Project Bags

I have started making my own project bags to organize my cross stitch projects. I must admit, they are a lot nicer than ZipLoc bags.

Christmas Project Bag – front
Christmas Project Bag – back
Happiness Project Bag – front
John Deere Project Bag – front
John Deere Project Bag – back
Vintage Sewing Machines Project Bag – front
Vintage Sewing Machines Project Bag – back

Little Quaker Christmas Cross Stitch

I have been enjoying Susan Ache’s Collecting Colors SAL that I went searching for any other patterns that she might have. I came across this Little Quaker Christmas and I soon had it stitched up.

This is the perfect sort of project for stitching in the evenings in front of the TV while we stay socially distanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cross Stitch

While camping in October 2019 I was looking for a portable handwork project that I could take along to work on. I dug out an old cross stitch kit that I had bought for $5 at a guild white elephant sale at our guild quilt show about 6 years ago. The kit was unopened and dated 1999. I thought it was about time I got started on it. This was the first cross stitch project that I worked on in 20 years.

This kit was a Janlynn Counted Cross Stitch full coverage piece called, Smokey Mountain Cats. It finishes at 10″ x 13″. I am not sure whether I will frame the piece or make it part of a quilted bag.

When the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic this spring, I lost my quilting mojo. Unlike many Canadians who were encouraged to shelter at home, I am an essential services worker and I continued to work. The long hours at work coupled with the extreme level of stress called for something different to relax in the evenings so the timing was right to finish this off.

This was the design. I had to use highlighters to keep track of what was stitched and to assist with keeping my place.

Collecting Colors SAL

This is how far I got by February 18, 2020 on the Collecting Colors SAL.

Beginning in January 2020, Aurifil initiated a stitch along designed by Susan Ache. The idea was that each month from January to August they would release another piece of the design. They called this design, Collecting Colors. The design features Aurifil threads but I managed to find the DMC conversion for most of the threads. For those Aurifil threads that I couldn’t find a DMC conversion for, I went to the RGB (red, green, blue) value for the Aurifil thread and then worked out the coversion to the closest DMC color using Damaniel’s RGB to DMC Color Converter.

From the Aurifil website, “Just like sewing a sampler quilt, you’ll need blocks, sashing, and a border. For the Collecting Colors SAL, we’ll name them like a menu. The sashing is the appetizer, the blocks will be the entrée, and the border will be the dessert.”  

This is the image of the finished cross stitch piece from Aurifil’s website.

When you are finished, you end up with a cross stitched “quilt”.