Category: Hand Dyed Fabrics

I Stitched May Away
cross stitch · Cross Stitch Patterns · Fabric · Floss · Hand Dyed Fabrics · knitted cowl · Knitting · Mermaids · Mystery Stitch A Long · Pillows · Stitch A Long · Tiny Modernist

I Stitched May Away

My Time Stitching7 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! Happy June! Let’s hope it doesn’t go by as quickly as May did. Sadly, I only had one post in May. I was sick for about 2 weeks shortly after my last post. And then getting back to normal took a bit. Nothing serious, but it was my first time getting sick in 5 years and I guess my immune system was sluggish. Hubby was sick first with a sinus infection, and maybe shared with me? We had also made the decision to go without masks, so maybe we picked up something while out and about one day. Anyway, I am feeling much better now and thought I would hop on to the blog and share what I have stitched on during the month of May.

First, I did finish the Anchored Waves Cowl by Stephanie Shiman using a beautiful Wonderland Yarn Blossom cake.

Just look at that fade!!! Wonderland Yarns really do have the most awesome yarns that fade so perfect. It really turned out beautifully.

I look forward to wearing this one in the fall and winter. I don’t have anything else on my needles except for my Airplane scarf, which is my travel project. I didn’t get a picture of it for this post. I have been wanting to make some summer tops for myself. I picked a crochet top from Berroco. So cute. But you know how my crocheting goes. If I don’t have pictures and specific instructions, it’s pretty much not going to happen. I couldn’t get gauge and my sides were not straight on my swatch. So, I decided to purchase a book with some summer tops from Berroco, using the yarn I had bought called Isola. The one I wanted to make does not have written instructions. Maybe they all only have charts, so I nixed that one, too. So for now, no knitting. On to cross stitch.

I stitched on the Ocean Pearl SAL from Tiny Modernist Cross Stitching.

The reason I decided to do this SAL is the Mermaid, of course. She is so cute. And on the right side of the treasure chest, the pattern has a pirate there. I wasn’t sure if he would be an important part of the rest of the design, but I decided not to stitch him. Instead, I added another mermaid 🙂

So cute!! I really enjoyed stitching on this one while I was not feeling well. I am using all of the called for Fancy Flosses and stitching her on 16ct Aida Cascade from Fabrics by Stephanie. I received part 3 and started stitching on it last night. This is how far I have gotten.

The snow globe is full of ocean life and I know I will love stitching on it over the next few weeks.

I also stitched on Blossom and I am still loving all of her beautiful colors.

Even with all of the color changes, it has been a wonderful piece to stitch.

I just started stitching the next page, from the middle towards the top. So I guess I am about half way finished. I had to take her outside to see if I could capture her brilliant colors. For the details on this one: She is Blossom from Mirabilia. Fabric is 16ct Aida Busy Izzy from Fabrics by Stephanie. I have put her aside to stitch on the Ocean Pearl piece and a few smaller pieces. I look forward to getting back to her later this month.

A few days ago I pulled out my June pillow kit.

The threads in these kits just come rolled up as shown in the picture above. Since there is only a few colors, I decided to make my own Floss Drops to put the flosses on.

I die cut the tags. Pulled out some stamps and stamped a few summer images. I used some different sized circle punches to hang the flosses on and to add them to a floss ring. It gave me a chance to use my beautiful floss ring I purchased from @themermaidsdaughter6 on Instagram. I love the look of Floss Drops. I love seeing all of the flosses hanging all together. But I will admit, I am not a fan. Seems like a lot of work to me. It’s not to say that I will never use them again for a small project. But I am happy being a bobbin girl. Anyway, I finished the pillow yesterday, in perfect time for displaying in June. Kit is from Pine Mountain Designs. These pillows are from 2007, so I don’t think they are available anymore.

I am so happy to have another monthly pillow off of my project to do list. Only 4 more to go!

