Leap Year February Catch-up

Whew!  I don't know about you, but this month just flew by!  Even though things have been moving at the speed of light, I've had a lot of stitch time.  It's hard to explain how that happens here, just know I put a lot of miles on my stitching!  LOL!!  I know I mentioned before that I hoped to stitch 5 pages a month on Anne Thomas and I was certain I wouldn't be able to do it, but lo and behold I did finish those 5 pages!!  I put in 9,736 stitches in Anne this month.  

I was officially halfway on the 23rd.  I was excited for that because there were a few other things I wanted to do this month that I was putting off.  After reaching the halfway point, I began to stitch on other things.  I stitched on two Santas for Clare's tree this year.  Mr had 633 stitches, 

and Holidazzle Santa had 2153 stitches.  

They were stitched on perforated paper (and I STILL need to get those in the mail...sorry Clare).  Those two I took on a mini vacation that my husband and I went on to Lancaster.  I'll talk about that later.  I put a few stitches in Floral Magenta....very few, I just didn't have a heart for it this month but decided to try to stitch a bit each month.  I only put in 633 stitches this month.  

Then I have joined the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Challenge on Facebook.  Each month, by a majority vote, we have chosen one pattern from the most recent Ornament Issue.  This month they chose A Christmas Star by Giulia Punnti Antichi.  I chose a random floss I found at a thrift store, kind of a medium pink, and stitched it on 25 count navy fabric over 1 using Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid silver.  I loved how it came out and even was able to fully finish it before the month was out!  Yay me!  This one had 819 stitches.  

Next I chose one that is for the month of March called Ready For Christmas by Durene Jones.  This was stitched on 40 count Burch over two and has 2246 stitches.  

There was a companion piece to this one by Durene Jones called Checking It Twice and is published in the August 2023 JCS issue.   This is also stitched on 40 count Burch over two and has 2351 stitches.     

Last, but not least was this Wonderland Craft kit (KL386) that my husband gave me for Valentine's Day.  This was a fun one, using beads (and a silky kind of thread that refused to stay in my needle) on perforated wood.  It stitched up in a day and had 812 stitches.  

That made a total of 19,032 stitches this month.  That doesn't count the stitching I did to make three of the Christmas pieces into ornaments.  You have seen the one above, and this one is Letter to Santa from last month.  

The other was Believe by Rosewood Manor.  These were different to assemble but nice for a change from the round ornaments.  With a little luck I'll get the other two I have stitched together soon as well.  

Now a little bit about our Lancaster trip.  Well, we actually stayed in a little town previously known as Cross Keys (I hesitate to write the real name...lol...Pennsylvania is known for some very strange names for towns).  My husband's birthday is in January...so for his birthday and Christmas combined I got tickets to two performances as gifts.  The first was Mousetrap, a play that has been running in London for ages (he saw a performance before he met me while traveling in London back in the late 70's).  The performers at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater in Lancaster are very good, it was full of laughs, intrigue and quite a surprise ending!  

The second performance we saw was A Tribute to Olivia Newton-John.  She is my husband's favorite singer.  He says her name with reverence, sings (that's a loosely used term when talking about my husband's vocal abilities) along with all her songs, and drools when he sees pictures of her.  It almost makes me wish I were a blonde.  LOL!!  We had a little chat with her after her performance and Mike got to have his picture taken with her.  He was in heaven, in case you couldn't tell by the look on his face.  She was very good, and sounded quite a bit like her.  It was a very entertaining performance!  

We really do enjoy the Lancaster area and even talked about retiring there.  Fingers crossed, we can do that before we are too old to enjoy the ambiance of the area.  Here is a picture I took from the window of a restaurant one night at twilight...so peaceful!  

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Mike will be going on a work trip to Spokane, Washington in April.  We had been planning for me to go with him, but I've had a problem with my knee for months.  I saw an orthopedic and had a shot in that knee, that helped for a day or two and then it's back, if not worse, than before.  I don't see myself running through airports trying to make connections...so I am staying home (imagine the amount of stitching I'll get done with no one to monopolize my time!?!?!?!  With a little luck I might even finish up Anne...Oooooh the possibilities.  Who am I kidding?  I'm gonna miss that man like crazy!).  So...since I'll be saving on airfare, and we do enjoy our little jaunts here and there, we are hoping to make a trip to Sight and Sound to see the performance of Daniel sometime this year.  Stay tuned!  And on that note...I'm off to see about doing some finishing before the month truly is over!  I'm actually looking forward to stitching on Anne tomorrow!  Thanks for reading my rambling!  Happy Stitching! 

Anne is halfway there!

Hi fellow stitchers!  I have some exciting news to share!  I have reached the halfway point of Anne Thomas!  I reached this point two days ago, but didn't take the time to post until today.  My hope is to finish 5 pages a month and so far I'm still on track!  Yay!  I did finish a good portion of page 13 because I hoped to finish the whole bird over the IHSW so I'm actually ahead of schedule for next month.  

