Floss Friday -- A Finish, A WIP and Retreat Gifts

Happy Friday, Friends!

So excited to share my finish of Melisa’s Pinker N Punkin’ Quilting and Stitching Summer Stamp Sampler.

The last two stamps were stitched this past week.

In the Apiary and Canning Season

I already had the frame and knew I wanted to use it for this sampler. It is a little tighter than I usually like but anything else would be too big. I am trying to do my own framing when I can and avoid custom work.

Chart: Summer Stamp Sampler by Melisa at Pinker N Punkin’ Quilting and Stitching

Fabric: 28 count lugana (evenweave) by Zweigart in the color Mushroom

Floss: The called-for DMC threads

Stitch count: 107 x 132

Started: 4/9/26, Finished: 6/23/26

Thank you, Melisa, for generously sharing your designs with us. I enjoyed this stitch along very much!!

Once that was finished, I picked up American Sampler by Crocette a GoGo.

This is where I left off…

This is where I am as of Thursday evening…

I finished the house and started on the right side border.

The goal was to stitch ½ a page each month beginning last August and to have a finish by July 4^th. Clearly, that is not going to happen. I am going to keep it going until the stitching is complete.

I mentioned that while we were on the cruise I participated in a cross-stitch retreat hosted by Elayne of Anabella’s and the featured designer was Priscilla from Stitching with the Housewives. That post is here  in case you missed it.

I made gifts for Elayne (host), as well as for Priscilla and Chelsea.

Quilted bags with their initials machine embroidered on them. I attached zipper pulls/scissor fobs to them and then filled the bags with small gifts.

I also put together small gifts for my tablemates.

They received the same fob, a machine embroidered tissue cover, a waxer, small scissors, flavored Chapstick and a skein of Classic Colorworks floss in the color Priscilla’s Peppermint. (Yes, Classic Colorworks custom dyed floss for Stitching with the Housewives.)

All the other attendees received a fob. There were 40 attendees in total.

The gifts I received were plentiful. Candy and small stitching tools were very popular.

One of the first things I do when I return from a retreat is sort the gifts.  The candy goes in a jar on the Hoosier. I have a box of small bins that will hold stitching tools, stickers and other miscellaneous items.

Our host gave the attendees a bag filled with patterns, fabric, floss and other miscellaneous items. 

Included in the bag were raffle tickets to be used on the last day.  There were several gifts lined up on a table, and we could put our tickets inside the container in front of the gift we wanted. I forgot to take a photo of the gift table.

I only wanted one thing and that was a project bag made from Lori Holt tea towels….and I won it!

Inside the bag was a smaller notions bag, an ORT container for leftover thread pieces and a small yellow box. The yellow box held all sorts of items from a drink mix, hand sanitizer, sticky notes….lots of yellow.

Since fully finishing the Summer Stamp Sampler, I am inspired to finish more items from the under-the-bed-box of cross-stitch. So, a trip to Hobby Lobby is on the agenda for Saturday. The closest HL to me is in Asheville. Hubby will accompany me and we will do our big shopping day at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Sam’s. It doesn’t happen frequently, but when it does, my wallet gets sad!

Also on the agenda this weekend is sewing more blocks for Sewcialites 3, Four Patch Fun and Fat Quarters by the Dozen.  I’ll be back on Monday, June 29^th to share those.

I hope you have a great weekend!! See you soon.

Quilt Along Progress

Oops! I am a day late in reporting my quilt along progress. I started a machine embroidery project on Sunday and forgot to post my recent quilt blocks.

First, Sewcialites 3 block #14 is Criss-Cross Star Block by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet Co.

Another quick and easy block.

Next is Fat Quarters by the Dozen release #9, the Halo block.

This block measures 18-1/2” square. This is a big block but also very fun to make.

Here are some bags I’m making for an upcoming event…more on this later.

I’ll leave you with some photos of recent visitors.

Spotted Eastern Towhee

He likes to hang out with Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal.

Have a great week and I’ll 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,

So Long November and Hello December

Happy Mid-Week, Friends!

And what do you think about facing the end of 2025? Has this year gone by fast? No? Just me?

Well, since my last post on November 21st, I had a birthday, we celebrated Thanksgiving, and got our Christmas tree.  Hubby gave me a gift. He says it was for my birthday, but I'm also claiming it as a Christmas gift as well. He is just too sweet!

I've shared before that we get our Christmas tree from Boyd Moutain Tree Farm. This is our 4th tree since living in North Carolina.  Our tradition is to get the real tree the day after Thanksgiving. This was also the tradition when we lived in Florida, although it was a tree "lot" and not a farm.

The grounds at Boyd Mountain do not change much. This year we were blessed with sunny skies and cool temps.

The tree is still drinking water but hasn't been "dressed" yet. I'll share all of my trees when they are fully decorated.

We took my main sewing machine to be serviced.  Nothing wrong, thank goodness, but it needed a good cleaning and oiling.  While there, hubby got me a new "embroidery only" machine. Now, I once had a sewing/embroidery combo machine. That machine must have been built on the Friday of a holiday weekend. I had so many issues with it, including replacing the mother board. My best friend bought the same machine, on the same day, from the same dealer. She hasn't had any issues with hers. For that, I am gratelful!

Anyway, I missed having an embroidery machine and my hubby suggested I try out a few while we were dropping off my sewing machine.

My first project testing the machine. Snowflakes.

In the hoop quilting. Really?

Oh boy!

Since the last couple of weeks have been so busy, I won't have a lot of stitching progress to show you on Friday. I will have November stitching stats and the GaRon Christmas box to share. Also, this weekend is the Jingle Ball hosted by Lindy Stitches. I've signed up for a couple of classes.

December.... and away we go!

See you soon,