Chugging Along!

Happy Monday to everyone!  I hope that your weekend was just as cozy and relaxing as mine was.  DH is back on night shift again, so that gives me a really good excuse to take looong naps in the middle of the day during the weekends.  It is so nice just to sleep next to each other - it is surprising how many of the things that we would probably label "smaller" that I find out I miss once they are not there.  Yesterday was really wonderful, with a nice lunch out at the local "luxury fish place", a stroll through the book-store, and some mending of torn and worn clothes in front of the adventures at Downtown Abbey in the evening.  Add to that that DH and I found a new British TV series that I am in love with - The Midsummer Murders.  Wow, oh wow - they are great!!!!   I am thrilled.  I have already worked myself through three mysteries and I can't wait to get back from work so that I can continue.  Life is good - doesn't take a whole lot to keep me content...

I did also do some limited shopping at Silverneedle during their Superbowl sale.  Very, very minor!  Is it bad when you feel like you already have everything that you want!?  LOL

Anyway... I have had these pictures uploaded on the blogger page for ages now, but finding the time to actually write a bit to go with all the photos has been trickier.  Too many things to do!  You know the feeling, I am sure!  LOL

Here is the first sampler that accidentally got added to the list of 2012 projects after I had constructed my WIPoclaypse list.  This is the Ellen Maurer-Stroh sampler that I mentioned in a previous post or two, stitched on a antique white 40-st linen over two with one strand of DMC.  Since I am one of the most impatient people in the world, I decided to stitch on the pretty bluebell border as far as I could.  It was easy to memorize, which makes it a quick stitch.  I did switch out a couple of the blues to darker shades and I like how it is turning out.  I am thinking that I may switch out the colors completely on the right-hand side border and stitch pink blue-bells there instead.  Thoughts?

The February part has already been posted, so I have it printed and ready to go.  Right now, I am devoted to the upper flower border and I have stitched 5 of the 10 repeats that make up the full border.  This one is not a border that you can really memorize, but it is lovely!  She has a unique way to play with colors and the light pink flowers look almost transparent, like really fine china!  Very skillfully done.  The February assignment contains a rose sprig and half of a very pretty fruit basket.  Can't wait to get working on them!!!  (Still not too late to jump over to her site and download these pretty charts - they are in color and very easy to read.  And let me tell you, they stitch up much quicker than you would ever believe!)

This is the current state of the Scarlet Letter EH sampler.  My favorite part is stitched up, even though many areas are meant to be filled in with trellis stitch.  Since the instructions in the pattern are pitiful, I will have to root around in my stitch-room and to to get out the Proper Stitch book by Darlene O-Steen.  I really hope that trellis stitch is in there (I am pretty sure that it is...).  On to a more narrow border where a lot is going on - carnations and knot-work - very pretty!  I think after that boder is done, the half-point is met...

Excuse the wrinkles - I only iron when my life depends on it! ;-)

I pulled Snapperville back out last week too.  Only one more square to go, plus the border around the little scenes.  This is an easy stitch, but somewhat boring and surprisingly slow, I think.  I guess that I am not thrilled because I have a hard time imagining that I will actually hang it somewhere.  The colors are pretty though - I am not following the colors at all, since I am too cheap to expand my already pretty significant overdyed thread collection.  I just pick colors from the existing bundle and go with that.  Don't you like my blond horse?  :-)

I am currently thinking about some alternate verse for the bottom border, since I am not thrilled about the original; "Teach us that we may learn the importance of every day. . .of every hour as it passes".  I found Kim's very pretty finished SV for inspiration: "North or South, East or West, Farm or Town, Home is Best" here.  I like how she made her "swirlies" in the lighter color too!  I am shamelessly copying that, once I get there!!! 

