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.

UFO No. 3

At last, another one of my UFO's is finished!  You may remember this little project in my UFO list from earlier this year...

This was the progress I had made on a reversible cross stitch cyberclass piece from 2015.  Well, I got bogged down with the instructions and gave up on the piece.  This year I figured I should just finish it using the regular cross stitch technique.  So now I present...

...my two new coasters?  Yes, these two were meant to be coasters.  But when I went online and looked for small plexiglass coaster covers, the largest I could find was 3" x 3", and these are 3.75" x 3.75".  They are kind of cute, so I think I'll just set them out and see if anyone uses them.  It's fine if they do; I'm just glad to finally be done with them.

Continuing on with my Year of the Pillows theme, the small Halloween piece that I mentioned in my last post was finished and pillowfied:

This is from Prairie Schooler's Hocus Pocus leaflet.  I love all the designs in that leaflet and I plan on doing more of them--probably not this year, though.

And here is another recent pillow finish...

This is my favorite design from the Little Dove's Year leaflet.  I have seen many falling-leaf designs for October and even September, but around here, most of our leaves fall in November, although most of our trees turn a single color and not many, like the one above!  It's artistic license, I guess.

My last finish is not embroidery and came from a workshop given my by quilt guild:

We all got 24" x 24" pieces of plywood to paint a barn quilt!  It was a great make-it-and-take-it class; everyone left with a finished piece.  OK, we're pretty urban around here so most of us don't have barns, but I do have a shed in the backyard - which I would not hide this on.  It's going to go up on the front of the house.

So, last time I mentioned that I was just about out of WIPs... well, I fixed that problem!  The weird thing about this batch of WIPs is that I have four needlepoint pieces and only one cross stitch.  Usually, I have more cross stitch pieces than needlepoint, and I like to keep the number at or below four total WIPs.  You'll see why I have five in a minute.

I am sooo close to a finish on this one, just the little border which I've already started.  This was a design that was created and taught by a member of my EGA chapter quite a few years ago.  I had it kitted up all this time.  I think the reason that it sat around was that she had stitched the model in all white, which is fine because the textures of the piece are highlighted that way, but it wasn't calling to me.  I like this design a lot, and it was fun to stitch.

This is from a workshop hosted by my ANG chapter that I took this past weekend.  Jennifer Riefenberg is the designer who taught the class.  I like that she gives her students lots of time to actually stitch on whatever areas they want to in class, which is not how most other teachers I've encountered do it.  Well, she did want us to at least start on the large pumpkin, which was the most challenging part.  And between the compensation and the exotic threads used, yes it was.  But almost all of it is behind me now.

This is the gorgeous model that she stitched.

I hope mine turns out half as nice.

Pumpkin Patch is the name of the design.

I've been working on Rainforest Birds for a little while.

It's a Charley Harper painted canvas,

and I find myself spending way more time

puzzling over which stitch to use in each section

than the actual stitching of said section.

But it's a fun, learning experience.

The Tomorrow's Heirlooms ladies

attended the Pumpkin Patch workshop, too,

and they brought me a goodie bag

with this in it, all kitted up...

If it had been anything else,

it would have gone in the voluminous

Soon But Not Now pile,

but I had been itching to get my hands on this one

ever since I first saw it, so...

...yesterday, I couldn't resist; I had to start it.

I'm hoping to get it finished by Thanksgiving

(it falls a little later this year).

There's a surprising amount of

basketweave in it, so we'll see.

Last but not least,

here is my cross stitch start

which has stalled a bit lately.

The design is

In All Things Be Exceedingly Diligent

by Needlework Press.

I don't have a photo of the finished piece.

It's very, very wide, and it contains

several alphabets.

Well, that's it from here.

The meteorologists are predicting

nasty weather, including snow,

for Halloween.

Although it's a day early,

I'll leave you with this...

Thanks for stopping by!

Leap Year List - August Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

July sped by quickly, despite it being one of the longest months.  It's been too hot here for my liking.  And the last part of July went from drought to deluge.  As a matter of fact, we had such a series of torrential downpours here last Friday that we got seepage in our below-grade family room for the first time in years.  But luckily, we were home when it started, and it was abated by the one-two punch of a shop vac and box fans.  It also helped that the rain stopped a little while after the water started to come in.  It was more of a nuisance than anything.  Lots of others in this area weren't so lucky.  Molly's cushion had to be temporarily relocated "inland" from the wet wall after her bedding was cleaned and dried, but it didn't seem to faze her.

On to the stitching... 

First up is Prairie Schooler's Farmer's Almanac.

Here it is as of last month.

And here it is now.

I constructed a farm house, planted trees,

and did more of the verse, from the bottom up, of course.

I know I can't avoid stitching

the rest of that grass for too much longer, though.

All this over-one stitching is slow going.

Next is another Prairie Schooler design:  

the A from the ABC leaflet.

I had it started last month.

And now it's finished.  Woo hoo!

I originally toyed with the idea of

doing this entire piece over one.

I'm so glad that I didn't!

It's been a joy to stitch so far.

Finally, we have Jennifer Riefenberg's 

The Missing Piece:

Here it is as of last month.

And here it is now--all finished!

