I’ve dreamed about this happening for over a year now! And here we are.

I’ve learned so very much in building this place that I hope you will like and visit often.

Today is our soft launch. We’re live! You can see us!

We are still under construction and hope you’ll be patient. But even better, we hope you’ll let us know if you find a broken link, misspelling, anything… we are looking and testing as well.

A dream. And now you all are part of that dream. There’s a beautiful design by The Blue Flower that seems to capture the beauty of a dream. To stitch about your own dream, the image is clickable and will take you directly to our shop for ordering —

It seems like I can always find something to stitch that captures what I’m thinking or feeling. This one is so beautiful. Ideal for any count of fabric, linen, evenweave or aida, and is stitched with Classic Colorworks and Weeks Dye Works threads with DMC floss.

Thank you for visiting. Thank you for sharing any glitches you find. Thank you for helping spread the word. Thank you for offering suggestions on how we can be better. Thank you for being a part of our dream-to-reality experience. ~Alice

Came across a chart tonight that brought so many memories flooding back. So many that I truly wanted to share them with you.

My youngest’s boyfriend at the time was deployed to Afghanistan. Such a hard, scary time. To help her focus on something other than his absence here and his ever-present danger there, I was able to convince her to take on this piece. Stitching was something we could do together and this is such a fabulous piece to stitch for someone in the military. Her plan was to complete this over a year’s time to give to him upon his return.

In the designer’s own words —

“I have always loved quilts and the fact that each quilt square has a name. I created a design with the state quit blocks arranged in the order the states were admitted into the union of the United States. The first thirteen states are in the blue section of the flag. The other states are in the stripes section. Although this is a large piece of stitching, I do no think you will get bored! Each quilt square presents it’s own challenge and fun while being stitched. Enjoy!” ~Karen Kluba

Once a piece is completed and gifted it takes on its own life. Many times we never know whether it still lives or has made it to a garage sale or attic somewhere. Regardless, this beautiful design, with its deep symbolism provided my daughter many comforting hours as she waiting for her soldier to return home.

It is my hope that if you choose to stitch this one, it brings you great peace knowing the historical influence over its creation. ~Alice

As spring moves quickly towards summer I find myself spending every moment working on this website. While I haven’t met any of you that I know of, I think of you often.

What will you like? What will you skip over? Are you a experienced? Beginner? Casual stitcher? Or a lover of creating with your hands?

Will you stop by and decide this is a worthy community? How do I make it so? I have no delusions that I can build a site to please everyone all the time, but I do hope to build a home where everyone feels comfortable and chooses visit time and time again.

Because my focus is so much on this site, there’s precious little time to stitch. Once I get home from work I jump right into building this site.

I’m seeing so many designs and designers that I would love to stitch and share with you. As I look at at each to decide who makes the cut on this launch, I think about my own stitching style. I love to stitch on smaller counts of fabric and over 1 has long drawn me in. As my eyes age, 40 ct. linen just isn’t in the cards anymore, nor is 36 ct. I can manage 32ct. with a magnifier. It has become my stitching buddy. Because I favor taking any design and doing it over 1, the magnifier helps me keep my counting on point.

All of the above, leads my right back to you. New friends I haven’t met yet. I feel a bit like I’m moving into a new neighborhood. When we first meet, I so hope you find this new home clean, fun, intriguing, worthy-of-conversation. I hope that you will want to contribute. Ask questions. Share pictures of your own needlework.

There are so many threads, designs, accessories, etc. that are out there for us to lose ourselves in. I know from my previous experience as a shop owner that there is no way I can carry it all, no matter how much I want to. I will happily share my primary distributors with you so that you can browse their sites. If you see something that interests you, let me know. Am happy to entertain custom orders. If there are designs by specific designers that you’re looking for and we feature that designer, let us know. Very happy to see if we can get that for you.

These are my random thoughts as I take a quick break to eat lunch. I’ll soon return to adding product in for you to browse through. Thanks for listening! I cannot wait to meet you. ~Alice

Today is a stay-in-my-jammies kind of day. Had my second COVID vaccine yesterday. Everything I had heard previously, along with recommendations from my employer, said to hunker down for a day. It will pass.

After the first shot, my arm was a little tender, but no big deal. The headache that went along with it wasn’t pleasant. Not enough to stop my day or to stay home from work. Twenty five hours later it was gone.

Today the arm tenderness is a bit more irritating. And the headache is back along with the chills. Not restrictive enough to make me curl up and retreat, but irritating enough that I’m glad I heeded the friendly advice and scheduled a vacation day. I’ll deal with these discomforts if it keeps me out of the ICU. That’s the end game afterall.

My current project is Bless This House by La-D-Da —

When choosing this one, I had a specific size and frame in mind. Such a different selection process than stitching a piece and then framing. I needed something to fit a horizontal 5″x7″. I had a welcome-ish idea in mind. Am a big fan of stitching over one as I love the concentration of color and imagery that happens when stitched over one.

The model for this one is stitched on 40 ct. over 2 with a completed size of 8 1/2″ x 3 1/2″, too big! And so I started playing with stitch counts to see if I could get a workable size over one.

