I Won a Giveaway! And it's here!

I am so lucky! Carol from Stitching Dreams had a fabulous giveaway on her blog and I won her Winter into Spring gifts, which arrived today. Included were two charts - January Sampler by Waxing Moon and Prairie Schooler's Daffodils (with all the DMC to stitch the latter, all tied up in a pretty ribbon) and the most gorgeous pair of Victorian embroidery scissors - the picture doesn't really show the color, a deep crimson. And she also included five ornament-sized cuts of scrumptious fabrics. This is the first giveaway I've ever won and I'm still flabbergasted that I did. Carol, thank you ever so much - you were so generous and I am just thrilled.

Recent Stitching and the Year in Review

Between the holidays and ogling too many other blogs, I don't have too much to add to this one (but notice it's not stopping me from trying). I only have one finish to show - it took me forever to get the Tulip Belle Soie I needed to pull it off the Q-Snaps. I'm still not happy that the blue isn't that variegated, but it's a pretty piece none-the-less. I'm not quite sure what to do with it - it's a little small for a pillow but too big for an ornament. Hopefully inspiration will strike one of these days.

Singing the Blues
Little House Needleworks
Unknown Cashel linen
Belle Soie threads

Jenny Bean is coming along but I really blew it on the size of the linen. The left and right sides only have about 1 1/2 inches to spare from the border stitches. I hope I will be able to frame it once it's done, which won't be for awhile, because something else has been calling my name:

This is such a quintessential winter project - I think Jenny is going to go on the back burner for awhile. The linen I got isn't quite the same shade as is suggested - it's a little lighter and brighter, but I think it will look okay. It's called Misty Meadows - isn't that a pretty name?

I will start The North Wind sitting under my new/old LUX floor lamp, which I found for peanuts at a rummage sale. What a difference a daylight lamp makes!

As a slow stitcher, I tend to compare my output to that of many others and find it quite minimal, but when I looked at my notebook in which I've started writing down my projects, I was quite surprised to find a respectable number of finishes. Here's my list:

Sew Animalistic - iStitch Designs
Netherfield Park - The Sampler Girl
February Little Hearts Sal by Sylvia
Necessities Sampler - LHN
Pear Tree - LHN
Laura's House in the Woods - The Sampler Girl
Sew Peacock - iStitch Designs
The Snowman and James - DMC
The Secret Garden - JBW Designs
Red Bird Freebie - Gazette 94
Do It Well - Silver Creek Samplers
By the Full Moon - Ink Circles
Wash Day - Carriage House Samplings
Tidings of Joy ornament - Heart in Hand Needleart
French Country Star ornament - JBW Designs
Sew Spooky - iStitch Designs
Country Wall Postbox - Janet Granger
Halloween Hoot and Bat - Oakhaven Designs

Victorian Christmas Motif - Joan Elliott

If I had to pick favorites I'd choose Sew Animalistic and Sew Spooky, Netherfield Park, Wash Day and Do It Well, but I enjoyed them all. I'll have to look back at the end of this year and see if 2011 measures up to 2010. Here's to a happy year of stitching for everyone!

Christmas Stitching

At long last I have a finish to show - it's a pinkeep I made as a Christmas gift for a friend who doesn't read my blog. This friend is an Anglophile and she has a particular thing for British mailboxes. There is even an organization for people who have this interest. So when I saw this chart in a book of projects by Janet Granger, I knew I had to stitch it for her. I boxed it up (no pun intended) and will send it out to her tomorrow.

Country Wall Postbox
Janet Granger
28 count Summer Khaki
DMC

This little guy and his friend were a quick, fun stitch. It is a freebie from Oakhaven Designs found here. And this last picture is why I haven't been posting - Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler by Shakespeare's Peddler. It's a larger project than I have done before and is slow going. I'm not very happy with the linen I'm using - it is a very loose weave and when I make stitches you can see the holes in the fabric. But I'm plugging away - maybe it will be done by Christmas 2011!

