Somewhat Obsessed...

Since getting reacquainted with the Yvette Stanton 'Silk Sampler' piece from her 'Frisian Whitework' book, I've become quite obsessed with working on it.

I had a lot of trouble doing the horizontal spacer lines of chain stitches until I ran some sewing thread through that line, spacing the running stitches in 3s - the width of each chain stitch. Much less bad language was uttered after that. 

Looking at this photo, I realized I've left out a couple of elements in band 5 which I'll go back and add.

My daffodils are in various stages of blooming - depending on where they are located and how much sun they get. 

In the back garden.

By the corner of the deck (SE exposure)

By the side door (full eastern exposure).

We still have about 6 weeks until the danger of frost is past. I look forward to all the colour in the garden.

This photo from last year popped up on my phone yesterday. It made me very happy. 

I'll be glad when all this gloomy, rainy weather abates.

Elim - Spring 2026

My guild offers a weekend retreat twice a year; usually the last weekends of April and September. This spring it was held last weekend because the organizer will be away the last weekend of April this year.

Poppy and I carpooled up to Elim Conference Centre on the east side of Pigeon Lake - north of Lindsay. We first unloaded our stitchery stuff at the Chapel where fourteen six-foot tables were set up for us. There were going to be a total of 26 stitchers over the weekend - some coming for the three nights, some for two, a couple for one night, and some only coming up for the day.

Most rooms have two beds but most of us don't share a room. There's a sink in many rooms and communal bathroom facilities. My upstairs room was very cozy but my preference is staying in one of the four downstairs rooms.

Thursday evening we had dinner at Jesse's in Ennismore. There was such a large serving of the souvlaki that I ordered I had the remainder for lunch the next day. Meal service started with dinner on Friday.

On Saturday morning, some folks ventured to Peterborough for a fibre festival but I already own all the fibre, and yarn that I have any need for so I chose to stay behind and stitch. 

One of the first projects I worked on was the wool felt appliqué watering can project.

This was a much more ambitious project than the previous wool felt 'bowl fillers' I had worked on. I'm a little over halfway done attaching the wool pieces, then will have the embellishing embroidery to do.

I then hauled out Newcastle Bouquet which I started about 5 years ago and keep abandoning. The gridding is really important because the elements are placed quite far apart. I managed to complete the two leaves on the bottom left and some of the outline of the flower above them.

Next was a little bit on the 'Bees in the Greenhouse' project - more of the white outline. I could have done more but other projects were calling to me.

I did a wee bit on the Spring Biscornu stitchalong.

Then completed the eyelet square in the second row, third column. I only had a diagonal of eyelets done in that square when I picked this project up. 

I just need to figure out what I'll do in the last two squares. One of my sources is an antique Danish pulled thread pattern book I picked up for $5 at a used bookstore in Sydney BC several years ago.

The one piece I did finish was 'Smitten' that I had started last year. I believe the 40ct hand-dyed fabric was a piece I bought in 2024 at Colorado Cross Stitcher in Loveland CO when I was out there visiting my longtime friend, Francey, in Fort Collins.

The pattern calls for snowflakes all around the mitten but I'm going to use HotFix 'bling' instead.

The last project I worked on was this whitework piece from Yvette Stanton's 'Frisian Whitework' book. 

I competed the second band at Elim and got a start on the third; then while still on a roll, I obsessively stitch the third and fourth bands yesterday at Monday stitching and last night. I brought my iPad into the dining room (where I was stitching) so I could continue binge-watching 'ER' episodes.

Because I didn't get to 'hurkle-durkle' yesterday as I was hosting stitching, I slept in this morning, listening to a podcast, alternating with some dozing off in my cozy bed. 

It took me a long time to fall asleep most nights at Elim so I had a lot of sleep/rest to catch up on.

It was a really fun weekend. When stitching at home, there are always household tasks to do that interrupt the stitching process. At a stitching retreat, we are without responsibilities and can indulge ourselves for extended periods of time.

Next week, Barb, Poppy, and I are heading off to the first weekend of Stitch North; another opportunity to get together with other stitchers and vendors for a lovely weekend away.