So that is all of my stitching for May. I am hoping for a couple of finishes in June, but we shall see how it goes. I have been spending my stitching time watching Flosstubes. I have a few favorites that I love to watch and one of them is Nichol Sophr LLC. She is a quilter, cross stitcher and card maker and I don’t know what else she does, but everything she creates is beautiful. I don’t necessarily stitch what she does, but I love watching her and seeing her projects. I am not a quilter, but I want to buy all the fabrics and make project bags (I probably won’t, but I really want to, LOL) She has wonderful tutorials on her channel and her card making videos are wonderful. Yesterday she started a Patriotic SAL and I decided I need some Patriotic pieces to decorate my house. You can find all of the details on her Facebook page group. If you want to participate and be in her drawings each week, you have to stitch on a Cherry Hill Stitchery Patriotic piece. Or you can stitch on whatever you want and hang out each Wednesday on her Flosstube Live. I haven’t had time to gather things for it in time for the start yesterday, but I did purchase a PDF from Cherry Hill Stitchery last night and pulled some fabric and floss from my stash this morning.

I will be stitching Stars and Stripes. The fabric I chose is 16ct Aida Everything Else from Mystic Fabrics and all of the flosses are DMC. So, yeah, another new start, LOL It’s ok. It’s a small 😉

So that is what I have been up to. How did your May go?

Happy Stitching!

ginny

Back To Blossom
cross stitch · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Mirabilia · Tiny Modernist · Uncategorized

Back To Blossom

My Time Stitching4 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! I finished part 1 of the Ocean Pearl SAL from the Tiny Modernist.

I can’t wait for part 2 to come out. This is such a fun stitch. I am using all of the suggested overdyed flosses for this one and I like how it is stitching up. The DMC equivalents are also provided. The fabric is 16ct aida Cascade (retired color) from Fabrics by Steph.

After finishing Ocean Pearl, I knew I had to pull Blossom out. I have been wanting to get back to her the last few months. She is from Mirabilia and she is just the sweetest!

I haven’t stitched on her in almost a year and was so excited to pull her out. I have been looking forward to stitching all of her beautiful colors. I actually stitched on this for a couple of nights before taking this photo, so I don’t have picture of where I was when I put her down almost a year ago.

My photos really do not do her any justice at all. Her colors are so beautiful, bright and cheery. Perfect for getting into the Spring mood even when the weather outside is not saying Spring.

Just look at those colors! So pretty.

So that is where I am with her as of last night. I am stitching her on 16ct aida Busy Izzy from Fabrics By Steph. This fabric has many of the same colors as in Blossom, but much paler, so she really pops on this fabric. I think I made the perfect fabric choice for this one.

I am in desperate need of some new scroll frames. If you use a scroll frame that you love, I would love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments. I would also love to know what you are working on this week.

Happy Stitching!

ginny

Busy Crafting and Purging
cross stitch · Cross Stitch Patterns · Durene Jones · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · organization · Pillows · Tiny Modernist

Busy Crafting and Purging

My Time Stitching7 Comments

Hello blogging friends! How are you doing? The sun is shining here today. Still a little nippy outside, but warmer temperatures are coming next week.

This week was a busy week for me. I spent a lot of time going through my crafting stash and doing a bit of reorganizing and getting rid of what I no longer want. I went through all of my Mirabilia and Nora Corbett patterns and made sure what was kitted was put into my Xstitch app as kitted. Even if it was just a bead pack or fabric. I was pretty much caught up on that. But there were a lot of patterns that I needed to add. Serendipitous Jo reminded me of the Inventory part of the app. There were some items already in the inventory section, so I have used it in the past. I think the reason I didn’t continue using it was because you can’t put a photo of the pattern in that section. But I guess when I go to stitch that pattern, I can move it to kitted and then add a photo. Almost none of my Nora Corbett patterns were in the app unless they were kitted. I added all of the Nora’s and a few Miras; there are a lot. I have been collecting them since the mid 90’s. They have their own storage trunk!

I still have a whole filing cabinet of patterns to go through maybe this week. I also went through a closet that had 2 bins of yarn in it. I will probably never use that yarn, so I donated all of it to a local senior center. The Activities Director was quite pleased as she said that a lot of the women don’t get to get out and shop for yarn. I am happy that it will bring joy to the women there. I am really trying hard to let go of the things that I know I will not use or no longer want. I guess this is my Spring-cleaning phase. Anyway, enough of that. Now on to the crafting.

