Christmas Sampler

This sampler was the ninth of my stitch9challenge, and I finished it on the second to last day of the year. It was by far the most fun to stitch:

The Christmas pudding, and Nativity were inspired by other designs, modified by me to fit the 14x14 stitch squares. The Charlie Brown Christmas tree, regular Christmas tree (made from fly stitches), and winterberry bush were my own design. The cross stitched gift was a Stitchy Box design, the one over one cookies were Brooke's Books designs, and and the blackwork was from ... somewhere. The beaded candy cane was a reject from a pair I made for earrings. I made a beaded snowflake, stitched a woven rose, and embroidered an ornament-shaped piece of felt. Lace, charms, buttons, and a tiny crystal cross round out the squares.

I love inchie samplers, and I'm sure I'll be doing more.

Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Welcome to Jo's annual Halloween blog hop!  You are all here for a letter, and it is:

Now onto the stitchy goodness! I've already posted about Millicent, and since then I finished another #stitch9challenge project -- Prairie Schooler's witch from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue:

(I think I'll add a border to match similar ornaments, however.)

An Autumn cat for my mom, from Just Cross Stitch's September/October issue:

Satsuma Street's Cat-o-Lantern for me:

And another cat for me, not yet finished, by Durene Jones (from last year's Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue):

The stitches are supposed to be black, but when I opened one of my thread boxes and spied this thread (Valdani's Quiet Fall), I had to use it right away.

Hop on over to the next blog, A Patchwork of Crafts, for the next letter. Happy Halloween!

What I’m Stitching

Stitch 9 Challenge

Since I recently joined the 21st century by getting a smart phone, I decided to check out that instagram thing everyone's talking about. It's fun! And Farmgirlstitcher (I think she has an account on Flosstube) has created a challenge for the new year, to finish stitching nine projects, whether they are brand-new starts or long-standing works in progress. I'm hoping it will motivate me to finish a few lingering projects I have.

And I've actually finished the first one! It's a tiny design, made even tinier by me (to fit a 3-inch hoop), but still!

The design is a freebie from Plum Street Samplers, by Paulette Stewart. I stitched it on a scrap of 40-count fabric, using variegated threads in five colors rather than the two called for by the pattern (one can never have too much color).

Next up is the Sagittarius pattern by Satsuma Designs, which I've been dying to stitch.