Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 4

Well, nothing like getting in by the skin of your teeth.  Today is the last day to check in for week 4 of MMMM hosted by Justine's Cross Stitch Blog for November.  Luckily I have some progress to report, even though this week has been CRAZY! We finally got moved into our new own actual place though, which was nice, but definitely cut into stitching time.

So I have the complete finish on Victorian Tree to show you:

And I finished beading Tropical Kitty and finishing into an ornament:

Just have to back it and it will be done.  I also finished Teton Santa's beading, but forgot to take a picture and since I am on a borrowed Wi-Fi connection at the moment (no internet at the new house for a couple weeks) I won't be able to upload this at the moment.

I still have 3 ornaments to finish beading (nuts!) which I was hoping to have done by the end of this month, but I should be able to get them done by Christmas at least!

Free Pattern Friday: Swirly Autumn

Hope everyone is recovering from Thanksgiving okay?  Today's free cross stitch pattern will be the last of the autumn themed ones before jumping into winter/Christmas.

So today being Black Friday, that makes me feel a little swirly, don't you?  I don't really know why, but something about this pattern just makes me happy.  Should be pretty quick to stitch up too, which is always a good thing this time of year.  :)

Head over to the Cross Stitch Happy blog to download the chart and key for this free cross stitch pattern.

Happy stitching!


If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Cross Stitch Group on Facebook

So, if you're a fan of Facebook cross stitch groups, or if you aren't currently but want to try it out, here's a heads up for you.  Ursula Michael, a designer probably most famous for her "word art" patterns, has a Facebook fan group that I love.  Anyway, if you're a fan of her work, check out the group and come join us.  As soon as we get 750 members, we'll be getting a new group-exclusive freebie chart...

November 2014 TUSAL

So, I'm a couple days late with this, but it's time for the TUSAL (that's Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) November Update.  This SAL is hosted by Daffycat, and involves us posting pictures of our stitching ort jars once a month.

So here's my jar for November:

As you can see, not much increase from October.  I've decided I must be more thrifty with my thread, or do less stitching, or a combination of both from my fellow SALers, since my jar still looks pretty sad with 2 months of threads in there now.  Still full of Christmas colors too.

Well, here's onto another month of ort collecting!  Someone suggested putting them out in spring for birds to make colorful nests with.  Have any of you tried this before?

Ooh, look more designers....

Just a quick note to anyone who read my Cross Stitch for Charity post on Friday...

Added yesterday was a free chart from Nora Corbett, and next week's patterns will include freebies from Alessandra Adelaide and Joan Elliott.  In case you needed another reason to check the group out.  :)

If you missed the post, catch up here.

Free Pattern Friday: Fall Into Autumn

This week's free cross stitch pattern is nice and simple.

We're back to Fall/Autumn appreciation this week, but I wanted to take the time to share this pattern designed by Erica Michaels for Rainbow Gallery.  It's kind of beautiful in its simplicity, and because it's fairly easy to stitch, it should work up pretty quickly, which is great if you're busy prepping for Thanksgiving next week.  Another one my friend who loves Fall colors would love.

Since this is a Rainbow Gallery design, it uses a lot of their specialty fibers and threads in the key.  But you can always substitute your favorite floss for the specialty threads if needed.  By the way, if you ever need a DMC color family reference for making substitutions, Yarn Tree has a great reference for that.

Head over to Rainbow Gallery to view the PDF project sheet for this free cross stitch pattern.

Happy stitching!


If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Free Pattern Friday: Cross Stitch for Charity

So today is Friday, which means I will be posting a free cross stitch pattern today.  Well, I had already have a post planned for today, but I came across this set of free patterns that are only available for a limited time, so I wanted to share.

There is a group on Facebook called Cross Stitch for Charity.  In exchange for donating to the current cause the group is supporting, themed free cross stitch patterns are posted on the group page for members to download for a limited time.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, right now through December 5 (?) the group is raising funds for Toys for Tots.  Right now there are 7 charts posted for you to download in exchange for donating any amount to the charity.  Designers include Passione Ricomo, Primitive Hare, Lesley Teare, and many more.  As you can see from this photo, they are super cute patterns (and this isn't all of the patterns posted yet either). 

So if you'd like to get some free patterns and help a great cause in return, here's what you do.

1. You must have a Facebook account
2. Like the Cross Stitch for Charity page
3. Join the Cross Stitch for Charity group page
4. Donate to the cause using the link in the pinned post at the top of the group
5. Download your favorite charts in the group Files tab

These charts will only be available for a couple more weeks I think, so if you are interested in any of them, definitely head over there ASAP.

Come back later today for another Free Pattern Friday post (my regularly scheduled one).

Happy stitching!

Anyone interested in forming a SAL?

I came across a pattern of the month project in my search for freebie patterns, and for some reason, I thought they would make a fun SAL for the new year, one where everybody actually works on the same/similar projects.  So I am posting it here in the hopes I might get someone to join me. 

