Speaking of Queens . . .

Last year, when I visited In Stitches in Alexandria (after going to the show at Woodlawn), I picked up this little chart by JBW Designs called "The Queen".  There are a whole series of these little treasures that you can see HERE.  It appears the designer no longer has a web page.

Anyhow, the little chart went into my tiny not-so-tiny stash to languish.  However, last month I was trolling the aisles at Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift and found a tube of black and white Charles Craft Aida.  Well, actually I found two, but only one went home with me.  Don't get too excited yet!  I have discovered that this black and white fabric is called Hopscotch.  Some is for sale, this very day on Etsy.  I looked at that roll of fabric in the thrift store and said to myself, I know what to use this for and I know what to put on it.  Not too long ago, I was gifted with a late Christmas-early-Birthday present.  It was a new car.  A hot little number in my favorite color scheme . . . red, black and white.  And when I stood there looking at the tube of fabric I said, that Queen Bee chart needs to be stitched on you - and then you need to be a pillow for the backseat of my car!  And, here's why I told you locals not to get too excited.  Because I went back and got the other tube a week later.  It's going to be a car pillow too.

I stitched this up over the weekend!  It's all ready to go upstairs and be sewn into its pillow form.

Terri posted a question in the comments about the Birth Sampler that I did.  I had to go back through my Amazon Order History to find the answer as I cannot, at this precise moment, lay my hands on the book; which probably means I've loaned it out and forgotten to whom.  Anyway, it was not meant as a birth sampler, Terri.  I tweaked it a bit.  But, if you click on the title, you'll go to Amazon and see Splendid Samplers to Cross Stitch by Chris Rankin.  The sampler is on the cover of the book.  Of course if you go to the label cloud and click on "Birth Sampler", you'll see all my entries on the sampler, and read about how I tweaked it.  Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my Queen Stitches and the birth sampler.  And to ya'll that I nominated for the award, you are totally welcome - it was sincerely meant and well deserved.  Hope you enjoyed!

Presenting Her Majesty, The Queen

When last we saw our intrepid stitcher, she was nervous, downright hesitant about her upcoming meeting with the Queen.  However, she has persevered; with bravery and diligence, she faced down the demon doubt and come out the other side smelling like roses.

May I present my Queen Stitches -

In the upper right hand corner of the nearest strawberry flower you can see I've drawn a blue arrow.  That arrow is pointing at where I had an inauspicious beginning.  The original American Sampler was designed to be stitched on 25 count fabric.  The cross stitches are called for being done with 3 strands of floss and the queens call for 3 strands.  So, since I'm stitching my sampler on 32 count fabric, I stepped down my cross stitches to 2 strands and thought that stepping down the queens to 2 strands would be fine too.  But, my first queen was very fat.  That's the one that the arrow is pointing at.  I very quickly snipped out the second strand and put all the rest of the queens on a diet with only one strand of floss.  It has worked out very well.  The strawberries, strawberry flowers and the luscious bloom below are all queen stitches - with one strand of floss.

As I've been stitching these queenies, initially I was quite surprised by my success.  Then I began thinking about it.  I'm coming off six months of working on The Chase sampler and remember, I didn't think I'd be up to snuff on that either.  I surprised myself.  I have decided that I had plateaued before and by working on The Chase, I stepped up my game and moved onto the next level.  I am now most confident that I will finish this sampler and it will be worth looking at when I'm done.  Maybe even another one that my husband will say "We're keeping that one, right?"

I had a question about the sampler - remember that at any time you can click on the label "American Sampler" and all the blog entries remarking on this project will come up for your review.  That goes for anything in the labels list.

I finished the baby birth sampler.  I'd done it all, was just waiting for the details to be finalized so I could stitch them in.  So, here are a couple of pics of that.....

I am really pleased with how it looks.  I'm not going to frame it right away.  We're trying to plan a trip out west and what I'll do is take it out there with me and go to the framer's there with my son to get it framed. 

Tomorrow I'm calling the quilt lady and setting up an appointment to take the baby quilt over to her to be quilted.  I picked up the batting and backing fabric so that show will finally get on the road.  Gabe is doing really well, but his parents are a bit frazzled.  I was last told that just when they think they've got him on a schedule, he changes and they have to start all over.  Ahh - babies - glad it's them and not me!

Lots of projects waiting for my attention - hope you enjoyed!

Needlewoman East and Updates

Had a lovely trip to downtown Falls Church, Virginia the other day to visit The Needlewoman East.

