Winter Time Three Tier Tray

The three tier tray has been transformed for the winter season. Everything is looking especially snowy, icy, and silvery.

Making a return appearance are the sweet little deer, a few pine cones, and some evergreen trees that adorned the Christmas version of the tray.

I added some tiny winter-themed stitched pieces in frames. Don't you love the tiny doll-house size bunnies?

Each tray is lined with "Christmas tree snow". That's what the package said. To me, it looks like a cross between felt and batting. Underneath the "snow" is a great place to hide some battery operated lights.

The little light-up house was an after Christmas find at Joann's. A white ceramic flower pot holds silver jingle bells. The snowflakes on the outside of the trays are felt and were cut from a spool of them.

Crystal and silvery picks filled in spaces. The whole thing looks especially pretty lit up at night.

And there you have it! The three tier tray in all its winter glory! Inspiration came from Priscilla at Priscilla's Blog, as well as other tray decorators on Pinterest and Instagram. What will be next? I think probably an Easter-themed one. I do have a lot of little Easter things that will be perfect for this tray. I'll probably keep the winter theme going until about the end of January.

So what do you think? I haven't done much winter decorating in the past, but I think this is pretty cute. It brightens up a space in what can be some very dreary months.

Thanks for visiting today! Please come back again to see what I'm up to. I appreciate comments and please consider subscribing. Have a great week!

January WIPocalypse - A Fresh New Year!

I'm back with my 2018 kickoff WIPocalypse post. I participated in the 2017 WIPocalypse with good results. At least, I think they are. You can see my 2017 finishes HERE. I felt more motivated to stitch, but at the same time not rushed or feeling that I was in a race with anyone. Please check out the Measi's Musings blog for more information about the WIPocalypse. And I'd like to thank Melissa for organizing this.

I'm Cathy, and I've been stitching since about 1980. Yeah, a long time, right? Cross stitch has come a long way since then with so many choices of charts, fabrics, and fibers. I really never totally stopped stitching since then, just slowed down a few times. I am now stitching more than I ever have, and am also finding the finishing process just as fun and interesting as the stitching part!

Last year brought a new stitchy challenge for me - I joined the Flosstube community. For those of you who aren't familiar with Flosstube, it's a community of stitchers on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search for "Flosstube" and you'll have a lot of fun and informative videos to choose from. On Flosstube, I'm CraftyCat Stitcher. I hope to put up my first 2018 video soon.

I have a few WIPs going on that I'd like to either finish or make progress on this year. The first is "Tulip's Praise" by Gracewood Stitches.

I'm stitching this on 18-count white evenweave, although I don't know exactly the name of the fabric. I have maybe a quarter of it completed, but the fabric is rolled up into the RolaFrame so that it's not visible at the moment. I don't know if I'll finish this in 2018, but I plan to make some progress on it.

Next is "Rainbow Row" by Barbara & Cheryl. This is a major project for me. It's huge and calls for about 60 colors. I'm using all DMC and stitching it on 32 count antique white Jobelan, 2 over 2.

I'm working on it one page at a time, and am liking it. It's very detailed and will be amazing once finished. Again, I have serious doubts about finishing this one this year, but will keep on enjoying stitching it.

"Christmas Sentiments" by Stoney Creek is one that I will definitely complete during 2018.

It's being stitched on 28-count lambswool Jobelan, 2 over 2. The threads are a combination of Weeks Dye Works, Threadworx, and DMC Perle cotton. There is also some beading on it. My hope is to have this all framed and ready to hang next Christmas.

Let's go on to my Thanksgiving project, "Be Ye Thankful" by the Cricket Collection.

I started this project at some point maybe a few years ago, but forgot about it. I have no idea why. Then this year, I found it in my craft room closet and resumed stitching it. I would love to have this completed this year! The fabric is 28-count, but I'm not sure of the name. I'm using all DMC, 2 over 2.

This little Mill Hill kit, "Scaredy Cats", is one that I started just before Halloween this year.

Mill Hill kits are a fun departure from my normal "fabric-based" projects. I have a little way to go before I can start the beading process.

My last WIP is "Light Upon The Lawn" by Blackbird Designs. I love the color combination in this one.

I'm stitching it on 28-count fabric that I tea and coffee dyed myself. After dyeing it, I noticed that the fabric "relaxed" so that the stitches were larger than they would normally be on 28-count fabric! So I went to plan B and started stitching 2 over 1 with good results.

That's it for the current WIPs. I'll definitely be adding at least three more projects in the next month or so. I've had Country Cottage Needleworks "Frosty Forest" kitted up for a few years now.

