EmnEllie Cross Stitch Blog

 *Trumpets blasting, herald walks down a red carpet* The first okra of the season has arrived! Fresh from the garden, the perfect length, and oh so beautiful! Mind you, it's literally one single okra. The okra has been a bit of a puzzle the past few years. I used to grow okra that would get really tall (the plant itself, not the produce). Sometimes it would almost be 6 feet tall (1.8 meters). But the past few seasons the okra is downright short, maybe just a foot and a half tall (.46 meters). What's that about? Has this happened to anyone else?  Earth100, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Not my okra, just a picture from the internet. Isn't it beautiful? Naturally, when I get enough okra in, I'll be eating fried okra, the indisputable king of all okra dishes. Recipe is here if you've never made it or heard of it before. Some ranch dressing, fried okra, baked chicken, and a glass of sweet tea. What more do you

Good Monday morning!  Dear reader, I hope that you had an enjoyable week. I love stitching, and writing about my cross stitch adventures. The floss, the WIP's, designing new charts, and seeing my projects come to life on the fabric is so rewarding. I try to make steady progress on my WIP's throughout the week, so that on Monday I can show you a good amount of progress. Also, I like sharing articles, videos, or pieces of music that caught my eye. Monday for me is an enjoyable day, because that's the day I write to you. But imagine my surprise when I looked at the blog traffic recently! It's been like Grand Central station! (Please allow me to apply a slight hyperbole). America has claimed the lion's share, but there are international stitchers paying me a visit too. To two groups of stitchers whose languages I dabble in, I say ようこそ and bienvenue! And to everyone; thank you so much for reading my posts.  Shall we dig into some cross stitch?  First up, we have Paris Ma

 Time for another free chart! Red Band Sampler 1 by EmnEllie Information about this sampler: Stitch Count is 100 x 138 The pictured model was stitched on 18 count Ivory Aida. Finished size on 18 count aida is approximately 5-1/2 inches (14.1cm) wide x 7-3/4 inches (19.5cm) high. In the pictured model above, I added my initials and the year. These initials and the year will not be shown in the chart that is sent to you, I left the space blank so you could add your own initials and year. Link to download the PDF is here.

You know how it is. When you look at Etsy, browse a bit, find an amazing chart... BAM! Suddenly, your project pile (that you just promised to stop growing) is in sudden need of a new chart. Here's what I saw. Hobbiton looks amazing, but I want Rohan too. Okay, so this one needs to go on my rotation as well... I might need more project bags and Q Snaps.  Exciting developments this week on the Mystery band sampler by Linen & Threads! I'll let the picture speak for itself: The sun has arrived, and the first dragon has too! Now I can start brainstorming a name for it. Leave a comment below if you have any ideas.  You know how when you go on city tours, the tour guide lifts her umbrella and says, "Follow the umbrella! This way please!" Well, follow the umbrella to the next WIP, Paris Market: Isn't the 10 x 10 method remarkable? You can cover a TON of ground in no time flat. This part of the chart is almost exclusively half stitches as well, so that has something to

 Some good news and some bad news to start off with. Good news; it's sunny again so I can take photos in great lighting. Bad news; it's gotten hotter as it's gotten sunnier, to the tune of a 104 degree day. I'm melting. Now let's ignore the melting blogger and turn our attention to my cross stitch progress. First up is the Mystery Sampler: The dragon is really starting to appear! I would have quite a bit more of the dragon to show you, but unfortunately the frog came to visit... twice. And in the same part of the chart. It happens! Now we’ll zoom out and see the wider chart: Next is Paris Market: You can sort of distinguish the side of the building now. There is a mistake somewhere, but I think I can fudge. New plan for this week though. Instead of continuing up the building, I'm going to go to the bottom left, and start stitching in ten by ten blocks again. I really enjoyed stitching in ten by ten blocks when I was working on Nikolai (Russian Hunting by Riolis

 May flowers are in full bloom at my cottage. The red and pink roses are saying, "Hello world!" while the geraniums are sporting their best, bright red blooms. I would enclose a picture here, but as I write, the plump, menacing storm clouds are looming overhead. Hopefully I can add a picture of the flowers to next week's post. In the meantime, here’s a great article with tips on growing geraniums. It's been a very busy week. Things always seem to get much busier in the Spring. There's lots to do in the garden, Easter to prepare for, the cottage to dust, air and re-decorate. But thankfully, I've had time to stitch! Let's see my progress from the past week: I'm pleased as punch with those half-stitches! It was nice working in various shades of cream and grey, but I'm not going to lie; the salmon pink and those splashes of green were a welcome change. Moving on the the Mystery SAL: The dragon is destined to have a bright red tail and dark wings. Love