Floss Friday #69

Hello All You Crafters! We have another edition of Floss Friday where I share what I have been working on during the past week. Thank you for allowing me to share with you one of my passions.

Starts & Finishes

This week I ended up with one start and one finish. Nice little balance going on there.

START: Let’s Talk Winter (pillow chart) by Hands on Design

For some reason I thought I had starte this one already. When I opened the project bag and found a prepared blank 14 ct chalkboard black aida waiting for me, I was like Oh! Of course this week found me doing that often with all of my last winter stitches that I worked on. LOL! Every bag a little surprise.

I haven’t had as much time to stitch this week with working in my sewing studio instead. I did enjoy finishing up the “snowflakes” and getting a great start on the “snowman”.

FINISH: Autumn Basket (first chart) by Hands on Design

After finally finishing the Summer Basket pillows, I am very inspired to work on the other seasonal baskets. While I want to jump over to the winter baskets (because it is winter), I wanted to finish up this beautiful quilty Star. I like how Cathy at Hands on Design has to shades of green, orange, teal, and browns. They play very nicely together and make me want to make a real quilt using one of her cross stitch patterns.

I stitched this on 16 ct dubloon aida with the called for DMC floss. I enjoyed stitching the star points the most. It was very satisfying.

WIP Updates

I have more projects than days this month so over half the nights this week I was splitting my time between two projects just so I could hit all the projects. Let me share some of these projects – old and new.

Snow Village by Country Cottage Needleworks

There are two winter projects that I fell in love with when I started cross stitching again back in 2020. This is one of them. I am beyond thrilled to officially be two-thirds done with this one now. Depending on how much progress I make in the next two months, I might hold this one over.

This week I was able to finish Snow Boutique with its gorgeous scarf in the window. I enjoyed stitching the snow top roof the most. I am really thinking I will stitch the top border all the way across the last row since it is the same for all four remaining charts. This stitch brings me much joy!

2023 SJ Temperature Butterflies by Stitchin Mommy

While I would love to have finished stitching the December butterfly this week, I could only do a few days and let it go until the end of the month when I will pick it up again. I love how each butterfly is so unique and fun!

You can tell that October actually had a huge variance with some reds and greens. While November was cooler but still a mild month. Love it!

Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embrodiery

I continue to chip away at this one. I almost have the little hexagon design done with the flowers on the left. I am still loving my thread choices after all this time.

Christmas Calendar by Tiny Modernist

This project has a story behind it. It was my first project to be stitched on linen and one of my first projects in 2020. In the old days, you started all projects in the center of your cloth. Buying cloth and cutting it down was a new concept for me as well as starting in a corner. Unfortunately for me, I miscalculated my cloth size as well as my starting point. I discovered last December that there was no way for me to fit the whole project on the cloth I had. So….I restarted it December 2022.

I have saved that original with so many squares stitched in hopes that I will think of someway to use what I had done. This week I worked on finishing Merry Christmas at the top and worked on the angel.

November Sampler of the Month By Country Cottage Needleworks

November is the last in this series that I need to finish. Although this is a fall stitch, I want to finish it sooner than later so last night I finished the bottom pumpkin and corn border. You know it was a lot of fun to stitch. I look forward to doing the top pumpkin and corn border. So adorable.

Upcoming Plans & Thoughts

It’s a good thing I will be off on vacation next week in Canada. I don’t know how I haven’t started any new Christmas projects. I downloaded a couple of free charts (for later) as well as pulling out my Prairie Schooler Santa project bag and a few others. Than I got in the mail my Winter Stitch Quarterly. Oh I don’t think I am going to be able to let that one go. It is so darn cute!!!! A polar bear with a winter fox and penguin. I love winter!

Okay. Okay. Focus Peggy. Don’t be distracted by the squirrel.

Next week before heading out on vacay, I plan to work on the following projects:

• October Stackable (with a secret hope of finishing)
• Shabby Winter Calendar (my second most favorite winter stitch)
• Start and Finish the final Hello There – December
• Last night on Fruit of Plenty in December

Then on vacay the plan is to take:

• Snowballs for Sale (my other WIPGO project for December)
• Snowman Collector: The Clown

Last weekend I started the process of gathering the supplies I need to do a final finish on my Year of Celebration stitches that I finished this month. So far, I found the item I will use to display them on each month. I need to prepare the wood hanging plaque and bought the necessary supplies for that. I also found the perfect 4” squares in the art section called canvas panels. They were on sale! I was so excited that when I was cutting batting for my quilty projects that I cut 12 4” batting squares. This morning my magnets arrived. All that is left is finding where I stashed my needle and thread and craft tape. So exciting to be able to get these ready.

So many things to do and so little time. How did I ever get anything done when I was working 60 hours a week? I guess we find a way. Everyone have an awesome weekend and enjoy all the family time.

Peggy Stockwell in San Jose, California