Happy St. Patrick's Day

I thought I'd just show a few of my Irish finishes, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

I believe this is an old Shepherd's Bush Tie Pillow ... but it has been so long since I stitched this up that I can't be quite sure.  I like the colors in this little piece.

This is an old Secret Needle Night piece, finished as a classroom door banner.  It used to have a little clay button of a pot of gold but that poor button has not survived the years of fascinated children touching the piece.  I have come to like it better without the button.  Less cute, more of a classic tailored look.  I took this banner into work on Monday and hung it on my office door for the week. 

And here is a Celtic Heart, which I finished up as a tote and gave to a Welsh stitching buddy.  What can I say, we are all Celts together!  The chart was an old magazine chart and I cannot at this point remember for certain who was the designer.  I am thinking it might have been M Designs but I wouldn't swear to it.  I stitched it with a series of Needle Necessities overdyed cottons in flame colorways.

The bookmark is from a kit, purchased while on vacation in Maine, of all places.  I have fond memories of stitching this up while sitting on the back porch of a cottage perched on rocks overlooking the Atlantic.  It's a pretty piece and is currently keeping my place in George Carlin's Last Words.  Now, there is a truly terrible Irishman: clever, literate, brilliantly funny as so very many Irish-Americans but so embittered and angry it makes one sad to think of him.  My pastor, Msgr. Foley, grew up in the same apartment building, remembers him well and has some very ugly stories to tell of the verbal abuse Carlin sufferred at the hands of his mother.

Next up is a small freebie chart.  Again, I do not trust my memory as to designer and no longer have the chart to refer to.  All I really remember is that arrived with an order from The Silver Needle.  But I like this little finish.  Fringed pillows are such easy, no fuss, no muss kind of finishes.  No searching for matching trims or embellishments.  Just utter simplicity: both chart and finish.

The last is my version of a Log Cabin Pillow finish using one of Heart in Hand's Tall Bird charts as the centerpiece.  I have a few of these charts for various seasons.  I can't quite explain why they appeal to me: just that they do.

So there you have it, my stitching tribute to the maternal side of my ethnic heritage.  I must confess, when it comes to the culinary tributes, I much prefer the paternal ethnicity, Sicilian.  I'll be eating a luscious, cannoli cream filled St. Joseph's Day pastry on March 19 and skipping the fatty, gassy corned beef and cabbage on March 17th, thank you very much!