I have been stitching but ...

Even though it's been awhile since my last post I can't show much today.   I've been stitching some surprises for friends -- all of which are now finished and in the mail.  As soon as I can, I'll posts pics of them.  But for now here's what I can show you:

Heart Note Alley -- I love this one!

Purple Garden -- I love this one, too!

Small sampler for a Habitat for Humanity family
 that will be moving into their new home soon.

And last but not least I have a new start!  I decided after doing all that gift stitching, I needed to reward myself with this lovely called Tree of Stitches, designed by Abi Gurden.  I'm using the black fabric from an aborted piece that drove me crazy because of my color choices.  This will only be the third time I've stitched on black.  The first was The Castle by T. Wentzler (which came out great but drove me crazy stitching it), the second was aborted, and now this attempt.  So far so good.  The stitches are larger - which helps.  I'm stitching really slowly.  And I'm only using 3 threads, #13 Perle Coton, a gold thread and a Caron Wildflower -- all larger, easy to see threads.  Here's the result so far (actually I've done more but didn't photograph it yet):

I love this one, too!
Are you sensing a pattern here??

Finally, here are a couple pics of Spider and Meadow, just hanging out in the yard:

Poor Spider is teething now and I swear he's grown since I took these pics.  He and I have been taking a puppy foundation class once a week to get him ready to be a good adult beagle.  He has two classes under his collar and since he gets lots of cookies, he's having a blast!

Hey -- I added this later.   A current pic of Tree of Stitches.

Have a good one .....

A little stitching in petit point

One of my current projects in a Berlin Work Sampler.  I researched Berlin Work and discovered it was traditionally stitched in petit point with wool threads.   Soooo, I decided to give it a try -- the petit point, not the wool (sadly, I'm allergic to it).  Here's the result so far:

Basically, it's okay.  However, I have a problem with areas where there is supposed to be a diagonal line and the petit points don't touch because they are going in the wrong direction.  In the above pic, these troubling areas are easily seen in the large pink flowery thing.  The dark pink and dark brown lines aren't really lines on the left sides, unlike the right sides where the line is an actual line.  I suppose when the piece is far enough away that individual stitches can't be seen, the whole thing flows better but right now, under my magnifying glass, it's driving me (a little) nuts!

For a few weeks now, I've had a quiet, industrious guest on my back porch.  Unfortunately, against my white house it doesn't show up well.  This picture was taken early one foggy morning and was beautiful in person:

The spider moves into one of the tubes of my wind chime in the mornings, spends the day there, and comes out in the evenings to rebuild its web.  Fascinating!

And speaking of Spider.  Here's the little dude with his Auntie Willow that same morning:

Thanks for stopping by ......and may your day be filled with puppy kisses!

Stitching, stitching and more stitching -- woohoo!

To begin, I belong to the Fair and Square exchange group and have been working on my partner's squares.  She's a big fan of snowmen, hardanger and the color blue:

And if this little guy looks familiar to you, it's because I've stitched him before.  Isn't he the cutie?  He's also a fun stitch.

I received these square from my partner -- gorgeous!  This is by iStitch Designs and is so perfectly delicate.  I love it!  Thank you Linda.

 

For my next piece, I actually broke out my little sewing machine and used it to make my first little quilt -- taa daa!

Okay now -- no giggling or snickering from the back rows!  Yes, my sewing machine is about the size of a dictionary, only does straight stitches (that's 2 lenghts, thank you very much!) and is mostly plastic but it's "NOT A TOY"  and "Requires Adult Supervision" -- as is clearly labeled on both the machine and it's box. 

This was a first for me and I think it turned out okay.  I had a couple minor  problems while assembling my little quilt but I was determined to finish it without getting cranky and tossing the whole thing (that is, the cute little machine) across the room in frustration.  (Sewing machines and I have a somewhat rocky history that I would rather not go into here.)   I should also mention that I actually did hand quilting (another first and not viewable on this picture) along the seams.  Needless to say, the hand quilting needs some practice.

I painted the dowel rod black (so it looks much better) and still want to add a big button to this but that's basically it. 

I am very proud.


And now onto my Sticklounge projects:

This lovely piece, called Heart Note Alley, is becoming one of my favorites.  It is so graceful looking and the colors I chose are so soothing.  I love it!

This second piece is called Purple Garden (though mine isn't purple).  Everytime I stitch on it, I can't help but feel cheerful:

And this last project is called Berlin Work Sampler by Pelin Tezer.  I just started it yesterday so there isn't much to see yet:

And now for three beagles resting comfortably:

May your weekend be as restful!

Yikes! it's been awhile

since my last post.  I've been really busy at work and at home.  I've been stitching some gifts (that I can't show you yet but will in the future) PLUS!  I finished another one of my crazy challenge pieces.  WooHoo!  It's called A Ghost's Alphabet by Primrose Needleworks:

I enjoyed stitching this and think it turned out so cute.  I have some Halloween fabric to finish this off as a small wall hanging.  This will be a complicated (for me) finish but I'm going to give it a go.  Wish me luck.

I also framed a bunch of my little projects.  The first three are Sticklounge SALs:

Graphic Sampler -- I added the lacey stitching at the top and bottom to fill in the empty space caused by the bigger frame.  The color of the frame was just too perfect to pass up.