I pulled out the April pillow to get it started. Good thing, too, because it is more of an Easter themed pillow.

I had forgotten how large the holes in the canvas are. Three strands don’t really give enough coverage, but that’s ok. It is what the kit came with so that is what I am going with.

It only took me about 2 1/2 days to get the stitching done on this one. When I finished, I noticed this:

I tucked the threads in and did a little stitching on the back by hand. Hopefully it holds up. I didn’t see this when I started the pillow, so maybe I pulled the piece too tight in the hoop. I do love a tight as a drum fabric. So, note to self; do not pull the next pillow to tightly in the hoop.

I think it turned out pretty cute and it is finished in time for Easter too. This is an old kit from Pine Mountain Designs. Another pillow finished, and 6 more to go.

I also stitched a bit on the Ocean Pearl SAL from Tiny Modernist.

I really like working on this piece. Very relaxing. I am stitching on 16ct Aida Cascade from Fabrics By Stephanie. And I thought this one was going to be my last new start for a while. You know, I had planned on getting back to my WIP’s. But just look at what I saw while browsing social media the other day!!!

Oh my gosh you guys! I saw this posted in the Durene Jones Cross Stitch group by Heather Hopkins. I hope that she does not mind me posting this picture here. But I think this is the cutest pattern and the best finish ever! I absolutely fell in love with this pattern and this finish! It is not usually my style of pattern, but I just gushed at the sight of this. So much so that I immediately went to Durene Jones’ Etsy shop and purchased the pattern.

It is the Haberdashery Shop, and it is so adorable. I just want to start it right now! I want to stitch this on a soft aida. I don’t know why. It just came into my mind that it should be stitched on soft aida. So, I will look through my stash and see what I can find. It is a full coverage piece, so the color really shouldn’t matter. Probably something light though. I will let you know what I find and if I caved and started it 😉

Well, that is what I have been up to. For now, it’s time to do a little cleaning up in my craft room. What have you been up to lately?

Happy Stitching,

ginny

I Started A New SAL and Project Bags
cross stitch · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Mermaids · Mystery Stitch A Long · Project Bags · Stitch A Long · Tiny Modernist

I Started A New SAL and Project Bags

My Time Stitching10 Comments

Hello blogging friends! Spring still has not arrived where I am. Severe weather is in order for today, so I am getting my blogging done early.

In a previous post I told you a little about a new SAL that I signed up for.

The Ocean Pearl Series by Tiny Modernist. The word Ocean grabbed me as well as the cute little mermaid. I showed you that I found fabric in my stash (Bonus!!) and ordered the threads. The fabric is 16ct Aida in color Cascade by Fabrics By Stephanie. I am using the dyed flosses from Classic Colorworks and Weeks Dye Works as well as 3 DMC colors as recommended.

The first section came out on April 1 and I was so excited to get started.

So I was stitching on this project and the hanging threads were driving me crazy. So I pulled out some of my extra clear bobbins from GWStitchinDepot and my label printer.

I don’t think I can be a floss drop stitcher. I know that there is not much floss on Classic Color Works cards, but I don’t like working with them hanging and having to put the floss back through the hole. I am a bobbin girl and I love these clear bobbins that I had purchased a while ago. I had put some CCW threads and Waterlilies threads on these bobbins before, so I already had a file saved in my PT Touch. So all I had to do was open the file, change the text for each color and print them out. I did have to trim them a little so they would fit at the top of my bobbin.

Ahhh. This is so much better! Now I can continue stitching. This is where I am at with Ocean Pearl.

Just look at that cute little seahorse and those little fish! This is a cutesy pattern, but I am really liking it. And I do like stitching with Classic Color Works threads and Weeks Dye Works threads. There is something about stitching one X at a time that feels different, but fun. And of course, a cute mermaid bag for a cute mermaid project. I’m not sure if I showed that bag before or not. These are my favorite project bags from @clevergirldesignsco. She does a beautiful job on her construction and choosing fabrics. At the end of 2022 my husband bought me another year of bags. One a month for a year, but I let Kristine know that she can do them anytime and the last couple of years she has been doing 2 or 3 at a time.

These are my November and December bags plus an added bonus of an extra mermaid tail zipper pull or knitting progress marker. These bags have the vinyl fronts which I LOVE. That way I don’t have to unzip the bag to see what is inside. I have many of these bags and love that I can just flip through them.

Here are my January, February and March bags. This is the front of the bags with the vinyl fronts.

This is the back of the bags. I never have any idea what my bags will look like. They are all a surprise when I get them. But I know they will be beautiful and very well made. Kristine has a knack for putting prints with prints that look amazing together. All of my bags have projects in them. The yellow bag on the right contains my Rainbow Dice project because the colors are so similar.

I recently purchased some pink bins to hold all of my project bags. The other pink bin on the shelf above holds all of my leftover yarn from projects. It is full.

All of my project bags have a kitted project in them. And as you can see in the left bin, I still have to replace some of those little plastic bags with pretty Clevergirl bags. I think by the end of the year I will make that goal.

So that is what I have been up to. How do you store your kitted projects?

Happy Stitching!

ginny

Stitchy Haul and Stitchy Progress
cross stitch · Fabric · Floss · Hand Dyed Fabrics · New stash!

Stitchy Haul and Stitchy Progress

My Time Stitching15 Comments

Hello blogging friends! It is 6:39 and it is still daylight outside! The sun is still out there, the sky is blue and the clouds are big and puffy. This makes me happy!

A few weeks ago I shopped at my Local Needlework Shop for the last time. They are closing in just a couple of days and this makes me so sad. They have been my go to shop for all things stitchy for the last 28 years. They have been open for 32 years and have decided it is time to retire. I will miss them so much, but I wish them much happiness in their retirement. So I went and picked up my Nashville Market goodies and did some shopping.

I love all wonderful stitchy stuff I picked up, but shopping that day was bittersweet. Just look at all of those luscious threads! Like I need more. Um, yes I do! LOL I would have added more, but it was a little difficult getting to everything with so many people in there shopping at a discount. I am just happy I was able to get there and say goodbye to the girls. I will miss them. The shop was about 40 minutes from my house. Not sure how far the closest shop is now. Too far. There is always the internet, right?

I have made good progress on my Spring basket. It is looking so cute!

I am really enjoying working on this little project. I am leaning towards finishing this as a little pillow to display on a table or shelf.

Today is day 4 of my Giveaway. You know how much I love hand dyed fabric! I have 2 beautiful pieces of fabric that I will never stitch on because they are not 16ct.

This one is a 28ct Jazlyn solo from Silkweaver. It is 18 x 26 and in the photo it is folded in half. The green is lighter in person and the splotches are purple to brown. I am sure I purchased this for a mermaid if that helps with the coloring. If you would like a chance to win this fabric, please put the code word Jazlyn in your comment.

This fabric is also folded in half and is a 32ct Lugana solo from Silkweaver and is 16″ x 25″. If you would like the chance to win this fabric, please put the code word Lugana in your comment. I will draw winners on March 31, 2023 and announce them in a blog post that day.

That is what I have been up to. What are you crafting on?

Happy Stitching!

Ginny

Spring Basket Progress and Some New Things
cross stitch · Fabric · Floss · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Mirabilia · New stash! · patterns · Stitch A Long

Spring Basket Progress and Some New Things

My Time Stitching14 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! How is your Sunday going? Mine was spent doing laudry, a visit from my kids and some stitchy time. Here is my progress on Spring Basket:

The design is not as small as I thought it would be. I was thinking it would go quicker than it is, but it is going well. I love the colors and have been thinking about fabrics I would like for the back if I do turn this into a small pillow. I think pink with coral flowers. We’ll see. Again, this is Spring Basket by Crocette a Gogo’ and I am stitching on 16ct Aida in color Dirty Aida.

