Woodland Sampler - A Finish!

Twenty-nine months from the first stitch, my woodland sampler has drawn to a close.  This is my very first cross-stitch finish!  Next up is looking for a frame so that I can hang it up on my sewing room wall.

The way that this sampler was partitioned into small sections worked well for me.  Most of the pieces may not have been finished on the one month timetable intended, but having small goals to mark progress along the way kept me from getting overwhelmed and helped me towards the finish!

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching.

Oriental Dots - A Fabric Pull

I was hoping to have my sewing room all set up by now, but the beast of a long arm that has taken over my space is making me re-valuate how everything will fit!  So while my stitching area is still unsettled, I have been using muslin to practice my stitching and putting together more quilt ideas!

Two weeks ago I was inspired by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation and snapped up her Bubble Bath pattern.  I was a little nervous when I saw how many fabrics it called for because I have found that when I hit a certain number of fabrics I start replacing ones in the current selection instead of adding the last few, but I persevered!

And when all was said and done I found myself in a very different direction than originally planned, but I am excited for this one to join the queue!

Still not sure about that one all the way on the right!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Evergreen Tree

It's been a long time coming, but our house is finally finished and we're all moved in!  Since the house is brand new construction there isn't anything around it but sand yet, so it's a good thing I brought a tree of my own!  It has a little growing left to do, but by Christmas time it should be just about ready to decorate.

Current Size: 28x36
My tree was inspired by this tree by Turid of densyendehimmel.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Woodland Sampler - November

Moving backwards a bit from Christmas, I thought it was time to finish my November stitching.  Only one more row remains, so hopefully the next couple of months will see a finished piece!

For the time being I left out some of the single stitch snowflakes, because I wasn't sure of a good way to secure the metallic thread.  In my experience, single stitches aren't very secure and metallic thread does like to unravel!  But regardless of what I decide to do about the flakes, I've still got one more cute critter!

I saw a squirrel!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Christmas Buttons!

These past few weeks have seen more shop hopping than sewing, but today's shops gave me the perfect opportunity to start a collection of "ornaments" for my advent tree!

Yes, that is a dinosaur.  :)

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Christmas in March

I will soon need pieces to practice long arm quilting with, so it seems like the perfect time to pull some of my smaller project ideas to the top of the to-do list.  First up is a Christmas wall-hanging.  The plan is to quilt a tree and make two dozen little "ornaments" from holiday buttons as a sort of Advent calendar.

2.5 inch squares

Squares were cut, half square triangles were made, and now it is time to build a nice scrappy layout.  To help achieve this goal, because I'm not very good at scrappy (yet), I threw all the squares of a single color into a tin, mixed them around, and pulled out one at a time to add to the design space.  I think it worked fairly well!

A sneak peak at my design floor.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Woodland Sampler - October

My motivation for this piece is back on track with the end in sight.  This week a cute little owl has joined my menagerie!  Only three blocks remain, and I can't wait to see this hanging on my new sewing room wall!

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching.