Series 3 Episode 32 Transcript

For links to products and information mentioned in the podcast, please visit the original blog post.

Hi, everyone, welcome to Series 3 Episode 32 of The Cross Stitch Podcast.  I should just stop saying series now and just go with episode.

Technically this episode has come out a week early, but because it is Christmas coming up, the episode should have been on the 8th and the 22nd of December, but I thought the 22nd is just so close to Christmas and what I want to talk about these next couple of episodes are Christmas-related.  So, I thought I’d rather have them out a bit earlier. 

So, happy December, it’s the 1st of December today, and then the next episode will go out — actually, what I’m going to do is, I’m just going to release it next week on a Tuesday because I also have a bonus going out the week after.  So, we’ll have two normal episodes today, next week, and then a bonus the week after.  So, lots of podcasts before the end of the year.

And then, after Christmas you don’t need to worry about figuring out when the podcast are going to go live because my episodes are finally going to go weekly.  I’m still thinking a Tuesday.  I don’t know why, I just like Tuesdays.  I always think, “Well, at least I have Monday to catch up if I’m a little bit behind.”  So, yes, I’m hopefully going to weekly episodes.

I kind of was, like, thinking about it the other day, and I thought if I can think of enough podcast ideas to get me through half a year with weekly episodes, then I will go to weekly.  And I did it.  I went all the way to June, I have every episode planned out from January to June.  I mean, that must be about 25 episodes, I think.  So, exciting, and then hopefully the rest of the year will be filled up as well.

So, that’s a little announcement for you.  I also just wanted to say before we dive in today that it’s quite windy where I live today.  This is just kind of winter now, it’s wind and rain, and I have the Christmas lights hanging on the window next to me, and I you can kind of hear them banging.  So, I’m sorry if you hear that in the background. 

But today I wanted to take about — these next two episodes, actually in fact the next three episodes are just going to be, like, really fun, light hearted, some festive talk to get us in the Christmas spirit. 

Now, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you might not be as interested in these episodes.  But you might be because some of the things I’m talking about, you know, you can apply them to not Christmas as well.  But at the same time, some of what I speak about I already have spoke about, but I’m applying it to Christmas, so you can still listen if you want to, if you don’t celebrate Christmas.  But if you do hopefully you find some good nuggets in these next episodes.

So, today I want to talk about 10 fun and festive supplies for Christmas cross stitching.  Just some things that you can get to add to your cross stitch, basically to either make it a bit more Christmassy or something you might need for projects.  So, next week is going to be some Christmas-specific projects and finishing ideas.  So, this week I’m talking about supplies that you might need, and then next week I’m going to talk about kind of how to use those supplies into finishing ideas for you.  Sort of like a Part 1, Part 2, I guess.

So, number one is some pompom trim.  I use pompom trim quite a lot on my Christmas projects in particular.  I have some red pompom trim that I basically bought around all of my designs that are in hoops if they are that sort of red, green, white traditional colors and it’s framed in a hoop, I will add some red pompom trim around it.  If you’ve been on my Instagram the last few weeks, you’ll have noticed probably in the background, like on my door, I have a deck the halls hoop hung on my door with red pompom trim around it.  You just literally used some PVA glue or craft glue to just attach the pompom trim on, and it sticks really well to the wooden hoop.  You can also get, like, red and gold — you can different colors, you can get plain red, plain gold, plain white, plain green, or I’ve also found red, green, and white pompom trim that’s kind of like the actual pompom is all those three colors. 

So, pompom trim is obviously little mini pompoms stuck to, like, a bit of ribbony sort of thing, but you can also use actual pompoms too.  You could make some pompoms with a pompom maker, or you know how you used to do it with like — did you ever — my grandad taught us how to do it with cereal boxes, the donut shape.  I’ve kind of forgotten how to do that now.  I can kind of remember, but also kind of forget.  So, yeah, you can do it either way, like make your own pompoms as well with some yarn and attach them on — so, what I’ve done is in the past before I knew pompom trim existed was make some red and green and white actual pompoms, and then tie them onto the screw of the hoop and just tie them on and just have them hanging down.  I did that before I got any pompom trim.

