Garden of Stitches: January 2018

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Spring Painted Roses Pillow

This morning I finished off a pillow for an exchange gift. I am early in finishing but this one just carried me away. I used Cherry Heart Designs Painted Roses pattern, and added Edie Eckman's Border 35 for a small ruffle edge. Very hard to take a photo in winter in my north facing house, and I propped it in a south facing window to capture the colors better. The exchange has a spring theme and these colors match the intended recipient's color wishes.

Notes to self, as I desire to make a pillow like this for my own home: 4 mm hook, backing square is 19 rounds.

This was a stash buster 100%. SSDK in Cream, Gold, Camel, Parma Violet, Duck Egg, Soft Peach, Apricot, Lemon, Pale Rose, Wisteria, Cloud Blue, Clematis, Raspberry, Cypress, Meadow, Pistachio.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Another January Ornament finish

I have decided to try to follow the LHN/CCN Christmas Ornament SAL on Facebook this year, as well as stitching with Andrea. I was able to get January done. I chose LHN's Old Colonial. I opted to put this year's date on mine rather than 1798. I had ordered the R&R 32ct Winter Brew linen with the chart. My small piece was very heavily creased from folding by the LNS. I stitched my piece way up in the corner of that and trimmed it tight for this pillow finish. I used Willow Green belfast for the backing, for a little bit of a twist. I am pretty satisfied with those choices. And... used what I had on hand and meets a stash buster goal for me too.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

January Ornament Finish

And finished! At last, I have finished my first ornament for the Christmas Ornament SAL with Andrea. This one was an adventure for me. I cannot locate my DMC 169. It must be kitted somewhere, and I subbed it with CC Blue Moon. Am very pleased with that. The chart is from PNPS 2017 Christmas-Winter Issue and is by Nikyscreations. Unfortunately, the chart was poorly edited. There are no instructions that this was to be stitched with one strand of floss (oh well...), had to guess what color to back stitch the wing, and the wing was not properly outlined on the chart. Muddled through, and am content. I am still quite fixed on small ornaments with beaded edgings. I find I can always fit these on the tree no matter how loaded up my tree gets every year now 😁

I also have my first 2018 finish to share. This is Cherry Heart Design's Granny Goes Large. I worked this up with my Paint Box DK Rainbow Color Pack. This huge bag of yarn simply had no place to live in my house, therefore this blanket was born. It's big, bright, a bit dizzying and hard to photograph 😎. This year will be a stash busting year for me. Whenever possible, I plan to use what I have on hand (thus the floss substitution noted above) and see how much stash I can clear out. While we all think our cross stitch stash can get large and take up space, I don't think it can ever hold a candle to how much space yarn takes up... 😂

Monday, January 01, 2018

Beautiful Christmas gifts from my friends :-)

My tree and my home are far more beautiful thanks to my lovely friends. Such beautiful gifts, I shall cherish them forever. Thank you all so much 🎅❤🤶

From Andrea...

From Christina...

From Marie...

From Katrina...

From Karen...

From Margaret... Christmas Blessings and Happy New Year 2018 to all 💖

Last finishes of 2017

My New Year's Eve project was a flower pot cozy for my amaryllis plant...

I stitched Praiseworthy Stitches Let it Snowman during quiet breaks at the office in the fall, managed to get the finishing done before the year ended...