I promised myself I would stop after I reached the 5 pages for the month and stitch something else, so now I'm working on Ready for Christmas by Durene Jones from the 2023 JCS Ornament Issue.  This one is being stitched on 40 count Burch over two.  I had hoped to make it a bit smaller, but it's a bigger pattern than I expected!  LOL!!  Anyway...I thought I would show progress on this one too!  Hopefully I'll have this finished by the end of the month too!  Wish me luck...for some odd reason, I've had to stitch and rip and stitch and rip...weird.  I love this one and it's companion piece (I hope to stitch that one too soon!).  Here is my odd looking headless snowman....EEEEEEEK!  

I'm off to get some finishing done, it's about time as I've accumulated a few things that need to be fully finished.  Not my favorite part of stitching...but I hate to see them sitting on the sidelines!  I have to put my thinking cap on...so if you smell something burning...bring the fire extinguisher!  It's about to get HOT in here!  LOL!!  

Til next time...Happy Stitching!  

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend-February Follow-up

Hi Stitching Friends!  Welcome to this month's installment of IHSW!  I've been following this challenge for a few years and this year I decided I would give it a go and see how well I do.  This month I decided to concentrate on Anne Thomas 1854 by Hands Across the Sea Samplers.  I'm stitching this on 40 count Vintage Pecan Butter over two.  My goal has been to complete 5 (out of 20) pages a month.  Because of this weekend, I was able to finish page 8 and begin working on page 9.  Once my goal has been met for this month, I'll fill in the remaining days with a different project.  I'm so excited to share I was able to finish the middle bird (I actually had to tape three pages together so I wouldn't lose my place while I stitched the entire bird...so even part of page 13 was completed too!)  In total, I stitched 2066 stitches this weekend.  Pretty good considering Miss A was here for an overnighter while her parents had a much needed date night.  Everybody was happy!  Including Miss A who was sooooo excited to see her parents on Sunday even though she had a blast while she was here (and so did Gigi and Pappy!).  Here are before and after pictures.  

And now I'm on my way to patch up Hop (Miss A's bunny rabbit who developed a hole in his back...thankfully no stuffing has been lost ... yet).  Should I count those stitches in my stitch count for today?  LOL!!  Today I'll be resting up (my back took a little twist lifting her over the weekend...OUCH!) and performing a wee bit of Yoga to loosen up the muscles while trying to get the Bluey theme song out of my head...lol.  It's a holiday here in the US today for President's Day.  I see a day of binging movies with DH and some marathon stitching!  I hope you all have a relaxing and stitchy day!  Happy Stitching!

February Gifted Gorgeousness

Good Morning!  It's been a madhouse here lately, so many things happening at once, I can hardly keep track!  LOL  Thankfully I still remember important dates like, Gifted Gorgeousness and the blog hop yesterday!  Whew...where to begin.  Ok, if you haven't visited Serendipitous Stitching (click here) lately, then you wouldn't know about Gifted Gorgeousness.   Jo keeps us hopping with her blog hops and other challenges.  This challenge lets us showcase gifts, those given to us, and those we have given away.  In a way it's a fun thank you for stitching gifts we have been given.  I don't have much to show, I've been mostly concentrating on Anne Thomas (I'll show that at the bottom as it's not really a GG project) but I have thrown in a few "gifts".  

I  usually show anything I stitch from the JCS ornament issues as the magazine subscription is a gift from my husband each year.  I've shown two previously (Letters to Santa and Believe) in earlier posts so I won't show them again until I get them fully finished (my finishing pile is growing by leaps and bounds).  

I did stitch two Santas from the 2023 JCS Ornament issue for a tree Clare is preparing for charity.  If you would like to participate, please visit Clare's blog Aimetu's Stitching (click here) for any details.  I stitched only the Santas on perforated paper.  First is Mr (from the chart Mr&Mrs by Dirty Annie's).  I thought he was quite dapper!  

The second is Holidazzle Santa, again, only the Santa.  I hope he's not too tall...you can't see from the picture but there are a couple of different metallic threads in him and he really does sparkle!  

Next is Floral Magenta by The Heart's Content.   This was a kit given to me by a friend a while ago.  I have been trying to get this started for ages.  It's one I work on when my hand gets tired from Anne Thomas...lol.  I haven't put too many stitches in lately...I need to remedy that!  Anyway, here it is...I love it so much!

Next is a Fuzzy Moon kit from a magazine.  This one is called With Love X and I stitched this as a Valentine's card for my husband.  We agreed not to buy cards anymore and since this was a free kit from a magazine, he couldn't complain!  LOL!!  Once it has been displayed for a while I hope to find a little frame, we will see how it goes.  

I did receive a gift from my husband for Valentine's day.  He gave me these two Wonderland Crafts bead embroidery kits.  Aren't they lovely?  I can't wait to get started!  I'll have to wait for life to slow down a bit though...hahaha.  

