Happy New Year!

Here ye! Here ye! On this the second day of January in the year two thousand and eleven, a sampler has been completed by she who nevers finishes anything. Rachael Holmes

Heartstring Samplery

32ct linen, aged by moi

assorted threads from the stash

(click to make bigger)

New Year's Eve was spent trying to right some wrongs such as the septic tank, the broken front blinds thanks to a neurotic dog and cats who believe they are their personal monkey bars, some cleaning and a bit of stitching. Unfortunately most of the above took away from the time I could spend stitching and Rachael Holmes ended up being carried over to the new year. Since I'm more of a lemonade girl than lemons I decided a finish on the first day of the year could be just as a positive as a finish on the last day of the year and maybe set my stitching pace for the year ahead. January 1st was spent with an NCIS marathon and stitching and stitching and stitching, OMFG, no matter how much I stitched, there was more. No matter how close to finished I thought I was there was more! I gave up around tenish and decided Rachael won and she'd get one more day out of me. At six a.m. this morning I picked Rachael back up, I made X after X after little X and finally after two episodes of Law & Order she was completed.

I love this Sampler so much. I used Beth's colors as a guideline and pulled threads from my stash.

These are the threads I used-the chart colors on the left, my substitution on the right:

WDW Honeysuckle- GAST Ohio Lemon Pie

WDW Dove- GAST Banker's Gray

WDW Guacamole CC Eves Leaves

WDW Pecan DMC 420

WDW Havana DMC 830

WDW Mocha CC Olive Branch and DMC 640

WDW Bark DMC 3021

WDW Red Pear DMC 223

WDW Raspberry CC Manor Red(this was touch too red but it works well I think)

WDW Deep Sea CC Wavy Navy

WDW Bullfrog GAST Forest Glade

WDW Curry CC Finley Gold

My conversion isn't perfect but I'm very happy with the finished result and am working hard not to be so anal about using the exact threads a chart calls for and I'm trying to build my confidence swapping out colors. I've found the investment in a DMC color card is worth every penny. Once a thread can be matched a color of DMC matching a thread from the stash is so much easier.

May 2011 be a year of stitching heaven for all of us.

May there be no knots in your floss

No frogs in your needle

And may the little X continue to bring you comfort and joy!

Thank you to everyone who takes time to read this blog and share the love of the little X with me.

Happy New Year!!!!

A Finish and Some Works in Progress

A new blog post, shocking, huh? Always the unexpected around here. The Monkey Sampler

Midsummer Night Designs

28ct Sandcastle Lugana

DMC

According to my records I finished Midsummer Night's Monkey Sampler on July 21st.

This has been my take along project for a LOOOONNNNGGGG time. It was pretty much the only project I worked on while I was at my momma's since it's stitched on 28ct and I could see the holes in the fabric even in the poor lighting. That green yard just about did me in but I perservered and now it's finished! It always feels so good to put those last stitches in a project. Then again, it takes me forever to finish a project so a lot of life happens while all that stitching is being done. This project has been to Tennessee twice, once when I went home for my dad's memorial service and the second time most recently when I went to stay a week with my mother when she was released from the rehab center. She has COPD and had to learn how to breathe again, and also to learn how to live with her new best friend, her oxygen tank. This particular project has also seen a lot of time at Panera while I wait on kids to do whatever it is kids find to do at the mall for hours on end.

Liberty Sampler

Hester's Needle

32ct Natural (or maybe Raw) linen

DMC

My new take along project can be seen above, Hester's Needle's Liberty Sampler. I really thought I was farther along on this than I am. Let's keep our fingers crossed that there's a lot more quality Panera time in my future.

When I started this piece a few years ago I wasn't quite ready for the satin stitched band so I just did good old cross stitches. I debated frogging this band and stitching it as charted and then my sanity surfaced and I decided I liked the little Xs just fine thank you very much.



Rachael Holmes
Heartstring Samplery
32ct dyed by me linen(more aged actually)
A Potpourri of fiber from the stash

Heartstring Samplery's Rachael Holmes is seeing a lot of stitching time at the moment. This is a fun sampler and I got over myself and just pulled threads from the stash to see what would work with Beth's color palette. It's kind of liberating to pull out the handy dandy DMC color card, a fiber conversion lists and dig through the stash and find what works.

Black'd Skie
The Primitive Needle
40ct Vintage Pear
Pure Palette Silks

This is my progress on Black'd Skie. It's been a bit slow for me but it's due more to having the wrong magnification of readers, I was using 2.00 and that's just way too strong. I had misplaced my 1.50 and those 2.00's gave me a headache every single time I tried to stitch. So I found my 1.50 and now I'm back to happy headache free stitching.

I love the Pure Palette Silks. I am not an expert on silks, I rarely use them, but I really love stitching with these.

Halloween Queen
Notforgotten Farm
28 or 32ct fabric from the stash(it was unlabeled)

DMC


A few weeks ago I started a project that's been on my to do list for a year or two. Notforgotten Farm's Halloween Queen. I found a piece of linen in the stash and gave in to the urge and made a good start on the Halloween Queen.

In the Garden
La D Da
36 or 40ct Lambswool(that's a guess)
DMC


And another project seeing a lot of needle time, La D Da's In the Garden. This is another project I've had the chart for for ages and decided to see if I had a piece of fabric that would work and dug around in the old fabric drawer until I came upon this piece that I'm pretty sure is 40ct lambswool but it's possible it's 36ct. I did a floss toss and decided this could work. I had thought about using GAST but didn't have all five colors so decided to go with DMC.

Last week I made my first trip to Needle Delights, my LNS, in ages. It felt like coming home. I dropped off three pieces for framing, my Cape Cod Girls(changed to Gulf Coast Girls), Salem Remembered and my 13th Colony Bay. I ended up bringing my 13th Colony Bay home with me for a bath. I had no idea it was so dirty until Tonia put it under the light on the framing table. OMG! I wanted to throw up it was so dirty. I was extra, extra glad I stitched 13th Colony Bay with DMC because washing it was no problem and I was mortified at how dirty it was. I thought I had been careful, kept it tucked away in a baggie in a drawer but I did stitch on it forever and I stitch outside when it's nice. I enjoy stitching outside but this piece was definitely a wake up call that only DMC projects will be worked on while sitting on the porch or in the backyard from now on.

That's all the news from here at the moment. Hope everyone is managing to stay cool this summer because the air down here along the Gulf is a force to be reckoned with.

Amish Mistake Giveaway

Finally got a chance to get what I think is a better picture of my darling Ichabod but I did think about Anna's comment about how we don't want to be "that" person, the one searching for mistakes in needlework. At the time I posted I thought it would be fun because my mistake is pretty in your face but after taking a gazillion pictures and even close-ups of the mistake itself, it's not as obvious as I thought. So if you want a chance to win my gently used Primitive Needle Ichabod Seabury chart-I wrote on the last page, whoops, and a piece of Picture This Plus 40ct Swamp linen to stitch your Ichabod on, all you have to do is leave a comment to this post. If you leave one somewhere else on the blog I might not see it. I don't want anyone screaming shenanigans. I will use the random number generator to pick a winner, of course I must figure out how to do that. Ichabod Seabury

The Primitive Needle

40ct Swamp Linen-PTP

Belle Soie Silks

My current WIP can be seen below:

Rachael Holmes 1842

Heartstring Samplery

32ct linen aged by me

A potpourri of threads from the stash that matched Beth's thread's as closely as possible.

I'm stitching Rachael 1x2 on the 32ct and I'm loving the effect. The band to the bottom left is supposed to be eyelets, I messed up and made Smyrna crosses and decided I was not going to frog them since they looked just fine to me. As odd as it may sound I didn't have any of the WDWs in the stash or they were kitted with other projects so I pulled out my DMC color card and started matching over-dyed threads to the DMC equivalent. This is a fun, funky wonderful sampler to stitch. I don't want to put it down. For more of Beth Twist's designs check out her blog and there's a link to her etsy shop on her sidebar.

And finally, if you have not listened to the Glee Season 1 Volume 1 soundtrack, check it out. It's great. I have listened to it over and over and over. We've watched Glee from the very beginning, the 14 year old couldn't be bothered and he loves the CD. Now he wishes the show was still on. I mean seriously, it's way more entertaining than the current programing. Just sayin'.