Painted Flowers is finally finished!

 Hooray!

The stitching that is, is finished. It is something of an odd size, and I am still not sure how it should be finished, framed or made into a pillow. 

Here is the photo:

Painted Flowers - Shakespeare's Peddler
Stitched on 20ct black Aida using DMC threads

This was not an easy stitch for me on the black fabric. It took me much longer than it should have. I am glad to be moving on to my next project! 

Seraphina is Stitched!

 Yay!

I still have to turn her into an ornament. She came out a little on the large size for an ornament. I may turn her into a little pillow.

I love her little upturned nose!

It turns out there are two versions of this little pattern. One is slightly smaller than the other. I think this is what confused me initially with the fabric size.

I think I will probably stitch the smaller version also. One of the differences is in her skates. In one version they are much smaller

I made a little progress on Painted Flowers, though I am finding it very difficult to stitch on the 20 ct black aida. I am skipping over some areas that called for some DMC colors I don't have. I really thought I had all the DMC by now, but there are some new colors out there, and this chart calls for 3 of them.

This is what I have so far:

Not very much, I'm afraid.

Well, I do have some big framing news, but I will save that for a separate post.

Hope all of you are having a very pleasant, peaceful Sunday!

I'll Start with the Good News. . .

I stitched Easter Basket, and finished it without any issues! This was from the Easter Parade chart from Blackbird Designs. I stitched the rabbit some years ago.

Here is how it came out:

Easter Basket by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on 36 ct linen using GAST threads

Of course I still need to find a frame for it. I think if I stitched it again, I might change the colors a bit.

Well, after that, my thinking was that I would fit in a little Christmas ornament before I started a larger project. That is where my troubles began!

I chose Seraphina. This is an oldie that I have had in my stash for a while. The actual chart I had was for a Christmas card.

I have thought about this one for some time. I decided to swop out the aida for 32 ct linen, and the color of her coat from green to red.

Somehow I stupidly miscalculated the size of the linen needed. I didn't realize it until I had half of it stitched! I don't know what I was thinking! Then I realized that the white on her muff and eventually her hat, really didn't show up against the white linen. So I decided to stitch the fuzzy parts with Wisper (Rainbow Gallery). This isn't the easiest to use. You have to keep the lengths short because it frays a lot. I finished the muff, but it doesn't look the way I thought it would. It seems rather worn, rather than the fluffy look I was going for. I don't know whether to frog it or not. Maybe I should just quit, and start again on another color linen. Maybe the third time is the charm! LOL! 

What do you think?

I have stitched some very large, complicated projects that didn't cause me anywhere near the frustration that this little one has!

Okay, concurrently while I was stitching Seraphina, I was also trying to frame a large project that I finished years ago. Finally decided on a frame, even though it was really too big for it. That meant getting a mat. OMG that took me hours to select, and I only pray that I got the dimensions right! I bought it online, and it was expensive!

This is my year of finishing, and stitching from stash, but I did cave into temptation on one chart I have had my eye on.

This came in the mail today.

It is Painted Flowers from Shakespeare's Peddler. I procrastinated as long as I did because it calls for 40 count black linen. For some reason this is not available anywhere! Also, I don't think my poor eyes could handle it! I have ordered some 20ct black aida. I hope this will have a similar enough look to the linen, but I am worried about it. The other choice would be to try to find 20ct black linen, and stitch one over one. I didn't know if the linen would hold up to that.

I will pop back in a few days to let you know my progress.

It's Time for the Annual Easter Treasure Hunt !

This little bunny hop hunt is organized by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching . Frankly, I don't know how she manages it all! It would be way too complicated for me!

The idea is to post a letter that will be a clue to the phrase we are all hunting for. My contribution is:

                                     i  (little i)

Then, you can visit the next blog  - https://lifeoutsidethewashingbasket.blogspot.com/ for the next clue.

If you visit Jo's blog, you will find a list of all the participants.

For me, the selection was easy. Since this is my year for finishing things, I picked The Mini Bunny Egg, that I actually stitched back in 2017. It seems like I stitched it just yesterday! I decided it was time for it to get out of the finishing box.

