Floss Friday – Fully Finishes and Some Almost Finishes

Have I finished decorating for the holidays? NO

Have I finished shopping for the holiday? YES

Do I have some cross stitch fully finishes? YES

Do I have more to do? YES

I was recently watching floss tube videos and got inspired to pull out the “under the bed box” of finished Christmas stitches and fully finish them.

Santa’s Workshop by Anabella’s Needleart.

Fabric: 28 count Monaco, White by Charles Craft
Floss: The called for DMC
Stitch count: 64 x 41

Stitched two over two, finished stitching in December 2022.
Finished into a pillow with black ric-rac trim. Backing fabric is Chelsea’s Checks in black and white. The back features a couple of layers of felt with a bulb pin and Lori Holt Cute Little Buttons.

Gingerbread Cottage by Stitching with the Housewives
Fabric: 14 count Aida, Aqua by Zweigart
Floss: The called for Classic Colorworks over-dyed
Stitch count: 58 x 38
Stitched two over two, finished stitching in January 2021.
Finished into a pillow with tiny white ric-rac trim. Backing fabric is a piece of red and white check from stash. The back features a piece of felt and a gingerbread star button.

Cocoa Quilt by Primrose Cottage Stitches
Fabric: 32 count Linen, Vintage Homespun by R&R Reproductions
Floss: My own conversion, from stash (I can send that to anyone who is interested)
Stitch count: 73 x 73
Stitched two over two, finished stitching December of 2024.
Finished into a pillow. No trim was needed since the pattern had a substantial border. Backed with fabric from my stash, layered felt, a bulb pin with more of Lori Holt’s buttons.

The next fully finishes are from a seasonal series by Hands on Design and Priscilla Blain called Chalk Full. The large piece was a design centered around a mason jar and the small was a piece that coordinated with the jar.

Merry Jar
Fabric: 14 count Aida, Chalkboard black from Wichelt
Floss: The called for Classic Colorworks and Gentle Arts over-dyed
Stitch count: 67 x 93
Stitched two over one, finished stitching January of 2020.
Flat finished. Stitched piece is layered on sticky board with two layers of plaids behind it. The first layer is Chelsea’s Checks in red and black and the back layer is Priscilla’s Pretty Plaids in red and black. Each piece was placed on sticky board. I made a bow using matching ribbon and added a matching sticker to the center of the ribbon. This is displayed on a piece from Hobby Lobby, which is no longer available.

Merry Small

Fabric: 14 count Aida, Chalkboard black from Wichelt
Floss: The called for Classic Colorworks and Gentle Arts over-dyed
Stitch count: 65 x 49
Stitched two over one, finished stitching November of 2019.
Finished into a pillow. I didn’t have any trim to match so I added three Christmas pins. I place a red/black plaid bead under the Santa pin for interest. The back is finished with Chelsea’s Checks in red and black, a little felt and a tiny Merry ornament.

Snowy Jar

Fabric: 14 count Aida, Chalkboard black from Wichelt
Floss: The called for Classic Colorworks and Gentle Arts over-dyed
Stitch count: 63 x 94
Stitched two over one, finished stitching March of 2025.
Flat finished. Stitched piece is layered on sticky board with two layers of plaids behind it. The first layer is Chelsea’s Checks in blue and white, and the back layer is Priscilla’s Pretty Plaids in blue and white. Again, each piece is placed on sticky board. I made a bow using matching ribbon and added a snowman bell to the center of the ribbon. This will replace the Merry piece on the Hobby Lobby stand in January.

Snowy Small

Fabric: 14 count Aida, Chalkboard black from Wichelt
Floss: The called for Classic Colorworks and Gentle Arts over-dyed
Stitch count: 70 x 46
Stitched two over one, finished stitching February of 2020.
Finished into a pillow with an aqua ric-rac trim. I added snowflake and cardinal pins to the front. The back is finished with Chelsea’s Checks in black and white, layered felt and another bulb pin with Lori Holt buttons.

The last fully finish will be displayed after the holidays.

Snow Love by Country Cottage Needleworks

Fabric: 14 count Aida, Aqua by Zweigart
Floss: The called for DMC threads
Stitch count: 61 x 45
Stitched two over one, finished stitching December of 2019.
Finished into a pillow with an white ric-rac trim. I added a snowman and snowflake pins to the front. The back is finished with plaid fabric from Lori Holt, layered felt and another bulb pin with Lori Holt buttons.

I started making pillows out of the small Lori Holt Vintage Christmas charts that I shared here. They just need to be stuffed. Hopefully, I’ll show them completely finished next Friday.

The kids start arriving tomorrow and we couldn’t be happier. I’m hoping to put together one more post sharing the final Christmas décor for this year. It shouldn’t be hard, but I keep changing things! 