So watching flosstubes has made me want to go through my stash and revisit my older patterns and fabrics and see what I have and what kit needs what. I do have the Xstitch app on my phone and am petty religious about putting new things in there and moving things that I start into the start section with a start date. But some of my patterns from 15-20 years or more ago are not in there. So that has been an ongoing project for the last week or so. I have the free version of the app, so there isn’t a place to put just a pattern. So when I buy a pattern and put it in the app, I have to put it in the kitted category even if it isn’t kitted. Kind of weird. But it reminds me of what I have. Do you use the XStitch app? Do you have the version that you have to pay for and do you like it?

One of my flosstube friends, Kenny, from Kenny Stitches showed some wonderful things he has added to his stash. One thing that really caught my eye was a Luca-S kit. I had never heard of this company before and had to find this kit:

This is White Santa with Christmas Tree. I immediately fell in love with this beautiful kit. I love the colors and just had to have it. I actually found this one on Amazon, so I didn’t have to wait long for it to arrive. I also love that it comes with 16ct aida fabric. Bonus for me as I pretty much only stitch on 16ct aida. And it comes with all the threads.

So beautifully laid out, too. They are Anchor threads and I don’t remember if I have ever used Anchor threads before. If I have, it may have been very little. I do have some Anchor threads kitted up for a Mirabilia conversion but haven’t started that one. The threads feel really nice on the cards and I am sure they will be fine. I think this kit is very well put together and I can’t wait to stitch on this one. I also could not resist adding this kit to my order while looking for the Santa:

Sakura. This is so adorable! I love Cherry Blossoms and the little Pixie is just so cute. It, too, came with a piece of 16ct white Aida and all of the threads.

Such beautiful colors! Those pinks and corals and tans just jump right out to me . I can’t wait to stitch this one up some day, too. I am really impressed with these kits. I love that the floss is wound on the cards and the symbols are printed above each thread. And if you look at the card on the right, there is a little hole to the right of the symbol that you can punch out to hang your extra threads until you need them. So nice.

I have one other project that I kitted up this week. This one showed up on Facebook from Tiny Modernist and just couldn’t resist purchasing it.

Hello, there is a little mermaid there! So you see why I could not resist. I don’t think I have stitched a Tiny Modernist pattern before, but I know that I have a few in my stash. Since I am not doing any SAL’s right now and this one is only 3 months long and it is small, I just had to jump on it. So I did a little stash diving for threads and fabric.

I found this small piece of 16ct Aida Cascade from Fabrics By Stephanie and thought it would be perfect for an ocean themed project. It is perfectly sized, too, so I think it was meant to be 🙂 I decided I want to do them in the specialty threads, but there is a DMC conversion also. I think the threads go well with the fabric. The Sea Glass color may be a little iffy, but we’ll see when we get there. I already can’t wait for the first of April!

That is all I have to share today except for my giveaway #3.

Since Mirabilia is another one of my favorite designers, I couldn’t leave one of her patterns out of my give-away. I purchased 2 of this pattern, Blossom, last March. One for me and one for a give-away for last year’s blogaversary, but it got away from me. So I put it aside for this year. I started stitching this one last year and have been wanting to get back to her the last couple of months. When I go to pick up one of my WIP’s, she is the one I will grab. So use code word MIRABILIA in your comment if you would like a chance to win this pattern. I will draw a winner for this and my other 2 giveaways on March 31.

Happy Stitching!

Ginny

Finish One, Start Another and My Blogaversary
Bella Filipina Designs · cross stitch · Cross Stitch Patterns · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · patterns

Finish One, Start Another and My Blogaversary

My Time Stitching28 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! How are you doing? The sun is partially out today, making my craft room bright. The perfect place to type out my post today.

So let’s start with my Blogaversary! Tomorrow will be my 11 year blogaversary! I truly cannot believe that it has been 11 years since I started this little ole’ blog of mine. I originally started this blog as a place to document my crafting and share with others. I can’t tell you how much joy it has brought me and how many wonderful people I have met. I appreciate each and every one of you that has stopped by to take a look at what I have been up to. I have enjoyed reading all of your wonderful comments as well. So for the next 6 days I will be having a giveaway. Each day I will post a picture of a giveaway and a code word for you to leave in your comment. On March 31, 2023 I will post the winners of all of the giveaways. I will post more at the end of the post. Now let’s get to my finish!

