October Giveaway

I fussed a while trying to decide what this month's theme would be and finally came up with these three Glory Bee Christmas charts:

GB23: Dear Santa [... define good]

Gb53: Santa 2003  [...please leave toys but take my brother]

GB82: Believe  [When you stop believing in Santa, you get underwear]

Here is a link to the designer's website where you may view the designs.  I no longer have photos of my stitching of these due to a computer disaster.  

As usual, leave a comment if you'd like to receive these charts, making sure to include your e-mail address if your profile does not include that info.  I'll draw a name on the 15th so that there'll be plenty of time to stitch at least one of these up by Christmas.  They're actually very quick stitches: a determined stitcher could have all three done by Christmas.  I enjoyed making them up as gift totes many years ago and used them to"wrap" gifts for my nieces.

Stash Management

I have accumulated such an enormous collection of fabric, fiber, charts and embellishments over the years that I am well-provided in my retirement.

I have been organizing my stash so as to better enjoy it.  One of my loves is fiber.  There are just so many options available and I have a fairly representative collection.  [See my Gallery Post - Fibers as evidence of this].    The ownership of a favorite silk company, Belle Soie, has changed hands.  Since I am unlikely to find much more of the stuff and have many partial cards of many colors, I am systematically using up my stash of Belle Soie on smallish projects like the Prairie Schooler Primitive Americana and Prairie Schooler Year Rounds and this Prairie Schooler promo card, Stars and Stripes, from 2009.  Substituting the Belle Soie for DMC allows me the pleasure of stitching with silk and the righteous feeling of using what I have.  It would be such a pity to waste such lovely stuff.  I enjoy seeing the silk on linen.  I collect to use not to hoard.  

My next needlepoint starts, two small Nutcracker Christmas ornaments, will involve the same strategy.  I have loads of partial cards of Rainbow Gallery fibers of all kinds: perfect for adding interest and texture and shine to needlepoint canvas.  I've never understood the mentality of saving stuff just in case you'll need it later.  That works for money but not much else.  It's rather like never enjoying the good china at meals and always dining off Melmac.  I am probably dating myself by even mentioning Melmac, a hard plastic dinnerware that was a popular wedding shower gift back in the late 60s/early 70s.  Ugly designs and stubborn indestructibility were its main features.

But I digress.  I should stick to talking about stitching.  I need to buy a set or two of stretcher bars before I can start the ornaments.  Which is just as well considering all the WIPs in the basket already.  Even so, I have rediscovered a fondness for needlepoint and am anxious to start these little beauties in time for this Christmas.  I am afraid I am like a kid in a candy store now that I am retired ... I want to do it all ... and all at once.




I have also been trying to gather all my stash in one place, a sort of pre-inventory browsing and organizing effort, if you will,  In doing so, I have found four tubes of white linen I had forgotten I had,  A godsend really since I thought I was all out of white and needed to restock.  I also gathered up an appalling number of stitched but unfinished pieces that need to be transformed into useful or decorative items.  I'll be taking care of the Fall pieces first, and then the Christmas and then the miscellaneous.

ich

A Small Finish

The last of the Prairie Schooler Primitive Americana charts, Lady Liberty, is done.   I'll finish it as a flat stand up using one of the handy little acrylic braces that I bought from the Silver Needle [Tulsa]

I plan to spend most of the rest of my day alternating housekeeping and finishing Halloween pieces .  I hope to have loads of photos for tomorrow's post.

Pulling It Together For Autumn

Autumn has always been my favorite season.  It is evident in the quantity of decorative stitching items with a Fall theme.  The number rivals my Christmas collection.  Every year, I place an ornament tree in my entry hall, set out a half dozen or so framed pieces, scatter some smalls about the place.    Here are a few photos of  my Halloween and Fall season displays.   I 'll show photos of this year's decorations next week.  I need to do some heavy cleaning before I start the holiday season.

But this year I hope to do a little more.  I have gathered together 21 of my stitched but as yet unfinished or unframed or "some assembly required" Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving pieces and plan to work myself up into a finishing frenzy.  I'll need to hit the local Michael's and A. C. Moore for some frames, craft paints, matte board and pillow forms ... as well as the local quilt shop for a light bulb for my sewing machine and some spools of thread and a few properly autumnal finishing fabrics... before I can get started     Tomorrow is a day for running errands, so I'll just add these tasks to my to-do list.  That way I'll be ready to start on all these projects over the weekend.

