Joyous Holiday Finish

 I love Secret Needle Night kits from The Silver Needle. The designs are simple, but the variety of threads are amazing. I have learned to use threads in my cross stitch - threads that I thought were so pretty but had no idea what to do with them. As I stitch through my SNN kits, I'm learning to look at threads and fabrics in a whole new way.

Finished 12-20-2024

Close-up of silver threads running 
through the fabric

Side-view to show texture 

2024 Knitting FO Parade

 I didn't have a lot of finishes for the year and didn't meet my goal, but life... These are my knitting finishes for the year:

MineCraft Socks
 designed by Heather Cox

Jeck
 designed by Regina Satta

Bonny Bunny Bag
 designed by Claire Slade

Furball's New Year 2025
 designed by Tabby & Moo Moo

Iowa Crew/Cruise Socks
 designed by Carol A. Anderson

Helix 101
 designed by Cynthia Spencer

Socks for Peter KroySock Yarn
 designed by Paula Kralick

Mint Chocolate Chip Socks
No pattern used

Steaming Mug Dishcloth
desgned by Emily Jagos

I also finished a couple of crocheted items:

Towel and Topped with no border
designed by Glenda Winkleman

Oval Placemat
 designed by Hila Lifshitz

There were also a few completed items that I never got around to taking a photo after they were completed:

• 2024 Square (Dishcloth) designed by Daisy & Storm
• Dishcloth 25 designed by nalhcib
• Ticking Striped Kitchen Towel from Annies Hook & Needle Kit Club
• Birdhouse Dishcloth designed by Melissa Bergland Burnham

Joyful Holidays WIP

I don't know why I love The Silver Needle Secret Needle Night kits so much, but I do. It saddened me when I received the notice that the kits had increased in price and I had to make the hard choice not to renew my subscription to them next year. It's not like I don't have anything to work on, but these kits are so much fun to work on. I do have a back-log to stitch, so maybe after they are all done, I'll do another year subscription for 2026. Time will tell.

Currently, I am working on a discontinued Secret Needle Night kit that I found on eBay from November of 2000. It is called "Joyful Holiday". The fabric is 10ct. white/silver Tila. There is a variety of threads: Daisies wool, size 5 perle cotton, Medici wool, Cashmere wool,Splendor silk, Artic Rays, Fyrewerks and Treasure Braid metallic. There are also bugle and large red beads (my guess is pebble beads). 

I need to finish the wreath, add lettering, highlights to the bow and the beads. 

New Kit Purchases

December 31st is my last day to purchase any kits or patterns. Starting January 1, 2025, I will not be buying any cross stitch items except for what is needed to work on my stash. I will only be allowed toSil buy needed threads and fabric. My Secret Needle Night subscription ends this month which makes me a bit sad, but the price has increased and I really don't need any more of them to stitch. I found some of the discontinued kits on eBay and have added a few of them to my collection. I'll need to get all of them stitched before I consider purchasing any more in '26.

I love Dimensions kits and did buy a few over the Black Friday, Black Monday and the Christmas sales.  I wanted to show off my new purchases, as I think they are awesome (IMHO). 

These ones have been received:

A Kiss for Snoman 

Joy Ride

Napping Kitten

And these are on their way:

In the Shadows

Wise Owl

Scenic Farm

And 2 RIOLIS kits are coming as well:

Napping Kitten

City & Cats - Summer

While at the Jingle Ball (my first time attending!), I took a class and found new to me designers. One was The Frosted Pumpkin and I thought the designs were adorable. I saw the 2024 Yearly Club SAL called Arctic Animals Club and decided to purchase the kit which includes everything including the pattern. The pattern is sent out in 11 parts and I'm well behind on that, but there are 3 more parts to go, It's absolutely adorable and I have have a huge thing for puffins and harp seals - so how could I resist?! I also purchased the Little Red Riding Hood kit as well. They were just shipped, so it should be before Christmas (according to USPS). I will be adding the Arctic Animals to my rotation next year.

Plans and WIPGO 2025

 

It's been a long while since my last post. Life quite got in the way with starting seedlings and planning a garden to working the garden and weeding and weeding and weeding. I'd like to say that all that work panned out well, but it didn't. The lack of rain, the bugs, birds, squirrels and chipmunks, deer and the dang ground hog left very little to harvest. This has probably been the worst year for getting much out of the garden. It seemed like I worked to feed the wildlife. 

