Another new face!

Hi everyone! My name is Sara and I'm an algebra teacher (high school math) in Texas. I love cats, silly iPhone games, and of course cross stitching! Margaret Sherry designs got me back into cross stitching during college. I look forward to participating in SALs and exchanges with my fellow stitchers!! Here are a few designs I've done!

Stitching Helpers

Christmas charts made into ornaments

A kit done and edited for a friend's wedding!


Love,

My Margaret Sherry Christmas Stitchings

Now that all the presents have been given out, I can show everyone the Margaret Sherry stitchings I did for some friends (and for myself) this Christmas.

The snowman (or snowlady?), Santa Claus and polar bear tree ornaments came from Christmas Cross Stitch Favourites (Christmas, 2012). I stuck beads on the ends of dress pins and then used them to mount the designs on round pieces of foam core mounting board. The red and green beads around the Santa ornament reminded me of twinkling Christmas lights and I really liked the effect.

Santa and the snowman ornament were given away to friends as part of their Christmas gifts, but the polar bears I kept for our own tree. You can't see it in the picture, but I used a sparkly Kreinik blending filament on the falling dots of snow, so that they would sparkle a bit.

I didn't finish stitching this one until about two weeks ago - a bit late for Christmas. Luckily, I was making it for myself, so there was no real deadline. It will become part of our household Christmas decorations next year. I love knitting and crocheting when I'm not busy cross stitching, so I knew I had to make this design when I saw it. ("Knitting Cat" is available as a downloadable pattern from Margaret Sherry's website.)

Thanks for looking everyone,

Hi !

My name is Sofia, I'm from Lisbon (Portugal) and I am 38 years old.
I am married and I have two children, Beatriz, a 11 years old girl and Daniel, my 3 years old baby boy.
I love craftwork, such as crochet, tricot (one needle or two), jewelry (crystals, beads) but my favourite of all is cross stitch.
I work a bit slow but always in pursuit of perfection.
I love Margaret Sherry's patterns and I hope, by being here with you, I can learn and, who knows, teach something.

Thank you.

MSherry kits are on sale ...

Dear all,

I am not sure if this has been posted about yet ... but I couldn't see in the latest posts (and if already mentioned then this will be a reminder). I found out and wanted to share.

So here it goes Margaret Sherry is having a half price sale on her kits:

Margaret Sherry's website

My favourite:

I might be buying this one myself.

Looking forward to this year's SAL.

 

Calendar cats: January

Hello everyone!

I´m here after longer time and today I will show you this first cat from Calendar cats. I started a little project for this year and it also consists of some Margaret Sherry´s designs. This was the first :-) Click on this link for original post.

Have a nice day / evening!

2014 SALs update!!

Hi everyone!! :)
So, as requested, 'Bags of Fun' was added to our SALs as #7 :D
Happy to see everyone so happy with all suggestions!

I started the list of names with everyone who's willing to join, let me know if there's any change of mind, ok?

I'm blocking comments on this post, I just want to let you know I've updated the original post. Please, continue to comment there, ok?
Original post: here

Form Netherlands to Brazil

Its Christmas time here in Brazil! And I'm soooo happy, because I love christmas!!!

Ok, I know its january, but... who cares? This january turned december now! Lol

Angèle sent me soooo cute things... I loved them all!

Thank you, Angèle!!! Thank you, Nia!!!

Kisses, kisses!

Gislene

SAL #4 - "Puppy Love" finished!

Hello!
Just thought I'd drop in really quickly and do an update on my attempt at SAL #4 "Puppy Love".

I had intended to finish these little cuties before the end of 2013... but time and tide wait for no man and certainly not for me!  Even though I was stitching right up to midnight on 31st December 2013, I didn't actually put the final back stitch in until a couple of days later.

May I present Margaret Sherry's "Puppy Love"

I really did enjoy stitching these gorgeous puppies and I am a little bit sad to have finished them... but while they may be packed away safe and sound at the moment, I will bring them out in a couple of weeks to do the final finish on them.  Still trying to work out what to do but I suspect they will be made into a hanging for either the craft room or one of the spare rooms.

