Slow Sunday Stitching - May 17, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #3 Slot #4 (Pictorial) Changeover

Well, we made it through my grandson's sophomore year of high school!  His semester grades were decent - 3 As and 3 Bs (one a B+).   I'll take it.  The summer has started as of noon on Friday LOL.

Then Saturday, there was the third annual Toadstrangler 5K.  Both the grandkids ran it this year.  Carl's times were not great - his allergies are really acting up this spring (mine, too.)  But Alexis was on about the same pace as her cross-country track times from her junior high team.  She's trying to stay in training.  There's a bit of a rivalry going on there, and Alexis was crowing that she'd beat her big brother while said big brother complained that it shouldn't count since he had to walk while he was getting puffs from his asthma inhaler.  Which is fair.

So this week didn't see all that much stitching.  I did restart the rotation for Rotation #4 of 2026.  The needlepoint piece has come out, but first. a report on the pictorial.  My goal is to work on this for at least 110 stitches every day - sometimes I get in quite a bit more.  "Santa of the Forest" by Lavendar and Lace.  32 count two strands of DMC over two threads.  I put in 6,764 stitches during Rotation #3.  That brings me to a project total of 8,103 of approximately 34,700 stitches or 23.35%.   Didn't quite make it to my goal of 25%, but it's close.  I even finished 5 colors in the flesh tones of the face - and there are a couple more pinks / tans that just have one or two stitches in the animals.

Where the rotation started for comparison:

I am down to Row 90 in the beard and Row 100 on the shoulders.  Even though I started out using my typewriter method like I used on the dragon, this project has more 'swathes' of color, so the reds got ahead of the whites.  I'm continuing to put in a length of white each day, but I think I'll tackle the owl before I do too much more on the robes.   I'll need to roll the fabric upwards once I finish the beard, and I don't want the owl to get out of reach.  Besides, you can already see where the bear cub will be - his ears are the void area on the right side of Santa's beard, and I'd like to get one animal finished before I start on the next one.  I'll post a picture at the end of the month.  I'd like to have the beard fill-in done by then and a good chunk of the owl.

Linking up with the SSS crew (this week's roundup). 

Slow Sunday Stitching - May 10, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #3 Slot #3 (Historic) Changeover

Got the rest of the ten hours in on the Blackbird Designs "It's Berry Time".  I finished up the top alphabet border, and I got the strawberry border in on the left side.  The berry border is how high this piece is; it's a short but wide piece, which is why I decided to scale it down to a drum sized finish by stitching it one over one on 30 count linen.   I also finished about half of the foliage/flowers in the first of the three baskets.  One thing I am changing is putting Smyrna Cross instead of eyelets in the flowers.  Eyelets only look good if you pull them a bit and open up the center.  You can't really do that when you scale them down from a 4 x 4 thread to a 2 x 2 thread size - there's simply no room for threads to move, instead the working floss starts slipping under the ground threads and it turns into a real mess.   

I also put in just over 1,000 stitches on "Santa of the Forest" by Lavendar and Lace, which brings that one to 20.7%.   I will keep working on it for the next few days.  Planning to kick off the next rotation on Friday, May 15, so I will take an end of rotation photo then and post the total stats for the rotation.

It's finals week, so I probably won't get a lot of crafting time this week, but I would love to get Santa to 25%.  We'll see.   Linking up with the SSS crew (weekly round up here).

Slow Sunday Stitching - May 3, 2026

Busy week with quite a bit of yard work, but not as much stitching as some weeks.  Following up from last week, I got the Shepherd's Bush "Violet Needleroll" FFO'd.  The post is here.

I got about a thousand stitches into the "Santa of the Forest" this week.  That brings me to approximately 6,189/34,700 or 17.8%.  I took a picture on Thursday to show the April progress.  It's just a bit further along now.  I'm trying to get the cream and tan colors finished down to the bottom of the beard area, while still filling in one or two rows of white each day.   I think I have finished all the shadow colors now and just have three colors in the remaining beard.

And I've put in about 5 hours on the Historic slot - all in the set up and the top border of Blackbird Designs "It's Berry Time".

