February Small and a new start

Although Valentine's Day is over for another year, I chose to stitch another small along that theme to add to my bowl of small finishes next year. 

This is Key To My Heart, designed by Shelly Auen of Primitive Stitichin'.

A sweet little stitch which is just perfect for a pinkeep. I'm looking forward to displaying this next year in my bowl of smalls.

Having just completed a larger finish it was time to sort through my stash and decide on a new start. Yesterday morning we woke to a snowy day which quickly turned into a mess of freezing rain. I was dreaming of spring on such a day and decided to start on a design which would get me thinking of better weather ahead. This design is a beautiful collage of spring tulips and is appropriately called Dreaming of Tulips. The designer is Karen Kluba of Rosewood Manor. I'm stitching this on 32 ct antique white linen.

 I love Karen's designs and I love the way that she always charts smaller vignettes that can be stitched from the main design. There are so many different small finishes which are the perfect gifts.
I should have a few more progress pics in the coming days. I know I'm going to enjoy my time spent with this.

A week or so ago my husband and I travelled to the city of Kingston, Ontario to meet up with my brother-in-law and his wife for dinner. We decided to check out some antique shops in the afternoon prior to our meet up. There were several shops in the area but I found one in particular that had a lot of what I was looking for. It wasn't in the budget for any large purchases but I did come home with a few choice items.

 
 A wooden spool, some antique lace and a small heart baking tin. I love to use these larger wooden spools to display some of my small needlework finishes on the top. I look for ones with a smooth surface as seen in the pic below. You can then wrap some of the antique lace around the spool. I use the lace for decorative purposes and also to add to some of my finishes.

If this tin had been just a little larger I would have used it to display a needlework finish within it. As it is I will use it for display purposes in a bowl with some of my smalls. 
I'm definitely planning a trip back to this shop. There wasn't enough time to check out everything. There were lots of antique sewing items...... lace, buttons, fabric, ets. I'm looking forward to my return visit! 

September's Super Moon WIPocalypse

The last appearance of the Super Moons tells me that it's time once more for a WIPocalypse update. We were fairly busy last month so not as much stitching took place as I would have liked but here is a quick update. 

I just pulled this out this morning after a hiatus so there are only a very few more stitches put into this than the last time you saw it. This is Carriage House Samplings Pumpkin Farm. This design was OOP however I see that they have re-released several of the the once OOP designs so it is available once more should you want to stitch it.

No more new stitches have been added to This is the Day since my Stitch from Stash posting in August. I'm hoping to pick this one up again very soon.

I did manage to finish up another small though. This is Primitive Stitchin' Five Lil' Pumpkins.

That's two recent fall finishes and I'm starting up another today! Next start is With Thy Needle & Thread ABC for Crow Pinkeep. All have been fairly quick little stitches and will add to my fall/Halloween decor. All these little finishes make for a mega day of final finishing in my future! Time to bring out the sewing machine!

There has not been a lot of progress in whittling away the larger projects from my initial WIPocalypse list. A few are complete and there is progress on a few more but it is unlikely that I will complete my original list. I never do! I always seem to find lots of other stitches in my stash throughout the year that I want to get started on instead and that's just fine with me.

Fall is starting to make its way to our little corner of the world. Several trees in the village have already started turning and there is a cool nip in the air in the early morning and evenings. The neighbourhood is being invaded by squirrels some of whom are just a little too pesky. Take a look at the antics of this fellow!

See you soon!

March Stitch From Stash

Lots of stitching from my stash this month and I'm happy to report that not a penny was spent. Okay, so in Canada we no longer use the penny, but really I didn't spend anything on stash this month!

My main stitch which I really continue to enjoy has been Three Tulips.

Besides this, I continue to put in a few stitches on PPS Love Thy Neighbour.

I've put this aside for now because I think I'm going to swap out some of the colours with other floss from my stash. Being a part of this group has given me more confidence in using floss from my stash rather than ordering more for each piece. I'm getting more confident on my colour choices and schemes for a design.

I also had two finishes from charts in my stash. Both are spring/Easter designs which will add to my spring decor.

A Tisket, A Tasket by Shelly Auen of Primitive Stitchin'

Threadwork Primitives Bloom

It's amazing what lovelies you can find within your stash!