Stitching it all Up at the End of the Year

Hope you all had a very merry holiday.  I did not.  I've been sick since Christmas Eve.  I managed to get through Christmas dinner; the guys cleaned up.  That night, I lost my voice.  I self-medicated for 6 days and steadily got worse each day.  Finally I went to the doctor's office.  I really like my doctor's office.  They are brilliant.  Last year they opened a clinic for patients.  If you're sick, you go in; no appointment necessary.  If you are just "sick" you get to see a nurse-practitioner.  If you really have something wrong with you, they put you in with one of the doctors.  It has worked out well for us - this was the third time now for the family.  Anyway, they take my blood pressure as a matter of course.  The nurse looks at me and asks if I'm on blood pressure medication?  Nope.  She goes out; moments later, nurse-practitioner comes in and looks at my chart and says my blood pressure is really high, am I on medication?  Nope.  Then I tell her what over the counter medication I've been taking for six days.  She looks at me very seriously and tells me no more of that.  So, when she checked me out, she said "Wow" and "you've certainly waited this thing out".  Then she put me on three medications.  My voice has only just come back today and what I mean by "come back" is that I can actually produce sound.  It's not sound like I usually make, but it means we don't have to play charades anymore.  Today is also the first day I've felt like my head isn't going to explode.

First thing out of my chair, I wanted to make my final entry for the year.

First of all, want to let you know, I found Spirit of America - somehow she got in with the finished needlework.  So, she's being worked on now - and doesn't count as one of the "finishes" - more on that later.

I've been in my chair for a while now, and have finished quite a lot.  First up is Spirit of Christmas Stitching.

Here she is with the background all done.  I showed you a preview of what I was doing last time.  You can see on the chart that she was supposed to have wings.  Well, since she's the Spirit of Christmas Stitching, I decided that she should have a quilt instead.  So I filled in all that white background - thought I would go CRAZY! - and then stitched on the poinsettia design from one side of the wings.

I left one stitch-width of the fabric undone between the woman and the quilt; that made it look more dimensional to me.

 Here she is with all her doo-dads that will go on the strings when I put her together.  That "sampler" (on the lower right) was a bear  to do.


I like the designs that Brooke Nolan does.  BUT, I think she needs to put more attention toward what symbols she uses on the charts.  Both in the light and dark of the symbols and on the shape itself.  On that sampler the same exact triangle was used twice - it was turned one way for one color and one way for another color - right next to each other - A LOT!  It was so bad my eyes got crossed; I'm not kidding!

Finally, I had to resort to the color photograph to do the stitching.  But, I did get through it.




I put this photo in so you can see how small the doo-dads are - scaled against a U.S. penny!  All the extras are stitched on either antique brown or gold perforated paper, but the Spirit herself is on fabric.
















Next up is Adam Names the Creatures - with my floss and color changes.  It's finished and I just LOVE it!  My husband really likes it too which is saying a lot.  He doesn't usually go out of his way to comment much on my stitching; other than, "that's nice".  This one he kept saying to me - now, that one we're keeping right?

This one shows how I did the birds at the top; changed the ones on either side to robins and made the peacock a little different.

This one shows my little Nehi.  I charted him out and put him in instead of the unidentifiable animal that was there.  When he saw this, my husband teared up.

And finally, here's the whole thing in all its glory.  I am really, really super happy with the way it turned out.  There was so much going on with it that I decided it did not need the final outer border.  That and the fact that I didn't have enough Steamed Broccoli to finish said border.

Now, I have something embarrassing to tell you . . . I have spent all year stitching like mad.  But, when it came to doing something with what I stitched - well, when I opened my "Finished Stitching" bin last week, I discovered I've been very bad . . .

There are Blackbird Designs 2008 Mystery Sampler, Windy Ridge Designs Bee Line March Sampler, Prairie Schooler July Sampler, Prairie Schooler Christmas Eve, With My Needle Token of Love, Prairie Schooler March, Windy Ridge Designs Marry Me Brittany, Prairie Schooler Country Seasons - Autumn, Prairier Schooler Rain Rain Go Away, Brooke's Books Spirit of Christmas Stitching, Prairie Schooler Farmer's Almanac, Prairie Schooler Country Seasons - Winter, Prairie Schooler Weatherwise - Red Sky, Homespun Elegance Flag Sampler, Scissors Keeper, Prairie Schooler Weatherwise - Sunshiney Shower, Prairie Schooler Home Sweet Home, Prairie Schooler Daffodils, Prairie Schooler Adam Names the Creatures, Giulia Punti Antiqui Canadian Journey and With My Needle, et al Petit Etui.  

