Autumn Stitching

Bee's Needlework's Tree of Stitches: 

Alicia Paulson's Autumn Wreath: 

 EyeCandy Needleart's Mini Pumpkin:

 

Cross Stitch Diary Part 3

 I'm way behind in showing off my stitching. As always, thanks to The Daily Stitchuation for inspiration.

 A red heart for Valentine's Day.

A Star of David for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah we went to.

An ashen cross for Ash Wednesday.

A stack of books for my February reads. 

A tooth because there were lots of dental appointments earlier in the year. 

A pi pie for Pi Day.

a Clover leaf for St. Patrick's Day.

A cross for Good Friday.

A bunny for Easter. 

Corn because I read Men of Maize. 

A tomato pincushion because I've been doing a lot of mending. 

A tabby cat (standard issue) for Porcupine.

Daffodil and lilac blossom for Spring. 

A drop of blood because I gave blood.

Grogu because we saw The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Frida Kahlo's eyebrows and crown of flowers because I saw the Frida and Diego exhibition at the MoMA.

A priestly collar because my brother (a priest) came to visit. 

A soccer ball for the World Cup (yay Spain! Boo Argentinian poor sportsmanship!).

 

Phew! This project is now about a year old, but I plan on continuing it until I run out of fabric. 

Cross Stitch Diary Part 2

 I've been making and reading, just not quite having the energy to post. (Sometimes I post on Instagram or Substack.)

A piece of cranberry pie for Thanksgiving.

Candles for Advent.

A Christmas tree.

A blue SUV because the brakes failed and we had to cancel our trip to see family.

A wedge of cheese because we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a charcuterie board (we are old and/or tired and/or introverted).

A crown for Three Kings’ Day.

A birthday cake for my oldest.

A star for Minnesota, l’Etoile du Nord (so proud of Minneapolis).

A stack of books for the ones I read in January.

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Cross Stitch Diary

 Inspired by The Daily Stitchuation, I've started a stitch diary (not my first one). For my own sanity, I'm not forcing myself to stitch every day, or create a motif for each day. 

Part 1:

 A cap, because my Down Syndrome son finished high school.

A strawberry, because I love them.

An evil eye, because I was reading about them.

A resist symbol, because Trump.

The flag of Iceland, because I read Sjon's Codex 1962 (and I want to go someday).

A hospital symbol, because my son had minor surgery.

A school bus, because the privatized bus system in NYC suuuuucks.

A tear, because life is hard.

An apple, pumpkin, and leaf because I love fall.

A witch's hat because I crocheted one a week before Halloween.

Part 2:

 A piece of cranberry pie for Thanksgiving.

Candles for Advent.

A Christmas tree.

A blue SUV because the brakes failed and we had to cancel our trip to see family.

A wedge of cheese because we celebrated New Year's Eve with a charcuterie board (we are old and/or tired and/or introverted).

A crown for Three Kings' Day.

A birthday cake for my oldest.

A star for Minnesota, l'Etoile du Nord (so proud of Minneapolis).

A stack of books for the ones I read in January.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

This was a fun little project, although not quite done. The cross stitch design is Oddpothecary by Noctiflora Designs, from the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue from 2024. I did redesign two of them, changing bat wing to wool and frog bones to toes to better fit the quotation from MacBeth.

Meanwhile, A Somerset Halloween featured a cute project from Patty Thurlby, using altered Altoid tins to hold fun little Halloween treats. The tins were supposed to be covered in gold leaf, but that was a fiasco -- neither my local craft store nor Michaels had real gold leaf, so I used a fake version from the latter. I then tried applying it with double-sided tape, tacky glue, and the glue recommended for gold foil, but each failed in a different way 🙄. I eventually painted the lids in black and the rest in a metallic copper. I backed the cross stitch with heavy-duty fusible interfacing and trimmed them (I should have made a template first), then glued them to the lids. I then glued a bit of yarn around the edges of the fabric. Maybe I'll add a second cord around the top. Or dimensional paint; that could be cute.

 

The insides of the tins are unaltered; I want to decoupage some spooky paper images, but my paper craft stuff is stored away at the moment. I shredded bits of yarn for the wool and found a package of eye cabochons for the eyes, but  I haven't yet come up with a thing to be the frog toes.

It's not quite the look I was envisioning, but overall I'm pleased.

