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

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

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 

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

 

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

Time For The ORT Update

It's time for the TUSAL update for September, only three more updates to go.

So, without further jibber jabber.......

Campin' ORT's on the left Home ORT's on the right.

There are quite a few fabric threads in the mix, just can't keep that white evenweave from raveling without stitchin' the edges or using fray check.

Here's a shot of 9 months worth of ORT's. don't know what I'll do with them all after the year is over.

 

That's all for this post. Thank you all so much for stopping by, having a look around and leaving your thought's behind, I appreciate each and every one they keep me motivated.

 

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy 

Thunder, Lightning, Rain, & Hail

The weather has been weird the last three days. 

On Thursday we had lots thunder, I never saw any lightning just heard a constant roll of thunder for over an hour and then the skies just opened up with pouring rain and hail from pea size to 1/2 - 3/4 inch balls. We've never had hail quite that large at the house.

Then Friday it was back again with lightning, thunder, heavy rains, and hail.

 Just look at it coming down. 

There was so much rain the water barrel couldn't keep up.

  Here is one of the many 1/2" hail balls and a few smaller ones that managed to end up on the front porch.

  Saturday we only got rain and were able to get most of the bags in the house before it started coming down.

So far today there hasn't been any rain just scattered clouds and a nice breeze. 

Oh wait,I just heard a couple claps of thunder off in the distance so I better keep an eye out in case I have to run out and close trailer windows and gather laundry.

I got to take a trip to Hobby Lobby on Saturday and came home with.......

The 35 newest colors from DMC.

I have been looking at them online and didn't want to pay $30+ even without the tin, so I checked Joann's and Michael's with no luck. DMC themselves said they were at Michael's. 

So I called Hobby Lobby and Eureka! they had them all. 

The lady I spoke with was surprised that they were the only store in town that had them. 

It's a pain in the tush that you have to run all over town just to get the threads you want, you would think that if you have a Needlework section and sell DMC that you would carry all the DMC.

Oh well, there mine now and when they have a sale I'll get get more just to have a backup skein of each.

That's all for today, so until next time......

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy