A couple of finishes to show

May has been a very difficult month!

Just two days after losing Max, we had to bring Furrytail (our Maine coon) down to NJ to have surgery for a gigantic (non cancerous) cyst (or collection of cysts) that had attached to his liver.

Fortunately everything went well, and he is back home with us! In fact, I have never seen a cat recover from surgery so quickly! He had a huge incision, from top to bottom! You would never know it to look at him now though!

Of course all of this was quite unexpected and quite expensive!

Now, it seems to be my turn to have health issues, mostly with my back. I am hoping to be able to avoid having surgery.

Good thing I had my stitching!

Margaret Ledden has actually been finished for a while now. I just haven't had a chance to post the photo.

Here she is:

I love the trees! They seem strangely art deco-ish to me.

Then, I turned my attention to an older kit that I had in my stash. This was a kit for a pin cushion doll. The kit included a half-doll, but when I looked at it, I was disappointed that it was rather modern-looking. I was really going for an antique look. So, off to ebay I went. I found the perfect little half doll. I love the coloring in the cheeks. The only problem was that it was considerably smaller than the one included in the kit. I scaled it down by stitching it on 32ct instead of the 25ct that was included, but it still came out a bit big.

The verse says

Pins and Needles
Needles and Pins
My Sewing Friends

It was an easy stitch, but gathering the fabric was quite a chore!

I also decided to make a little strawberry emery that was not included in the pattern. Luckily it turned out ok. I was fortunate to find a bit of wool left over from my rug that exactly matched the green floss.
I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Mother's day.

TUSAL and Corrections to Margaret Ledden

Wow! It's already April's new moon! This year is just zooming by!

Here is my TUSAL jar:

Now, if you compared this picture to last month's, you might think that I have really been making great progress. Unfortunately, that large yellow layer comes from frogging Margaret Ledden, and replacing the yellow with gray.

At first I really hated the gray compared to the yellow, but I am slowly getting used to it, though it is quite a bit drabber.

It certainly gives it an entirely different look.

I still have a ways to go before I catch up to where I left off. I have to do one more dividing band (between the H and the Q), and fill in the borders.

Hopefully this will go quickly so I can feel like I am accomplishing something again!

A Real Rookie Mistake!!

I really thought I was making good progress, but in the back of my mind, I think something was bugging me! It turns out that the symbols for yellow and gray are soooo very similar! Yes. You guessed it! Everywhere I have stitched in yellow should have been gray! The letters, the dividing bands, and worst of all, the vines running along the borders! It turns out that the only place yellow is used in on the house!

I usually go a bit more by the picture, but in this case, the picture that is included, is so tiny it is practically useless!

If it were not a historic sampler I might be tempted to leave it the way it is, but I know that it would just bug me!

It isn't the re-stitching that I mind so much, but oooh that frogging!

UGH! UGH! UGH!

I just hate it when I do dumb things!

Happy St. Pats Everybody!

and what better day to show this finish?

Nil aon tintean mar do thintean fein translates to "No hearth like your own hearth", or "Home Sweet Home".

Stitched from a freebie found at http://www.gryphonsmoon.com/.

I stitched it on 32ct Natural Irish linen with 4 skeins of DMC 935 (dark green). Hope to find a frame for it soon.

What I wanted to stitch next was Ann Grant because I love all the pinks in it! I just couldn't justify spending the $25 though when I have quite a few projects waiting for me in my stash. So, I picked The Margaret Ledden Sampler. This is one that I have had for ages! From The Scarlet Letter in 1986, I don't even think it is still in print.

This is what I have so far:

Do you ever have times when you are just too tired or wiped out to stitch, but still want to work on something?

When I am just too brain dead to work on anything complicated, I pull out one of my easy peasy little ones. I picked this one up at an estate sale.

Now, I do not have any children, so this might seem like a strange choice, but there is something very endearing about these old pieces. I think many of them deserve a second look. I have also found that they look very nice framed with a colorful mat, something I don't usually do with the traditional samplers.

Here's what I've got so far:

It is very, very weird stitching with 6 strands of floss!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!