EmnEllie Cross Stitch Blog

Animal Crackers, and Old Glory   The other day at the grocery store, I picked up a big 'ole package of animal crackers; they're absolutely delicious! No frosting or sprinkles or anything, nice and crunchy. Most of the animals are easily recognizable, like the lion, the giraffe, and the dachshund. But others are still a mystery. One appears to be a strange mixture of a dinosaur and some other creature... Progress on Contemporary Flag   So here's what it looked like the last time you saw it:   And here's what it looks like now: Nice! Perfect lighting outside for the picture too. Working from stripe to stripe is very enjoyable. Maybe the next time I pick this one up, I'll focus more on the blue part, then do a bit of that white stripe, then more blue, then white stripe etc. Next in the Rotation is...   Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll...   Great Wave off Kanagawa!   Been a while since I stitched on this one. I'm off to go and tackle a TON of that cream color...

A Change in My Rotation I've made up my mind, I'm going to change my rotation rules. Instead of a lottery system, I will instead just stitch on what I want for awhile. I feel wild! I will give myself one week to work on the wip, then I'll post my blog post as usual showing my progress.  Progress on Still Life with Tangerines  Here's how far I got: Oh my gosh I love that peel on the bottom. Is it just me, or does it look a bit like a shrimp?  Next in the Rotation is... Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... Contemporary Flag!  Happy Stitching! Marisol

Another Week of Tangerines, and Thinking of a Change in my Rotation  I'm so enjoying working on Still Life with Tangerines! Because of that, I've decided to work on it for another week, it's such an appropriate summer wip. Also thinking of maybe stopping my lottery for a bit. Have to give it some thought. Progress on Still Life with Tangerines  Here's what it looks like right now: Look at that peel! The Luca S. designers are really good. The shading is incredible, it feels more like a watercolor than cross stitch. See everyone next week! Maybe I'll change my rotation rules, maybe I'll make a new start. But I'll definately drool over a Riolis kit! See you next week, and Happy Stitching! Marisol 

It's so hot, I'm melting, I'm torn. It's absolutely beautiful outside; but it's also really, ridiculously hot. At the same time that I want to stand in the sunshine, I want to stand in front of an A/C. Progress on Linen & Threads Mystery Sampler Decided to give this one more time, but not sure if I've made an equal amount of progress. What do you think? Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: And here's what it looks like now: I'm so enjoying this chart! Next in the Rotation is...  Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... Still Life with Tangerines! This one is so pretty, looks like a watercolor! Happy Stitching! Marisol

Summer is Here I'm melting! It's so hot here. But it shall not stop me from stitching! Cross stitch (and ice cream) will power me through the summer!  Progress on Fantasy Triptych Sometimes when you work on a Wentzler, you see an ocean of confetti and think of stitching on another wip. This time around I sat down, rolled up my sleeves and tackled that confetti!  Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: Fantasy Triptych before And here it is now:                                                                    Fantasy Triptych after  According to my blog I haven't worked on this since december. But I think that I have worked on it more recently than that, so a part of the progress pictured above might not be solely from this week.  There is so much blended floss! Very pleased...

Long Time No See! Sorry it's been awhile since my last post! Haven't been stitching on my wip's lately. Hoping to get more stitching time in this week! Progress Update on Wild Card Decided to stitch on Leilani. It felt so right stitching this tropical lady in May. The color of the floss and the fabric got me into a summer mood. Here's what she looked like the last time you saw her: Leilani before And here's what she looks like now: Leilani after Skin! Decided not to stitch her skin 1 over 1, looks good so far, we'll see how it turns out. And her skirt; gorgeous! Really like the way that the flowers are turning out. Can't wait to get to the beading. Next in the Rotation is... Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... Leilani! Wow! She really wants to be stitched, doesn't she! I'll be back again next week to share my progress. Until then, Happy Stitching! Marisol

Progress Update on J is for Jack O' Lantern Hello again! Been a busy beaver over here. Weather is absolutely beautiful, and I've been getting a goodly amount of stitching time in. So here is what J is for Jack O' Lantern looked like the last time you saw it: And here's what it looks like now: A stem! That green is beautiful. I like the roundness of this pumpkin too. Initially I did have my doubts about the brown shades of this pumpkin, but I've gotta say it's grown on me. And that leaf! Next in the rotation is... Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... Wild Card! Leilani here I come!!!! Might pick up some other wip's too! Happy Stitching! Marisol

