When last we spoke, I had an oncoming cold– it was oncoming in the slightest little scratchy throat way for days, which lulled me into the false notion I was beating it.

WHAM! I spent three days in bed last week– two of them were New Year’s Eve and Day, but in the haze of NyQuil and Tylenol PM, I’m not sure which. It’s 2025 now? That would be incredible whether you slept through it or watched a ball drop in New York!

I’m on the mend now– there’s always a bit of jealousy I have, I admit it– when people are recovering from this or that, I always think of the guilt-free time to lay about and stitch, stitch, stitch. I wasn’t even able to! Fortunately, she’s back at it again, so I do have a couple of things to show you from last week, my favorite week of the year, which was not.

Did you see my new little 2025 Tiny Sampler?

I’m pretty proud of it! And even more proud of the DD, who produced the little display boards like a wizard, in just days, with our new X-tool toy! Thank you to all who purchased it. xox. But if Christmas bills are looming, you don’t need the little board to make it– there’s complete instructions for another finish with things you already have around the house and even a template for a little stand up easel for the back. I hope you’ll enjoy it all year!

I have to admit at the beginning of each year, I start to wonder what direction to take the business in– the preponderance of cute, ITH mug rugs is overwhelming in machine embroidery circles. Is this where we’re at? I’m not opposed to cuteness, but surely there’s more to our beautiful art?

I’m pretty pleased with this first little 2025 Tiny Sampler design as being more unique.

Then, I’m thinking of beautiful wreaths of the month this year– the Hellebore and the Titmouse may be in your future if you’d like to up your machine embroidery game a bit this year! Let’s see what happens.

I did get a tiny bit of hand stitching done on my priceless, handmade ornaments. The project has started to move faster now that I realized I don’t have to use the needle that came with my kit- LOL. I also upgraded the hanging loop from twisted floss to the beaded cord you see below. The DD reads my blog, and has informed me there will be no family fight over these ornaments, because she’s taking them! 🙂

The Appealing Cross Stitch has not been touched. I am determined to finish a row of snowmen and ladies across the bottom before the winter ends. If it doesn’t get picked back up next fall, I’m going to then frame and finish. No more lingering projects!

I don’t make yearly goals– monthly is good enough for me! So I’m concentrating on the Moonbeams quilt this month. I was able to stitch up two “Wishing Star” blocks last week.

And two “Friendship Star” blocks are on the way. These are big 15″ finished blocks.

I love that Fat Quarter Shop named the blocks– it makes it so fun. I was paying more attention to instructions than usually do, and I noticed the units are also named. Here’s the “Satellite” unit– heehee! So much easier and quicker to make 40 satellites, than 40 flying geese– don’t you agree?

Then all I have left is four “Peace and Plenty” blocks and two “Trees of Life” before I will attempt my original “Red Dragon” blocks. I won’t need the doves if they come out, so I might just make the doves into a couple of pillow shams.

I’m putting the dragon blocks off because I just need to see how much red and green fabric I have left over. Some of this collection is till available online– it’s “Strawberry Lemonade” by Sherri and Chelsi. But their new collection is called “Laguna Sunrise” and looks like it matches. So no fabric stress there.

I’m making this for a wedding– I saw some engagement photos, and a red dragon made an appearance, so I feel I’m definitely on the right track! Here’s a side by side of the original design and then my Dungeons and Dragons version.

After I finish the Friendship star blocks, I’m going to jump in to the Village of the Month finish and make the first cross stitch snowflake block. I’m working towards finishing the first row this month. Then we can see how it looks.

I re-stitched the January block, “Winterland,” because I really want to have single finishes, as well as a quilt. It looks beautiful– I may sacrifice my Moonbeams finish board I also bought at Fat Quarter shop because the size is perfect! If you are looking for a machine embroidery BOM, but really want to see how everything will come together from the beginning, please consider my Villages of the Month!

And if you already have them, please consider this my invitation to make the fabulous finish with me.

So that’s the update– tomorrow, Monday, January 6th, counts as the FIRST day of my new year, because I say so…

Let’s move some of those crafty mountains this year!

xox
Carol