It's the flower of the month series put out by EMS Cross Stitch Designs a few years ago.  There are 12 square flower designs, one representing each month.  Here's what all 12 will look like when finished:

The charts are fairly simple (no fractional stitches), and they are free, so you would just have to source your fabric and floss.

I was thinking starting one each month throughout 2015.  We can check in with our progress and cheer each other on throughout the year.  Finishing, of course, in 2015 is optional (since that seems to be a problem for me lately, LOL :)

So anyway, would anyone be interested in joining me in my little stitching adventure?  If I can get at least one buddy to stitch along with, then I think I'll give it a go. 

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 3

So, it's a little early for a normal MMMM update, but since this week looks like it might be really busy, I figured I would do an update today anyway, and maybe a supplemental one later in the week if I can wrangle it.

I'm still busy on those Christmas gifts, so today's update is from the western beading front.  I did start on beading Teton Santa, and have got about halfway done on the amber beads:

This is definitely going faster than Victorian Tree so far, although I think that might partly be because the petite seed beads are supposed to have full crosses and regular seed beads only have half crosses, and so far, I've only done regular beads.

Then since a certain person wasn't home during the weekend, I took the oppertunity to switch out Teton Santa for Be Merry in my WIP list of the day, so I could get started on that.  Here's the progress so far:

That's actually only one kind of bead left, can you believe it?  Of course, that one bead takes up all those spaces in the lettering, so it will probably take awhile.

So now, it's back to beading!  I still have to finish these two, Provencal Rooster, Tropical Kitty, and Hot Stuff before Christmas.  My goal is to get them stitched by the end of the month at least, so I can focus on finishing them up into ornaments in December.  Which, we're moving again (at least only across town this time) so things will be crazy for the first part of December anyway.

Free Pattern Friday: Give Thanks Napkin

This week's free cross stitch pattern is actually a straight Thanksgiving design.  But I'm posting it a few weeks earlier, so you can actually use the design this year (if you stitch fast!).

I first came across this turkey Thanksgiving design by Joan Elliott in a back issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine.  It was part of a 3 piece set, but the napkin design was my favorite of the three.  So when I came across the pattern for free from the Herrschners website, I knew I needed to share it with you all.  As much as I liked the pattern from the magazine, pattern copyright is an issue I deeply respect, so I couldn't share it unless it had been offered by the publisher for free.  Which it is right now at least, and it makes me very happy. I just love Joan Elliott's designs!

Head over to Herrschners to download the PDF of this free cross stitch pattern and spice up your Thanksgiving table a bit (pun not intended).

Happy stitching!


If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 2

MMMM is a SAL created by Pull The Other Thread and taken over hosting for November by Justine's Cross Stitch. 

So this week, the big news is....

I have a finish!!!!!

Victorian Tree is done, done, done.  Okay, well, I need to do the actual finishing up into an ornament still (backing it and adding a string) but other than that, the stitching is all done.

The coloring is a little weird in the photo (the light was wonky yesterday) but you get the general idea.

My first time beading any project, and I think it went okay.  I don't think I'll be winning any technique prizes any time soon, but there you go.  So now I'm off to work on Teton Santa, which will be the next beading project.  Hopefully that one will bead up a lot quicker, since there won't be so many random placement of assorted beads (they're more colorblocked).

I should also mention this is my first finish of the year.  Yikes.... : /

Mini Mega Month Madness (2.0) SAL Progress: Week 1

Well, you may be wondering if MMMM concluded at the end of October, why you're seeing another post for it.  The original SAL hosted by Pull The Other Thread did conclude at the end of October, but Justine of Justine's Cross Stitch blog has taken over hosting for November.  So that gives me another chance to finish up those minis I worked on all last month!  Which is good, because they're all Christmas presents anyway...

So here's my latest progress.  I didn't really get much done this week, mostly because I joined a book club last minute a few days before the meeting, so I was attempting to read the 500 page book before that happened Thursday night (I didn't make it, by the way, in case anyone was wondering.  But I tried. :)

All the main stitching on Teton Santa has been done:

And all I have left for stitches on Victorian Tree is to finish filling in the red background.  Sheesh, I never knew background could be so tedious!

So after that's done, it's onto beading, beading, beading (and a little backstitch) for my 6 Mill Hill projects.

Free Pattern Friday: Autumn is Here

This week's free cross stitch pattern really is moving on from Halloween designs this time, I promise.

Although it's been autumn for awhile, I usually don't start to think about it until after Halloween.  September has always been either school or still too summery for me in California, and then October of course is Halloween.  So it isn't until after we get through the costumes and the candy that I start to think of fall leaves and autumn.  This pattern is a great little reminder that "Autumn is Here".  I know one of my friends would love this pattern because it uses all those fall colors that she loves.  

This free cross stitch pattern was designed by The Snowflower Diaries.  Head over to the blog to save the pattern and key.  

Happy stitching!


If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.