It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that Denise has passed away. Per her last blog post, the SI pain she was experiencing was just a symptom of a much bigger issue. From diagnosis of a new cancer to her passing was only 3 weeks. Shocking for us all. I will leave her website up for now so if you want to get ideas or patterns, now is the time to do it. Thank you to you all for your support of Denise’s creativity.

Renee (Denise’s Sister)

Gosh it’s been three weeks since I did a blog post but that’s because I’ve been having some issues with SI joint pain and back pain – barely being able to move about. It’s getting better but all I’ve been doing is going to work and coming home to sit with my heating pad. Luckily, sitting on my office chair at home or at work is not painful – walking and moving around however was a different issue. But with some stretches to relieve the SI pain (which was the worst when I walked) that terrible pain has gone away along with the random muscle twitching/tightening in my hip that would wake me up at night. Just the low back pain remains but I’m hoping that will improve day by day. Enough about that!

The one thing I have spent time on, when I wasn’t working, is I got a lot of stitching done because I couldn’t do anything else.

I think I just had part of the names and flowers/leaves at the bottom last time I showed this and now it is finished.

Then I’ve been wanting to start for a long time (several years it’s been in the stash), Noel Sampler by Brenda Gervais. So I finally pulled it out last weekend, or maybe a few days before, and got it started. I’m pulling my own floss from my silk stash mostly, and mostly in similar colors. Here it is so far – yes, I actually added the border and have it all stitched.

Here’s a close up of the top area. I changed the mortar around the bricks from a more white color – which just looked a bit to stark – to a golden shade that is lighter than the one used for the window frame. The bricks were also supposed to be only two shades, but I added two more shades to add variety.

There’s supposed to be a square above the bird to the left of the house that has the letters NOEL in it but I think I”m going to leave that off and put something else there. I’m saving the fill in on the house and roof for some other day and moved down to the alphabet.

I do think I may put this one away for a while now that I got a good start on it. I’m kind of tired of stitching with these sort of drab colors. I need to get my floss on floss drops for LIberty Bay and pick some fabric. This is a start along (officially starts June 24 but I think I’ll start once I get it all ready to go) in honor of the designer from Twin Peak Primitives which recently passed away hosted by Pam of JustKeepStitchin (on flosstube). #libertybaysal • Instagram

Especially love that bight yellow house but both those houses are really stitch heavy – this one will take awhile. I don’t think I will be adding the borders. I may add the flag at the bottom and the straight line borders on the sides that end up in bows in the two top right corners but not the other borders.

So, I’ll be going back to my stitchy chair now to get the floss organized and I have a couple fabric options sitting next to my chair to pick from.

I’ve been so busy at work I haven’t been on the computer much at home. My last post was about 2 wks ago and I had started working on a Little House Needleworks “Colonial Women” stitch. I did set that aside since the last photo I shared on it and started not one, but two new Santa stitches. But I also finished one of those Santa stitches and the other one is “finished for now” which I’ll explain below.

Here’s the first Santa I started and finished in the last two weeks.

It’s a freebie chart and can be found if you go to https://gazette94.blogspot.com/
Go to that blog – which is no longer actively being posted to but free patterns are still there – click on the free patterns and scroll down to Santas and you will find him in several different colorways.

I picked my own flosses and color placement for mine. Mrs. Claus must get tired of seeing Santa in just his red suit so I’m thinking she would have kit him this colorwork sweater. He was supposed to be wearing regular boot-like shoes, but I gave him some cozy slippers to go with his lounging pants. But, of course, there’s probably hot cocoa in that polka dot mug he is holding. Stitched on 16 count with two strands of floss and the fabric is by BeStitchMe and color is Coffee Club. He’s between 9-10″ tall and will someday be finished as a standup.

Once I finished him, I pulled another Santa chart from my pile that I’ve been wanting to stitch and never got around to last year. It’s a chart called Santa Claus by TheSubRosaDesign on Etsy. Here’s the chart image.

This is the one that I said is “finished for now.” I made my book a different color (I was tired of stitching red!) and so far I have only stitched Santa and his book – not the works or garland above it. The reason is I have a couple “fake books” — you know those kinds that look like a book but really the front cover lifts up to find a little storage box. I want to find those (stored somewhere safely away) to see if this will fit on any of those – this may be just a smidge too wide – and see if I have room to stitch the words, garland, etc. above it. But here is what I have stitched for now.

Since I just put the last stitches in the above today – I’ll probably pull out a WIP to get back to.