This is Liz, the proprietor of Needlewoman East.  She's being very professional, ringing me up, and then she looks up to continue our in depth conversation.  Liz looks a lot different - she's lost more than 100 pounds.  She looks wonderful.

My reason for going to TNE was to get some yarn to stitch the hunt scene needlepoint that I was given a month or so ago.  Liz pulled some Elsa Williams and I'm all set to go.  Here's a progress pic:

Just the two colors, blue for sky and green for grass.  This photo was taken a few days ago -I've done about as much more since.

And I have reached a point with the baby's birth sampler that I am just waiting for the event to happen and I will fill in all the details:

I will either add or remove triangles on the sides as needed to fill in the date and place information.  I just sent the kids a boatload of baby towels and wash cloths that I picked up at Target and a cute few pieces of clothing for my granddaughter.  I'm hoping that if I can send something for her each time I send something for the baby, we might keep the sibling rivalry monster at bay.

These are the border strips for the Anniversaries of the Heart sampler.  I have finished stitching them as much as I can on the scroll bars.  Next step is to cut them apart and sew them onto the sampler.  Then I'll finish stitching the corners of the borders - that way I can adjust the design as necessary to make the turns.

This is my Dick and Jane quilt top.  I started it about two years ago and then had trouble figuring out exactly how I wanted to finish the outer edge.  Decision made, this weekend I put the finishing touches on the border.  It's all ready to go to the quilter.  It's probably a twin size quilt top.  Anyway, I intended for it to be for my granddaughter, but she's a pink and purple fairies and princesses kinda girl and I don't think this will work for her.  I am going to finish it and then just hang onto it.  You never know what will happen.

Finally, this is just something I love.  I adore the way hens & chicks (or cats & kittens) look.  I always have, ever since I was a child.  So the last few years I've had a pot of them in the house.  This spring I put my pot of them outside (intending to transfer them to the garden), but they got sunburned and died.  My fault.  So, needed a new one for this winter.  I picked them up at the nursery and also the urn.  Now, the urn is kinda cool.  It started out as one that was plastic, and terra cotta colored.  You know the kind I'm talking about - they look really really fake?  So I got this one (they come in two parts that you sorta clip together).  And a can of black plastic spray paint.  Took it out in the back yard and sprayed the heck out of it.  Now it looks like cast iron instead of fake terra cotta and my hens & chicks are very, very happy as you can see by all their growth.  Even better - they don't have to be watered too often!

So that's the round up for today.  Gotta go check out the Pioneer Woman website.  I saw her Christmas show and made her brussel sprouts for Christmas dinner.  Boy, were they yummy!  Hope you enjoyed.

First Giveaway of the Holiday Season

I worked a bit more on the birth sampler; am very happy with the results. I have set the sampler aside so I can work on the December block for AotH. I can't believe how close I am to finishing both samplers.

Each week I plan to do a giveaway. Rules are simple. Comment on this post and be a follower and you'll get a chance.

Here's the first giveaway - it's an Ellen Chester design (With My Needle) called Alphabet Samplings Book.  I really love it, but I have had to come to the conclusion that I will never do it.  There's just not enough time.  Chart is brand new, never been used.  Be sure to tell others about this giveaway.  Remember - the more the merrier!  Drawing the name on Monday, December 12.

Funny pictures - I was coming out of the farm market, saw these pigs.  Decided to have a look.  When I stepped out of the car I cautiously walked up to the pen because I wasn't too sure what mama was going to do and I understand pigs can be really, really mean.  So there I was standing next to the pen and this little piglet came running up to me -

 I suddenly felt like I was in the movie Babe.  Then the piglet realized that all its brothers and sisters were eating and it squealed and ran back to its mother.

But then it couldn't get in.  This piglet squealed and squealed.  I laughed and laughed.  It was a great stress reliever.  I should spend more time at the farm market. 

 

Hope you enjoyed!

Birth Sampler Progress

As a reminder - this is the source

Despite all the craziness in my life right now, I've been stitching away on the Birth Sampler like mad.  In fact, maybe it's the stitching that is keeping me sane.  My stitching time has been significantly curtailed, but I still manage to make progress.

