Time for A Stitchy Post!

Wow - January is just fleeting by; I can't believe it's the 25th already! I shouldn't complain though; it's been a productive month for me. After the holidays every year I start my annual campaign to clean every room in the house. Not just your normal dusting and vacuuming either - I clean out closets and drawers and "reduce, reuse, and recycle!" As the year progresses, I make my way through the house...some years I get through the whole house, some years I don't. It's a good feeling though when the rooms are really clean and stuff is organized!

I seem to have stalled a bit with my stitching this month. Oh, not to worry, I'm still stitching, but maybe at a slower pace than earlier in the month. Still, I'm making progress and I have a few updates for you.

Let's start with some framing that I picked up recently. This was one of my first finishes this year and it is going to be a gift for some friends. I had it framed at JoAnn's and unlike the pieces I have framed for myself, I had them put glass on it. The design is Pray for Peace from Birds of a Feather.



The angled photo shows off the mottled look of this frame. I like it alot; I hope that our friends like it too. They lost their house to a fire last fall and so when they move in to their new home in February we will give this to them. I figured they may need something to hang on their walls!

Next up is a progress report on my Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers. I seem to be on a mission to get some of my WIPs done before starting anything new. This happens to be one of those WIPs and I'm making good progress on the center section. Can I just say that it took forever to stitch that big bird?!?!? I'm stitching on 36ct Irish Creme and using the overdyed threads as called for. I really like the shading in the alphabet and the birds!



Last but not least - I think this is the update I am most proud of. The piece is not finished yet, but it is really close! This was/is the oldest WIP in the basket. The design is called Mystery Sampler and the pattern was posted back in 2005 and 2006 over several months in the EGA magazine. As you can see, it is a band sampler. It's about 2.5 - 3 feet long. It's stitched with DMC.



I started this project in 2005. I got as far as "PQR" and stopped. I was afraid to do the pulled thread stitches I guess.


Two weeks ago at a Needlework Guild meeting, one of the ladies there had brought hers with. She had a little bit more finished than I did, but still had quite a bit left to do. Once I saw hers I knew that I had to get this finished this year! With some prodding from another friend (aka taskmaster Chris) I completed the rest of the stitching down as far as my name at our weekend stitching retreat two weeks ago.

This past weekend while watching football I stitched up the over one verse at the bottom.

All I have left is the two pulled thread sections (under PQR and above STU). If you look closely, you can see that I've started pulling out threads under PQR! I hope to share a finish with you on this one real soon!

So there you have it - you're all caught up with my recent stitching progress. Happy hump day and keep on stitching!