FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "Heirloom Santa: Toymaker Santa" by Willmaur

Willmaur Heirloom Santa:  Toymaker Santa

Designed by Sandra Cozzolino

Added Mill Hill beads

• to door handle - gold metallic MH00557

This ornament is in honor of my father-in-law, Jim.  After a 20 plus year career in the United States Army, he opened a snack and gift shop near the Kansas State University campus.  When he retired from that after another 20 years, he took up woodworking as a hobby and part-time job.  He specialized in wooden toys and garden trinkets (windmills and painted edgings and such).  I am 100% sure if any of his grandkids had been girls, he would totally have made a dollhouse like our featured ornament Santa is working on.   

Slow Sunday Stitching - August 2, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #5 Slot #4 (Pictorial) Changeover

Time for the end of July check in on my pictorial piece "Santa of the Forest" by Lavendar and Lace.  This also ends off Rotation #5.  This month, I added 5,396 stitches, which brings me to 20,433 stitches in this project so far (approximately 58.88%).  And I have now finished 23 colors.

And where I was at the beginning of the month

Good progress: bear finished, and I added the checkerboard sleeves, the main part of the forest scene inside the fold of St. Nick's robe, and his colorwork mittens (white on green) are also done, along with bringing the folds of his cloak down to row 150 on both sides.  Speaking of the mittens, I think they may be Latvian style mittens (perhaps a pair like these - link to Ravelry).  Either that or his checkered sleeves have wide embroidered shirt cuffs and the mitten wrists are tucked into them.  But honestly, the purple patterns look like colorwork knitting to me - so I'm going with mittens with gauntlet cuffs.

You can see the outlines of the three remaining animals clearly now (left to right - dove, bunny and the wolf's ears).   What's up next?  The dove is very wide - wingtip to wingtip it is about 75 rows high, so I will probably need to work it in thirds.  The upper wing is almost completely outlined at this point, so I'll fill that in next before I move the fabric up.

And on the subject of colorwork knitting, my sampler hat is coming along.  And I think I have made a decision on which pattern I am going to work on the sweater yoke.  

I sampled the following three patterns:

1) from a sweater pattern I purchased (link to Etsy, the designer is not on Ravelry).  Very nice, but a little delicate - probably more suited to fingering weight than worsted weight yarn.  Also, needs an odd number of repeats to balance, and my sweater has an even repeat count.   On the docket for a future sweater though.

2) designed myself.  I like it, but it is not quite right - the eye is more drawn to the brown than the white, so the transition isn't what I was going for.  I may try to rework it for a future sweater at some point.

3) also designed by me.  This is the one I am choosing for the sweater yoke.   It's graphic enough to work in the worsted weight yarn and I like the geometric look of it.  I'm going to sample the decrease area depth on the hat (which will be more of a stocking cap shape) and when it's done, I'm move back to the sweater.

Starting Rotation #6, so pulling out the vintage needlepoint again.  I've been rolling through the slots about once a month, which is getting me good progress on everything.  I do need to get some finishing done.  The 'under the bed box' (aka the 'box of doom'/finished project purgatory) hasn't gotten any emptier!  

Even though it's not out of the 'doom box', I did finish (and very nearly FFO!) a project this week - the travel project. The next perforated paper Santa, which is the Toymaker Santa in honor of my father-in-law, is all stitched, embellished, and assembled.  I'm just waiting for it to dry overnight so that I can trim the backing down before I snap a picture.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 25, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #5 Slot #3 (Modern) Changeover

 

Took the bellpull off the side bars so I could show the whole thing.  That's a fair bit of double running!!  Good thing I enjoy doing it since it took all ten hours of this rotation (less the set up time, which wasn't much).  

As I was working the borders, I noticed that the top third (section 1 of 3 by Shepherd's Bush) is all cross stitch besides a little bit more of outline / double running.   And the bottom third (section 3 of 3 by Just Nan) only has three eyelets in each corner and the rest is all cross stitch.  But the center (section 2 of 3 by Charland Designs) has a lot of stitches like satin stitch, long armed cross and so forth that do not like to be smashed onto scroll rods at all.   So, I'm going to stitch the sections in that order = 1, 3, put it on longer side bars and then do 2 and the beading. 

On my other projects, "Santa of the Forest" got 1,180 stitches this week, which takes me to 19,288 or about 55.58%.   I will do a change over and end of month picture as of the 31st and report on that next week.

