Jenny Bean For the Parlor

I posted progress photos of this piece last year, but never shared a picture of the finish. I’m really proud of this piece. I loved stitching it. There were eight parts, stitched on 36ct Wren with the called for Sampler Threads. I may have occasionally substituted a DMC thread or two if the color of the overdyed thread didn’t look quite right.

Now to decide how to finish it. I don’t think I am going to frame it. I’m thinking about finishing the edges and rolling it around a spool. It will be portable and a talking piece!

Sandra - regarding your comment on the previous post, you are correct! Juniper has a stitched backside! 

Thank you to everyone who still reads this old blog.

Juniper

The finishing spree continued this morning. At a previous year’s Quilter’s Station Retreat, we received a kit from Stacy Nash for this cute little animal cracker named “Juniper”. The kit included the pattern and supplies for the little round sewing box too - “Rose Cottage Sewing Box”. Our group that attended the retreat finished the sewing box last fall, but we hadn’t finished Juniper yet. Today was the day. It was also my first attempt at using sawdust as a filler. Some challenges with the sawdust, but I learned a lot.

Here they are:

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Emma and Ophelia

Aren’t they cute? Both are from Giulia Punti Antichi (GPA Designs). Emma was a Nashville Needlework Market release in 2025 and Ophelia was released this year at market. The dolls are actually thread boards that were hand painted in Italy. Underneath their skirts, there is also a pincushion. Ophelia has a bat in her birdcage. I stitched and finished Ophelia last fall (I was able to purchase her in advance of market). Emma’s apron was stitched last year, and I did the finishing today.

A new doll, Abigail, is being introduced at Celebrations this month. Looking forward to adding her to the collection!

Muffin Tops

This afternoon, I fully, fully finished these two projects. Both designs are from The Blue Flower. Both were stitched last year, and both were finished in October. I just never put anything on top to fully finish them off.

On the left is “Bees in the Greenhouse” and on the right, “Festive Forest.” Jeannine from The Blue Flower affectionately refers to this as a “muffin top” finish. Lots of stitching in these two pieces. Easy to finish though.

Without further ado, here are the pictures!

We had a little visitor yesterday afternoon. He brought the pink frosted cupcake home with him from daycare!

Crackers and Pin Pillows

Here are some additional stitching finishes since the beginning of the year. First up are some Animal Crackers from Stacy Nash. I just finished Harrison (the rabbit) last week. I finished Bobbin earlier this year.

These are some of the pin-pillow kits that Samplers Not Forgotten puts out at market. I don’t have the specific chart names in front of me right now. I can post again with names once they are fully finished.

Short Sunday post! Hope you had a nice weekend.

Quintessential Frisian Smalls & Holiday Countdown

Hope you had a good week! I’ve been busy attending guild meetings, in person and on zoom. In addition, we have a group that meets weekly at a local library. No shortage of meet-ups to stitch and visit with other like-minded individuals!

The following project was offered by Modern Folk Embroidery, Evertote, and Roxy Floss Co. It was a stitch a long that started last fall and ended just after the first of the year. I kept up with the SAL and completed both the stitching and finishing in February!

The linen and floss was from Roxy Floss Co - a 40ct linen and Falu Red floss.

I also participated in the Holiday Countdown stitch-a-long last December, also from Modern Folk Embroidery, Evertote, and Roxy Floss Co. Each day of December a small portion of the pattern is revealed and on December 25 the design is complete!

Both projects were fun to stitch!

Needle Bling “Get Your Stitch on” Retreat

I spent this past weekend at the Needle Bling “Get Your Stitch On” retreat in Bloomington, MN (near the airport and not far from home. This is a good retreat to make progress on projects, there is no featured designer. There were several designers in attendance though and all had brought trunk shows. Needle Bling also had a shop onsite at the hotel with lots of their hand dyed linen, charts, project bags,mother stitching doo-dads and more.

I made good progress on the stitching I brought with me. 

• Finished the second band on the Betsy Morgan project I mentioned in my last post.
• Getting close to finishing Harrison, one of the earlier animal crackers from Stacy Nash.
• Started working on the dragonfly piece for Cathy Haberman’s class at Spring Mingle.

It’s a rainy day here, so I apologize if the pictures are a bit dark. I’ve been doing laundry and other cleaning and am ready for a nap now! Looking forward to working on Harrison a bit more afterwards!