to have it finished or close to being finished by the end of June.

We haven't made much progress but we are enjoying stitching together. Dd already learned another stitch!

Dd's dollies came to admire her work and from what I overheard, they were really impressed!

So far, I've been leaning towards earthy, soft neutrals and a few cooler tones. I needed a change of pace! There are others stitching-along with us, definitely encouraging to be able to admire each others work, see their choices of pattern/sampler, thread colors, stitches, etc., plus cheer one another up!

I have a few other Charlotte Lyons' samplers that I'm hoping to incorporate into a scrappy quilt when I'm done stitching all of them. Dd has similar plans... she too has a few other samplers that her embroidery enabler mommy got for her 'cause she liked them.... and I love nurturing her interest in hand embroidery in every single way possible!

Finding the time to do what you love,... oh, how rewarding!
Have a great weekend!
(Notes: Charlotte Lyons Etsy & Blog.)

Mother-N-Daughter Stitchalong

My oldest and I have officially started our Stitchalong!

There are no deadlines.

Our goal is to do at least one letter a month, two if possible.

This time counts for September since that's when we started it.

I will try to post our progress once a month by the end of each month.

We chatted and enjoyed each other's company.

She already has plans for how she wants to embroider

her letters and even on what to do with the finish piece!

@@@@@

When it comes to my other wips... I haven't been able to 

do much. Will share an update when there is progress ;-).

Back To Stitching!

Someone around here is back to stitching!

Remember her SS dachshund wip?

Well she made some progress this past weekend.

(work in progress shot)

If you took a look at the previous post you probably noticed

that she told me to rip her previous stitches because she

wanted to start over. It's amazing how in few months (in which she didn't 

embroider at all) she was able 

to do a better job... kids grow so fast!

I was stitching next to her when I took this picture but forgot to 

take a picture of the progress dd made before she 

put it away, however, while she napped a very proud momma went 

into her dd's basket to snap a few ;-).

She has really improved her backstitch!

Don't you think?

She is stitching this for her baby sister and requested my help

to turn it into a stuffed toy with a rattle and a "squeeker"

inside once she is done.

I made sure I left everything in its place after 

the photo shoot.

 (Just so you know this is how she keeps her things... 

I do not.. and I repeat, I do not 

arrange her things whatsoever. She loves to keep her things

just so and will notice right away if something is not in place.)

She asked me if I can get her a larger basket because

her stash fits a bit tight on this one. I told her that maybe but only 

if she keeps up with her stitching. 

I thought she has lost interest but I guess she was only 

on a long stitchy break.

We have made plans to do a Mom and Daughter Stitch-Along

... will share details on a future post.

Dd's Embroidery Wip's and Past Projects

Progeny's current wip is this darling dachshund from

a Sublime Stitching pattern set.

 Do you see her list? Yes people... she made a list

with the colors she will like to use to stitch the

different areas in her pattern or for details she

will add to the pattern.

She also has an ongoing wip... a simple stitch sampler.

The picture below shows where she is at right now.

I wrote the name of the stitches with a pen and she likes

me to grade her when she is done with each line.

She did practice a bit of chain stitching but it was in a scrap

piece of fabric on a different hoop.

For her age and for been the very 1st time trying out this stitch 

I think she did pretty good. 

Below are some of her past projects:

a penguin (from a DMC My Style My Stitch Transfer pack),

a strawberry (from Big B Strawberries Embroidery Packet),

 a girl's embroidery (freebie from Lazy May).

I introduced her to very simple embroidery since she was one year old.

I do have a couple of pictures of her very 1st try at embroidery

but I'm not able to edit them well enough to get her out of 

the picture and leaving a clear view of her embroidery so I won't

be sharing those... too many creeps out there... ya' know!!!

I must tell you that she likes embroidery, but is not her favorite

thing to do...(sigh..lol). Her thing is drawing!!!

She loves to draw!!! She got that from her daddy :-).

Do you share your hobby/ies with your progeny and/or friends?