A Mary Eaton Update

I have been working diligently on Mary, but the satin stitch leaves really take a long time. It can be very frustrating trying to get them uniform. Several of them, I have done as many as 3 times. Eventually I just give up and leave them as they are.

Here is a closeup of the stitches.

(click to enlarge)

This was a kit, so I used the materials included, but I really wish I had swapped out the gold color for something a tad darker. The letters in particular, don't show up very well.

It always takes me a while to get used to the "sparse" look that a single strand of silk has on 30 count linen.

The large flowers, vine, border and alphabet are done in cross stitch. The leaves are all in satin stitch, and the saw-toothed white border in done in counted satin stitch.

Here is the whole thing so far.

(You wouldn't know it was my stitching if it didn't have some part of Furry in it)!
As soon as I get ready to take the picture, he jumps up!

On the home front, the garden has grown tremendously!

We have already harvested some of our corn. It doesn't get that big, but it sure tastes good! We have lots of tomatoes, but for some reason they don't seem to want to ripen.

We do have hope though.
There is one peeking through.  Mmmm! Soon!

The American Sampler Quilt is finally quilted!!

I can finally count it as a finish! I finished it by turning under the top as per the instructions, but it really looked bland, like it needed something else.

My solution was to add a blue binding to it to  pull it together a bit more.

The color didn't show up the best here. It is a soft, hazy, denim blue.

I was determined to use what I had in my stash for the backing. I came up with a light blue gingham.

It is very lightweight, sort of a springtime quilt.

I am very glad it is finished because now I can go back to making x's!

I continued working on the Mary Eaton Sampler. Here is what I have so far:

The Mary Eaton Sampler - Au ver a soie on 30 count linen



I have had this in my stash for years. Although I love the pattern, I was a little hesitant to tackle it because of the freehand stitching, There is quite a lot of it in this pattern. Actually, there are two graphs that come with it, one with the freehand stitching, like the original, and one that is all cross stitch. Of course, I have to do the freehand!

The trick with doing freehand stitching is to try to keep it contained to the allotted area. It seems to grow quite easily. LOL!

OMG! Enough of this heat!

I know it is summer, but come on!  The heat index today is over 100 degrees! UGH!

I am withering right along with my tomatoes!

We do get those heat spells in the Hudson River valley from time to time, but lately they seem to last longer and longer! Not my idea of fun, but then I am a spring/autumn, (even winter) girl myself.

Anyway, I finished stitching The American Sampler quilt. Of course I can't call it a finish until it is quilted. Here is a photo I took last week, before the great oven was turned on!

I have been working on the quilting. I always forget just how long it takes to finish a quilt, even a little one like this! The colors came out just a little too pastel-ish for my tastes.

I enjoyed stitching this, but I will glad to finish this and move on to something else.

I have already chosen my next stitch. It is the Mary Eaton sampler from The Scarlet Letter.

I actually made a small start on it but not enough to merit a photo.

To all of you suffering through the heat, I wish you good air conditioning!

Claiming my blog

Ok bloglovin, (stupid name), not sure why I have to claim my own blog, but here is the code:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
I transferred everything from Google reader, but I will mostly be using The Old Reader to read all my blogs.