FFO Frenzy

During my last post I said that my sewing machine was coming out and that I would be ffo’ing some of my finishes over that weekend. 

Well that didn’t happen for one reason or another and since then I’ve had some more new starts and finishes, so yesterday I eventually pulled out everything I needed and got stuck in at long last.

First off, I did the quick and easy finish of the Mill Hill Ornament ‘Angel with Lantern’,  by  making a beaded hanger with the left over beads and then covering the back with some sticky backed velvet.

The next ffo was also a simple one because it was going into a frame that I’m going to change out each season. 

That was ‘Floral Etchings 2’ from Heart in Hand. 

It involved lacing three flat pieces.

And they have been put into this frame for the Summer season.

This was Spring (Floral Etchings)

The third thing I had waiting to be ffo’ed was ‘Patterned Pretties’ by Jeanette Douglas, which was a Christmas gift from Stasi, over at Bee-mused and Bee-stitching.

It was a kit which came with the wool backing fabric, and I added some cream cotton lace around the edges.

Then, I as I was looking through my bits and bobs from my scrapbooking days, I came across a little oval frame that I thought might look ok on the back, with my stitched initial in it.

Then it was onto the three finished panels of ‘ Beach Rules’ from Primrose Cottage,.

Beach Rules

Soak Up The Sun

And 'Ride the Waves' which I had just started and mentioned in my last post.

With four more panels to stitch, last night I finished another new start, ‘Build Sandcastles’, so that's already in the pile to ffo with the next batch!

Here’s my little display so far

My final new start and ffo was my Cross Stitch Camp piece for JUne, ‘A Stitch for all Seasons’ from the summer 2026 edition of Just Cross Stitch.

Originally I was thinking I would make all four panels into pillows and I may still do that with the other three but when it came to the Summer panel, I decided to make a thread bed.

I still have to stitch this year’s camp badge and will be doing that with the same threads that I used for my June project, so until next time…

Happy Stitching!

Sue x

April Round-Up!

 April just flew by, but I still managed to have a productive month of stitching. 

My stats show I stitched on 6 projects in all, working on 3 wips and 3 new starts and I ended up with 4 finishes and 2 FFO's.

The 3 wips were :-

Bluebird of Happiness - Cottage Garden Samplings

'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' Historische Stickmuster

and 'Patterned Pretties' - Jeannette Douglass Design.

This one ended up being one of my 4 finishes and will be fully finished into a pin pillow. 

The  3 new starts, brought the total of finishes to 4 for the month.

Four Calling Birds from Bothy Threads   '12 Days of Christmas'.

I love how this piece is coming together!

Quick Quaker Sal from Modern Folk Embroidery.

Jacob designed this chart to celebrate his 15 year anniversary of working with Caroline from Evertote and Kerri from Roxy Floss Co.

The final new start was 'Floral Etchings' from Heart in Hand, which you will see I have stitched as individual panels instead of all as one piece.

The reason for this was that around  7 years ago I purchased a large mirror for my hallway and they had this picture frame matched it. 

Ever since I've been on the lookout for the perfect design and I struck lucky when I came across Floral Etchings.  I purchased all four designs, with the intension of swapping them out each season.

At first I was going the stitch the chart as is and  discard the photo mount,  but in the end I decided to stitch them individually as you see above, which also saved wasting a lot of the linen and then  mounted them behind each of the apertures. 

 My final FFO was the month long 'Quick Quaker Sal' from Modern Folk Embroidery which I popped into a custom made from Picture Frames Express.

Plans for May might well change because I tend to be spontaneous with my stitching, but I'm going to try the May phenomenon that is known as 'Mania'.  

Stitchers perceive this in many different ways, from new starts every day, only work on wips, or focus on finishing,  but I'm going to try and have a new start on every weekend during the month, meaning a total of 5, although at the moment I have no idea which charts I 'll pick up.

As well as that, I still plan to do my 25th & 26th Christmas stitching as usual, and finish the next '12 days of Christmas' panel which will be '5 Gold Rings'.