Then there was the saga of the missing bell peppers - a mystery for sure. I was out the day before and there were quite a few that were nice and big and ready to be picked. I didn't want to get them then, since I thought the freshest bells would be the best for making stuffed peppers the next day. Well, I got everything around for making them, went out to the garden to pick them and they were ALL GONE! I mean ALL of them!!! I posted to my local homestead list and everyone there insisted it had to be human that would have stripped the plants like that. I don't know - but it is strange.

Our daughter came to visit for 8 days and went home on the 4th of July. It was so nice to see her, as we haven't seen her for 3 years. Way too long, but it's life. The visit was too short and we traveled around the state with her so that she could do something new and fun. She had a list of things she wanted to see. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time. Next time...

We also added a new addition to the family. A sweet 4 week old kitten appeared on our back patio with 2 siblings. No idea where they came from, but we couldn't catch them. That night, one was killed and the next, the other disappeared. We finally caught the last one and she's been with us ever since. She's a sweetheart. The vet gave her the age of 4 weeks when we took her in the same day we caught her. She was definitely small and needed bottle fed. She had blue eyes when we caught her, but they changed the next day. The vet was surprised to find she had no parasites, fleas or ear mites, leading him to believe someone dropped them off. Sad. She weighed just under a pound then. Now, she's 7 months old and a ball of energy!

Not much was done over the year for cross stitch or knitting. I was so busy with that stuff and trying to put up small batches of what we did get out of the garden, that I had no real time to do anything else. Ah well, there's always next year.

Speaking of next year, I've decided to join WIPocalypse and WIPGO next year and focus on my oldest started projects. I actually have one back from the 90's that really needs worked on. So many old ones that I loved at one time and have decided to either finish them or pull them from my pile. I'll be posting more about that in the near future.

Week 1

BRR-ingo has brought some excitement back to the old projects I tucked away and haven't touched in forever. Yes, there was the eye issue, but some of these projects hadn't been touched waaaay before that. The first number called was in my last post.

The second number was #4 - A WIP or new start that intimidates you. I had originally picked Teresa Wentzler's "Stretch", but honestly, it just never called to me, and the person it was being stitched for wasn't "into it" any more. That was pulled from my rotation and will be frogged and the green fabric will be repurposed. 

Kustom Krafts "Fire and Ice" took its place. The black was intimidating after the eye issue, so this was chosen because of that reason. I don't know why I put this aside and never touched it again all those years ago, because it was such a soothing stitch for me this time. It will DEFINITELY be getting more love this year!

Fire & Ice before

Fire & Ice after 2 hours 

Jan 3, the number called was #9 - WIP or new start that is sparkly (fabric, floss, etc). Pamela Kellogg's "Cupids Garden Mystery SAL" certainly fit that bill! I started it on 28 count opalescent white that should have been an evenweave, but certainly was not. Now I know why it never got touched again. That fabric was autrocious at best. I put the requred hour into it and decided to pull this one from my rotation as well. This does NOT get frogged!!

Cupid's Garden Before

Cupid's Garden after 1 LONG hour

January 4 - #5 WIP or new start that will be a gift. This one is called "My Husband" by Linda Myers. Yes, this is the one I received in a XS lot from Ebay and searched for the pattern. I was lucky to receive it just in time to all it to my BRR-ingo card! 

My Husband before

My husband after 2 hours

January 5th - #19 WIP or new start you were inspired to start because of the way you'd see it finished. This was December 2023's Secret Needle Night Kit from The Silver Needle. It's called "Love Machine" and not only do I think the pattern is cute, but it is finished and displayed on a small cutting board. I love that idea! After looking up the ideas on how to do the finish to display on a cutting board, I saw that someone had put magnets on the board and washers on the back of the stitched, so one could interchange them with with other similar sized pieces. So cool!!!

A new start!

Love Machine after 1 hour of stitching.

January 6 - #25 WIP or new start you would take on vacation.  My choice for this was the Dimensions kit "Laundry Day". It's easy and kitted, so grab and go. I had to get this when I saw it at Walmart one day. It says it all... 

Laundry Day before

Laundry Day after 2 hours

January 7 finishes up the week. The number called was 10 - WIP or start from a magazine. I knew exactly the WIP that needed to be chosen for this number - "North Woods Stocking" from the Premier issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. It has been in WIP/UFO pile for a many years and if I'm not mistaken, is my oldest.  I started it in the late 80's and it was touched every now and then, and then I discovered a major mistake and had to frog a considerable amoun that had been done to the tree. The tree was frogged and then the piece returned to the pile to wait and wait and wait. It has surfaced, the issue has been fixed and has received some much needed love.

North Woods Stocking before

North Woods Stocking after 3 hours.