All those listed in bold were finished this past year, but some of the others were completed back in 2008!  Good Grief!  So, I've made a decision.  While some have encouraged me to participate in the Crazy January Challenge, I must demur.  I have my projects for the coming year already set -

Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart
Lizzie Kate Christmas Rules (in time for next Christmas?)

I have purchased the charts for Brooke's Books Spirits of Christmas Baking, and have all the necessary materials.  They may go onto the to do list and they may not.  What I AM going to do this year is get those things in the bin taken care of.  Golly Days!  One of them is even a wedding gift!  Now, we were unemployed for a lengthy time and couldn't afford to do framing, but I think that one is going to be first on the list to be done so I can finally get it off to those two kids.  They've had a baby already!  And no, it wasn't one of those kinds of weddings, it's just been almost two years since they got married.  YIKES!  Poor Ellen at With My Needle has been patiently waiting for a photo of the etui for at least a year and a half!  And those of you who pay close attention will have noticed that all those ornaments that I've stitched over the year - were not put into that list.  So, I have all those to do as well.  It's all fun and games until the stitching stops; now it's time to put my nose to the finalizing grindstone!

Hope you enjoyed.  Happy New Year to you all, may all your stitches be without knots and twists!

What I'm Working on Now - And Mr. and Mrs. Eden Update

I have run out of Scuppernong.  That's the Week's overdye that I'm using for stems along the outside of Mr. and Mrs. Eden.  I have decided to hold off doing more until my additional Scuppernong comes home.  So, here's the progress picture I promised to have up by last weekend - there's a road paved somewhere with my good intentions - more like a highway, actually.

I mentioned this last year - that I think turquoise is a great neutral.  Once again, I think I'm right.  I LOVE how it looks as the words on this sampler.  Really livens things up.  Here are some closeups of the animals . . .

Alligator and Camel

 

I am particularly pleased with the way the Canada Goose came out.  I had to blend overdyes to get the colors to come out the way I wanted them on the horse.  The very first horse I ever saw in my life was a palamino and it was love at first sight.  I still enjoy seeing them in the Tournament of Roses Parade which is coming up just around the corner on New Year's Day.  I just have the dog, vegetation and birds along the top to do.  Remember, I'm redoing an animal that I can't identify to look like my Jack Russell, Nehi - to remember him.

Meanwhile, since I can't just SIT and watch T.V. in the evenings, I've picked up Brooke's Book's Spirit of Christmas Stitching to work on.  Yes, I'm still working on Spirit of America, but that's been put somewhere "safe" for now.  I think you know what that means.  Anyway, this one is seasonal and pretty too.  Hope you enjoyed.

Progress on Mr. and Mrs. Eden

When last you saw them, they were almost alone in Eden - with only a snake and a few birds to keep them company . . . .

Progress at End of November

Ibex and Hare

Ibex, Raccoon and Chicken

Sheep, Lion and Hippo

I have decided that not only am I changing the colors, I'm changing the color of what each animal is.  What I mean is originally on the chart the elephant and hippo are both the same gray. But really, don't you expect a water horse to be a blue gray and an elephant to be a different color of gray?  Hope you enjoyed.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Eden

I am determined not to start stitching on BBD's AotH until Christmas.  Having finished the stitching on Spirit of America, I have to keep myself busy.  So, I've begun on Adam Names the Creatures by Prairie Schooler.

Mr. & Mrs. Eden (a.k.a. Adam and Eve)

I am not going to start stitching a whole bunch of AandE's as many wonderful stitchers have done.  I sort of fell into this one, finding the older chart at a shop that I occasionally visit.  I have it more because it's a PS than because it's an A/E.

It is being stitched on Lambswool Jobelan, like the chart model was.  Mine is 14 count.  It just so happened that I had this hunk of fabric and I wasn't planning on using it since I prefer linen.  But, when I decided to stitch the chart, I went ahead with the Jobelan.  That's where I parted with PS choices for stitching though.  The country colors have just gotten too gray for me anymore.  So, as I did with the PS ABC's, so I did with Mr. & Mrs. Eden.  First I converted the original colors to more clear DMC's.  Then I converted the DMC's to Weeks or Crescent (I'm trying to use up supply to make more room for my Gentle Art).

