Day 2 of 31 Days of Cross Stitch : WIPS

 

Good morning! Today is all about WIPs, and I've shared these as my focus pieces for September!

1. 3 French Hens-Mirabilia

2. "Orchid'- Mirabilia 

3. "Honey Bee"- Real Housewives of Cross Stitch

4. Princess Elliana- Mirabilia

5. Misty Morning vineyard-Chatelaine

No surprises! My favorite designer is Mirabilia!

Until next time: 

Happy Stitching :)

Christine xxxx

End of August: WIP update, September plans and a little haul

 

photo credit

Happy Sunday all! We finally got some rain last night and relief from the 50+ days of 110F temps. I'm dreaming of Fall right around the corner, which most likely won't be until October, but I can still dream of crisp fall mornings and snuggling up in a cozy blanket with a hot beverage. Until then here are some of my WIP updates and plans for September, with a little haul I picked up last month.

First, are two projects I am close to finishing and hope to have done by the end of September. The first is Mirabilia's 'Orchid'. This was my first attempt at 1x1 and I did not like it at all with cotton DMC. I watched a video on youtube about using silk floss, which I will try on my next flower pixie, 'TigerLily' which I might start next month, if I'm able to gather fabric and floss for it. I still need to rip out some of 1x1 but I started beading to just get motivated for that last push to finish her. 

Second, is my oldest WIP from Jeremiah Junction, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'.

A couple other finishes to add for next month will be 'Honey Bee'.

 and I finished, 'Season of Plenty' by Little House Needleworks, in 2019,

 and ran out of time to make it a FFO, which is my plan for next week.

 and ran out of time to make it a FFO, which is my plan for next week.

Other focus pieces for next month, will be Mirabilia's Princess Elliana, 

Chatelaine's 'Misty Morning Vineyard', 

Nora Corbett's '3 French Hens'

 

and Prairie Schooler, 'When Witches Go Riding'.

With 3 finishes, and one possible planned start is Tigerlily, I'm also planning on starting

  Joan Elliot's Fantasy SAL, 

Owl Forest '100 Owl' SAL,

 and Santa of the Forest by Lavender and Lace  if I don't start one of the three.

As for Haul, I'm obsessed with Honey Bee's so I picked up 

CCN's 'A Bee Sampler' 

and Black Bird designs 'Sweet Land of Liberty'.

Until next time: 

Happy Stitching :)

Christine xxxx

A Stitchy Update 9-18-2017

Good morning!
Here is this month's stitchy update!
A little more progress on Chatelaine's Desert Mandala ( I am not putting the pretty beads on until it's all finished..) 

I finished Part 1, and almost finished Part 2. I just have back stitching, and to add all the specialty stitches.

My favorite cactus with Belle Soie 'Sage' and DD 'Stormy Sky'

My finish for this month, is LHN 'Season of Plenty', which was stitched on 28ct coffee/tea dyed even weave. I changed the color of the months to help them not get lost in the fabric. How cute are these little pumpkins and crows?

My new start, is actually to start back again, with LHN, 'ABC Sampler' the letters,

'IJK'!!

Here's my progress so far! This is also stitched on 

28ct. coffee/tea dyed evenweave!

In the Garden, today/tomorrow, I'm going to try and start herbs in a mason jar, with Basil first!

I'm also going to set out in the front yard, a lantana, and repot a tomatoe plant that my mother started for seed for me, and with the cooler fall temperatures, I can set it outside now.

Happy Sunday, Happy Stitching!

xo Christine

April WIPs Mirabilia Queen Mermaid, Chatelaine and Brook's Books

Happy Wednesday to you! Last weekend, we finally got a little bit of Spring weather. It did get up to 97F already, but with the April showers it was a nice break. I was thinking of a title for this post, because I haven't really been doing to much stitching, it's been more of beading, beading and more beading.

I don't know what happened last week, but I started one day on my Brooke's Books ornament 'Faithfullness', and I stopped. I worked more on my Chatelaines and Mirabillia. A free week of stitching on my WIPs is planned for the last week of April, I just swapped it out for the first week. This all had to do with beading. When I started beading the Bride's Tree, I thought why not finish the beading on my Chatelaine, and then like a domino effect, I carried it over to wanting to stitch the beaded rattlesnake on my Desert Landscape.

Here is the second day I worked on my Bride's Tree. I noticed one of the roses needs to come up a stitch, which is an easy fix.

I'm stitching this as a Mother's Day gift for my mom! She loves roses! I'll give more of my thoughts on this WIP when I finish it. I do love all the Springy pastel colors in contrast to the pink of the rose.

Hopefully by the end of the week, I should have 'Tiny Rose Garden Mandala' finished. I just have a little more beading to go.

I've been working on Desert Landscape to get me to the point where I can start stitching the beaded Rattlesnake! Living here in the suburbian desert of Arizona, yes, my sister-in-law had a rattlesnake in her front yard! Being a Chatelaine, I know Martina would capture this gorgeous creature in her design and she always amazes me! I love the contrast of the Silk N Colors Copper Rose with the drab greys, and the sparkle of the Black TB really sets the snake off! It's the beads that really make it gorgeous! 

Since my LNS doesn't carry Delicas, and the gold bead in the design calls for actual gold plated beads, I opted to use the gold Mill Hill beads in my stash. I did find a limited list on Delica-Mill Hill conversion. The other bead on the rattlesnake is a rootbeer color, and I found a Mill Hill color bead that is a close match called Allspice. 

This is how far I've gotten. I do a small section a day, but I love the progress!

Finally we have more progress on 'Queen Mermaid'. Today I'm going to go back and add her arms. Last week I worked my way down to her lilac bustle.

I'm waiting to find out if this week, the new Mirabilia release is a Mermaid, because I'm trying to finish this one, so I have a reason to buy the new one. I have a feeling, I won't be able to wait, so I'll be working on two. If the new design released isn't a mermaid, than that's fine too, because I really want to focus on just finishing her first!

Wishing you a wonderful Springy stitching week!

Oh, next time I will be starting a new WIP, a beachy one for Summer to come!

Until next time!

xo, Christine

March Update, Finish #7 and Plans for April

Happy Spring! Hope you enjoyed your Easter! It was a beautiful Spring day here in Arizona. I enjoyed the warm sunshine as I watched my girls hunt for eggs, and then enjoyed a nice family dinner. The girls and I made lemon cupcakes with strawberry filling and white chocolate buttercream! With a honey ham and asparagus, it was the end to the perfect day!

It's hard to believe it's the end of March already! I had several blog posts ready to go, but I got a little behind in my stitching thanks to the brilliant Martina Weber and her Chatelaine designs. After I finish her Tiny Rose Garden Mandala freebie, I do have the urge to start another one of her smaller designs.

First here is my WIP that I am so close to finish. I'm halfway through with the blackwork, half stitches and tiny Algerian eyelet roses, that are truly very dainty and lovely, and then I'll save the beadwork for last.

Here's a little more detail!

Continuing with Country Cottage Needlework's 'Gingerbread Village' SAL, is 'Gingerbread House 2'.

I ran out of 3 Crescent Colors at the same time, and took a little time off, until I found my way down to my LNS. I should have it finished tomorrow.

I saved the best for last, this weekend, finish #7 Brooke's Books 'Dorthy'. I tried to finish her Friday night, with just a row and a half left, but couldn't keep my eyes open! I did do Ruby slippers, with their red sparkle, and I used DMCs black S310. Once you get used to working with it, I love how it gives Toto a silky sheen. I wasn't too thrilled with the DMC metallic gold. For the next ones I'll be using treasure braid. This was a joy to stitch. It did take me a few rows to get used to stitching on 32 ct. again with the one arm and the middle of the apron, but I'm happy how pretty she looks.

