Saturday Stitches

Stitcher's Resolution

Saturday Stitches

Stitcher's Resolution

Our December

Winter skies and healing bodies; decorating, music lessons, and a birthday; cozy fires; fog and rain and snow; Christmas shows and lights; a candlelight service and celebrating with cousins... it has been a lovely, full month.

We are now almost giddy at the end of every day as we notice the lengthening hours of sunlight.

I'm caught up now on the long backlog of photos to share with you. December is a dark month, so it wasn't too hard to narrow down the photos that were the least grainy, and get them all fit into one post. I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season... now breathe deeply and take a day or two to rest.

Winter Sky :: Healing :: Rainbow :: Trimming the Tree :: Not Quite a Duet Yet :: Nine Years Old :: Hi I'm Olaf and I Like Warm Hugs :: Warming Our Toes :: Crabapple :: A Smile at the End of a Busy Day :: When the Christmas Tree Stands in my Stitching Lamp Spot :: Raindrops :: Festive :: Foggy :: Mossy :: Apparently I wasn't Supposed to Take This Picture :: Out Seeing the Lights :: Love Has Come :: Shining Through the Snow :: Outside Inside :: Candlelit Christmas Eve :: Ready :: Joy :: My New Bass-Guitar-String Necklace :: Afterward :: Cousins :: Remembering :: Cold :: Sparkly

*NEW* Stitcher's Resolution

You all tickle my sense of humor with your stories of way too much plunder hidden away in your baskets and closets. Every year, you make resolutions to only stitch from your own stash and go on a buying diet. Yet every year, it seems I sell more patterns, so that must mean that some of you are breaking your resolutions. My conclusion is to be a smarty pants and make a sampler that has the resolutions we would all prefer to keep!

Based on a “Rules for Quilting” list that I found on the internet, this sampler is customized for cross-stitchers and reads:

1. When in doubt always buy more linen and thread
2. Stitch all day and absolutely no housework allowed
3. Always start a new project before the last is finished requiring a return to number 1

And there you have it. If not a set of resolutions you plan to keep in reality, at least it would be fun to laugh and dream about it!

Stitch Count: 171 x 139
Model stitched on R&R 35ct. Classic Homespun
with one thread over two strands of linen.

Using threads from The Gentle Art: 1191 Brown Bear, 7041 Apple Cider

And from Classic Colorworks: Little House Brown, Onion Skin, Used Brick, Wilderness

The lovely frame is an antique.

This design is now available in my etsy shop, and will be going out to my distributors and the shops on my automatic shipments list soon. If you prefer to bypass etsy and order directly through me, you can send me an email: beth@heartstringsamplery.com

Coming Soon...

Are you ready for 2015? I sure am!

I have two fun and/or exciting things coming next year.

First, I made up a small batch of these:

If you all like them, I'll add them as a staple item to my shop as long as I continue to find good mugs to transform. The quotes are individually hand-drawn by me on thrifted mugs. I'm so happy with how they turned out! I have an arsenal of stitcher-friendly quotes that I want to use. I meant to offer them for Christmas, but November was rocky around here and I didn't get them done in time. Something to look forward to in the New Year!

The really, REALLY exciting news that I keep pinching myself about is that Ann and Pat of Dyeing to Stitch have invited me to design for their Ladies' Prim Society 2015 Club. I'm thrilled to be paired with Blackbird Designs, each of us contributing 2-3 designs for the year. Nothing like a little pressure, creating next to the likes of Barb and Alma, and this being my very first time contributing to a club! I'm up first with a Valentine-y offering that I hope everyone loves.  You can find details here.

And finally, I have one last design for 2014 that I'm going to release the Monday after Christmas if all goes as planned. It is called "Stitcher's Resolution" and I think its a must-have for every stitching corner around the world. I put in the final stitches last night, and got the frame cut to size today. Now its just a matter of getting her framed, photographed, and the cover design finished.