What I have been up to . . .

For most of the past year, I have spent my energy on home improvement type jobs.  I finally finished painting my 1980's orangey oak kitchen cabinets a new white color. That was a much bigger job than I thought it would be. I also painted an old table and chairs that we had in our cellar. I painted them to match the cabinets. Then I painted the kitchen walls, and made curtains. Phew!
I am hoping my husband will paint the ceiling.

Here is a pic of the new (old) table and chairs.  Mickey loves sitting on the tablecloth and looking out the window.(The radiator is right under the table). He's no fool! Sorry about the blurriness, but the auto-focus was off on my camera when I took it.

While I was getting ready to do my 2018 update, I found a few from 2017, that I neglected to include.

I finished up The Industrious Bee Sampler.
I like the way it looks on the  raw linen.

Industrious Bee Sampler
28 ct Irish Linen using DMC

Next I stitched The Mini Bunny Egg from Waxing Moon Designs. This was intended as an ornament. I bought some trim for it, but never got around to making it up. I was disappointed that the stitching didn't show up better.

Mini Bunny Egg - Waxing Moon Designs
40 ct hand dyed raspberry linen and DMC threads

Then I finished up my Victorian Velveteen Rabbit.

Meet Sebastian . . .

Sebastian

He has movable joints and poseable ears. I like how his face came out, but ooooh those ears!
The pattern said to use pipe cleaners. I didn't have any. I used the only wire I had which was very very thin, too thin! It either broke, or popped right out of place. I fussed and fussed with it, but I really couldn't do anything about it.
I would like to revisit the situation someday, but I really don't have a good idea how to fix them without taking the whole head and ears apart.
It was a disappointment after all that work!

He mostly looks like this now. His ears are floppy and no longer poseable.

Oh well, I still like him.

I knitted a linen stitch scarf, which I actually finished last December 2017, but I never took a picture of it. I used Kougi hand painted merino yarn. this was a fun project to do, and it came out just the way it was supposed to for a change!

 After this, I know I worked on several beaded Christmas ornaments, but I don't have the photos here.


2018

I started 2018 with an old stamped sampler that I have had in my stash for ages.

Give to the World Your Best Sampler - Paragon

These stamped samplers are great when you just want to relax and not think too much!


Next, I stitched Counting Magpies from Birds of a Feather.

This is an old English rhyme that goes:

1 for sorrow, 2 for mirth,

3 for a wedding, 4 for a birth

5 for silver, 6 for gold,

7 for a secret, not to be told.

8 for heaven, and 9 for hell,

10 for the devil's own sel.

I stitched it on overdyed linen using weeks threads.

Counting Magpies - Birds of a Feather
28ct overdyed linen with Weeks Threads

Next. I stitched Americana Sampler from The City Stitcher. I have long been a fan of The City Stitcher!
This one worked up quickly. I like the primitive look of it on the 28 count raw linen.

Americana Sampler - The City Stitcher
28ct raw linen and DMC threads

After that, I worked on Dragonflies, an arts and crafts style pillow cover.

Dragonfly Pillow Cover

It is worked on linen using gold and olive DMC perle.
The body and wings are worked in satin stitch. Other stitches used are stem stitch, and French knots.

Please forgive the wrinkles!

I have not gotten a chance to make the pillow, but it will work up to 21" X 21".


Then, I started my new project.

Flower Power - Crossed Wing Collection
32 Ct Antique White linen with DMC and metallic threads

This design is HUGE, an absolute monster. I knew it was big, but I didn't get a full sense of it until I started it. It will take me forever to finish this one!

I put it aside for a while to work on the Christmas stitching. This is what I have so far.

Please forgive the wrinkles.

I left off working on the nasturtiums on the lower right corner. I love how realistic everything is.
I love the bugs the best. Notice the caterpillar on the leaves.

I love the bee on the Shasta daisies below too!

The insects are all done one over one, so they take quite a while, but it does give them great detail.

I will go back to this after the holidays.


Next I turned my attention to some goldwork.

For the longest time, I have wanted to stitch the goldwork Christmas ornaments from Benton & Johnson. For those of you not familiar with Benton & Johnson, they are an English company that has been providing the gold metal threads for the Queen of England's Wardrobes and badges. They have been around for ages and ages!