I'll put in the remaining couple of letters, then move back over to the left side border.   There's no actual bottom border on this chart, so I will have to just stitch the center motifs off each other and check against the alphabet.  I have enjoyed stitching letters this week.  I did a center top start and worked backwards from L to A, then forwards from M to (almost) Z.    Since this will be a drum, there's plenty of margin.   One over one full cross on 30 count linen from the kit.  So tiny, so cute.

As usual, linking up with the SSS crew for motivation and accountability.  The link round up is here.

FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "Violet Roll" by Shepherd's Bush

Pattern: "Violet Roll"

Designer: Shepherd's Bush

Fabric: 28 count Cashel Linen by Zweigart - kit materials

Threads: DMC as charted 

Beads: Mill Hill, Charm: from kit

Stitches:  Cross stitch two over two, double running, outline stitch, fishbone, ray stitch, straight stitch. Handsewn flat felled seam

Started 3/25/2026

Needlework completed 4/24/2026

FFO 4/28/2026

 

Slow Sunday Stitching - April 26, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #3 Slot #2 (Modern) Changeover

This is the week of many new things.  I added 1101 stitches to "Santa of the Forest" this week.  That brings me up to about 15%.   I haven't needed my emotional support owl yet.  😃 But everything else I worked on was either finishing or a new start.

First of all, I cast on a new knitting travel project.  I really enjoyed the broken rib on the scarf I finished a couple of weeks ago, so I found the "Muchness Cowl" on Ravelry, a free pattern by Susan Ashcroft that uses a similar ribbing pattern.  I have an entire mill end cone of this pretty burgundy acrylic sport weight yarn that I inherited from my dad's weaving/machine knitting stash.  It's reasonably soft for a vintage acrylic, so I'm going to see how it knits up.  

I'm about done with the finishing on the Shepherd's Bush "Violet Roll" - look for an FFO post soon (ETA: that post is here).  So I need to set up a new project for the Modern category.   "Musical Santa" is the next perforated paper ornament in honor of a family member.  This one is for my mom.  She was an elementary school music teacher for the main part of her working life.  She taught beginners in all the orchestral instruments.  This Santa with his horn, drum and stringed lute is as close as I can get to her mulit-talented gifts.  We'll just pretend he has a flute (for the woodwinds) tucked into the back of his belt LOL.  I have the floss sorted and replaced the metallic paper with vintage brown paper.  There are a few places where the design had gaps to let the metallic show through (on the edge of the drum, horn, boot eyelets, trim on tunic).  I'll put beads in those gaps.

These ornaments are always a lot of fun when they come around.  I'm looking forward to getting it started next rotation.
 

Last, but certainly not least, I am in the process of setting up Blackbird Designs "Berry Time" for the "Historic" slot in the rotation that starts next.   I decided to keep all the kit materials but do the project one over one on 30 count linen instead of two over two.   If I have measured correctly, it should fit sidewise on the kit cut.  I don't need much for margins since this is planned for a drum finish; as long as I have seam allowances, it's good.  Center top start to be sure the edges are even.

There you have it!  With the two new starts, the total kitted count is now at 82.  If you work on things, you finish things.  If you finish things, you get to start new things.  If you start new things, the stash (often) gets smaller.   See how that works?   

There isn't a SSS link page up yet for this week, so I'll check again after church.  Hopefully everything is OK with Kathy, our hostess! (ETA: She was at a retreat, and the link roundup is live now.)

Slow Sunday Stitching - April 19, 2026

Well, the Modern slot in the rotation got over 5 hours this week, which got me to the end of the embroidery on the Shepherd's Bush "Violet Roll".   So, starting this afternoon, I need to finish up the applique on the second side of the heirloom lace band, remove the second basting thread, and then get started on the beading.   Of the 11 bands, 7 of them get at least a few beads.  But luckily, there are only two colors of beads, so it should go smoothly. (Hope I didn't jinx myself! 😉)

Once I get the beading done, I'll take it off the scroll rods and get started on the finishing.  Several steps remain.