Apparently This Needs to Be Said

 

Pattern is by Shannon Downey at Badass Cross Stitch. 

Egg Hunt

 Done! 

I’ve been working on Satsuma Street’s Egg Hunt since the pandemic, but only for a couple of weeks around Easter each year. This year when I pulled it out I saw how close I was to finishing, so I made a big push to do it. Now I just need to find a nice frame for it. 

There's a Certain Satisfaction

 That comes from finishing a project you started 25 years ago.

The pattern is Liz Turner Diehl's Cider House Garden. I started it all the way back in law school, but exams, the theater group, and, uh, socializing kept me from finishing it. I found it again a couple of years ago and, determined to finish it, I began working on it every fall. This spring I did a final push to finish the borders and it's done!

I used the called-for threads, and now I have a bunch of Madeira threads I probably won't use again; I'm a DMC gal. I did switch some colors around (the red and green quits were too Christmasy) and used more specialty stitches than the pattern indicated. Finally, because I was ready to be done, I simplified the border. 

Let's hope it doesn't take me another 25 years to frame it.

Holiday Stitching Photo Dump

 Well, December did not turn out like I had expected. My oldest went in early on for surgery and ended up getting very sick after, not coming home until New Year's Eve. A lot of stitching got done in his hospital room, but very little social media and posting.

But before then, I participated in Wild Olive's ornament SAL in November, which gave me an excuse to finally make some of the designs from one of her patterns, which I bought ages ago.

Beatrice's 2022 Adventrees pattern was the perfect thing to keep my hands occupied during the long hospital stay. I had lots of fun choosing stitches and colors for each tree.

At night I got a little cross stitching done, enough to finish Praiseworthy Stitches' Snowflake Dreams and Elizabeth's Needlework Designs' Red Bird.

In early December I traced and cut out all the felt and fabric pieces to make a bunch of "bowl fillers" from Debbie Busby's Jingle all the Way pattern book; none of the stitching got done until January, though.

The mat is a design by Annie Lippincott, from an old issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

Not a bad amount stitched for a crazy season!

Primitive Tarot

 I couldn't resist Wild Violet's primitive "tarot" trio: The Stitcher, The Ripper, and The Snipper.

 They are stitched on 18-count aida; I hate aida, and I'm trying to use up my stash. In keeping with the primitive vibe of the design, I died the fabric myself with tea and a little baking soda (to set the color).

They remind me of the Three Fates, which might be intentional.

Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2023

 Welcome, and happy Halloween! I haven't been able to do as much blogging this year, but I always enjoy participating in Jo's blog hops. 

I did get a little stitching done. Rosewood Manor's Blackbirds on a Pumpkin, which I started a couple of years ago, finished up quickly (I only had two colors left to do):

I stitched two designs from XStitch the Rainbow's Autumn Garden collaboration, Ardith Design's Autumn Floral Urn:

and Bendy Stitchy Designs' Autumn Colors (my favorite):

But the stitching I'm most excited about is the first two of Wild Violet's Primitive Tarot trio:

 I think I might push myself to stitch the third before I get started on any Christmas ornaments. I guess I did more stitching than I realized!

In any event, you are all here for a letter:

(It's an I, and part of my ongoing alphabet series; in my head, the letter I is white.)

You're also here for the link to the next blog, which is Jeremiah's Mom. Happy hopping!

An Early Start

 Disappointed that I didn't get to stitch any 12 Days of Christmas designs last December, I vowed to start early (February, I think) and stitch a few before summer ended. "A few" turned into "one," and that one was a large design (much bigger than I anticipated), but still! I have something to add to the collection!

 The design is from Gazette 94. It's a little too big to count as an ornament, but I love the colors.

Ornaments, Ornaments, Ornaments!

 Now that the cross stitch gifts have been finished and given, I've been able to make some things for myself.

Such as Wild Olive's adorable Emmet Otter ornament:

 Or this quotation from Elf -- one for me, one for a friend:

 I adore the yarn I used for these stars, and I'm making pompoms from it, too:

 And then there's the freebie from Love Embroidery magazine:

 Whew!

3 More Days ...

 It's time for Jo's annual Advent Blog Hop! I always enjoy participating, and seeing what stitchy goodness others have been up to.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten much done this year. I've been cross-stitching my fingers off trying to finish this design for my video game-loving son, and of course I had to make it harder on myself by changing up a bunch of the motifs to match the games he plays (at least I had the sense to stitch it on white, rather than black fabric). I promise to show it off when it's done, though!

