Sunday, July 26, 2020

Cooking With Gas

My Auntie Theresa was a character. She had certain phrases she would say that I think of every now and then. “Cooking with gas” was one of those things she used to say.

I guess you could say I’ve been “cooking with gas.” I now have all four of the medium sized pinwheels stitched.

Eight done and four more to go!


Thursday, July 23, 2020

Pardon the Wrinkles

It’s been a relatively good stitching week. I have two more pinwheels stitched. Six down, six to go!


Winter Wishes and Autumn Fields.

Have a great weekend!


Sunday, July 19, 2020

Perennial Pinwheels Part 2

The Spring pinwheel is finished. Tonight I will move on to the medium sized pinwheels.


My friends who regularly stitch with me know that I have issues with linen. I have been known to switch up my linen after stitching a significant portion of a design. I abandon what I have already started and I start over. They just shake their heads at me. So, with that in mind, see if you can follow my story.

I decided that I would like to stitch Teresa Kogut’s Land That I Love. The called for linen is Weeks’ Tin Roof. The finished size is 16.5 x 16 5/8 inches. I stitch in hand, but I still like to have a two inch border to be safe (and comfortable).

When I purchased my pattern and threads at Stitchville, the largest piece of Tin Roof on hand was 19 by 26.5.  That number 19 made me a little nervous, so I decided to search for other options.

I checked my stash first. I have a fat half of Lakeside Vintage Cedar Plank that I was planning to use for Samplers Not Forgotten’s English Garden. A fat half might be enough for both projects though.

Then I happened to watch Flosstube and one of the Portland flosstubers commented that Jeannine at Acorn and Threads had Tin Roof in stock. Well, I didn’t call right away, but when I did I had a nice visit with Jeannine. She didn’t have enough Tin Roof, but she suggested Confederate Grey and fixed me up with a Portland cut (fat half). As long as I had her on the phone and because no linen can travel alone, I also got a piece of Lakeside Vintage Tundra from her...and perhaps a few other things...

So now that the linen has arrived, it is time to decide between Confederate Grey and Vintage Cedar Plank. It was an easy decision, Confederate Grey won hands down.

But then last night, I watched Kindred Stitcher on Flosstube and she showed her progress on English Garden and shared that she is stitching it on Lakeside Vintage Tundra. It was really stunning. Now I have another decision to make! Do I stitch English Garden on Vintage Tundra or Vintage Cedar Plank? Oh, and did I mention that the linen called for in the pattern for English Garden is Tin Roof?

Stitching is hard.

From left to right: Tin Roof, Vintage Cedar Plank, Confederate Grey, Vintage Tundra


Perennial Pinwheels

This week, I continued to plug away on the large “Summer” design from Hands on Designs’ Perennial Pinwheels. Summer, Fall, and Winter are now finished in the larger sized design. There is also a medium and small sized design that I still need to stitch for each season. So, three down and nine to go! 


They stitch up quickly though. I love the linen colors and the thread colors Cathy selected; they really pop on the linen. I should have Spring all stitched up by Sunday night and then I’ll move on to the medium-sized designs.

Look at this sweet finish that I received in the mail this week. About three years ago at our guild’s Annual Meeting, several finished pieces were offered as door prizes. A member of the guild had stitched the items. I selected a beautifully stitched band sampler.


Recently, I’ve been cleaning through my stitching things, trying to organize better, and I came across the sampler. What to do with it? I didn’t really want to frame it - not quite my style. I didn’t want to stick it back in a drawer either. Then all of a sudden the light bulb went on. I decided to reach out to Faye Riggsbee. I had seen a Huswif that she finished recently for another stitcher and thought maybe she could do something similar.


I sent the piece off to Faye and she worked her magic. This week, the finished piece came back to me and it is beautiful! Faye created the most gorgeous Huswif using a beautiful lining fabric from French General that coordinates with the design. There are two pockets for scissors and/or threads and a needle page that is embellished with a sweet little bow and some buttons.
 

I am tickled pink with Faye’s finish. 

Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Please wear a mask. We need to do all we can to stop the spread of this horrible virus. Stay home and stitch!

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Poor Neglected Blog

Poor neglected blog...yes, this was the subject line of a recent email that I received from the Mad Tatter. I visited her twice this weekend and both times she told me that she had checked for an update and was disappointed that there was no update. So here we go!

The past two months have been busy. I’m working from home and find that I spend even more hours working than I did when I went into the office everyday. Doesn’t leave much time for stitching. I took pictures today of the projects I have been working on though and was surprised at how much I’ve actually done.

Around the Memorial Day weekend I got the patriotic stitching bug. I started Summer Jubilee by Blackbird Designs. I’m stitching on 36 ct 18th Century Blackbird and I don’t mind the dark linen at all. The linen color in the first photo is more accurate.



Squirrel...sometime in June I got distracted and started another patriotic piece. This one is from Plum Street Samplers...A New Constellation. Using all the called for linen and threads. Love stitching this one.

Another squirrel...I was looking for something that would be easy to stitch on while visiting with my mom, so I started this Blackbird Designs piece after seeing Abibellastitch (flosstuber) stitching it on this Weeks Straw checked linen. Loved it so much I couldn’t stop.


Revisited patriotic stitching by pulling out Star Spangled Spectacular from Brenda Gervais. I’m not a big fan of over one stitching, so I stitched mine over two on 40 ct Vintage Pearled Barley.


Squirrel again...some of the flosstubers were going to start Flag Folk on the 4th of July. I just happened to have it in my stash; I had purchased the Country Sampler conversion on 36 ct. Picture This Plus Murky. Just a small start...


This past week, I have been working on the Perennial Pinwheels from Hands on Design. I will be meeting up with a friend in August who has hers all stitched and we are planning to finish them together. These two are almost finished. Ten more to go. :)


Now you are all caught up!  And you have this lady to thank (included are some pictures of her recent tatting!)