Progress Update on Contemporary Flag Hi! So I didn't get a page finish on this one, but in my defense I grossly underestimated the actual size of the page I was working on. But hey! I made a lot of progress, and that makes me happy. Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: before And here's what it looks like now: after  I apologize for the lighting, it's a dark rainy day here!  Stars! I stitched some stars! Isn't the shading in this chart amazing?  Next in the rotation is...  Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... J is for Jack O Lantern Fall in April! Hurray! This one is so fun to stitch on. Fabric is pretty nice to. Stay well, and keep stitchin'! Happy Stitching! Marisol  

Dropping in to Say Hello! How are you? Enjoying your time at home? I don't leave my house very often anyway, so my routine has not been disrupted very much, I'm a bit of a homebody. Progress Update on Contemporary Flag Last week I promised a page finish. Alas, I have no page finish to report! But I've decided to be at least a bit true to my word, and have decided to keep stitching on this one for another week in the hopes of getting that page finish. So I'll see you next week! Happy Stitching! Marisol

  Greetings from my Cross Stitch Citadel!  How's the social distancing going? Is anyone getting any stitching done? Sorry for not posting in awhile! I wanted to give Kanagawa an extra week, because I hadn't stitched on it much during the first week.  For the past few days the weather here has been really dark and dreary. But the temperature is cooling down too, so that's nice. This is such weird weather for the end of March.  Progress on the Great Wave off Kanagawa  I apologize for the poor lighting in these pictures, but like I said; it's a really dark day outside!  Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: before And here's what it looks like now: after "But wait!" you're saying, "What about the page finish you were talking about in the last blog post?!" I know, I'm asking myself that question too. But at least I made some progress on the sky!  Next in the...

Bad Case of Start-itis  I really want to make a new start! Now, I like the projects that I'm working on, but I also want to choose new floss, pick out some fabric, choose a chart (not necessarily in that order). Thinking about starting a chart from the amazing store Stitchrovia on Etsy To name just a few, I like: I Read Past My Bedtime, Shoot for the Moon, Tolkien Not all who wander, Life is a Beautiful Ride... hmm. Maybe I should stop now, or else I'll name all the charts in the shop! Progress on Trick or Treat Moon   Tumbling out of my Fall themed two weeks of cross stitch, I am pleased to share my progress on this wip, and pleased with the progress that I made. Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: before And here's what it looks like now: after Behold the jack o lantern! Also completed some of the border on the left hand side. But that jack o lantern is the cherry on top of my week. Next in the Rotation is... Dru...

Storms and Cross Stitch March already! This year is flying by. The weather has been sort of Spring like lately, so that's nice. Lemon tree in the garden is starting to bloom, and the blossoms smell so sweet and lovely. Progress on Turkey Bay There's supposed to be a big storm tonight, it's already dark outside. Sorry if the pictures don't have the best lighting!  I didn't work on this one as much as I would have liked, but I'm still pleased with what I was able to accomplish.  Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: before And here's what it looks like now: after! NOTE; The only thing that I accomplished this week was stitching the pilgrim. All of the other progress was made over November, when I decided to be in a Thanksgiving-ish mood, so I pulled this one out. I just wasn't pleased with the way the pilgrim looked. The coverage wasn't as good as it could have been. So I frogged t...

Winter Rolling in Again The temperature is supposed to be 20 degrees soon! I don't know how many more cold fronts I can face. Glad I didn't plant anything in the garden yet. Lent is coming up, Ash Wednesday is tomorrow already, and I'm having pancakes today. I don't think that I'll have a special project for Lent, but just continue my rotation. Speaking of rotations, let's look at my progress over the past two weeks, shall we? Progress on Trick or Treat Moon Decided to work on this one for two weeks instead of one. I've been using purple and white a lot lately, but am pleased to report that I've moved onto using green floss! Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: before Look at that floss! So Halloween-ish. Here's what it looks like now: after! Can you see the outline of the bat?! Love love love the candy corn letters! I don't like candycorn ( Reese's Peanut Butter cup's are the King of Ha...

Missing a Project I recently discovered a wip was missing from my cross stitch lineup. I use glass tokens and a tupperware to choose my next wip. Shake the container, and whatever I draw is the chosen wip of the week. But lately I've been thinking,"When am I going to stitch on Trick or Treat Moon?" I hadn't made a lottery token for him yet! Don't worry, I fixed it! Then, when I went to my pdf reader app on my tablet, I couldn't find the chart for it. It was gone. You may remember that a while back, I cleaned up the files on that app and deleted files I didn't need any more. I had accidentally deleted the Chart for Contemporary Flag... and I guess that I also deleted the chart for my Moon as well. Oops. Shall we move on to my progress last week? Progress on Linen & Threads Mystery Sampler Made a nice amount of progress this week. It's always fun to see the color of the floss change without having to switch out the floss. Here's...

