November 2025

What a wonderful month I had.    I am forever grateful for this wonderful life I have with my family, friends and hobbies!

The last weekend of October I participated in a  one-day class with Theresa Vinette/Shakespeare’s Peddler.    What a delight.   The retreat was organized by Stitches Unlimited in Lancaster, PA.  It was well run and Theresa was a joy.   She is so down to earth and relatable and her patterns are lovely.  This is the class piece we got.   Theresa was onboard about rearranging the layout, stitching it on a bell pull, doing it horizontal or turning it into 9 ornaments.   You never know how a designer will feel if you change their design.  (Not my photo/work - from Stitches Unlimited website)

The first week of November I was off  to Tennessee.   My friend Pat and I flew to Chattanooga to spend time with a mutual friend.   Pre-trip tension/worry of possible flight problems was needless.  We lucked out with no delays.   The three of us went to Stitching in the Smokies for a three-day stitching retreat.   Months ago this became Smoking in the Rockies when I had a brain hiccup and typed it wrong in a group text.   Since then I have had to pause and think of what the darned retreat was called.    We stayed in a Hilton Tapestry in Pigeon Forge.   It was such a great time.   So much laughing and some stitching.  Made a bunch of new friends and meet some Floss Tubers too.  I did buy two patterns at the event.   Teresa Kogut’s  Holiday Stroll  and Brenda Gervais’ Sweater Weather.    Brian and Stacie of Thread The Needle Stitchery did a super great job at having a successful retreat.  

 

Hilton Tapestry

We were home for one day of rest and then  off to our DVHSG Semi-Annual Retreat.   It was another great time.   This is always a fabulous time with old friends and new.   Just so  nice to sit with fellow stitchers, talking, stitching and catching up with each other.   What a wonderful community we have.   Of course I had the most minimal of shopping lists when I went.   And you will never guess what was waiting for me at the Retreat.     My pocketbook.    The whole point of  our trip to Tennessee was to be able to drive back with Diane when she was coming north for Thanksgiving.   We had her house left Tennessee at 3:15 a.m on Tuesday.  When we stopped for breakfast at 7:30 I realized I didn’t have my pocketbook.    Thank goodness Diane has great neighbors and those great neighbors have a key to her house.   Her neighbor shipped it to Salty Yarns and it was waiting at the counter for me when I arrived.    I’m thinking my husband could be right when he threatens to get me chipped!   I’ve got nothing. 

I also purchases Winter Moon from Plum Street because I caved to a SAL.    I got Basket of Joy by Stitches by Ethel.   I love her designs. 

Lastly, the 2025 Collectors Heart from Heart in Hand.   This is going to be my Blessings Sampler for January 2026.

Not too much damage to the credit card considering I was at a retreat with a pop up shop, a quilt store, a side trip to a cross stitch store and a retreat AT a cross stitch store.  

Here is one thing I did that took all of 10 minutes, if that.  Found an 8 x 10 frame from my stash.   Opened it up.  Secured a Loran magnet board with “Yes Paste” to the backing piece.  Cut a piece of scrap booking paper  to size to put over it.  Put the frame back together.   Added my needle minders.    I am sure there are more needle minders lurking to be added.   And this is not an original idea.   I think it was from Instagram.

Quilt progress was nil.  With being away for half the month and then having the kiddos here for three days, I didn’t get any quilt work done.  

 I was able to finish the Jeannette Douglas Christmas Box.  I am super happy to have it done.   Now fully finishing is another story.  I can say I wasn’t really fond of stitching the peppermint stripe stitching around the larger stitched section.    I was able to complete this in just a month.  It is a small piece and not like I was burning up the needle.  

I got Cabin in the Woods back from the framer.   This is a new framer for me and I will use her again.  I love the colors in the trees and it just looks like a snowy winter’s night to me.  Maybe that cabin should have had a chimney with smoke coming out!  Now I think of it.  

I took Cornwall Cottage to both Tennessee and Berlin, MD hoping to make fantastic progress.  Overall, I am not disappointed.   — Before

After

Even though I have let this one languish in the time-out basket longer than I should have, I haven’t lost my love of this piece.   I am amazed that with just 6 colors it is so vibrant.  This is the biggest WIP I have left and I had put off working on it all year.    I plan to focus on this for the rest of the year and I hope to have finish early in the New Year.  Projects are already lining up in a queue for me to work on in the New Year.

 

When in Tennessee, Diane helped me finish my peyote scissors fob.   I had a wrong color bead in one place and I knew Diane had a  trick to replace it without undoing the  whole thing.   Ta-Da!   It was corrected and completed in one afternoon.  This is Home of the Brave from Fern Ridge.
 

