Some stitching updates

Well hello everyone.  I've been meaning to post this update all week long and for one reason and another I keep getting distracted.  Things have been a little crazy around here this week.  Monday I finally broke down and went to the doctor for this cough and cold that's been bothering me for almost 2 months now.  Diagnosis: sinus infection and/or bronchitis with the potential to become walking pneumonia.  Yuck.  I was given a steroid shot, (ouch!) an antibiotic, and told to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids.  But mostly I pretty much only have enough energy to get through the work day, so by the time I get home I don't do much. 

I do have a little bit of stitching to show though.  Over the weekend I did manage to finish off my part of the Halloween Sampler for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  This is "O is for Owls":

And here's a pic of what it looks like so far before I sent it off again:

This larger view gives you a better idea of the pretty color of this hand dyed fabric, although it's still way washed out when I took this pic on my phone.  This was the third round robin project that I've done over 2 (linen or evenweave) and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.  Once I was done with that, it was time to start a new project.  This is a Fish Pond pincushion design that I'm doing as a square for LoveQuilts:

Sorry for the wonky lighting, I didn't really have the energy to try and make it look better when I took the picture last night.  It's not going to be a very big design, so I expect to finish it fairly quickly.  Maybe this weekend hopefully, since it needs to be in by the end of the month and I didn't realize how quickly June was getting away from me.

I have Fish Pond on my 11 x 11 Q-snap, so it's a little big for travel, so I have a smaller project I'm working on during lunch.  This is Sunshine by Satsuma Street:

This will be one of those half sun/half moon combined motifs when it's complete, all done in the funky bright colors Satsuma Street patterns are known for.  It's not much to look at now, since I only have part of the off-white of the moon side of the face done so far. 

Free Pattern Friday: Stars and Stripes

I've had a super busy day today, but I'm popping in really quick to make sure I share this week's free cross stitch pattern.

It's almost half way through June, which means my thoughts are starting to turn to the 4th of July holiday coming up here in the US.  So with red, white, and blue popping through my head, I found a perfect pattern from the Janlynn company that features all those great patriotic items like stars, stripes, and flags.  It's a cute smallish pattern that should be a perfect quick stitch to do up if you're feeling in a Independence Day mood. 

You can download the PDF of this free cross stitch pattern directly from their website. 

Until next time, 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.

Turtle Trot June 2015 Check-In

Well, today is the 10th of the month, which means it's time to show progress on my Turtle Trot pieces of the year.  Sadly, this SAL seems to have fizzled out lately on the host blog BAP Attack, but since I'm forging onwards with my progress, I figured I'd share anyway. 

I didn't have a ton of progress on my pieces the past month, mostly because of Project 9: Baby Tinkerbell.  However, I did manage to completely finish that one (yay!) so although that was most of my progress for the past month, it did cross one thing off my TT list. 

Here a pic for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

I also have been making progress on the latest round in the Frosted Pumpkin Facebook Round Robin group I'm in.  This month I'm working on the "O" block of the Halloween Sampler:

Not much else except the border and most of the O done so far.  I really liked doing the border, as it was my first time working with Weeks Dye Works threads, which were fun to do.  Usually I can't afford the extra expense, so I just use regular DMC threads, but the WDW overdyed threads were a nice change to work with.

My setback with this project so far is I actually had to frog the entire border around the block stitched by the last member of the round robin.  It's the Witch one just o the right of mine, and unfortunately she didn't count correctly, so the entire bottom and side borders were 1 block off.  It would have thrown off the rest of the blocks, and the relation of blocks to the outside "lace" border, so I eventually decided to restitch both her and my own borders.  So that took awhile.

In other news, I do have a finish to show you too.  Sadly, I guess I haven't posted any progress pics of this one yet, but here's what it looks like finished:

This is a pattern from a booklet by Lucie Heaton, and it doesn't have an individual name, so I just call it Tropical Drink.  It's for a summer themed exchange I'm working on.  I stitched it with recommended DMC threads, 2 over 1 on white 14 count plastic canvas.  I'm planning on finishing it up as a magnet, hence the plastic canvas.   I started it on June 2nd and finished the stitching the night of June 8th, so it was a nice, quick stitch. 

Now back to that Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin project.

