Peacock Pin Keep - Quintessential Frisian Smalls

The long awaited collaboration by Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery,  Roxy Floss Co and Evertote, is here at last and the main aim is to teach us some finishing techniques, while making five different smalls.

The plan is to stitch and finish one each month, with a break in December, (to accommodate stitching the Christmas Countdown) finishing the final piece in January 2026.

To prepare, I wanted a special project bag to keep everything together, so I asked Pauline from Sew Be Bags to make me a custom one.

 

As always it’s beautiful, thank you Pauline.

Part 1 is a small pin pillow.

The technique for this month was to finish the pillow by whip stitching the edges together and I had no problem, but what did throw me was adding my initials on the back.

I remembered that there was no ‘J’ in the Friesian alphabets, which is my middle initial, and without giving much thought to it I decided to  put an Algerian eye in the centre, leaving a five stitch gap between the other letters, as seen here.

Then I read the chart some more, where Jacob explained that the ‘I’ was often used in place of the ‘J’, so I frogged the Algerian eye and stitched the ‘I’ in its place.  Luckily the spacing between the letters was still even, leaving three stitches each side and with that changed, I fully finished the pin pillow.

That was when I noticed my biggest blunder……..can you see what it is?

Originally I had positioned the Algerian eye at the very centre of the pillow, meaning the ‘I’ also ended up centred, but I hadn’t taken into account was that the ‘S’ and the ‘H’ weren’t the same number of stitches wide and the whole thing is off centre.

Well, it can stay like that because I’m not going to change it now, but it's definitely something to remember for the future.

Still in a 'Red' mood,  I sorted out my project for August Cross Stitch Camp and this months challenge is to stitch something new to us.

I decided to go with a new designer to me, Simone de Jong-van Wissen from Atelier Soed idee.

I purchased 'Simone's Smalls' some time ago but have never got around to stitching any of the charts, so what better time to take the plunge.

I've decided to work on  ‘Simone’s Double Pincushion’ 

and because I love the combination of Blue and Red thread on one of the other designs, I’m going to add a touch of the Blue to this too!

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

 Simone’s Double Pincushion

Designer - Simone de Jong-van Wissen -  Atelier Soed idee

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Porcelain – Roxy Floss Co

Threads – Roxy Floss Co - Poinsettia & Blue Christmas (from 2022 Christmas Countdown)

 

‘Flowers for You’ - Blackbird Designs

 I’m so pleased that I decided to stitch this Blackbird design to commemorate what would have been my mum’s 99^th birthday on the 27^th May, because it turned out so pretty.

I love the subtle colours and the flowers reminded me of her favourite Sweet Peas, although I do realise they are not actually Sweet Peas.

I didn’t uses any of the called for threads on this occasion, because I need to try and use up some of my ever growing thread stash, but I did try to keep to a similar pallet.   The threads I used are listed below.

You will see that I added mums initials and her birthdate along the bottom.  

Update - Just realised, thanks to a kind commenter, that I have the year of her birth wrong.  It should be 1926, so prepare for the frog to arrive!

 Next job, finish it as I little pillow!

Happy Heavenly Birthday Mum 💖 

I'm also extremely excited because I received a very special box all the way Canada over the weekend.  

Can you guess what's in it?

It's the 'Quintessential Frisian Smalls' Sal from Modern Folk Embroidery, with Evertote, and Roxy Floss Co.

We've all seen this beautiful chart, I'm sure, but I'm not going to show your everything else that was in the box because I don't want to spoil the surprise for those that may not have received theirs yet.  What I will say though is that you're not going to be disappointed!

How on earth am I going to be restrained enough to wait until August 1st to start stitching this gorgeousness?

Happy Stitching!

Sue

 x

Flowers for You

Designer – Blackbird Designs

Fabric – 36ct ‘Antique Sampler Collection’ – Nicholas Flamel (Etsy)

Threads –Own Conversion

Weeks Dye Works (Bright Leaf, Jay Bird, Oscar, Sandcastle & Tarragon,) Roxy Floss Co – from Advents 2022 – 24 (Birthstone, Chantilly Cool to Yule & Royalty Free

 

Christmas Blue Ornaments No. 4 – Joan Elliott (12 in 25)

A quick stitch this past weekend and it was my May Christmas Ornament for the 12 in 25 Sal.  

I'm pleased because it was back to, in my opinion, one of the more normal ornaments from the chart ‘Christmas Blue Ornaments’ by  Joan Elliott.   I say 'more normal' because last months ornament was one of the two silhouettes in the collection and I wasn't so keen on it when it finished, but I'm hoping I'll be happier once it's FFO'd.

This months ornament is ‘Let it Snow’

And these are my other four ornaments so far.

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

 

Project Details

Stitch-a-long – 12 in 25 (1 Christmas Ornament each month) hosted by Carol at the  Stitching Dream Blogspot

 

Chart – Blue Christmas Ornaments & Small Christmas Tree 

Designers – Joan Elliott  (Joan Elliott Designs)  &  Jacob de Graaf (Modern Folk Embroidery)

 Threads – DMC 6 strand cotton

Christmas Blue Ornaments – Joan Elliott (12 in 25)

 When I started on this year’s ornaments for the 12 in 2025 sal, I mentioned that I had a plan.  

I’ve joined in with the sal for the last two years but haven’t stitched any ornaments that fit the colour scheme of my tree or room, so they usually go on a small tree in my sewing room.

This was last year’s tree.

This year I’ve decided that things are going to be different and planned to make a set that can go on my main tree for a change!