So, there’s like two different options for you with pompoms.  I have photos of both of those on the blog post that goes along with this episode. 

And also, we are also going to be doing transcripts of our episodes as well now, so I will put a link to either read the blog post, which is more like formatted better with all the photos in, or you can just get the full transcript as well.  So, I will link those in underneath the episodes, but you can also find all that on my website as well.  I have a whole section for the podcast on there. 

Oh, actually, I wanted to say as well, another way you can use pompom trim isn’t just for, like, around the hoop, but I actually used pompom trim when I made a garland in the summer, and I’m going to be making another garland for a kind of extra bonus that you get — some of you are going to be getting in December.  And I’m using the pompom trim as like the string to hang the garland up.  I say garland, but some people say garland and some people say bunting, so I guess it depends what words you use.  I don’t know why I don’t say bunting.  Bunting to me is, like, very summery picnic vibes.  I don’t know, maybe garland is the wrong word, actually, now I think about it, maybe bunting is the right way.

But anyway, but basically I made a cross stitch garland/bunting, and I used — I cut the triangles out and I attach them to pompom trim as the string to hang the bunting garland up.  I will link to that tutorial I have.  That is a summer one, and like I said, I am going to be making a specific Christmas one as well, but that is only going to be included in some bundles that people bought these past few weeks.  I’m going to be adding it in as a bonus in December, as long as I have times.  Nobody knows that yet, so I haven’t, like, told anyone, I just want to add it in if I have time in December. 

So, next are aperture cards.  So, these — I hope I’m pronouncing that right — but they are basically cards that have a hole cut out in the front where you can place a cross stitch design.  I really only make cards at Christmas.  I love making cross stich Christmas cards.  I’ve made one, I think, for a Christening as well actually, but I have a tutorial on how to make Christmas cards.  You can get some free mini patterns as well.  They’re quite old now, but probably should update them really, but you can grab those on my website.  Just search “how to make a Christmas card” and it will pop up. 

And there are obviously different sized cards you can get as well.  So, I like the ones where the window is quite small, but you can also get them where, like, the whole front almost is like a whole cross stitch design.  So, it’s up to you what size you want to do.  And they’re just really good, quick easy projects over Christmas and add that quite extra special, nice touch to a card, and they’re a great way to use up, like, scrap bits of Aida as well, like we call have those little leftover bits that we don’t want to throw away, but we don’t really know what to do with.  They’re perfect for those bits of Aida that we have left over. 

So, the next thing I recommend is some ribbon or twine.  This is basically just to hang up your Christmas decorations, but I do suggest getting specific twine and ribbon for Christmas.  So, I have this ribbon, I’ve had it for years, and it says Merry Christmas along — I think it has like a North Pole kind of like stamp on it too.  I love using that to hang my decorations up, but I also just got some new twine as well.  And I got red and gold, and like a burgundy and gold too.  I love that burgundy, maroon kind of color.  You probably notice I wear it a lot if you follow me on Instagram.  So, I also got that color too, and that kind of matches my more, like, cozier, darker kind of color palettes that I have on some designs, like my ‘tis the season one and my little reindeer, my little noel doe one, the burgundy twine kind of matches that more than the red does.  So, the red is good my deck the halls or my elf or my Advent calendar, things like that instead.

I also — absolutely gutted, but I had this fairy light thread that I used in the Advent calendar kits, and lots of you got it, and we’ve all be sharing our pictures of our finished Advent calendars the past couple of weeks, and so many people have been asking where I got that fairy light thread from.  But I did get it from a supplier, and they are out of stock now.  It’s another reason why they kits went out of stock.  In fact, some of you didn’t even get that thread, but you knew before you ordered, I just put the red and gold twine in instead.  But they don’t have anymore.  I keep checking to see if it’s in stock.  And I’ve searched on Amazon for it and can’t find it. 