Free Pattern Friday: Super Edition

Well, I know I've been a little behind in posting Free Pattern Friday for the past couple weeks.  So to make up for it, I have links to 3 free cross stitch patterns today.  I actually plan my posts several months in advance, so rather than just ignoring these great patterns, I want to make sure that you are aware they're out there.  So without further ado, here we go.

First of is the latest installment of 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 there's still time to sign up, all the signup info can be found here.

June's flower as designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh is Wild Rose, not to be confused with the cultivated roses, which have a multiplicity of meanings.  According to Google, the wild rose has it's own symbolism and stands for pleasure and simplicity. 

The PDF for this free cross stitch pattern (if you haven't downloaded it already) can be found over at the EMS website.

And since we're into June now, I'm starting to have all things summer on my mind.  Graduation just finished up here at work, so now it seems like everyone is kicking back and enjoying their summer vacations (unless, like me, you have to work year round).  Summer makes me think of beaches, and I found this adorable pattern by Rainbow Gallery that fits right into this theme.

I have to confess, I'm not a super huge fan of beaches.  I don't like swimming in water where "things" may touch me, and I don't like getting sand in every imaginable crevasse when changing out of my swimming suit.   But I love the idea of beaches.  And this cute little pink fish is perfect for a beachy stitching project.  The pattern calls for all Rainbow Gallery fibers, but you could easily sub those out for your favorite brand of threads instead.

The PDF for this project is available for download at the Rainbow Galley website. 

And speaking of the beach, here's another great thing that usually comes with beach trips: flip flops.  Now I love flip flops (I blame it on the California girl in me) and I usually wear them year-round, at least inside the house.  But there's nothing better than finding a new cute pair of flip flops for the summer.  The partner I'm stitching my summer exchange project for love flip flops, so I almost chose this pattern to make for her, but ended up choosing something different instead. 

This cute free cross stitch pattern is done by Janlynn, and is available to download via PDF from their website. 

So that's it for this mega installment of Free Pattern Friday.  I am going to try to be better at posting these weekly again...

Until next time, 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.

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.

Weekend Update: Finishes, exchanges, kitting up and more!

Hello everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend.  Even though Mondays are totally my enemy, I had a great stitching weekend, so I'm excited to share my progress with you. 

First of all, my Buzzy Bees N bookmark was received by my partner in the Lucie Heaton Facebook Group Initial Exchange.  Since I forgot to take a picture of it after I finished the bookmark itself, here's the picture she posted on FB so that you can get an idea of what it looks like. 

I also got my package from the same exchange.  In addition to the adorable framed initial, my partner also sent 5 colors of DMC floss in my favorite pastel shades, 3 packages of various trims that will come in handy for finishing future projects, a monogrammed journal, and a bar of mango coconut dark chocolate.  Whew!  It was such a nice surprise to come home to on Friday. 

Here's a close up of the stitching itself:

I love the frame she used, and doing the initial in beads was a genius idea.  It makes it look so elegant and totally matches the feel of the whole piece. The fabric appears to be some sort of opalescent hand dyed evenweave, and I love the colors!

And my other big news from the weekend.... Baby Tinkerbell is finished!!!!!

This ended up kind of being a love/hate piece.  I love the pattern, and I loved working on it, but in the end it wasn't as fun as it could have been because of the deadline I was up against.  Also, I wayyyyyyyyyy underestimated how long it would take to stitch and backstitch this whole thing.  But I'm happy with the result.  I might even stitch it again someday, though if I get the chance I will definitely be doing it on evenweave because the fractionals were everywhere!

This is a freebie pattern I got off an Italian blog, and was stitched for the Love Quilts charity.  It was done on white 16 count aida (which was a nightmare for fractionals!) with charted DMC threads in 2 over 1.  I started it on May 15th and finished on May 31st, so not bad for a fairly large complicated pattern.  I think the stitch count is around 120 x 80-something (I have it written down somewhere, but not in front of me at the moment).  This was one of my Turtle Trot pieces, so I can now put that down as complete. 

So now that that's done, I have two more charity projects in the pipeline, and then no more deadline stitching for me this year!  At least, that's the plan now.  I need to get serious about finishing up some of the Christmas projects I have planned.  Now that the year is almost to the halfway point, I'm starting to realize how behind I am on those. 