You may have noticed that Adam and Eve aren't the same color.  I decided that they could be different.  After all, she's been hanging out under the tree, conversing with the snake and Adam's been strolling around in the garden, under the Mesopotamian sun.  Eve is also a little hipper - I cinched in her waist a bit more to give her a figure.  And I decided last year that I really like a splash of turquoise, so I've made those birds blue.  That'll be about the only blue there is in the piece.  Oh, and we all know how men are with food of any kind, so Adam, instead of standing there empty handed (and supposedly innocent) as in the chart - he's got an apple core in his hand!  Go FIGure!  Color changes available on request - hope you enjoy!

Progress on Spirit of America

Started stitching on this about two weeks ago; this was actually my progress about a week ago; I'm that behind in taking pictures, downloading them and putting them up.

 

Here she is with my newly acquired scissors.  I got these from Anita's Little Stitches.  I have to say the price was wonderful and the service exemplary.  She has a terrific selection of scissors if you're looking to add to your collection!  Back to stitching - -

This piece was also designed by Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books (she did the witches I was working on last month).  This time I decided to stitch on fabric instead of paper.  It just so happened I had a hunk of Picture This Plus "Fossil" 28 count linen and I thought it looked very close to the Antique Brown perforated paper that the model was stitched on.  I am very happy with the results and love this piece even more than I did in the chart picture.

Currently I am finishing up adding the beading and final stitches (making up for ones I missed) and have also started Prairie Schooler's "Adam Names the Creatures" (Book 31) using overdyed flosses.  Hopefully more pictures soon.  Hope you enjoyed!

Last Batch of Kris Kringles are Done

The Kris Kringles I've been stitching up on the small bits of fabric are finally done.  I did two of the designs over again.  Here they all are again - - -

 Not keen on this one - it's pretty boring with Santa just holding that darn tree; may add some beads or something to spruce him up.

 I call this one Santa of the Birds - he was supposed to have something else on top of his staff, but I added a goldfinch instead.

 This is Santa of the Geese and is done on patterned linen.

 First Santa of the Nutcrackers I did was using WDW - Ladybug as the red.  Not too sure about the result, so, I did it again . . .

 This time using WDW - Liberty.  I also changed the top of this staff to be a miniature nutcracker!

 This is Santa of the Robins.  He's also done on a patterned linen.

 Santa of the Swans.  Pretty sure I stuck to a DMC color here for the blue.  In fact, in most cases, I used DMC colors - but changed them all from the Prairie Schooler selections that contain a gray haze to more pure colors.  Still have the same feel.

This is Santa of the Sweaters (to differentiate him from Santa of the Birds); shows what the original staff looked like.  I really liked the pattern on his robe.  Haven't completely decided how I'm going to finish these, but I'm thinking oval shapes.  We'll see how it works out.  I've moved on to stitching Brooke's Books "Spirit of America"; saving my AotH to begin between Christmas and New Year's.

July Sampler Finished !!

I previewed my PS July sampler last week and finished it up over this holiday weekend.

Here's how it looks on the Prairie Schooler website:

And here is what mine looks like:

There are three major things I changed - the linen color, the phrase, and the fireworks.  Not to say that's ALL I changed ('cause I really did a lot!), but those are the BIG changes.  I'm really pleased with it.  For the most part I used Gentle Art threads - Presidential Blue, Buckeye Scarlet, Chalk, Morning Glory, Black Crow, and Sarsparilla.  I threw in Crescent Colors Grasshopper and Golden Star as well as Weeks Meadow.  I eliminated several objects which crossed a lot of colors off the PS list.  Also, it called for two reds; one dark and one plain red.  I just used the one red and got enough variation in it that it didn't matter.  I also finished off several spools of Kreinik that I'd been hanging onto from older projects.  Don't know exactly what colors they were, but DO know that when I stitched with the BF alone, I used four strands.  When I was stitching with one of the strands of floss, I used two strands of BF.

Whenever I look at this sampler, I will always remember that this was the year that my wonderful farmer's market, a couple miles up the road, lost 75% of their cherry crop.  And they have such WONDERFUL cherries!  Dagone frost!