But if you’re in the UK, Sam in my Facebook group did share that you can get fairy light thread from Paperchase, so they sell it and it looks very similar to the one that I used on my Advent calendar.  So, you can go ahead and order it from Paperchase.  I’m pretty sure that it won’t ship worldwide, if you’re not in the UK you probably don’t even know what Paperchase is.  But you can just search fairy light thread.   It probably does exist somewhere.  Someone must have it for sale because this is from a wholesaler.  Now, I did buy quite a lot from them for the kits, but someone will sell it somewhere.  You must be able to get it. 

I have looked.  I’ve only really looked on Amazon and some craft stores here in the UK.  And like I said, Sam did find it in Paperchase.  But if anyone does find it, please share in my Facebook group if you’re in there, or let me know, because so many of you have been asking.  And it is really great thread.  I love it so much.  So, yeah, just — that is another kind of thread you can get to hang up Christmas designs.  It looked so good.   

And then, of course, leftover twine you can just use to wrap Christmas presents up as well once you finish with your decorations — your cross stitch decorations. 

So, the next thing I recommend is a Christmas bag or a pouch, a project pouch.  So, you all know, I love Sarah Ashford Studio.  She makes great project pouches where you can get custom wording on.  So, we had “Countdown to Christmas” for the Christmas stitch-a-long, but you can just order a bag off her Etsy store and have any word on it that you want.  So, you might want “Christmas stitching” or “Christmas cross stitch” or any words like that, and you can get different colors.  I did chose red for the pouches, but you can get silver, you can get gold, navy, pink, they’re the only colors I know of that you can get, but can probably get more.  So, you could order one of those.

Or I have a tutorial on my blog about these red cotton bags that I use.  I use them quite a lot for my projects.  Although, actually, I’ve kind of moved onto more see-through-y kind of ones now, but I do still love those colored cotton bags.  And I have a tutorial on my blog about personalizing them.  How you can stitch right on the bag and kind of like jazz it up, the actual bag up a little bit.  And the tutorial is actually for red ones.  And I actually personalize them with my kids’ names on.  We used to use them throughout Advent, kind of like an mini Advent calendar, a reusable one.  There was like a different thing in the bag every day for them when they were little. 

But, yeah, you can personalize the bag.  That’s why I love the cotton bags, so that you can stitch on the actual bag as well.  So, you can do that.  Or maybe go even on step further and have a specific box just for Christmas projects or a specific, like, spot where you stitch your Christmas projects with the box or the bag next to.  Kind of like how we spoke about in the cozy cross stitch episode, you know, make that your now cozy Christmas stitch box.

I love doing things like this.  Like, some people might think, “Oh, well, that’s really silly, why would you do that?”  But it just makes the actual, like, time of stitching kind of like more intentional, more fun, you get excited for it.  I just love doing things like that personally.   Some people will think I’m strange, I’m sure all of you get it though.

So, number five is some Christmas embroidery threads, of course, some Christmas colors.  Oh, my gosh, Christmas is my favorite time to pick embroidery thread colors.  And it seems like every year I find new ones that I didn’t even know existed.  That happened this year.  So, of course, I love all the glitters you can get and the metallics.  I know not everybody does.

I mean, I have actually got a list on the blog post you can go and read with all the different traditional — I say traditional, but I feel like everyone has different colors in their home.  When I say traditional, I mean red, green, golds, whites, those kinds of colors.  My sister kind of just decorates with like red and white, and in the past it was just silver mainly.  You know, I know we all have different decorations.  My mum likes purple one year, pink another year, you know, it’s all like personal preference. 