Here is another oldie that has been lying on the "almost finished" pile for ages now.  I only needed to add the text and then do the actual finishing work...  The chart is from a vintage German Burda magazine, so I needed to translate Frohe Weihnachten to Swedish and English.  To fit in the text, I had to stitch it over one.  Isn't is just amazing how you (as in I) can count something 100 times and still have it end up off-center!?  Rather than ripping up the entire Merry Christmas row, I decided to add a little sprig of something...  I think that it worked out all right, so next up is tracking down a backing fabric and some time to sit down and sew it all up.  I think that I will finish it as a wall-pocket that I can collect Xmas cards in (I should be ashamed of that though, since I don't send out Xmas cards myself).  Or I could have some pretty branches of seasonal plants.  We'll see - maybe even this Christmas!  (Yeah, right!)

There is a Valentine heart from the same (two-part) series that would be fun to stitch.  We'll see - maybe in 2013?

I went through a serious finishing kick a week ago and got a few projects completely finished.

Here is my Christmas Tree from Fremme.  The little picture is based on the pretty sad story by the Danish author H. C. Andersen; The fir Tree.  I love the little bunny jumping over the tree in the upper corner!

On display with the Swedish flag!

I did finally manage to do right by the nephew.  Nephew's "First Xmas" ornament and birth sampler in progress:

The ornament is a sweet little freebie by Brookes Books Designs.  I switched some of the colors to make it less pink and I tried to place the beads in the border on the side to create a lace effect.  That didn't really work out as well as I had hoped, but it is finished!

The birth sampler got framed.  I got the matting and frame from Michales general framing area.  No specialty materials or measures needed - don't you love when that happens!?  DH helped me pick out the frame.  It's a lot of fun - he had planned to run over to the pet-store right next-doors to Michaels, but decided to come with me instead.  I think that he knows that he is really good at helping me pick out stuff, so he enjoys it - as do I .  (No worries, we did hit the pet-store afterwards, so all our critters got fed this week too....) 

My parents are coming to visit in May, so my mom offered to bring everything back to Sweden in their luggage.  That will work out really well!  Last time I shipped a framed piece over to Sweden, the glass shattered on the way over.  Not so good....  I am really glad that Littlest Sis didn't get hurt when she unwrapped that package!

And finally, here is my "just for fun" project (it was not on any of my start-of-the-year lists...): Jenny Bean's Pin Tuffet from Shakespeare's Peddler.  Quick and fun and finished with the Sudberry House Shaker Round Pincushion. 

I switched out every single color for this piece, I think.  I went for purples instead of rusts and I am really pretty delighted with how it turned out.  My inspiration was the checkered flower in the bottom right.  It is black and white in the original, but it still reminded me about the Snakes Head lily, a very pretty Fritillary that is the landscape flower of Uppland, Sweden.  Since that is the landscape I come from, I felt that it was a fitting change and I switched the rest of the colors to go with the lily. 

If I would change anything with this project, it would be the foam that came with the Sudberry piece.  It is a polymer foam that has high friction, so it is hard to stick your pins into the cushion.  I should probably have switched out the foam for several layers of batting or maybe made an inner cushion filled with some other type of material.  Oh well, now I know for next time.

I am finishing this post with some amusing craft.  This Princess Leia hat from Bleu Arts at Etsy reminds me of a favorite scene from 30 Rock.

Liz Lemon is trying to get out of jury-duty by pretending that she is more than less peculiar -  this video is a shout out to my buddy Hip^Hip^Happy, who is on call for jury duty right now.... you go get'em girl!  :-)

Take care and Happy Stitching!  I will try my best to swing by all your blogs out there. it's been a while.

PS We had a mega-frost over night here - hope that all my spring-bulbs made it...  :-(

TUSAL Update and Other Assorted Stash'n Stitch Updates

Hello and Happy Saturday! I don't know about you, but DH and I are enjoying a lazy morning. Some of us are net-surfing, stitching and drinking tea while others are playing video games and drinking beer (recall that he is on night-shift, so early morning is DH's late evening...). Oh, and there are yet others, who are sitting on my head, squawking and eating carefully peeled sunflower seeds. Happy family time!

Speaking of family, this morning I got a happy surprise when I called my mom's and dad's and my Little Sister answered! She told me that our parents are at the summer house so Sis and kiddies moved in at their resident over the weekend. Sis' family bought a new and larger apartment and they wanted to repaint all the walls, so the kids are out breathing fresh air in the suburbs while everything is getting a touch up in their new home.