Rain, Cross Stitch, and Coffee That pretty much sums up my week! Also, has anyone else noticed that French Vanilla coffee creamer makes your coffee taste like a giant marshmallow? Progress on Wild Card  Initially, I thought that I would stitch on more than one project. However, Contemporary Flag caught my eye, so I ended up stitching solely on that project for the whole week. This project is really calling to me right now! Here's what it looked like the last time you saw it: Oh say can you see! And here's what it looks like now: We advance Ok, so nothing dramatic to report on progress, but a modest amount completed. Put this one on my 11x17 Q-Snaps so I could see the bigger picture. Next in the Rotation is... Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll... Linen & Threads Mystery Sampler!  You know what's weird? I was just talking about this one last night. Freaky! I have that lovely repeating band to stitch on next. Happy Stitching! Marisol...

Podcasts, TV, and Stitching One of the things that I've been doing a lot of lately is listening to podcasts. I don't have to look up from my cross when I listen to a podcast, like I do when I watch TV.  There are tons of different genres available. History, true crime, science etc.  I use the app,"Stitcher." Nothing to do with cross stitch, but wow! what a fitting name! I think Gary and Vonna were talking about podcasts recently. However, I still watch TV when I cross stitch. Generally, when I'm stitching on a design for my shop, I listen to podcasts. When I am stitching on my rotation, I watch TV. I recently saw,"Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" the 1980's version with Francesca Annis. What a production! Top notch acting, great plot; enjoyed every second of it. Ok, I'll stop boring you now, and move on to the stitching update.  Progress on Still Life with Tangerines  Quote from the more optimistic version of myself: So for thi...

New Year, New Resolutions   This month is just speeding by. January 20th already! Not going to babble about all of my New Year's resolutions, just one. I'm going to try waking up early in the morning. Really, really early. For instance, this morning I woke up at 4:40 A.M. We'll see how long this lasts, but doing pretty good so far. Progress on Contemporary Flag In my last post, I felt that I hadn't made as much progress on this patriotic cross stitch as I would have liked. But this week is very different. In my opinion, I feel like substantial progress has been made (even though I accidentally erased my chart from my pdf reader app. Oops) and now I feel like I can share my progress with you. This is what it looked like the last time you saw it: the before And here's my progress: after! It's really starting to emerge! This is such a quick stitch. My strategy is to break up the red and white with some of the blue. The red and white stripes...

No Drawing this Week  I have really been looking forward to stitching on Contemporary Flag, but unfortunately, I feel like I haven't stitched on it a lot this past week. So instead of drawing another wip, I've decided to just keep stitching on Contemporary Flag. Although I won't be sharing a progress picture this week- I want the big reveal to be next week!- I will show you a picture of what it looked like last time you saw it: the before Visit me next week to see my progress on this Grand Old Flag! Happy Stitching! Marisol

Happy New Year!  It's 2020! I had a great Christmas Vacation. Pajamas, chocolate, Trivial Pursuit, Midnight Mass, and lots and lots of relaxing. Also, I decided to relearn how to play Backgammon. Tons of fun, very fast paced. Wild Card Progress   On my last update, I drew my Wild Card. I have not drawn another project since December 16th, because I figured that since I was going to be on vacation, I would stitch whatever called to me. The first project that I worked on was the Linen & Threads Mystery Sampler. The last time you saw it, it looked like this: Before  And now it looks like this: After Page finish! And I finished the first band of the sampler! That minstrel looks really great, the designer did such a good job. Looking forward to tackling the next band. The DMC 115 floss really makes it look like it's glowing. New Start & Also a Finish   Yep, that's right, a new start. I was feeling very festive, and during the twelve...

Hello Again! Unfortunately, Texas weather has decided to turn warm again(sob sob sob). But the good news is that I still feel in the Advent spirit! Lots more people in my neighborhood have put up their Christmas lights. I've been marching my way through Christmas specials of my favorite murder mysteries, and as of yesterday, started chowing down on fruitcake. I've listened to Fiber Talk once or twice before, but this week I listened to the Midweek Chat. It was great! Vonna and Gary are so funny, and it's nice to listen to people discussing Cross Stitch while I cross stitch. Now, I do watch Flosstube, but lately I've been listening to a TON of podcasts. I use an app called Stitcher (link is here ) that my mother recommended. It's nice to listen to podcasts while I stitch, because then I don't have to keep looking up at the TV screen. Want to listen to Fiber Talk? The website is here Leilani Progress Motivated by the beautiful Leilani and the lovely Car...