July Flower of the Month Check In

Welcome to the latest check in for the Flower of the Month SAL.  I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier!  Once again, I've been a very bad hostess and don't have any progress of my own to show this month.  (That new kitten has been keeping me busy!)  It's been so wonderful seeing all of your progress on July, and August is one of my favorite patterns, so this next month will be fun as well. 

Remember, if you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, it's never too late to join!  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing only progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the July pattern specifically, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  If you are a member of our Facebook group, you can also check in via that page.  You do not have to check in at both places, but you are welcome to if you wish. 

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open for a week (until August 13th), so please check in by that date.

June Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Welcome to the latest check in for the Flower of the Month SAL.  Once again, I've been a very bad hostess and don't have any progress of my own to show this month.  Due to some health issues, I kind of fell off the bandwagon this month, but hopefully all of you made good progress in June!

Remember, if you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, it's never too late to join!  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing only progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the June pattern specifically, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  If you are a member of our Facebook group, you can also check in via that page.  You do not have to check in at both places, but you are welcome to if you wish. 

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open for a week (until July 14th), so please check in by that date.

May Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Welcome to the latest check in for the Flower of the Month SAL.  Once again, I've been a very bad hostess and don't have any progress of my own to show this month.  I had a major stitching project in May, and I also ran out of fabric, but I hope to make progress on my Jan, Feb, and Mar projects, as well as start April, May, and now June soon! 

So let's share the progress we all made in May, since I don't have any to share with you at the moment. 

Remember, if you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, it's never too late to join!  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing only progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the May pattern specifically, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  If you are a member of our Facebook group, you can also check in via that page.  You do not have to check in at both places, but you are welcome to if you wish. 

If you're still participating via email, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through next week (June 12th), so please check in by that date.

April Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

This is several days late, sorry about that.  I had a rough week last week with some personal issues going on and then this week I've been stuck with a cold/allergies that are generally making me tired and grumpy.  So I regret to say that's made me a very bad hostess for this month.  In fact, I don't even have pictures of my progress, since I put my project somewhere while cleaning and organizing on the weekend and can't find it yet.  *sigh*

I'm so looking forward to seeing all the lovely progress everyone made during April, since I am going to have to live vicariously through you all this month. 

If you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, remember it's never too late to join!  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing only progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the April pattern, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  

If you're still participating but using a different way to check in, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through next week (May 12th) since I'm a little late this month, so please check in by that date.

Free Pattern Friday: May Lily of the Valley

It feels like I'm always saying this, but I can't believe how fast April has flown by.  Mostly becasuse projects that are due at the end of the month aren't done yet I guess.  But since it's the 3rd Friday in April,  it's time for May's Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us there's still time to sign up, all the signup info can be found here.

May's flower as designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh is Lily of the Valley, which will be our first white flower.  According to Google, this flower was chosen as the May birth flower because that is usually the only month it blooms in.  This flower has been used in bridal bouquets dating all the way back to medieval times, which has contributed to it's traditional meaning of chastity, purity, humility, and sweetness. 

So now you can have a sweet time stitching this free cross stitch pattern, and go download the PDF from the EMS Designs website if you haven't already. 

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.

March Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Nothing like waiting until the last day to get this up, huh?  Sorry for the delay, we're still having internet sourcing troubles at home, so blogging in general has been more of a challenge lately.

But the good news is after my total falling off the bandwagon last month, I do have progress!  I got a bit more done on January:

Started a few outlines of violets on February:

And even got a couple petals started for March:

That means I'm caught up (at least until next month) with all my starts.  Yay!  Now to work towards some finishes...

So how did you all do?  I know from our Facebook group many of you are doing much, much better than me.  But hey, progress is progress, so I'm happy what I got done this month.  Post your progress whatever it is and share via the linkup below. 

If you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, remember it's never too late to join!  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing only progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the March pattern, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  

If you're participating but using a different way to check in, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through the end of next week (April 10th) since I'm a little late this month, so please check in by that date.

Free Pattern Friday: April Sweet Peas

Hard to believe we're already three weeks into March.  Sheesh.  Where did the time go?  But since we are that far along, today's free cross stitch pattern is the upcoming April installment in the Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us, all the signup info can be found here.

So although I mentioned last month that March's square is probably my favorite of this bunch, April's sweet pea design probably comes a close second.  I've had a thing for sweet peas since I saw and fell in love with Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies design for the sweet pea.  If you haven't seen it, Google it; you'll love it too.  Also, it's pink, so like January, that's a good thing going for this design too.

