Christmas Blessings 2022

Hello everyone, Christmas was spent with friends this year. I have managed to do quite a bit of stitching.

 

This was my fireplace mantel. The pine garland stays up year round with the lights and I'll add other ornaments for different holidays and seasons.

I added the ribbon and a snowflake ornament to my pine wreath this time around. Went with a winter theme so it can stay up until spring.

Christmas 2022

 

Christmas Wishes 2021 

 

Made ornaments for the last three years. 

I know that there are lots of years that I have missed, but oh well, these will have to do.

Made this mini banner on Christmas Eve.

 

And five lace snowflake to hang on the pine garland. I've had the kits for these for over 10 years and just never got around to making them until now.

I've stitched a few more pieces but either haven't taken pictures yet or just plain forgot to take pictures of.

Hoping you all had a Merry Christmas filled with love and blessings. Wishing you all a blessed New Year.

Take care and stay safe.

Hugs, Sandy

I've Started STITCHING Again

After over three years of not stitching or designing, I've started doing both.

My best friend had a birthday on the September 24th so I designed a small pillow for her and stitched it up while I was babysitting her three fur babies. I forgot to get a picture of the pillow so will have to add one on a later post, but here are the boys just hangin' out with one trying to nap. Two Shih Tzu's and a little Shih Tzu mix.

I stitch a couple of Guardian Angel name pillows for my friends sister and her roommate, they are in a nursing home so small gifts are a must with their limited space.

I used goodnaturedgirls Alphabetical Order for the Angel letters and my own lower case and stars for the rest. DMC, Metallic thread, 28 count cream fabric, and small star charms for the angels to hold to with a sheer ribbon bow and satin ribbon hanger complete them.

Of course, when we went to visit on Wednesday I forgot them so will have to take them on the next visit.

That's it for now, take care everyone and stay safe.

Hugs, Sandy

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wishing you all a very 

Merry Christmas & 

a Joyous New Year!!

May you be surrounded by beautiful memories & those you hold dear & may your days be filled with Love, Laughter & Happiness.

Here is a small gift from me to you.

 This was designed to go with my earlier designs "Noel" & "Merry Christmas" that you can see here:

https://smalltownstitchin.blogspot.com/2010/12/tis-season.html

 

heart = 321

X = 319

. = 676 & back-stitch on leaves (opt.)

0 = 729

lg. black dot = 680

As always my color choices are just a suggestion, so pick the colors you love most and stitch away. 

I would love to see your finished pieces.

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

 

Stitchin' & TUSAL

Hello Again Everyone!

I haven't done a TUSAL update since May, so here is what I've accumulated since then.

Not a lot of thread ORT's, i've only been stitching during our camping trips.

What I have been doing most is getting hanging organizers ready to sew up and post on an upcoming Etsy shop by the end of the month. It's a bit scary but I received a tremendous amount  of interest after posting a pic on a couple of RV groups. 

Lots & lots of fabric pieces, and there are more that I set aside for making fabric flowers, mini pot grabbers, and skillet handle covers.

 

Here is the stitching I got done while on our last camping trip.

 

Two more bookmarks and two future magnets for the RV fridge.

 DMC variegated, colorist, and GAST threads. All my own designs.

I'll show some pic's of what I've gotten sewn up after I get several more finishes. Were going camping again soon and I'll be taking my sewing machine and iron, along with the table top ironing board so I can get some more sewing done.

Until next time.......

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

Stitchin' & Sewin'

Hello Dear Friends & Followers: I hope all is well with you.

So I got a bit of sewing done this month and stitching done last month and this month on our camping trips.

First off, I designed & stitched two Chair Caddy's for our camp chairs.

They were made from Fat Quarters and have snaps to hold them in place.

They will hold a book or some stitchin' and a bottle of water
or whatever your drink of choice is.

Also got in a bit of small stitchin'

 A bookmark for the Hubs and three magnets, all my original designs.
The bookmark was stitched on 14ct. perforated paper and the magnets were stitched on 14ct. plastic canvas, all were stitched using DMC threads.