But I do have a list of reds, greens, whites, golds, and silvers, and then just some extras at the end as well with purples and navies and things like that.  So, you can go and have a little look, pick and choose.

I am actually working on a DMC color palette guide that hopefully will be ready soon, so you can find loads of different palettes in there.  But I also have a whole other blog post about color palettes too that you can go and search.  I love putting color palettes together.

But some colors that I wanted to particularly mention now are some of the glitters and some of — well, this new one that I found.  So, at Christmas I just love the colors — well, the color I actually love is 814, and they do have a glitter color, so that’s C814, and then they also have a slightly lighter glitter color that’s C816.  And those two colors, I just love them at Christmas.  They’re that like burgundy, maroon-y color.  I don’t really decorate much with that color, but I love using it in my actual designs, my cross stitch designs.

I only bought this year — it’s the first year I’ve bought metallic red and green colors.  So, I bought E321, that’s a metallic red, and E669, a metallic green, and I really like them.  I’ve only used them in personal projects right now.  I’m trying to stay away from using too many metallics in my kits and designs because I know you guys don’t really like them.

And then, another color I just wanted to mention was one that I found — well, it was actually an accident how I found it, but it is 4520.  And like with the metallics, I knew they existed, I just hadn’t ever used them at Christmas before.  Well, this color, 4520, is called Christmas Story.  And I did not know this existed.  And it’s kind of like a version of a variations thread, it has different colors running throughout it, and it’s got red, green, and white, and it is so nice for Christmas stitching.  So, I used it to stitch around my Advent calendar.  So, the white thread you see running around it is actually red, green, and white, and it changes color all the way around.  And then, I used it in a Christmas stocking kit that I did for my Christmas sale a couple of weeks ago, so the Christmas stocking was all different colors with the reds and the greens and the whites, and I just really am enjoying that color a lot.  And I’m going to use it in another project that some of you have purchased from me over the weekend — that’s going to be a Santa treat mat.  So, I just really like that color, so I just wanted to mention it on here too.

And actually, speaking of metallics, I don’t know if this true or not, but I got a new batch of metallics in the other day, just silver, it’s all I needed.  So, it’s E168.  And it feels different too me.  It feels so much more softer than what it usually does.  Now, I don’t know if it’s just that particular batch, just that particular color, or whether DMC have been changing the way they’re making them, so they are a little easier to stitch with.  I haven’t actually stitched with it yet, I’ve only been putting it in kits, but I — obviously I use metallic threads in a lot of my designs, I use it a lot myself, and as soon as I felt it when I opened the case, I was like, “This feels different, something is different about this thread.”  So, I want to order more just to see, like, if it is changing, and I need to stitch with it as well.  I just need to do a little bit of stitching with it and see if it’s different, and I will report back.  Because I do feel like something has changed with it. 

So, I’m excited if it has got a bit softer because hopefully it means it’ll be a bit easier for you all to stitch with.  So, yeah, that’s just a little side note I just wanted to tell you all about.  It’s exciting if it’s true.

So, the next thing you need, number six, is Christmas colored cross stitch fabric.  So, I love using red, obviously, green, navy blue, you can also get the flecked color, white with flecks of silver in it.  I haven’t used it myself, but it looks so nice with Christmas designs.  I also just love like a natural linen as well that you can get, like a linen evenweave kind of fabric really looks good with Christmas colors.  And somebody used black for my Advent calendar design, and it looked so good with the white snow on it, so I’m even putting black in there.  Which you probably — like you wouldn’t think black would look that good with the Christmas colors, but it looked so nice.  I really, really like that.

Now, I will say, I’ve heard through the grapevine, I’ve mentioned this — maybe not in the podcast, but I’ve definitely mentioned it on Instagram — that red 16 count Zweigart Aida has been discontinued.  And I’ve heard it from a few of you that you’ve ordered it from stores and it hasn’t been delivered, and they’ve been pushing delivery dates back, and some of them just aren’t even being delivered now.  And that is true for me too.  I order from my wholesaler, and they didn’t have it in stock.  And they said, they’ll get in touch, let me know when they have it, and they still have not been in touch, and that was August.  But I know from another seller who actually stocked me some red Aida for our stitch-a-long, she said Zweigart have discontinued that color and that count. 