I added some trim to it, and backed it with pink felt. Here it is finished:

Mini Bunny Egg- Waxing Moon Designs
40 ct hand dyed raspberry linen with white DMC floss

Originally, I didn't think the white stitches showed up enough on the raspberry linen, but the trim actually helped it "pop" a bit. 

It looks a little crooked on the back, but here is :

HAPPY SPRING EVERYBODY!

Some finishes to show!

 Yay!  Welcome in Bloom is finished and framed!

I sanded and spray painted the frame in a satin navy color. Of course the paint ran and I had to re-sand it, and re-paint it. I don't know when that has not happened. I think it came out ok  in the end though.

Welcome in Bloom

and, . . .  The Gaelic Sampler is finished. This one took longer than it should have because, even though I lined up the letters with the first line, it came out way over to one side. I had to redo the whole second line of the verse! Ugh! I just love frogging one over one stitching!

I think I have a frame for this one, but I have to look for it.

Here it is:

The Gaelic Sampler
"My Sweet Home"

Will be back shortly for the Easter hop, but I just wanted to post these while they were on my mind.

Welcome in Bloom is Finished!

Hurray! It was a long distracting week or so, but I finally finished off the back-stitching. I decided to frame it. Originally I was going to frame it the same way it appeared in the magazine. I liked the way it looked with the blue mat. That turned out to be easier said than done!

It would have been an unusual size for both the mat and the frame. Also, it would have grown quite large. I am looking to put this in a small guest room where there isn't a lot of wall space.

I decided to buy an inexpensive frame on Amazon, and then paint it navy blue. I haven't gotten the frame yet. I hope it turns out ok. Remains to be seen I guess. I always forget what a pain in the neck framing is!

I will post the photo when I get it framed, but for now, here it is:

I started working on a new little design, but I don't have that much to show yet.

Will be back in a few days with some photos.

My Little LOVE Pillow is Finished!

 It has been a while since I have stitched on black linen OMG! My eyes have gotten worse! 32 count black linen is tough to see, so this is not my best work, but it is finished.

"Love" - Ezia Gladstone - New York Dreamer

The backing is unremarkable, but I had trouble finding something that did not detract.

So, this is my St. Valentine's Day display this year:

I know this is a pretty silly holiday, largely made up by the card and candy companies, but I do love pink, so it is a good excuse for me!

We are expecting to get a snow storm on Monday night. We haven't had much snow this winter, but now frankly I hope we don't get any! We have been feeding some feral cats on our deck, and I always worry about where they go when it snows. They have enough trouble with all the raccoons, dogs, possums, and foxes! We have tried to lure them closer, but they are true ferals and are very afraid of humans. To make matters worse, we think one of them is pregnant. 

I almost forgot. I haven't put this out there in a while. This is my TUSAL! I continued it from last year as it wasn't anywhere near full. A lot of what is in there are snippets from my Nut Border Sweater.

I love seeing all of your stitching feats. It keeps me creative!

Early Valentine's Finish

I have mixed feelings about this little finish. On the one hand, I am very pleased that is exactly fits in the hand carved little heart dish that my husband gave me several Christmases ago, but I was not super impressed with the kit it came in. The materials were shall we say, on the skimpy side! I'm glad I didn't make any mistakes, or I don't think I would have been able to finish it.

Hopefully I will have time for another Valentine's Day finish soon.

Happy stitching!

My First Finish of 2024 was . . .

the Nut Border Cardigan, designed by Sasha Kagan. I saved this pattern and squirrelled away the yarn for it years ago. I finally decided to give it a go.

I guess I would give it a passing grade, but not my best work. The color work seems a little sloppy. I had done some color work before, but not with so many changes. It was a learning process!

There's a certain rhythm that you get into when you are working on a project, whether it is stitching, knitting, or anything else. I never got into that rhythm with this project. It was a constant struggle!

Here it is:

Nut Border Cardigan - Design by Sasha Kagan

It came out a little too big, which surprised me because I made the smallest size. I may try to re-block it, but I am not sure that would do much good. It is too large around the neck in particular.

My next project will be a bit of a rest compared to the sweater. I just started Heart Sachet Ornament, an oldie from BH & G.

I made a small start.

This one should finish up soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!