I rather like the notion of album posts. So today, to celebrate the Fourth, I am going to post photos of all my patriotic stitches.
I believe this is a Glory Bee design. I had it framed and now set it up on a small stand on the antique washstand in my entryway on the appropriate day
In the top right hand corner you can see the July design from the Homespun Elegance Sheepish Designs series.
This a very old freebie that I finished as a pin keep. It's hard to tell because of the lighting but the flowers are in a white bowl.
And I have stitched all of the Aury Patriotic Quaker motif hearts. I have finished all of them as pillow ornaments.
I'd have to look it up to see which came first, but this is my personal favorite
I wasn't as crazy about this design but a set is a set, after all.
This is a Glory Bee design that I stitched up as a tiny pin cushion stuffed with ground walnut shells. It was the first time I used over-dyed chenille as a trim ... something I do fairly frequently now when I finish tiny pillows. The pillow is laid on a piece of the backing fabric.
One of the things I liked best about this piece is the tiny brass Liberty Bell charm I stitched onto the branch of the "y" in Liberty. I sent this as an exchange to a cyber friend. I used the same design in one of the banners you see below.
This last ornament is another ancient freebie embellished with a tiny silver USA charm near the hanger.
This a banner I made from a selection of free designs gathered from various websites
And the final banner is a relic from the time when I subscribed to The Silver Needle's Secret Needle Night Club.
Barbara, who writes a lovely blog called mainely stitching , won my blogaversary giveaway back in September and requested a patriotic piece. It took me a while, but this is what I came up with using Glory Bee's complimentary chart, Liberty, which I converted to Belle Soie silks. I kept to the same muted palette as in the charted GAST overdyes for two reasons. First, that palette worked so well with my chosen backing fabric and chenille trim. [I have photographed the pillow against the backing fabric, one of three coordinated fabrics of which I bought 1/2 yard each some time ago. There is a print and a larger plaid in the same colorway. Wonderful stuff.] Second, I remember one of Barbara's posts in which she stated that she thought Buckeye Scarlet was one of the ugliest reds imaginable ... so I figured I'd better steer away from the traditional bright
red-white-blue. I chose the finish of a small pillow lined with muslin and filled with ground walnut shells so that it could be used either as a pin pillow in her craft room or a bean bag toy for her children's indoor winter amusement ... it can get pretty cold on the Maine coast during the long winters and a variety of indoor games are a maternal survival technique! I added a little brass charm of the Liberty Bell that has been kicking around in my stash for nearly a decade. Until this piece, I had never found just the right project for it ... but it works perfectly here. I am pleased with the result and hope Barbara enjoys the piece as much as I enjoyed making it.
finished into a patriotic bellpull, a Glory Bee freebie obviously entitled 4th of July that I had framed and now use as part of the little patriotic display on the washstand in my entryway, a silly little Secret Needle Night chart named Liberbee that I made up as a banner and the 1st annual Red-White-Blue Quaker Heart by aury. I know I have done much more, but many of my pieces were given away long before I got in the habit of photographing them. I now make it a practice to photograph all my work before I give it away. It is certainly not as extensive a collection as others have stitched but most of the pieces, with the exception of aury's heart & Liberbee, were stitched
shortly after the 9/11 tragedy and were part of my own way of 
working through the grief, anxiety and anger of those days. And isn't that what stitchers have done since the very first woman threaded a needle: recorded the events of the times with thread and fabric? I'll be starting the 2nd annual Red-White-Blue Quaker Heart by aury as my patriotic piece for tomorrow, on the actual fourth. I Have picked out a lovely Silkweaver 36ct cashel linen in Marine Blue as the backing and will be using Belle Soie silks: Sister Scarlet, Icing and Ocean.
