Let The People Choose - Pets

 

Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting the Let The People Choose each month. The theme for July is Pets. 

As a child my family only had dogs. My husbands family had lots of animals living on a farm.  When we moved in together way back in 1985, we had 5 budgies. 

When our boys were young we had many different pets ... 

hamsters (Hammy & Digger). This is Digger, he was so sweet and didn't bite people.

guinea pigs (Eeyore, Popcorn & Jellybean). This is the habitat we built them.

red-eared slider turtle named Frodo who lived 12 years.

and this is the first fish tank (20 gallons).   

Now our boys are adults, but we still have a fish tank (75 gallons). We have a pleco (algae eater) named Waldo who is 16 years old and 5 clown loaches, but they don't have names.

  

I have stitched a few cats for my sister-in-laws back in 1998 & 2003.

and yes, I'm still working on Frederick the Literate for my son and daughter-in-law.

I stitched this turtle in 2006.

But my favourite is the Rainbow Bridge by Sue Hillis stitched in 2011.  This is a tribute to all of the pets we have loved over the years. I added extra animals to this project to make it personal (budgies, a hedgehog my sister had, a ferret that my sister's friend had and a nicer looking turtle). 

Let The People Choose - Snow

Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting the Let the People Choose each month. This month’s theme is SNOW.  We certainly got a lot where I live in Ontario, Canada.  Here is a photo taken looking outside my front window today.

I try to participate in this SAL, but either don’t have anything to post or I forget to post. I only have one project that I stitched related to snow called Snowman Wisdom by Sue Hillis.  It was a fun project to work on back in 2016. I made it into a wall hanging with snow fabric.

July 2021 - Houses

I always forget about this SAL until I read Jo’s blog Serendipitous Stitching.  This month’s topic is Houses, which is one of my favourite things to stitch.  I have stitched 28 houses over the past 26 years, I'm sure these will not be the last!

  

My first cross stitch back in 1995 was called Summer Symphony.

New Home card for a family member in 1996.

Spindles and Posts - stitched in 1999

Proud to be on Duty - 1999

Grandparents Day - 2001

As Seasons Change - 2001

Down Main Street - I stitched these 3 stores for a friend in 2003.

Cantenbury Cafe - I designed this for my sons' basketball coach (2005) when they bought a coffee shop.

Gingerbread House ornament

Lighthouse - This was a stamped cross stitch kit that a family member had.  I cut out the stamped area and stitched on 28ct, but still using the fabric background as a mat.

Amish Scene - I love this busy, colourful scene.

Victorian Dollhouse - Designed by Joan Elliott.  I had a wall dollhouse like this in the 90's, so I definitely had to stitch this project in 2012.

3D miniature house ornament - 2013

Santa’s Village (12 houses) - Designed by Country Cottage Needleworks - 2013

Stitcher's Place - This was designed by Tiny Moderist for my old LNS (2015).

This was my local needlework shop which closed about 4 years ago.

Let The People Choose - Birds

I always forget to do this SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  I only remember when I start seeing everyone else do their blog post.

Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting this SAL each month.  

Next month's theme is Spring.

I didn’t think I had stitched that many bird projects until I went through my list of finished projects.  I actually have 18 projects with a bird in them.  I won't show them all because you have seen some recently.  I will list them all but only show some of them in photos.

Garden Goose stitched way back in 1997 and I have never shown a photo before.  My mother-in-law had dishes with geese on them and she was collecting geese figurines for awhile, so I stitched this for her.

 

Red Tailed Hawk was stitched in 2001 for my oldest son Jaspar.  It still hangs in his bedroom (in our house).

Backyard Birds Pillow was stitched in 2005 for my sister-in-law Olivette.  She likes birds and nature.  I made it into a pillow for her.

Four Seasons Birds which I stitched in 2011 for my husband Dave.  It hangs in our upstairs hallway.

Hummingbird Biscornu was also stitched in 2011.  I just loved the colours.

Rainbow Bridge was also stitched in 2011 for myself.  It is a tribute to all of our pets.  I added a few budgies to the project because Dave & I had 5 before we had children.

In 2015 I participated in a Summer Exchange.  I made this Welcome Pillow which has a blue bird on it.

Other projects you have already seen on my blog.

I stitched the Green Flip-its, which has a bird in the part called Keep Our Air Clean. 

I have stitched the following Just Nan 3D miniature birds and owls which you have seen photos before.

Birds

Cardinal Tweet (x2) & Blue Jay

Bluebird Tweet & Rosebud Tweet

Owls

Oakley Owl & Little Princess Snow

Let The People Choose - Fire I showed everyone the Dragon Dreams phoenix ornament, and the beautiful phoenix from Not Forgotten which I used on the SYOA Harry Potter project.

I am off to see what others have stitched for the bird theme.

Let The People Choose - July 2020

I'd like to thank Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting this monthly SAL.  This months theme is Most Popular Designer.

I have been stitching now for 25 years, surprisingly in all those years I have only stitched 223 projects as of last week.  Most of these were large projects when I first started stitching back in March 1995.  I am also a One at a time stitcher most of the time.  I might have a large project and take a small one for travelling.  This year I am doing 3 SALs, which is the first for me to have so many on the go.

Total Projects - 223

Dragon Dreams - 30 

Just Nan - 25

Country Cottage Needleworks - 13 Santa's Village

Sue Hillis - 6

Other designers - 149 

I have stitched more of Dragon Dreams since it was one of my favourite designers when I first started stitching.  Also both of my boys loved the dragon patterns, so I stitched a lot more of them.

These were all free charts years ago.  This is called 2001 Gemstone Dragons.  I stitched all 12 months for myself and about 8 individual ones for my sons and friends of theirs at the time.

The next project is called Dani the Stitching Dragon.  It was a free chart with no floss colours, she just gave us symbols.  It was a contest, everyone chose their own colours to stitch.  This was my entry.  I won an Honourable Mention and some free autographed patterns from the designer.  I eventually bought the published chart with the designers colour choices.  

Here are a few more free patterns Coffee is Magic and A Spot of Tea.  These still need to be framed.

Another free pattern called Sleeping Dragon.  One of the few projects I stitched using linen.  I'm not really a fan of linen because it is so uneven.  I don't personally like the look of the thin and thick threads weaved throughout the fabric.  I like my stitches to look the same.

I have shown the other large projects Not Forgotten (Noah's Ark with Mythological creatures) and Blackwork Dragon so I won't show them again.  I stitched all of the free Christmyth ornaments, here are a some of them (phoenix, fairy, griffon, giant, unicorn, dragon, mermaid).  

This is the last Dragon Dreams pattern I have stitched (in 2016).  It is a chart from the 2012 Christmas Ornament Magazine.  This pattern is called The Year of the Dragon.  I made it into a flat ornament.