Stitch count is 170 x 71. End result was 25 ct. over 1 gives me a finished size of 2.8″ x 6.8″. Will fill the space horizontally with margins on the top and bottom. The frame is part of a tri-fold screen with seven frames of varying sizes per panel. This project has been a work-in-process for years. Am slowly filling all 21 frames with needlework, but those stories are for another day.

Stitch Packs are available using a 40 ct. linen and Sampler Threads as well as the 25 ct. Lugana and DMC. If different mixes are preferred, they are available through the online store. Love to Stitch; Stitch with Love

My grandson LOVES Easter eggs. This post is dedicated to this precious boy as it is because of him that I made the stitching choice that I did.

In deciding what to stitch in January of last year, I wanted to leave Christmas alone mostly because I love stitching Christmas-y stuff. A close second is Halloween. So Easter or Thanksgiving were strong contenders. I love my grandson so much so I went looking and this one screamed “pick me”!

How perfect! Stitching with Will’s sweet face in my heart I completed this design in early March. Remember what was happening in early March of 2020? Was very excited to get this done and wanted to rush it off for framing. World events aka COVID-19 got in the way. We also spent Easter apart as did millions of Americans. Never in a million years did I think it would actually be a year later before I could get this framed!

And yes! The finished and framed piece made its debut for Easter 2021, a whole year later!

Was so very excited to hang it on the wall for this year’s celebration. I don’t even think I’ve put it away yet over a week later. 😀

The charted model was stitched on 16 ct. White Chocolate Aida using DMC floss. I used 28 ct. Antique White Cashel Linen and DMC floss. Our Stitch Pack will be available using both fabrics, just specify at order which you’d prefer.

Would love to see what Easter pieces you’ve done or are working on.

I’m guessing each of us has a favorite fabric we like to stitch on. Perhaps even a favorite count. Me? I’ve always like the smaller counts. In my better-seeing days (some call it my younger days), I gravitated towards 32ct. and smaller. I love to stitch over one. Even dabbled in 40ct. silk guaze.

Now? Well I do still like the smaller counts and still love to stitch over one. Unfortunately, doing so requires the assistance of a magnifier. Without it, even 28ct. is a challenge. Eeeek! But, with it, I can still manage 32 ct. over one. That’s the smallest I dare go or I’ll spend more time ripping out than putting in.

My latest project is one from my WIP (Work in Progress) stash. I’m not really sure why it was relegated to the basket when I was so close to being finished, but alas it was. The piece is One Hundred Years by Lizzie Kate —

The model was stitched on 32ct Light Mocha Belfast linen, one of my faves. I am stitching on this very linen, but chose to do it over one vs. over two. I also am using DMC floss vs. hand-dyed threads. When stitching over one, the color variation with the beautiful hand-dyes just isn’t as noticeable.

Using the magnifier has allowed me to finish this piece as without it, the threads are not defined enough if stitching over two, much less over one. Not sure if you can see the difference with the picture on the top being an unaided shot and the one on the bottom is magnified.

Why did I decide to stitch this piece to begin with? I can’t remember, but when I read the saying even now that my children are grown, it speaks to how I hope I have lived my life.

A Stitch Pack is available with 32ct Light Mocha Belfast and hand-dyed threads.

Keep stitching!

FEATURED CHART & SUPPLIES

Dogs. Needlework. Our Military. Family. Those are my passions and not necessarily in that order.

For years I volunteered many hours in dog rescue. In so doing, I have met some wonderful people. Enter Tom, Marine, boss, coworker and always friend. He and his wife run Silver Paws Haven and Hospice (Silver Paws Haven and Hospice | Facebook, www.silverpawshospice.org). They have taken in so many sick, elderly and broken dogs and cats.

Through Tom, I met his wife Kerry. A fellow dog lover and needleworker, we shared so much in common. As with most nonprofits, they do an annual fundraiser. In chatting with Kerry about their fundraising, I soon committed to stitch a piece to donate towards this effort.

You Can’t Buy Love But You Can Rescue It by Cross Stitch Wonders

Boy oh boy but this one captures what dog rescue is all about. One of the many beautiful things about this design is that you can customize by stitching it on any fabric count and with colors of your choosing. The entire design is in full crosses and no backstitching. We stitched it on 28 ct. Lambswool Jobelan over 1. his is a snapshot I took on Saturday, 2/6 —

Unfortunately, Kerry will never see the completed piece as she passed away suddenly the next day. To quote her husband —

“Her work with Silver Paws will go on …”

Once framed it will be donated to the hospice.

In an ongoing effort to support Silver Paws, 10% of all 2021 sales of this chart, the fabric and threads, must be purchased on the same order, will be donated to further their rescue efforts. I shared our intent with Marcia, the designer, and she fully supports this project —

“Absolutely you may offer it for sale with a portion of the proceeds going to Silver Paws.”

~ Marcia, Cross Stitch Wonders

There are two stitch packs for this design. The first is based on the fabric and color scheme we stitched; the other is of 14 ct. If you’ve stitched a piece in memory of someone, we’d love to get to know them through your story. ~Alice