I love the annual Santa designs from Prairie Schooler. This piece was stitched as a round robin with a group of friends in real life and online, probably at least 15 years ago.  This piece brings back a funny little memory . . . . When my youngest child was a baby & I was home on maternity leave, one of our cats brought a baby bird into the house and let it go still alive.  When our dog Buddy spied the bird, he launched himself across the room at full speed and slammed into the wall.  The force of him knocked this framed needlework and a glass lantern off of the wall, sending both crashing to the floor into a mass of broken glass.  Meanwhile I was simultaneously trying to deal with a crying baby, a bird on the loose, and a frantic dog.  It was a scene worthy of I Love Lucy.  Eventually I caught the bird, calmed the dog, and cleaned up the glass.  But 13 years later, I still haven’t replaced the glass in this frame.  I really should replace it to protect the needlework.  But it is a funny memory in hindsight.

In the late 1980s, my mother, Sandra Gentry, started this cross-stitch design. In time, arthritis made stitching too painful to continue. She passed along the partially completed needlework to me. Years passed as I set aside needlework in the 2000s when my children were small. In 2014, in anticipation of Mom and Dad’s 50^th wedding anniversary, I completed the piece.

I love you Mom and Dad, and I want to thank you for a home of love & laughter!

A few years ago, I did a round robin project with a group of internet-friends.  This was the piece that I selected for the round robin, a kit entitled Lily of the Valley by The Drawn Thread.  There are a few different drawn thread techniques in this one, but nothing too daunting.  I love the silk threads in it.  The round robin ended in 2010, but unfortunately the green silk fiber ran out before this was completed.  I wrote to The Drawn Thread, and they happily sent me more.  But by then I was preparing to move and all of my needlework ended up packed away for the next 3 years.  I pulled everything out this spring, and I finished this piece.  I’m so happy that I finally did. It hangs in our kitchen and cheers me every day.

I’ve had this set of holiday needlework designs by Lizzie Kate for years.  I decided to start with the Halloween piece.  It was quick and fun.

I have collected jesters and masks since I was a little girl.  I don’t collect jesters really any more, but I still cherish this piece that I did when I was in college.  It was a huge pain to stitch, with lots of blended colors (1 thread each of two different colors) and metallics throughout.  It seemed like a constant battle with knots.  But it is a stunning little piece.  I believe this design came out of an old “Just Cross Stitch” magazine.  The artist was Jeanne Christine.