Floss Friday -- Cross-Stitch Update and Crochet

Hello Friends!

I mentioned in my last post that I had a cross-stitch start and finish last weekend. Be My Valentine is a free chart by Lizzie Kate. There isn’t a cover photo and I can’t show the chart but here is a link to it, if you are interested.

I stitched this on 28-count evenweave from Fortnight Fabrics. The color is “Pick Me, Choose Me.” (Those guys were creative when naming their fabrics.) I used my own thread conversion which was all Classic Colorworks floss.

I pulled two previously stitched pieces from the “under-the-bed-box.”

Chalked Love by Rich Trent

Stitched on 16-count Aida from my friend Fiona. The color is called Coral Beach. I used DMC B5200 floss.

Love You More by Anabella’s Needleart

Stitched on 28-count plain white evenweave by Zweigart. I used a combination of DMC and Classic Colorworks floss.

These three pieces plus Sweetly Sayin’ Valentine’s Day that I shared here will be fully finished soon. I’ve been preoccupied with yet another hobby…crochet.

I have several knitting and crochet projects kitted. And I have this tall basket filled with yarn that isn’t committed to a project.

I decided to take this basket of yarn and make one or two large afghans for our downstairs sofas. The first one will be one big granny square…

Another reason I’m holding off on fully finishing the Valentine cross-stitch pieces is that we pick up my main sewing machine from the ‘spa’ this weekend. It will be nice to have my regular machine back in its table, ready to make a pillow or two.

We had a little snow Wednesday night. This is what it looked like yesterday morning.

Have a nice weekend and I’ll see you soon.

 

A Weekend Recap

Hello, Friends.

How was your weekend?

We had a very uneventful one…and I’m not complaining. I took Mom to Asheville for an appointment on Friday and we stopped by our favorite antique store on the way home. I found a vintage dry sink in very good condition and at a very good price. It came home with me.

I look forward to decorating it seasonally. And the cabinets will provide some badly needed storage.

It rained most of the day on Saturday, so it was a good day to stay inside and do some decorating. I’ve decided that I am going to celebrate the USA’s semiquincentennial by decorating with patriotic décor all year long.

I started with a pencil tree that holds my White House ornaments as well as some odds and ends from Hobby Lobby. This tree will change throughout the year as I add some stitched pieces, and I’ll likely replace the existing ribbon.

Then I started on the tiered floor stand…

And moved on to the Hoosier cabinet…

This is just the bottom shelf of the Hoosier and it has already changed since I took the photo above. I'll show you more soon.

I also did some baking on Saturday and made some orange ricotta cookies. They turned out great. A ‘cake like’ cookie with an orange glaze…yum.

Here is where I found the recipe if you are interested.

Sunday was cross stitching day with my friends on zoom. I had a start and finish which I’ll show you on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by for today’s post. I hope you have a wonderful week.

See you soon,

 

 

Floss Friday, A Quick Trip to Florida, Knitting?

This week’s cross-stitch update and our trip to Florida last weekend go hand-in-hand. 

When we travel by car, I like an easy project to stitch that doesn’t require a lot of counting and something that I can do on Aida or evenweave.  As it happened, Primrose Cottage released their free chart for January the day before we started traveling.

Chart:       Sweetly Sayin’

Fabric:      16 count Aida, white by Wichelt

Floss:        All from my stash; Classic Colorworks and Cosmo

I’ve pulled some Valentine fabrics and will fully finish it this weekend.

Why did we go to Florida? Well, remember when I told you about the embroidery machine hubby gave me for my birthday here? I mentioned that I once had a machine that didn’t work very well. When we were in the process of selling our Florida house, I didn’t think my embroidery threads would do well in storage. I offered them to my best friend. We agreed that she would use them until I got another machine. If I never replaced the machine, then she could keep them. 

I did get another machine so...

I have almost every color of Floriani embroidery thread.

They are stored in boxes of drawers that are numbered by the Floriani chart.

Now I am ready to dig into my fabric scraps and start creating some fun projects.

There is one more bit of creativity that I haven’t shared yet.

Our town’s “Ice Fest” is scheduled for the end of the month. See my post here for a previous Ice Fest event.

Visit Haywood is an organization that promotes local tourism and small businesses in our community. Our local yarn store asked for volunteer knitters to make a scarf that would be sold in the Visit Haywood booth. All proceeds go to promoting Waynesville’s small businesses.

The yarn store provided yarn and the free chart. 

Malabrigo Rasta One Skein Scarf by Kaity Fraker

My contribution was completed the morning after Christmas…while still in a food coma. I used a skein of Malabrigo Rasta Super Bulky in the color 133 Reflecting Pond.
                                            

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying walks around the lake, as our winter weather has turned mild. The swans are back and entertaining as ever.

I hope you’ve had a great first week of 2026.

See you soon,

Floss Friday -- December Update and Overall Cross-Stitch Stats

Happy New Year, Friends! I hope you had a fun and safe start to 2026.

Today I am giving you an update on December's stitching progress as well as my overall cross-stitch stats from the beginning.

First, I stitched 3,107 stitches in December; slightly better than November's numbers. These involved three projects:

Christmas Pears by Annie Beez Folkart

Merry Stitchmas mesh bag from Primrose Cottage

And most of December's Xs were put into American Sampler by Crocette a gogo'.

During 2025, I completed 53,245 stitches, which is 31,229 less than in 2024.

Below is a count of my cross-stitch hobby from the beginning.

This key will explain the columns on the table:

Starts = obviously, the number of projects started in that year.

FFO = projects fully finished (framed, pillow, flat fold, etc.).

FO = stitching is completed but the project has not been fully finished.

WiP = Work in Progress, stitching is not completed.

DNF = Did Not Finish (and will not finish)

Read the chart like this example:

Of the 36 starts in 2021, 25 of those are FFOs, 6 are FOs, 4 WIPS and 1 DNF. 

The red numbers indicate progress since last year's chart. 

Year	Starts	FFOs	FOs	WIPs	DNF
2018	1	0	1	0
2019	14	7	6	1
		11	3	0
2020	30	13	8	9
		15	7	7	1
2021	36	23	8	5
		25	6	4	1
2022	24	14	4	6
	25	16		5
2023	15	10	2	3
		11	1
2024	34	20	10	4
		23	8	3
2025	14	6	0	8
Found Project	1	0		1
		1		0
Totals	155	87	39	29
	170	108	30	30	2

 

The number of starts increased in 2022 because I added the DNF column this year, and I hadn't included that one as a start...which it clearly was.

Overall, I am pleased with my 2025 stitching. I spent more time at the sewing machine and that was a good thing.

I've yet to set any real goals for 2026...I'm still pondering.

We are off on another whirlwind trip to Florida this morning. I'll share more about that next week.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the remainder of the holiday.

I'll see you soon,