Back again to share the month's updates with you.
Stitching was the dominant craft in April (as it has been for some time now), with three finishes and three FFOs. My first finish was a piece I picked up at Nashville Needlework Market and stitched for the smalls exchange at our Two Tall Stitchers retreat. As per usual, I finished it just before retreat and I managed to forget to take a picture of it, so I am including below all the projects from our retreat exchange. Mine is the long pillow on the bottom right. I stitched it on 30 ct. Lambswool linen with threads similar to called for, but I used mostly Cosmo threads for the piece. It was a fun and quick stitch and the best part is that the person who received it is also a stitcher and quilter. From the picture below, you can also see the exchange piece that I received - the Stitch All The Things pillow in the top right of the picture. My mom stitched it! It was really fun to get her exchange piece.
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| 2026 Two Tall Stitchers Retreat exchange pieces |
My second finish is a piece I started in January and have been working away on. I really didn't think I'd stitch the border, but once I finished the center, I realized it was missing something - a border! I added the border over a couple days and am really pleased with how it turned out. It will be nice to have another winter decoration for the house. I plan to make this one into a flat fold.
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| Scandi Winter Animals Stitched on 30 ct. Lambswool with called for DMCs |
My third and final finish was also a start at our retreat. Easter Bunny is a free chart from World of Stitches and I saw another stitcher finish it recently and thought it was so cute with the bright, cheery colors. I stitched it with the called for DMC threads on 32 ct. Primrose lugana, a pretty light yellow. I think this will make a really nice Easter decoration and also plan to finish this one as a flat fold.
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| Easter Bunny by World in Stitches Stitched on 32 ct. Primrose Lugana w/called for DMC |
While I was making my exchange piece pillow, I decided to finish up a second pillow. This is part of the patriotic piece from the book Holiday Lineup. I stitched this last year on a mystery scrap of blue evenweave and look forward to displaying it as I put out all my patriotic decorations in a few weeks.
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| Holiday Lineup - patriotic section, finished as a pillow |
My last FFO for the month was a big one. I finally framed Flea Market Flowers. I can't tell you how many times I've looked for a good frame for this piece and none of them quite fit the bill. I was at Michael's in late Feb/early March when they were having a 70% off sale and put the red frame next to the piece and boom, it was perfect. I did the pinning and framing myself on this one and am pretty pleased that I was able to get it fairly straight.
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| Flea Market Flowers, stitched on 25 count Antique White Lugana Called for DMC threads |
In addition to working on a few FFOs, I also spent a little time quilting during April. I've had Reindeer Xing loaded on my longarm and ready to quilt since early February, so it was high time to start actually quilting it. Once I got started, it moved along quickly. I finished half of it one weekend and the other half the next weekend. It is one of the bigger quilts I've made but it really did go fairly fast. I quilted it with rows of figure eight quilting in a grey thread. I'll show the full quilt once I have it bound, but here's a sneak peek.
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| Quilting on Reindeer Xing |
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| 221 neutral 4-patches |
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