Cross stitch smalls...

It was tempting to skip posting again this week, but crafting mojo is so elusive lately, I thought I'd better post while I have something current to show.

In my last post, I was making plans for finishing some older cross stitch projects.  Well... I finally stitched a few up into little pillows:   

The hardest part was just deciding to do it.  Though, it did take a bit of time to cut everything out, iron on interfacing (to make the projects nice and smooth - I heard somewhere to do that).  And I left too small of openings for turning them right side out, so I had to unpick some stitches.

But seriously...  It's embarrassing how long it took me to finally set myself down to do this.  I've had the cross stitching finished on this one since last October:

In the process, I found out my 30 year-old Singer sewing machine is frozen.  I'm thinking all it needs is a good cleaning and re-oiling, and whatever a repair shop does to get a machine in good working order again.  Meanwhile, I'm sewing on my MIL's nearly 70 year-old Singer and it hums along so nicely.  It's tempting to just chuck my old frozen one, but it is very handy for quickly zig zagging edges, and creating buttonholes - whereas doing these things on my MIL's machine requires fiddling with attachments.  So sometime this upcoming week I'm thinking of biting the bullet and getting my old machine to a repair shop. Wish me well in that plan. 

And that's all she wrote!

A little finish...

Wednesday of last week I wrote an update about what's been going on in my little corner of the world. There was lots of Spring evident, a couple of birthdays celebrated, a sister visited, and my brother's house sold!  All very good things.

And then, yesterday I set myself to finishing this little project:

The May pattern of the Joyful World series

found on The Snowflower Diaries blog

Using a fabric in my stash (that once was in my MIL's fabric stash), I made this cute little stitch into a pillow.    Now I just need a few dozen more little pillows and I'll have a display-worthy collection.  At the rate I stitch, I may have that collection done by say...  the end of the decade.  😄

This next little bit is for my reference mainly, but if you're interested in the materials used, read on.  I used a combination of called-for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, and DMC floss. The cats are stitched using various shades of DMC grays, and I turned what was originally a white bird (a dove, maybe?) into a bluebird.  Fabric for the stitched part is 18-count Aida from Picture This Plus - in the colorway, Sterling.  Stitched 2 over 1 on 18-count Aida, the design measures 5.25" x 4".  Just right for a small pillow.

And that's pretty much all I've got on this beautiful late-April Sunday afternoon!