That's it for this post, I still have to put up posts of our last three camping trips, they were all at Cottonwood Creek Campground outside Lovell, Wyoming so I have A LOT of similar photos to sort out.

Until next post.....

Take Care & Have A Great Day
Hugs, Sandy

Slowly Adding Things

Hello Everyone, Hope you are all doing well.

I've been slowly going through my craft room to find things I know I will never use, stitch, sew, etc. and adding them to my "For Sale" tabs.

I've added to the RV & Tent Organizers, Smalls, and Photo Albums tabs.

If your interested or curious have a peek. There are also some of my Organizers and Photo Albums on my hubs blog CampingBastards.com

Next will be some needlework charts that I have, some I've stitched and will never stitch again, others I looked at and thought why the heck did I get that.

Check back weekly to see what other items I add.

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

 

ORT Report and Other Happenings

Hello Everyone: Hope this finds you safe and well.

I've started to clear out some of the things I've made and will never use, so in the process I've changed my blog a bit and will be adding items for sale as I take pictures and get them posted. I'm also going to slowly re-add my free charts so they will all be in one place, eventually.

So check back every now and then to see what I'm offering. I'll try to post when I add something for sale.

On to the ORT Report.

All from sewing, not even one little x was stitched.😢

 Thread doesn't take up much space, but the fabric scraps do.

That's one big pile of fabric scraps. 

Until next post.....

Take Care & Happy Stitchin' and Sewing

Hugs, Sandy

Finishes for the 5th Wheel

Hello Everyone, Hope all is well with you.

Finished these off at the end of March. They will hang in our 5th wheel vacation home. They are my original designs using John Muir quotes and are stitched on 28 count with a combo of DMC and Caron Collection Wildflowers.

Finished as flat hangers.

Added a door charm, little metal stars, and a Moose button I cut the shank off of and glued down.

Stuffed hangers.

Added a key charm, but I might replace it with a compass charm at a later date. Didn't think the other two needed anything. Simple jute hangers on all.

Take Care

Hugs & Stitches, Sandy

I Totally Spaced!

Hello Everyone; I hope all is well with you. 

The snow has started to melt finally, but has turned parts of my yard into a soggy muddy mess.

I totally forgot about posting this to my blog at the end of last month. I posted to the Facebook group, "Stitching From Stash" but forgot to post here.

A couple of smalls stitched on plastic canvas.

 These will be turned into a pair of earrings if I can just find the bag of earring hooks I have somewhere in the disaster area that I call my craft room. 

This will be a magnet for the month of "February", I still have several more to make to go with it.

All are stitched using DMC threads, solids for the feathers and variegated plus white for the heart on 14 count plastic canvas.

I've gotten them all cut out and need to back them with felt, at least for the magnet, but I may stitch two more of the feathers and whip stitch them together so they are the same front and back.

I haven't done any stitching so far this month, been working on my hanging camping organizers. Who knew how long it takes to go through fabrics, iron them, measure them, clip samples, cut a few, fold others, and then try to find coordinating fabrics. 

Well, that's all for this post, I'll have another post about some things I've gotten for the vacation home soon. 

So, until next post.......

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy

Happy Valentines Day

Hello Dear Friends & Followers

 I just wanted to wish you all Happy Valentines Day.

May your day be filled with a little love, a little laughter, many warm hugs, and a ton of Chocolate! 💝😍💝

I stitched up this free chart by Loretta Oliver of Stitching the Night Away, but haven't decided if or how I want to finish it. The buttons at the bottom are just a few "what I have on hand" thoughts for the open heart space if I do decide to keep it.

 "February 2011 Valentine"

Stitched on 28 count white evenweave lightly coffee dyed using DMC 115, My very favorite variegated red. 

Until next time .......

Take Care & Happy Stitching

Hugs, Sandy  

TUSAL for February

Welcome to all my Dear Friends & Followers; 

We may have missed the Polar Vortex here in our little piece of southern Montana, but we just got a major cold snap that has our highs in the single digits and our lows below zero. Hopefully it will warm back up later in the week like the weather person says it will. 