Spring Garden and Stitchalong

My daffodils out the side door are always early to bloom. They have a mostly sunny, eastern exposure beside a brick wall which absorbs then radiates heat. They're almost under the warm air vent from the dryer.

The daffodils in the front yard are in the shade so don't get the sun's warmth. We had a couple of inches of snow two nights ago and because it's not been above freezing, the snow hasn't  melted. The rabbit(s) have already nibbled on the tulips on the front right as can be seen with one ragged, bent-over leaf.

 

I've been binge-watching 'ER' on Netflix; I've watched 32 episodes (25 from Season 1 and 7 so far from Season 2). Only 299 (!) episodes to go. The show ran for 15 seasons with most seasons having 22 episodes.

With my nifty new 5.0 magnifying glasses I've been able to stitch in the evenings while seated comfortably on the sofa whilst watching TV. Part 3 of my Spring Garden Biscornu arrived in my mailbox today. I finished all of Parts 1 and 2 last night.

Part 3 is almost exactly the same as Part 1, just rotated clockwise 90°. I'm using colonial knots and since I'm stitching on a light green fabric, am using Blanc for the bee's wings. I'm curious to find out of there will be a beehive on every corner... stay tuned.

A Craft Day

Note: this mistakenly didn't get posted when I composed it a few days ago. Sorry it is out of order.

I didn't have anything pressing planned for today so spent part of it on this project.

First, I ironed the freezer paper onto the felt pieces for the Garden Bowl Fillers. Then the pieces were separated into the respective bags for the three 'pillows'. The watering can, 

beehive, 

and flower pot.

They're all ready to be cut out.

A New Start/Stitchalong, A WIP, and Binge-Watching

I signed up for Stitchonomy's 'Spring Garden Biscornu' stitchalong which started this week. The instructions strongly urged the use of Aida but I'm using some evenweave and am stitching 2 over 2. There are 21 colours in the legend. I'm substituting about half of them rather than buying new skeins for only a few stitches. Yesterday I got started on Days 1 and 2.

There are 8 segments to the top piece (two triangle segments are shown) and 8 segments to the bottom piece. Oops! I missed a couple of stitches on the beehive.

Because of all the changes in colours, this little bit of stitching took hours. 

Also, there are supposed to be backstitched stems for all the flowers but the designer didn't provide colour keys for them. I took an educated guess for the white wing backstitching. Considering how adamant she was about the size of the fabric (much larger than I used), and using Aida (which I didn't), I'm surprised she didn't include complete stitching instructions. Update: I just received an email with the explanations for the backstitching colours.

All that being said, I think it will be a very cute biscornu when finished.

I had a look at a bunch of my UFOs/WIPs in preparation for my 4-day stitching blitz at the upcoming guild retreat. I realized I don't actually have that many cross-stitching projects on the go as I originally thought, I have several whitework projects which I abandoned for various reasons - a couple of which I may take to the retreat anyway.

I pulled out this Bees in the Greenhouse project and have done quite a bit on it this past week.

I miscounted the sizes of the squares many times and did a lot of unstitching but I'm on the right track now. I'm substituting several colours of flowers and bees to make them more to my liking. There is one major mistake that I may or may not fix as it would involve a lot of unpicking stitches. I could conceivably get all the stitching finished at the retreat now that I'm stitching at night whilst watching TV, thanks to my new 5.0 magnifying reading glasses that I got on Amazon. They eliminate my need to sit at a table and peer through the magnifier on my lamp.

Also in preparation for the retreat, I cut out all the little felt bits for the Garden Bowl Fillers. I had previously printed or traced the reversed designs onto freezer paper and ironed them onto the felt.

I'm taking all my DMC floss to the retreat to get started on the appliqué process.

Speaking of watching TV at night; after getting hooked on 'The Pitt', I thought I'd go back and watch 'ER' on Netflix. I've been watching several episodes at night and just yesterday started season 2. Holy moley, back in the 90s, seasons were over 20 episodes long! And there are 15 seasons (1994 - 2009) for a total of 331 one-hour episodes! It catapulted Noah Wyle, George Clooney, and Juliana Margulies to fame. I do remember watching the Season 1 episode when a woman dies while giving birth under Dr. Greene's care. I even remember that I watched it at a friend's place in New Jersey before flying down to the Caribbean to board a Windjammer cruise ship (schooner) for March Break 1995. It's funny how my memory works sometimes.