For next month, I am going to do a rotation with my 

Chatelaine 'Desert Landscape' on the weekends, 

Mirabilia's 'Queen Mermaid' on Wednesday, 

one week will be 'Gingerbread Village', 

for April's Brooke's Books I'll be working on one of her Bride's Tree ornaments

and one week, I'm going to start a little late, but I think

these designs are absolutely adorable, 

I'd been seeing them around, and then I saw April's design and I was 

hooked, from the Sunflower Diaries SAL 'Joyful World'

That leaves one week, to work on a WIP.

Then we'll see how this rotation goes.

Until next time!

I hope you have a lovely stitching week!

xo, Christine

Finish CCN's Gingerbread House 1 and 4 New Small Starts

Happy Weekend! Hope you are enjoying the lovely spring weather! It's been rather warm here pushing 90Fs already! Remember when I said I wasn't planning on catching a cold or virus or any annoying bug, well I did just that. Last Thursday I started not feeling too well, and by Friday, I spent the next three days in bed with a terrible cough, and head cold, sore throat and fever. I'm feeling much better know, but still having a hard time kicking this.

I did finish Country Cottage Needleworks, Gingerbread House #1 by the end of February. Thank goodness for Leap Years!

and here is my small start on the next Gingerbread Village, Gingerbread House #2

For this month for the Brooke's Books SAL, I started 'Dorthy'! Love this design. 

It's really cute and fun to stitch!

I didn't get too much stitching done on her, because I started 3 other small designs.

Two St. Patrick's desgins, and one old Freebie design from 

Chatelaine 'Tiny Rose Garden Mandala', that I can't find anymore.

This first St. Patrick's design is a Freebie from Blue Ribbon Designs, 

'Leprechaun Lodge'

I'm having fun with all the shamrocks. 

A new obsession of mine are cottages.

and the other one is a New Shepard's Bush design from

St. Patrick's Day Trifles, called

'Shamrock House'. 

I actually hand dyed this fabric.

I love the color! It's a light violet, and the colors of the over dyed floss look 

absolutely lovely!

One last thing, here is my WIP Wednesday of Mirabilia's Queen Mermaid!

Her hair is almost all stitched up! 

This week I'll be working on her shoulder and arms, leading to her treasure box!

Until next time!

Have an amazing stitching weekend!

xo, Christine

New Years Stitching Days 14 & 15/15

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! It was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday! My son had his first bowling tournament and came in 3rd place for doubles. It was all very exciting. Later that day I went to the grand opening of Ludwig's Roses in Phoenix. They are a South African Nursery expanding here to the States. Their website for the States hasn't gone live yet, but their South African one is, you just need to google it. There were around 300 varieties of roses to choose from and you can imagine how hard it was to just choose 1. A post about roses will come up from time to time, because they are another passion of mine.

I had my eye on several, one of the most absolute gorgeous roses I'd ever seen was called Queen of the Garden, and rightly so. She was straight and tall, with a gigantic bloom. She was definitely regal looking, except I already have a rose the same color, and wanted something a little different. One of my dear friends was trying to convince me to pick a wild rose, Miracle on the Hudson. It had a gorgeous yellow center and 5 or 6 perfect petals. Supposedly this rose is going to win Rose of the Year. I'm more of a petal person, I love gorgeous petals and the more the better. This rose was also more of a walkway rose, which only grows to about 3ft. I like mine a little taller around 5 or 6 feet. The last rose that I didn't choose, was a very romantic and dreamy rose, this is the one I regret not getting, because it was the loveliest shade of periwinkle and had the moset pleasant scent I've ever smelled. This will be in my garden one day, when I can sit on a warm sunny day, out in a hammock, just soaking up the sun, and fresh air and enjoying it's fragrance as it floats on a breeze. It's name was Ocean in Motion.