This has been the most fun activity I've participated in a long time. I really look forward to the posting of the new number every evening. Weirdly enough, it's not to see if I'll win a bingo, but just to see what is next to work on. 

The Lists and Challenges

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

I wish everyone a happy and productive year. I know I'm looking forward to a year of change and getting stuff done - things I've had on my TO-DO list forever.

I am excited to turn a new page and start over! One of the things I decided to do to accomplish my goals was join the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch Challenge group on Facebook. I need to focus on my projects listed below, and this group is going to be a big help accomplishing that. This month, we are playing BRR-ingo and there's also a monthly Acrostic. I'll be doing both - the BRR-ingo has a lot of my listed WIPs and the Monthly Acrostic will be focused on stitching from my magazine stash. It's about time I put them to good use!

Today's number is 3 - which is The Silver Needle's exclusive kit called Mitten Tree Snowman. Linda Stolz of The Silver Needle and Stoney Creek paired up and Linda did some modifications to the Stoney Creek's snowman pattern. She changed colors and threads added/subtracted things to create a lovely and quite large snowman. 

Here's how my snowman looked before I started working on it today:

And today's progress:

For us to be able to cross off our bingo square, we are required to put in at least 1 hour or 100 stitches. I have a bit over 3 hours in. I would have had more done, but found there was an error with the thread that was provided in the kit and what was used in the instructions. The instructions said to use 1 strand #3 DMC Perle Cotton but only #5 was supplied. I didn't notice the discrepancy until I stitched the red and green area and really, really didn't like the coverage - or lack thereof. I then looked closer and saw the weight difference, so decided to do the blue area using 2 strands and see if it may be too heavy. 

I preferred the 2 strand coverage, so I went back and restitched the red/green area. It looks so much better to me now. 

This piece is on my Brr-ingo card 2 more times, so I should see some nice progress on him by the end of the month. 

I can't wait to see what the next number called is. This has sparked a new excitement and interest on getting these projects done. 

The following lists are what I want and need to work on. My goal is to have some finishes but also to touch each project listed below at least once this year. Some things on this list haven't been touched in about 20 years!!!

CURRENT WIPS STARTED IN 2023

Dimensions - Laundry Day Kit

Janlynn - Live Simply Kit

Riolis - City Cats in Autumn Kit

The Silver Needle Exclusive - Snoman Mitten Tree Kit

THE WIP LIST

Art Ventures - Old Sentinel - 15%

Cross Stitch & Country Crafts - North Woods Stocking

Crossed Wing Collection - Hummingbird Garden 35%

Dawna Barton - Dinner Call - 60%
Diane Arthurs - Happy Everything - 60%
DMC - The White Bindweed Fairy - 15% - found mistake must rip
Dimensions - A Bird For All Seasons - 5%

Dimensions - Magic In Motion - 5%

Dimensions - Wolf Portrait - 65%
Drawn Thread - Miniature Reversible Sampler
Drawn Thread - Winter Spot - 10%
Hearts Delight - Noahs Ark Kit - 50%

Jiffy - Fateful Night 

Just Cross Stitch 2001 Ornament Issue - Cinnamon Bear 85%

Just Nan - First Stitches
Just Nan - Last Stitches
Lanarte - Romantic Picnic 15%
Lavender & Lace - Celtic Spring - 35%

Pat Rogers - Hearts & Lace Sampler 70%

Paula Vaughan - May

Pegasus - Pekingese Dogs V. 4 15%

The Silver Lining - Aymars Amber Rose 30%

Sweetheart Tree - Olde English Needle Roll - 15%

Sweetheart Tree - Teenie Tweenies Spring Has Sprung 30%

Teresa Wentzler - Stretch 15%

MYSTERY/SALS/MONTHLYS

Bent Creek - Snappers (12 w/border) - 12 completed plus 1/3 of the border

Curtis Boehringer - Needlewomans Murder Mystery

French Calendar free weekly - 23 of 52 finished

Helga Mandl and Barbara Ana - Mystery Sampler - 45%

Marquoir Mystery Sampler freebie SAL 4 of 9 finished

Pamela Kellogg - Cupids Garden Mystery SAL 15%

BAPS

Carriage House Samplings - The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Kustom Krafts - 4 Horses of Apocalypse
Kustom Krafts - Fire & Ice
Kustom Krafts - Sofa Cat

Marty Bell - Hideaway Cottage

Sunset - Gettysburg

Teresa Wentzler - Under the Evergreen

The Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery - The Baby by Harrison Fisher

Vermillion Stitchery - The Holy Family

PULLED OFF LIST FOR DONATION

Leisure Arts - Noahs Ark Baby Afghan 50%