I have strictly worked on Holly Berry Pixie the last few weeks. This is where I was the last time I posted.

I finished all of the stitching and was so excited to start beading that I forgot to take a picture before the beading started.

So many beautiful, sparkly beads! I beaded the top portion while on my scroll frame. Then I switched to a large Qsnap.

When adding my beads, I use a thread that matches the color of the bead. If the beads are clear, then I use a thread that matches my fabric. I put a half stitch to attach my beads, from lower left, through the bead and down through the top right. This way my beads sit at an angle. It is not the only way to attach beads, but my preferred method. Putting a full cross stitch through the bead will attach the bead sitting straight up and down. Whichever way you want your beads to lay is totally up to you. The tray I use to hold my beads is a Tacky Bob. The name has changed to Tacky Bill. Not sure why, but the ones that I have are Tacky Bob’s. It looks like a small CD case with adhesive foam on both sides of the inside. I have always beaded with these and love them.

A picture of my stitchy spot. She is looking so beautiful! Almost done with this beauty!

And she is finished!! Sorry for the dark image. I had so much difficulty getting a good picture of her and the fabric. I am so happy with how she turned out. I will be looking for a framer this year to get her framed before the holidays. Now for all the details: She is Holly Berry Pixie from Bella Filipina Designs. Fabric is 16ct Aida, a One of A Kind from Fantasy Dyed Fabrics (she is no longer dying) and she is stitched as charted.

Once I finished Holly Berry, I immediately started a new project that has been ready for the last month.

This one is not my style of stitching, but it was a request from my oldest son. And when a child requests a cross stitch for his gaming room, you ask excitedly “what would you like?” He chose this design from an Etsy designer, Rack & Pinion. So I immediately purchased the PDF, went stash diving into my fabrics and pulled all of the threads. Everything was all ready to go. Here is my small start.

I am stitching this on 16ct Aida Everything Else from Mystic Fabrics. It is more of a cream color, not white like it looks in the photo. I will admit that this project is a little boring. I am not used to stitching just blocks of color. My son is in no hurry for it, so I can see myself doing other things in between stitching on this. Like some smaller projects. I have fallen down the hole of the Flosstube world and have seen so many smaller designs that I want to do. Well, I will be honest, I want to start all of the things!! But that would be a lot of WIP’s so I am restraining myself…for now. More about the flosstube world in another post, but how do you feel about flosstubes? Have you watched any? What are your favorites?

Now to that giveaway. Again, tomorrow is my 11 year blogaversary. So fun! I want to share some of things that make me happy. Bella Filipina has quickly become one of my very favorite cross stitch designers. So how about one of his beautiful designs?

This one is a beauty and she is in my stash to stitch someday. So if you would like a chance to win this pattern, put the word Reina in your comment on this post. I will choose a winner next Friday.

So that is what I have been up to. What are you creating?

Happy Stitching!

Ginny

Sunday Stitching
Bella Filipina Designs · cross stitch · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Knitted Shawl · Knitting · Pixie · yarn

Sunday Stitching

My Time Stitching13 Comments

Happy Sunday, my blogging friends. We had a snowstorm on Friday with a dumping of 10″ of the heavy white stuff. There was Thundersnow and lightning and white out conditions. The sun came out on Saturday and quite a bit of it has melted. Today was just an easy Sunday inside, doing a little laundry and some stitching.

I spent quite a bit of time stitching on Holly Berry Pixie. The designer is Bella Filipina Designs and I am stitching her on a one of a kind 16ct Aida from Fantasy Dyed Fabrics (she is no longer dying fabric). When I last posted about her, I had her skirt done and the berries at the bottom.

Since then I have added many stitches.

Look at that beautiful face! I have added some back stitching and more of the ribbons along the sides.

I have so enjoyed seeing this sweet pixie come to life. The colors are so bright and vibrant. And this is where I left her today.

Just a few more berries and then filling in of all the sparkles and draping strands of blue Kreinik, which I may need another spool of. I am not sure I started with a partial spool or not, but I don’t think I will have enough left for the amount of strands I need to stitch. And then I can get onto the beading. Lots of beautiful, sparkly beads. I will pick this up again tonight and maybe get my berries finished. I like to do most of my cross stitch at night. A habit I fell into after I had my children and while they were growing up. I like to spend my morning knitting with my coffee and I do have a new knitting project.

