A little of this, A little of that

In between doctor's appointments, home health nurse visits and home PT visits, I have gotten in a little stitching, a bit more reading and a very little catch-up housework.  My husband led a bachelor existence for a little over a month while I was in hospital and nursing home and the results were pretty much what I expected.  To give you some notion of my husband;s domestic skills: once he found out I'd be laid up for more than two days, he went out and bought a dishwasher.

But on to the stitching:  I have been playing with oddments  from my scrapbag, startimg with a small scrap of 36 count antique ivory linen.

This first Easter Egg ornament is loosely based on two designs from the Better Homes and Gardens 1001 Cross Stitch Designs.  I picked a motif from one pattern [the bunnies] and the size and shape  of the egg from another.  Then I pulled out a bunch of exotic and glitzy fibers left over from old Dragon Dreams, Silver Needle Night and similar projects.  The object was to mimic a bit of Faberge bling.  I have a hard time throwing away usable leftovers and it satisfies some deep-seated aging  hippie need to recycle such odds and ends into new projects.  I thought this was a fairly successful attempt to take what was old and make something new from it.

The next Easter Egg ornament is somewhat more conventional in its conception.  Following roughly the same shape as the first, I allowed the materials at hand to dictate design elements, e.g.: the thickness and placement of the stripes, the size of the flower.  Just an aside, rayon floss is nowhere near the usual pain in the ass to use when you are working with just one strand as I did on this 36ct linen.

The third egg was born after finding some green and lavender rayon floss.  I have always liked the combination of mossy greens and soft lavenders.   I had some vague idea of an egg wrapped up in a bow and found just such a chart in BH&G 1001 Cross Stitch Designs.  With a few adjustments, I had what I wanted.

And this fourth egg is back to Faberge style bling, done in metallic reds and golds.  Just to keep from being bored, I couched a scrap of leftover gold metallic ribbon with some 003HL Kreinik VFB as the center band of this egg.  I am pleased with the effect.  For some crazy reason, I have7 spools of the various red VFB and this was a way of using up a bit of it.  Can't imagine what possessed me to buy so much of the stuff!  It must date from the time I was stitching a lot of Christmas ornaments.

The last egg uses up some fibers in the yellow to gold color way: some Colorwash silk, some amber and bronze VFB, a bit of orange wool, a scrap of bronze metallic ribbon.  To avoid repeating myself, I have decided to go the sampler route and, so far have used cross, long armed cross, satin, box, diamond Rhodes and diamond eyelet  stitches on this egg.    I plan to stitch a band of upright crosses and a band of knotted crosses before I am done.   I liked the couched ribbon effect in the red egg so much that I repeated it here with a scrap of metallic bronze ribbon and the yellow colorwash silk.


One of my 2017 goals is to make a half a dozen Easter ornaments.  With one Mill Hill beaded Easter egg just needing the final finish of a felt backing and four of these just needing flat ornament finishes, I am well on my way to accomplishing that goal.  And once I finish the yellow egg, I do have another Mill Hill beaded egg kit in stash and will probably tackle that while the Easter season is still upon us.   It'll be nice to actually exceed a goal in at least one area after so many health related set backs thus far this year 

Rabitting and a New Start

I have finished the rabbit.  I am not crazy about it.  Though I followed the original DMC colors very carefully when substituting WDW, GAST and Crescent Colors, the whole piece has a motley look that I just can't love.  I'll probably make it into an Easter stand up to tuck in my grandchildren's package next Easter.

I'll want to get in one more new start before getting back to my goals list stitching.  I spent all of last year and most of the first quarter of this year diligently stitching on items from my BAP-UFOs and Class Projects lists.  That leaves me craving novelty and fresh new starts.  I plan to indulge myself with one new start a month from May on but April just cries out for three new starts.

Psychologically, I am almost ready to return to my BAPs and UFOs in a day or two.  That should make this month one where I meet most, if not all, of my monthly goals.

But in the meantime:
 A long time ago, maybe 25 years or so, I was a docent for our local historical society.  I worked in the Blauvelt House, a 17th century Dutch homestead, cooking at a hearth, tending an herb garden, pressing cider and other homely tasks.  The herb garden had tansy [used as a bug repellent when added to bed straw and feather pillows], yarrow [used as a dye] and rue [I can't quite remember what we used this for, but I am thinking as an ingredient in potpourri].  So, when I saw the Tansy, Yarrow and Rue sampler sampler by Pineberry Lane, I knew I had to stitch it.  Some things just resonate with one's memories.  I will probably finish it up as a throw pillow for the living room sofa.  But for now, it is simply a pleasure to stitch it.