I have also had the immense pleasure to chat with my Littlest Sister a few mornings this week. So much fun! I usually jump on-line before I jump into the shower in the mornings. We both have Skype, so we have just happened to meet. We really have a lot of very interesting things to talk about, so it has been great! She and I work in completely different areas and I am so excited to learn from her. She does, among other things, profiling on interviewees for companies during hiring processes. Sweden has some very strict laws on how companies can lay off or fire their personnel, so it is really hard to get rid of people - even if they show up drunk at work! In other words, it is really important to know who you are hiring on or you may set yourself up for disaster!

And of course I got all the comments from all of you, dear readers! It is always so much fun to hear what you are thinking! I have been meaning to thank all of you who gave me great advice about helpful beading tools, by the way. I think that Diane mentioned the Tacky Bob and as soon as I read her tip I thought "Duh, I have one of those!". Thanks for the reminder, Diane!
Jo mentioned the "vacuum up beads with a pantyhose" trick, which I will probably have to use on my couch one of these days! Thanks for the tips, ladies! We got some beading done! After a number of hours, I can introduce the finished Crowjackers and Moonroders - Tadaah!

Well, what else do I have to share today? Oh, the TUSAL, of course! Here we go:

Here is a photo showing the surroundings - I started stitching on the Noel Quadrielle yesterday evening - I think that it'll be a quickie!

I also have a confession to make. I am a Binge Stasher. Lots of goodies came in the mail this week. A lot of them came because I am not smart enough to stop browsing... Since I had so much fun with the Sweetheart Tree Designs, I picked up a bunch more on eBay - most of the are about 50% of what they cost in the stores!
And since I have been on a "Heather Ross ride" here lately, I could not pass up on this adorable pattern wallet from Madbird's shop at Etsy:

Isn't this just the best idea!? The wallet is made from HR's line Mendocino fabric line (OOP, of course...)

I may not have mentioned this before, but I collect old Scandinavian charts. I am especially fond of Fremme, even though their charts are easy to get hold of, and of Clara Waever. CW is a whole other ball-game... This company did not seem to be real popular here in the US, so the charts are quite a challenge to find. Sometimes I find old used charts "Swedish eBay", but I am not allowed to bid there for some reason (I have no clue why - I mean, I do have a Swedish SS# and everything...).
I generally, and shamelessly, call my dad and ask him to bid for me (tack pappa!!!). We have not been real lucky so far. Scandinavian designs are very popular in Japan and one of my Japanese stitching friends has informed me that this one Japanese lady vacuums the market from all old CW/ER charts. She pays astronomical amounts of $$ for these charts and then turns around and sells them for even higher prices from her on-line store in Japan. I guess you can't get too angry - it is obviously a working business, but I would still prefer that someone who is actually planning on stitching them would get them instead. Sigh...
Anyway, CW was bought up by Eva Rosenstand, who in turn was bought up by Permin pretty recently.
I have contacted Rosenstand on several occasions in the past, trying to convince them to reprint some of their old CW charts, but got a very friendly but very assertive "no" every time. Very sad! :-(
So, enough with the whining and on to my very exciting eBay find:

Isn't it pretty!?

And finally, I would recommend that if you have never browsed Country Stitches - stay away, stay away, stay away!!!! I can almost grantee that it'll be a very expensive experience! Yet, somehow, I find myself ending up at this sweet market over and over...

(The latest issue of SANQ ended up in this pic too - love Jackie's piece!)

What is up in the right hand corner!? Well, it is some Jewelry findings from Patera. These small frames and charms are used to make really neat jewelry. This is what I got to get me started:

This is an example of a finished piece that I got from Country Stitches a year ago or so - I really like it a lot!

(The dark wool will be used to make crows from, by the way...)
The coolest thing is that Brenda Gervais has posted a tutorial on her blog that shows exactly how to make these pretty things; check this out!

