Coffee and Cross Stitch

Quaker Christmas | Cross Stitch

It's been ages since I picked up my Quaker Christmas piece, "Faith", and I finished it last weekend.  This is the second of a three-part series, "Joy", "Faith", and "Peace".  I thought it was a perfect time to share this piece, given that we're all kinda anxious right now, not knowing when we can stop carrying Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer everywhere.  The news is exhausting - anyone else shut it off and only catch updates here and there?  It's all a bit much. 

I finished "Joy" a few years ago (did I even tell you guys about that one?  I can't find a post about it...), and started "Faith" over two years ago now (where does time go?!).  I was making steady progress for a while, until I realized a miscount on the giant star in the top right corner, and put her in timeout after I ripped it out and stitched it again. 

I didn't realize how long it'd been since I worked on it, until I scrolled through my posts to see when I'd started it: December 2017.  Quite long enough to be in the WIP pile, thankyouverymuch.  Although...not quite as long as Shores of Hawk Run Hollow...but that's neither here nor there...

Ahem.

I stitched this on 40 count fabric that I had in my stash.  I'm sure it's one of those ginormous pieces I've had since forever when I was part of a fabric of the month club...so it's Silkweaver...I just don't know what the color is :-|.  My stitch club members from back in PA are still laughing at all that fabric I had on hand...and still have on hand....ugh.  haha.

There are so many gorgeous motifs in this piece, that I don't think I could pick a favorite.  I wasn't sure how I felt about the three wise men being stitched in such contrasting colors to the motifs surrounding them, but they grew on me.

Those snowflakes...took.....forevvvvvverrrrrrrrr to stitch.  Forever.  They're everywhere.

I have one more to go in this series:  Peace.  For now, though, I'm gonna take a break from the Quaker style and move to something different.  Not sure quite what...but I'm not sure I want to start another sampler just yet.  Maybe I'll move to an autumn or Halloween piece (like the Little Bits that I started last week!), or possibly patriotic.  I found a remnant of PtP Heroic that I used for a Blue Ribbon Designs piece (I really need to start taking stuff to be framed...once shops are open again...) that I might use for a patriotic piece I've been itching to start.  We'll see...

Happy stitching everyone!   I hope you're out there making beautiful things or reading your favorite novels, or whatever makes you happy :-).

Christmastime is Here and Gone.

I swear it was last week that I was down in New Orleans, taking a billion pictures of gorgeous houses draped in Spanish moss in the Garden District.

No, really.

Yet, here we are, spring is in the air, and Ash Wednesday is next week.  Time flies, my friends.

So, how are all of you?  I've missed you!  I haven't gotten much stitching done, or really anything done, really.  Oh!  I have done a lot of reading, though.  So many books, so little time.  There've been a couple that I started and just couldn't get through.  Two of them were ones that the whole world seems to be raving about, yet I just could not get into them.  The Summer Before the War and All the Brave are Forgiven.  I love period pieces, but these....I just couldn't do it.  Right now, I'm reading The Nix.  Has anyone else read this?  So far, I'm liking it, although the pace is a little slow.  Tana French's new book came out a couple months ago, so I gotta make sure to read that soon, too.  

Anyways.  I have been stitching, despite not finishing much.  Not long before Christmas, I finished "Coffee Saves Lives."  I loved loved loved stitching this piece.  I love coffee (duh), and the coffee theme plus the coffee-colored threads?  Totally in love.  And the next in the series is coming out at the Nashville Market!  I cannot wait to get my hands on it!!

The sass with the coffee cup!  Get it, girlfriend.

I stitched this on 40 ct. Purely Primitive.  If you stitch this, I highly recommend getting two skeins of Pecan Pie and Cocoa.  The graph does not designate how many skeins you need of each, but since I just went through this debacle, save yourself the aggravation and a separate trip to your LNS (although, is that really all that bad?! I mean...I ended up with a new Plum Street Samplers graph....so.....) and get two the first go-around.  If you stitch this on larger count, I would venture to say you'll need three of each Pecan Pie and Cocoa.

Next up, "Snow Queen".  

The model is stitched on a light greyish blue, but as always, I can't do that.  I can't just use what is in the picture.  I did a thread pull at the shop, and chose Picture This Plus "Dusk". 

Oh my God.

Look at the way those colors just jump off the fabric!!!  I can't.

There is a dark grey that is tough to see up agains that dark blue, but for the most part, it's just an outline, or it's surrounded by beads and lighter colored threads, so I decided that foregoing this fabric just because you couldn't really see that grey was ridiculous.

I mean, look at those purples!  Stop yourself.

I've also been spending a considerable amount of time ripping out two blocks of my Shores at Hawk Run Hollow and re-stitching them, but I'll update when I actually start a new block.  That effort has been killing me, because it's all due to being ONE ROW OFF on the lighthouse in Block One.  You have NO idea how angry I was at myself when I figured that out, and subsequently how long it took me to actually pull out that project again to start fixing it.  (sigh)

Anyhooter.  I've missed you guys.  I need to figure out a better blogging schedule than once every six or eight months.  I may need to get planner pages and write it all out, but I will make this happen. Promise.