Ok, now the one I did choose is another winner that everyone was picking up left and right. If I didn't get the one I got they would all be gone. It's name is appropriately South Africa. It's a Floribunda rose, which means there will be many roses on one stem. Which is ok, I prefer hybrid tea roses, but I couldn't pass this one up. I love David Austin Roses, except I don't know how they would fare here living in a desert, and South Africa reminded me of a David Austin rose with it's ruffly quartet center. The rose is supposed to be a golden rose, but the rose on the bush was more apricot. Which I love even more. Here it is in all it's beauty and spendor.

Onto Stitching News:

Day 14: One of my WIPs that I really love stitching, is Chatelaine's 'Ruby' in her Gemstone Series. My birthday is is July, and I was stunned at the gorgeous shades of Red and Gold, mixed in with varigated rose silk and the shading of the black silk with grey. Absolutely gorgeous. Anyways, I missed a stitch and it went on time out. I am going to try and get this done for my birthday in July.

I just noticed I'm off a stitch on this one as well, and will fix it this week.

Day 15: One of the projects I really wanted to stitch for my mother for Mother's Day or her birthday is Mary Roe  by The Scarlett House  . Funds were running a little low with all the starts I'd been kitting up, and as it happened, someone in the Stitch Maynia group posted a WIP pic of a chart I'd had stashed away, with a Honeycomb and bees in a beautiful garden, that also had a sweet verse on it that my mother would truly love. So that's what I started yesterday. IF I have time and finish this for Mother's day, then I can start Mary Roe for her birthday to finish by September.

I have plans to sparkle it up a bit and I've never been fond of french knots, where they are I'll be adding beads. This is going to be a joy to stitch! =)

Today I am continuing on with the Gingerbread Village and Brooke's Books SALs, with Gingerbread House 1 and Grumpy Cat ornament. I'll post progress pics of them tomorrow as well as what my rotation schedule will be of working on the other 13 WIPs I now have going.

Have a lovely stitching day!

Until next time!

xo, Christine

New Years Day 4/15

Today is another cold, wet, rainy day! While I did get some stitching done, I was only able to work on 3 projects. My daughter had a school project I worked on with her last night and this morning!

Starting off with a new Start, 2014 JCS ornie mag Ink Circles Stained Glass Mistletoe  . It's funny, but the colors of this design are off for me. They are just a little too mute for me, but I love the symmetry of the mandala. I'll be stitching the companion piece Stained Glass Holly next month, which I do love the colors. 

I continued on with Pierre the Penguin. What can I say, he's the sweetest penguin I've ever seen!!

Finally, I'm this close to finishing the first page of Ocean Unicorns, that I've been working on for about a month now. It's my first full coverage piece, and am finding the confetti stitching interesting!

Tomorrow, I'm going to keep working on Part 4 of Desert Mandala as my WIP for day 5, then on Thursday, I am going to start Joan Elliott's Stardust Fairy!

Wishing you a fun stitching day!

xo, Christine

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

New Years Day 3/15

Happy Monday! Today, I am enjoying a wet and cold, rainy winter day with a cup of hot tea, and working with silks, always puts a smile on my face!

I'm making some good progress on my 'Summer' Celtic lady from Lavender and Lace, and I'm finding the border of part 4 on Desert Landscape not only fun, but the colors of the silk combinations, absolutely gorgeous.

How cute is the Gingerbread Girl with her peppermint tree??!! I love working on Gingerbread Village series by Country Cottage Needleworks.

Tonight, I should have Pierre the Penguin's face completed. It's wonderful to see my daughter happy to see my progress on her Penguin ornamet from Brooke's Books.

Also, tonight, I'm working on finishing up Page 1 of Ocean Unicorns, for my Day 4 WIP. I'll have the stitch count on that for you tomorrow, but I can't believe I actually finished a whole page in a full stitch chart.