I'll be stitching them all on one piece of 32-count pearl gray linen and using all DMC. I've seen photos of this completed and it's so adorable. I'm looking forward to getting started.

"Forest Snowfall" by Country Cottage Needleworks was meant to be stitched as a SAL, but I think I will still be stitching this when all of the other SAL participants are finished! In case you are interested, the SAL is organized by Priscilla & Chelsea on Flosstube. You can find a link to their videos HERE. #pcforestsnowfall

 Just look at those colors, and that cute chart!! It will be stitched on 28-count "Winter Wishes" jobelan by Fabrics By Stephanie.

And last but not least, I am going to start another BIG project soon. It's Linen & Threads 2017 Mystery Sampler. Yes, it's the 2017 one.

It took me a long time to choose a color combination after I decided not to do it all in one color. Did I mention that is project is HUGE? I'll be stitching it along with Holly & Anita from the Flosstube channel of the same name.

Let's add to all of these the remainder of the Joyful World series by the Snowflower Diaries. I have.....let's see....9 of them left to stitch. I also want to stitch a coffee pattern to go with the tea one that I stitched for my kitchen. And that new Farmhouse Series by Little House Needleworks that's coming out this year. Yep, I've signed up for the auto-ship on that one. I'm sure that there are more that I haven't mentioned or discovered yet!

Have I bitten off more than I can chew? I don't think so because I don't really have any deadlines on any of my stitching projects. In fact, I'm pretty happy with this lineup. Throughout the year, I'll be updating you right here on my blog with all of the progress I've made.

In the meantime, please visit my Flosstube channel, CraftyCat Stitcher, and subscribe if you like my videos! You can also find me on Instagram under the name craftycat_stitcher.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back and visit my blog and consider subscribing. Have a wonderful stitchy month.

December 2017 WIPocalypse

I still have time to get this final WIPocalypse post for 2017 in before the next one, which is tomorrow.  The question of the month asks us to recap our stitching accomplishments for the year. I watched some Flosstube videos where we were treated to amazing lists of finishes done in 2017. At one point, I thought to myself, "I didn't really have much in the way of finishes". But after looking through my photos, I saw that I did have some accomplishments! Yay!

These are in no particular order. I finished three of the Snowflower Diaries Joyful Series. January was first. It was stitched one over one on 25 count Norden Pearl linen.

Next came June. Stitched on the same fabric as January.

I'm interchanging them in the same frame for each month. After that one, I completed November.

That's pretty good for me. I do plan to stitch the rest, so maybe 2018 will see three more of these. I have bought some different 25 count fabrics to try out for the remaining ones.

Another finish for me was Kaleidoscope by Sheena Rogers Designs.

I love the way this turned out but haven't FFO'd it yet. I just don't know if it should be framed or made into a little pillow, or what. Finishing this will be a goal for 2018.

The next idea came from a fellow Flosstuber, Michelle at Bendy Stitchy. She had stitched a cute little cakes chart and then used a trivet as a frame. What a great idea for the kitchen! I found an adorable chart from Zindagi Designs on Etsy called But First Tea. And I found a teapot trivet on Ebay for the frame. I had to make the design fit into the frame, so it was another one over one on 25 count fabric for this one.

It now hangs in my kitchen, and will hopefully soon be joined by a coffee-themed one. Yes, I did find a coffeepot trivet!

I joined my first ever stitchalong to make an ornament from the Just Cross Stitch 2017 Ornament Issue. I chose "Snow Much Fun At The North Pole" by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I also had some finished stitching that needed to be FFO'd. I had completed Little House Needleworks' Cardinal Winter a while back, so it needed to be finished into an ornament.

I used Vonna's (The Twisted Stitcher) Youtube tutorial to finish this one, right down to the cording and bow. This became a gift for my son and daughter-in-law, Matt and Stephanie. I plan to use this method again, hopefully this year.

Earlier in the year, I came across a completely-stitched Just Nan project that only needed to be made into something. I decided to make it into a pin cushion.

I was happy to gift this one to my friend Suzanne.

Lastly, I found a stitched ornament from the 1997 Christmas ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch. It's Nutmeg Santa by Schoolhouse Samplings and it became a completed ornament in 2017.

So this one only took 20 years to be fully completed! I do love it though.

And those are my finishes for 2017. A lot more than I thought I had. It seems like right now I'm working on bigger projects, so I don't know what lies ahead in the finishing department for 2018. It will be interesting to see.

The WIPocalypse is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings. Do you want to join in? Just go to her blog HERE to find out more about the 2018 WIPocalypse.

Next up will be my plans for 2018!