This month marks the one-year anniversary of when I really got serious about this stitching stuff. Since then I've finished cross stitch pieces and surface embroideries into things like wall-hangings, pillows, ornaments, and little table mats with plain or drawn-thread hems. (I also picked up sewing, thanks to stitching a pillow by hand, and now have three vintage sewing machines, a serger, and have made tops, a dress, an apron, and a jacket.) Up until now I've always worked with one of Krista's kits, but I thought it was appropriate this month to start a project that I kitted up myself. So I ordered some of Krista's windowpane fabric, downloaded the free scrolled leaves pattern, and ordered some DMC floss from the Mediterranean palette listed on this forum. I decided I wanted a pillow instead of a table runner, so I cut my fabric into a 4 by 4 square and serged the edges myself. I ended up deciding to make scrolled leaves using DMC 924 and 832. I started stitching on the project a couple days ago, and just now finished up the first motif. Now I just have to do it again 15 times and I'll have a pillow! I'm happy with how the colors look together, and am enjoying the meditative quality of the pattern. No, I didn't get my first motif perfectly centered, but I decided to go with the imperfection, and try to count better the next time. I'm so grateful to have found Krista's patterns and this community. Stitching and sewing have brought such richness to my life this past year. The windowpane fabric is interesting to stitch on. As I mentioned, I had some trouble counting on it at first, but eventually found stitching is actually a little easier with it because the drawn thread work tends to bundle certain threads together, making it easier for me to see the grid. I just get confused at the edges about what it part of the drawn thread work, and what is part of the grid. On the whole though, I love this fabric, and am pleased I have another 4 by 4 serged square of it ready for another pillow project someday.

I think I would have this lovely done if I hadn't paused work on it for some Christmas present stitching. Not that I regret that of course. The end is definitely in sight and I've had such fun working on it. Can't wait to have it in cushion form on my favorite chair. My son is looking forward to this too because I've promised my next surface embroidery will be a cushion for him.

Inspired by another poster who stitched this up in a day, I decided to make this for my husband for Christmas. I put the unfinished piece in his stocking and then today I finished it into a wall hanging for him. Ultimately it will hang in his home office. This is my first time finishing a piece into a wall hanging and I'm so pleased with how it came out.

Look what I finished before 7:00 this morning! As lovely as it looks on our tree, I plan to mail it to my aunt next week. She was raised in the Serbian Orthodox Church and I think she'll really appreciate this. I loved the finishing technique of lining the back, and plan to use the method to make some animal ornaments... probably for next Christmas!

I'm working on finishing up a gift today, and my stitching buddy climbed up to participate. She didn't make it any easier, but I didn't have the heart to send her on her way.

This isn't stitching related, but sewing related. I feel like sharing it here because my sewing hobby grew very naturally from starting stitching, thanks to being inspired by the projects here at Avlea. (I was finishing a pillow by hand and thought, "What if I had and learned to use a sewing machine...?") The weather has gotten chilly here in New Mexico, so I've started a new sewing project -- making an open jacket/cardigan. It is going to be made of heavyweight hot pink linen and the seams will be bound inside with bias tape. I've never used bias tape before, so this is the new thing I'm learning about with this project. This week has been stressful, for reasons I won't go into. Just know that this morning I was feeling very frazzled and out of sorts. I decided to treat myself today by letting myself just work on my new sewing project. And then I decided to try my hand at making my own bias tape. And that's what I did. For around 5 hours, I cut strips of fabric at a 45 degree angle from a length of quilting cotton. At the end of that time, I had the pile of cloth strips that you see in the photo. I'm laughing at myself, because this seems like such a funny way to spend 5 hours of my day. But I'm also feeling relaxed and mellowed out in a way I recognize from stitching. Cutting fabric for bias tape is meditative, much like stitching a repeating pattern. I think stitching helped me to learn what that meditative state feels like, and so it is becoming easier to find other meditative practices. Today, that was cutting fabric up into little strips.

I finished Grecian Griffins this morning. I was looking at the Avlea website one day, as I'm prone to do, and my husband saw this kit over my shoulder and said, "I wouldn't mind if you did that one!" So of course I used that as an excuse to place another order. I had taken a break from surface embroidery for a while, and it was nice to get back to it. I enjoyed stitching this a lot and it seemed to work up fast. I have no idea if that's because it is a more beginner design than I've done before or if that's because I got faster in my work. Either way, I was pleased with how quickly it went. Especially since I was hoping to clear the decks because I've been itching to get started on Krista's new cushion surface embroidery kit. You know as soon as it hits the website, I will be ordering that one. In the meantime, I'm very happy with this piece. And my husband is thrilled and says he knows exactly where he'll hang it in the office. I'm just waiting for the frame I ordered to be delivered.