I always stitch Mill Hill ornaments for my Goddaughters children as part of the sal, which I will be doing again this year, but the other 9 are going to be from Joan Elliott’s chart, ‘Christmas Blue Ornaments chart.

OK, let’s straight off address the elephant in the room……..

My ornament is Gold/Yellow and not blue at all, Lol!

I changed the DMC‘s to 3852, 3854, 19, 3855, 3823 and light gold metallic.  I then added Antique Glass Beads (03021) from Mill Hill to replace the French knots.

For the finishing I used Lady Dot Creates ‘Daffodil’ Velveteen but it was I a little brighter than I wanted, so  I soaked it coffee for a while to dull the colour and edged it with some gold cording.

I used a fat quarter of fabric I had in my stash for the back.

All nine of the ornaments are going to be finished in the same way.

While I had my finishing bits and bobs out, I decided to FFO my January ornament too, which was the Christmas tree from Modern Folk Embroidery.

I kept the finishing on this very simple, just adding some Chenille around the edge and attached some tiny gems to the decorations.

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

Hand Knitted Socks and a Wip Parade of sorts.

I started knitting this pair of socks using the ‘Seeing Stripes’ sock pattern from West Yorkshire Spinners and Rico, Supeba Fair Isle 4 ply, back in February last year and almost made it 

 down to the toe on the first sock.  But because I wasn’t particularly happy with my choice of yarn, I put it to one side and couldn't bring myself to pick it up again.  That feeling didn't go away and lasted for the rest of the year, so it wasn't until I set myself a challenge for January, that I went back and picked them up again.

So what was the big challenge?

I decided that I was going to work on every wip (work in progress) that I have during the month, something I’m able to achieve because I only had 7  brought forward from 2024 and the plan was to put at least one thread  in each of the six cross stitch projects and finally finish the part knitted socks.

I won’t lie, I had to force myself to pull them out, but once I did, I finished the first sock and completely knitted the second sock in just two days.

But can you spot the mistake?

Silly me started the first sock with a 1 x 1 rib and the second sock with a 2 x 2 rib, but fortunately they are for me and there’s no way I’m going to pull one out and re-knit it.

 Moving on to the cross stitch wip’s that I carried over; 

The first thing I pulled out was the ‘Bee Contained Stitching Box' by Betsy Morgan from the Inspirations ‘Helping Hands 2’ book.

I started this in August 2023 and didn’t pick it up at all last year.  I think the 1 over 1 stitching was putting me off but once I got back into it, I really enjoyed working on it and have nearly finished the largest piece of the stitching.

Next, I worked on Log Cabin Christmas from Little House Needleworks, which I started in April last year.  

This is a 9 part piece, so I had a mini new start for this and stitched on part 4 – In The Woods Bear.

The next project was another multi part piece and that was ‘ A Gathering of Samplers’ from the Ackworth Collection, which consists of 12 little Quaker Samplers that go together to make a book.

Again, it involved another new start and that was pages 5 & 6 of the book.  I came very close to a finish on this too.

Sing For Joy from Cottage Garden Samplings was next up

and I had not stitched on it since starting it as part of my 12 in12 New Years Eve starts in December 2023.

Project 6 was another Christmas stitch, ‘Toy Shopee’,  which is a Diamentions Kit.

I started it November 2024 and got to here,

but it’s hard going as anyone who has stitched one of these kits  knows, …….the changes of stitches and number of threads used for those stitches can be a bit confusing sometimes.

None the less, I made some good progress on it.

Last up was ‘My Stitching Box’, another multi part project from Jeanette Douglass.

Again, it involved another mini start for part 2, which was the lid of the box.

If I had to choose a favourite designer, I think hands down it would have to be  Jeanette.  I just love how delicate her designs look  and the subtle colours she uses.

So, it's not been a bad start to the year, but that wasn’t it for January.   I also had 3 other new starts, one of which was the year long stitch-a-long ‘ All Year Round Sal.

Then there was my 12 in 25 Christmas ornament

and my new Chatelaine

and last but not least I had one fully finish, which was the Country Charm Cushion.

I wonder if I can keep the pace up during February…..you’ll have to watch this space!

 

Happy Crafting!

Sue

X

Christmas Tree – Modern Folk Embroidery (12 in 25)

I’m going to join in with the 12 in 25 ornament sal, which Carol from Stitching Dream Blogspot  is kindly hosting again this year.

For my first ornament and incidentally, my first finish of the year, I decided to stitch the little freebie chart that was given

to us by Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery, as part of the Nordic Holiday Countdown last December.

It was stitched on a piece of 18ct white Aida from my scraps,  using Roxy Floss Co thread’ Take A Bough’ from the 2023 Holiday Countdown Box.

 

Talking of sals, I’ve also decided to join in with

the ‘All Year Round’ sal from Cross Stitcher Magazine which  actually started back in September. 

As I’ve only just joined in, I’ve started by stitching January

and then, other stitching permitting,  I’ll work backwards and catch up with the previous months, with the aim of finishing it on time in August.

This is my start of catching up on December.

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

Project Details

Chart -  All Year Round Sal

Designer -  Amanda Butler - Cross Stitcher Magazine

Fabric – 18ct White Aida - Zweigart

Threads – DMC, Anchor and various threads from stash

************

Chart -  Christmas Tree (Free Chart)

Designer -  Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 18ct White Aida - Zweigart

Threads – Roxy Floss Co - from 2023 Holiday Countdown Box