Hope you all had a terrific 4th of July - I go on Wednesday to get my award for the DAR piece!

Progress on July, etc.

I took a little time off from stitching my Bee Line March Sampler to do the Prairie Schooler July sampler.  I had been oogling this sampler since it came out.  Then, over the winter, probably while we were snowed in by the blizzard, I saw Glenna do a post on hers.  She said that she'd decided to use Kreinik threads on the fireworks.  I really liked the look.  When I finally got my copy of the chart, I knew for sure I wanted to do the same with the Kreinik blending filaments and braids that I had.  But I wanted to tart mine up even more.  You can almost hear the 'bombs bursting in air' now.  And of course, I wanted to change a few things about the design.  Be sure to also check out the Kreinik Blog and Tweets by KreinikGirl! 

I made a bunch of changes including the phrase.  The moment I saw this chart I was taken back to 1993 when my family spent the 4th of July weekend on Solomon's Island in southern Maryland.  We watched the fireworks over the mouth of the Patuxent River.  It was the most amazing fireworks I've ever seen in my life and it was because they were not only going off in the sky, but being reflected in the water.  That's got to be the BEST way to see fireworks!  When I wasn't using Kreinik threads, I used Gentle Art (and one Weeks) overdyed floss. 

I think the fabric adds quite a bit to the fireworks scene as well.  The rosy hues on the blue do look a lot like the floating smoke that you see after the fireworks go off in the dusk.  This linen is a handpainted 28 count Crossed Wing Collection called Galaxy.  I might decide here real soon to trade away some pieces of it.  The original hunk was a "fat half" and I just don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of it.  So, if you think you might be interested, drop me a comment.

I'm about two thirds of the way through with this and expect I shall be done by end of the holiday weekend.  I am really enjoying it.  We had a weather front come through and it has just been delightful!  We were in the upper 90's to 100 the last week and more, but this morning when I got up it was 54!  These kind of mornings always remind me of when I visited with a friend in Oswego, N.Y.  We had to have blankets on the bed in July!  Great sleeping weather.

On 4th of July we sit on the front porch and watch the fireworks the neighbors shoot off.  We can see quite a few from here on the ridge top.  I don't know where they get them from, but they're as good as the ones we'd see if we drove and got caught up in crowds and the whole bit.  Sometimes (like this year) my son gets someone paying him back in fireworks instead of cash.  So, the two knuckleheads will be setting those off in the driveway while I watch - fearful that they're going to blow something off - from a distance.  I always remind my son that I still want grandchildren out of him.  A few years ago, my husband blew out an eardrum with firecrackers.  It was one of those  times that he was really glad he couldn't hear what I was saying!  It did heal, but his hearing has been damaged and really loud noises now give him terrific headaches.

Here's something neat I've been using. . .  I stitch in areas because it helps me make fewer mistakes.  So, I keep needles threaded in the different colors on my pincushion and then like to have my threads at hand to pick up quick too.  So working on this project I had them all in a pile on my cabinet and thought, I'm going to have a terrible coffee accident or something; what can I do to get the pile off the cabinet but still be quickly accessible?  Here's my solution:

It's a glass candy dish in the shape of a chicken sitting on a nest.  I'm sure you've all seen them in the antique and thrift shops.  Some have red painted combs, but mine is just plain white.  Anyway, it's working out well and far better for me to have thread, rather than candy, in that chicken!

Hope you have a terrific 4th of July!

June Progress Reports

Unfortunately, I'm late posting this little ornament piece.  It's in a  box now with a bunch of others, waiting to be finished.  That's why it looks weird - it was on a scroll frame for a while.  For those who don't know, it's a Prairie Schooler design.

I just love the bee skep.  All flosses used were Gentle Art and the linen is Jobelan in Summer Sky (to the absolute best of my recollection).

I had all good intentions of having these little ornaments finished up and dangling from a magnificent tree (following Vonna's wonderful instructions) by this time.  But, we all know that the road to *&^% is paved with good intentions.

I also have a picture, finally, of my progress on the Bee Line March Sampler.  It is my intention to make the sampler chart available for sale.  It's based on the design for the box that I won first prize for.  However, not all needleworkers want to accept the challenge of making a box.  So, I decided that with a little tweaking, I could make it into a sampler.

