Good morning to you all!

Is your printer plugged in? Is it loaded with paper? Are your stitching supplies gathered? It's time for the mystery project to begin! (This is so exciting, even though I know how it ends already..)

If you're just now finding out about the Sunday Mystery Sampler, you may want to scroll backwards just a few posts to catch up on what supplies you'll need to participate. And then you will need to decide if you want to stitch twelve individual ornaments, or one large sampler.

Here we go!

First, for those of you who are stitching one large sampler, here is a picture of what your layout will look like. The picture is not the chart; the chart file link will be shown below the picture. (Please feel free to orient the boxes however you like; just make sure your fabric size will accommodate any changes you make!)

Your outline should be stitched in whichever red fiber you chose.

Here is the printable chart for the above sampler layout (1 page): Download Twelve Days Outline Layout

If you prefer to print out the layout in larger print for easier counting (and coloring, if you like to color in your charts), then print out this chart (4 pages): Download Twelve Days Outline Chart

And now for the ornament charts! Rather than posting pictures of each individual design, I will show them as they are added to the sampler blocks. Those of you who are stitching ornaments will still be able to see what your individual ornaments will look like when you're finished with them.

If the Twelve Drummers Drumming were here, I'd ask them for a drum roll… Here are the first three ornaments for the Sunday Mystery Sampler!

Click here to print the First Day chart: Download A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Click here to print the Second Day chart: Download Two Turtle Doves

Click here to print the Third Day chart: Download Three French Hens

And that's your Week One portion of the Sunday Mystery Sampler! I hope you have a wonderful time stitching, and if you're stitching the sampler, you don't necessarily have to stitch the entire outline first. I tend to get very bored with straight lines, so I would stitch one box and then fill it, and move on to the next box when I was finished. (But that's just me.. I'm always amazed at people who can just keep going and going and not want to throw their stitching down and stomp on it when it grows monotonous. And have you ever noticed that the word monotonous has repeating o's? What kind of a sick joke is that, anyway?)

I'll see you next Sunday for Week 2, but I may be back here for other topics before then.. Enjoy this beautiful day of rest!

When I announced the first Sunday Mystery Sampler in 2013, I was so surprised at the enormous response! I couldn't believe how many of you tuned in each week on my blog to download each installment of the mystery… and what fun it was to see everyone's progress on all the Mary's Samplers out there! (For those of you who missed out, the installments are all still there under Sunday Mystery Sampler in the right side-bar of the blog.)

I've been mulling over doing one again this year for some time now, but just couldn't figure out what it was I wanted to do. And then it slowly dawned on me…

Back in 2011, I submitted an ornament to Just Cross Stitch for their annual Christmas Preview Issue. I went with a "Twelve Days of Christmas" theme, and proudly titled my ornament submission "First Day."

Then, in 2012, I followed it up with "Second Day."

Shortly afterward, I started receiving the occasional email from various subscribers, gently mentioning to me that it would take a full twelve years at that rate to actually have the whole set. I was absolutely stunned that I had never thought of that before!

So to the back burner the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments idea went… until I realized very recently that it would be awfully fun to finish the entire series in one fell swoop and offer them for free – and all in time for Christmas 2015!

This year's Sunday Mystery Sampler will be all twelve days, and they can be stitched individually, as ornaments, or all together, as one large sampler! (I can't decide which option I like better.)

If you have the first two stitched, then you've got a good head start. But if you don't, it's okay! Here are all the details you'll need to know… (ETA: The original red was Belle Soie (now Classic Colorworks) Cranberry, and the original green was Belle Soie (now Classic Colorsworks) Weathered Vine. The original fabric used was Lakeside Linens' 36 ct. Vintage Light Examplar.)

 I'll see you soon!

ETA: I found a photo for Second Day! I can't seem to find one for First Day though..