 Somehow I managed to be in charge of the Christmas doings at the historical society.  This year we're doing two weekends - the theme is Christmas in the Civil War.  We're decorating two live trees with the types of ornaments they'd have on  them during the 1860's.  Those are not exactly falling off the shelf at Walmart, so we have to make a bunch of stuff.  The committee's been meeting once a week and doing that.  Also, I've researched music of the period, literature (specifically Christmas literature), food (had lots of help with that) and of course, how to entertain people in Civil War style.  We will have costumed interpreters (none of whom can be pinned down to an exact day or time) as well as a fiddler, a harp and flute group, and a Civil War era Santa.  Two speakers will talk about the war in Berkeley County and we're sure to have a partridge in a pear tree somewhere!  Whew!  And somehow we still have to take care of advertising.


In addition, we've been commissioned at the historical society to produce a research package based on a piece of property.  It's like one I did in 2009 for a house I was working on for our annual house tour.  The lady of the house was so impressed with the package that she's asked us to do one for a family member who also owns a property in the county.  It involves researching the history of the property and all the people who ever owned it.  Sometimes there is precious little you can find out about some people.  But, I've made steady progress on this project and know I will be able to complete it by Christmas Week.  Mind you, I am not complaining because I find this kind of work absolutely fascinating.

I've also been helping a client organize his genealogy.  He hopes we'll finish up before Christmas and he'll be able to give copies to his family members.

And I have several irons in the fire sewing client-wise, but I've been stuck on this curtain job I've been working on off and on for a couple of months.  I really don't like making curtains.  I find it unutterably boring.  I'd rather do anything but make curtains.  Suffice it to say, I've drug my feet on this project.  My client has been really understanding, but I know it's not fair.  So, I spent yesterday working on them and I found I was actually closer to being done than I thought.  One more measurement for hems and I'll be finis!  And after this - NO MORE CURTAINS.  Heck, I don't even sew curtains for myself.

But, on to the Birth Sampler -   Here's what I've done so far . . . As you last saw, it was the center block.  I've added the two birds . . .

As I worked on these, I thought about my mother's thunderbird pin.  She had one that she'd gotten as a teen in Colorado.  She wore it often and was really upset when she lost it when I was a teenager.  Somewhere, she found another, but it wasn't nearly as nice as the one she'd had.  I have that one now, but always keep my eyes open for one like mom had originally.  I think that these two birds are thunderbirds. 

Many tribes apparently have a thunderbird mythology.  The one that I heard from my mom was that the thunderbird was the messenger god and was responsible for thunder (by beating its wings) and for rainfall.  Not surprising that a farmer's daughter would know that story best.

Once I had the central row complete, I moved on to begin the bottom row.

The next block to do is the one with the two animals (see image at top).  I think that those are coyotes.  Coyotes can be wiley creatures, so I'll have to be careful in my counting as I stitch.


Alot of the stuff I've learned about the Civil War Christmas decorating and traditions is pretty interesting, but I'm not sure if you're really interested in it.  If you are, leave me a comment and I'll do an entry about it - maybe two!  Hope you enjoyed.

Birth Sampler

So it's going to be a boy (which I knew!) and I picked out this birth sampler about two months ago.  I ordered the book from Amazon.  It's called Splendid Samplers to Cross-Stitch by Chris Rankin.  While the designs are lovely, I find the charts difficult to work with.  They don't have the bold line at every tenth stitch that I find very useful and they are so small as to be unbelievably hard to read.  That said, this design is really lovely  it's the one from the cover of the book:

Book Available from Amazon.com

I got started on it last night.  I had to count the squares to get the stitch count so I could figure out what size fabric I needed.  Then I went through my stash to see what I had.  Finally I decided on a piece of Northern Cross Quaker - 30 count - in Antique White. The charts are mostly for DMC or Anchor, but this one happens to be for Anchor only.  So, I picked out DMC colors that I felt matched what was called for.  It's going to be very bright and colorful.

First of all, I had to copy and enlarge the chart because even with my magnifiers, I could not see the symbols.  I will burn the enlargements when I'm done!  It's hard to tell, but the stripes that form the boxes around the motifs are done in cross stitches.  Well, I'm not doing that!  I am doing the stripes in satin stitch instead.  The title of the design is Caribbean Sampler, but I think it looks more Peruvian or Ecuadorian. 

At any rate, I really like it for a little boy; very colorful and something that will grow with him.  In case you were wondering, I'm adding a border with name, birthdate and place around the outer border.

All the leaves are off the trees now; in a couple of weeks they'll harvest the corn.  I re-situated all my bird feeders this afternoon  so they're far away from anything the squirrels can climb on to get into them and I can see them just as well from inside the house.  It's time to snug up and do crafty stuff!  Hope you enjoyed!