It's time for the February edition of the 2019 TUSAL.

What is the 2019 TUSAL? 

Click on the link below to find out.

 

https://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-totally-useless-stitch-long.html

Here are my ort's from January 7th to February 4th.

Not a lot of stitching got done, I was more focused on doing some more designing.

Well, that's all for this post, so until next time.....

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy 

January Stitching Finishes

Hello Dear Friends & Followers; 

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe in the harsh winter weather. We missed the Polar Vortex in southern Montana, but next week we're due to get some very cold weather so I'll make sure the wood box is stocked and make lost of warm drinks and comfort foods.

I did a bit of stitching and finishing this month and here are the results:

 Two more "Wintry Snowflakes" magnets.

Stitched on 14 count white plastic canvas using DMC white, DMC silver metallic, and my own hand dyed "Blue Spruce". They are backed with black felt and have a button magnet on the back.

Two "Harvest Pumpkins" magnets.

Stitched on 14 count white plastic canvas using DMC threads both solid and variegated. Backed with black felt and a button magnet on the back.

That's all on the stitchin' I've done this month, but have been designing many more charts to stitch during the year and maybe a few to share as well.

So until next post.....

Take Care, Stay Warm

& Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy

A Valentine Small

Hey There Everyone, It's been cold here in Montana and we got a foot of that beautiful fluffy white crap early in the week that is turning into brown slush all over town. Luckily the highways that the hubs has to drive 5 days a week are clear.

Well, it's almost February so I thought I would post a Valentine gift for all my stitchin' friends and followers. It should be a fairly quick stitch using a favorite color, a variegated thread, or even with the threads I chose.

I added a small alphabet and numbers if you want to personalize it where the solid lines are.

I designed it with Dusty Rose colors using DMC 

150 - solid black circle, 

3350 - + (plus symbol),

 3731 - clear heart,

 3733 - x,

 151 - small black dot

(do not stitch the solid lines)

"Valentine's Heart"
41w x 40h

Hope you enjoy the chart.

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy 

2018 Smalls SAL for December

Hello Dear Friends & Followers;

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season and are doing well. 

I thought we were going to get away without having a white Christmas this year, but at 4:30 pm on Christmas Eve it started to snow and left with a dusting for a powdered sugar landscape. It did the same thing on Christmas and left us with around 2 inches of snow. We've been here for 35 years and it would have been a first if it didn't snow.

Here is my final Smalls SAL update. 

Not sure if I will participate next year.

I stitched up two of my mini Quaker Snowflakes.

I will finish these with a ribbon for hanging and blue or white felt backing.

I plan to stitch a lot more of them and turn them into mini ornaments to add to a pine wreath to hag by the front door during the winter season and maybe a few magnets to add a little winter to the kitchen.

I finished off two other smalls that I stitched earlier.

"Merry Solstice" by The Primitive Hare

This is a free chart and can be found HERE 

 I stitched this one on 28 count Mocha/Beige evenweave using DMC Gold metallic 1 strand over 2 threads. I added a 1/4" gold ribbon hanger, two corded trims in rust, gold, and cream and a scattering of plastic crystal snowflakes. 

This one was stitched on the same 28 count only over one thread using my own hand-dyed thread. I finished it off with a 1/4" silver ribbon hanger, a silver ribbon bow, blue and silver corded trim, and a scattering of mini plastic crystal snowflakes.

And Finally 

They got arms !!!

I found a wrapped wire that resembles wood and shaped it into arms. It will do for now, I just need to bend/shape them a bit so they don't look like their being held up at gun point. I may make arms from the same batting later on but I'm not sure just yet. I'll live with them the way they are for a while and see how I feel later on.

Well, that's it for 2018, so until next time.....

Take Care & Happy New Year

Hugs, Sandy

 

Snowflakes for Winter

***Chart Correction***
I have replaced the chart with a corrected version. If you do not want to re-save or reprint the chart the error is on the first snowflake lines 23 and 24 on the right side should be two white stitches not three.
Sorry folks, but I'm only human 💕 

Hello Dear Friends & Followers;

Hope you all are doing well this Holiday season.

