Hello my blogging friends! It is snowing where I am, so I have now had to accept that Winter is definitely here, even though the calendar says it is Fall. It is beautiful, looking out from my craft room window. And I am happy that I don’t have anywhere to go. I am also thankful not to be on the west side of my state or in Buffalo, New York right now. I think that is where they are getting blasted with a lot of snow and snow so hard that visibility is almost nil.
So I wanted to talk a little about the Fox & Rabbit Mystery Stitch A Long. First I have to say that this company is so awesome. They have been giving us FREE Mystery SAL’s for the last 6 years! The first one was in 2017 and that was my very first sampler that I ever stitched. I loved every minute of that stitch. It hangs in my craft room so I can see it whenever I am in my happy place 🙂
The Samplers from 2017-2021 are available for purchase on the Fox & Rabbit website. The current 2022 MSAL is available for FREE at least until the end of the year. So if you are interested in stitching the 2022 sampler, you can still download all of the sections through November for FREE and the December section will be available December 1. With these samplers, you choose the fabric and the threads you want to stitch with. It can be whatever you want it to be. I have stitched all but 2 of the samplers and they are well written and so beautiful. You can join their facebook group and see all of the beautiful fabrics and threads chosen by so many people from around the world. I can’t say enough how thankful I am for this company and their generosity with their beautiful designs.
As you know, I have been stitching on the 2022 MSAL even though I procrastinated when it first came out in January. I am so happy that I decided to add this project to my list this year and am over the moon happy that I was able to get it all caught up a couple of months ago. Which brings me to where I am now with the project.
This section was actually stitched sideways on my scroll frame and I was worried that my DMC variegated floss would not look nice, but I love the way it turned out. I did manipulate the colors where I wanted, like in the vase. I purposely made the vase and leaves darker, with the thought that I wanted the flower more red.
This is my finished piece so far. It is a very large piece, too. And I am so happy with how it has turned out. So now I wait to see what December will bring to finish off this gorgeous design. Many thanks again to Brendan at Fox & Rabbit for this beautiful and generous design. For the details; the fabric is 16ct Aida Winter Wishes from Fabrics By Stephanie. The floss is DMC 115 for most of the project with DMC 902 for backstitching the letters.
So that is what I have been up to. For now I will leave you with a picture of the view out my craft room window and wonder what are you stitching on?
Happy Stitching!
Ginny
My Time Stitching 
Your stitching is so beautiful! I’d love to try a MSAL. Would you say that the Fox & Rabbit one is beginner friendly?
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Thank you, Deirdre. I had never stitched a sampler before the 2017 one from Fox & Rabbit. I don’t think they are hard, but rather a different look or style. I think that the 2017 or the 2018 ones would be great to start. They don’t give any fabric or thread suggestions, allowing you to decide what you want. You can stitch them with one color thread, variegated threads, 2 colors or many colors as you want. The possibilities are endless. Since they are finished, you can choose to leave out any sections and make it as short as you want. They also have other type samplers on their website. Or you can wait and see if there will be a 2023 MSAL and start in January. Fingers crossed there will be one.
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I absolutely love your MSAL!! Those reds are amazing! I did last year’s MSAL from Fox and Rabbit as well – it was my first one. I won’t be doing another because I have several full coverage pieces I’ll be working on and won’t have time for it. Still, I’d love to see what it’s going to be. 🙂
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Thank you bkgriffinsnest ❤ I'm not normally a fan of red, but I just love DMC 115 and had to use it for this MSAL. I have done 4 out of the 6 MSAL's from Fox & Rabbit and I am eagerly awaiting to see if and what the 2023 one will be. I am sure I will probably be on the fence at first as to whether I should do one with all of the projects I have yet to finish and so many more that will probably be started. But I am looking forward to seeing what it will be, too.
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Your stitching is looking fabulous, Ginny! Now I wanna use red/brown variegated floss too, lol… Have you already started thinking about framing? I have no idea what I’m going to do with this huge a piece. I’m so looking forward to seeing yours when done.
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I have not even thought about framing this piece. 1, I don’t have a framer. 2, I have no place to hang it. We’ll see when I get it finished.
I am so far behind in responding to blog posts. We have talked about this SAL in other posts, but not about the framing. Are you framing yours or do you have other plans for it?
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I’m oscillating between making it an ‘open’ wall-hanging with simple packaging cardboard as backing, or using it as a table cloth/runner (depending on the table.) It’ll probably be the latter since I too have few eligible spots, and I don’t really know how well the packaging cardboard works for this large a piece. Sigh, a year ago, this used to be a problem for future-me. 😉
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Your SAL’s are so pretty.
Love your color choices.
We’ve had a little snow the last 3 days, but melts soon after.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Marilyn
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As you can see, Marilyn, I am so far behind in responding to comments. I am trying to get caught up. Thanksgiving was good. First time in a couple of years that the kids were over. It was really nice. I hope yours was wonderful, too.
We have been lucky this winter (so far and knock on wood) very little snow and temps in January have been above normal except for one day. Tomorrow we are expected to get to 48!! Our normal this time of year is around 32, usually lower. I am not complaining one bit 😉
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Hi Ginny, lovely work.
At the moment the 2020 SAL is still available free on Fox and Rabbit’s old website Linen and Threads https://linenandthreads.com/2020-mystery-sal/
Brendan and Karen are very generous. It’s very interesting seeing how different everyone’s colour choices look. Brendan also does lovely linen and their flosstube is worth watching.
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I actually found your blog by this SAL! You inspired me to do SALs and use variegated floss! I LOVE your blog.
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That is so awesome!! Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving such a sweet comment ❤
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