My First Linen Piece

I love the Heart Alphabet freebie from BHG so much, it's my first attempt at stitching on linen. My LNS - In Stitches - no longer carries the linen floss listed on the chart so I chose a verigated cotton in shades of yellow & brown that compliments the Tea Linen. The pic is awful - will take a better one in a couple of days when I've completed a few more letters. Thanks again Sharon for suggesting linen & motivating me.

Back In Stride Again

It took an evening of going thru my stash to get me motivated again. So I'm cross stitching after work, knitting at bedtime, and painting figurines on the weekend. My goal is to have at least one hand-crafted item for everyone on my Christmas gift list as well as putting together a decent inventory for this season's holiday craft shows (that's why I had to get past my "bored" phase). Just love doing local craft festivals. The spring & summer festivals have passed me by this year (too much going on) but plan to make as many of the holiday craft shows as I can. My showcase website is Stitches of Heritage. Not doing any internet sales; just documenting merchandise, what I've done, where I've been, etc. Lots of stuff is one-of-a-kind so that sight gives me a chance to keep pics of stuff that has sold & stay in contact with the folks I meet at the festivals. Maybe once I retire, I can open my dream arts & crafts shop...... In the meantime, I worked on "Blessings" - from Forever in My Heart Designs. The pic doesn't really highlight that it's on white-birch aida using Silk "N Colors thread. Lovin' it - my first time using hand dyed silk thread & it's wonderful. Planning a trip back to LNS to pick out silk thread for the BHG Alphabet Heart freebie. Of course that's afer I finish the bottom row of leaves on this one. Here's another reason I should visit my stash more often: I discovered this WIP that I forgot about - it's "Going to Market" from Dimensions. Not only did all the colors catch me eye, but the background leaf pattern should be fun to do. So you see I've gone from bored to craft-crazy. If only I could play hooky from the bill-paying job for a while -

R U Ready 4 Some Football???

Yes - it's that time of year again. Since I can't cross stitch & pay attention to the game at the same time, I usually have a knit/crochet project for game time. This is my pre-season offering and it's for my Mom who loves shades of gray....... I realized the last afghan I made for her was over 10 years ago. It was really fun working with granny squares again. Next is a knitted afghan for my grandson. I found a Spiderman duplicate stitch to put in the corner that he's gonna love ...........

Another WIP

Yep - that's right; I'm bored, bored, bored. Keep starting new projects only to put them down after a few days. Don't know whether I should switch to smaller projects (that I can finish real fast) or jump into something really big & challenging. Here's my latest WIP. I'm inspired by Sharon to start working on linen. Maybe that's the answer - something outta my element. Will check thru my patterns tomorrow & make a trip to the LNS (just what every stitcher needs for motivation) for linen that catches my eye.