Don't Rain on My Parade!

I've had this song on my mind tonight. I was a huge Barbara Streisand fan in my youth. Now i have this urge to watch the movie Funny Girl.

Here's my current WIP. I had the urge to stitch something from Chessie and Me and started this last weekend. It's stitching up quickly!




Scarlet's Summer Sampler...36 ct LL Vintage Pearl Barley with Belle Soie silks.

Speaking of rain, it's been a cooler week and we've had a lot of rain. I thought these flowers would have opened up more, but they are slow to bloom. One of these days this balloon plant is going to explode with color.












TGIF!

WIP Parade Part Two

And then there's this Longaberger basket with partially stitched needlework projects!

The first design in tonight's parade is Alphabet Blocks from Carriage House Samplings.




I really thought i was further along on this one. The linen is from Lakeside and I'm pretty sure its 36ct. I'm stitching with two threads. If i were starting this today, I would be stitching it with one thread. This has been a WIP for a long time.

Next up is Never Let You Go from Heartstring Samplery.




I'm stitching on 40 ct Vintage Country Mocha. This is the second time I've started this one (had to change the linen)!

Number three - Sojourner Sampler from Heart's Ease Examplar Workes.




Now, this is sad. I was the ring leader for this project that our guild worked on last year (or was it 2015?). I really need to start working on this again. I love this sampler!

I love a good party. Jumped right on the parrot bandwagon when this sampler was popular on Facebook a couple years ago. This is the Snooty Parrots sampler from Barbara Ana.




Beautiful linen, beautiful silks. I need to pick this one up again!

Bringing up the rear in tonight's parade is the Four Seasons Band Sampler by Sally Hesketh. This was published in Just Cross Stitch a few years ago.



I love this one too! Need to resume stitching on it!

Summer flowers are starting to bloom in our neck of the woods. Aren't they pretty?

WIP Parade

This blog has been neglected....poor blog.

Lately, several flosstubers have been filming WIP parades in which they share all of their current WIPs (Works in Progress). It's been great fun seeing the various designs everyone has been working on, their fabric and fiber choices, etc. I thought I might do something similar on this here blog. It might take several nights. Are you ready? Put your seat belt on.

Tonight's group of WIPs come to you from the trusty trolley cart. These are projects that I am currently rotating through (some more than others!)




#1 Village of Hawk Run Hollow - Carriage House Samplings



This is being stitched on 40 ct. Vintage Buttercream with DMC, one over two. When I started this in January, the plan was to stitch one block each month. When, at the end of February, I was just finishing the first block, I decided to adjust my plans and stitch one block every two months. We are now at the end of June and here is my progress thus far. I guess we should now call this the twelve year plan...

#2 12 Days of Christmas from Satsuma Street




I am stitching this on 40ct Navy Bean using DMC threads, one over two. I actually started this one last December and figured if I stitched one block per month I could have this ready for Christmas 2017. Good thing I haven't dated it yet!

#3 Blue Band Sampler from iStitch Designs




Don't adjust your monitor. Yes, it's the BLUE band sampler, but you know how much I love the color RED! I was caught up through Week 9 and Week 10 was just released last Friday so I am not too far behind. Stitched over one on 28ct banding with Threadworx variegated thread.

#4 Strawberry Needlecase from Catherine Theron




There is so little left to stitch on this one, I should really finish the stitching and get this one assembled. It matches the biscornu that I finished at the end of May.

#5 Peace, Love and Purpose from Plum Street Designs




This is a club piece from the Country Sampler. I absolutely love it. I've just been distracted!

#6 Lily of the Valley from Blackbird Designs




This was our class piece at Stitchville's Spring Fling in April. I have a reputation for sometimes changing my linen. It's supposed to be stitched on 32ct Veldt from Picture this Plus (top right). I felt like some of the thread colors were lost on the linen. I started over on 32 ct Vintage Sand Dune from Lakeside Linen. Thoughts? All that's left to be stitched is my initial and then I can call this done.

That's it from my trusty trolley cart. Tomorrow we'll check out another group of WIPs.

I'm going to leave you with some pictures from my garden. Some of the summer flowers are starting to bloom!

A Tale of Three Stitchers

I have had quite a fun week of finishing. At the beginning of the week I thought I would be able to completely empty the finishing pile. That was an unrealistic goal! There are still quite a number of projects there that require finishing, but with that said, I accomplished quite a lot this past week.

You might remember the strawberry biscornu (the matching scissor fob Hornbook was finished months ago).







Then came the Gathering for Winter Etui....







And the spools....







I also finished another small Hornbook fob from Catherine Theron. This one is called the Wee Floral Hornbook fob.












And now, about the title of this post....

Several weeks ago I made an eBay purchase. I purchased a partially stitched project which included the Longaberger basket for a design from Hillside Samplings called Work of Thy Hands. The package arrived and the basket was in perfect condition. The fabric liner and the plastic liners were included.

More importantly, the stitching was meticulously done. The project was about two thirds complete. The original stitcher had done a beautiful job.

Enter stitcher #2...my good friend Chris loves to stitch. She does not have to have the finished project, she just loves to do it. She finished the stitching for me. She said it didn't take very long. She also did a beautiful job.

Enter stitcher #3...that's me. This weekend, I lovingly finished the basket band and all of the smalls. It turned out beautifully!


























I'm looking forward to spending more time with my finishing basket very soon!