I also stitched the infamous Peeking Jesus for my brother, a Benedictine priest:

The only Christmas-themed stitching I've done is a cute advent calendar by Wandering Threads, given to me by a friend. I'm pretty far behind, though, because of the aforementioned cross stitching:

It's a fun design, though.

Jo has asked us to answer what we have for "afters" -- dessert. For us, it's Christmas cookies! The days of my baking dozens in a marathon session a few days before Christmas are long gone. Instead, every weekend of Advent I try to bake at least one batch of something, and stick them in the freezer until Christmas eve. Then I lay them on the sideboard in our dining room, and watch them disappear over a few days. If I have the wherewithal, I will also give some to our neighbors and mail some to a friend or two.

This year's selections: sparkly gingerbread, coquito lace cookies, stamped brown sugar shortbread, crushed peppermint-chocolate cookies, and if I have the time, chocolate-dipped triple coconut macaroons. 

I hope all of you have a sweet Christmas filled with peace and joy!

Trick or Treat Blog Hop

 Happy Halloween to those of you coming from Jo's blog! Your letter is:

It's been kind of a terrible year, so I have gotten very little stitching done. I decided to focus on an old pattern I started decades ago (while I was in law school, I think) but never finished -- Liz Turner Diehl's Cider House Garden. I didn't manage to finish it this year, either, but I made good progress, stitching the house, one of the maple trees, and six of the apple trees:

 

I think I might finally be able to finish it next year.

I also started Wild Violet's primitive tarot set, but didn't get very far:

I dyed the aida myself, using black tea with a little baking soda to (I hope) cut down the acidity.

On to the next blog: http://guavagems.blogspot.com/  Have fun!

My Annual Epiphany Photo Dump!

 Once all the holiday prep was over, I finally found time for stitching.

Christmas Forest and Christmas Girl by Tamar Nahir Yahai:

A second covid-themed ornament (sigh) by BeverlyStreetShop:

 Floral trees by Fabric and Ink (this was a kit to make two pink trees, but I was inspired to use green sequins for the second one):

 A kutch embroidery tree designed by Sarah Homfray for Stitch Magazine. This is a new-to-me stitch from India, and it was lots of fun to do:

Nutcracker Dancers designed by Naoko Kudo, from the December issue of Just Cross Stitch:

Santa Birdie by Bobbin and Fred, from the 2021 Just Cross Stitch Ornaments magazine:

And finally, finished in the nick of time, the indefinitely-named Applique Banner from Mollie Makes magazine:

Happy Three Kings Day!

13 Days of Halloween

 Is finally done!

That tiny one-over-one lettering took forever. I'm not crazy about those clay buttons popular for some projects, so I stitched all the motifs (with a few beads for good measure. One can never have enough beads). I also had to omit the surrounding lettering because a needle minder from a company that shall go nameless left a giant rust spot on the fabric. I tried all sorts of removers and home remedies, to no avail. Oh well, less stitching to do.

The design is by Praiseworthy Stitches, as you may recognize from the idiosyncratic lettering; I actually ended up modifying the As, Ns, and Rs to make them a bit more legible. 

Love it.

A Cross-Stitch Witch

 Third in the Prairie Schooler Halloween series:

 

I say "series," but really it's my own little series that I've created from the designs in the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issues; the first one (the owl) had a checkered border around it, so I added that to the subsequent designs and made some thread changes to match.

 Only, now that I see the three together, apparently I used the wrong orange for the witch. Aaaargh!

Primitive Pumpkin!

 

This little guy is from a design by the Primitive Hare, in the Just Cross Stitch 2016 Halloween special issue.  The entire design wasn't my style, but this face kept catching my eye, so finally I stitched him. And he fits perfectly in a 3-inch hoop!

Stitching in the Garden

 This set was designed by Hands on Design, and I'm thrilled with how it came out!

I stitched the tray, first, and as I stitched those button flowers I knew I must use real buttons. But I was worried they might catch on anything I put in the tray, so I opted just to use them for the pincushion. Which matches with the appliqued felt and decorative pins in it. 

The sewing theme means I'm linking it to Jo's People's Choice SAL post for September. My first link-up!

This design has sparked two obsessions: sewing-themed cross stitch and tomato pincushions, so I'm plotting more projects that I totally have time for.