Did I deserve all these goodies? Mmmm, my "excuse" this week is that I think that I did pretty well this week. I stuck it out with my "finishing only" goal and I have some finished finishes to show off (keep in mind that the Just Nan ornies were finished this week too). I am planning on finishing off the Sweetheart Tree "There is a Birthday Here Today" piece before the week is over, which means that I, technically speaking, am pulling ahead (yeah, I know - totally lame excuse and not true in the least! ;-))
Here are the Bird pictures with the finished picot-edging copied from a Japanese stitcher:

The SHT Welcomes were slapped together yesterday (when I say "slapped", note that no glue was used - I am too much of a stitch snob to finish anything with glue.. LOL)

I decided to make them into small pictures instead of ornaments. My favorite tin easels from Twisted Threads work perfectly. Now I feel the urge to stitch all the seasons, a few additional ones AND make a cute stitched box placed on the mantle , where they can all rest while waiting for their turn to go on display.
Isn't it great that a stitcher's work is never done?!

Well, time to get going. There are walks to be taken and groceries to be bought.
Have a fabulous weekend and see you soon!

Happy Stitching,

Spring is Sticking Up!

Hi Everyone!  I hope that you are starting to see spring all around you right about now.  We are getting closer pretty quickly - you can almost hear the growing, if you listen carefully.  It is really exciting to see what is going on in the dirt. 

Before I show you Mother Nature's progress, I'd better show you some of my  stitching updates...  Look - I am not a total slacker!  The Richmond sampler is moving forward .  I have finished the dreaded riders and even filled in the entire lawn.  Now I need to concentrate on the two over-one sunflowers, the over-one verse and after that the Queen stitch border and she will be done!  I still love her, so that is a definite plus!

I did also start on the birth sampler for the brand new nephew, who arrived late last week.  He is a giant I've heard, wheiging in at over 11 lbs!  Phew!  I am having fun with the PS sampler that I picked and decided to switch out all the pink flowers for yellows and blues.  The baby is a Swedish boy, after all!

I did also manage to slap together the scissors-case/needle-book for my Little Sister over the weekend.  I am pretty please with how it turned out and I am hoping that LS will like it.  After I had finished up this, I felt like I needed to take a week-long break from any and all crafting...   About 2 hrs later, I bounced right back.
                                                                So, here is the front:

The back:

Inside (note Sweden in the cover and the tiny globe fob):

... and a close-up of the pin-disc part:

And finally, here are the pictures from my garden that I wanted to share with you. 

Spring is such a joy!

 

Happy Spring Time, stay dry, and talk with you in a bit!

A Couple of Quickies

Hi there!  I am writing a quick update before hitting the road to work!

My cheating this weekend paid off!  I did finish up The Dragon of Hope for my LLS and I like the result.  The chart comes with two options for the globe, so I thought that one of them can be used as a really cute fob, so that is the plan as of today.  ;-)  

Since I am pretty bad at posting progress pics, you get both one of those and the finished stitch.  As you can see, I started with the easier part and saved the confetti stitching for last.  I would say that this is a very quick stitch either way.  It was also almost fun to back-stitch.  I haven't had to do that for ages!

 

And here below is the finished DT Pumpkin pocket.  The finishing was pretty easy and I would almost say clever.  Oh, and see that pretty polka-dot pumpkin colored lining fabric below?  Well, it is reversible and is a Gingham on the other side.  Too cute!  I made sure that I cut it very carefully, so now I have a snippet left to use for something fun!  I am thinking that I may try to make a tiny pumpkin pin-cushion, kinda' like a tomato pin-cushion, but with pumpkin colored fabric.  

I opted to go with a silk ribbon instead of a Hedebo-ring, because the finished purse does not really want to close.....  I am not real pleased with the thickness of the ribbon - I think that it needs to be several times thicker, both for looks and for practical reasons.  If I find something in the future, I'll probably "update" this piece.

So, if I were to sum up; fun stitch, easy finishing, great material, and a pretty cute result!  (I have no idea what to use it for, though...  ;-))

Well, that's it for now.  Have a great Tuesday and talk with you in a bit!  Happy Stitching!!!!