What you see here is the top of the sampler and all the new elements I've added.  The flag on the left is called the Grand Union and flew at Washington's Headquarters in Cambridge (where the Bee Liners went when they arrived in Boston).  The Grand Union flag was our the first flag used in America, while we were in rebellion, but before we declared independence.  Many still hoped to reconcile with the British Crown and remain part of the empire.  That's why the Union Jack is incorporated into the design.  The map shows their general route.  A diary, written by Henry Bedinger (one of the Berkeley Riflemen), mentions many of the towns they stopped in along the way and I tried to get as close to accurate as I could.  And what would a sampler be without a border - this one is an inner border made up of leaves of trees that are in our east coast forests - maple, oak, catalpa, red bud, tulip poplar, pine and hickory.  As you can see, right now I'm working on the Culpeper Flag; much of the stitching is over one.  The whole thing is done on 32 count linen by Wichelt in Water Lily (a slight green).

The wording continues down the right and left sides and at the bottom will appear the Riflemen vignettes that appeared on the front and one side of the box.  The water of the Potomac River, that they crossed at the Pack Horse Ford, will flow along the very bottom.

For those who expressed good wishes, my son is much improved in his health.  My husband may yet have one more doctor visit, but is doing OK.  Thanks for thinking of them.

Letter M - Prairie Schooler ABC SAL

 

Just posted this on the SAL blog.  Here are the details - - when I first looked at the chart for this letter I saw her in tropical blues.  So, I've used four different blues on her tail (all Gentle Art overdyed floss) Huckleberry, Tutti Fruitti, Green Pasture & Peacock.  I also changed her hair color to something much more mermaidy - Nutmeg.  The bird is done using Blue Jay, Morning Glory & Midnight.  I thought it ended up looking like something you'd see on a piece of Blue Willow dishware; love it!  I changed the fish from the nondescript dark green to something more Caribbean - a clown fish; using Bittersweet, Fragrant Cloves, Chalk, & Dark Chocolate.  The stitching is done on the same footprint on the chart, just changing the colors.  It was while I was stitching the fish that I looked at the seaweed nearby and suddenly saw a seahorse hiding there.  With a few adjustments and added stitches, of course.  That little neighbody is stitched using Nutmeg, Sunflower, & Dark Chocolate.  Made the egg all purples with Hyacinth & Purple Iris (filling in where the fabric was supposed to be left exposed) and touched it off with a hint of Bittersweet (orange).  If I was to say I was unhappy with any part of the piece, it would be in the sea weed.  The greens just aren't showing up very well on the coffee dyed fabric.  New greens are on the way!  And I've decided to go lighter in my next piece of fabric.  It really has been a sanity saver, working on this piece while we've had to live with 51 inches of snow on the ground.  Here it is, two weeks after the blizzard and we've still got some drifts (drifts now, not snowbanks from shoveling and plowing) that are three and four feet high.  However, warmer temps are allowing us to see some grass in places.  I keep telling myself "Spring is coming.  Spring is coming." and thinking about daffodils!

One I Forgot

This is my first PS ABC SAL piece that I stitched.  I was so excited to post it on the blog that I forgot to post it here.  So, in case you missed it, here it is!  Thanks to everyone for all their kind words; ya'll are great!

Letter E of the Prairie Schooler ABCs

Here it is the end of January and I've finished two of my 26 letters! Here is the latest completion on the ABC Bee. I have substituted overdyed floss for the DMC colors listed by the designer. Colors used are Aged Pewter, Avacado, Blue Jay, Butternut Squash, Dark Chocolate, Grecian Gold, Morning Glory, Picnic Basket, Raspberry Frost Schoolhouse Red, and Sunflower by Gentle Art; Envy by Weeks and Snowball and Wild Oats by Crescent. The Raspberry Frost was used to outline the face and Aged Pewter was used to outline the scissor blades; to give them definition.

About my picture - we had about 5 inches of snow yesterday; really fluffy stuff. You can see it in the background here. We hit 10 degrees this morning, so I don't think it's going anywhere fast. I plunked my scroll rods in the weeping cherry tree and noticed I've got lots of buds. We have one more "winter" month to go, so I'm telling myself it's too early to wish those buds blooming!