Quickie Sampler -- I added a border to this piece, again to fill in some empty space caused by the larger frame.

Midnight Garden

The next two are designed by Hand Blessings -- I had lots of fun picking the thread colors for these two:

And the remaining framed pieces are:

One of my Crazy 2011 Challenge pieces from the Sampler Girl

The 2011 Easter SAL from  SoloBrode

And last, but not least, I finished Homage to Japan into a bell pull:

Sorry, not the best pic.

I think that's enough for now .... have a good Tuesday, everyone!

More stitching, no puppies

The puppies left last weekend and my house got much quieter and kind of boring without them.  But I have gotten some stitching done.  I worked on 2 more of my Crazy 15.  The first is the Sampler Girls' Jane Austen In The Kitchen:

The colors are so awful because my flash didn't go off -- I must have changed the settings somehow.  It isn't actually finished because I haven't attached the charm or signed and dated it yet.  In case you are familar with the pattern, I rearranged, changed and deleted some elements from the original design.   This is the second time I stitched this one, the first was for a friend.  This one is for me.

The second Crazy 15 is A Ghost's Alphabet by Primrose Needleworks:

You probably don't remember (why would you) but I started this on different fabric and when I picked it back up last weekend, I decided I didn't like it ===>

<=== So I changed the fabric to a 14 count golden-colored aida (again crappy lighting makes for crappy colors) and I like it better.  I should be able to finish this over the weekend and when I take the next picture, I'll be sure to get the flash to work.

This third project is almost finished also -- Friendship Heart SAL from my Sticklounge group:

I need to decide how I'm going to finish this. I'm not a big fan of heart shapes in frames because of all that empty space at the bottom.  A throw pillow is not a good idea with my dogs, unless I keep it off the furniture and display it on my shelves.  One of the ladies in the group found a heart shaped box that fit her stitched piece perfectly -- what are the chances of that happening for me??  Another thought was to finish it as a heart-shaped wall hanging -- ugh! sewing.  Oh well, I'll come up with something -- any suggestions?

I forgot to take a picture of this guy last week:

He is my third hardanger snowman -- the first two were given away as gifts.  This one will be mine and serves as the model for my EGA group's Christmas in July class (which I am teaching).  As you can see, he needs a few finishing touches -- mainly a face.  All three snowmen are from the same pattern but they're all different (due to threads, material and counting errors).  Here are the other two as comparison:

I think that's about it on the stitching front.  Have a good weekend!

Entertaining house guests .....

I had the cutest house guests the last 2 weeks -- 3 little boy beagle pups:

So needless to say, I haven't really gotten much done in the way of stitching, house work or gardening.

I did manage to get one of my Crazy January Challenge pieces finished -- yay -- Jane Austen On Weather by the Sampler Girl:

Plus I spent some time on StickLounge SAL's:

Friendship Heart

Purple Garden

Have a good Monday!

Crazy for samplers

HELP!!

I fear I have Samplermania! 

I'm becoming obsessed with stitching samplers.  Of my wips, almost all of them are samplers, the few that aren't are holiday ornaments.  When I first started cross stitching, I did mostly nature things, critters and flowers and such, with the occassional human-form (a stately lady and a few angels) tossed in for variety.  I think the reason I love doing samplers so much is that I can pick and choose my own colors just to see how they work together.

One of the first samplers I did was from Country Cross Stitching magazine (I think) from the 1990's.  I love this sampler -- the verse, the border, the little critters, etc.  What I do not like, even to this day, are the colors.  If I was stitching this sampler now, I would definitely change some, if not all, the colors.

Today, I'm older, maybe a little wiser and more experienced.  Today I have three pretty samplers all in a row (with colors chosen by me):

The first pretty sampler is Star Sampler by Lady Periphaeria

The next pretty sampler is Heart Note Alley by Gracewood Stitches

And the last (but not least) pretty sampler is Old European Sampler by Steve Rousseau

Isn't color fun?  You gotta try it!

Good news about my knotted dogs -- I received them last week.  Unfortuately, the pattern was sooo tiny, I had to get it enlarged before I could even begin to see what needed to go where.  And when I did get it enlarged, I noticed each dog only has 3 paws.  This bothers me a little, especially since all my dogs have four.  But I'm getting over it and hope to begin stitching this week.

Later ......



More on Heart Note Alley ....

I finished part 1 of Heart Note Alley SAL yesterday -- I love the colors I picked -- the threads go wonderfully with the rose-colored fabric:

The Sudoko project also received some attention this morning:

Though, technically, it isn't sudoko any more because I have the 2nd set of 9 squares the wrong way.  The top horizontal row should be the first vertical row,  the middle horizontal row should be the second vertical row and the bottom horizontal row should be the third vertical row.  I do not plan on changing this mistake, ergo, no sudoko.  But it still looks okay to me.

Have a nice weekend!



What the ...... !?

Another start ????

Welllll, I thought I would take a break from the blues of Old European Sampler last night to begin Heart Note Alley by Gracewood Designs.   Naturally, I decided to change the colors ......

Woah there now!  ... says you ...  you don't have another WIP that's not blues??  Sheeesh!

Well  .... says I with a sheepish grin ....  this one needed to be started -- it was calling to me and I couldn't resist it anymore.

lol!  Have a good one .....


Pssstttt .... my knotted dogs are on their way from Washington state.  Yippee!