Better Late Than Never!

Halloween 2010 came and went without it being ready, but I finally finished Sew Spooky today (and at least I didn't lose it again)! I had the best time stitching this design, and I really miss it now that it's done. I made a few minor changes - I left off the end of the ghost's "tail" so it would look like the ghost was coming out of the letter "L", and I didn't stitch the witch's hair because DS liked her better without it (we decided she was hiding her hair under her hat). The spiderweb in the upper lefthand corner is hard to see - I used Kreinik #4 braid but I probably should have used two strands instead of one. You really have to click the picture for it to show up. The backing fabric spiderwebs are silver glittery stuff - DS picked it out - isn't it perfect?

Sew Spooky
iStitch by Carol R.

28 count Taupe linen
CC, WDW and DMC

I'm still waiting for some special-ordered linen to start the project I wanted to do next, so I just began Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler by Shakespeare's Peddler. It's the largest design I will have attempted so far, and I have a feeling it will take me a long time to stitch. I'll post progress pictures, since if I wait for the finish you probably won't hear from me until Easter!

My first corded ornament

Thanks to Vonna's expert instructions (see her comment on my last post) I am now the proud possessor of a corded ornament made by my own hands. It's not perfect - close up you can see the join, but it's a lot better than I expected. It was even easy to glue the cording along the edges of the ornament - I thought I'd have to clamp it down or something, but it stuck on the first try. I love pinkeeps but I'm glad to add something new to my repertoire of finishes. I'm still working on my Sew Spooky pillow - in my continuing saga of mishaps, I misplaced the backing fabric I bought for it, and just uncovered it in a pile (my ornament is still among the missing). Hopefully I'll have something to show for it soon.
I have a thing for owls, and I found the most adorable freebie here. This designer has lots of free designs, and more are available at her Yahoo group. It's such fun to find new things to stitch!

A Spooky Scare

I have finished Sew Spooky and took it to Joann's to find a backing fabric for the pillow I'm planning to make with it. After I dragged my son away from all the Halloween paraphernalia he helped me pick out the perfect material. We were going to see Legend of the Guardians after our shopping jaunt, and the line to pay was so long I hid my planned purchase under some spider web packets, and went off to the movies, planning to return. On the way back to Joann's I realized that Sew Spooky was not in the car! I remembered putting it in the shopping cart but not taking it out. With my heart in my throat we rushed into the store and approached customer service to see if someone had found it. I am happy to report that some kind soul turned it in, and it is now safely back in my possession. Moral of the story - do not put plastic bags with important projects in a shopping cart and expect them to magically follow you out of the store.

I'm really happy with the way Sew Spooky turned out and I hope to have a picture of the finished pillow soon. I'm off to work on it - now, where did I put it?

Oh Stitching, Where Are You Stitching?

I'm in the midst of a mystery. I stitched an ornament, and I've lost it. I've looked everywhere and it's nowhere to be found. It's just a little unfinished ornament from the 2004 JCS Ornament issue, and I have no clue what I did with it. If I keep this up I'll have to attach little homing devices to my stitching, so I can keep track of it!

French Country Star
JBW Designs
2010 JCS Ornament Issue
Belgian 32 count linen/Crescent Colours Apple Fritter

Meanwhile, after the lost ornament I stitched this one from the current JCS Ornament issue. I love JBW's designs with the little motifs, and it was a quick and fun stitch. A word of warning - if you are going to stitch it, there is an error in the chart - the top right point of the star is one row off in two of the motifs. At least I think it's an error - the odd thing is that the model picture is stitched as it's charted, but it doesn't make sense since everything else is symmetrical.

So now I need to finish this, and that brings me to my Achilles heel - cording. I have never been able to figure out how to put cording around anything without it unraveling at the ends or the join showing. What is the secret to doing this? If you have any tips for me I would deeply appreciate them. Not knowing how to do this is really playing havoc with finishing what I've made, and I would love to be able to get past this.

Okay, back to looking for my little lost ornament...