I changed the design by 1) changing the color of the scissors to match my faux tortoise shell pair from Sajou; 2) put my initial on what she's stitching on the hoop; and 3) removed the blob and inserted a skein of floss.

I hope to follow up with pictures, but for now, here is how I did the skein of floss - - -

1) 3 vertical stitches with your choice of a yellow color where you want the center of the skein to be; 2) take 2 needles and insert them to the right and left of the stitches as far out as you want your floss skein to go - these act as pegs to hold the thread loops as you work; 3) with your floss color come up in the center of the 3 stitches, but not splitting the stitch; 4) * tunnel your needle under the stitches and above the fabric - to the left; 5) loop the thread around the needle on the left; 6) tunnel back under the three stitches to the right; 7) loop the thread around the needle on the right; repeat from * until your floss has reached its desired thickness, end off floss color; 8) again with yellow color, stitch two cross stitches over the area that is covered by the three stitches - gives you the label effect, end off yellow. Remove the two needles and fluff your floss! Let me know if you have any questions.

My Prairie Schooler ABC Overdyed Floss Table

These are the substitutions I have made for the Prairie Schooler ABCs that we are stitching together HERE. Here's the way I'm working this - I prefer Gentle Art floss. However, I am going to use flosses I have on hand before I purchase new. So, what shows up first in the list below (Gentle Art, my preference) may actually be a Weeks floss that I use IRL. I have brightened or changed many of these colors. What this will show you is the DMC color number called for on the chart, the DMC color number I am changing it to (if any), and the overdyed floss or flosses I feel are a good substitution. Let me know if there is any confusion or questions. Photo above is my work in progress using overdyed cottons.

White - GA Chalk, CC Snowball, WDW Icicle, Snowflake
Ecru - GA Oatmeal, CC Antique Lace
3859 - 321 - WDW Liberty
223 - 498 - CC Manor Red, WDW Turkish Red
3722 - 304 - GA Buckeye Scarlet, CC Cupid, WDW Louisiana Hot Sauce
3857 - 815 - GA Schoolhouse Red, WDW Garnet
902 - GA Cranberry, CC Bandana
221 - 814 - GA Claret, CC Apple Fritter
3778 - CC Old Brick
758 - 945 - CC Wild Oats, WDW Cherub
407 - GA Woodrose, WDW Cinnabar
3772 - 3776 - GA Fragrant Cloves, CC Cappuccino, WDW Crysanthemum
918 - GA Terra Cotta, CC Used Brick, WDW Terra Cotta
926 - 3761 - GA Morning Glory, WDW Morris Blue
3768 - 519 - GA Liberty, CC Shamrock, WDW Sky
3750 - 3842 - GA Presidential Blue, GA Midnight, CC Wavy Navy, WDW Twilight, WDW Navy, WDW Peacoat, WDW Americana
924 - 3760 - GA Blue Jay, CC Caribbean Waters, WDW Bluecoat Blue
3835 - GA Blueberry, CC Lavender Louise, WDW Cyclamen
315 - 3837 - GA Purple Iris, WDW Ultraviolet
3726 - 553 - GA Hyacinth, CC Vintage Violet, WDW Peoria Purple
3740 - 552 - WDW Purple Majesty
3834 - GA Black Raspberry Jam, WDW Taffeta
3802 - 550 - GA Cinders, GA Royal Purple, CC Rainy Day, WDW Merlin
3371 - GA Dark Chocolate, CC Black Coffee, WDW Swamp Water, WDW Mascara, WDW Onyx
500 - 3345 - GA Cucumber, CC Spinach, CC Steamed Broccoli, WDW Seaweed
501 - 3346 - GA Baby Spinach, WDW Hunter
501 - 3347 - GA Chives, WDW Scuppernong
503 - 3348 - GA Grasshopper, WDW Meadow
3011 - 580 - CC Meadow Green, WDW Moss
3012 - 581 - GA Avacado, CC Eves Leaves, WDW Pistaschio
3052 - 905 - GA Spring Grass, WDW Lucky
3362 - 986 - CC Poblano Peppers, WDW Envy
523 - GA Celery, CC Green Onion, WDW Tin Roof
676 - 307 - GA Ohio Lemon Pie, WDW Saffron
729 - 728 - GA Sunflower, WDW Marigold
3820 - GA Butternut Squash, CC Golden Star, WDW Squash
3828 - GA Grecian Gold, CC Ye Old Gold, WDW Whiskey
422 - GA Caramel Corn, WDW Straw
420 - GA Maple Syrup
869 - GA Apple Cider, WDW Cocoa
435 - GA Toffee, WDW Bright Leaf
434 - GA Nutmeg, WDW Cognac
801 - GA Sarsaparilla, CC Bramble Bush (dark version), WDW Chestnut
838 - GA Picnic Basket, CC Chocolate Cream Pie, WDW Molasses
738 - CC Finley Gold, WDW Honeysuckle