That's all I have to show for Gifted Gorgeousness, but I still wanted to share a couple of things I have been working on.  First is the BAP (Big Awesome Project) I'm working on.  I have finally finished page 7 and am working on page 8.   This is Anne Thomas 1854 by Hands Across The Sea Samplers.  It's been quite the project!  There are 20 pages to this pattern...and I haven't quite reached the middle yet, but it gets closer by the day.  Hoping to put at least an hour in a day, I've done pretty well except for the few days I was away last week.  Fingers crossed I'll reach the midway part by the end of this month.  

Last is this swee piece I had hoped to fully finish for Valentine's day.  It is stitched but not quite completed.  It was a kit by Samplers Not Forgotten called Flower Heart.  Hopefully I'll get it fully finished soon, I have way too many sitting on the sidelines.  If only there were a few more hours in the day!  

Ok, that's all there is to show so off I go!  I hope all is well in your corner of the world!  Happy Stitching!   

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop 2024

Hello and welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop!  Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching organizes this blog hop each year as a chance to share some stitching love with our fellow bloggers.  We send her a picture of a "Valentine" she can send to another stitcher.  She sends us a different picture which we post on our blogs.  Then we hop around looking for the Valentine we sent...leaving some lovely comments as we hop along.  If you'd like to see what we have sent to our friends, please hop over to Serendipitous Stitching (click here) and start there to see the links to those participating.  This year I was sent this adorable little bunny.  Isn't he just the most adorable?  Thank you Stitching Sweetheart!  

I hope you all have a love filled Valentine's Day!  Happy Stitching!   

February check-in

Happy February everybody!  Can you believe we are already a month into 2024?  Time sure flies...I swear the older I get the faster time goes.  Anywho....I've had a productive year so far even though we have been pretty busy!  So I thought I would do a little recap of January.  

Let's see....I have had 5 finishes so far this year with one completely finished.  I've also worked on 2 other that are not finished yet.  Quite a start!  There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything I want to, but hopefully this month I'll catch back up.  Fingers crossed!  As you know, I started Anne Thomas 1854 on New Years Day.  I'm happy to report that I have finished stitching 5 of the 20 pages of the pattern!  That's exciting to me!  I don't know if I'll be able to keep up the pace (actually I'm pretty sure I can't) but I'm going to give it the old college try.  I'm working on 40 count Vintage Pecan Butter.  Here is where I stopped last night, the beginning of page 6.  So far I have put in 14,243 stitches in Anne this month!  I'm hoping to finish 5 pages each month.  We will see how that goes.

As I mentioned before this is a big project, and the frame I'm using is giving my wrist and hand a run for my money.  It was suggested by my Canadian friend that I should use a floor frame.  I'm working on getting that set up, (thank you for that great idea) in the meanwhile...I rest it periodically by throwing in a few smalls.  I have finished 5 so far this year!!  First is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by The Heart's Content.  Since the first of the year I have been counting stitches.  Since January 1st, I put in 2,395 stitches in this project to finish it!  

My second small is this little Christmas ornament Letters to Santa by Jennifer Redmond from the 2023 JCS Ornament Issue.  He is stitched on 32 count Vintage Blue Whisper over two and he took 1,761 stitches to complete.  

Third is Believe by Rosewood Manor which is also from the 2923 JCS Ornament Issue and is stitched on 40 count white  and took 1,068 stitches to complete.  

Fourth is Fuzzy Moon with Love x kit from For the Love of Cross Stitch magazine.  He took 1,111 stitches to complete  and he is fully finished into a Valentine Card for my lovely husband.  I stitched this on 14 count aida...and hated almost every minute of it!  Now I know why I don't use Aida anymore!  LOL!!  

The last is a Flower Heart by Samplers Not Forgotten.  It's stitched on 32 count beige over two.  It is completely stitched but it is not fully finished.  It's a Valentine surprise so I'm not going to show pictures of it just yet.  Check back on my Gifted Gorgeousness post!  LOL!!  This took 1,630 stitches to complete.    

I also started Floral Magenta by The Heart's Content.  This is another gift from the same friend who gave me The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.  This one is being stitched on 23 count hand dyed linen over one using DMC (925 I think) floss.  I love how it looks so far!!  So far I have put in 1.005 stitches.  I truly love how this one is working up!  

That's a grand total of 23,177 stitches this month!  I know I won't be able to do the same amount next month, it's 2 days shorter!!  I also have a lot planned next month, so we will see how things go.  Whew, that's a lot of numbers thrown at you!  As I said it's been a pretty productive year.  The only thing I didn't do is fully finish those things I have finished so far this year.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to have a finishing day.  We will see!  Stay tuned!  I thought I would share the gift I received from my lovely DIL.  I guess I have a reputation now....I've been crowned...Me thinks they know me too well...

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Stitching!