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

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 2019 Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long

It's back, the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long (TUSAL) for 2019 if you want to know what it's all about and even join in you can click the link.

 

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

Here are my first ORTS for 2019.

Ended up with a new jar when I couldn't find my jar from last year in the carnage that is my craft room. 

Not a whole lot of bits and pieces, but I've only been stitching my little snowflakes. They are just blues, white, silver, and iridescent.

Took a picture this afternoon of all of my 2018 ort's and then what I have collected over the years. That's a whole lot of uselessness.

I'll do a post next on all of the pieces I stitched in 2018, I just need to get them all together and take pictures. I'll have a few I never got around to posting about.

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

2018 Smalls SAL Update for September

Hello Friends; Hope all is well with you? 

I've been having issues with my desktop PC (it's my backup) and we went camping over the weekend so my Smalls SAL update is a few days late. If things go as planned my laptop will be in the shop today, after being down for a year, to find out if it can be fixed or if a new laptop is a better choice. It only lasted about 3 years before it started having issues, it is an HP. Might want to get the desktop PC fixed instead, it's one my hubs put together for me and has lasted far longer (all most 10 years) before it started having little issues. 

So on to the 2018 Smalls SAL update for September.

There are three stitched finishes all free charts from The Primitive Hare.

First is Samhain for the Halloween season.

"Samhain" by The Primitive Hare

Stitched on 16 count black Aida using DMC Color Variations and a grey DMC solid. Added the leaf for an extra bit of fall, don't know if it will stay or not.

I stitched this next on twice.

"Merry Solstice" by The Primitive Hare

 

Stitched on 28 count Monaco in beige using DMC Gold metallic. Will add the snowflakes for a taste of winter and turn it into a flat hanging piece to add to my door wreath.

And the second version

"Merry Solstice" by The Primitive Hare

 

Stitched over one on the same 28 count Monaco in beige using one of my own hand-dyed threads. I will also add the snowflakes again for a wintry touch and turn it into a stuffed ornament for the tree.

 

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

 

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy

TUSAL Update for June

Hello Friends; Hope you are all doing well.

It's time again for the TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) update for June.

I have quite a few ORT's this time around since I am working on one of my designs and am tweaking the colors and rearranging placement as I stitch.

 My CS program can only show me so much and the colors are never true for floss and fabric.  

13 June 2018 TUSAL

I almost filled the jar. 

The bottom part with the white and violet/blue is from our camping trip and the rest (browns and greens) is from my latest design which will be a bellpull with lots of pine trees and a Robert Frost poem.

Lot's of pickin' stitches this week.

I'll need to start compacting the threads down soon.

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

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your thoughts behind.

Take Care & Happy Stitchin' All

Hugs, Sandy

The Last Finishes Of 2010

Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Wishing you all a very Blessed and Prosperous Year.

I did manage to get a couple of finishes before the clock struck midnight.

"Noel"
Finished as a pin pillow 12-31-2010.

I have been asked by a few stitcher's if my threads are colorfast.
After stitching this design with some of the darker colors I've dyed, I frogged some of the stitches the next day without any color transfer from the threads to the fabric. I then washed it using cool water and Orvus (I wash all of my needlework with it) then rinse, rinse, rinse and had no color bleeding onto the fabric. I did however have a little color transfer to the white towel I rolled the piece in from the cranberry thread, but it was very minimal.
So over all I'd say they are 95% to 98% colorfast, but as with any hand-dyed fiber there is always that chance that one may be a bit out of sorts depending on water conditions and the washing soap used.
But overall I am still happy with my test results and more testing will take place before I offer them for sale.
Better safe than sorry since I know all of the hard work that goes into any stitched piece.

"Needleworker"
by Sandy Longan Miller of
Log Cabin Needlework's

"Needleworker" was stitched as part of the ILCS

group's week long stitch-a-thon in honour of Rene, a beloved member of our group who is batteling the end stages of cancer. I also dyed some threads during this time and have named one "Rene's Purple" I'm still working to find the right mix for a "La Frog Green". I'll post picture's of the threads later on.

Take Care & Happy Stitching Everyone
Hugs, Sandy

Playin' With Threads

Since yesterday brought some very sad news about a dear friend in my ILCS yahoo group, I thought I would try my hand at dyeing some threads as I couldn't concentrate on stitching.

My first try was tea-dyeing one skein of ecru and two of white.
I loved the aged effect that the tea had on the threads.
It's easier to see the shading in the first picture.

Next up I made up nine small batches of dye.
Country Blue, Tan, Scarlet, Navy Blue, Wine, Yellow, Denim & Black.
I was going to do a bit of color mixing, but ran out of white thread, oh well tomorrow is grocery shopping day and Michales is close by.

I really love how these turned out and it helped to lift my spirits for a bit.

I also made my first online order (not ebay) of hand-dyed threads on the 11th, they came in on the 18th, not bad for the holiday season.
I ordered from Nordic Needle since they were having $2.99 flat rate shipping and I received an on-line coupon for $5.00 off my order of $30.00 or more.
I picked out 22 different threads from The Gentle Art, 8 Simply Shaker Threads and 14 Sampler Threads.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas filled Family, Friends & Love.
I also want to send a very heart felt Thank You to all of you for your wonderful comments that you leave behind, I cherish each and every one, they help to keep me motivated.

Take Care Everyone & Happy Stitchin'
Hugs, Sandy