And I don’t really know why, it’s such a popular count, 16, and I’m just like, “Why would they discontinue that?”  But maybe they’re coming out with, like, a slightly different version of that color, which sometimes happen.  They discontinue one color, they bring another color out that’s pretty similar.  So, hopefully that’s what’s happened and they will have some other version of red 16 count Aida out soon.  But you can still get 14 count and you can still get 18 count, so there’s those two options, but, again, there’s also green and navy and flecked and linen and black, so I love all those colors at Christmas.

I mean, obviously you can just stich on white as well, especially if you’re using a lot of red in your color, obviously white looks good too.

So, number seven are perforated stitch shapes.  Now, I don’t find these in a lot of places just blank, apart from Cloud Craft.  She has little bobbles you can stitch on, they’re shaped like a mitten, a jumper, and a tree, and you can stitch whatever colors you want on them, they’re just blank.  So, I always think they’re great for kids as well.  They can just stich through the holes whatever they want to stich, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a cross.  And they also have, like, gift tags, so you can just stitch initials on them, little heart shapes, and with the gift tags, depending on who you’re giving them too, you could ask them for the gift tag back, or tell them to reuse it because I don’t think anyone would throw a gift tag away that you’ve stitched on.  They’re probably going to be like, “Oh, I want to keep this.”  But if they don’t actually want to keep it to reuse it, they might be able to give you it back.  I am huge on reusing and recycling, so, yeah, I just think that’s a great idea to reuse your gift tags. 

Now, what you could do is, because you’re probably thinking, “Well, what if I write on it?”  My idea is maybe this year, there are certain people who you’re going to buy for every year, like mum, dad, husband, wife, kids, partners, step-mums, step-dads, like there are just certain people who you buy presents for every year.  So, you could just stitch their name on it and just ask for it back and then just use it again the year after, ask for it back, use it again the year after.  And think of how many gift tags you would save over the course of like 10, 20 years if you did that.  So, that was just like a little idea for you.  Because I know sometimes stitched gift tags, like, people might — if it’s someone like who you don’t gift to everywhere, they probably would maybe just throw it in the bin, so it’s kind of wasteful to stitch on it, wastes your time and wastes the gift tag.  So, it might just be better to do that for people you know and who you don’t feel like weird being like, “Can I have the gift tag back, please?”  So, that’s just a little option for you there.

So, number eight is to use some bells.  I love putting bells on my cross stitch projects.  Now, I used to just tag them onto ribbon and then hang them up on my hoop.  Like, with the pompoms, I just have a picture of pompoms and bells tied onto the screw of the hoop.  That’s what I used to do.  But then, someone in my Facebook group stitched them onto the Aida, like — so she had a design framed in a hoop, and then on the actual fabric she’d stitch bells onto it.  And I was like, that is such a good idea, I love that so much.

So, then, I started thinking, what can I add bells too?  And I thought, oh, my Advent calendar, so I put bells all along the bottom of my Advent calendar, and I’m also going to put them on another Christmas project.  And basically I just bought loads and loads of bells, you can get like packs of 100 on Amazon, and I’m just going to put them on so many Christmas projects.  I think it’s such a good idea.  My kids as well really the sound of it.  So, I moved the Advent calendar the other days and my little girl was like, “Can you hear the jingling bells, maybe it’s the reindeer.”  And she was so excited.  So, I just think the sound of those bells at Christmas, it’s so magical, I love it. 

