I finished the little snowman pillow faster than expected and now have the pattern posted ready for purchase.  This little guy/gal was fun to stitch and has been done on 48 count fabric to make the pillow 1" x 1" (2.5 cm x 2.5 cm).  However, it is perfectly within scale to stitch it on 40 count fabric as well.
If interested in the pattern, it may be found here: Christmas Cushion 1 - Snowman.  I started another little cushion last night using up a bit more of the space around the Christmas Rug so I am one step closer to being able to 

After the show, I haven't had a lot of time to stitch but do have a bit more done on the little cushion now.  Here is my updated photo for this week.  Next week I am hoping to have it finished and will post my completed version then.
For the moment I am having a bit of a rest after the fun and work of the show.

As you may have noticed, it is never very long before I begin a new mini stitching project.  Last night I had an hour to relax after working on room and fire screens for the upcoming M.E.T. show in Toronto, so I started a new little pillow.

This pillow is a new one I have designed for a Christmas display.  I am not going to reveal what I have put onto this pillow pattern yet but you will see as it unfolds. For now, all you can see is this little teaser! 😉

I am catching spare moments during the evenings to work on some Christmas pillow designs so more will be coming soon. I have  

I have finally finished the main stitching of the rug!  I am so happy that it is finished and I will be able to block it soon.  

Unfortunately, I won't be able to block it until I have stitched other items around it on the gauze that is extra around it.  I have started stitching a little Halloween pillow (my Cairin cushion) which I will show you in my next post when I have completed it. For now, the rug will stay mounted until I am ready to take it off the frame.  

As always, when I have finished a rug, I turn my attention to my next rug project and have decided to stitch my Katrianna Rug.  That rug has been calling to be made for a long time so I am finally going to stitch it! I won't be starting it for a while since I am still working on projects for around the Christmas Rug but at least it is decided. The pattern is printed and I will be starting to gather the threads I need to

Almost to the top of the tree now!  It is coming along very nicely and I feel I am now on the homeward stretch of the stitching for this rug. Hopefully, I will be to the top of the tree by next week.

I am looking forward to trying it out in my Santa's Cottage and it will be front and center at Christmas this year.

​Hope you are having a wonderful summer, I have been enjoying the beautiful weather we are having here and love to spend an afternoon stitching outside after my housework and gardening are finished.

This past week I have been spending some time filling in the background when I get some spare moments.  I photographed it against a blue background to make it easier to see.

Background work is always tedious but this one is going a bit faster than I thought it would.  I am approximately half done the background.

I have decided not to put a fringe onto this rug so once the background is finished I will put some little cushions, Christmas stockings, etc around the open gauze to better make use of the extra gauze I have.  To this end I have been designing some new items to stitch.  
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More on this later...

All of this rug is working out so nicely, I am having a lot of fun stitching it.  The tree is almost done (It went so easily I had done more than I realized) so I am working on the background a bit more today. 

It won't be too long and I will be finished this rug!  I think it may be one of the fastest ones I have stitched. I don't intend to put a fringe on this one so once it is blocked, it will just be a case of finishing the edges and it will be done.

As I have extra space around the outer edges of the rug, I plan to stitch some small projects to take advantage of the gauze before I block the rug and cut the gauze.  I wonder what I should stitch?  I will have to look at my small patterns and see what may fit in the spaces.  Maybe a Christmas stocking or a little pair of slippers, or maybe a little purse!  I like to make use of every piece of gauze (other than what I need for blocking) and it will be fun trying to find something.  

As this week draws to a close I wanted to share my latest progress photo with you. 

I have finished the background under the tree skirt and have started working on the tree. I thought I would do all of the green parts of the tree before adding in the garland but found I was losing track of where I was in the pattern.  Some people choose to highlight their pattern as they stitch so that they don't lose their place but I have never gotten into this habit. Therefore, to make things easier for me I stitched in the first string of the garland.  From there I found it very easy to keep track of where I was on the tree.  As I get closer to the next garland string, I will do the same thing.

As more of the tree takes shape I will fill in background so that I won't have to work exclusively on background once the tree is done. Having a lot of background to complete once 

This week I was able to complete the tree skirt and start the bottom of the Christmas tree.

I worked the background in Basketweave stitch until I reached the side of the tree skirt where you see the long diagonal section.  After stitching down to the first diagonal stitch of the skirt, I switched to the red and stitched the outline of the Tree Skirt. After getting the outline done, it was easy to stitch the rest of the skirt. One thing I did find though was that carried threads of green or brown showed through the red so it is another lesson to myself about carrying threads across before stitching the main color.  It is now fixed and I can continue.

This week I will work on more of the background around the tree skirt and possibly get more of the tree completed.