Nordic Holiday...

I do so love these Christmas designs from Nordic Holiday (Book #191). This time I am stitching the Christmas trees. 

Hopefully, it won't take too long to whip up and will eventually look like this.....

(Sorry, this is a screen shot so a bit blurry).

Thanks for visiting,

hugs, 

Merry Christmas ....

Wishing all of my very dear bloggy/crafty/cross stitchy friends the very Merriest of Christmases and a safe and Happy New Year.

I would also like to thank you all for your friendship, support, advice, encouragement and kindnesses to me over the past year.  This Prairie Schooler SAL blog,  fuels one of my many passions, and thus means a lot to me and while, posting on it has been erratic of late (as my Christmas stitching hotted up) it still gives me great pleasure to know that this blog has, just maybe, been of pleasure to you, too.

All the best for 2017 and I hope to see you all back on this SAL blog in January.

hugs, 

A (wonky) finish and a new Prairie Schooler start...

Well, this is actually an old post from JULY, that I started and somehow abandoned! Please forgive me.

This was Finish #2 on my Road Trip to Roma stitching (way back in July) - you can read all about my trip to Outback Queensland on my main blog, starting with this post, if you are interested.  

I am not overly thrilled with how it has turned out - not the design's fault but mine!  I made an error somewhere near the start, didn't pick it up until it was way too late, so had to ditch the idea of a border and create this snow "hill" instead - now it is a bit of an odd shape - may have to make it a bell-shaped ornie, I think, when I Finish Finish it.  Although, some other interesting shapes have been suggested to me, as well.

Prairie Schooler Book #150

December

28 ct Ivory linen

Suggested DMC floss

I also finally finished the Train Sampler (as the baby was born).  His name is Joseph Fxxxx, so I added those initials to the coal carriage.  I am really thrilled with how it turned out and the new mother was pleased with the baby gift, too.

This is from Book #69, Prairie Village I.

Anyway, off to kit up some more PS designs to take on the road trips I have coming up soon (Ballarat for a weekend and then in a week or two, a week on Kangaroo Island).  I find their designs are so perfect for travel.  Not too many colour changes and so satisfying to stitch.

hugs, Kaye

Now it's a waiting game ......

I have been working on a Prairie Schooler piece for a new baby that is on the way (the son of one of my dearest friends is expecting his first son, any day now).

It is the train from Book #69, A Prairie Village I.  As they are a hipsterish couple, I thought that the understated vintage aspect of the design would appeal to them.

I am very pleasde with how it is looking so far....

The empty space in the coal carriage is for the baby's initials, when I know what they are - he is due any day now.

So, as I said it is just a waiting game.  I will show you the finish when I can.

Hugs, Kaye

Another Nordic Holiday .....

Hi all, I have finished my second Nordic ornament from PS Book #191 for the Christmas Ornie SAL May theme of "Reindeer".

Isn't he a proud, handsome fellow?

He is a companion piece to the April theme of "Ornament".

So pleased with my PS progress so far this year - I now have a few finishes under my belt.

I hope that you all are enjoying your Prairie Schooler stitching this year.

hugs, Kaye

Finally, another PS finish for me...

Hi all, this month I really struggled with choosing a design for the theme of "Ornaments" for the Christmas Ornie SAL but after weeks of procrastination, I finally settled on this gorgeous Nordic ornament design from Prairie Schooler, which, of course, feed my PS addiction, too. So, double yay!

I used these two gorgeous Sajou cotton floss and stitched it on 28ct white linen.

I think that for next month's theme of reindeer for the Christmas Ornie SAL, I will stitch a companion piece, the reindeer in the top left corner.

hugs, Kaye

I loved stitching this.....

Hello fellow Prairie Schoolers,

Well, I am quite early, for me, in posting this month - Yay!  At the end of last month I was scrabbling for what to stitch for March's theme for the Christmas Ornie SAL - Santa and/or one or some of his helpers, when I turned to my old faithful, Prairie Schooler, and found Book #63  Christmas Samplers

And then my eye was caught by the middle sampler, "The Night before Christmas" and then I saw Santa on his sleigh with three of his reindeers and Bingo!  There was my March choice.

I went to my stash and found some great Crafty Kitten overdyed 32 ct blue linen and two days later I was finished!  Woo Hoo!

(It is much bluer than this - if I get a chance to take a better pic later, I will!)

This piece, of course, also counts for  for DUCJFC2016.

