Where stitching is therapy on Slow Stitching Sunday...

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts regarding the passing of my brother, James. I will continue to focus on the good in his life and take comfort in that. James never met a stranger... ever... he could and would talk to anyone and he has a million friends. We are planning a celebration of his life in early March with a classic car cruise in and a Chinese buffet... he loved classic cars and  Chinese buffets... keep your fingers crossed for nice weather.

And to keep myself occupied I have done quite a bit of cross stitch... I've jumped from piece to piece but in the end I have completed the stitching on three winter-y pieces. None of them are fully finished objects -FFOs - and they may wait till next winter as I am ready to move onto Spring stitching and decorating.

First, Prairie Schooler  Winter from the Prairie Seasons No. 50...

Excuse all these wrinkly pieces... I stitched this on 16 ct. Aida that I painted with Rit dyes. I used most of the called for colors except for the house and the shutters and the front door and maybe the birds... I can't remember for sure. I always think these PS piece should stitch up fast, but they don't...lots of big blocks of solid stitching. I personalized the windows on the house as to what my new windows are going to look like.  I'm replacing the more than 25 year old aluminum windows with some triple pane krypton filled gas ones... sounds very Superman-ish doesn't it.  Should keep the house warmer and I'm looking forward to being able to wash the windows from inside... boy I'm getting old if washing windows sounds like something I'm looking forward too...LOL

Next up  is Alfred by Heart In Hand Designs...

He's stitched on a  leftover scrap of 32 ct linen that I dyed. There is a little blackbird button that gets sewn on too.  I thought he was cute and my sainted Father's middle name was Alfred. I'll finish him into a little pillow...someday...

Then I stitched up a Lizzie Kate piece, Snowy String...

This one is on the called for 28 ct. and evenweave I painted. I'm not fond of stitching on 28 ct. I don't feel I get the coverage I like. I much prefer 32 ct.  I've kitted up the Spring String and for some reason it calls for 32 ct....huh?? Well from now on I'm doing these on 32 ct. This one came out big...a little over 12" long... doesn't need to be that big for my decorating. 

I'm sure you've all heard about Lizzie Kate retiring next month... I, like millions of you, will miss her designs. I did snag a couple that I've been thinking about and 123 Stitch says they will be getting more inventory of LK, which is a good thing since the day after the announcement they were out of almost every single LK that they carried. 

Like I said, I'm tired of winter...we had snow yesterday...big fat flakes ... I do hope that is the last snow of the season. Today it is 50 and sunny so the snow has melted... we are suppose to get to 70 by mid-week but rain rain rain every day. I enjoyed the sunshine today  and went out and painted some more linen in anticipation of the new releases at the needlework trade show coming up the beginning of March. I've seen some sneak peeks of Brenda Gervais from With Thy Needle and Thread that I will want ... (you can see things here on her IG) ...and a 3 part series from Beth Seal of  Summer House Stitch Workes that I have to get ...( and you can see her stuff here) ... and I haven't seen it yet, but I expect to see the Spring ABC's piece from Little House Needleworks... another gotta have. 

So yesterday as I sat inside and watched the snow I started a new Spring-y piece... Easter Peep from WTN&T...

Is he not stinking CUTE???    I used another leftover piece of 32 ct. that I'd painted and he'll just fit... there are two giant tulips that will flank him  and some green grass beneath his feet. I call this coloring book stitching... I just did the outline and then I can come back and fill in and don't have to count anything else. I have changed just about every color on this piece. They were all DMC and I  just picked colors from my stash that I liked better.  The chick is charted in 422... a light tan... blaaahhh... My chick is much brighter 3822 and that makes me happy. It will be good stitching to do when I watch the Olympics this evening. 

And here's another piece I've played with last week... I really want to have more Christmas and Halloween stitching and if you want that you have to start now...so I did...

This is WTN&T In  Santa Claus Land done on a 32 ct linen I painted with Rit dyes (are we seeing a pattern??? LOL)  I changed his suit from GA Chili Pepper to GA Ruby Slippers. As you can see I did more of my "coloring book" style of stitching, but since this is an overdyed I stitched a random number stitch pattern to outline the big guy. Then when I go back and fill him in I will stitch a length of floss in a more blotch-y fashion. I don't like the stripe-y effect you get from going back and forth with over dyeds and that will eliminate that.  I've will work a little more on this today for #santasundayxs     I bought a couple more WTN&T Christmas charts in a Super Bowl Sale so I have plenty of work ahead of me.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and will enjoy looking at all the pretty projects posted there. I've got a busy week coming up...places to go...people to see...but there should be some cross stitching and maybe even some sewing time... I've been playing with a layer cake and those Moda Cake Mix foundation papers. Fun stuff!!!

Hope your week is productive and you have some fun stuff to do too!!

happy stitching-

carol fun