January/snow
Styling with Stitches
High Fives
Freebie 

Welcome to Stitching Friends.   It's been awhile since we have been able to blog but we are excited to be back.  We have some new features we have added this year that we hope you will enjoy.   Our theme for January is snow and our "styling with stitches" projects will reflect that. You can find all our 2020' themes on the sidebar.

Hope you all had wonderful holidays with your family and friends.   Doesn't that time always go by so quickly?   Our son Mike was here for nine days and the time just flew by.   We missed you all bunches and are so happy to be back in blogging form.


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Styling with stitches

RJ's snow project

When I saw these skis in Joanne's, I thought they would make a nice display for a snow stitch.   The pattern "Delivering Snow" by Homespun Elegance seemed to be the right size to fit on the sign that was already there.   This little family of snowmen are on their way to a ski lodge for a winter vacation.  I've never been to a ski resort myself but always thought it would be an enjoyable time.  Sitting by a roaring fire and sipping hot chocolate after a day on the slopes would be so much fun. 

Had to use artificial light today because of cloudy weather and it distorted colors.   All the reds are a true red but they look orange today.

The little "snow family" is on their way to Aspen!

Closeup of the stitch and little tag added to pine cones and plaid bow

Delivering Snow
by Homespun Elegance
40 ct. linen
overdyed floss
skis from Joann's 

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Mary's Snow Project

Tree Lott from the Hometown Holiday series by Little House Needleworks is finally a FFO!!  I stitched this quite some time ago and knew I wanted to finish it as a flat fold.  I finally got up my courage to try it.  I watched Vonna's (The Twisted Stitcher) tutorial and I don't know why I waited so long as it was easy!!

I love the snowy scene

Pre-made cording from Hobby Lobby

LHN Tree Lott
28 ct linen
Called for floss

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High Fives

One of our new features is called High Fives.  We have enjoyed reading our friend Arlene's Friday Favorites at Nanaland each Friday.  Why not give it a try we thought. We will be doing these about six times a year which will give you an idea about some of the things we are really enjoying. 


RJ's High Fives (in no particular order)

1.  New Mantra bracelet ... My husband gave me this pretty bracelet for Christmas.   This mantra means the world to me and I have not taken it off since Christmas day.

2.  Gator basketball games ... I love college basketball games and the Gators are my favorite team.  We have season tickets so we get to enjoy all the home games.  Go Gators!!!

 3.  Rizzo's Rules ... I just started my husband George's newest book and I'm hooked.

4.  Needleworker's Sampler...This is my newest stitch that I started on the first of January.   It is such an enjoyable stitch with pretty colors and designs.

5.  Gifts from stitching friends ... I'm still admiring all the pretty gifts I received this year from sweet stitching friends.  Gorgeous cardinal ornaments, adorable notecards, a lovely charm pack, a set of French needleminders, a very pretty blue house ornament, a beautiful hand pieced cardinal wreath, a fun fabric gift box, creative scrabble tile art, delicious chocolate, fancy stitching paper, and a fun patriotic pattern can really put a smile on this girl's face.  Thank you so much Robin, Meg, Manuela, Jutta, Stasi and Arlene for your thoughtfulness and friendship.

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Mary's High Fives

Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich-  A  Chick-Fil-A finally opened in NJ and  I was quite surprised at how good it was as I am not a fan of fast food.  It was real chicken!!  I was surprised that the sandwich had pickles on it as pickles and chicken seems an unlikely combo but it was good! Next trip I want to try their mac and cheese.

Trader Joe's Cedarwood & Sage Mulit-Purpose Cleaner- I have terrible perfume allergies so I can't use many cleaning products but this has a light, clean scent and it cleans very well

Beekman 1801 Honeyed Grapefruit Goat Milk Lip Balm-  Have you heard of the Beekman Boy's? They had a reality tv show based in NY and developed a line of goat products.  It comes with a nice little case to carry the balm.

Tulips in my new tulipiere-  My husband brought back the tulipiere from a recent trip to Holland as a Christmas gift for me.  . I spotted these beautiful tulips in Trader Joe's  and with the 68 degree weather in NY  and my cheerful display I am enjoying the break in Winter weather.

Cracker Barrel Christmas Mugs- My husband and I love bears so when I saw these sweet Christmas mugs with a Momma Bear and her two cubs I had to buy us each a new Christmas mug.

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Freebie
Hope you like our first freebie of the new year.  This pretty stitch is called "First Snow" and it is by Drawn Thread.  If you would like to stitch it, you can find the chart here.   It would work great on the dotted linen too 




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It's been great to be back blogging again.  We look forward to visiting with all of you and seeing what you are working on this new year of 2020'.   At the end of the month we will have our "stitcher's choice" post that we hope you will come back to see.  We really appreciate the time you take to visit and leave a comment.  Hope you are staying warm and enjoying great stitching weather.