Fellow stitchers, please don’t feel you fall short.  I am retired, I am project driven, I am all over the place project wise and I do tend to blather on about myself.  Years ago a friend told me  I must have had more hours in my day then  she did.   IDK.  It is the internal perfectionist I think.   I am just a doer.  Everyone shines in their own way.   I’ve been on a two year craze to finish up my WIP’s so it appears that I am getting more done and actually all I am doing it tying up loose ends.  Next year……after I swore off SAL’s, I have two looming in the wings.   I have no willpower.

Happy Thanksgiving my USA friends and followers.  Tomorrow I will have a houseful and it will be great.    I was supposed to be a guest at my son’s but a busted dishwasher and new to be sink installed - still in the box - caused a change in venue.   It’s all good because I have two little helpers today.   I secretly am happy it is back with me.  45 years of hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for everyone is hard to change.    May you all be blessed with family, friends, good food and happy memories.

   A time to be grateful and to not eat too much pumpkin pie!     Keep on keeping on my fellow crafting friends, thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.

February 2024

Before the end of January, I did manage to eke out one of my January WIPGO’s.  I actually was doing the hand-stitching sitting at the airport gate on my way to Tennessee.   The WIPGO assignment was to fully finish the Civil War Huswif from Needlemade Designs.   Parts were a little tricky and seams not are so straight but I say it makes it more authentic to Civil War times.  That’s my story and I am sticking to it. 

The kit included a website to research family members who may have been in the Civil War.  Instead, I added my grandson’s name and 1st Pennsylvania as the first grandchild and he lives in PA.

The beginning of February found me in Tennessee at my friend Diane’s.  Her EGA Region has a great retreat so a couple of years ago I joined the Knoxville Chapter so I could attend.   It makes for a nice excuse to visit Diane for a week and as a side bonus, to attend the retreat in Carson Springs.    They always have little projects to do for us.  The first one I did was this needlebook.  The design had a pineapple on it for their 50th Anniversary.  I talked to the gal that was in charge of the project and told her it was my Chapter’s 50 Anniversary as well and wondered if I could modify her design to fit my Chapter.…..by all means she said.   Thank you Jennifer to all the leg work.  She even had books with motifs to choose from.     Stitched and finished in an afternoon, my kind of project. I am pleased with how it turned out.

The other class I took was a peyote beading class with Judi T of the Knoxville Chapter.   I have only done peyote once before so I was slow but I was able to start and finish this pen cover in one day.

For the month of February I  got so much stitching done that I cannot believe it.  It is all due to 7 days stitching at Diane’s.  I finished these two beaded hearts for Hearts for Hospice that my EGA is doing.

I put in 7 hours - my February WIPGO assignment - on Merry Little Christmas from Willow Tree Designs.  It was going so well that I continued stitching until finished.   It doesn’t show up here but this is stitched on a pretty green, Vintage Willow.

I put my WIPGO required 7 hours on my other February project, Rosewood Manor’s Barnwood Buttons.    And again, since it was going so good, I just keep stitching to get it done.   Since many of us don’t like how our stitches with white look, I gave DMC Floche a try.   Jury is out still on the Floche.  This landed in the WIP pile because I didn’t like the weight and feel of the fabric.  The color, which doesn’t show up, is a  pretty blue.   Instead of working in hand, I put this in one of my Nurge hoops.  I recently got rid of all my Q-Snaps and replaced them with a set of 4 sizes of Nurges which I am liking.  Getting rid of the Q-snaps also freed up from space!

I have all the verse in.  Just a few more flower stems and the rest of the border under the verse.  I know I can get this down by the end of the month.

I just had to get the buttons I have been saving out to ‘play’ with them.

I finished my SAL from the Blackbird Designs from a last September class in Kansas City.  It is designed to finish as a Huswif but I don’t know.  I am toying with adding rosebuds to the upper corners and framing it…..but for now it is a finish and off the WIP list.   Fully finishing is a whole other endeavor.

All these finishes lead me to check out and prioritize my WIPS.  I had 24.  I didn’t include class pieces; that is a rabbit hole I am not going down.   I have more than several projects kitted and I am anxious to start more than a couple.   Then there is always a new great must-have pattern that comes along.  Thankfully nothing from the Nashville Market has swayed me so far.   I made a pact with myself - six WIP’s done before I think about a new start.  Considering my progress on Barnwood Buttons, I am close to four down so far in 2024.    I have a guild class in April, a stitching cruise in September and a Retreat in November and each will involve a new start, another reason to stay away from my stash of kitted projects.   