You may notice that I didn't do all the french knots on the lettering.  While I don't mind french knots normally, trying to do them on the lettering was driving me spare... so I decided that life was short enough without stressing over french knots!  In the end I have only stitched them for the punctuation - I don't think they are missed as the design looks just as nice without them!

I am looking forward to starting the next SAL especially the Spring Bouquet kitty.  Hopefully the lovely Margaret Sherry will have some more gorgeous designs out this year in our favourite mags that we can drool over and stitch.

See you again real soon when I come back to show you all the "making up" that I have been doing on my other SAL's that we have stitched over the last few years.

Hugs

2014 SALs (stitch-a-long)

Just to clarify, all groups members can stitch any design they want, at any time. SAL is a group activity, you can join or not, it's up to each one of you. Of course, the more stitchers who join, the more fun we will have :) but each stitcher decides if they have the time and willing to do it.
The goal is to stitch the same design and post photos to show our progress along the year. For almost everyone, this is a motivation starter, watching others progress on their projects, motivates to stitch more on their own as well :) A great way to keep stitching and not give up on big projects!

So, after this definition, we would think it's best to pick bigger designs to stitch along the year, than smaller things that we can easily make at any time, don't you agree? I think we should pick other things besides Sports&Hobbies, everyone can easily stitch one of those charts in one weekend. And, with so many options on that series, we wouldn't be stitching the same thing at the same time.. not really the goal for a SAL, right?

I'm taking a risk with bigger designs and I hope you will all be pleased and join to stitch :D

Did you notice the title? Plural :) After reading all your comments and thinking a lot about this.. let me tell you, it's not easy to be the one to decide something for the whole group :p So, I thought, we could open more than one SAL and each person will join the one they like the most! Is that good?
Not too many options, otherwise, there will be 3 persons doing one design, another 3 on other, and so on.. I think it's more fun to keep 2 big groups.
Let's keep it simple: 2 options :) Is it good for everyone???

For 2014, SAL #5 and #6 :)

#5 Spring Bouquet
Stitchers: Lija, Julianne, Preeti, Noni, Heather, Ana Ferreira, Debbie Vermeulen, Judith

Pattern from Cross Stitch Crazy issue 174

#6 Sunday Snooze
Stitchers: Amber, Noni, Angel, Debbie Vermeulen, Judith

Pattern from Cross Stitch Crazy issue 180

Updated 2014.01.19
#7 Bags of Fun
Stitchers: Amber, Anne Fraser, Noni, Angel, Ana Ferreira, Debbie Vermeulen, Laura, Judith, Zurainny

Pattern from Cross Stitch Crazy issue 185

You can join one or all, it's up to you! The deadline would be the end of the year, each person can stitch at their own pace and post a progress photo during the first week of each month (from Februrary to December).

Does this work for everyone? :)
Would you like to stitch #5? #6? #7? All?

Greetings from a new member

Hi MSherry Lovers!

My name is Zurainny, and I live with my Hubby and our 5 kids in the Land Below The Wind - specifically, the city of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. I have been cross stitching, on and off, for 30 years, since I was 10. Wow, how time flies! 

I occasionally write about my cross stitching, crochet and other interests in my blog Precious Crafts .  It's a nice record that'll remind me about how I spent some of my spare time.

Honestly, though I love MSherry's designs, I have not stitched a single one - the thought of doing fractionals and backstitches is truly daunting!  But when I see what members of this group have accomplished, I am inspired to push myself.

I am really looking forward to stitching MSherry creations, and taking this journey together with all of you! Thank you for having me here. :D

Love,
Zurainny
  

my cute cat again!

Hi,

Nia missed my cat (it is ok

but i did post it before in march 2013).
But it is so cute i will post it again;-)

hugs

New member

My name is Anette I am Hungarian, but now I live in America.
I really like the cross stitch embroidery and Margaret Sherry patterns.
I am glad that you embroider together.
Good sewing for you !

first job for this sweet little kitten
Anette

Playing tennis and gardening snail.

Hi,

Here two that i had not show to you before.
Sorry, they are not the best pictures.
I like the snail the most!
A little late but i wanna wish you all the best for 2014!!
May there be a lot of ms stitching on this blog;-)

hugs Angele

2014 SAL

Who's up for another SAL (stitch-a-long) in 2014? :)

It hasn't been easy to find a recent Margaret Sherry chart...
... published on magazines, so everyone can easily buy it;
... that it hasn't been stitched here on the group yet;
... that we could break in different parts, like we did with Puppy Love, for those who don't want to stitch the whole chart and prefer to make small parts of it.
(If you can find a good idea, please, share it with us!)