I recently purchased this yarn cake from The Yarn Garden. The Head Gardner there, Lindsay, talked about this yarn on her Feature Friday video a little over a week ago. If you are looking for something to do on Friday mornings, her facebook videos are great and I always learn something from her. You can find her videos on her facebook page The Yarn Garden. Her live videos are on Friday from 11:00 am to noon ET. Anyway, she talked about Wonderland Yarns doing a year long series with their Garden Club Blossoms called Ocean. Each month will include a Blossom Cake, a pattern and a stitch marker. This cake is the February cake and the color is called Great Barrier Reef Anemones. It came with a hat pattern that is cute, but I didn’t feel like making a hat. So I spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking for a shawl or cowl pattern that would work with this yarn. I wasn’t coming up with anything and sought the help of a friend. She came up with a couple of great ideas and I decided on the 22 Little Clouds pattern by Martina Behm. It is a free pattern on Ravelry and I think it is more of a shawlette, a smaller shawl.

I got started right away and couldn’t help but notice that my nails matched my knitting again. I like when that happens 😉 And here is where I left off this morning.

I am enjoying this knit and am really looking forward to seeing the color changes. I like knitting with this Mad Hatter Sport yarn. It is soft and knits up nicely. I did find a shop online that had 1 skein left of the January cake and I will show that one in a future post. Oh, I did forget to mention that each month comes with a post card with some beautiful artwork on one side and project tracking information on the other. Here is the February card.

So that is how I spent my Sunday. Doing what I love; Stitching. What did you work on today?

Happy Stitching,

Ginny

Holly Berry Pixie
Bella Filipina Designs · cross stitch · Fabric · Hand Dyed Fabrics · Pixie · WIP

Holly Berry Pixie

My Time Stitching20 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! January got away from me and I thought I had better make a post before February disappears! Though when February is over, I will be even closer to Spring. But I really cannot complain about this winter. Temps have been above normal for the most part and we have not gotten much snow. Yay!! I will take it! The days do seem to be going by so fast for me. Maybe that is why I hurt my back over the weekend. In too much of a hurry and twisted wrong. So, I have been taking it easy the last couple of days and getting in lots of knitting and cross stitching. Today I will share with you what I have been cross stitching on.

Let me introduce you to Holly Berry Pixie from Bella Filipina Designs.

I fell absolutely in love with this pattern when it was released in December. I could not get her in my hands fast enough! I ordered right away and then went stash diving to find the perfect fabric. And boy did I find the perfect fabric!

The fabric is more pink than this photo shows and I think it is very similar to the fabric shown in the design. It is 16ct aida from Fantasy Dyed Fabrics (the dyer is no longer dying fabric) and I think it has been in my stash just for this design.

My floss toss with the threads that I have on hand. I definitely think this fabric will work well with all of the threads. The pattern arrived on January 6, well before I expected and I started her right away. Well, after digging for a scroll frame first, LOL. So, yep, I have added another WIP to my pile. And I needed the break from the Fox & Rabbit Mystery SAL. I hope to finish this one so that it can be displayed on my wall, somewhere, for the Christmas holidays next year.

My start. I am loving every stitch of this one. I love seeing her come to life on the pink fabric.

The red just pops on the pink fabric. Her skirt is so cute!!

This is where I left her last night. I am loving this pattern so much. Even the berries 😉

So that is my first new start of 2023. I am hoping that I don’t get sucked into too many cross stitch starts this year as my pile is still driving me crazy. In fact, let me share my pile.

My Local Yarn Shop is doing a Bingo card to help knitters and crocheters get their yarny WIP’s February Finished Objects. The shop owner suggested gathering all of the WIP’s and putting them in a pile to see what we have. Since I am caught up on my knitting projects with just 2-current project and a travel project, and no crochet projects, I decided to pull out all of my cross stitch WIP’s. There is a blanket I had started that has to be abandoned because the fabric has yellowed 😦 And another project that was started that I probably won’t continue with. There is one more project that I will be adding for sure, but this is the pile. I would like to make good progress on all of these this year and maybe finish a few. My ultimate goal is to get back to one cross stitch project at a time. That is my ultimate goal every year, though, LOL Do you have a WIP pile? If so, how many? I’d love to hear about your WIP’s.