Perusing my own WIP parade lead me to my word of the year.   I decided on MONOGAMOUS.   Now let’s not get excited here, there is nothing nefarious going on.    Doing WIPGO last year I realized what many of you already know……you get more done if you just stick to one project.  Dare I add that stitching is not the only non-monogamous sector in my life?   Take the bathroom curtains I made a few years back - still not hemmed. They have been on the list 4-ever right next to the infamous wall paper removal project from I am not saying when.  Or that 100 day quilt I got all the way to Day 93 and stopped!  My projects seem to be a lot like my stitching.   I am gung-ho to start with and then something new and shiny comes my way or I need something new to work on to have the vim and vigor I feel at the beginning of a project.   I seem to have no willpower to be able to stick to a job until it is finished. If I were to look up “side-track” in Webster’s Dictionary it would be no surprise if there were a reference me as a real life example.   The worse part is this jumping from job-to-job usually happens when I am about 85% finished.   Obviously I am project-oriented and not completion-oriented.  For stitching I’d like to get down to maybe four ongoing projects.   One you carry with you, one you cannot carry due to size or difficulty, one that is easy on the eyes and the last, an obligation stitch.   For household projects, my delinquent culprits are on the list AGAIN this year and I really hope I can get my act together and they are not arrowed-over on the calendar to re-appear next  year.   So monogamous it is for me.   Not sure how well that would be received as a pillow so I am won’t even try! And I am even more sure that while this sounds like such a good plan and I have even intention of carrying out it, I know me and I may very well stray from my good intentions.  

Somehow, Miss Raegan turned 4 years old in February.  Wow, where does the time go!   Below is the day we had a tea-party in her family room.  She insisted we use her teeny tiny cups and plates from her kitchen.  All decked out in her favorite princess dress and her jewelry.   She is a trip.  I think a real life trip to a tea house is in our future.

Until next time, I will try to stay a monogamous stitcher.  Check the comments with each post to see my reply to your comments!   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching!

December Starting up with Finishes

I ended November and started December with a little side trip.   My friend, who lives in Tennessee but was visiting family in NJ, had an obligation and had to drive from NJ to Tennessee to go back home.  It is an 11 hour drive and she said she wouldn’t be back in NJ for Christmas because the doing the drive alone is getting to be too much.   So what do retired stitching friends do, they say we will come with you and share the driving.  Down we went on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and returned December 4th.

We had a great time and the week flew by and we were on our way back to NJ before we knew it.  Our mornings were running an errand or two (if a visit to Hobby Lobby counts as an errand), lunch out and then back home to stitch away the afternoon and evening.   I made more progress in the last week than I expect to the rest of the month which is why I am doing my post early.   

Knowing I can’t stitch while in the car,  I took some of my trims to wind on bobbins from Madam Sew.  I decided to group them on the cards by color rather than type.    I have most of my trims now on either these bobbins or on ones I made as seen below.   Madam Sew’s are sturdier and larger.  Mine were made by decoupaging a print out on comic board.  I have already ordered two more sets of bobbins from Madam Sew to finish up my remaining trims……because you know we save every piece of trim or ribbon that comes our way.  Having these wrapped will make it easier to find just the right trim when doing finishing.  

Just under the wire before the end of the month, I was able to fully finish November and December from A Year of Celebration from HOD.  It was one of my November WIPGO assignments.  I pre-cut the batting, backing and mat board before my road trip.   That is half the battle.  It was easy to fully finish them.  Six months down and six to go.   Now if only I could get the numbered tiles moved to the proper place for December!

On the 30th, I worked on my Halloween stitch.  I may be able to wrap this one up on the 13th if it turns out to be a good stitching day for me.

I finished the “January” branch for my temperature tree.  On the right below, is my friend Lisa’s temperature tree.  I want to get at least the January and February branches done before the 1st of the year.

I  did a little embroidery and wool work on pre-printed pillow tops.   I added some wool pieces, beads and buttons along with some stitches here and there.   These are three of six and when fully finished, these will make cute bowl fillers.

I also fully finished this lovely needle-book from a class with Lady Dot at Quilter’s Station in September.  Again, this is something that was about 90% finished when something else shiny passed in front of me and caught my eye.    

I even hemmed the sleeves in my coat.  The coat I have been carrying a spool of thread around in the pocket for four years for that particular reason.   Ugh!  It only took 15 minutes…..it is off my to-do list!

To round out the finishing, I added the twisted cord and hanger to this Christmas in July ornament.

I worked on my 4th of the month stitch piece….a day early since the forth would be spent riding/driving 11 + hours.  My version is on the left and Diane’s is on the right.  The original was done is all gray tones.  Diane prettied it up with patriotic colors and I jumped on board when I saw her creativity.

I stitched one of Lila’s Studio Red Sweater patterns when in Chattanooga.   I bought, of all things, plastic that resembles perforated paper and started stitching the same sweater pattern on the ride home.   I don’t think I have ever have stitched the same pattern twice and this will make the third time for this sweater pattern.  Once was for a friend and these two will be for the kiddos.   

Lot’s of little things done and loose ends tied up.  

Because I was in Tennessee, I left with the fall decor up and the Christmas decor still in the attic.   So I’ve week or so ahead of me to try to turn it all around into a Christmas wonderland.   Between decorating and obligations and events, I don’t know if I will get much stitching done the rest of the month!   Here’s hoping!  

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching!