All Things Christmas

So Christmas 2019 has come and gone, but I still consider this little space between Christmas and New Years the Christmas season. When you think about it, things aren't back to normal yet. There's still a holiday feel, at least to me. I kept up my stitching during the month of December, only stitching on Christmas-themed projects! I didn't even plan this. It just fell into place.

After I put away "Believe" by Dimensions for the time being, I had a new start! This is "Grandpa's Pick-up" by Little House Needleworks.

Yes, I was really motivated and got a lot done! I'm stitching this on a 30 count linen, but I'm not sure what the color is. I had signed up to get these charts as they were released and I opted for the linen to be included.

More Christmas stitching followed!

This is "Holiday Cheer" by Sugar Stitches. This is also a series called the 2019 Christmas Club and it can be found HERE on Etsy. Two of them have been released as of this post and they're both very sweet. I'm stitching it on the called-for 32 count Gingerbread fabric from Picture This Plus, which I found at 123Stitch. I'm using the Lugana instead of linen. I also am trying something new in the form of a little stretcher frame that I had in my stash. It's simply a wooden frame that you tack your fabric to. So far so good!

I made a couple of cute little zip bags to use as gift card holders for my nieces.

These are made with lace zippers which are decorative as well as functional. The tutorial for these bags can be found at Jean Truelove's YouTube channel HERE. I had a little trouble with these thick seams. It seems that both of my sewing machines are wimps when it comes to sewing through a lot of layers of fabric. They did turn out pretty nice though. If you like the look of these lace zippers, please keep reading. There's going to be a giveaway!

Our neighborhood had its annual Night Of Lights, in which we put luminary bags out at the curbs and decorate our homes. Then we invite everyone to drive through and donate to the charities which were chosen for the year.

Our 1967 Ford truck (complete with Christmas tree) continues to be a hit during this event. This photo was taken right when cars started to come through. The sheriff's department estimates that 5,000 cars drove into our subdivision on this one night! We collected an amazing amount of money and 100% of it went to the recipients.

My Christmas cactus has been a mystery to me since I got it two years ago. However, this year it showed me that it is indeed a Christmas cactus!

I think I was in a baking kind of mood this holiday season. I baked four different kinds of cookies I was sure the guests at our Christmas celebration at my sister's house would enjoy.

Holiday Spritz, Fruitcake Cookies, Chocolate Krinkles, and Coconut Cranberry Cookies filled the bill.

I'm going to do a giveaway for six of the lace zippers! I will choose six different colors of these 12 inch zippers. If you'd like to be entered in the giveaway, please let me know in your comments. Also, please make sure that there is a way that I can contact you if you win. I will choose ONE winner on Friday, January 10th at 12:00 noon EST and then announce the winner here in a blog post. I will ship anywhere.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas. Now we're heading to a New Year and I hope that yours is a good one. Keep enjoying the season and get some stitching and crafting in!

December Stitching Etc.

Starting right after Thanksgiving, all I want to stitch is Christmas! I'm a stitcher who doesn't mind stitching Christmas in June and Halloween in March. Makes no difference to me at all. I'm also a slow stitcher so I know that if I want to get something done in time for a certain holiday or a gift, I have to start early. But this month I am so in the December/Christmas mode! So let's take a little look at what I've done.

I started with UB Design "Beerenherz im Winter", which I have been told is "Berry Heart".

This is the central part of the design. I haven't started stitching the actual heart of berries yet, but I will once I finish that tree on the right. I love the snow effect on those trees. Stitched with DMC on Jobelan in the color Sandcastle.

The "Angel Of Divinity Stocking" by Dimensions is a project that had the sad designation of UFO for a while. Then I was encouraged to pick it up again.

I'm now working on the little lamb at the bottom left. It's quite the challenge with its pale colors. But I am so glad that I resumed working on this piece. I'm going to finish it. It's a kit and is stitched on white 18 count Aida.

Next up is Dimensions "Believe", also a kit.

It's about 3/4 complete! I love this project. I switched out the fabric for some 28 count Jobelan. I think the color is Lambswool which is very close to the Aida that came in the kit.

This month I also worked at the sewing machine a bit. I made a Christmas-theme project bag using the instructions provided by The Twisted Stitcher. The tutorial can be found here. This super easy project bag is my favorite out of all of them.

I've tried several different closures for this type of bag starting with the velcro that Vonna uses in her tutorial. Then I tried a magnetic snap, also with good results. For this one, I did a little double button and a piece of twine that wraps around the buttons.

Here's my annual ornament for my son and daughter-in-law.

I used part of the design from "Frosty Weather" by Blackberry Lane Designs. I needed something I could fit into this little pocket watch (by Tim Holtz) frame. One over one on 32 count fabric proved to be a challenge, but I did it! I added some micro-beads to add to the snowy effect, which are tiny beads with no holes. These were barely bigger than grains of sand.

Finally, I wanted to show you my stitched ornament display.

We have a rather skinny Christmas tree and lots of ornaments that I like to put on it. So any stitched ornaments (which tend to be larger) have to be displayed elsewhere. I took this wooden tray, added some wide ribbon, my ornaments, and some small Christmas floral items. My husband said "You put the ornaments in the trough!" Yes, it is kind of like a trough.

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season if you celebrate. It's been going well here. My life has changed a bit since I've been here last, but I can say it is for the better. I hope to keep my blog up to date in conjunction with my YouTube channel. If you don't already know, I do Flosstube videos and my channel is CraftyCat Stitcher. So whether you visit me there or here on my blog, I hope you find something that you enjoy in what I present.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I will be back soon.

We Have A Winner!

The winner of the chart, "A Bluebird's Salute" is:

Vickie (From the blog "A Stitcher's Story")

Congratulations to Vickie! I'll be emailing you for your address and sending your chart soon!

Thank you to everyone who commented and entered this giveaway! I'll be doing more giveaways in the future. Stay tuned!

Cross Stitch Surprise And A New Designer

I'm glad that my last post helped solve the mystery of the little holes in shirts! I thought you all would think I had lost my mind with that different kind of post, but I'm happy that it proved helpful. Now let's get back to stitching.

I want to show you a sweet little project that I've been working on.

Cute, isn't he? This is my newest start, a pattern called "A Bluebird's Salute" by Luminous Fiber Arts. I'm stitching it on 32 count off white Jobelan. I'm mainly using the called-for colors with a couple of substitutions. That's my effort to stitch from stash.

The designer is Misty Pursel who I became acquainted with through our Flosstube channels. Misty is an avid multi-crafter, talented in cross stitch, knitting, crochet, quilting, and weaving. Last year, she delved into the design world and now her charts are available at her Etsy shop, Luminous Fiber Arts, as well as other sources.

Now you can see how adorably my bluebird is coming along. Misty's other charts currently include two more in the bluebird series, along with some holiday-themed designs. Other designers' charts, hand-dyed fabric, floss assortments, and needle minders are also available at her Etsy shop.

There are a lot of stitchers who prefer reading blogs over watching Flosstube, and I'm thankful for every one of my subscribers. However, if you'd like to check out Misty's Flosstube channel, go HERE. And you can locate my channel at CraftyCat Stitcher.

Now for the surprise! I'm going to do a giveaway for this chart, "A Bluebird's Salute". Here's all you have to do:

- Be a subscriber of my blog. 
- Be 18 years old or older.
- Make a comment ON THIS POST.

That's it. Easy, right? Also, make sure that there's a way that I can contact you. I will pull a name from the comments on Monday, July 8th and I'll post the name of the winner on that day.

Before I go, here's a picture of a sweet cookie jar that I have.

I see a little resemblance, don't you?

Holey-Moley! This Really IS A Thing!