Speaking of Google, my quick search informs me that the original sweet pea plant only came in purple, but due to numerous genetic cross breeding, it now comes in many colors.  You may remember good ole Gregor Mendel from your biology class, whose work with cross breeding sweet pea plants led to the discovery of the laws of genetic inheritance. 

But enough with the science lecture.  Sweet pea flowers are associated with messages of goodbye and blissful pleasure, and can also mean "thank you for the wonderful time".  So you should have a wonderful time stitching this, no? 

And now that you're all sweet pea-ed out, you can head over to the EMS Designs website to download April's free cross stitch pattern, and join our SAL if you're interested.  Look for May's pattern to be posted in a couple weeks.

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.

February Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Hello Flower Stitch-A-Long participants! I can't believe how fast February went by.  I know the month is only shorter by a few days, but whoo!  There's just a couple days left, so it's time to submit your progress for February.  How did you all do so far?

My progress is... well... nonexistent this month.  Bad, bad hostess!  I just had too many deadline projects that popped up in the meantime.  So I haven't made any more progress on January, and haven't had a change to stitch February either.  But apparently hope springs eternal, because I did spend a couple hours kitting up March's pattern last Saturday. 

So how did you all do?  Obviously no one can be worse than me this month, so post your progress whatever it is! 

If you are not currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, remember it's never too late to join us.  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing progress and not a finish).  Your check in can be about the February pattern, or any other month you are working on/have finished. 

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  

If you have chosen to post your progress in the Facebook group, please leave a link here on this post as well.  That just makes it easier for me to gather info and not miss/double count anyone.

If you're participating but using a different way to check in, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through the end of next week (March 7th) so please check in by that date.

Free Pattern Friday: March Daffodils

Today's free cross stitch pattern is another installment in the Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us, all the signup info can be found here.

As February is drawing to a close, it's time to get ready for March, so I'm posting the March pattern of the SAL now so you can prepare if needed.  If you're participating in the SAL, don't forget to show us your progress at the end of this month!

I'm rather partial to March, since it is my birthday month.  And March's flower is one of my favorite flowers, the daffodil.  Actually some people say March's flower is the Jonquil, which look like daffodils to me.  Anyone know the difference?  I like to say "daffodil" better than "jonquil" anyway, so I'm just going to say it's officially the daffodil.  :)

According to Google, the daffodil is also called the "Lent Lily" or the narcissus, which I guess is the official botanical name.  The daffodil stands for rebirth, renewal, and chivalry, and is considered a 10th anniversary flower.  Presenting a gift of a bunch of daffodils is said to bring happiness, while a single daffodil can signify misfortune.

And now the I've bored you with all sorts of daffodil lore, you can head over to the EMS Designs website to download March's free cross stitch pattern, and join our SAL if you're interested.  Look for April's pattern to be posted in a couple weeks.

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.

January Check In for 2015 Flower of the Month SAL

Hello Flower Stitch-A-Long participants! It's the end of January, so I guess it's time to put up a check in post for everyone.

We've been having some great photos posted over in the Facebook group over the last few days, so I know some of you are making good progress, and perhaps even finished the January Carnations pattern for this month. 

As for my progress... well....

... you can see there's not much going on.  I started this as my first day for the Crazy January Challenge, and haven't had a chance to pick it back up again yet.  So the 7 or so stitches I put in that day remain the only ones I have so far.  This is the first time I've worked on 18 count aida in awhile, and I was surprised at how much I missed the smaller count.  Hmm, something to think about for future projects.

BUT! I am still going to start February's design sometime early next month, as well as trying to bang out some more progress on this one in the meantime.  How about you?  What progress have you made this month?  Are you continuing on, or focusing on finishing the current WIP before moving on to the next month?

If you are currently a member of the SAL and want to join us, remember it's never too late to join us.  The rules and official sign ups can be found on this page.  

Important Notes For Current SAL Participants: 
To earn an extra prize entry for this month, you must submit a check in (even if it's showing progress and not a finish like mine is).

If you have done a blog post showing your progress, please use the linking widget below to add a direct link to your check in post.  

If you have chosen to post your progress in the Facebook group, please leave a link here on this post as well.  That just makes it easier for me to gather info and not miss/double count anyone.