Happy Stitching!

Ginny

Happy New Year!
cross stitch · Fabric · Fox and Rabbit · Hand Dyed Fabrics · knitted cowl · Knitting · yarn

Happy New Year!

My Time Stitching12 Comments

Hello my blogging friends! Happy 2023! I hope that your 2023 is filled with Love, Health and Happiness. The last few years I have chosen a word that describes what I want for the new year and this year I have landed on Determined. I am determined to finish things, determined to use things up, determined to be more patient, determined to cook more, get upset less and determined to be a better person. This last year I have been so overwhelmed with “stuff” so my biggest thing is to use up what I have, like yarn and cross stitch and scrapbook products. And to get rid of what “no longer gives me joy”. It will be a long process, but a process that I am determined to work on this year. I only finished 2 cross stitch projects this year, and both were early in 2022. I did not finish the 2022 MSAL from Fox and Rabbit. The December section is quite large. I am almost finished 1/4 of the section and the 2023 MSAL came out yesterday and I think I want to stitch that one, too. But not until I finish the 2022 one. Here is where I am with it.

I am almost finished the top of the border. I am stitching this one on 16ct Aida Winter Wishes from Fabrics By Stephanie. The threads are DMC 115 and 902 for backstiching. It seems like it has been very slow going, but I didn’t get to work on it much in December because I did do a lot of knitting.

I made lots of Fingerless Mitts for family and a few scarves which I didn’t get pictures of. The pattern for these mitts is a FREE pattern from Premier Yarns and is called Sideways Wrist Warmers. I loved making these for everyone in different bulky yarns. I added my new garment tags to each one, too.

I ordered these tags from The Beam City. They turned out so cute! I was so excited to see that they had a mermaid option. I will be putting these tags on all of my future knits 😉

Which brings us to what I am currently knitting on.

I pulled this one out of my stash in November and started it but couldn’t get past the first couple of rows. I was about to throw in the towel, but decided to go to my Local Yarn Shop and get some help. Cris figured out my mistake in no time. I had some purls and yarn overs which I know to go all the way around my needle for the YO, but I didn’t realize that I didn’t need to go around the needle the extra time when the next stitch is a knit stitch. With the repeats, that is where my extra 4 stitches were coming from. So I started over and have been fine with it since. Didn’t get to work on it too much with making all of those mitts, but I have made progress.

It is the Marin Cowl by Juliana Lustenader (Knit by Jules).

Just look at that cute little mermaid! She is actually a charm that I purchased at our local Aquarium when I visited there in November. I thought she would be perfect for a progress marker. And she is definitely perfect for this project.

It is growing. Can you see all of the waves? The yarn is Cozy Worsted from Speckled Finch Studios in color “From The Deep”. The yarn is so soft and squishy and the colors so beachy!

So that is what I have been stitching on. I hope to get more stitching in this year and I am going to try harder to post here on my blog more often. One other thing I want to mention before I end this post is for my cross stitching friends. Have you heard of the Design and Fabric Viewer? Have you used it in the past? For those that have not heard about it, it is a website where you can match cross stitch patterns to fabrics to see how designs will look on different fabrics. Today a new version of the site was launched and it is now FREE to customers to use and you can store up to 100 of your favorite selections. You do have to create an account so that your favorites can be saved. If you have not used this site before, you need to check it out. And for those that have, go check out the new version. I have firsthand knowledge of the work that has gone into developing this new version and it is awesome. I didn’t get paid for this review, but I do know the master behind the screen, LOL. Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think. You can also join the private group on facebook to see updates and leave comments there.

Again, I wish you a Wonderful, Happy, Healthy, full of Love 2023 and I hope all of your dreams come true.

So that is what I have been up to. What are your goals for the New Year?

Happy Stitching!

Ginny