How are your holiday preparations coming? I hope they are going well enough that you can enjoy the real reason for the season.

See you soon,

Christmas Decorations – 2025, A Smoky Mountain Christmas and a Quick Trip to Biltmore

This post was to go up yesterday but I am still decorating and changing things around.

What I have to share today is some of the main living area upstairs.

The pencil tree was in our bedroom last year. It has replaced our main tree, which resides in the downstairs family room this year. Our main tree is a live one and we do not want the mess on the new wood floors.

I didn’t put all the ribbon on it this time but did include the red and green hand painted ornaments that I skipped last year.

This tree also holds our White House and Biltmore House ornaments. 

I also added the snowflakes I recently made on the new embroidery machine.

The kitchen sideboard with prim snow people remained pretty much the same, except I added a little tree.

I bought the bells and little gingerbread people a few years ago at Walmart. They were for cross stitch finishing.

The dining room buffet stayed the same as last year.

I am using the tiered floor stand for Santas.

I added small wreaths to the pantry doors and think I’ll keep this up year-round.

The kitchen niche across from the pantry…

The piece next to the garage door never changes too much.

There are still a few areas on this floor that need tweaking. I'll show you those in a future post.

We had a nice time with Mom last Saturday. It was the Smoky Mountain Christmas event downtown.

We skipped riding the carriage as Mom has been having issues with her back and hip. It wouldn’t have been easy for her to climb the steps to get in.

The usual characters were out and about. Although, we somehow missed Santa and Mrs. Claus.

There were musicians performing all along the sidewalks.

An ice sculptor drew quite the crowd.

An ice sculpture to sit on for photos…we passed on that opportunity.

On Sunday hubby and I went to the Biltmore Estate for brunch and to get our 2025 ornament. 

The Stable Cafe' has the best cornbread with

sorghum butter and roasted pecans.

The 2025 dated ornament was already sold out so we got this one instead…

The 2026 ornament was already available, so I had to…

These guys must feel safe now that Thanksgiving is over. Wildlife is abundant at the Biltmore.

The temperature dropped Sunday afternoon and continued to do so throughout the night.  It was 9º F when I awoke Monday morning. Then it warmed up to 44º F in the afternoon.

With all the weekend’s activities, I only put in a few cross stitches and did absolutely NO sewing. On my list for this week is to finish the decorating and prepare for the kid’s visit; they arrive this weekend. I’ll pop in a couple times to show you more Christmas décor.

Enjoy your day and week ahead. 

See you soon,

Floss Friday – November Stats and More

Last Friday came and went so fast…as do most of my December days. I missed sharing my stitching progress, so here it goes…

I stitched a pathetic 2,126 stitches on two projects during November.

My monthly assignment on Salute to Abigail.

And, a little progress on American Sampler.

Now we find ourselves in December where things are happening fast and furious. (very dramatic, I know!)

The first weekend in December is Jingle Ball. Jingle Ball is a virtual cross stitch retreat hosted by Stephanie Webb of Lindy Stitches.  She and 12 cross stitch designers provide not only exclusive designs, classes, speed dating, stitching rooms, but also entertainment throughout the weekend. The ticket to attend the Jingle Ball is only $15. That gets you the entertainment, meet and greets with the designers, the stitching rooms, access to the exclusives in each of the designer’s shops, and so much more. If you sign up for a class then you have the option to receive a kit of the project that the designer is offering, or you can get a .pdf of the chart and kit it yourself.

I signed up for two classes.

Primrose Cottage Stitches Merry Stitchmas on a mesh bag.

I ordered the kit for this one. It came with the bag, chart, Weeks Dye Works pearl cotton #5, a needle, a zipper pull and graph paper to chart your own initials.

I got the front stitched and my initials charted for the back. I will show you the back next week when it is finished.

The second class I took was from Annie Beez for her Christmas Pears. I did not purchase a kit but put it together with all of the called-for materials. Annie taught us how to put the pears together.

I’ve started stitching the chart ‘Noel’ and look forward to putting my first one together.

Another fun cross stitch activity has been receiving the GaRon Christmas box.

I look forward to receiving this box each year. The guys get an exclusive pattern from a wonderful designer and include all the  supplies and fun accoutrements to provide a nice holiday stitch.

Everything is always so nicely packaged.

Pattern, fabric, scissors....

All the floss you need to complete the chart. Also included is a nice
thread organizer, needle minder, needle, scissor cover and lovely card.

The chart is "Christmas Morning at the Atelier"
This is the fourth in a series from Twin Peak Primitives

That is all I have for today my friends. I'm finishing up the holiday decorations this weekend and will be back Monday with a few photos.

Enjoy your weekend and thank you for stopping by.

See you soon,