Happy New Year!

I am off for the rest of the week, so since the farm still has no internet connection, I wish all of you a happy new year and the best of stitching plans in 2015!  I'll update my progress from the 2015 Crazy Challenge on Monday(ish), so will be catching up at 5 days or so at once. 

Happy stitching everyone!

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.

2015 Stitching Goals: Turtle Trot 2015

Well, after seeing all these posts this year labelled "turtle trot" I of course had to find out what they are.  Which leads me to yet another 2015 stitching goals post.

Turtle Trot is a year long SAL hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack.  The idea is that you pick 10 projects (or so) to work on throughout the year, and to post before/after progress pics each month so that everyone can help cheer on your progress.  The rules can be found on the 2015 signups page if you want to join me in signing up to participate. 

I believe we post progress on the 10th of each month, so I will have another post about this coming up in a couple weeks that will have actual pictures.  But since many of my TT pieces I haven't started yet, this post will be pretty boring.

As of right now, I have chosen these for my Turtle Trot 2015 projects:

1. Halloween Quaker
2. Tree Frog Trio
3. Gift of Christmas
4. Britannia Pillow
5. Gingerbread Houses SAL
6. Purple Paisley
7. Polka Dot Bouquet
8. Merry and Bright Banner
9. Reindeer Square
10. Polar Bear Square

So, with that, come back to see progress pics and my "official" starting post on the 10th!

December 2014 TUSAL

I'm a little behind (well, closer to a week actually) in posting a picture of my orts for Daffycat's Totally Useless SAL this month.  I managed to get a cold on Christmas Eve, so needless to say, I haven't been doing much the past few days.  Bleh...

Anyway, here is my last picture of the ort jar for the year.  I've emptied it out and have started collecting for the new year.  Still mostly Christmas colors, as you can see by the over abundance of red everywhere still.  But hey, there's some purple peeking out there too.  Actually, the colors in this photo turned out a little wonky anyway, since there wasn't really any good lighting to be had last night.  Oh well. 

I haven't been stitching much lately either, between being sick and getting ready for the Crazy 2015 challenge next month.  But come January 1st, hopefully there will be much stitchy goodness to be done!

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.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and your family for those of you who celebrate. Here's wishing you lots of wonderful stitching in the coming year!

 

Free Pattern Friday: Christmas Madonna

Since today is the last Friday before Christmas, I have something very Christmas-y for today's free cross stitch pattern.  For me, Christmas is a very fun time with lots of great secular traditions, but in the end it is ultimately also a celebration of God's greatest gift to mankind, the birth of Jesus Christ.  I know not everyone feels the same way about celebrating Christmas as I do, and that's okay, but for me it's something very important.

I really wanted to find a Christ centered pattern I could share for this Friday, and had a hard time finding one that I liked.  But eventually I stumbled upon this Madonna and Child pattern in the shape of an ornament.  It was originally published in 1994 by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum.  It looks great stitched on cloth and framed, but I've also seen it stitched on perforated paper as an actual ornament too and it is just as beautiful.

Head over to the Madonna and Child page on the designers website to download the PDF of this free cross stitch pattern.  And in the meantime, I hope all of you have a happy, safe, beautiful Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year).

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.