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August Post/Vacation
Winners announced 
Styling with Stitches
Sal update
Freebies

Summer is nearing an end and I can only hope cooler weather is coming.  Mary has already had some lovely changing weather which is so nice for her hikes.  This has been a busy month for both of us but I think things will be slowing down real soon and we can get back to our regular schedule of posts.

Mary celebrated a fun birthday in August and my husband and I got away for a great anniversary celebration and a college reunion during the month.  Mary has been spending lots of her time at Met games and photography outings and I have been heading to the beach every chance I get.  Hope you all have had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to the fall months ahead too.

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Winners of the Give Away

We are very happy to announce that Arlene at Nanaland has won the box of stitching goodies and Manuela at Manuelas Flowergarden has won her choice of a PDF pattern.  Congratulations ladies!!! 

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Styling with Stitches
This month our theme is vacation and our styling with stitches projects will be about the beach and a national park.


RJ's Yellowstone Project
You probably all know how much I love Yellowstone National Park.  It is one of my very favorite places to visit.   If you would like to see a detailed post about our trip you can find it here.  Just scroll on down to the Yellowstone post.  One of our favorite photos from that trip was a Momma Bear with her little cubs. They were coming out of a brook and we were so lucky to get this photo.

Well for Christmas this year, my son painted me a Momma bear near a brook.  I just loved it and decided I needed to frame it and somehow add a stitch.   Our sweet friend, Robin gave me a good way to attach the stitch to the frame. Her idea was to get hook and eyes, some twine and hang it at the bottom.  Thanks so much Robin...it worked!

Mike's painting at Christmas

First, I framed it with a barnwood frame from Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale.  Then I bought some barnwood planks with a 40% off coupon to attach my Yellowstone stitch.  I decided to do a simple stitch so I didn't take away from Mike's painting.  I thought just stitching the letters in a nice font would work well.   I actually took most of the letters from another pattern I have but had to make up three letters.

I found a great tutorial for framing a canvas painting here.  It is really easy using S brackets.   George drilled holes in the barnwood plank and then we threaded the dark green twine and tied off with knots.  It is then attached to the back of the frame.  I wanted to play around with adding different things to the sides of the stitch but with the hurricane coming I just tacked a small twine bow on the right side for now.

Love the barn wood frame around the  "bear by the brook".

The Yellowstone stitch is hanging from the frame with dark green gardener's twine.     Can you tell which 3 letters I had to make up?    Would you add anything to the sides of the stitch?

Stitch added to Frame

40 ct. vintage mocha linen
Juniper floss by Weeks
Letters from Sweet Southern Home
Border from Santas and Samplers
Barn wood frame from Hobby Lobby 

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 Mary's Beach Project

I chose Wild Salt Air by Hands on Design for my beach project this month.  I thought it would go well with the beach stitches that I completed last summer.  RJ suggested displaying it on an Adirondack chair and I loved that idea.  I was fortunate to find the chair on clearance at Michael's.

I left off the border and I changed the row of waves to an extra row of fish. I love how colorful the floss choices are.  This has been a fun group of charts to stitch that I think you would enjoy too.  Next year, I hope to add the rest of the patterns that came with Wild Salt Air to my beach collection.

Sweet stitch sitting on an Adirondack chair !

Here is the original pattern so you can see the changes I made.

Wild Salt Air
by Hands on Design
called for floss
28 ct. mushroom laguna 1/1
Chair from Michael's

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SAL Update
We have not updated in awhile so we thought we would show you where we are at present.  Meg is taking a little break but will join us next month.  The Schoolhouse series by With Thy Needle and Thread has been a very enjoyable SAL.  The colors were so soft and the designs are so pretty.

RJ's Sal Update
I have the five main stitches done now with all the alphabet completed.  I truly enjoyed this series. My favorites were L to P and R to V.  I still want to add the strawberry to the group.  Now to sew them up!!!

A to F

H to K

L to P

R to V

And W to Z!

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Mary's Sal Update

I have thoroughly enjoyed stitching this series. I have had little stitching time this summer but with shorter days coming I will have more stitching time and am looking forward to completing this series.   I have 4 alphabet patterns completed so far. These are my 2 latest finishes:

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Freebies
We found a set of adorable freebies this month.  If you like the beach as much as we do, you will love this set of three.  They are from The World of Stitches.  You can find the charts here.

Think of the fun you can have using the called for floss or mixing it up with your choice of colors. And, they look like quick stitches too. 

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Thank you so much for coming by to see us today.  We truly appreciate your visits and your kind comments.   You can count on us to come see what you have been up to and what you have been stitching.

Say a prayer that the hurricane goes out to sea before doing too much damage.  The gas stations are already out of gas and the stores are running low on food. 

Next month our theme will be friendship and our posts will center around friends.  Hope to see you then.