So, you can put bells on pretty much anything.  I mean, I have even — so, we have — we don’t have matching stockings in our house.  Me and my husband have one, and my kids have completely — mine and my husband’s are matching because we have mum and dad on them, but then my kids are just totally random.  Annie’s is like a Scandinavian kind design on and George’s is like a felt one with Santa on it.  And they were quite jealous.  I think maybe Annie’s had one bell on it, but we had bells on ours — mine and my husband’s had bells on it, and they were a bit jealous that they did not get bells on their stocking.  So, I tied a little bell on each.  And I think when we did this my eldest was four, so we put four bells on, and then I added a couple for my little girl as well.  And now, I’ve had this idea that every year we’re going to add a new bell on.  So, this year there’s seven on one and four on another.  And so, I just feel like that’s such a nice thing to do, every year we’re just going to keep adding bells onto their stocking. 

And again, I just threaded some twine through the bell, and tied it onto the handle of the stocking.  And just love running past and they — don’t all kids do this?  They just, like, flick those stockings when they walk past them and make them ring the bells.  And ours aren’t actually on a fireplace, so it’s okay for them to do that.  So, they’re not, like, pulling off the fireplace when they do it.  We don’t have a fireplace in our home, which I’ve mentioned a lot throughout the stitch-a-long if you’re in there.  It’s something that I’m very sad about, but we don’t have one.

So, number nine is some Christmas colored felt.  Felt in cross stich can just come in handy for so many things.  So, you can use it to back your hoops, you can use it to, like, make decorations to add to your cross stitch.  So, I’ve made felt flowers before and put them on.  You know, we used it to back our pockets in our stitch-a-long.  I’m using it in that Santa treat mat project that I’m doing.  For those of you who are wondering what that is, it’s just, like, you know when you lay out, like, Santa’s milk and cookies, and carrots for the reindeer and things, I’ve basically made a design to do a mat to put all those things on.  So, we’re using felt in that.  I’ve used it in my Kindle cover class.  I really do use felt a lot in cross stitch. 

And the good thing about felt is that it doesn’t fray, so cross stitches — I mean, some of you will use a sewing machine, but it is hand stitched, so I love using felt because you can hand stitch with it and it doesn’t fray, especially if you buy 100% wool.  Which I know obviously if you’re a vegan you’re not going to go and buy.  Nut Cloud Craft do have — I mean I mention them a lot, they do have the best felt in my opinion, and they even Christmas felt.  Not Christmas felt — well, they do sell Christmas, glitter felt.

Now, the thing with glitter felt is that isn’t 100% wool, but it won’t fray because it’s kind of like a glue on the top for where the glitter is.  Now, that is hard to stitch with, though, so I recommend using a glue gun with that kind of felt.  But, yeah, I just think like Christmas colored felt to match your Aida, so reds, navies, greens, blacks, whatever color you’re using, just grab some matching colored felt.  And, yeah, use it to do whatever you are making with whatever you’re making.

I mean, I think I even used felt on my Christmas — no, I didn’t use it on my garland, but I should have done.  I think I will on the Christmas.  So, yeah, I just use it for so much stuff.

And number 10, the final one, is of course, you need a pattern or a cross stitch kit.  There are so many patterns to stitch at Christmas, and I just love Christmas stitching and Christmas cross stitch patterns.  It’s actually like one of the huge times where I really displace a lot of cross stitch projects around my home.  I never have more cross stitch projects out than I do at Christmas.  But obviously you can search Etsy, check out magazines, they usually have a Christmas special.  In fact, most of them have probably already come out, they usually come out in October time.  Again, you can look at Etsy. 

Get really specific when you’re searching as well because obviously there are so many different styles at Christmas, there are so many different traditions, there’s just so much going on, get really, really specific.  Like, I want a Santa stop here this year.  Now, obviously the thing with cross stitch is that you can’t put it outside, but I’ve just told my kids they can hang it in the window.  But, like, that’s like really specific, like I know what type of design I want, and I’m not sure I want to design it myself.  I’m kind of in, like, design burnout I think at the minute because I’m planning the next stitch-a-long, so I’d rather just go and find one.  I’m pretty sure Emma Congdon has a really cute Santa stop here sign actually.

