A Sprinkle of Stitches - the life and times of a cross stitcher: July 2026

Hey...

Thanks a bunch ya'll for emailing me, leaving me comments here on the blog, and all the other things you do to make me smile and know you care!

I love ya!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks so let's get started....

I'll talk about my stitching first...

I got tired of the "wedding" so I pulled out my "Santa's Wish List"

I had it started...not far, just about the top 20 rows across the top. Then, I got my "results" from the fair. I was livid - I'll leave it at that. Then, I got really critical on my stitches and how they looked due to the commentary of the judge - and know I am VERY careful how I lay my stitches... so - I pulled them all out and restarted....I have one leaf done on the new start, so I won't bore you with looking at it. 😆

But I will share with you some quilting I've done recently....

As I said in the previous post, Ellie and Joseph is getting married next June and they bought a condo. Joseph closes on it today - July 10 and he will move into it this weekend.

Ellie of course is not going to let him decorate it as a bachelor pad - LOL!

So she wanted me to make her a quilt runner....

I don't have the girls this week because Katie and Austin are having a small "staycation".

So Wednesday I got up at my usual time and started cutting and sewing, which didn't take too much time...it's the quilting that takes forever....

anyway....here's the quilt runner:

It's made from all Moda this line is from the 3 Sisters - it is quintessential Ellie.

I did Edge to Edge quilting on it - on my Baby Lock Meridian Embroidery Machine (I don't have a longarm). I found, bought and downloaded this sweet quilting design with a bird/flower/nest and feather. I think it turned out really darling 💞

Then in between hooping and re-hooping and waiting for the quilting to get done I used the leftover scraps to make a quick straight line quilted table mat,

Got them both done in about 12 hours. Whew!

Then Thursday....

hold on to your seats...I had some nice people ask me about Cora's Princess Parade Quilt...

hardy har har....remember I said I wanted it done by her second birthday?!

Let's all laugh....

Her birthday was Wednesday (July 8) - it wasn't done.

So now Granny is shooting for Christmas 😂

One block at a time, Sweet Jesus, right? I'll get it done, right? Slow and Steady wins the race?

Anyway, I made the Tiana Block (It took me 5 hours...that's about how long each one has taken me)

They are foundation paper pieced and believe you me there are several little pieces to each block. Anyway without further ado here is Tiana (the Frog Princess):

Notice her background is Lily Pads - get it FROG Princess and Lily Pads....yeah....it made me giddy to come up with that idea 😂and even giddier when I found lily pad fabric!

THEN,

I got up this morning and I thought....WHY NOT!?

So may I present: Ariel, The Mermaid Princess

She's swimming in....THE WAVES!

Man this background finding makes me happy 😏

Here they all are so far:

I've got:

Tiana - Elsa - Anna

Merida - Ariel - Pocahontas

and

Moana

Completed! guess how many I have left....go on now, guess!

8 I have 8 blocks left. I only have 7 done...and 8 left.

Then it is sashing and the quilting and the binding.

One step at a time, Sweet Jesus.

Here is what the original quilt designer model looks like:

She gave it plain backgrounds, I decided that I wanted backgrounds that played off the Princess represented. I really like mine better (maybe I'm biased 😅).

Let's see....

I think that's all the crafting I've done.

BUT... lots of Family stuff has happened:

July 5 - saw me turn 56 - thank you for the emails, cards, texts that so many of you sent me! It does a girl good to hear from friends!

Cora's Birthday is July 8 and her Daddy's birthday is today! So we had a combined party and here's some snaps of the fantastic day we had:

It was Max and Ruby Themed...if you all know who that is....