Danish Delights

Hi everyone!  First I'd like to begin this post with thanking all of you for the wonderful comments about the stitch-room update.  Thanks so much!  I am still in a state of thrill and so I continue to walk into the stitch-room, just to take a deep breath and sweep my eyes across all the organized shelves.  After that, I am ready to go, whether it is to work, a dr's appointment or anything else less than exciting thing that just needs to be done.

I "cheated" this weekend and treated myself to some Fremme stitching.  The beautiful fall bouquet below is a design by Gerda Bengtsson, who was the head designer at Fremme for many years.  I think that I use the one remaining Fremme phone book and finish up the design that way.  Quick and easy!
Oh, and I have to say that I absolutely love stitching with Danish Flower thread.  Initially, it took some time to get used to working with but now I am in heaven!  I love the simplicity and the understated elegance - all achieved with just a handful of colors.

Then I pulled out this petite kit - it is intended to be mounted on top of a larger sized match-box.  I would guess that stitched or ornate match-box tops are not at all unusual in Scandinavia.  In the winters, when the days shrink to only a handful of hours a day, there are always candles and pretty match-boxes spread around the houses. 
This kit came with two small pieces of linen and multi-stranded silk-floss.  I guess that one off the pieces was intended for the match-box bottom, but I decided to stitch the design twice instead.  That is another thing I love; kits that are generous enough to stitch a design several times... ;-)

Here is a photo of all three pieces together, freshly ironed (in my newly organized stitch-room!).  Note that a couple of the colors are switched between the match-box pieces.  That is one interesting aspect of purchasing vintage Fremme or Clara Waever kits - they are rarely accompanied by a photo of the stitched up piece and the colors are often described rather than numbered.  So, what is the difference between "light yellow green" and "pale sun green".  Who knows?  Does it matter?  No, not really - just one more chance to make the stitched piece uniquely yours...  :-)  Plus, I can't really decide which of the two versions was stitched "correctly".  Can you?

Then, I pulled out one of the drawers in my stash cupboard and pulled out this tiny bell-pull kit.  This is also a design by Gerda Bengtsson and it is stitched with 4 colors only.  She designed quite a few items in this series; a cushion, a runner, six cocktail napkins, and a couple of wall pictures (the single tree and there is also a version with two trees growing into each other).  This is a very quick stitch; I only spent parts of two evenings with it and it is over half way completed.  I am having grand plans for this piece - I would like to finish it into a pillow, but we'll see what happens with those ambitions...
The berries (or flowers?) are charted as regular cross-stitches, but I changed them into smyrna crosses to give more of a surface difference.  It doesn't really show though.  I have the runner waiting in my "Danish drawer" too, but now I feel the urge to getting the tree picture too.  Must. Be. Strong. And. Resist.

I thought that I'd end this post with a rather fuzzy photo of the minute Richmond sampler progress:

Note that there are now TWO sunflowers present (even though one of them is a tad pale still...)  I have also finished all the written sections as far as I could go before I ran out of floss. 
You know what the worst part about running out of floss is?  I e-mailed Margriet of the Essamplarie on Thursday evening to ask for a refill of the dark brown needed for the rest of the letters and she e-mailed me right back, apologized and then informed me that the Canadian postal service went on strike the evening before!  A perfect example of Murphy's Law, isn't it? 
So, in other words, if any progress is to be done, there will be a lot of stitching on the queen-stitch border the next weeks. 
Margriet mentioned that she will be in the US on the 27th of this month and offered to mail the floss from the Sates, which is really sweet of her - but it is almost three weeks until the 27th!  Oh well, as I said, plenty of queen-stitches to fill out the time with...

Happy Stitching and have a great Tuesday,