Stitching Friends Forever

January Week Four

Something New
SAL Progress
Review of week four ornaments of 2017'

It's hard to believe that it is the last day of January already.  This month just flew by for us.  We hate to admit it but we just put our Christmas decorations away this week!   We squeezed in our posts on the very last day of the month!  

Week fours are usually a new smaller stitch that we turn into an ornament or a bowl filler but this year we have some new ideas we will be sharing too.   We are starting the year with snowmen ornaments to follow our January theme.   We also have a new feature to share...a SAL.   And, we have a review of our week four projects from last year.   Enjoy!


                                                                          ⛄⛄⛄


Something New
RJ's New Ornament

Snow Love by Country Cottages was the choice for my January ornament.   I've been wanting to stitch on the dotted fabric for some time and this chart seemed well suited to go with it.  The only problem is when you have to stitch through a dot because they are painted on and it is hard to go through them.  I used a deep red fabric with tiny hearts the color of the linen.  Mary found this pretty fabric at a quilt show.   I wish we had tons more of it.   Tiny pom pom fringe was added to the middle to resemble snowballs and a heart button was stitched between the snow couple.  I finished it at the top with a bow and a small heart charm that says made with love.

Sitting in the greenhouse with snow couple and trees

Pom pom fringe, red heart button and heart charm were added.  

Closeup of charm "Made with Love"

 Snow Love
by Country Cottage Needleworks
32 ct. raw/white petit point linen
over dyed threads I had
pom pom fringe from Hobby Lobby
charm from Joann Fabrics

                                                                          ⛄⛄⛄

Mary's New Ornament

January 1st and I had nothing stitched for our new ornament.  So, you can imagine how pleased I was to find this adorable Snowman on Martina's blog on January 1 st!! A great start to the New Year! 

He stitched up quickly.  I made a few small changes to the color scheme and  the shape of the snowflakes.   Pretty trim was added between the stitch and the fabric.  A bow with a snowflake charm was added to the finish.    You can find the pattern here.

Thank you Martina for your lovely design and sharing your talents with us! 

The colors read true.  Photo was taken in daylight

Close up of charm taken in artificial lighting

Pattern by Martina
Assorted DMC and Gentle Arts threads
  28 count raw cashel linen by Zweigert
charm from Bohemian Findings on etsy

                                                                   ⛄⛄⛄     


SAL 

Mary and I buy all our patterns together and then we decide who will stitch what for the blog.   We always know which one the other one really wants and we always say you do that one.   But one pattern popped up on blogs towards the end of last year that each of us really LOVED.   We both were willing to let the other one make it for the blog but deep down we both really wanted to stitch it.   So we said lets do a SAL.   We have enjoyed watching Martina, Manuela and Jutta do SALS together and thought it looked like fun. 

We received our patterns late in the month so we have only been stitching for 10 days so far.  The first two days we did only 30 minutes but then we decided to move it up to one hour daily.  

We have rules we follow.   We  can only stitch one hour a day but we don't have to count ripping out or putting the part we ripped out back in.  And time does not start until the threaded needle hits the linen.  If we miss a day we can stitch two hours the next day.

And to make it more fun, Mary started hers from the bottom of the chart and I started mine from the top.   Now see if you can guess which pattern we are stitching???



RJ's SAL

 Mary's SAL

                                                                       ⛄⛄⛄


Review of week four ornaments from 2017'

We showed you a review of our bigger projects for last year in week one.  So, we thought we would do a review of all of our smaller week four stitches this week. We will continue to do stitches like this in 18' but we have some new projects planned along with our new SAL.  

April bunnies
     

  

May garden





June birds and bees




July patriotic 






August sunflowers





September friendship

October and fall




November thanks




December "Christmas"




                                                          ⛄⛄⛄


Hope you have enjoyed seeing our new January ornaments and watching progress on our brand new SAL.  We look forward to your visit next week for our latest "Styling with Stitches."   The time you take to visit is much appreciated and we always enjoy reading your comments. 

                                                                        RJ & Mary 

 “Snowflakes are one of natures most fragile things, but look at what they can do when they stick together.”   

                                                     unknown author