Hope Perches

Here's what I've gotten done so far. Of course, what you can't see are the 3 1/2 letters I had to redo because I put one x in the wrong spot, or that I didn't center it very well on the fabric. But other than those things, it's going fine! I don't even mind having to keep restarting with each new letter. It's probably not possible to tell that the floss for the letters is different from that of the bird. They are both Carrie's Threads; one is Peacock and the other is Indigo. I would have liked a little bit more contrast but they are both pretty floss colors. The birds will have a kind of autumn yellow color, and that will brighten things up a bit.

I've been tagged!

Wow - my first-ever tag came from Kathy of Purple Wildcat. Now I feel like I really belong to the blogging world, Kathy - thank you! I need to list seven facts about myself. This should be easier than it seems, but here goes:

1) I am old enough to remember seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, but not Elvis Presley.

2) I love children's books, particularly the Betsy-Tacy series. I've collected almost all of my childhood favorites. Thank goodness for online book search services.

3) I met my husband through a dating service (not an online one). Our 12th anniversary is next week!

4) I work with tutors in an English as a Second Language program.

5) When I was in 6th grade I won a watermelon-eating contest at the class field day. Can you understand why I've disliked it ever since?

6) I am something of an Anglophile - I've been fascinated by all things British since I read a biography of Queen Elizabeth I when I was a child. I've made three trips to England so far in my life, and hope to make many more. My favorite place is called Shrewsbury, where the Brother Cadfael mysteries are set (I love British mysteries too).

7) The only celebrity I ever met was Teddy Kennedy, when I was ten (at an airport). I washed my hands and saved the water in a jar. When I went to college my mother found the empty jar in my closet (the water had evaporated). I haven't kept the jar.

Now it's my turn to tag others. If you have been tagged already or are too busy don't worry about responding. I had fun just thinking of you!

Carol of Linen Stitcher
Karen of Little Cat Blogs
Katrina of The Needle's Promise
Mindi of What's Up with Wyora
Ranae of The Needle & I
Sally of Stitchyangel's Treasures
Vonna of The Twisted Stitcher

Now I better get back to stitching so I will have a picture to post soon!

Blessed Be is finished

I used Katrina's suggestion and found the little flower button on the back of my camera, so was able to do this closeup of my finish of Blessed Be. I think it looks a little better than earlier pictures. Thank you Katrina! Now all I need to do is to tackle finishing it. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Kathy and Mindi, your input on soaking floss is much appreciated - I think you both make a lot of sense and I will go with being careful and not soaking the floss beforehand. The colors for Hope Perches are very pretty and I wouldn't want to lose any of their vividness. I'll just make sure not to drink my coffee anywhere near my stitching!

To Soak or Not to Soak...

...that is the question. As I wind down on Blessed Be (mostly just the lettering left) I'm looking forward to starting Hope Perches, which consists mostly of lettering. It uses several different brands of overdyed floss from The Gentle Art and Carrie's Threads, and it was suggested that I might want to soak them in water before I use them, since they are not colorfast. Do you do this? I am wondering if it would make the floss harder to use if I soak it first. Would I soak the whole skein, or only the amount I think I am going to use? I have used Crescent Colours floss before and didn't soak it; so far I haven't seen anything that looked like it had bled onto my fabric. But if this is a good practice I am game to try it. I'd be interested in your experiences with overdyed floss, and any suggestions. You are all so helpful!

A little progress

I'm enjoying working on this little design a lot. And so far I've counted everything perfectly! I have started wondering how to finish this. I'd like to learn how to make a needlebook but I'm not sure if it's the right shape or if it's too big. Maybe I will try a pinkeep even though it isn't exactly square. At least I'm thinking about finishing something!

I don't know what I am doing wrong with the photos I'm taking or the images when I scan. They don't seem nearly as clear as other pictures I see on blogs. So if anyone has any tips on what they do to make their photos look good, I am all ears. Maybe it's a blogger thing rather than my photos. I use the medium picture setting. The image always goes to the top of the page and I have to drag it into place. Is it just me or is blogger not for the faint of heart?

A New Start

Since I finished Where There is Life, I needed a new project. I had a freebie chart called Blessed Be from Plum Pudding Needleart, which seemed quite fallish, so I began that the other day. The chart doesn't seem to be online anymore, but it is available by mail. Here is my progress so far. You better believe I am counting carefully even for what seems like a simple border!



I appreciate all the encouraging comments on WTIL. I like the philosophy of considering the mistakes to have put my own personal stamp on the piece. I have never finished anything so have to think about what to do with it. This was supposed to be a gift for my son's first grade teacher, who is a breast cancer survivor, but he's well into second grade now. Like I said, I am a slooowwwww stitcher!

WTIL Finish

Thanks to the kindness of Vonna, I obtained the thread for those 14 stitches I hadn't been able to do. There was one more obstacle in my way to completion, and it was a big one: somehow I had ended up one 1/2 row off on the border, so the ends wouldn't meet properly. I had to do an x over one to get things to line up properly. I was relieved to see that it's really hard to notice the error, though of course to me it's glaring! It's a lesson to me about being REALLY careful about counting as I stitch a border. I thought I had matched everything up as I went, but obviously not well enough! I tried taking a picture instead of scanning it:

Next I have an Autumn freebie by Plum Pudding Needleart - I can't find a link to it anywhere now. I just started the border so there's nothing really to show yet. And I am preparing to begin The Sampler Girl's Hope Perches very soon. Getting the letters right is very daunting, but I'm going to give it a try.

Thanks again, Vonna, for helping me finish this project!