Tour de Wall

This will be my last post for a few days. Heading to the Attic tomorrow for their weekend Bristol - Quaker event. Visiting the Attic always feeds my stitching soul!

For today’s post, I thought we could visit a collection of stitched pieces that hang on one of our walls. I love this group of samplers!

1. Though He Seemeth Sleeping from Lucy Beam. 

2. What Remains is Love, from Blackbird Designs. 

3. All Joys for Thine from Blackbird Designs

4. Feliz Navidad from Blackbird Designs

5. TLK 1834 from Needlework Press

6. Humble Sampler from MoJo Stitches

7. Eliza Guy (modified) from Chessie and Me

8. Tribute to Summer Sampler by Stacy Nash. Started by my friend Sue Tesmer and finished by me.

Hope you enjoyed this picture walk!

Birthday Celebration

(Note: Monday’s update is being posted on Tuesday. Had trouble uploading photos to Blogger!)

Yesterday, we celebrated our little Griffy’s third birthday! He was born three years ago on the exact day - May 24. It was a special day for him the entire day. It started out with a trip to the “muffin store” where he was treated to a blueberry muffin with a candle! After breakfast they took their dog Charli for a walk and went to the park where Griff got to go down the slide several times. He also saw some “sea turtles” in the pond (all turtles are sea turtles in Griff’s world.) No issues with taking a nap because he knew that a birthday party would follow. One of his special guests at the party was Great-Grandma!

Not to disappoint you, there is some stitching in this post. A couple months back I decided to finish an Annie Beez piece that we received the last time she was at Quilter’s Station. As I was stitching it, I kept thinking about Griff - he loves to sing the ABC song and he loves looking at some of my stitched samplers that have animals in them. I decided that this would make the perfect birth sampler for Griff with just some minor modifications. I was thrilled with how it turned out. The hardest part was keeping it a secret until his birthday. He loved the ABC’s and the animals! Yay for Grandma.

Today, I’m organizing, sorting, cleaning, dusting. It will feel good when I am done.  Pulling out some projects that have been waiting to be stitched for a very long time.

Mary Beale Days of Advent Progress

Finished another block on the Mary Beale project. For a full explanation, go back to my post on April 23. Block 1 (left) represents the story of Ruth and Boaz. Block two (in the middle) represents the story of David and Goliath. The third block (right) represents the story of Abigail and David. Keep in mind, we started in the middle and are working to the end and then will go back and work from the middle to the beginning.

Also, this morning, I put the finishing touches on another project. This was a kit we received from Lady Dot at one of the Quilter’s Station retreats a few years ago. I had most of the finishing done and should have completed it when I first received it! It’s a round needlebook made with Blackbird fabric using a variety of Lady Dot trims. Her goal was to teach us a variety of finishing techniques.

I will post a very special finish for you tomorrow, so please stop back!

Finishing Frenzy

The last week or two were quite busy with stitching opportunities and family commitments. Some of my stitching friends decided they wanted to commit some time to finishing; so we blocked two entire days! I’ve made some good progress but still have quite a large bag of things that need to be finished. This is a common problem for most of us I think. We love to spend time stitching, but are not so fond of the finishing part. We’re going to dedicate two days again in June. I’ll keep picking away at the things in that bag. Here are a few of the things I accomplished.

Hemstitching…I have a handful of samplers that I want to hemstitch. Not everything needs to be hung on the wall, but it’s nice to have it fully finished. I worked on hemstitching these two samplers. The one on the left is the 2025 Countdown collaboration between Modern Folk Embroidery, Roxy Floss Co., and Evertote. The sampler on the right was stitched quite a few years ago. It’s the Scottish sampler from Amy Mitten’s Around the World series.

This little pillow is from Samplers Not Forgotten. We got the pattern at a Quilter’s Station retreat a few years ago. Kim Nugent sold it as a kit at market this year. The design is called “Roses and Scrolls”.

Finally, I participated in Spring Mingle last weekend and took Cathy Habermann’s class to complete “Do Dragons Fly?” Cute octagonal shaped pincushion with a dragonfly pin. Love Cathy’s creative ideas and finishes.

Which reminds me - did I ever share this needlebook finish with you? It’s the Perforated Poinsettia Needlebook and a Poinsettia Puff. This was Cathy’s project at the Jingle Ball last December.

That’s all for today. I have a couple more projects that are close to being finished, so I’ll have more to share in a few days. Thank you for stopping by!

 

Jenny Bean For the Parlor

I posted progress photos of this piece last year, but never shared a picture of the finish. I’m really proud of this piece. I loved stitching it. There were eight parts, stitched on 36ct Wren with the called for Sampler Threads. I may have occasionally substituted a DMC thread or two if the color of the overdyed thread didn’t look quite right.

Now to decide how to finish it. I don’t think I am going to frame it. I’m thinking about finishing the edges and rolling it around a spool. It will be portable and a talking piece!

Sandra - regarding your comment on the previous post, you are correct! Juniper has a stitched backside! 

Thank you to everyone who still reads this old blog.

Juniper

The finishing spree continued this morning. At a previous year’s Quilter’s Station Retreat, we received a kit from Stacy Nash for this cute little animal cracker named “Juniper”. The kit included the pattern and supplies for the little round sewing box too - “Rose Cottage Sewing Box”. Our group that attended the retreat finished the sewing box last fall, but we hadn’t finished Juniper yet. Today was the day. It was also my first attempt at using sawdust as a filler. Some challenges with the sawdust, but I learned a lot.

Here they are:

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Emma and Ophelia

Aren’t they cute? Both are from Giulia Punti Antichi (GPA Designs). Emma was a Nashville Needlework Market release in 2025 and Ophelia was released this year at market. The dolls are actually thread boards that were hand painted in Italy. Underneath their skirts, there is also a pincushion. Ophelia has a bat in her birdcage. I stitched and finished Ophelia last fall (I was able to purchase her in advance of market). Emma’s apron was stitched last year, and I did the finishing today.