I think this is my 17th project I finished for 2026 (although not all those projects were started and finished in 2026 as some where started in 2025.

A Stitcher’s Rules by Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery is finished and I can put it in the gifting pile once I fully finish it to be gifted before the end of the year.

I picked my own flosses, mostly similar to what was charted but did change some. I changed up the motifs inside that big white spool, sort of mirror imaging the top section on the bottom since I didn’t like what was charted on the bottom. I changed the sewing machine shape just a bit and left off the flowers stitched on it and made them just gold medallions similar to what my featherweight has on it, and moved a few smaller spools around, converting the floss bobbins into thread spools since this is for a quilter friend of mine. Really fun to stitch.

So after finishing that, I wanted another simple project and pulled the container of charts nearly. I wanted a small-ish chart that I could use some of the silk flosses I already had used for the prior projects (I was not in the mood to kit up a bigger project with called for flosses). I picked out a classic patriotic stitch from Little House Needleworks (designed in 2009) that celebrates four famous Colonial women.

I’m going to be making a few changes to this – picking my own flosses as I go along, and I don’t know that I’ll do the line borders at the bottom or the alphabet at the top. I also moved the gras area just two rows down to because I think I have a frame that it will fit into with a little bit of adjustment. Anyway, I started this Thursday night, 5-14-16, and here’s my progress so far. I’m currently working on the white picket fence which is looking ghosty but when the hosue is filled in it will show up nicely. I also may leave the “1776” off the roof of the house.

Friend Judy has laid out her stitching plans for the next few weeks and one of those weeks she plans to stitch on Noel Sampler which I have been wanting to start for the last 2 years or so but just never did. So I may be kitting up that one to finally get it started and stitch on it along with her, and a larger patriotic sampler I’ve been wanting to kit up too but was waiting for a fabric that just arrived. So I may have some newly kitted projects to share in the not too distant future.

Here’s a photo of my small finish I forgot to take a picture of yesterday. It’s from the chart Deer Friends – which as two deer on it but I followed the lead of friend Judy and only stitched half the design. There was a mirror image of the deer and tree on the other side so the deer were facing each other. I actually think I may have a tiny frame that this will fit into. I’m going to have to go pull one out.

I just looked back at my prior blog post and at the end of it I was talking about Deer Friends and now I was considering stitching only half of the design. I forgot to take a photo of it when I finished – I did only stitch half – and it’s buried under something so I’ll post a photo of that when I unearth it. 🙂

But I think it was this past Tuesday that I pulled out a chart I had recently received that was released at Spring Market called A Stitcher’s Rules. Here’s the chart

The chart is designed by Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery. This chart I bought because I knew it would be the perfect gift for a quilty friend. I had already stitched a little birthday gift for her and this will be a Christmas gift I think.

Because she is a quilter and not a cross stitcher, I’m altering some of the motifs. There are thread spools on it but then there are also motifs that look like those cardboard (although they are also made out of plastic these days) pieces that you wrap your floss around so you can store it in a box. I used to have those divided plastic boxes and all my floss bobbinated in my first cross-stitching phase back in the 1990s-early 2000s. Anyway, I am changing all those floss bobbins to more spools of quilting thread. I’m also just picking out my own floss – some in similar shades as charted and some not – making it a little more, I think, vibrant (but not too bright) than more prim looking as charted. Stitched on a scrap of 20 ct aida from Those Missing Stitches. My progress so far.

Second WIP that I pulled from the stash has been finished.  As the Crow Flies is stitched.

As The Crow Files S9-5-25 F 5-4-26

I changed up the colors – I used the called for floss for the house but think everything else may have been my own choices.  I used one color for the vines and leaves along the side borders but know it was charted for two different colors but didn’t want to be changing colors so often so went with a hand dyed that had lighter and darker areas in it and just let them fall where they may.  This one will go into the Box of Beautiful Things to await fully finishing.

I had another fall stitch in the same WIP project bag with the above project so I decided to work on that WIP.  The chart is called Deer Friends which you can see on this blog post

When I pulled it out of the bag it looks like I haven’t stitched on it since that blog post of October 25, 2025, since just the tree that is shown is finished.    Judy had just stitched basically one half of the chart and I think I may do that as well.  I’ve discovered over the years I’m not fond of stitching things that are mirror images of each other and it will make a cute little finish.

It’s been a busy two weeks but I have been stitching in the evenings and managed to pull out a WIP and get it finished and started and finished a second small gift project.

