Monday, November 24, 2014

See how big.....

I'm happy -- I finished the green of the border on His Eye is on the Sparrow -- and the borders meet!  Whew!  That's always a sigh of relief moment.  lol!

First off, remember when I showed you reaching bottom?  (I did a bit more after the last pic I showed you.)


And you saw this, the top third or so of the sampler.


Ok, now you get to see the two put together.  Plus some more.


So yeah.  Now do you see why I keep telling everyone I'm very far from finished?  Very very very very far?  lol!  There's nothing in that huge blank space -- no stitching pretties like pincushions or scissors -- because the blasted linen is so big, it didn't fit on my little stitching table.  lolol!  I'm holding the bottom right corner up and there's a pillow below the bottom left corner.  So yeah.  Huge.
And don't forget, I'm using 40ct linen, over two.  Imagine how huge it must be on the called for 28ct linen!  On 40ct linen, it takes most of a stitcher's half of linen, just to give you an idea.  I think with 3 inch margins, the linen has to be something like 28" by 24"?  For 40ct.  So now you know!

Here is my fussy cut star for the week.  I used the unicorn fabric from the Far Far Away collection by Heather Ross.  I wish I had more of this collection, but I don't.


My father sent me a box with some things from my mother -- he's been trying to clean his house out, which always means boxes of things sent to me from my mom's things.  (My mother died when I was in college.)  I was surprised to see what she had stowed away.


The fabric samples on top are by Brunsweig and Fils.  Pretty cool!  There were crocheted items and pretty linen towels with cross stitch on them, and such like.  And a pretty jewelry box.  I didn't think I remembered it, but I'm starting to think I do vaguely recollect it.


And only a bit of a skein of what I suspect is acrylic yarn, bright orange.  Waste not, want not.


That's some more upholstery sample fabric under the yarn.  I thought it looked pretty with the orange.

My mother was a big knitter.  She also tried her hand at other crafts -- embroidery and needlepoint, latch hook, I don't remember what all.  So yes, she passed her love of crafts on to her two daughters.  Although my sister seems to have abandoned her crafts.  Ahem.  I do wish my mother were still around so I could share with her my crafts, my children, my life.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I am thankful for so many things, and I never say so often enough.  Most of all, I am thankful for my lovely husband and my kids.  (And for Mia!)  But I'm also thankful for all of you blog friends.  I think we are an amazing group, don't you?


(Ugh.  Please ignore all the Mia hairs in this last picture.)

Monday, November 17, 2014

Reaching bottom

Of my sampler, that is.  Reaching the bottom!


The last three pages of the chart aren't full pages -- they are shorter than the rest.  So I skipped ahead to page 8 so I could reach bottom.  So exciting!  But page 5 is finished!  Hooray!


The squirrel, part of the tail and the legs of the big bird, and the yellow bird were on the edge of page 5 and onto page 8, just to give you an idea.

Oh, and a heads up.  I'm using 40ct linen.  And I've already run out of WDW Havana!  There are a few more motifs that use the color.  I'm trying to decide whether to order another skein or to just use one of the colors that I have and not worry about it.

And I have to say that I hope Bohin makes tapestry petites someday.  I have decided to train myself to use regular length needles just because their needles are so wonderful!  Wow!  No more shredded thread in the eye of the needle!  Very smooth and well made needles!  Now I know what everyone has been talking about.

Here is my fussy cut star for the week using a Jo Morton fabric.


We're getting to the end -- I think this was week 46 of 52.  Only 6 more Fridays in the year!  I have to find 6 more fabrics to use.  lol!

We got our first snow of the season this past week.  By the morning it was just a dusting, thankfully.  I hope it warms up for a while before the cold settles in for the winter!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!



Monday, November 10, 2014

So exciting!

What's so exciting?  I've started working on the part of His Eye is on the Sparrow that's below the words!  Hooray!


But I should show the top part first.


So yeah.  I finished the top 1/3 of the sampler, then stitched that darned line of stitching under the words.  Then I finished the green of the left border all the way down to the bottom left corner and a bit around too, so that's a good thing!  And then I worked on the interior!  New motifs!  Yay!


I'm happy to be working on new motifs.  lol!

Here's my fussy cut star for the week.  I can't remember which collection this fabric is from.


Thanks to everyone for their good wishes about my shoulder.  Both shoulders are actually a bit iffy, but it was the left one that decided to totally lose it.  Luckily, it seems to be able to handle stitching as long as I support my left arm with a pillow.  I am mostly back to normal,  hopefully.  I have yet to try knitting.  Yikes!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!



Monday, November 3, 2014

Ouch! But there's framing!!

Um yeah.  The first word of the title of this post says it all.  I somehow injured my left shoulder so that I couldn't do anything at all, lots of pain.  Not fun.  So I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  I'm hoping that it's getting better finally, but the return to my stitching and sewing and knitting might take a while.

But here is my small progress on His Eye.



I'm working on page 4 now, page 3 is all done.

Here is my fussy cut star for the week, a Judy Rothermel fabric again.


My friend and I did go to the LNS over the weekend to pick up my framing.  Here is the Crown Sampler from Plum Street Antiques.  Love this frame.


Here's the frame detail.


Here is Catherine Maudsley from Drawn Thread.  I love this one for its border.


Here is the frame -- it's perfect for this piece.


I hung the two up on the wall of the sewing room, which is getting a lot more crowded than I'd thought.  (The colors are off in this picture.)


Mia does not like the cold weather one bit.  She has been on my lap much more than is usual during the warmer months, and the heating duct is her best friend now.   (Father type took this picture btw.)


Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!