We're doing well. It's been very windy this past week with mild temps in the 40's & 50's. 

I decided to add a few snowflakes for the winter season.

Not out in the yard, thank goodness, or in my home, but as gift for all of my Cross Stitching friends. They could also be worked up with beads or in Needlepoint.

"Four Mini Quaker Snowflakes"

I designed them for 14 count paper or plastic in two colors:

open heart shape is White (background)

dot or square is color of your choice

Stitch with or without the white on fabric. 

These would make cute magnets, little ornaments, wreath accents, gift tags, etc. 

Hope you enjoy stitching them as much as I enjoyed designing them for you all.

Take Care & 

Have a Great Weekend

Hugs, Sandy

TUSAL for December

Hello Dear Friends & Followers;

Hope everyone is doing well.

Well here is my very tiny ORT offering for the end of the year.

 Not very much stitchin' going on since the end of October.

But I have been in a fabric sort of mood since mid November and have been getting the hanging organizers for tents and pop-up campers cut out, getting potholders and trivets cut out and of course making not one but two snow people. 

So here is my sewing scrap/ort container.

It's an old popcorn tin from Walmart. 

That's it for today. 

Thank you so very much for stopping by.

Take Care Everyone

& Have a Great Day

Hugs, Sandy

2018 Smalls SAL Update

Hello Dear Friends & Followers;

I hope all is well with you. 

Thanksgiving was just the hubs and I per usual with our families living in California and northern Idaho. Cooked a turkey with stuffing, corn, deviled eggs, gravy and rolls as sides. Peach Cobbler for dessert.

A nice quite day.

I haven't done any stitching in the last few weeks, but still have a finished piece for my November Smalls SAL update, which is a day or two late. Oh well, so goes life.

"Flower & Berry Vines"

Designed By: Sandra Longan Designs (ME)

Stitched on 14 count rustic aida using my own hand-dyed threads.

This little pillow will be sent to my 93 year old mother for Christmas.

It has a stitched patch on the back that reads "Always Remember" with my siblings and my name surrounding the words. My mother is in a memory care facility in Sacramento California suffering from advanced dementia. 

Thank you for stopping by and maybe leaving your thoughts behind, I really do appreciate all the nice things you have to say.

Take Care & 

Have a Great Weekend

Hugs, Sandy

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just want to wish all of my friends & followers a very

 May you be surrounded with love and blessings

and be Thankful for all you have.

Here's a Thanksgiving gift from my home to yours.

Use your favorite Autumn/Fall colors.

79 stitches wide x 43 stitches tall

Have a Blessed Day

Hugs, Sandy

October 2018 Smalls SAL

Hello Friends, Hope you are all doing well. 

It's time once again for the Smalls SAL, and here is what I've been stitching.

 I stitched this little magnet using DMC's Coloris threads on 28 evenweave and used one coordinating thread from each one to make the cording. No chart for this one just stitched hearts.

 

"Samhain" by The Primitive Hare  

I finished as an ornament and added a cording of jute twine couched in place with a with the same DMC Color Variations thread that I used for the pumpkin. I wanted it to have a more primitive look.

 

Here is a shot of the back. I found this cute pumpkin fat quarter at Walmart for .97 cents.

I've been doing a lot of 'free hand" needlework since I don't have a printer yet and came up with this fall inspired piece with a little help from Lizzie Kate leaflet #543 "Gather a Harvest".

 I fell in love with the pumpkin on the end with the curly stem and fat black birdie, so I added one on each end of a scrap of 18 count rustic Aida then added a tall pumpkin in the middle using the same leaves then a couple of gourds in between with curly stems and baby black birdies. I added a saying that popped into my head while stitching with the help of an alphabet leaflet, then hand stitched the piece onto a some of the pumpkin fabric I bought, frayed the edges and added a bow. I backed it with a piece of yellow fabric I had in my stash.

This piece was stitched with my own hand-dyed threads and one DMC Color Variations.

That's it for now, so until next time.......

Take Care Everyone &

Have A Great Weekend

Hugs, Sandy