So, I just recommend being really specific when you’re searching for a pattern.  But those magazines if you see a pattern you like in there, you know, there’s just so many out there.

And of course, I have free cross stitch planning sheets.  Oh, my gosh, where can you even get them anymore?  I’m trying to think.  They are somewhere on my blog.  I’ll try and get a link on here as well.  I’ve just updated them a little bit, but they’re perfect yet because obviously I’m changing my brand colors, if you haven’t seen already.  I’m moving away from the pink, yellow, mint color over to like navy blue, still pink, and a bit of gold.  So, I’m kind of changing the planning sheets to match that, but I do have free planning sheets, and I recommend using them when you’re planning out your Christmas projects, and write down those patterns you want to stitch. 

But please remember, like I mentioned in the last episode, it doesn’t matter if don’t get them all finished for this Christmas.  But, you know, a lot of us do stitch early to get them done, but also I just love stitching Christmas designs over Christmas as well, with that Christmas film on, the Christmas lights on.  You know, we’ve spoken about this before.  I think it was in cross stitch theme days, which was September time I’d done that episode.  So, you know, I’ve mentioned that before, but don’t put a deadline on yourself.  You know, you have next Christmas, so just enjoy your stitching. 

And yeah, I hope that one of these 10 things helped you.  Maybe you have some ideas on how you can jazz up your design or some things you want to now go and buy.  And then, next week I will come in and talk to you all about some finishing ideas and, yeah, just kind of share — like that’s going to be last normal episode of 2020.  So, I’m sure I’ll have some words to say, but I will be having a bonus episode this month as well.

But, yeah, I hope this helped you, and I hope you’re having a lovely first day of December if you’re listening to this the day it comes out.

Actually, there’s one thing I wanted to mention before I go.  If you’re haven’t seen already, in my Facebook group, I’m hosting a free 31-day challenge.  Which sounds like really long.  It’s actually called the 31 Days of Cross Stitch, Conversation, and Connection, or something like that.  I can’t remember which way around conversation and connection goes, but it is along those lines.  This is like a really last minute thing I planned because I just know Christmas can be so lonely and this year it’s probably going to be even worse than usual if Christmas is a lonely time for you.  So, I’m hosting this free challenge, and every day I’m just going to put up a prompt to either start a conversation or something you can do to just make your day a little better, just better for your wellbeing. 

And I’m also going to do a very mini stich-a-long, like really mini.  It’s only going to be three weeks.  It’s going to be every Friday, so on the 4th, the 11th, and the 18th of December I’ll release a little mini pattern.  It’s just cross stitch themed so everyone likes it, it has no real other theme other than that.  But yeah, it’s free, and it’s just to, you know, if you’re feeling lonely, if you need some connection, if you need somebody to talk to over Christmas, we’ll be there. 

Now, I have already said this in the Facebook group.  This is going to go all the way until the 31st of December, but over the Christmas break it will be scheduled.  I will be scheduling the posts to go out, but I will still try and pop in the Facebook group if I can, but I’m sure there will be other people still in the Facebook group talking, you know, chatting in there throughout Christmas as well.  But I will pop in as well, just in case there isn’t anybody for you to talk to, I’ll make sure I come in and, you know, just check in, really, just to make sure no one is alone.  And if you need someone to talk to, there will be somebody there.  So, I just wanted to share that before I go.

If you’re not on Facebook, I’m really sorry, but it’s just the easiest place to host something like this where we need to talk to each other.  But always feel free to email me.  But, yes, I hope you come and take part.  If you’re in the Facebook group already, just look out for a post today.  If you’re listening to this and it goes live.  If you’re not in the Facebook group, come and join and we will let you in as fast as we can.

And I will speak to you next week.