They are now part of Toye Kenning & Spencer. Their website is not very easy to use, but if you do a search on Christmas ornament kits, you will find them. There are three of them, a Dove, a Snowflake, and an Angel, and best yet, they are on sale.

All things considered, these kits are really quite a good value considering the quality of everything included. The problem however is with the shipping from England! OMG! $$$.
Because of this, I thought about it for a long time before I decided to go for it.

These kits are all designated for beginners, but I would say that it would be good to know something about stitching. None of the stitches in themselves are difficult, but working with the metal is, well, fiddly at times.

The Dove looked the easiest, so I decided to start with that one.

The kit included the pattern with a little instruction booklet, the calico (ground fabric), the backing fabric, the felt padding, red wool felt, the spooled couching, the sewing threads in yellow, red and metallic gold, and all the gold threads, and the spangles. There aren't a lot of photographs in it, mostly drawn diagrams. Also included is a heavier gold thread for hanging the ornament.

There are directions for tracing the design and transferring it to the ground fabric. I traced the design onto some waxed paper and basted over the design.

After that I carefully pulled off the waxed paper to see the design on the red felt.
Then I  couched the gold perle on top of the stitching. This part is a little tricky. The gold has to be stretched a little so the yellow thread will go inside the coil, and will not show. You have to be careful not to overstretch it.

It was a pleasure working with all these materials. They were clearly of very fine quality.

 I made the snowflake next, saving the angel, which seemed the hardest until last.

The hardest thing about the angel was using the gold plate. It had to be folded back against it self over and over again, all the while minding the direction and shape of the angel's wing.

Well, I'm certainly not in the same league as the Benton & Johnson people, but I got it done!

Here are all three of them.

I am glad I got them done. We will enjoy them for years to come!

After these, I worked on some Mill Hill beaded ornaments. I have been working them double, and then whip stitching them together so they can be seen from both sides. Some of them I had done one side last year, and just had to finish them,

I worked the Aqua Crystal this year. It is the 5th of 6 in the series of crystals.

Aqua Crystal Snowflake - Mill Hill

There is one left in the series. I will save for next Christmas.

I also finished a few others:

I made a few others but I can't seem to locate the photos.

WOW! I feel like I have been writing for hours! That's what I get for not updating more often!

I hope everyone has a very Happy and Peaceful 2019!

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!

Long overdue post

I have been MIA this spring! In so many ways, this has been a weird time for us. All of my normal routines have been torn asunder!

I did manage to finish Mary Baker. Here she is in all her glory!

Mary Baker Sampler - The Scarlet Letter
DMC threads on 30 count linen

I love the bold graphic look with the reds, blacks and greens!

After finishing Mary Baker, I took a break from samplers to work on a long-standing WIP, The American Sampler Quilt. I managed to finish the motifs, but I still have the borders to do.

I am not too happy with the way this one is turning out, but I am going to finish it anyway. I think the problem is in the design. I think there is too much white space.

Keith has been keeping busy during his unplanned break from work. For the first time in years, we have a new garden. We used to have a lovely little gray picket fence around our garden, however, it did nothing to keep out the animals. I was basically left to grow a few tomatoes in pots on our deck. Not very satisfying! Unfortunately though, the new garden is only half sunny. We have some tree trimming to do in the future.

No tomatoes yet!

The poor bees are so delicate! They have not been doing well in spite of their best efforts!
We had a very small honey harvest this spring. Normally we get more than double this amount!

We have been inundated with calls about the honey. I hate to disappoint people. We only got about 21 bottles. Hopefully we will get more later on in the season.

Last but not least is my late TUSAL.

 

It is amazing how 3 strands of DMC can fill up the jar, compared to 1 strand of silk!

 

Hope everyone enjoys what is left of the spring, before the hot stickies are upon us!

Hen Ornament for 2012

Since this seemed to have been the year of the chicken, it seemed only fitting that we needed a chicken ornament!

The backing is a simple Christmas print.

This came from an old Prairie Schooler booklet.

