I'm falling in love with too many things and adore this festive design! Thanks so much!

Their Thanksgiving dinner?

I just received my bookmark order from a shop on Etsy called CrossStitchbyTracey. I love them! She actually sews them from larger pieces of 14 or 18 Aida. $11.95 for six of them with free shipping from way up in Canada. She takes custom orders and can sew them really fast. I found another shop on Etsy (of course) that has hand-dyed Aida. It's stunning! So I'm going to order some of the hand-dyed fabric and have it shipped to Tracey to get some incredibly unique bookmarks. And my usual disclaimer, I'm not getting paid by or getting stuff free from the shop. I just like showing off my exciting finds!

I dug this out from the bottom of a bin in my local charity shop. I couldn’t let this beautiful piece of work languish in such circumstances. It cost $2.20. That wouldn’t even cover the thread. Now to find out what to do with it.......hmmmm

I have two medium long-haired cats (a calico, Minnie; and a tuxedo, Mario) and although they are beautiful, their hair in my projects is not beautiful. As I am stitching along, I see a black hair trying to weave its way through the floss and become part of the picture. I use tweezers to coax it out of the mix of threads. The hair must be in the air and fall on to the projects as I'm stitching. What do you all do about this problem.

How to keep my WIP stored in a neat and orderly way. The existence of erasable pens that will keep my project thread bags neat looking after frequent usage. Thank you Chatters for sharing your good ideas!

Well we were supposed to get back to Pennsylvania today but things never go as planned. We actually got back to PA on Tuesday and surprised the heck out of our daughter and her family! Our original plan was to leave Arkansas on Wednesday getting us home today (Sunday) but after checking the weather forecast we decided to leave last Saturday and make stops in Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, the Hershey area and then finally Bucks County. We were watching the weather carefully and thought we would have to stay 2 nights in either Indiana or Ohio. But we got up early Monday morning in Indiana and were on the road by 8:30 AM trying to stay ahead of a rain/snow mix that was supposed to start around noon. We made good time into Ohio and decided not to stop and instead find a campground in Western PA for an overnight. Unfortunately when we got off of I-70 to drive to the campground we discovered the road was so narrow with lots of curves to get a 38 foot RV around that we had to get our GPS to take us back to the highway. So we decided to just drive straight through to Hershey. We were able to sleep in until around 8:30....late for us....and drove to the place where we're parking our camper until next spring. But we have been so busy, cleaning and winterizing the camper, buying furniture for the bedroom at our daughters house and moving all our belonging in. Plus after 8 winters in south Texas we have few winter clothes. So at some point this week we have to go shopping for some winter clothes. Really looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will be with both of our daughters and their families. My two brothers and their families know we're back but we haven't said anything to my husband's three sisters yet. They are the kind of people.....especially his oldest sister.....who thinks we should drop everything and run to visit them. Oh well what's that old saying......you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family!......If only!!

Is it possible to buy the pattern only? I don't need the whole kit.

To all of you, Thank you so much for your kind words . It meant a lot to me. My family has been so supportive. Now, I can get back to the church (which I have not been attending for a while) I know that will help. What a wonderful group. I am so glad I found you. Thank you all again. Paula.

I work exclusively with 25 ct Lugana. I'm the super fan who ordered a fabric swatch sample book all the way from Italy. I'm having a hard time estimating my design size. 14/28 and 16/32 are always listed, but 25 ct is left out in the cold. I've tried calculators that leave room for framing, or not, leave room for a border, or not, and calculate simply the size of the design, which is ideal. Different calculators have come back with several inch differences in design size. Who can I trust? My current method is to run a basting stitch every five stitches vertically and horizontally and count the stitches for myself. There has to be an easier way.

Has anyone ever heard of Synthrapol thread pretreatment. I am starting a pair of kitchen towels done in Weeks Dye Works. They recommend pretreatment thread with this. Can’t find it anyplace. Please help. Anna Marie

Does anyone just cross stitch something because they love the design or what it says - with nothing in mind what they are going to do with it or who going to give to? And then never really do anything - just keep it, pull it out to look at every now & then. I have several pieces like that. When I'm gone from my earthly home, I hope my kids will smile at me, enjoy going through them & find someone to give to.

I’ve taken this WIP up to brighten up my days. The one hard and fast rule here is to do your outer circle first. Getting it right avoids massive 🐸

Is anybody else having problems here?

I have made several of your kits. Each and every one of them have turned out beautifully. I love them so. I have lost the directions to the Jim Shore Reindeer kit. I dont know how or where. Is there any way possible to just order the instructions for the kit. I am willing to pay for it. Please let me know. I would love to finish and display the Reindeer. Thank you, Kristel