Slow Sunday Stitching - May 31, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #4 Slot #1 (Not Counted X Stitch) Changeover

Ten more hours in on the Vintage German Needlepoint kit "Alter Bauernhof" by Tapex Viennia, for a project total of 50 hours.  This time around saw the finish of the barn, the greenery right around the barn foundation, and the upper part of the path to the farmyard.   Then I moved over to the left side to do the big lilac tree.  And man, that thing was a pain - so much confetti with very close colors (all the greens).   But I powered through it and even got in some good work on the timbering on the house!  When this comes around again, there will be a total focus on the rest of the house. 

And the back so you can really see the progress.   The constant color changes in the tree means that it looks pretty messy in that section.  I wasn't really able to stitch 'basketweave style' much at all, though I did try not to have carried threads that were too long.

for comparison, here's where I was at the start of the rotation:

AND, it's the end of the month.  I stayed up after midnight last night to get Sunday's stitches in on "Santa of the Forest" by Lavendar and Lace.  It was not a hardship; I am by nature a bit of a night owl.  Total stitches this month were 4,383, which brings me to a project total of 10,336 or 29.8%.  I have completed 11 colors so far in the face and owl.  

Santa's Beard is finished! (It is such a focus that I feel it needs to be capitalized!) And the shoulder owl (which is so cute) is done too.  Plus it's time to move the fabric up.  I think I'll continue to work on the robe sleeves, and bring the red down and around the bear cub's face a little bit more before I start to fill him in. 

Where I started the month for comparison.

It's been a good week stitching wise!  This afternoon, I'll be moving on to the Blackbird Design piece.  After all that foliage confetti, a monochromatic project sounds like just what I need.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching - May 24, 2026

The first week of summer has been quite busy, with doctor appointments and getting my car worked on - new brake lights!  

I have been working on both the Santa of the Forest (1071 stitches this week - up to 26.88%) and the Vintage German Needlepoint (5 hours of 10 finished).  Pictures on both of those will happen next week.   

With all the appointment waiting time, I've actually finished all the stitching (including the little bit of backstitch) on the Musical Santa!   I had originally planned on having it in the 'Modern' slot in the current rotation; instead, I was in the mood for some easy stitching as a travel project and have been working away on it in the background.   

The kit paper was that silver metallic paper, but I don't enjoy working on it and I also do not like the coverage that you get, even with three strands of DMC floss as per the kit instructions. So I swapped out the paper for some simple vintage brown paper (it has very slight dappling).   There were blank places on the chart where the metallic paper was supposed to show through, so I'm putting beads in there.  Gold on the instruments and the boot laces, opal on the tunic edges.   

In addition to the beads, there's the beard and some sequined embellishments, plus cutting out and backing yet to do.  Hopefully there will be an FFO post later this week.

I have really liked having a small travel embroidery project, so I think I'll do the "Woodworker Santa" in honor of my father-in-law next!   

Linking up with the SSS crew (current round-up).

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. (ETA:  Ended up working on it as a travel project up to the point of the beading.)
 

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.)