Can't wait to see what everyone else stitches this month.

hugs, Kaye

Noni's Pumpkin Man now has a friend!

I was really struggling this month to choose a design for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL, but then I saw the very "sweet" Pumpkin Man stitched by my dear friend, Noni, and I was hooked.

So, may I introduce you to a second Pumpkin Man?

Pumpkin Man

Prairie Schooler

JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2015

28 ct linen

Assorted DMC and specialty threads

I am quite taken with him, thanks again, Noni, for the inspiration.

hugs, Kaye

Deck the Halls .....

Hello fellow PS students,  

Here is my latest PS finish (which I double-dipped and stitched for the Christmas Ornie SAL as well - this month's theme was Music)

Deck the Halls by Prairie Schooler, Book #81

32 ct Willow Linen, DMC threads.

I am really thrilled with the green floss on the willow green linen - it has worked really well.

 However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have made at least two errors. I wonder if you can spot them? 

Uh oh!  Big Ooops! The lovely Carol has pointed out a third error - I forgot Santa's belt!  See the photos below for the finally finished version! Thanks, Carol!

Hugs, Kaye

P.S. Everyone has been lovely and said that they can't see the errors but there are two - top right corner and bottom right corner.

The raven quoth "Nevermore" ....

A spooky hello to you all, here is my January Winged Creature for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL, and it is a Finished Finish - double yay! - my first for the year. (Of course, me being me, I made sure I used a Prairie Schooler pattern.)

I made it up into a simple soft ornie.

I was lucky enough to find the perfect backing fabbie in my stash.

A close up of the stitching.

Design: Part of "All Hallow's Eve" by Prairie Schooler (Book *180)

28 ct linen "Rain"

Floss: DMC 310

A very quick, enjoyable stitch.

hugs, Kaye

I did it!

I finally finished my Santa's 12 Days of Christmas!

Now, the earliest post I can find on my blog, Kitten Stitching, which features Santa's 12 Days of Christmas is on May 21, 2012 but I suspect that I started the SAL a few months before that - so this project has taken me over three and a half years to complete.  I must admit there were (quite) a few times where I lost interest, lost faith in my ability to finish but I overcame those times and here we are:

 I just need to decide now how to Finish each one - any suggestions?

Now, as I am pretty certain that I won't be tackling this project again in a hurry, I want to gift my lightly-used design booklets (three of them, with all twelve designs) to one of you lovely stitchers.

But, I am going to make you work for it!  Ha! Ha!

You have to decide which of the 12 days is my favourite - which may be hard as I do love them all but there is one which I particularly love!

So, please leave a comment with your guess either on this post or on the corresponding post on my blog, Kitten Stitching and on Monday, 9th November, I will draw a winner from the correct guesses.

Have a great day, everyone, 

hugs, Kaye

P.S. Love to Linda who started me on this journey.

And onto Day 12

... well, for IHSW, I thought that I should continue on with my PS 12 Days of Santa as I am finally getting so near to finishing the series.  Yay!

So, here is Day 12 so far....

... and while these are nothing to do with Prairie Schooler,  here are some of the lovely roses from my garden (I had a play around with the special effects on the Aviary app on my iphone to get the photo looking like this).

Some wonderful PS stitching happening all around on this blog, I am so pleased that so many of  you seem to be inspired by this SAL blog.

Have a great rest of the week - today is Hump Day, hurray!

hugs, Kaye

Day 11 finished... Finally!

Well, I am pleased to announce that as part of Friday Frolics  and FNSI last night, I finally managed to finish Day 11 of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas.  Woo Hoo!

I especially love Mr Fox in the bottom right hand corner.

On to Day 12 now, very excited, nearly there!

Have a great weekend,

hugs,

Summer start....

.... for an exchange (shhh!) I have started on this Summer piece from Book #138 "Measure of a year".

I am just stitching the block with the word "Summer" and the block next to it with the beehive.  Not sure how I am going to finish it yet but I am surely open to suggestion.

Have a great week, everyone.

hugs, 

Santa's 12 Days of Christmas: Day 11

Hi everyone,

I had hoped to have a finish of Day 11 by the end of this month but I think I have been distracted by a few other things going on - lol!  For some reason, I am really struggling with Day 11. This is part of the Sunday SAL which I stitch with my dear friend, Linda.  Maybe he will be finished by the end of September?

I am loving all of the wonderful Prairie Schooler Stitching which I see everyone else is doing - so beautiful!

Have a good week, 

hugs,