And look what happened unexpectedly this week!  

Yes, that's the 'swatch hat' (link to my Ravelry page) for the brown pullover sweater that has been long abandoned (well hibernated at least).  I came across the bin that it was in and figured it's on the home stretch, so why not finish it.  Par for the course, I am sitting (in front of a fan in air conditioning) with a lap full of wool in the midst of a heat wave.  I'm sampling three different colorwork patterns and the decrease pattern.   More pictures when I get to the top of the thing. 

Some projects just have to wait their turn for my attention!  In the mean time, linking up with the SSS crew keeps me accountable (current round-up is here).

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 19, 2026

It's been a very productive week on the crafting front this week.  First of all, I did finish the "Muchness Cowl" and it's ready to donate once the weather turns cooler.

color is shaded very orange in this picture, it's really burgundy

And I promised to show the mid-month progress on "Santa of the Forest" if I got over the halfway mark.  I am proud to report that I did hit that milestone.  I put in 1,269 stitches this week, which brings me to 18,108 stitches on this project (or approximately 52.18%).  The outlines of the heads of the next two animals are showing up - a dove and a bunny. 

I have also been working on the new piece in the modern slot, "Collaboration Sampler" by Shepherd's Bush, Charland, and Just Nan.  The borders are in that stage of a complex double running pattern where the stitching looks like a random collection of dashes.  So that one will have a photo next week for the changeover.  I don't think I'll get much further than the borders and the lettering in this round of ten hours, but that will give me a solid foundation for the rest of the bell pull.  Stay tuned for that. 

Linking up with the SSS crew for weekly inspiration and accountability.  (Link to current week's roundup is here.) 

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 12, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #5 Slot #2 (Historic) Changeover

A decent crafting week this time.  I binge watched a couple of floss tube channels and stitched away on the Blackbird designs drum and put in 10 hours!

And where I was at the beginning of the week for comparison:

I'm really liking how it is turning out.  This is now over the halfway point, and I have put 30 hours in so far.  One more basket of flowers with foliage, the initials / date and the other border plus finishing as a drum yet to go.

I'm spending this afternoon doing the Kitchner and other finishing on the Muchness Cowl. (link to my project on Ravelry)

Plus I have put in 1,157 stitches this week on "Santa of the Forest".  Picture next week if I hit the 50% mark; I am at 48.5% currently, so the chances are really good.

Linking up with the SSS round-up (current week is here).

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 5, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #5 Slot #1 (Not Counted X Stitch) Changeover

First of all, Happy Birthday to both Canada and the USA!  We had the annual big patriotic service at the church, and the handbells played my favorite version of "Amazing Grace" (and the "Finlandia" intro for "God Bless America" - which I also like a lot).  Then we had hours and hours of fireworks all over the neighborhood (Dela is not a fan LOL - but she did better than last year.  She just needed to be under my feet instead of pacing and shaking the entire day.)

But having a dog glued to me meant that I got a lot of stitching done, and I actually finished ten hours on the vintage German needlepoint piece "Alter Bauernholf / Old Farmhouse".   60 hours in it now.  

And the back so you can see the progress without the painted canvas

I had hoped to get more of the yard done, but the house was more fiddley and took longer than I thought it would.  To make matters worse, I ran out of white and the DMC "Blanc" is a bright white instead of the creamy white from the kit.   I was able to at least color block the part of the house facade that is the farthest forward instead of having a diagonal line or some other obvious break, but I wish I'd put some of the bright white into the clouds and mountain snow instead.  Not pulling out those areas - it doesn't bother me that much.  I did notice just now that I forgot to put in the long straight stitches for the wagon wheel spokes; I'll do that the next time I have black on the needle.

And where I was last rotation (end of May) for comparison:

I have also been working on the "Santa of the Forest".  During the last three days of last month, I put in 402 stitches for a June total of 4,701.  Then so far in July, I've managed 645 stitches.  That's a project total of 15,682 or approximately 45.19%.  Total for the week was 1,047.

 

Linking up with the SSS crew (a little later than usual because we slept in after the fireworks went on until almost 3 am!!!) - this week's link party is here.

FINISHED KNITTING PROJECTS - Q2 2026 (April, May, June)

 Bonne Nuit Scarf