Some of the various stitches

were a little tricky to compensate.
The bargello section
had me talking to myself.

I've been spoiled with Kathy Rees' 

Needle Delights Originals designs.

She graphs out all the compensation for you.

But it's nice to know I can do it on my own

if push comes to shove.

And speaking of Needle Delights Originals,
she came out with a new "Log" design
for Halloween (uh-oh).

I just couldn't resist this one.

And, yes, it's all kitted up.

Last month I showed you a little 
design from La D Da that I stitched.
I sent it over to Averyclaire
who crafted this sweet needle roll finish.

The outside.

The inside.

Here it is all rolled up.

So cute!
And I do plan to use it, not just look at it.

Last, but not least, here is
The Lake County Fair Report

Exhibitors' Night was last night
at the Family Arts and Crafts Building.
It's a sturdy two-story brick edifice,
with the second story
being just a balcony around the perimeter.
The building has no air-conditioning,
just a couple of strategically-placed fans.
Did I mention that yesterday the outside
ambient temperature was in the low 90's
with very high humidity?
Each exhibitor gets two passes,
and there are lots of exhibitors.
Many of them do bring a guest.
Think body heat.

Of course, I knew all this going in,
but I went anyway because
it's a rollicking good time.

This photo is from 2013,
with the Fair mascot in the doorway.

The baked goods,
which have already been judged,
are always given away to the attendees
who are willing to stand
in the very long Free Food Line.

But I, and many others, were not food-oriented.
Our main objective is peering into the
display cabinets and over them,
looking at the hanging pieces
that are set up out of harm's way,
squinting at the tags,
looking for our own entries and,
almost as important, our friends' entries.

There is lots of camaraderie,
with people greeting each other,
giving congratulations and just chatting.
Yes, the competitors who I know personally
are truly happy for each other's wins,
even if it might be at their own expense.

This year I had 12 entries,
10 of which won various ribbons,
so I did good, as did most of my friends.
Yes, the blackwork horse got a blue ribbon.
(I was the only exhibitor in that class.)

I do have one photo to show you.

After 25 years of exhibiting at this Fair,
this is my first Best in Show.
I have to say I was a bit giddy last night
and very, very surprised.
I was with Averyclaire (she was my guest)
and we got to scream and jump up and down together.
I truly believe it was her gorgeous finishing
that put this piece over the top.

"Best in Show" is a misnomer anyway,
because there are many Best in Show winners.
What it refers to is your Section,
which in this case is Needlecraft II,
limited to the embroidered pieces,
with the exception of holiday decorations and ornaments.

And, yes, I'm already thinking of 
what I might enter next year.

This post turn out to be a bit longer than planned.
If you're still reading,
thanks for sticking with me.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Leap Year List - July Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

How's your July going?  We finally got some much-needed rain here overnight, and now it's really hot and steamy. Good weather to stay inside and stitch!

We've reached the halfway point of the year, and of the eleven pieces that I wanted to make progress on back in January, six are finished and two are active WIPs.  Here are the three that have been sadly neglected...

From the top:

Kindred Spirits by With My Needle;

Save the Stitches by Blackwork Journey;

Chicago Collage by Lynn Deininger.

Of these three, the top one, Kindred Spirits,

has been calling to me very softly.

I have five sides of the pin cube stitched,

so if I can finish that, maybe I can get going

 on the other small pieces in that group.

Notice I'm not saying anything about

the other two WIPs UFOs.

But, anyway, here's what's been going on since last month...

Tanya Berlin's Blackwork Horse looked like this last month.

I was hoping to finish it...

...and I did.  He's one of the 12 pieces I'll be taking

to the Lake County (IN) Fair this year.

Wish me luck.

I wanted to start (and finish) the "A"

in Prairie Schooler's Alphabet this month, too.

I didn't quite make it.

This block is about 40% finished.

Maybe next month.

I was working on another PS project,

so I can blame that for

my lack of progress on A is for Anchor.

This is where I was on A Farmer's Almanac

back in May.

Now, the barnyard has animals!

I'm doing this on 25-ct lugana over one,

and all that green just about did me in!

And yes, there is even more green to the left of the path.

The linen color is blue, similar to the first photo.

And I started and finished this, too:

La-D-Da's Summertime Roll-Up.

It will get finish-finished into a cute needleroll.

Last month I sketched out the pattern for 

The Missing Piece by Jennifer Riefenberg...

This month I got some outlining done...

And we have two additions(!) to the rotation...

This is another one by Needle Delights Originals.

This is my start.

I think I've done the only easy part.

And finally, last year I took a workshop

taught by Kay Stanis, Copper Illumination.

I haven't worked on this in over a year,

but the good ladies of my ANG chapter

chose this piece as my "challenge" for next year.

The vote was between

The Missing Piece (the smallest one),

Ripple Rotation 2 (probably too "easy"),

and Copper Illumination (the winner!).

This is where I'm at.

I have until the end of next June to finish it.

I forgot there were so many beads (all the flowers).

All I could think about was the blank piece of

copper that needs to be sculpted into a tulip.

If I don't finish in time, I'll owe the treasury $10.

I'd better start saving my pennies.

That's it for now.

Thanks for dropping by.