February 2026

First of February found me flying to Chattanooga to visit my friend Diane.   Pat and I were joining her to go to the Knoxville EGA Retreat in Carson Springs, TN.  The best laid plans…..somewhere about 32,000 feet in the air over Virginia an email was sent to attendees that the retreat was being canceled.    The retreat location was snowed under, food trucks could not make it to the place which was at that time only accessible by 4 wheelers.   Not to worry, although disappointed we were overjoyed to just stay at Diane’s house for the week.     Always a great time with our friend Diane.  

While at Diane’s she helped us make fancy notebooks for retreat gifts.    

We also got to go to Diane’s weekly stitch-in.    

It is always a good time when the “Jersey Girls” come to stitch with them.                                                It is the cutest store.  Her machines have names like “Dolly” and “Cher”

So cute how she has decorated with what looks to be silhouettes from old patterns with tulle and buttons.  

I took my French Alphabet as my dedicated stitching piece for my time in Tennessee.   I hope to be able to finish enough each month to get this piece done by the end of the FB Leap Year Challenge!   I almost completed a whole pattern page when I was there.  

Raegan turned 6 earlier this month.   OMGosh.  Where has the time gone?   Mom and Dad took her skiiing.  She was a little apprehensive about.   But not once she got there - she loved it.  Soon she will be swooping down the hills along side her brother.

We spend a Sunday making her a couple of 100 Days of School shirts using paint and thumbprints.   Making memories with her and her brother every chance I get.   

I trudged along with American Sampler.   Ugh.  Some days I have to use that little thumb print sized lens on the magnifier.   Slow going but I am not throwing in the towel.   I am doing this piece on 28 over one.  I love the look of 28/1 but my vision does not.   I plan to make this my focus until the next WIPGO numbers are called on the 25th.   The WIPGO numbers give ‘permission’ to stitch on something different and often end with a finish.    If I get tired out before new WIPGO numbers, it will be back to the French Alphabet.  Forward progress all around.

Believe it or not, I am itching to get outside in the yard.   Plans and grand project ideas are swirling around my head.  It is a while off still as we still have a good amount of snow cover because our temps have not been above freezing. 

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching!

Snow Bound Stitching

Not necessarily snowbound but definitely an excuse to stay inside and stitch.   

When the WIPGO numbers were pulled and both numbers on my board were “Stitch Christmas Ornaments” I was off and running.   I do my WIPGO starting on the 25th of each month and end on the 24th of the following month.    What was 5 hours of Christmas stitching, I immediately turned into five days of Christmas and wintertime stitchy pieces is a win/win.   Ornaments are stitched and WIPGO for February is done already.    Fully finishing is a whole other story.

First up, two little felt hats from a December EGA meeting.

No, my Christmas tree is not still up and no judgement if yours is.   I keep a smaller pencil tree up all year and decorate it seasonally.   

Snowman Faces from Dixie Darling - which I believe is no longer in business.  This was an Advent Exchange gift and came with the metal snowflake to mount it in.

Two of the three designs from JBW’s French Christmas Tags, Chart # 386

I added beads to the tree above and changed the bow that was charted to the bow charted for the snowman face.

I have the two ‘tags’ that these are to be mounted on.

I Believe from The Trilogy.    I changed the color of the Christmas ball to a variegated from my stash.   I “manipulated’ the floss colors to try to give is a dimensional (?) look.

And lastly, another felt ornament,  this is Polar Bear Kit from Corinne Lapierre.   She is in England and I bought this kit at Hobby House way back when they were in their original location.  Her kits are complete and the instructions are very straightforward and easy to follow.

Hard to see but the instructions suggested a running stitch in a complimentary color to ‘jazz’ up the 1/4 inch ribbon.  I am going to use this simple trick again.

All, except for the felt pieces, were stitched with mystery fabrics and floss from stash.  This is like a trifecta of  wins!   So far so good with WIPGO.  Now back to my two larger cross stitch projects.  

Thanks for stopping by, stay warm, stay safe and keep on stitching. 

January 2026

A little after the fact but Happy New Year!  Don’t you just love the new year when you get the new planner or calendar and it is all pristine.   All clean and hopeful with the year spread out before you and promises to keep your planner/calendar neat.  Short lived promises if you saw what mine used to look like.   Scribbles, scratch-outs, doodles and arrows this way annd that, post-it notes.   Using my new electronic calendar has some drawbacks.   No way to doodle on the pages.  

