My Trips to the Framer

My framer reopened a few weeks ago, and I had five finished pieces that had been just waiting for that day!  I decided to take them in one at a time, however, because we've been having a lot of protests in the area and, quite frankly, I figured it would be bad enough to lose one piece, let alone five!  They (father/daughter framing team) understood.  But my pieces are all back home safe and sound now, so here they are:

The first piece that I had framed was Spring Robin

by Widgets and Wool Primitives.

I didn't get it in time for this spring, but I'll have it next year.

Next up, Rainforest Birds, my Charley Harper piece.

My framer actually took this piece home with her
one night for safekeeping.

I can't say enough nice things about these people!

This is my "Covid" piece that I designed myself.

I just took a quote that I liked,

and added some motifs from a

folk art embroidery book that I've had for decades.

I did it the hard way,

scratching the chart out on graph paper by hand

since I don't have any cross stitch software.

This is my favorite piece;
they couldn't have found a more perfect frame!

Pandora's Box, a freebie from Blackwork Journey.

The photo doesn't do it justice.

Last but not least, I decided to double-frame
this needlepoint piece.

The canvas is by Eye Candy
and the design's name is self-evident.

I was really surprised when I went to pick it up
and they said, "No charge."

I do give them a lot of business, but I wasn't expecting that!

These folks are the best!

And finally, a small pillow finish...

...from the Little Dove's Year series of monthly patterns.

What do I have in the works now?
So glad you asked, because I have more photos...

I'm actually done stitching this one,
but it still needs to be pillowfied,
hopefully before July.
Little House Needleworks, Freedom

Plum Street Samplers,
Serial Bowl Collection, Lesson Two.
Here's another future pillow.
Once I've finished "painting" the house,
there's a huge bowl of flowers on the roof,
and a large swath of grass on the bottom,
so I've got a bit more to go.
There are five charts in this series,
and they all come with over-dyed threads,
but the suggestion is to use one strand
because if you use two strands you might run out.
I do use two strands and
I've had good luck so far not running out,
except with the red in this piece.
I was able to stitch all the letters except one,
and believe me, I used every scrap of thread.
Since the kit is five years old,
I figured I might not be able to match
the color, even with the same thread.
So I pawed through my stash first and,
lo and behold, I found an almost exact match
with a different color from a different manufacturer.
And since both threads are over-dyed,
no one, not even DH "the color guy" as I call him,
can tell the difference.
So you might keep that in mind
if you run out of an over-dyed thread in the
middle of a project.

This is a workshop that I took through my 

local ANG chapter last year,

Jennifer Riefenberg's Pumpkin Patch.

There's a lot of laying of threads involved

which I'm not fond of

so this will take a while, I think.

This is one of the 35 projects in the book

"Splendid Samplers to Cross Stitch" by Chris Rankin.

It's called Caribbean Sampler in the book;

I call it Southwest Sampler.

I love the rainbow bands between the squares.

Last but not least, this is my start on

And Heaven and Nature Sing by Kathy Barrick.

I usually like to stitch seasonal pieces

closer to the season, but since I'm using

the called-for silks, summer stitching it is

because silk catches on my dry, flaky fingertips

in the winter and drives me crazy crazier.

The linen photographed blue

(and a lovely blue it is)

but in real life it's light gray.

And the wreath is stitched in 

two shades of green.

That's it from here.

Thanks for stopping by.