It's amazing just how many unfinished projects  have been languishing in the great laundry basket of finishing.  In no particular order, here are a few photos of projects that I hope to see through to a final finish this month.

Halloween Revelry by Primitive Needle From JCS Sept 2009.  I fell in love with this quirky piece as soon as I saw it.  I hope to make it into a large throw pillow.

This piece is called Hat in a Cat from The Cricket Collection.  A riff on Dr,Seuss' The Cat in the Hat.  I [lan to finish it as recommended, as a doorstop, by filling it with shredded walnut shells.

This piece, called Nevermore, references the Edgar Allen Poe poem, The Raven and comes from the same CEC leaflet mentioned above,  Every time I look at it I can hear Vincent Price intoning, "Quoth the raven, nevermore,"

This little witch is another piece that I stitched so long ago that I have no clue as to designer or design name.  I'll finish it as a small pin pillow.

Here's another unidentified older jack-o-lantern chart, probably a freebie.  It was stitched with over dyed cotton in vertical  curved rows and so dates from 2005 when I took a class at CATS on using over dyed floss most effectively.  Over dyed floss was still relatively new back then and sich a now obvious choice was a fresh idea.  O'll make it into a Trick or Treat bag for oe of my grandchildren.

This is called Owl Row by Homespun Elegance.  One of my favorite designers, HE has a very distinctive look;  I'll finish this as an ornament.

This is another piece that I have no clue as to provenance.  When I have a moment, I'll dig out my old hand written stitching journals and try and trace it.  I think this would make an adorable trick or treat bag.

This Haunted House was probably a freebie,  It should make a nice little pin pillow,

This is a Shepherd's Bush Be Attitudes entry: Be a Witch.  This fun little piece is destined to be a Trick or Treat Bag for my granddaughter who is the princess  of pink every other day of the year.

Another Primitive Needle piece, Here Lies My Needle, will make a nice pillow for my stitching chair.

There are four designs on this one piece of linen, all destined to be pin pillows.  Tansy, Yarrow and Rue are from Pineberry Lane and the A is for Acorn piece was probably a freebie.

Pineberry Lane's Autumn on Marigold Lane should make another lovely throw pillow.

Changing the color way to Fall colors and replacing the flower motif with thrifty and saavy squirrels transformed this Earth Day sampler into a Fall sampler.  The original chart was offered as a freebie on Heartstrings blog.

This Pineberry Lane Tansy, Yarrow and Rue sampler has a harvest feel to me given the colors and the lady's rake.  I imagine she is putting the herb garden to bed for the coming winter.  I don't yet know how I want to finish this ... maybe I'll try my hand at framing if I can fid one the right size and style.

Brightneedle's Esmeralda's House is a  delight to the eye, wonderfully quirky with loads of visual puns and jokes.  Every time I post a photo, I get an e-mail asking me to sell the chart.  But since I was lucky enough to take a class with Ann Pettit, my copy is autographed and a permanent part of my collection of treasured charts.   And who knows I may use individual rooms to stitch some Halloween exchange pieces in the future.

Witches Stitch, Too is a Halloween companion piece to another  Homespun Elegance chart, The Stitcher.  I have toyed with making the two [oeces into a flippable pillow.

I used Prairie Schooler's Harvest Time leaflet as the basis of a round robin I participated  in back in 2010.  I stitched the top panel and used the acorn border from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs from Better Hoes and Gardens.  The other participants used either autumn leaves from the above mentioned chart or scenes from Prairie Schooler's Country Seasons chart.

My first Secret Needle Night, which I adapted a bit to my own tastes.  I need to finish the quilting using an acorn motif from Tom Pudding before turning it into a large shopping tote.

This is the very first piece I ever stitched with over dyed floss.  I used Needleworks on this design from an old Celebrations magazine chart.  It's so olf, it is stitched on a piece of Aida and I have been stitching on linen for three decades.








There are still a few more Halloween pieces left in the basket but those are pieces I wish to have professionally framed in 2016.  I tend to pace myself when framing since I always seem to go for  the more expensive options ... the 2015 framing projects are The English Band Sampler and TW's Autumn Faerie.