I thought long and hard for my word for the year.   I settled on diligent.  The internal perfectionist in me needs this word.  I am alright on my work, it is my duties suffer.  I am a procrastinator on tasks I do not like by distracting myself with ones I do like.  I need to be more focused on my “have to’s”  and let the “want to’s” fall in place behind them.    I need to stop is the mindless scrolling on Instagram or the countless games of Sudoko…..like when stitching, I hear the voice say - just one more game….. and I admit I can be such a squirrel when it comes to projects catching my eye or chasing a new high score.   Oy!

I did decide to do WIPGO again this year.   I had always been successful until last year.   I needed to change my approach for the amount to be done on each project.   Rather than list each project and pledge to be finished in the month it was called, I have the luxury of putting lower requirements since I have fewer WIP’s.   And WIPGO did that for me.   Last year, I got to June and just caved.   I wasn’t getting anything finished and it just seemed too overwhelming with all the projects on the list and none coming off the list.   I dialed it back for 2026.   One project may show up three times on the 2026 WIPGO board with an assignment of  5 hours of work that month.   Very doable.  Forward progress will be seen.  Some will even be completed.  It is another win/win.    I will be diligent to stay the course.  

For January, my WIPGO’s were Liberty Inn by Chessie and Me.    I logged my 5 hours and made great progress.   It appears on my board two mores times.  A definite finish in 2026.   I could have kept going but I stitched to the assignment.

The second WIPGO was Quaker Friends, a Round Robin from a couple of years back.   I also logged 5 hours on it.   It was mostly fill-in on the little scattered do-dads in the background.   It too appears on my board two more times in 2026 so I am not worried about finishing it.   If I am diligent, I will get there.   I can tell WIPGO might work better for me this year as I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the February numbers.

 

Those background motifs meant lots of color changes.   

I chose Chantelle 141/Teresa Kogut Blessings Drum  as my Blessings Sampler.   It was an EZ PZ stitch to complete. I wanted to get it out of the way so started it January 1st. 

Even though I live in NJ, I am only 5 miles from the bridge to Delaware.  Two friends from  my EGA and my DVHSG guild are heading up the Delaware tapestry for the America’s Sampler.   I hosted  a day at my house to give south Jersey stitchers an opportunity to stitch on the tapestry.   For more information check this link.   The concept/goal of the project is explained with details for each state’s tapestry.   It is a good thing both Becky and Amy are retired because this project has taken on a life of its own for them.    This is the artist’s concept for the Delaware design.

American Sampler from Crocette a gogo is a sampler I started with two friends.  I got a slow start as I was having such a hard time physically focusing on the linen.

 4.0’s and a great light were not helping.  It is  over one on 28 count.   I am trying a little bit each morning.  Some days the eyes cooperate and other days they don’t.    I have had a bit of frogging.  Seems counting to 1 is just as hard as counting to 2.  There are 6 stitch-heavy pages in the chart and prior to starting, I knew no matter how diligent I would not be able to get this one done by July and accepted that.    No need to add pressure.   

Mid-month I attended Camp WannaStitch in Ocean City, MD.   This is the annual EGA event I go to.   Probably been going something like 15 years.   Knowing I needed to have an easy to stitch on piece, I took my French Alphabet Sampler and made good progress.   Still a long way to go but I will get there one stitch at a time.    

She’s a big girl.   411x 411.  Below is what I accomplished over the stitching weekend.   The “N” and part of the “Q”, as well as the border from below the “P” to the corner and across the bottom; and, 16 of the letters in the bottom corner alphabet.    Friends who have already stitched this piece disliked stitching this border but it does not bother me……all I worry about is that it meets!  I am doing this as a FB Leap Year Challenge and I’ve got about 25 months left to finish it up.   I really hope I am done before that.  

Look at our view as we entered the area where we stitched at the Ashore Hotel for Camp WannaStitch.

We pretended we were on a cruise ship.🛳  💦   Below is what I saw over my left shoulder.   Don’t let the view fool you.  It was cold and blustery!🌬  Such a rough life for stitchers.

I promised myself some quilt time and I didn’t break the promise.   I thought I would designate Monday’s as Quilting Day but the calendar is not always agreeing. I was able to get 11 blocks cut and  7 of them sewn.    It felt good to be back at it but it came with a caveat…..cleaning and tidying the craft room before AND after.   I have more than half of the blocks completed. I like to say I am on the downhill side but there is the sashing and corner stones and borders……..I am 7 blocks closer than I was at the start of the year so it is a win.  

So pretty happy with my accomplishments in my stitching corner of the world.  It’s early 2026 but I so far so good on the diligent side.  

The first of February, I am heading back to Tennessee to visit a friend and attend a Knoxville EGA event.   I hope to be able to share more great progress on my French Alphabet Sampler.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by everyone.  Keep on stitching.