January Week Three
Challenge Week

Are you getting lots of stitching done during this very cold weather?    We have never had such a cold winter in Florida.   And, my dear partner Mary is truly freezing up in New York plus she gets SNOW!    I would love to see some pretty white, fluffy snow fall from the sky.

This month is flying by and both of us feel like we are catching up with all the projects we have scheduled to do.   This week is what we are calling our "Challenges" week.   It will consist of a challenged stitch from last year now finished and our new challenge for this year stitched.   It should be fun to see if we can keep up. 


RJ's Finished Challenge

Remember this Sewing Santa from last year?  It's called Santa please bring me.   

I was going to use the tree fabric but couldn't find it at sewing time so I made a change

Here it is finished into an ornament.  It was fun finishing Santa.   I thought the addition of old buttons, lace and scissors would give him a good sewing look.  I added a bow to the hanger and a button in the middle for a little extra.  I've been closing up my ornaments in the back instead of the bottom the last few months and what a big difference it makes.   It gives it a much neater finish and it is easier to stuff when the opening is in the middle of the back too.   Give it a try...I think you will like it.  

Lace, vintage buttons, a button bow and scissors were added.  I used Wisper thread for his beard!

Closeup of the buttons and charm

Santa please bring me
by Homespun Elegance
Mystery cream 32 ct. linen
Over dyed threads I already had
Vintage buttons and lace

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RJ's New Stitching Challenge

I chose to do the Hometown Holiday series but with a twist.   I'm going to turn them into a French holiday village.   The first one I've stitched is the Florist.   I think I'm going to call it Fleurs for flowers in French. But I left the name on the sign off for now.   I really love these little store fronts.   They are so colorful!  I love that they have awnings and other sweet details.   And each one has a cardinal...that sold them for me.   Stay tuned for more little stores, houses etc. to be added to my little French village.

Some changes were made to make it a smaller size.  I left off the lamp post and another tree.  And for now I didn't stitch the name of the store.   I'm pretty sure it will be Fleurs but I'm leaving my options open for now.

Hometown Holiday
The Florist
by Little House Needleworks
40 ct. vintage country mocha
Over dyed threads

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Mary's finished challenge

North Pole Express by Little House Needleworks was stitched last July for my stitching challenge.

It is finally finished!  I'm always on the hunt for decorative accessories for my stitches and found these cute wired stars in one of the craft stores. I snipped the wire at either end of the star and twisted it to form a button hole of sorts. I threaded my ribbon through the little hole I made out of the wire and sewed the star and ribbon to the pillow ornament.

I used a small amount of Dritz fabric fray on the ends of my ribbon.  You have to use a very small amount, otherwise the ribbon will stain. After several stained ribbons, I put a drop on a toothpick and gently put it on the ribbon. Finally no stain!

   I was very happy that I sewed my rick rack on evenly on my first try! I have sewn rickrack on stitches before but never under the seam. It took tons of pins but I  was pleased with how it turned out.

I put a small amount of Dritz fray check on the ends of the ribbon to keep them from fraying.

North Pole Express
by Little House Needleworks
Linen
Called for over dyed threads

                                                                       
                                                                             
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Mary's New Stitching Challenge

I am a stitching challenge dropout!  My goal was to stitch either a LHN, a Prairie Schooler Barnyard animal or  Hawks Run Christmas.  Time got away from me so I stitched this little freebie from .romyscreations. She has many small stitches on her site.  This was stitched in an evening and I'll make it into a small ornament for my nephew. Next month I hope to organize my time better!!

Here is the free stitch from romyscreations

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We hope you like our new week three feature.  We have not forgotten about old ornaments made new as they will pop up now and then too.  Hope you are keeping warm and getting lots of stitching done.   We love to come to your blogs and see what you are up to.  Thank you once again for visiting us.  We truly appreciate the time it takes to leave a comment.

                                                                 Mary and RJ         



                                           Kindness is like snow-

                                         It beautifies everything it covers.

                                                                  Kahil Gilbran

January Week one and two

Styling with Stitches - Week One
Free Pattern
Grab bag - Week Two
Recipe of the Month

Happy 2018' to all!   Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and are enjoying the new year.  Do you have lots of stitching plans?  We are so excited to be back and can't wait to share our new stitches with you.   

We still will aim to have four weekly posts a month with different themes.  You will find a few changes to the themes and posts on the sidebar.  Another goal is to have two topics to cover each week.  We hope you like the changes and additions.

Well we got a late start this month so we will be putting week one and two together.   So pull up a chair, a cup of coffee and enjoy a  jam packed post!

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Styling with Stitches
Week One

RJ's Journal -  The pattern Sewing Bird by With Thy Needle and Thread was my choice for the journal.   I love to make notes and plans for the blog so I thought the beginning of the new year would be perfect for a sewing journal.   I bought a book from Amazon and then stitched Sewing Bird to add to the front.   I finally made my first flat finish but still need lots of practice!  I added black rick rack around the stitch and a little black bow at the top.   As a little extra, I attached a ribbon to the book to act as a page marker and stitched a scissor charm to it. 