So that's it for now...........I hear my needle calling, Lol.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x 

 

Bluebird of Happiness

Designer – Cottage Garden Samplings

Fabric – 36ct Powder Puff – Roxy Floss Co / Evertote

Threads –  Weeks Dye Works

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Designed – Historische Stickmuster

Fabric – 32ct unbleached Linen

Threads – Soie d’Alge silks

Patterned Pretties #4 - Kit
Designer – Jeannette Douglas Design
Fabric – 36ct Mystery Linen
Threads –NPI & ColorWorks Silks 

12 Days of Christmas

Designed – Bothy Threads - Kit

Fabric – 14ct Zweigart Aida - White

Threads – Standard Cotton, Pearl Cotton and Gold Thread

Quick Quaker

Design by  – Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 32ct ‘Dune’ Hand Dyed Linen from Chromatic Alchemy

Threads – Hand Dyed Cotton from Roxy Floss Co

Frame - Express Picture Frames

Floral Etchings

Design by  – Heart in Hand

Fabric – 28ct 'Inca' - Fox & Rabit

Threads – Own Conversion - Roxy Floss Co, Anchor & DMC.

Frosty Tiny Town – Heart in Hand

My ‘Winter’ stitching continues and I have finished stitching another of the Tiny Town series from Heart in Hand.

Given the weather we are having at the moment and all the flooding, it might have been better if I were stitching ‘Soggy, Wet Tiny Town, Lol, but this one is ‘Frosty Tiny Town.

To give the snow a bit of a sparkle, I used some Madeira Glissen Gloss with the white thread.

Despite planning to finishing all of my Tiny Towns in the same way, so I can switch them out on the board from Paisleys and Polka Dots , I’m not sure about this one. 

It’s painted a creamy colour not white, so I don’t think 'Frosty' would look right, so I’m debating whether to ffo it as a drum instead.  I love the way it looks on the cover photo, so we shall have to see.

In the meantime, I’ve started another winter stitch on the same piece for fabric, using the same threads as before.

 It’s going to look totally different from the original because it should have been a chalkboard effect.

This is ‘Chalktalk – Let’s Talk Winter’ from Hands On design.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

 

Chart – Frosty Tiny Town

Designer – Heart in Hand

Fabric – 36ct Mystery Linen - Grey

Threads -  Classic Colorworks, Weeks Dye Works & DMC with some substitutes

 

 

Chart –  Chalktalk - Let’s Talk Winter

Designer – Hands On Design

Fabric – 36ct Mystery Linen - Grey

Threads -  Classic Colorworks, Weeks Dye Works (My colour conversion)

Part 2 - ‘Hindeloopen Strawberry – ‘Quintessential Frisian Smalls’ Sal

 The final part of the sal is FFO’d  and if I’m honest, I did find this piece a little challenging in the finishing of it.

I want to give a shout out to  Jacob, Caroline and Kerri, for this collaboration between Modern Folk Embroidery, Evertote,  and Roxy Floss Co, and say a big thank you for the five wonderful projects that we started stitching back in August last year.

Here’s a quick reminder.

In August we started with the Peacock Pin Pillow

September we stitched a Scissor Fob

In October we started the first of three items that were a little more tricky to finish, starting with a Biscornu.

November was the Hindeloopen Pinwheel

And finally, after a break in December for the Christmas Countdown, we stitched the Hindeloopen Strawberry in January, bringing the collection to an end.

I've also managed to sneek in one last new start before the end of the month and because I've decided to still stitch 'Winter' during February, I made a start on 'Frosty Tiny Town' from Heart in Hand.

I'm trying to stitch from stash as much as I can this year, so I found a piece of 36ct Grey mystery linen and pulled as many of the called for threads that had, but still had to make a few substitutions which are listed below.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

X

Quintessential Frisian Smalls Sal

Designed – Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 36ct Linen -   Porcelain – Roxy Floss Co/Evertote

Threads – Roxy Floss Co – Falu Red (hand-overdyed cotton)

Frosty Tiny Town

Designed - Heart in Hand

Fabric - 36ct Grey mystery linen

Threads - Called for Weeks Dye Works & Classic Colorworks

Substitutes - CCW - Classic Colorworks,   WDW - Weeks Dye Works, RFC - Roxy Floss Co.

CCW Chesapeake Bay to RFC Slate

CCW Eves Leaves to CCW Weeping Willow

CCW Thundercloud to CCW Barrel Cactus

WDW Hunter to WDW Blue Spruce

WDW Sun Dried to CCW Cherry Cobbler