There are some miscellaneous colors that I may use as substitutions for colors called for in the charts. This will be experimental as I'm working. They are 598 - GA Tropical Ocean; 992 - WDW Lagoon; 597 - GA Peacock, WDW Blue Topaz; and finally WDW Mermaid.

Overdye Conversion Sites

I promised a list of links I used to find overdye floss conversions on the web. I will list the ones that I found helpful as well as how I searched them.

Stitches & Things - This shop in Michigan is very nice; I've dealt with them for chart orders. I found this conversion chart helpful. Do a page search for the DMC number you want to convert.

Carrie's Threads - This is a thread maker who has set up this comparison chart in a PDF file. Put the DMC number you are looking for in the search window in the top toolbar.

Country Garden Stitchery - This site was somewhat helpful. Lookup your DMC number for WDW or GA conversions.

Mirabilia Stitchers - This is for Crescent conversions.

Hand-dyed Fibers - is a search engine thingy that you put in the search criteria (like your DMC number) and it comes up with a whole list of overdyed fiber conversions.

Of them all, Carrie's and Hand-dyed Fibers were most helpful. But, the caveat is that nothing is as good as your own eye. Also, I enjoy stitching with Gentle Art threads the most. I find Crescent is more dear than it should be and I don't care for the feel of Weeks. That being said, there are times when only one of the latter two will do for conversion purposes and you just do what you've got to do.

Christmas Eve Finished

It's done! Yippie! Kreinik silver braid very fine saved the words. Everything needs a little tinsel, right? I also did the decoration on the sleigh in beads instead of stitches. Then, because I couldn't leave it alone, I beaded jingle bells (just amber beads) along the harness. And, while I was doing all this, I thought, wow, I really don't need to frame this, I can make it into a table decoration with a quilted border. So, we'll see what I can come up with by Christmas Eve.

Well, Ollie, This is a Fine Mess - Progress on Christmas Eve

When you go forth and sully the colors of a designer, beware - you can make a mistake. Like I did here. I changed "white" to "moonglow" which is a white with hints of blue. Then, the chart called for "light blue" and I used light blue - a very light blue. And, when it came time to stitch the words, "Merry" and "to all" (which I'd changed up a bit too) they were really difficult to see. I kept telling myself that when I stepped back, they would appear just fine. Well, you can only go so far back before you finally admit defeat. And by then I'd stitched all the background around the words and there was no way I could take the threads out, even if I wanted to. So, I have had to come up with a plan to overstitch the words to make them at least legible. All I can say is thank goodness for Kreinik.

My Progress on "Christmas Eve"

So, here's an update on Prairie Schooler's "Christmas Eve". Told ya I really liked that turquoise. I made a mistake somewhere so was running out of room when I reached to top of Santa's hat. As a result, had to take out the top border and redo it. Have some cleanup work to do there still. I also opted not to do the fur on Santa's suit in green like it was charted. Sorry, Santa's fur is just not GREEN. Did it in white instead. Then the flesh colored threads didn't show up so well against the country mocha fabric. Decided to do outline stitching around his face and to delineate between hat and beard. Don't think it looks so bad, especially from a distance as in the second shot. Almost done - maybe by Christmas Eve?

Update on Christmas Eve

Here's the progress I've made on Prairie Schooler's "Christmas Eve". Note the color changes. I've decided I really like that turquoise color.

Christmas Eve Progressing

I am very happy with my Prairie Schooler "Christmas Eve" on Tula. Here is my progress so far.

Christmas Eve

I always like to stitch something seasonal at Christmastime. So, this will be my third in-progress project until I can gather all the stuff I need to start doing the Prairie Schooler ABCs. I'm working it on 10 count Country Mocha Tula by Wichelt using Caron Watercolors substitutions. Can't wait to show my progress!