An Easter Rabbit

I have been working on the 2010 Easter Rabbit from By the Bay Needle Arts.  I made substitutions so that I might stitch from my rather extensive stash of over dyed floss.  I have noticed that a few of the over dyes in my stash are getting a bit brittle and dried out and tend to shred, no matter how carefully I have stored them.  Considering how much I have invested in these fibers, I am going to make a conscious effort to use them as often as possible before they reach a state where I will no longer want to.  I also dug into my stash of Silkweaver 28ct linen for this piece, using a cut of Golden Promise, a tan with gold undertones, that works well with all the browns in this piece.  I haven't used 28 ct linen in a very long time, sticking to 36 ct and 40 ct or the most part.  But I have a fairly large stash of 28 ct and 32 ct linens leftover from my old Fabric of the Month Silkweaver subscription.   The fabric subscription dates from a period when I was simply a linen snob and had not yet become a high count snob as well.  But I anticipate using this rather large cut of Golden Promise for a number of projects in the near future since I have so very few high count neutrals left in my linen stash.  And, there is the fact that 28ct is a bit easier on the eyes.

An Easter Finish

My colorful Easter Egg Band Sampler is done, a quick four day stitch.  Normally when I finish with a free chart, I destroy and discard it.  But I think I will hang on to this one for a while.  I am imagining alternate versions of it.  Perhaps a pale blue linen with a blue and green colorway over dyed fiber.  Or a very pale geen with a green and turquoise floss.  But most intriguing of all,  I am seeing this done up in jewel toned petite seed beads on a gold linen for a totally over the top Faberge look.  I'll put the chart aside for now while I mull over all the grand possibilities.

Next up is the 2010 Easter Bunny from By the Bay Needle Art.    I kitted this up substituting Crescent Colors, GAST and WDW cotton over dyes for the recommended DMC.

I'm still in a Easter mood.  But I expect that after this bunny, I shall get back to my BAP or UFO.  I genuinely want to finish those up.  It's just that I needed a bit of a diversion.  I am finding that my one project at a time mood dissipates quickly if that one project isn't a Teresa Wentzler.  Her designs seem to be the only ones that capture my attention to the extent of becoming joyful obsessions.  Most other designers become same-old, same-old all too quickly. 

The Easter Egg

This piece is coming along nicely and relatively quickly.  I decided I wanted to make the letters stand out a little more, so I am stitching them in a Hand dyed Told in a Garden Egyptian cotton floss that picks up the pale green in the multicolored Caron Waterlilies silk.  I like how the subtle contrast between cotton and silk, as well as the more obvious contrast between solid and multicolored, sets the letters apart from the other design motifs. And, as I predicted, the colors of the multicolored floss pop more obviously now that I have stitched a greater area.   I have stitched 6 of the 11 bands and am a little more than two thirds of the way to a finish.  The top five bands are much less wide than the bottom six.  Two of them are alphabet bands and stitching letters always goes rather quickly.  There is a reasonable hope that I may finish this up tomorrow.

Without children in the house, the religious celebration of Easter has completed overtaken the secular.  It's fun reclaiming some of the more charming secular motifs like Easter eggs and bunnies.  I'll probably spend a bit of time tomorrow kitting up the Easter Rabbit

A Change of Plans

In yesterday's post I said that I would be returning to The English Band Sampler once I had finished my fourth Town Square series shop for this year, bringing my progress up to the one-a-month annual goal.  But I guess I am still craving novelty.  Instead of returning dutifully to my BAPs and UFOs, I started on a very fanciful Easter Egg.

 A little while ago, I posted this photo of a kit seeking a chart:  linen - hand dyed 32ct. Aurora Belfast, fibers - a selection of Caron Waterlilies and Belle Soie silks, and some matching rick-rack.  Well, I found this chart to go with it: an unnamed complimentary chart designed by Frederique Leroy, ironically, another band sampler, though this one is in the form of an Easter Egg.  Unfortunately, this chart did not print out with a URL address at the bottom, like most freebies I have downloaded from various French sites.  So, I am unable to give you directions to find it for yourself.  

I then selected one of the Caron fibers, Tahiti, the lightest of the two over dyed skeins, the one at the bottom.  And I begin stitching yesterday evening. I have only gotten a few bands done but I am enjoying the jelly bean color way of this appropriately seasonal piece.  The band I am working on now will be a band of butterflies.  The colors pop much more in real life, even the sections where the orange sherbert shade gives an intermittent tone on tone effect.  I expect that will become more obvious as I get more stitched.  There are 11 bands on this fanciful little Easter Egg, including a full alphabet, hearts, butterflies, flowers and cherries on the stem.  I think it will make a charming shaped pillow trimmed in rick-rack.

Though this piece shouldn't take more than another day or two, I suspect it'll be a while before I get to The English Band Sampler.  You see, while I was browsing my binders for this chart, I found another: the free bunny 2010 from By the Bay Needleart.  I'll just have to get him stitched while the Easter mood is upon me.