I spent a couple hours last night kitting up said charity projects, and my latest exchange swap project.  There's something so satisfying about starting/preparing to start a new project, isn't there?  The exchange will be a summer themed one this time.  I also need to stitch up my Round Robin block and get that mailed off.  So I guess that's a sneak peek at what you'll be seeing here over the next month!

Stitch from Stash May 2015

It's time for the May Stitch from Stash 2015-A check in.  Here we are at the second to last month, and I totally messed up this month.  So here is my post of shame.

Month: May
Spent: $75.81
Earned: $2.00

Oh yes, you read those numbers right.  I hang my head in shame.  I will now go stand in the outcast corner where hopefully they have chocolate so at least I can enjoy my time there.

So perhaps an in-depth explanation is called for.  Here's an item by item breakdown of my spending. 

15 back issues of CrossStitcher from eBay - $42
A Cross-Stitch Christmas Handmade Memories- $3.89
Soda Stitch Alice in Wonderland (kitted up) - $6.03
Soda Stitch Owl Welcome (kitted up) - $7.79
Bothy Threads Exotic Birds - $6.84
Frosted Pumpkin Sale: Summer Sparkler and Pinata Party - $9.26

eBay was definitely my downfall this month.  I have to grab those back issues of the UK cross stitch magazines when I can, because they are hard to find out here in Mississippi.  Plus, these were from the early 2000s, and I find some of the CrossStitcher patterns I like best were from around that time, so I had to get them.  I'm not as big of a fan of most of the patterns they put out lately, but the older ones, I love.

The Cross Stitch Christmas book was purchased exclusively for the Ursula Michael pattern I knew was in there, since I won the book for less than the cost of just the pattern download.  I ended up being plesantly suprised when I got the book though, since there's a few other patterns in there that I think will end up as WIPs that I really liked.

The two Soda Stitch patterns and the Bothy Threads were great deals I got from someone else, and again, since I've been eyeing those lately (especially the BT, which are REALLY expensive to get here in the US) I had to take a chance and get them.  I'm super excited to get started on the Exotic Birds pattern.  It is even more cute in person than I ever dreamed it was.  And fairly easy too, with limited backstitch and not a lot of fractionals and only a few french knots for eyes.  I love the "Cut-Thru" Bothy patterns a lot, but they are definitely a lot more involved than this little cutey!

As an English major, I love all things to do with children's lit, so the Alice in Wonderland pattern was a giveaway, and I've been wanting to try Soda Stitch patterns thanks to Katy's posts about them at her blog Just a Little Stitchin' this month.  And if I was getting the Alice pattern, the owl pattern just kind of happened as well, because, well, as I've said before, I do love owls. 

And finally, Frosted Pumpkin is having a Summer Sale.  They brought back a limited edition pattern called Summer Sparkler that I LOVED and the Pinata pattern just kind of fell into my cart at the same time.  I love patriotic/4th of July patterns, but don't like many of the ones I find.  This one has all my favorites (fireworks, watermelon, flags, ice cream) and so it was a no brainer to get it.  Besides, it was new to me, since I didn't see it last year.  By the way, in the name of all enabling, if you want to get 15% off the coupon code SUMMER is good for another week I believe.  

So, that was the spending.  As far as earning goes, my only finishes for the month have been my square for the last round of my Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin group on Facebook (which I don't count for SFS since I didn't pay for any of the fabric/floss/patterns) and my small N I showed off yesterday.  At 30 x 30 stitches exactly, it earns me an extra $2 to spend this month.

I've been working super hard on Tinkerbell, but she's not done yet, so I can't count her yet.  Luckily she will count for SFS next month once I'm done, since I'm going to need all the help I can get.  Since I went over budget this month, I won't earn anything next month except for what I stitch.  Which in the end doesn't make a huge difference since things will reset in July with 2015-B starting.  But my personal goal is to make up for all the extra spending, so even if it doesn't make a difference in the long run, I will feel better about it at least.

Here's the detailed breakdown of where I am.  Luckily some of my finishes from earlier this year gave me a little bit more room so I'm not as deep in the hole as I could be. 

Starting balance from April: $17.11
April budget: $25
Finish bonuses: $2   
Total:  $44.11 to spend in May
- Total stash purchases: $75.81

Ending balance: -$31.70

Here's to a better spending month next time...