So far, I have 2 suggestions :)

#1 Spring bouquet
I think this design is so pretty and cute, I haven't seen anyone stitch it yet! Am I right?
It's a bigger chart, not easy to break in parts so everyone would stitch at their own pace and show us their progress along the year. No specific dates to post, just the end of the year as a deadline to stitch it all!

#2 Sports & Hobbies (thanks to Heather for sharing her idea!!)
Sports&Hobbies series has many different charts, some have been stitched by our group members but there are a lot of options, maybe we could work with that :)
The idea would be to stitch one design every 3 months, total of 4 designs along the year. Each person could make their own choice, pick which designs you'd like to stitch and then show us your finished piece :) One piece posted until the end of March, another until the end of June, another until the end of September and the last one until the end of the year.

What do you think about both ideas?
We can pick the most voted or even keep both and let everyone sign up as they wish! Share your thoughts :)

2013 Christmas exchange update

Problem nº1:
Well, I try to keep track on our exchange but not everyone helps.. I asked everyone to let me know when a package is sent or received, some of you forget to do it :p I can check it here, it's true. But it's much quicker and easier to read your email, update my list and it's done! When people don't write, I need to check post by post, if it's up to date or not...
It would really help a lot if everyone would follow the rules..

Problem nº2:
I noticed not everyone wrote back to their partner... REALLY???
Come on ladies, if you receive a gift, you should write to your friend and say thanks. Being nice, being polite, it's on the rules too but you shouldn't need someone to tell you such thing!! Come on... think a little and write back to your secret Santa!!

Yes, I'm here to manage the group and pull your ears when it's needed too :p

Parcels posted: 18/18
All parcels posted!

Parcels received: 11/18
. Valma - Received :)
. Olli - Received :)
. Angel - Received :)
. Anne Fraser - Received :)
. Heather - Received :)
. Gislene - Received :) Updated 17.01.2014
. Judith - Received :)
. Noni - Received :)
. Rita
. Lentochka
. Cucki
. Maria Ysabel - Received :)
. Jules - Received :)
. Natalya
. Amber - Received :)
. Camille
. Debra Vermeulen
. Julianne - Received :)

Anyone missing on the list??
Who else has received their secret Santa's gift?

Thank you very much

Thank you to Nia for all your wonderful exchanges and #4 SAL :)

Your hard work has been very appreciated and I really enjoyed my first year doing the SAL and exchanges

Thank you to all my exchange partners for the most fab gifts ever xxxx
I love each and every parcel I have received xxxxx

So, Nia when is #5 SAL? lol naughty me!!!

Happy New Year all and happy stitching xxxxxxxx

Drummer Dog I stitched for James
a few years ago :)

Secret Santa from Canada to Dominican Republic

I received my secret Santa's package from Amber from Canada...  Just look such the beautiful things that she sent me.: Mini-stocking ornaments for my christmas tree, stocking ornment to stitch, christmas stickers, ribbon, christmas threads and a beautiful christmas card with gentle words that I will keep in my heart:

But the most beautiful was this ornament: A lovely MS  christmas cat  stitched by her... So cute, so beautiful, thanks so much Amber... I really liked everything.

Secret Santa from Germany to France

Hello ladies

Sometimes things that we definitely can't explain happen...and this exchange is one of those things !
We really don't understand why it took sooooooo long for a parcel to leave Germany and reach France !
I thought my parcel was coming from the other side of the world...not from some hundreds kilometres...
Judith...you should have come & bring me yourself your gifts, you'd have arrived earlier =D
And you would have had a very huge hug from me to correctly thank you =D

Look girls at how I've been spoiled !

Isn't that basket amazing ? =)
I love it !
It will remain on my table with the winter decorations until the spring one appear =)
Incredible stitching and sewing
Thank you so very much again sweet Judith. You've brightened my day.

I wish you all a very happy new year
May 2014 bring lot's of joy & love to you all...and lot's of MS stitches =D

Hugs from France and a very special one to Judith
Valérie