I made some changes to the stitch to make it longer. Where it was suppose to end I made a new design  by putting the top border together with the bottom border.   Then I added some words "Just One Stitch More" under the new design.   I'm always saying that to myself each night because I never want to stop stitching.  I ended it with more so it would rhyme with the 1 2 3 4 in the stitch.  And, then I added the original bottom border.    
  

Adding the black rick rack and bow grounded it 

Closeup of the new stitch and words I added

I pulled the bookmark out so you can see how the scissor charm was added at the bottom

Sewing Bird
by With Thy Needle and Thread
40 ct. flax linen
called for over dyed threads
vintage rick rack and ribbon
scissor charm from Bohemian Findings on Etsy

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Mary's Journal - My journal is for Hudson, my 4 year old grand nephew.  I’m hoping his mother will use it to journal his daily activities.  I stitched the train on 18 count country mocha Aida with 4 threads of assorted DMC for full coverage.   The most difficult part of finishing was trying to evenly place the rick rack, and I didn’t succeed so well at that!  On second thought,  the difficult part was trying to thread the needle with 4 threads!!!

Here is my journal for my sweet grand nephew 

H is for Hudson!

H is for Hudson
18 ct. Country Mocha Aida cloth
DMC threads in primary colors
black rick rack

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Free Pattern for you

Robin sent us this great free stitch that we thought you would really enjoy.   I know it is in our stitching plans.

You can find the chart at glorybeestitch

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Grab Bag Week Two 
Review of Styling with Stitches 17'
Our first grab bag of 18' is to review our Styling with Stitches from our first year of  blogging.  We thought this would give newcomers a way of getting acquainted with Styling with Stitches and a place for our early followers to find them all together. Our goal for Styling with Stitches is to find new ways to use our stitches.  They usually are our bigger projects of the month.   

April was our very first post and we made candle banners.  We were so afraid to hit the publish button that first day!   But we are so glad we did and got to meet so many wonderful people through this blog.   

May was a fun month and we still use these sewing machine covers every day. 





In June we made two cute pin cushions.   One in a tart tin and another on a wooden stand.





July was our patriotic month.   We made two projects - a flower bag and a paper weight.





August was our first pillow pinafore and word play combo.   You will see two of these each year.





September was our gift month.   We made a set of seasonal birds and a really pretty sewing set.




In October we made two projects.   One was a stand to hold a stitch waiting to be finished and the other a cloche tag. 





November was our fall month and we made two Fanci That angel hangings.





In December we ended our first year with our second pillow pinafore and word play combo.




It was a fun first year and we look forward to many more with all of you.

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Recipe of the Month

This is a new feature we will be adding every second post of the month.   We will share our favorite recipes and hope you will enjoy them.

Mary's Butternut Squash Chili:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large or 2 small jalepeno seeded and chopped

¼ cup tomato paste

3 large plum tomatoes, chopped (In off season, I substitute Hunts petite tomatoes)

1 cup apple cider

1 cup water

1 tsp cumin

3 Tablespoons chili powder (I start with 1 T and add more to taste)

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into one inch cubes

3 cups black beans (I use three 15 oz cans drained)

¼ cup cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread butternut squash cubes on lightly oiled cookie sheet. Bake 12 mins or till tender to touch, remove and set aside.

Heat oil in large pot, add paste, garlic, jalepenos, cover and cook for 5 mins. Add beans, tomatoes, apple cider, water, spices and squash. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer till squash is very tender, about 20 mins. Add beans and simmer uncovered for additional 20 mins. Garnish with cilantro.

I prebake squash in microwave for a few minutes to make cutting easier.  I don’t add jalapeno as my husband does not like “hot” food. It’s good with and without jalapeno. I have even served this cold as a dip with tortilla chips.  

I am fortunate to have a local farm stand that sells the squash for 1$ each and load up on it in the fall. Squash stores very well in a cool spot. This is a healthy recipe to start off the New Year!! 

                   

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Thank you so much for your visit.   We really appreciate each and every one of you.  Next week will be our new "challenges" post.   Until then, we hope you get the time to do lots of stitching. 

                                                       RJ and Mary


                  Snowmen fall from heaven one flake at a time
                                                             unknown author

December Week Two
Something New
Freebie

The excitement of the holidays is in the air.   It is getting colder everywhere and you might even have snow!    Are you ready for the holidays or are you behind like Mary and me?  Every year we plan to have everything done ahead of time but somehow it never works.  
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Something New:   This is when we make a new stitch to share.   We usually turn it into an ornament or a framed stitch.   Next year we will be adding some new ideas to week four.  

RJ's Something New:  I chose the pattern Kringle's Crow by Threadwork Primitives to make a new Christmas ornament.  It is such a sweet little stitch with a cute blackbird sitting on Santa's hat wishing everyone a happy holiday.   I used a pretty black fabric with holly on it. Moss green rick rack is added between the stitch and the fabric.  He has a little red collar with a tiny jingle bell.   More tiny jingle bells are added to a red and black check bow at the top.  This was a quick and fun stitch!  

My Christmas stitch!

I love how the variegated threads change colors in this stitch

Closeup of this pretty blackbird dressed for the holidays

Kringle's Crow
by Threadwork Primitives
40 ct. flax Newcastle linen
variegated threads that I had
tiny bells from the charm section of Hobby Lobby

                                                                                                                                                            

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Mary's Something New: I chose Snowy Pines from the "All Dolled Up" series by Little House Needleworks.   This is yet another stitch from this sweet ornament group.  I just had to stitch this because of my fondness for bears.    I used black rick rack to emphasize the little black bear.   I also added a black ribbon bow and a pretty snowflake charm.

My Christmas stitch!

So beary sweet!

Closeup of the snowflake charm

Snowy Pines
by Little House Needleworks
30 ct. linen
called for threads

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Free Pattern:
Here is our Christmas gift to you.    It is a beautiful cardinal stitch called Blue Christmas from New York Dreamers Needleworks. Isn't it pretty and would stitch up fairly quick too.   Enjoy!!!  

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Thank you all so much for stopping by to see us.   We love your visits and appreciate your comments so much.   Next week will be our grab bag week and we will be showing you some holiday decorating from our homes.   Hope to see you then.
                                                             Mary and RJ


             "Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone"
                                                        Charles Schultz
                              

December Week One
Styling with Stitches
Welcome

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  We are all busy shopping, baking and planning for the holidays.  But, this time of the year is also a season of Hope which is so important to many of us. May the holidays be blessed and special to all. 
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Welcome
We would like to welcome Meg who is a cross stitcher with a new blog named
Live to Stitch to the stitching community.    She is a lovely lady with a really nice blog with great stitches to view.   Please go over and say hello and enjoy her great photos.  
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Styling with Stitches
It's time for our second pillow pinafore and word play combo.   Mary made an adorable Christmas pinafore and I made the December word play.  We are excited to show you our first Christmas cross stitch projects.   They are fun to make and we hope you will give them a try too.   


RJ's Word Play
I've stitched the December word play by Brenda Gervais.   I wanted to make it a little different than just sewing it together.  There are a lot of trees on this stitch so I added a lot of tree elements to the finish.  I sewed a strip of tree fabric under the stitch and added a wool tree applique with a small jingle bell. In between the stitch and the fabric, I added some green cotton ric rac and stitched some rust bells on the bottom.  Green silk ribbon with a tree charm on the left side is used for the hanger.

This was one of the quicker word plays and a joy to stitch!   Except for the called for linen which I hated.   It came wrinkled and no matter how much I pressed it...it stayed that way.   If I made them again I would use a different linen.  

It is a rainy and very gloomy day so I took a lot of closeups of parts of the word play so you can see it.    I wish I got better photos today.    

December word play hanging on a bookcase

Closeup of top

Closeup of bottom with ric rac, rusty jingle bells and applique

Closeup of tree applique with a running stitch.  I think my trunk is kinda wide...need to fix that.

Closeup of tree charm attached to bow.  It is from Boheminan Findings on Etsy.

December Word Play
by With thy Needle and Thread
35 ct Abecedarian linen
called for overdyed threads
bells from Amazon
charm from Etsy

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Mary's Pinafore

For my first pinafore project, I stitched Letters for Santa by Brenda Gervais.  I wanted to finish the stitch a bit differently than as shown on the pattern.  So, I did not dye the linen or ticking as suggested because I wanted a more colorful pillow for my Christmas Decor. I sewed up a quick envelope pillow cover in ticking and then made my pinafore out of a red burlap runner.  I really scored buying the runner for only $2 in an after Christmas sale at Michaels.   I layered the stitch with a check fabric I had on hand and added  the pompoms as trim.  I used snowflake buttons on the back from my stash.  The burlap is held together by small Velcro ovals made for fabric.  

This pinafore easily stores away and lets me use my pillow for another project. My festive Christmas pillow makes me very happy!

Here it is...my first pinafore!

It will make it's home on my LR sofa

It attaches in the back with Velcro 

I used snowflake buttons for decoration on the back of the pinafore

Letters from Santa
by With Thy Needle and Thread
22 ct. Ariosa linen two over two
called for overdyed threads
pom pom fringe from my stash

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Hope you all enjoyed the pinafore and word play combo.  Next week we will be showing our new Christmas ornaments for this year.   We really appreciate you coming by to see us and taking the time to leave a comment especially during this busy time of the year.     Happy Stitching!           RJ and Mary

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

Charles Dickens