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.

What's Up?

Spring is popping up all around me, a little late for North West Florida, usually we're getting this nice weather mid-February but I'm not going to complain. My basil and cilantro are a sprouting a sure sign of spring.

I've been managing a bit of stitching:

Black'd Skie

Primitive Needle

40ct Vintage Pear

Pure Palette Silks

Above you can see my little bit of progress on PN's Black'd Skie. I'm using the Pure Palette Silks and I love them. I'm being completely, totally honest and I am not one that automatically uses silk. I've used some that have left me, oh let's say, underwhelmed, but these Pure Palette Silks are nice to work with, don't shred or fuzz up like some, and have a great shimmer to them. I've only used Cauldron and Envy so far but the experience has been very satisfying and I am not a paid endorser for Pure Palette. This is just my opinion. (I think I read somewhere that bloggers are supposed to let people know if they are a company mouth piece so I'm letting you know, I'm not, I am just a user of the aforementioned product.) My Silk N Colours and Pure Palette Swamp Thing were backordered so I'm just taking my time and enjoying the stitching.

Notice the readers? Purchased at the Dollar Tree and they are 1.5 magnification and have rocked my world. I should have bought a pair when I was stitching with the PTP Swamp linen but who knew something this simple could change my whole stitching perception?

A Haunting Mermaid

Carriage House Samplings

32ct linen(not sure what color)

DMC

Above you see my progress on Carriage House Samplings A Haunting Mermaid. I can't believe I waited so long to start this piece. I've had her kitted since the chart was released in 2005 but I got all hung up on whether or not I should do the beaded swag border or just stitch the keys along the top. As you can see, I finally decided the beaded swag was not in my future so I went in search of pictures on the world wide web to see what I could find and strangely enough I only found one completed Haunting Mermaid and one in progress. Since this is such a cool design I couldn't believe more people haven't stitched it and maybe they have and just aren't on the internet. But I did like the look of the stitched top band so I was very happy to finally put in some first stitches.

Single Crochet Background

Orange cross stitches

Sugar & Cream Cotton

Kenny chart created here(// knitPro web app)

I became a bit obsessed with Tunisian crochet a few weeks ago after seeing this:

Gege Crochet: Mario Party! Part 1- The Whole Enchilada on Craftster

and since I have no afghan hook and no Tunisian crochet skill and I'm trying not to buy anything at the moment I thought I might just try crocheting a foundation fabric using single crochet and then cross stitching over it. I'm not impressed. So I'm going to order a Tunisian Crochet book and couple of hooks and see what magic I can create.

The Frogging of Rachael Holmes:

Rachael Holmes

Heartstring Samplery

32ct linen(dyed by moi)

A potpourri of threads

I decided that my error on Rachael needed to be frogged so I took an hour or two the other day and frogged the vine in this band and started over. I'm hoping that I don't have to frog the flowers but I do believe that's being a little too optimistic.


Busting the Stash Afghan:

Pokey Dots Throw

Red Heart Website

Stash Yarn

http://www.coatsandclark.com/NR/rdonlyres/0A730741-DD4F-4AC3-81D5-19C1A9DE266A

I saw this pattern on the back of the new issue of Crochet Today and decided since I have a ton, a lot, a major big time stash of Red Heart acrylic that I should use it up and this afghan seemed like a good project. I'm using a soft white for the outside round of my squares and I'm happy with the look for now.

Am I the only that thinks if the cross stitch magazines could modern up their covers a bit like Crochet Today they might expand their readership to a younger group of stitchers? Comparing the covers of various knitting/crochet magazines to current issues of cross stitch magazines, the cross stitch magazines seem hopelessly stuck in the 1980s? Is there no way to rock the cover the of a cross stitch magazine?

Opinions? Ideas? Leave it alone and let me stitch already?