And a few more Valentine's Day pieces ...

Now that even the very last stray Christmas decoration has been properly stowed away for next year, it is time to put out the Valentine's Day decorations. I don't have many stitched decorations since I mostly decorate with table linens, candles, flowers and my collection of ruby red glass. But such as they are, they are photographed below.

The Homespun Elegance Wooly Tyme design for February: I'll find a place for this little guy in the living room. I think he will look just great against the dark green suede cushions of my sofa.

An old Secret Needle Night project [from The Silver Needle in Tulsa]: this piece will come to work with me and grace the door of the Catechist Resource Room cum Copy Room cum Break Room. I don't usually do the fussy, girly-girl kind of ribbons and lace kind of thing, but somehow Valentine's Day just cries out for that sort of thing. A close up of the ribbon shows that it is decorated with white-on-white embroidered hearts ... one of my A.C. Moore finds and perfect for this piece.

The one thing I regret not being able to show is an anniversary sampler I stitched a little over two years ago. I loved every minute stitching on it because it used traditional sampler symbols to "list" all the qualities that go into a healthy and lasting marriage. But, alas, it has been lost along with the birth announcement I stitched for my first grandchild. The framer to whom I entrusted those two pieces lost his wife shortly after I dropped the pieces off. Since his wife was his business partner as well as his life partner, he lost all heart and closed the business. At the time, he promised to finish my framing in his home workshop since I had been such a steady customer over the past fifteen years. Well, he never did and all attempts to contact him have failed. I don't care about the deposit ... all I want are the stitched pieces. That anniversary sampler would have been the perfect Valentine for my husband ... although I had originally intended to give it to him as an anniversary gift in 2008. Eventually, I will restitch the design but not quite yet. It was one of those European designs with two tricky semi-regular repeat motif borders around a rather elaborate central medallion. I keep hoping against hope that I'll be able to reach my old framer through my new framers with whom he has a tenuous on-again-off-again professional relationship. Even so, I can't find it in my heart to blame Bruce ... losing Diane devastated him.