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July Post/ Patriotic
Styling with Stitches
Friends Who Stitch


Happy Summer everyone!   We hope you have found ways to stay cool during this heat wave. Luckily, Mary and I have been able to get away a lot this year to cooler spots for vacation stays.   We hope you all have been able to do the same. Due to internet issues, this July post is a bit late but we hope you still enjoy it.  If you have been following us awhile, you know that we do two posts a year with a pinafore and a monthly word play. We each get to do one of each which is a lot of fun. After today, we will have six pinafores and six word plays finished and six of each still to do to complete every month of the year. So we are halfway there!!!

We also have our Friends Who Stitch to share with you.   Both Robin and Marilyn have sent some lovely stitching we know you will love.   This is open to anyone who stitches and does not have a blog.   Just send me an email with a photo and we will get your completed stitch on the next post. 

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RJ's Styling with Stitches

I was so excited when I found out I would be doing the July pinafore this year. I've had a pattern I was saving and really wanted to use.  A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Shepherds Bush.   It is everything you have ever heard and then some. I felt like a child at Disney World as soon as I walked in. You are overwhelmed at first because there is so much to see. There are samples of almost all of their patterns finished and hanging in the store.  It is so well organized into sections with themes.  I quickly went to the patriotic section and found too many kits I really loved. My basket was filled in no time with kits, charts, buttons, linen, rick rack, ribbon and gifts for Mary. Good thing I saved for a year and my generous husband bought two of the bigger kits for our anniversary and my birthday.  Good planning on my part!   

For my patriotic pinafore, I stitched the chart Life, Liberty and Happiness.  I have to admit after I saw all that was involved it sat in it's package for two years!  There were 7 specialty stitches that intimidated me.  But, once I got going there was no stopping me and I loved every minute completing this neat pattern.  And in the process, I learned some new stitches which I'll know how to do the next time.  

To make my pinafore I used  tiny stars, ticking and floral fabrics.   I used the triangle trim on the sides because it reminded me of pennants waving which seemed perfect for our patriotic theme.  I usually add a bow at the top of the stitch but this time I added a floral yo yo with a rusted star button at the bottom.    It also has six different adorable buttons added throughout the stitch.  
        

The kit included the hand dyed linen, silk floss, six buttons, floss holder and even a needle!

Can you find the heart, square, blackbird, bee and flower buttons scattered throughout?

The specialty stitches included a hatch, double hatch, satin, herrringbone, back stitching and a long stitch.   Love the sweet child with the flag.    What a fun stitch! 

Life, Liberty and Happiness Kit
by Shepherds Bush
 dyed linen and silk floss in kit
 six decorative buttons in kit
fabrics from Hobby Lobby
tin star found in Texas

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Mary's Styling with Stitches


 July Word Play by Brenda Gervais was another fun stitch. And to my surprise, it was actually fun to finish. I never thought I would use fun and finish in the same sentence as I am certainly unaccustomed to have the finishing process go easily.  And, certainly not without lots of cussing!!!  

This was the first time I ever made a yo yo.  If you haven't tried your hand at them, I recommend this video.   I also learned that yo yo is an American name for Suffolk puffs. 

Another first was covering a button. Arlene from Nanaland recommended the button maker from Hobby Lobby.  She was so correct on how easy it is to do. 

My husband and I went  to Sew Easy in New Jersey ( great shop)  with stitch in hand to find a coordinating fabric.  I selected a floral and my husband found this orange print that he thought went better. Of course I didn't agree, what do men know about fabric!!! Well, much more than I thought as I had to change my mind when the sweet salesgirl whispered to me that my husbands selection was a better choice for my stitch.

Love the colors in this stitch and the perfect fabric my husband chose

Closeup of the herrringbone stitch.  You can find great tutorials on you tube.

I'm in love with the yo yo and covered button.

July word play
by With thy Needle and Thread
Country mocha linen
called for floss
fabric from Sew Easy
covered button maker from Hobby Lobby

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Friends Who Stitch

We are so happy to have Robin and Marilyn join us again with some of their stitching.  Robin has sent two of her beautiful award winning stitches framed.  And, Marilyn has put together an adorable basket of patriotic stitches.   I know you will enjoy both of these great stitchers.   Thanks so much ladies.   We love your work.


Robin's patriotic stitches 

Penny America
by Tree of Life Samplings
Best in show 2013

Patriotic Patchwork
by Blue Ribbon Designs
Best in Show 2012

Marilyn's patriotic stitches

Basketful of pretty patriotic stitches

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We are so happy you stopped by for a visit.   Next post will include our August Styling with Stitches projects and a SAL update.   Plus the winners of our give away will be announced.  We will be by to see all of you now that the internet problem has been worked out.   Until next time, stay cool and keep stitching! 

Stitching Friends