A new doll, Abigail, is being introduced at Celebrations this month. Looking forward to adding her to the collection!

Muffin Tops

This afternoon, I fully, fully finished these two projects. Both designs are from The Blue Flower. Both were stitched last year, and both were finished in October. I just never put anything on top to fully finish them off.

On the left is “Bees in the Greenhouse” and on the right, “Festive Forest.” Jeannine from The Blue Flower affectionately refers to this as a “muffin top” finish. Lots of stitching in these two pieces. Easy to finish though.

Without further ado, here are the pictures!

We had a little visitor yesterday afternoon. He brought the pink frosted cupcake home with him from daycare!

Crackers and Pin Pillows

Here are some additional stitching finishes since the beginning of the year. First up are some Animal Crackers from Stacy Nash. I just finished Harrison (the rabbit) last week. I finished Bobbin earlier this year.

These are some of the pin-pillow kits that Samplers Not Forgotten puts out at market. I don’t have the specific chart names in front of me right now. I can post again with names once they are fully finished.

Short Sunday post! Hope you had a nice weekend.

Quintessential Frisian Smalls & Holiday Countdown

Hope you had a good week! I’ve been busy attending guild meetings, in person and on zoom. In addition, we have a group that meets weekly at a local library. No shortage of meet-ups to stitch and visit with other like-minded individuals!

The following project was offered by Modern Folk Embroidery, Evertote, and Roxy Floss Co. It was a stitch a long that started last fall and ended just after the first of the year. I kept up with the SAL and completed both the stitching and finishing in February!

The linen and floss was from Roxy Floss Co - a 40ct linen and Falu Red floss.

I also participated in the Holiday Countdown stitch-a-long last December, also from Modern Folk Embroidery, Evertote, and Roxy Floss Co. Each day of December a small portion of the pattern is revealed and on December 25 the design is complete!

Both projects were fun to stitch!

Needle Bling “Get Your Stitch on” Retreat

I spent this past weekend at the Needle Bling “Get Your Stitch On” retreat in Bloomington, MN (near the airport and not far from home. This is a good retreat to make progress on projects, there is no featured designer. There were several designers in attendance though and all had brought trunk shows. Needle Bling also had a shop onsite at the hotel with lots of their hand dyed linen, charts, project bags,mother stitching doo-dads and more.

I made good progress on the stitching I brought with me. 

• Finished the second band on the Betsy Morgan project I mentioned in my last post.
• Getting close to finishing Harrison, one of the earlier animal crackers from Stacy Nash.
• Started working on the dragonfly piece for Cathy Haberman’s class at Spring Mingle.

It’s a rainy day here, so I apologize if the pictures are a bit dark. I’ve been doing laundry and other cleaning and am ready for a nap now! Looking forward to working on Harrison a bit more afterwards!

Willow Tree Sampler Guild

As you might expect, I have lots of stitching to share! Last year, my PIC and I joined the Willow Tree Sampler Guild in Texas. They were doing a project from Betsy Morgan. The pattern was complimentary to the guild members. We love Betsy Morgan designs! The stitch-a-long started in March. Each month we received the pattern for a new block. The designs represented different countries or regions of the world. I did a pretty good job of keeping up. Two of my posts from last year explained more about this project (October 11 and April 30). Here are all 12 blocks:

The last block was dedicated to the state of Texas since that is where their guild is located. We will be having a zoom call in July to cover the finishing instructions. All of these pages will be assembled into a book.

This year, the guild is doing another project from Betsy. It was originally posted in Inspirations magazine a few years ago. It’s a band sampler called “Favourite Things.” We started last month, and each month will be stitching a band, for a total of eight bands. I have the first and second band stitched, but only the first band is included in the picture below. The open space on the far left is for a stumpwork flower. I’m not sure that I will do the stumpwork, but I kept the space open and will make that decision when we cross that bridge.

If you are interested in joining the Willow Tree Sampler Guild, you can find them on Facebook. Membership dues are $35 per year.

This weekend, I’m at the Needle Bling “Get Your Stitch On” retreat in Bloomington, MN. Getting a lot of stitching done so will have more to report soon!

Trip to Florida, Christmas Treasures

Last December, a small group of us (6), traveled to Florida. We stayed in the Daytona Beach area and did the usual things like watching the ocean waves and eating delicious seafood.

The most important thing we did though was to visit a couple of the local needlework stores! One day we went to The Common Thread in Ocala, and to Gary Sligh’s Fabric Arts in Leesburg. Purchases were made in both shops!

Another day we traveled to the Inspired Needle in Palm Coast. We used to visit Cathy’s shop when it was located in Lemont, IL.

The Inspired Needle was loaded with all kinds of needlework goodies. (The shop is now closed.) We had a great time shopping and each of us found treasures to buy. On my way out of the shop, my PIC (who always has my best interest in mind) pointed to a box on a bottom shelf and said, “Did you know there is a Whitman Tin in that box?” Enough said. We stopped in our tracks. Had to look at it and more importantly, had to buy it! 

When we got in the car and shared our find with the others, three of them had this tin and the accompanying kit in their stash. After sharing with friends who were not with us in Florida, we were up to seven! Another group project! The stitchers in this group gather every year in November at the Ranch in Wisconsin. Our GOAL is to have the pieces all stitched so we can finish the project together.

Without further ado, here is the tin. The accompanying smalls were designed by Louise Henderson of Cherished Stitches. The project is called “Christmas Treasures.”

And my pre-stitching is all finished. I’m ready for November!

Check back often. There are additional group projects Inwill share with you. Have a great stitchy day!