Weekend Progress Report: April 17, 2011

I have been fairly disciplined about sticking to my Crazy January Challenge pieces and my 2010 WIPs and UFOs so far this year ... but I couldn't quite resist this charming little Easter project compliments of Martina: I did change the colorway to coral [instead of the charted pink] because I have had a large piece of Autumn Sunrise Silkweaver 28 ct linen in my stash for quite some time, a mystery selection from my FOTM subscription. I have never used sparkly fabric before [I always thought the stuff was just a bit tacky] but somehow this little design seemed to call for it. I'll finish it as a pin pillow ... or maybe I should call it a bean bag, since I plan to stuff it with ground walnut shells. I can see myself stitching this again on a plain 40ct Ivory linen in the original colorway and finishing as a scissor fob or Easter ornament. I love the delicacy of this charming little piece. And, oddly enough, I am liking the fabric on which I am stitching it more and more ... prompting me to find a larger project for it by Autumn. Maybe glitz and glam fabric isn't quite so tacky after all ... either that, or I am getting tacky in my dotage.

This last notion is a real possibility. I caught myself doing something recently that just smacks of a downscale nursing home. When I got home from running errands one day recently, I removed my sneakers [excuse me, walking/athletic shoes] but not my supersoft Buster Brown white cotton socks and then I changed into a long fleece lounger and sheepskin-lined suede slippers. White socks scrunched down about the ankles and tan slippers and a glorified house dress ... I'm still too young [albeit, just barely] to be doing things like that ... if my kids saw me, there'd be no end of teasing going on! And I don't even want to think of the acid comments one of my younger sisters would make! I doubt my husband even noticed but he tends to value comfort above style ... so even if he had noticed, he'd have thought nothing of it.

But back to stitching commentary. I am enjoying this fussy little stitch in which fractionals and confetti stitching abound - I wouldn't want anyone to look at the back - since I'll be lining this with a heavy muslin and then filling it with ground walnut shells no one will ever see the travelling threads tucked under existing stitching - I just didn't have the patience to start and end properly after only three stitches in a color, over and over - it's a casual seasonal piece, not an heirloom, after all. Even though I am now a card-carrying member of the august EGA, I prefer to keep a little perspective here!

I also managed to finish Section II of TW's Autumn Faerie in spite of the fact that I spent most of Friday shopping and preparing food for the First Communion Mini-Retreat and Saturday was spent in the ususal way with classes till 10:30am and then setting up the mini-retreat [in another building, with fewer amenities], then running the retreat and cleaning up after it. By the time I was done on Saturday, all I was in the mood for was a nap. I did get some productive stitching time in on this project on Wednesday and another hour on each day Thursday & Friday ... but it wasn't equal to the time I was able to devote these past two weeks. Still, progress is progress ... especially when you are talking about a project that languished untouched for the better part of a year and a half. I'll hold off on photos until I've got a bit of Section III completed next Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I'll be returning to work on my current Crazy January Challenge piece, Witches Stitch, Too from Homespun Elegance. What I am liking about this piece is that it echoes my last Homespun Elegance project, The Stitcher, both in layout and colorway ... but it uses current resources like over-dyed flosses ... marking the passage of time between the publication dates of the two leaflets. I'd love to emphasize the homage to the earlier piece: I am thinking of adding some Olde Brass buttons or some smaller Halloween charms hung from the points of the top border. Once I have the stitching finished, I'll lay out my buttons and charms and see if it works visually. Not all my bright ideas are necessarily good ideas ... so we shall see what we shall see.

A TW Tuesday

Yesterday, I decided that I needed a bit more disciplined approach if I am ever going to finish my current BAP so henceforth Tuesdays shall be T. Wentzler days until such time as The Autumn Faerie is complete. That's not to say I can't work on it other days of the week, but rather, put simply, I MUST work on it on Tuesdays.

So here are some before and after photos. First this is what it looked when I picked it up Tuesday morning ... lots of little blank spaces in the left wing ... a counting nightmare. In order to give myself a clear reference point for my counting, I did a little back stitching on the scarf and then worked from there. It may not look like much progress was made but I tend to take my time with Teresa Wentzler pieces, counting three times before stitching, since frogging tends to be complicated by the blended flosses ... it's very hard to see what needs to be frogged ... so it's best to avoid problems in the first place. Anyway, this is what it looked like when I put it away.

I know I entitled this post A TW Tuesday, but I just have to show a small photo of Monday's stitching, a charming little Easter freebie from Martina ... see the link on Sunday's post. I have been so disciplined thus far this year, working on only my Crazy January Challenges and my 2010 WIPs and UFOs ... but I just couldn't resist starting this piece. In any case, it is stitched entirely from existing stash ... so I can, at least, justify/rationalize the start by saying it didn't involve any additional expense. It's a fussy little piece with lots of fractional stitches and loads of not-quite-confetti stitching which require some very careful counting ... but I am looking foward to a fabulous finish as a pin pillow. You can see the rabbit taking shape nicely and in the lower left corner you can see one of the flowers that will eventually surround the inner border/frame.