Wishing you a great week!
Hope you have a fun stitching day!
xo, Christine

New Year's Day 2

Happy Weekend! I hope you are all enjoying your Holiday weekend! I'm a little sad to say that today is the last day of our Christmas Vacation. The ornaments and decorations are all packed away, and I'm just getting ready for back to school tomorrow. Last night my husband and our son had a bonding night, so the girls and I made cookies whilst I stitched away, watching House reruns and Pirates of the Carribean on Netflix.

For Day 2, I started with my Brooke's Book SAL, Pierre the Penguin, her Animal Advent Freebie. I also bought Dorthy for her Wizard of the Oz, she's on her way, and my 12 year old daughter decided for next month to do her Grumpy Merry Christmas Cat, another freebie. That's 3 down, 9 more to decide on.

As much as I am having fun stitching Gingerbread Train, and believe you me, it is a quick stitch, I'm loosing steam, so to say! All I have left is half a peppermint wheel, and snowflakes. I just have to keep plugging away.

Now this is funny, and I don't know how it happened, but I figured out why I stitched the wrong colors on Desert Landscape, my printer somehow inverted two symbols, and I just stitched the  wrong colors. C'est la vie! Yesterday, I really wanted to pick up Mediterranean Waterlilies, but apparently it was a Waterlilly Kind of day at my LNS, they were all out, so I picked up Grape instead. When I finish the band, I will post an updated pic, but the color combination of Emerald, Grape, and Periwinkle is gorgeous, along with the turquoise cabochons of Delicate Teal, and I am loving Part 4.

My New Start for the day was Nora Corbett's 3 French Hens. In my kitchen nook, it's decorated Italian Rustic with Roosters and Hens, and I absolutely love this chart and can't wait to hang it in there. Although I'm not a huge fan of golds and browns, this was a fun and easy new start.

For today, I'm going to continue working on all the 3 WIP, if I have time I'm going to start Joan Elliott's freebie for my younger daughter, if not, I'm going to pick up Summer Celtic Lady from TIAG. I started working on the border, and I love the Green's and Golds.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Have a fun stitching day!
xo, Christine

Day 1

Happy New Year: Day 1

Happy New Year, to you! Last year was definitely better than 2014, and this year I am looking forward to being better than 2015! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Years Eve!
This year, I am all excited not only to have some fun new starts, but I'm planning on a couple big finishes, with my Desert Landscape Chatelaine, and Kustom Krafts Ocean Unicorns, being the top two!

Yesterday, My New Start for the New Year is Teresa Wentzler's Egyptian Sampler. I stitched once before as a gift, this time, I'm stitching it for me. I also joined the Brooke's Books SAL on FB, and started one of their Advent Animals ornaments for my youngest daughter who adores Penguins. His name is Pierre! So cute! I worked on Desert Landscape and caught two mistakes. One I stitched the wrong color on the outer border, and need to find where the mis stitch is, the outer border, doesn't line up quite right!
Even though, I'm so close to finishing Gingerbread train {hoping to finish tonight}, I started the second chart in the series Gingerbread girl and Peppermint tree, from Cross Country Needleworks.

For day 2, I am starting Mirabilia's 3 French Hens {I collect Roosters and Hens}, and I'm working more on Desert Landscape, as I'll be rotating this and the Kustom Krafts Ocean Unicorns, until I finish them.

Wishing you all a fun stitching day!

Unitl next time,

xo, Christine

2015 Ornament Exchange

Happy Weekend! It been a beautiful and gorgeous weekend here in AZ!

Today I wanted to share with you, an ornament I finished for an exchange I am in!



It was luck that I found this pattern, I wasn't even looking for a deer pattern, but as

it happened I've been obsessing with white deer busts, I just had to stitch one for Keala {and one for me}! I've been cross stitching for about 25 years now, and this is the first time I've ever stitched on linen. 

For a complementing back fabric, I went with small red buffalo check with mini white Christmas trees.

For finishing the ornament I chose this Tutorial on how to make a Flat Ornament!

You can find the Free chart HERE!

Wishing you all a fun stitching weekend!
Until Next time,
Christine