In June of last year, we kicked off a fabulous little stitch club called Stitch Buddies with Aurifil Designers and longtime Aurifriends Susan Ache (@yardgrl60) & Wendy Sheppard (@ivory_spring).
This club is the one we all want to join. There are no deadlines and no stress. It’s full of inspiration, fun, and encouragement. Susan and Wendy simply want to share their passion for cross stitch with the world and have a little fun while doing it.
In August, we checked in with some fabulous progress shots and some tips for stitching over 1. In December, we shared a third installment—a holiday season check-in of sorts, celebrating the joy of stitching through the coziest time of year.
And now, we’re thrilled to introduce Part 4! Susan and Wendy are back with progress, new projects, and some bits of stitch goodness. We love sharing their work and hope you feel activated to dive into something new and maybe even to stick along with these two creative women!
Susan: Don’t you just love the fresh feel of Spring? I am a bit in love with the colors and the smell of fresh cut grass. It is truly my favorite. So, happy Spring to all of you! If you haven’t met me, I am Susan Ache, known on Instagram as @yardgrl60 and my stitch buddy partner in crime is Wendy Sheppard, known as @ivory_spring on Instagram.
If this is your first time seeing and hearing about us and our love of stitching all things, then you may want to start at the beginning and read all about how this came to be.
Susan: If you have followed the story along the way, then you know that Wendy and I just fuel each other for fun charts to purchase and cheer each other on with progress and finishes. We never have a time limit on our stitching, and we never make a date to show what we have accomplished. We just truly love the same charts and wanted to invite everybody that loves to stitch to play along with us.
Wendy: Ha! I know that I can always count on Susan to justify ANY chart purchases. First, we love to support designers to keep the needlework world well stocked with options… and then we just LOVE scouting out cool charts to stitch.
Susan: Last time we were here, it was all about a Christmas chart. Since I have about a million charts I want to do, I have separated my charts by the season I want to stitch. I will be able to show you more of my progress on that chart in the month of July when I love to play “Christmas in July” everything. I have had this in my lap for what seems like a lifetime now. There is a ton of fill in and this is a huge chart. I haven’t been super consistent with stitching, but that’s okay too! It truly is the love of stitching and not having time limits that make any type of sampler work more fun. I have had some finishes and also even got something framed and hung, which is really big around here. I sure wish I would have thought about celebrating with cake for that one!
Wendy: This year, I am putting my stitching projects in rotations. So far I have 3. The large one is one I am stitching to commemorate my daughter’s sophomore year in high school. This has been my main focus and a really fun stitch that I am trying to finish when the school year ends.
I also have the #stitchbuddies Christmas chart that I work on to have a bit of progress on the 25th of every month. And I’ve added this little fun Christmas kitty chart that I am stitching for fun along with another Aurifil designer, Pat Sloan. I hope over time to stitch up a few smalls for a cute Christmas display.
Susan: This spring Wendy and I fell in love with this chart– “Phebe Ann V. Wie 1825.” I know my reason was that I never saw a vertical alphabet sampler and this was just flat out cool. And, doesn’t this just look like fun? I am actually going to use my 36ct antique white linen with #6738 as my blue.
And, since I need a little break from the massive work that is in my lap (see photos above!), I am jumping all over this and getting started now… So, how about checking in with us either here or Instagram and letting us know what’s in your lap, show us some pretty pics and we certainly will be there to cheer you on…
Wendy: And now, I am going to add Phebe to my rotation. I will be stitching mine with color 4241 on Zweigart 40ct antique white to match the Elizabeth Hall #stitchbuddies sampler we did last year. I aspire to have a black wall like Susan’s red wall! Yes, I always love seeing what other needleworkers are stitching!!
Until next time…
Susan & Wendy