• Pull the threads for the ribbon rows top and bottom.
• Insert ribbons but leave flat for now.  Knots to finish off the ribbon ends.
• Pull threads for the hemstitch areas.
• Set up hemstitch sections and complete all but the center back area on each end.
• Flat fell the center back seam.
• Complete hemstitch across the back seams to fully finish both hems.
• Attach charm to center bottom area.
• Gather bottom ribbon and tie in bow.  Stuff firmly.  Gather top ribbon and tie in bow. 

Even with all those steps, I'm hopeful to get to a finish by next weekend!

The other project that I've been working on is the L&L "Santa of the Forest", which is my current pictorial.   

This week, I added 1,136 stitches, which brings me to a total of 4,096 or approximately 11.8%.  The percentage will be approximate on this project because I manually put it into Pattern Keeper (using the directions from Sarah, Stitching Mommy.  Link is to her YouTube tutorial).  Since this was my first big pattern conversion, I did make some mistakes.  I'm keeping the paper pattern close by to double check the partial stitches and things that just look 'wonky'.  Looking at you the green pixel in the middle of the beard (because @ and O are NOT the same thing - totally my fault LOL and fixed in the stitching).  But even with the occasional missing or incorrect symbol, it's going SO much faster than other large format patterns I have done in the past.   I mean, I am over 10% complete already and I've not even been working on the actual stitching for a month.  Stitching started on March 23, though there were hours of pattern converting and set up prior to that date. 

Going to try to get down past his mouth this week, since there's a bunch of partial stitches and backstitch in that area.  Those few bits of backstitch on his nose make all the difference, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of his face will look like.  I am NOT, however, looking forward to his enormous beard.  In fact, see that rounded void over on the right side?  That's an owl perched on his shoulder and I'm saving it for when (not if) I get so sick of DMC Blanc, Ecru, creams, and tans that I just can't take it anymore!  Another plus for having the chart in PK is that the ever-increasing stitch count is extremely motivating - good for backgrounds (like on the Mead Dragon) and huge chunks of block stitching.

I'm not planning on sharing this project every week, but I will try to remember to report my stitch count each week and show it at least around the mid-point of the rotation.  I will certainly show it at the end of each rotation as slot #4 (with a comparison picture of where I started the rotation).  I'm trying to put in a minimum of 110 stitches a day, and I usually put in quite a bit more to get to a good stopping spot.  I don't do a "daily 30" or a "daily choice" kind of project since my rotation is so small, but I am really enjoying putting in daily stitches on my pictorial projects. 

Linking up with the SSS crew (weekly list post).  They keep me motivated!

Slow Sunday Stitching - April 12, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #3 Slot #1 (Not Counted X Stitch) Changeover

 Well, I got my ten hours finished on the vintage German Needlepoint "Alter Bauernhof / Old Farmhouse".  It is now at 40 hours, and it's getting down into the fiddley bits, with more trees and bushes and the start of the farm buildings. 

As usual, a picture of the back so you can actually see what is covered in yarn and what is still paint 😉.

I finished the roof on the house, the church walls and got a good start on the barn (the roof and all the timbering is finished).   When I pick this back up in the next rotation, I'll finish off the barn walls and work on the lilac tree over on the left side by the farmyard.  I've been kind of putting it off since it's got all four of the greens and lots of confetti scattered stitches; when I had that combination on the trees by the church, it was NOT FUN.  But it will fill in a nice chunk of that side of the piece, and the rest of the bushes will seem easy! 

And where I was at the end of the last rotation as a comparison.   

Next up starting today is the "Violet Needleroll".  I'm hoping to get it done, if not FFO'd, during this rotation. 

And speaking of an FFO - the Rib Scarf is done! (link to Ravelry page).  It ended up five inches wide and VERY squishy due to the broken rib pattern.  Length is just short of 80 inches - nice and wrap-able.  I recommend this pattern; it's easy to memorize and makes a very nice unisex scarf

Linking up with the SSS crew.  (Current round up here.)

ETA:  934 stitches into "Santa of the Forest" this week.  Now at 8.53%.  Picture next week, sorry.