An Offical New Stitcher in our Family! 🪡🇩🇪

I'm so proud of my cousin who I taught to stitch while she was visiting from Germany this past Christmas into the New Year. They were here three weeks but she didn't ask about it until two day before they left!

She chose this Mill Hill one to stitch on fabric for her first piece. I think it looks great!

And this is a collection of what she has stitched since then.

This is her latest start...

Except the fabric was too small! Then she got a bigger piece, much better!

I'm sad that we're not closer to each other to stitch together, but I'm thrilled that's she's stitching!

Super Bowl Retreat 2026 🏈

Although I wasn't planning on going to the retreat this year, I changed my mind and thought a stitching getaway was needed. 

 Thankfully, I was feeling much better after spending several days doing nothing but getting over pneumonia.

I didn't take as many photos as I normally do, too busy chatting, shopping, stitching I guess!

This was my set up, I worked on my Welsh Dragon the first day.

Mary made me the wooden dragons and I bought the bag from Annette - I love them all! I'll make the little ones into needle minders. Or rather, they'll be displayed in my craft room since I mainly stitch in hand.

And Mary shared her favourite drink - it was delicious!

Since we were so close to Amy's shop, Born To Stitch, I took some of the girls for a visit. We had a great time, we all found treasures we had to get! She's close to getting her online shop open, I'll be sure to post when she does.

 Even though I was there two weeks before, I still found a few things I didn't know I needed.

These all hit just about everything I love, just missing a mermaid!

I won the Awesome bag and the rest were table gifts from friends. A sweet haul!

There was a freebie table, and I found a few things. I already stitched my DIL, C, a set of Bride Tree ornaments last year, but I hope to need two more in the future!

We were at the Patriots table and lost in the "stitching" football game. Oh well, it was still fun!

And then before I knew it, it was over and I was home once again. I think these two little stinkers missed me!

A Clean Up! 🧹

Part of my craft table is cleaned up!

I love the tiered shelf I got at IKEA, more room for important stitchy stuff.

And although it's not shown, you can actually see the floor... for the most part. 😝

Maverick loves his Mousy, I've had to stitch him up several times. Luckily, I do have another one that isn't as bad. I've been looking for more to replace them, but can't find them anywhere online.

We still have snow, but at least it's finally melting with the warmer temperatures we're having. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, slim chance of slushy snow. I think I'm ready for spring at this point!

My sweet cousin is almost finished with her octopus. She just needs to add the French knots and shell charm, she opted not to add the beads. I think she's done a great job and she enjoys it! Too bad she lives so far away. 😞

Next up - full finishes, a retreat, and Olympic stitching!

Fully Finished Gallery - January 2026 🖼 (And family stuff!)

Wow, it's 2026 already?

I'm not quite sure what happened to 2025, but I definitely dropped the needle on posting!

I've still been stitching every day, just not blogging about what I've been doing.

This will be my 8th year of stitching every day, some days were definitely more productive than others!

I have a few posts I'd like to finish, mainly about our family trip last summer, and our Christmas holidays. Not only do I post for stitching, but also for me to look back on for memories. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to my blog to find something I've stitched, finished, or a photo I've wanted to see again. And that includes things I've done or places I've been. I want to make this year a better year for blogging, and even though I know it's old school, I still enjoy it.😂 

So let's go!

Since Rachel is on a hosting/posting break, I created this little guy until she returns. 

This month was a good finishing month, only because I didn't have these pieces finished before Christmas!

We had an extra special Christmas this year, my cousin and her family came to join us from Germany.

Which meant I wanted to make each of them an ornament, included her step-daughter, who wasn't able to be with them.

The last time C and little H were here, H celebrated her second birthday. This time they added the boys, her husband and baby B! He turned seven months old while they were here and even got his first two teeth!

This is for little man B, I thought it was cute and appropriate with his name.

This is for C's step-daughter, F, who I have yet to meet. I hope she likes hot chocolate!

I thought this was perfect for C and her husband, M. There was no way I could fit their names on it, so I added their initials.

It was wonderful to have them join us and such fun with the little ones!

I had something else in mind for Miss H, but found out she LOVES the Grinch. I had the perfect pattern from Brookes Books, so I had to stitch it. She chose for him to hold a little bell instead of the stitched small ornament.

Maybe next year I'll have to stitch her Max.

BIG smiles! Isn't she adorable?!

And of course, I had to stitch a giraffe for my daughter-in-love, C. 

I guess this was more of a birthday present or even could be considered a house warming gift. They just moved into their new house at the beginning of January.

They're only about 11 miles away from us, and the house was move in ready. It's so lovely, with lots of room to grow! 😉

That's it for this month. I hope I can be as productive next time.

I think my next post will be more of my cousin's visit with us, we were pretty busy!

Fully Finished Gallery - July 2025 🖼

Welcome to Rachel's 

Fully Finished Gallery SAL for July 2025.

This is a great way to make sure I actually fully finish my stitched pieces! 

Please consider joining this monthly SAL, it just might inspire you. 

I didn't see Rachel's link up for July, but knew I still wanted to post what I had done.

I stitched this sweet little butterfly for my MIL for her birthday. She loves butterflies so this was perfect.

And I remembered that I had taken this photo outside our fence a several years ago. A pretty good match!

This was taken back in 2013 and I still think it's funny! I even got one similar for our house at Halloween.

So when I saw this SPLAT Witch from Mill Hill, I had to have her. And I gave her bottle because she's drunk too! 🍾🤣

She also reminds me of ole Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf. Who remembers watching that as a kid? "Watch and learn, dummy!" Not a very nice witch!

We have a trip coming up, so I'll see what I can finish in mid August.

A few lovely surprises!🥰

I still have to post about the Nashville Market, but here are a couple nice surprises I had there!

If you already follow Mary @Mary's Thread, then you know about this already!

I was in the Jean Farish Needlework room, when someone said my name, it was Mary, what a wonderful surprise! How great to see a fellow blogger there!

We got to chat a little bit, but I wish we could have spent more time together. If we both go next year, we'll have to set aside some time to really talk!

My next surprise was when Amy said hello/goodbye to Nicola as she was heading to the elevator.

Wait, Nicola, from Cornwall?! Yes!

She had a blog years ago, Stitching by the Cornish Seashore, and now you can find her at Hands Across the Sea Samplers. So that was cool!

My third lovely surprise was Rahenna @Crafty Rahenna gifting me her pattern for the Mill Hill Autumn Key. She finished hers and I had admired loved it! Here it is, looking great.

She even gave me some perforated paper and what was left of the kit, in addition to some extra pretty floss. Look at how organized she is with her threads! It will certainly make it easier.

I decided to try stamping it green, since I had seen it done before somewhere online. Not too bad!

So thank you so much Rahenna, for sharing this chart with me. After I'm finished with it (which might not be until the summer) I'll pass it along too, with a giveaway!