Santa Ornament

I finished this ornament on November 12th, but couldn't show it until now. The design came from a book called, "100 Cross Stitch Ornaments" by Carol Siegel & Dimensions Design Studio. It was made for Lynne in Canada as part of the SNS2 ornament exchange. I stitched it over-one on 28ct linen with DMC threads, and finished it off with a string of pearls. It took me about 16 hours to stitch. Didn't it turn out nice?

This is the 5th project completed that goes toward my Project Challenge:

1. Therapy Bookmark
2. Cardinal Snowflake Ornament
3. Freedom
4. Yummy Gingerbread Man Ornament

SBQ - Christmas Ornaments

My goodness... It's been a week since I've updated my blog. I have a bunch to catch up on, but for now I'll start with the SBQ:

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each year and for whom? If not, why not?

Yes, I stitch ornaments! In the past 30 days, I’ve stitched 3 ornaments and am working on the fourth! I’ll be showing them in the next few weeks after the recipients get them. I have one going to Australia, one to Canada, and two to US addresses. After that, it’s stitching for me! I am tempted to do some of those ornaments over for myself!

Spry at 89?!

I met the most spry 89 year old woman today. A coworker invited 3 of us to a chili fundraiser put on by the assisted living facility where her mother lives. Mostly, it’s family members of the residents who go. Today, we were her extended family. Helen was all smiles, happy to meet us, and have lunch with us. She’s a tiny little thing, only about 4 ft. tall, if that. I’ve listened to my coworker talk about her mom ever since they moved her from rural South Dakota a year or so ago. I’d never have guessed she was 89 by the amount of energy and the sense of humor she has. When we left, she gave us all hugs and patted us on the cheek. LOL, it’s something I’ve only seen on TV. You could tell it meant a lot to her that she had people come to her luncheon. After we got back to the office, my coworker thanked us for coming… and I could tell it meant a lot to her also, that we went. Giving of yourself when you don’t have to...

SBQ - Floss Collections

How many different brands of "complete" embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index cards, palm pilot, etc.)

The only "complete" set of floss I have is DMC. I probably have 2-3 complete sets! However, I do have an almost complete set of SSS. I also have some VC silks, Kreiniks, GAST, Dragon, and others I can't think of right now.

I have a software program called “Stash Magic” that I started putting my floss and fabrics into, but I don’t really like how it works. I’m thinking about trying Organized Expressions instead.

Set of Firsts

First project. First design. First sampler.

Karen P wrote: Do you remember the first thing you ever cross stitched? Can you tell us what it was? Also, was it stamped or counted?

I come from a family of somewhat ‘crafty’ people. Both my father and grandfather were woodworkers. My grandmother crocheted, knitted, and did ceramics. My mother crocheted and sewed. Hence, I have done all of those things and more over the course of my life.

My first cross stitched piece was a birth sampler I designed and stitched for myself. So obviously, it was counted and not stamped. I was in my early teens. I had seen some motifs in an old magazine my mother had – Woman’s Day or Family Circle, something like that. I had found an old piece of knit basketweave-type fabric and a tangled up mess of embroidery floss in my mother’s sewing box. I untangled the floss and set forth on my journey to create a masterpiece.

This is what I came up with:



It's about 5½x7" in size. Not bad for being my first try and self-taught. Sadly, I didn’t know anything about washing it and keeping it clean all those years ago. It’s rather stained and dirty now.