If you're participating but using a different way to check in, please send me an email to brownieschair (AT) hotmail (DOT) com with your progress details/pictures and I will post them here for you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  I will leave the link widget open through the end of next week (Feb 7th) so please check in by that date.

Now, who's ready to start February?  :)

Free Pattern Friday: February Violets

Today's free cross stitch pattern is another installment in the Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us, all the signup info can be found here.

With just over a week until January is over (yikes! how time flies...) it's time to post the link to the next flower featured for February in the SAL.  So you can start planning now if you're going to start it next month.  :)  For everyone who is still working on January (like me) don't forget to do your progress posts at the end of the month!

February's flower is violets, so there's lots of pretty purples to go with the green leaves this month.  In addition to being February's birth flower, according to Google violets signify faithfulness and humility, and are also the state flower for Illinois, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

Head over to the EMS Designs website to download February's free cross stitch pattern, and join our SAL if you're interested.  Look for March's pattern to be posted in a couple weeks.

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.

2015 Stitching Goals: More and More SALs

Well, I had the epiphany today that it's actually getting pretty close to 2015 now, so I better finish up my 2015 goals series of posts.  So rather than do an introduction post for all of these, I'm going to put them all in one post (so I can actually focus on stitching things for them, haha).

So in addition to the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL I'm hosting, the Crazy January Challenge, and BAP Attack's Turtle Trot, here's what I have planned for the new year.

Daffycat has plans to continue her Totally Useless SAL (TUSAL) into the new year.  I've already emptied my ort jar in anticipation of starting that one.   She hasn't posted (as of this writing) the new info for 2015 yet, but this is the link to her 2014 post explaining this SAL. 

Heather from Stitching Lotus is doing her Smalls SAL again this year.  I think this will be kind of like the MMMM I did in October and November, so I'm excited for this one.  I know I will be able to work on smalls for every month of this year, it will just be a question of finishing them or not...

Measi is hosting WIPocalypse again this year.  This is a very low key SAL that is essentially all about sharing your stitching goals and progress for the year.  It will go along very nicely with Turtle Trot this year I expect.

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting her Stitch from Stash challenge again.  This year, it will be divided into two parts.  The idea is to spend $25 (or your equivalent currency) or less on stitching stash supplies per month.   When I first heard about this back in May, I was kind of like "who is crazy enough to sign up for something like that?".  And then I spent all summer stashing wayyyyy too much, so I signed up so that I could try to keep control of it next year.  With the cut in pay that came from moving out here to Mississippi, my budget is much, much tighter than it used to be, so I will have to think careful about each and every stitchy purchase I make from now on. 

And last but not least is the D.E.S.I.G.N. of the Month, which stands for Designer Everybody Should Instantly Get to Notice. This is a series of posts that will be done by participants throughout the year showing off a current WIP from a different designer each month, with a series of reoccurring questions answered about said design/designer each month.  The idea is to introduce everyone to new designers we may not have run into/tried on our own that we think others should try (or stay away from I suppose).  I'm super excited about this one; I'm already brainstorm ideas on what to feature. 

Phew!  That's a lot.  Think I bit off more than I can chew?  Maybe so, guess we'll just have to see.

Free Pattern Friday: January Carnations

Hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday.  Today's free cross stitch pattern is being posted in anticipation of the start of the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL I'm hosting next year.  For anyone who is interested in joining, all the rules and details can be found here. 

January's pattern is for some lovely pink carnations.  I've started kitting this one up already, and love all the shades of pink and green in it.  Unfortunately I can't seem to find any 20 count fabric locally (I had planned to make magnets out of these) so I am going to have to rethink my plans for these patterns.  Hmmm...

Head over to the EMS Designs website to download January's free cross stitch pattern, and join our SAL if you're interested.  Look for February's pattern to be posted in a couple weeks.

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.

2015 Flower of the Month SAL

A couple weeks ago I had posted about the possibility of forming a SAL in the new year to stitch up the Flower of the Month mini charts done by EMS Designs.  I did get a few "maybes" in response to that post, so I'm going for it and forming a SAL.  Hopefully it won't just be a SAL of one... :)

So this is my own personal official sign up post for my participation in the SAL.  My goal right now is to start each new chart for each new month, although with all the other WIPs I'm planning for the Crazy January Challenge, I know I might not finish them within the month.  But progress is progress!

If you'd like to join the SAL, I have put up an official rules and sign up post in my header, or you can find the link here.  Oh, and there will be prizes for participants too. 

Hope to see some of my stitchy friends there!