Holiday Homestead - Prairie Schooler - Book 14

I changed the color from white to black to look like my Black Australorps. It didn't seem terribly Christmasy to me so I added some blending filament to the colors for a bit of sparkle.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving weekend, and spent some time trying to clean up after Sandy.
Keith worked on re-building the chicken run that was completely destroyed. This was very annoying because we had only finished building it last summer.

It will take us quite a while to deal with all these trees. Some of them may stay there for quite a while I'm afraid!

I also made a start on Freelove Hazard, even though I wasn't going to work on it until after the holidays. I just couldn't resist it! I will be back soon with some pictures.

Back from SANDY!

It is so nice to come back and read all of your nice normal blogs! Normalcy is wonderful! I love just ordinary days!

Our power came back on last night (Friday) about 10pm. Just when I was beginning to think that it would never happen!

Monday night with that storm was truly a horror! We lost four 50+ ft trees, and many, many branches! It was so loud, all the crashing and snapping. We knew something huge had come down because the house shook each time. The sky was lit up with blue flashes. Later, we figured out that they were all the transformers exploding. When there was a momentary lull, we went out on the deck with a flashlight. The big hit was a 200 year-old Silver Maple, which landed on our newly constructed chicken shed. When we came out in the morning, we found out that although damaged, the shed part was intact, but the chicken run was completely destroyed. Some of the chickens had gotten out and were running around. Some of them were trapped in the shed part. Amazingly, all of them survived! I did take us a while before we could count them though!

Hard to tell,but the roof of the chicken coop is in the left of the picture.

One of the trees that came down cut off access to the rest of the yard. It left a hug 15 foot hole in the ground where the roots pulled out. I don't know how, but we will have to fill the hole, though I think the tree itself will be there for some time to come!

We were so lucky that the house was spared. The divider on our deck was ripped off, but other than that, the old house remained intact. I guess someone up there was watching out for us! We spent Tuesday and Wednesday trying to clean up. We ate omelets courtesy of the chickens for dinner, and gave away some eggs to our next door neighbors, and the man who helped us pull the tree off the chicken coop.

Our road was closed because of the many trees stretched across it. Finally when the Tappan Zee bridge re-opened, Keith went back to work on Thursday. It was really awful being stuck alone in a dark house, wondering what was going on in the rest of the world! He was disappointed that the power was not on when he got home Thursday night, and Friday night.
Four days and 5 nights without power was a pain in the neck, but nothing compared to what others have had to contend with though.
I am a pretty easy-going person, but it will be some time before my nerves recover from this one. I still jump when I hear a loud noise!

I am so glad to be able to get back to stitching! I wasn't able to with the power off because I really need my magnifier light to see anything!

TUSAL, some groaning, and a small finish!

That time again!

Here is my August TUSAL:

You see these guys?

FROGS ! ! !

They love Deep Peace soooo much, that they have decided to live here permanently!

Here is my progress (though you could hardly call it that)!

I have officially spent more time frogging this than I have stitching it! AGGGHH!
You would never know it from this rather innocuous looking picture, but a great deal of drama has played out on this little piece of linen! I was further along. I even had one of the forget-me-nots partially finished, but it all had to go. I had all kinds of problems with the stem. It definitely looks a little different than the picture. Something in there has gone very wrong, but I will be darned if I can find out where it went off the track. Also, I think mine is a little wider than the directions say it should be. Also I don't particularly like the dramatic differences in the green of the stem and leaves. I would prefer it to be a more subtle change in color. I refrained from frogging it though because I have had enough of that!

This was giving me such fits! I was very frustrated. That, combined with my insomnia induced jumpy eyes, I decided to take a break.

I always keep one of my easy little projects nearby for just such a situation.
I pulled out The Most Wasted Day, and finished it!

The Most Wasted Day - Erica Wilson 1972

I know, it's a silly little thing, but I love the crayola colors!

Well, I can't say that I have particularly enjoyed our summer weather this year, but atleast my Clivia has enjoyed the humidity. I was so pleased that it bloomed. Last year it didn't bloom at all. In fact it has been almost 2 years since I got a bloom. When they do bloom however, they are quite spectacular.
I will leave you with this tropical picture:

Happy stitching everyone!