This may be the most unusual blog post I've ever written, but I'll keep it relatively short. I've been noticing little holes in the front of my shirts near the waist. This has been going on for quite a while, and I could never figure out why this was happening. I got pretty good at mending these holes and can say that I had better luck on dark color shirts or shirts with a busy print. The mended spot on light color shirts pretty much scream "look at me!".

One day a couple of weeks ago, I was being particularly domestic. I put dinner in the crock pot, baked a loaf of chocolate banana bread, and did a good clean up in the kitchen. When I finally took a break, I looked down and saw a bunch of these little holes in my t-shirt. They weren't there earlier!

What?!! I guess this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I Googled "why are there tiny holes in my shirt?" and couldn't believe how many articles came up! Here's one of them. Other people actually had this same issue. They questioned whether their wash machine was the culprit, or maybe it was sneaky moths. One mom thought that it was from her toddler's shoes when she carried him. How about seat belts? I always thought it had something to do with leaning up against the counter top in the kitchen and have felt the underside edge of it to see if there was anything sharp there. Nope.

Here's the issue. When you're a particular height and your waistband hits the counter edge, your shirt rubs against the button your pants resulting in a hole. This mainly happens in lightweight knits. As it turns out, I am that very particular height for this to happen. The article I linked above has hints on how to prevent this from occurring. There are even little covers for your jeans button. My solution: I tuck my shirt into my jeans in the front when I'm working in the kitchen. Some might say that this is trendy; on me it looks ridiculous. But I don't care if it will save my shirts.

I hope you liked this little public service message. I know it was kind of strange but I felt I needed to get the word out. Oh and that chocolate banana bread was delicious. I really wish I had taken a photo of it, but here's the next best thing: The Recipe! 

Enjoy! I'll get back to our regular programming soon. Thanks for visiting!

Stitching Up A Storm

My original plan for Stitchmaynia was to stitch on a different WIP each day, and just keep rotating them. That worked for a while, but then I'd get stuck on a project. You know the feeling: "I like stitching this chart so much I can't put it down!" And really, when you think about it, this isn't such a bad thing.

This is the project that started it, or should I say stopped my plan.

This is "Quaker Diamonds" by Rosewood Manor. I'm stitching it with overdyed floss in a color conversion shared with me by another stitcher. The fabric is 30 or 32 count linen in the color Flax. I had been stitching it using a hoop, but switched over to a Rolaframe and this has made my stitching on this project easier and more enjoyable.

I also worked on "Tulip's Praise" by Gracewood Stitches.

I'm glad that this is my focus project because I'm making so much progress on it. The fabric is 18 count Jobelan in off white and the threads are the called-for DMC.

At stitch day I made a little progress on "Bluebird's Garden" by Artful Offerings.

This is such a cute project. I'm stitching it on 32 count Jobelan in a light beige-y neutral. OK, I don't know the color. The called-for threads are all overdyeds.

"Rainbow Row" got a little attention. I'm currently working on the green house. All of the subtle shading in this project is so worth it.

"The Light Upon The Lawn" by Blackbird Designs is turning out really nice. I'm stitching it on fabric that I coffee and tea dyed.

It's a 28 count fabric that got slightly stretched or something during the dyeing process, so when I started stitching this, the stitches looked huge. So I made the executive decision to stitch it one over one. We're talking teeny-tiny stitches!

And last but not least, I have a new start. I figure, why not. It's "Small Animal Sampler" by Bobbie G Designs.

Stitched on 28 count black Jobelan, I need really good lighting for this one! I'm using the DMC that the pattern calls for. This is just adorable.

Thanks for visiting with me today, and letting me show you what's going on in my stitching endeavors. I hope to be able to post about a lot more stitching next time because I plan to keep up with my "WIPmaynia" even into the month of June!

A Lot Of Sewing Going On

I had a "craft room day" today. It was my day off so I dedicated it to doing stuff in my craft room. Sometimes I get so busy that I just pass that room by and look in longingly. So today was the day. I organized my cross stitch fabric, kitted up a new project, and did some sewing.

I'd been ignoring my sewing machine for a while and wanted to do a small project so I made a lined zipper pouch. I followed the complete and easy to follow instructions on the video "How To Make a Lined Zipper Pouch" on the channel "Needlepointers" on YouTube.

If you've been following my blog for a while, the fabrics might look familiar to you. I made a larger project bag out of them last year. But this small bag is for a **giveaway** on my YouTube channel, CraftyCat Stitcher. I figure the recipient won't mind the repeat fabric performance.

This bag is fully lined and has no raw edges. The only change I made was to add some medium weight sew-in interfacing. I sewed it close to the edges of both lining pieces as the first step, then followed all of the other instructions. I love it! I will be making more of these. They recommend using a zipper the exact width of the bag, but I bought a bunch of 16" zippers on Amazon for a good price. Sixteen inch zippers can be easily cut down to whatever size you need. Just don't use your good scissors to cut them!

Previously I had made a vinyl-front project bag using the instructions from Calico on this video. This will also be part of the giveaway. You can see photos of it on my previous post.

Here's what I came away with after today: I need to do craft room days more often!

Please come on back and visit again! I appreciate all of my blog followers and enjoy each and every one of your comments. See you soon!

A Fresh Start And Stitchmaynia Maynia

I think that this is the longest I've gone without posting since I started this blog almost ten years ago. Maybe I just needed a breather, or wasn't feeling super creative. I don't know.

This is a good time to refresh the look of my CraftyCat blog and start posting again. With spring come new things, right?

It's May and many of you know what that means -- Stitchmaynia! Stitchers do Stitchmaynia in many different ways. Some start 19 projects during the month, because it's 2019.  I've heard stitchers say that they want to start a new project each day! I don't know about you, but that would freak me out a little. For more info about Stitchmaynia, go to the Facebook group.

I'm still an avid stitcher. That hasn't changed. I think that the idea of Stitchmaynia is a great motivator if you can figure out a way to do it that suits you best. My plan is to work on a different WIP each day of May. I have 15 WIPs so I know I won't get bored.

On Stitchmaynia day #1, I worked on "No Bees No Honey" by Birds of a Feather. I love this chart. I'm stitching this on 20 count Jobelan in off white, one over one. Teeny-tiny stitches, pretty colors, all DMC.

On day #2 I stitched on the 2017 Linen and Threads Mystery Sampler. I'm still working on January. It's a HUGE chart, friends. I chose the DMC color combination and the fabric is 32 count antique white Jobelan.

I worked on my focus piece on day #3. My focus piece is a project I select to put into my rotation more often to see it finished quicker. So normally I stitch on a project for several days, choose another one to stitch on for several days, then go to my focus piece for several days. Then I repeat the sequence with two more projects and then my focus piece again. My current focus is "Tulip's Praise" by Gracewood Stitches.

Once again I'm stitching it in DMC in the suggested colors. Another big project, this is only the bottom half and even that half isn't complete! It's being stitched on 18 count Jobelan 2 over 1.

Right now the view out of the window to my left is a bit scary. Dark skies, wind, and rain. Oh yeah, let's add in some very loud thunder. Last week at this time, this was my view.

We took a little trip to Orange Beach, AL for my birthday. So relaxing, good food, and I got in some stitching and reading.

If you follow my Flosstube channel, CraftyCat Stitcher, you may know that I have gotten to 1000 subscribers. This is a big deal to me, and I'm going to celebrate it. I plan to have a giveaway and I'll announce the details in my next video which I will upload early next week (the week of May 5th). The giveaway will include, among other things, a project bag which I made especially for this occasion.

I hope you'll consider watching my video and finding out more! Thank you for visiting me today here on my blog. I've been away from it for a while but am glad to be back. My plans for the next week are to continue my Stitchmaynia stitching and attend my stitch group's May meet-up. So stay tuned to see what else I've been up to!