Floss Friday - Cross Stitch Progress and July Stats

Happy Floss Friday, Friends!

Here we are at the end of July. I'm typing this on Thursday evening, July 30th. I'm quite certain I will not be cross stitching on Friday so I am sharing my cross stitch stats for the month now.

I completed 4,783 stitches on four projects.

American Sampler by Crocette a Gogo', a WIP. Nothing new here this week.
                               
Peace on Earth by Shepherd's Bush, a new start. I finished the flowers in the top left corner this week.
                                
Meek & Humble by Teresa Kogut, a start and finish. This is one at the framers.
                                
Wilding Hill Manor by Little Robin Designs.
                                                

                                        
This one got the most love this week. That moon is huge, and it was making me a littly batty (sorry!).

All in all, it was a good month for cross-stitch.

Our local nursery finally got in some decent basil plants. We've been without them all summer. It's nice to have them growing just off the kitchen.
                                                
First up was hubby's homemade pasta sauce. I didn't think to take a photo.

I will need to take a little blogging break soon. My Mom's older sister has been placed in hospice care. We are anticipating a road trip to Ft. Walton Beach any day now.

Until then, I'm getting things ready to be away from home. I'm also working on the table runners I mentioned in Monday's post. If all goes well, there will be a post on Monday, August 3rd with a quilty update.

Thank you to my friends who return each time I post and leave the nicest comments. You all make my day!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you soon.

Floss Friday -- Cross Stitch Finish, Progress and A Cookie Recipe

Happy Floss Friday, Friends.

Before getting to cross-stitch progress, I will link the recipe for the sour cream cookie I shared in  Monday's post. I've been making this cookie for a few years, when we lived in Florida, and now that we live in North Carolina. I will say that the difference in elevation has changed the cookie a bit. It is still delicious though.

Visit Preppy Kitchen here for the recipe.

The new start I posted last Friday is now a finish. Meek & Humble by Teresa Kogut.
                                                    

                                          

I have an appointment to take this and one other piece to the framers this afternoon. It will be a gift for someone.

After finishing Meek & Humble, I put a few more stitches in Peace on Earth.
                                               

This will certainly be a long-term project, much like American Sampler. I still haven't gotten back to that one since you saw it last.
                               
Tonight is the beginning of a sewing weekend. Sewcialites 3, block 22 and assembling the center of Fat Quarters by the Dozen is on the agenda.

What are your plans for the next few days? Whatever it is, I hope it is enjoyable.

See you soon,

Floss Friday -- Cross-Stitch Progress

Happy Floss Friday, Dear Friends!

I mentioned in last Friday's post that I had another new cross-stitch start.

Meek & Humble by Teresa Kogut.

I'm stitching this on 40-count linen, Vanilla Latte from Fabrics by Stephanie. The silk floss is Cranberry from Gloriana. The thread goes through 40 count like melted butter. I love it!

I haven't had much time to stitch this week so I'm sad to say that is all I have to share in the way of cross-stitch.

We are forecast to have more hot weather this weekend, with afternoon rain. We need the rain so I will not complain. It will be a good time to stay indoors and sew. The finishing instructions for Fat Quarters by the Dozen was released on Wednesday. I'm hoping I have enough fabric for the sashing and borders. If so, that will be my project.

I hope you come back on Monday to see if I had any success.  In the meantime, enjoy the weekend ahead!

I'll see you soon,

Floss Friday -- Cross-Stitch Progress and A New Start

Happy Floss Friday, Friends!

The weekend is here and I couldn't be more for it. My head has been spinning all week with things I want to do in my craft room and both inside and outside the house. I really don't know what has gotten into me. So, as usual, I started a list. I do that when I need to get my thoughts organized, and in hopes of keeping myself from going off on a tangent. Does this ever happen to you?

Before getting into what's ahead, I'll show you what I've gotten up to with cross stitch this week.

I made progress on American Sampler by Crocette a Gogo. This is where I was when you saw it last.
                                
This is where I am now.
                                
I added more trees and worked the border around the upper right corner.

In last Friday's post, I mentioned I have three new starts planned for July. This is the first one...
                                          
Peace on Earth by Shakespeare's Peddler. I have a small start.

The true color of the fabric is not showing here and you really can't see the white stitches. Maybe I'll get better photos as I go along. And why is linen so hard to photograph?!? I'm stitching this on 36 count linen from Fabrics by Stephanie, in the color Friendship Greene. As I've mentioned before, Stephanie's linen is my favorite and I've used Friendship Greene in a few other other projects.

I have one other small start which I will share with you later.

Hubby and I are going to Ikea in Charlotte on Saturday. I am going to get some shelving units for the craft room / office. We are starting to work through the list I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  There will also be some sewing so, please come back on Monday, July 13th for a quilting update.

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you soon!

Floss Friday -- May and June Cross-Stitch Stats

Happy Friday, Friends!

As I was preparing my June stats update I realized that I had not posted May's. So here they are...

Stitch count for May is 4,423 on five different projects.

My Works In Progress (WIPs) during May were Summer Stamp Sampler
                                               
Salute to Abigail
                                               
I had one Finished Object (FO), but not fully finished, Patriotic Pears                                     
There were two new Starts with Happy Day

And Red Letter Sampler

June's stitch count is 5,168 on three different projects.

My WIP for June was American Sampler
                                 
I had one FO with Salute to Abigail

I had one Fully Finished Object (FFO) with Summer Stamp Sampler
                                            
There was one Start And Finish (SAF) with Stitch with Me
                                            
That's a wrap for the last two months. So far, I have three new starts planned for July. These will be stitch alongs with friends and the Fat Quarter Shop. I'll also continue to work on American Sampler. Melisa at Pinker n Punkin' Quilting & Stitching is stitching patriotic all year, and that is my plan as well. 

Speaking of patriotic, I hope all of my USA neighbors have a safe and fun Independence Day celebrating our country's 250th birthday!

I'll be back Monday, July 6th with a quilty update.

See you soon,

Floss Friday -- Cross Stitch Update and Alaska

Happy Friday, Friends!

It has been a while since I’ve posted and visited my favorite blogs. I guess you could say I really checked out during vacation and was just living in the moment. It was fantastic.

Hubby and I took a 7-night cruise to Alaska. We flew to Seattle on June 7^th, boarded the ship on the 8^th and flew home on a red-eye flight the 15^th – 16^th. We are more exhausted from this trip than we were when we returned from Italy last September.

There was a cross-stitch retreat two of the days during the cruise. I had won the registration at a retreat last summer, which worked perfectly for our Alaska plans. The event was hosted by Anabella’s Needleworks and the featured designer was Stitching with the Housewives (SWTH). Priscilla and Chelsea are the mother-daughter team behind SWTH. Chelsea had a baby May 1^st and was unable to attend but Priscilla was there with us.

Priscilla and Chelsea designed a chart exclusively for the retreat attendees and provided finishing instructions. 

Anabella’s kitted the chart with fabric and floss. It became my focus stitching for the last week, and I’ve even fully finished it.

Chart: Stitch with Me

Fabric: 28 count white Monaco

Floss: Called-for Classic Colorworks

Stitch Count: 98 x 70

Finished Size: ~7” x 5”

I'll share retreat gifts and giveaways in a separate post.

When I wasn't stitching, Hubby and I were hiking, biking, glacier viewing, whale watching and eating…eating…eating!

I took way too many photos to post but here are a few from our trip.

Seattle was the only cloudy day we had the entire trip.

Yes, I bought fabric. More about that later...

A humpback whale waving...

We enjoyed Alaska so much that we booked a Land to Sea trip for next year.

The laundry is done and I am catching up at work. I’m also working to catch up on Melisa’s Summer Stamp Sampler.

Pinker N Punkin' Quilting and Stitching

I’ll be working on Sewcialites and Fat Quarters by the Dozen quilt blocks tonight. Can’t get too far behind on those.

Forgive me if I haven’t visited your blog for a while. I’ll get there, I promise.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

My next post will be Monday, June 22nd...a quilty update.

See you soon.