Antique Evergreen Sampler was my end of July 2024 birthday start project.  I had worked on it for a very short time before putting it away – here’s the last photo I posted and I hadn’t worked on it since August 3, 2024 when this photo was posted.

And here it is all finished.  It’s about 7″ x 7.5″ – a very petite sampler.  And I did move some of the called for colors around.  I loved the soft purple in it and wanted to use that more so sprinkled it about in other places.  I also love the two shades of blue used for the alphabet/words and the way the names of evergreens are within the alphabet in a lighter shade.

Antique Evergreen Sampler S7-28-24/ F4-28-26

The finished photo is actually the true color of the fabric and floss.

Then, I picked up the chart I had set aside for a gift, pulled floss and fabric and started that on April 29, finishing the stitching yesterday – May 1.    A couple weeks ago when I had come across the chart and set it aside to stitch for a sewing friend with a birthday coming up, I has also ordered a wooden board to mount it on from StarryNightsStudioCo on Etsy.

I Will Find You S4-29-26 / F5-1-26

I love her finishing boards.  I got the white board with spool looking (bobbin) cutouts at the top, the fabric board I had her add is black with gray dots – the gray matches the fabric I stitched on (Debonair Darcy by ThoseMissingStitches).  I want to figure out what sort of trim I might want to put around the edges before I break out the hot glue gun to fix the stitched piece to the mounting board.  I do plan to put it lower than centered on the dotted fabric piece so I have a border at the top to glue some colorful buttons on.   And if you’ve ever had someone use your good fabric scissors to cut paper, cardboard or any other crazy things, you will appreciate the sentiment. 🙂

After I finished adding that stitch to the chipboard piece (I have a few days off so had some extra stitching time Friday afternoon and have Monday-Tuesday off as well), I was thinking do I start something new or pull out the basket of WIPS to sift thru.  I didn’t feel like kitting anything up, and the two or three projects I have prekitted weren’t calling to me so I pulled out another WIP.

As the Crow Flies Pinkeep by Stacy Nash.  Here’s where I had left off last time I worked on it.

The first thing I did was finish the house color.  I had run out of the brown used for windows and room so just left the window that should ahve been centered in the row of windows above the door off.   I love the way the oak leaves turned out – that is all one variegated floss used in those.  I’m using that same floss for the flowers in the vines as you can see below.   I did rip out the yellow in the very center of the flowers on the vine and the little sort of stamens that stuck out of the flowers.  The yellow was much brighter than it looks in the photo above and was just too bright.  I will either add a different gold color or maybe just fill them in with the same color used around the edges.

Here’s where it is after last night’s stitching and a little bit this morning.

That’s the stitching update for today!

I had another small start and finish this week.  Can’t remember what night I started this – during one of the many several storms we had for several evenings in a row, but on 20 ct the stitched area only measures about 3″ x 5″.  This was a new chart that came out at market this year.

I made some changes because I knew when I saw it who it would be a gift for.  Picked my own similar floss except the words charted in red I stitched in gold and I removed the cat and goldfish bowl  and adapted the dog from beagle looking ears to match the ears of the dog I wanted it to represent and even added the orangish bandana around his neck that I had given him.

Very very quick stitch which I have ordered a little mounting board for.

Prior to starting on the stich above I was working on the Teresa Kogut Patreon Patriotic monthly mystery chart for April.  I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but the first block is the founding fathers signing the declaration of independence.  Looking back at the blog I didn’t do a post about when I started it but sometime earlier this month and I’ve been stitching a little on it in between other projects.  But it’s slower going switching thread colors for all those little hands, faces, hair  and clothes for a group of little men.  I’ll try to remember to take a photo of it next time I work on it.  I do like stitching on it.

Last night I picked up a WIP – Mistletoe Kisses.

I filled in the snowman body (I already had the snowwoman done) and then got started on the trees and snowflakes that go in the globe.  I also fixed where I was off at the top of the globe.  So just the trees and flakes and a bird on a branch to finish.

Happy Day by Plum Street Samplers is a wrap; I finished stitching on it this morning.

It’s going to need a 6″ x 7″ or slightly larger frame but checked my stash and I don’t have one that will work. I still need to look thru the box of finishing boards because I think I have a white shiplap type board that is larger and I could mount the stitched piece on top of a fabric piece to give it a fabric border behind it and then add that to the board. This will be a gift.

My plan for this evening is to finally take that box of silks that come on bobbins (plastic sewing machine looking bobbins) that I keep knocking over and get them on floss drops. It will be a night of watching movies and winding floss.