I heard lots of wind while in bed last night or this morning. I was shocked to see 2" of snow on the ground when I rolled up the blind in my bedroom this morning. The wind has died down but it's still cold out there - minus 3C and minus 11C with the windchill. Scooter has gone out for a run. Brrr.

I got my taxes done yesterday and paid what I owed. I need to call a couple of places to tell them to take a higher percentage of withholding tax in the future. I hope to owe quite a bit less next year.

I think I'm Finished

I put a push on the last few days to get this finished.

I still need to take a good look and see if I missed any bits. Will order a frame, too. I tried to find the order for the frame for Winter Rose Manor but I must have tossed those emails. I just wanted to check that the dimensions are right and the I order the same style frame.

I do most of my stitching on 40ct fabric with one strand over two threads (20 stitches per inch). This is largely because I prefer not to stitch with two strands and have to 'railroad' to get the crossing stitch to lie flat. On the 40ct fabric, I need magnification most of the time but find it somewhat annoying to use the magnifier in my lamp. I had been using 3.0 magnifying reading glasses but never saw anything stronger than that on any racks of glasses at the pharmacy or dollar store. However, on a recent Fat Quarter Shop FlossTube episode, 5.0 glasses were mentioned. I had no plans to purchase the Lori Holt specs from FQS but found a couple of pair on Amazon. They arrived yesterday and worked very well for the last bits of this project.

Two modifications I did:

1.    For all the 'berries' on the border, I did Algerian eyelets instead of the 4-stitch clusters. I prefer the look of them.

2.     I also used DMC Blanc for the snowflakes so they'd show up a little better.

I keep rummaging around my office for more abandoned UFOs or FOs that I might fully finish. Another project I would like to start is Merry Christmas by Hobby House Press:

I have appropriate fabric in my stash. I just need to decide what floss I'll use. DMC 115 has the right dark red but there is also a lighter, brighter red in the variegation that I'd rather not use. Meagan and Kim recommended a substitute colour but I don't remember what it was. I'd like to settle on something before the upcoming retreat.

Odds and Ends

I have continued to work on The Light of Winter - even at stitching yesterday. I didn't make any errors that had to be 'frogged'. Am feeling more confident that I can get this finished by my birthday later this month. (Actually, I just noted one boo boo - a misplaced stitch that will need to be removed - no biggie).

The Quilter's Cupboard is offering a class on wool felt appliqué soon. I was concerned that the kit I wanted to work on next would be sold out so I headed up there this afternoon to get it. It came with the pattern

and all the required quantities of wool to complete all three bowl fillers.

They have lots of models on display which motivate us to make purchases. I also like that they make the effort to kit up many of the projects. I'll be transferring the patterns onto freezer paper sometime soon as I'll definitely be working on this project at our guild's retreat the weekend after Easter.

I finally ordered the frame for the Drawn Thread 'Stars' project I stitched back in 2019. I enjoyed learning the specialty stitches - three sizes of stars and leviathan stitch and using the different hand-dyed yarns.

I also took a look at how I would finish the 'K is for Knitter' piece I'd finished stitching in 2020. The Victoria Sampler kit had been given to me several years before that. 

I was going to frame it as is but noted the hemstitching all around in the photo on the cover of the pattern.

After reading and re-reading the instructions for the hemstitching, I finally figured out how to do it so have added this to my 'to be fully finished' pile. I may even have the bell pull software in my stash somewhere.

One of our Monday morning stitchers is in the hospital and her birthday is tomorrow so I paid her a visit this afternoon after visiting the quilt shop.

Lately, my little bears have been providing a lot of comfort and enjoyment for some of my friends who just needed a little 'pick me up'. I'm convinced they also have some therapeutic powers. Today Rusty went to live with my friend.

Here's the gang before Rusty took his leave. Rusty is on the far right. The perspective is a bit off - he's really not bigger than most of the other bears.

We'll miss you, Rusty, but know you will doing great things in your new life. To quote a  famous saying by Roman poet, Catullus, 'Ave atque vale' - 'Hail and farewell'.