I don't think I've shared Dianthia on this forum before. I'm working on a big project right now, Evangeline, but I've also had this BitKit going on as my portable project. This morning, I tackled learning how to do a drawn-thread hem for the first time. I'd hemmed another BitKit before, but that time I just did a plain hem. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and it was such an interesting morning of learning a new skill. I of course used Krista's very helpful video to teach me how to do the hem. At first, no matter how I tried to emulate her technique, I wasn't getting the same results. The three little bars of threads weren't bundling up as tightly as they do for her. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong, but I ended up slightly modifying her technique and that resulted in the tight little bundles that I was looking for. Basically, I wrapped each bar of three threads two times, instead of just once. I love the effect, and look forward to trying a drawn-thread hem again in the future.

My progress on Evangeline is slow, but I think will be picking up soon, as the onset of fall is making me feel the stitching bug even more. I've been using a slightly different technique on this upper corner, mostly meaning I generally have several colors going at the same time, and I dare say it is leading to fewer counting errors. It feels good to be making progress with my stitching skills! The flower burst on the lower corner is rife with little errors that I decided to live with. I have some hope that the upper flower burst will be more like the chart intended.

Here is the current status of my Evangeline Border project. My project has been slowed by having to frog and restitch a significant section, and also by my new sewing hobby, which does take time away from my stitching. But I've decided that this weekend I'm going to take a deep-dive into this project and see how much progress I can make. I'll post a new picture on Sunday to show how far I was able to get. And, yes, I'm trying working with more than one color at a time, a new thing for me. Fun!

I hope it is okay to share this project, as it isn't cross stitch or surface embroidery. It was, however, inspired by a couple of Krista's patterns and tutorials here on this website, so I thought people might be interested. As a direct result of this stitching hobby, I ended up getting myself a vintage Singer sewing machine a couple weeks ago. I hand stitched my Baltic scroll pillow together, and started daydreaming about how quickly the project could have been completed with a sewing machine. The next thing I knew, I had fallen in love with a vintage Singer Featherweight sold by a local fabric shop. I loved the beauty of the machine, and the fact that it still worked and was made in 1941. A couple sewist friends told me that they did all their sewing on such a machine, and that convinced me -- I bought it. Since then, I've been teaching myself how to use it. I started with making a tiny tote bag using Krista's pattern for the Posy Mini Tote. Then I spent a LOT of time researching sewing on the internet. I watched at least 15 different bag making tutorials on YouTube. I branched out to websites and tutorials about garment making. I've even chosen a pattern to use to make myself a top. But first I thought I'd better do some more smaller projects to get better at the basics. I decided to make a drawstring bag this time and I didn't use any of the tutorials I saw on YouTube. Instead, I was inspired by Krista's method for making a tote bag and by her tutorial for turning a cross stitch into a wall hanging. Using these two methods, and also by examining a draw string bag I've been using as a project bag, I came up with a way to make a pretty easy full-lined drawstring bag. It took me 2.5 hours in all, including time picking out a seam sewn on the wrong side, and time taking apart my sewing machine to find and fix a thread jam. I resolved to try to enjoy the whole process and not to rush through anything. And I ended up with a successful bag! I enjoyed every minute of it, too. It may well become my new project bag.

Believe it or not this project came to me in a dream about three months ago. I dreamed vividly that I was stitching up the Evangeline border and that inside it I stitched my and my husband’s names and the date of our wedding anniversary. Our 20 th wedding anniversary is this coming July and I was making the embroidery to celebrate that. I woke up and immediately knew the project was beyond my skill level. But it stayed in my mind and recently I decided my skills had improved enough that I could give it a try. The anniversary is at the end of next month and there is no way I’ll have the project done by then. But I’m going to work hard on it and try to at least have made significant progress by then. So far as you can see I’ve only worked on the outer border. I’ve ordered a pattern holder for my stand and once it arrives I’ll start working on the more complicated flowers inside. Truthfully I’m a little intimidated by the project, but I’m also excited by it. This morning I stitched out on my shaded patio for 2.5 hours. Patio stitching is my favorite and it was such a great way to spend a morning.