Still Stitching Away ... slowly

Whoa - it feels like it was just April and here we are, very close to the end of the year!  I can't believe that I never showed off my finished EMS Antique Sampler, especially since I actually did finish it before the end of the year - as in 2012.  I even got a cheery cherry-red mat and a frame for her, but I haven't gotten a chance to lace her in quite yet.  If I get a couple of minutes to myself one of these days maybe!  I am not placing any bets on that though.

Since the arrivals of my precious "smalls" I really have not had a whole lot of time to do much of anything.  I mean, some days during my maternity leave at the beginning of the year, I was happy just to get in the basics, like a shower, food, drink and bathroom breaks.  Somewhere around week 6, the girls actually started to sleep in shifts, so there was absolutely no breaks whatsoever.  Getting back to work was a piece of cake - all of you stay-at-home parents; I have no clue how you do it!  Good job!

Since sewing often is significantly faster than stitching is, I did have fun with my sewing machine and my piles of fabric.  I found a perfect freebie pattern and tutorial for this adorable Tulip Petal Sun Hat and managed somehow to swing a coupe together for the girls.  The hats are good sized, so the girls will be able to wear them for a couple of summers, I hope.  (Pardon the fact that Little Miss O doesn't wear any pants below...)

This is little sister, Lilla L.

  I

Posing together!

I had a lot of fun fuzzy cutting out the fabric so that the birds would be lined up beak-to beak and tail-to-tail around the rims.

Other than that, not a whole lot of crafting going on at home.  I did start a new WIP the other day; Hillside Samplings Folk Art Sewing Roll.  I have finished the easy (and boring) border, so I get to start playing with colors now - yay!  I think that this will be a pretty quick stitch, but I am not sure here I'll find the time to do the finishing work...  :-)

I am still really lucky to have a group of crafty friends at work, so I do get to stitch for a while over lunch every day.  Earlier in the year, I finished up this Blue Jay Silken Wings kit from the Crossed Wing Collection.  They have a bunch of different bird silk & gauze kits available, but for some odd reason they are not displayed on their web-site.  I had no problem picking from quite a selection when I called Paula to place my order and she was happy to send them to me.  I am excited about stitching the other ones sometime in the future.  As always with Crossed Wing, the designs are just perfect - delicate, realistic and detailed.  The only drawback is that the mat-boards that the silk gauze has been pre-mounted to varies in color between kits, so they won't look like a unit if hung together.  I guess that it is always possible to mount on a different mat.

Lately, I have been stitching a lot of Scandinavian monochromatic designs. 

The Christmas bell-pull below was a fun stitch and is a Handarbejdets Fremme design.  I need to hem it and find some suitable bell-pull hardware, but that shouldn't take too long.  My favorite panel is the center one.  it reminds me of traditional Scandinavian embroideries on the ladies blouses back in the days. 

*Baby Break*

This is a recent new start for me - my very first wool penny rug.  This is a total cheat.. everything was pretty much pre-cut and ready to go in this kit.  The only thing I have left is to attach the pennies to each other and to the center piece and it's done!  Quick and fun!  Now I just need to figure out where I can display it where chubby, sticky fingers won't get to it... lol

These super-cute and small mono-chromatic Christmas pictures are from a Swedish hand-craft society.  They are pretty hard to come by, so my mom sent 15 of them as gifts.  The society gives out a new design each year and I believe that the first one was published back in the mid-60s.  The kits have the most generous amount of floss that you can ever imagine - you can easily stitch the picture 3 times over and I bet you'd still have lift-over floss.  So far I have finished 5 and I have started on my 6th, but I haven't kept up with my photography.  The plan is to make a red-and-white quilted wall hanging to hang in our entrance during the holiday season. 

The grand plan is that I'll finish (I guess I'd better start it first...) this kit I bought from French General, Mansion de Garance, and I'll hang that in the same spot during the rest of the year.  Grand plans, but a girl can dream!  :-)

Speaking of French General - I did also pick up a couple of Odile doll kits.  I have cut out all the pieces and embroidered my girls' monograms on the apron pockets.  One of these days I'll get the sewing machine back out - I can feel it!!!

Photo curtsey of Leslie Jane Moran blog.

Well, I'd better run, but before I do -

Happy Halloween everyone!

 

Happy Stitching,

Halfway There!

I am thrilled to show you the progress on the EMS 2012 Antique Sampler freebie - it is halfway completed.  

I got a really nice surprise on May 31st, when I popped over the the EMS web-site and realized that the June assignment had been posted one day early!  Woohoo!!!  Friday was devoted to more green confetti stitching than I am thrilled enough about to describe in detail... say no more.  :-)

It was worth it in the end.

As you can see,  I decided to carry out some smaller changes to the original; I changed out the mushroom motif for a bunny and the small flower sprig for my initial (not sure whether I will switch colors later on, but at least I like the placement after re-locating it a couple of times).

I have been a fan of Biedermeier style samplers for several years, so back when I was still (very actively ;-)) building up my stitch library collection, I invested in a couple of the books by Rafaella Serena.  These books are not real cheap, but totally worth it.  She has published three books (I believe) shock full of old Biedermeier plates, both from her own collection and others.  Quite a few of the motifs are charted in the back of the book.  Even if you never get around to stitch any of the designs, let me tell you, these collections are true historical eye-candy and they could serve as very nice coffee table books.

Since I wasn't thrilled about the mushrooms, I decided to flip through the animal themed volume to see if I could find a small motif to use for a substitution.

 

This is the wild-life inspired bell-pull where I finally spotted a perfectly sized bunny.

After that came the tricky part - substituting the motifs and to do that, I used the master chart.  I scanned the bunny, used Photo Shop to mirror her, and enlarged her to the right grid-size (the last step was by far the most frustrating one.  A 100% "real life" view on the monitor does not necessarily show up the same size after printing - blargh!).  

A bit of tape, filling in the grid-lines with a pen and voila!

While flipping through Rafaella's book I found one plate that was especially intriguing!  

Do you spot it?

The peacock and the sparrow motifs in the EMS sampler have been taken from this particular antique Biedermeier plate (the pic is clickable for a better view)!  Ellen changed out the colors in a truly fabulous way.  I really wish that I was as skilled with colors as so many of you out there are!

I picked from all the browns that had already been used throughout the design, free-handed the greenery (nowhere near fabulous, but it works) and that was it - easy-peasy!  The close-up below shows the newest additions; the bunny, the grave stone, and the beautiful little rose and violet bouquet.  The colors in the bouquet are quite a bit more intense than the rest of the colors, so it will be interesting the see if it will be balanced out further down the road.... 

Here is a close-up of the tiny bunny wiggling its nose good night!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and all the comments you leave when visiting!  It is so much fun to hear from you and I really appreciate the extra time you take to leave a greeting!

Take care and, as always, Happy Stitching,