TDIPT update and Easter pictures

This month on TDIPT I have some more wool pinkeeps for you. These are stuffed with crushed walnuts, which makes a weighty little pin cushion-I love them, they stay right where you put them, and they are so soft!! (Keep away from the pooch though!)

Well as usual during the months of April and May life is extremely busy! And with my 3rd kid graduating from high school this year we have all of the extra festivities around that too. Littlest daughter is still in basketball and her track season has kicked up with 3 meets this week! But in a few weeks everything will be done and we will be able to slip into the easier life of summer, ahhhh!!! I can't wait!

So just to catch you all up, we had a lovely Easter, how about you? Chelsea and I decided to get busy and make 2 Easter cakes, a sacrificial lamb cake (red velvet with cream cheese frosting! LOL!) and a lemon peep cake! LOL! We also made peep-tinis(martinis with peeps in them) and we molded some beautiful pascal lamb ornaments with our repro antique cookie mold that we got from House on the Hill. Super fun! So here are some pictures, a little late but still worth seeing I think!

Our lamb cake!

Our lemon peep cake-yum!

Beautiful ornament we made from repro antique german cookie mold from House on the hill. We molded it out of paper clay and then antiqued it. It is the pascal lamb laying his head down on the book of life in a gesture of perfect sacrifice! So kewl!! We gave these to our family and friends tied with a pretty spring ribbon!

Relaxing after all of our efforts with a Peep-tini! (this was really too sweet for me, but Chelsea and Gary loved them!) Sorry the picture is so fuzzy, we were trying out a new camera.

I have been MIA! So sorry!

But,

its only because I have been having fun! fun!fun!

  Here is an update on the unicorn sampler, I am still working on this row that has lots and lots of queen stitch!!

I am determined to get this row finished so I can move on to the next, less tedious band. I do love those french knot strawberries though!

MD1660 Unicorn Sampler by the Scarlet Letter

And I have also been working on the Pinkes Sampler by Darleen Osteen.

All of these flowers are done in reversable cross stitch, which actually has a nice rhythm to it once you get used to it.
There are these gorgeous white work dividing bands done in #12 perle cotton. My lighting was really bad, we have had a lot of rain and overcast days, so you can hardly see them. I will try to get a good picture when I get a better day. But trust me, they are really pretty the way they catch the light!

And last but not least, I have gone wool crazy!

I have spent a couple of nights with Joanne Mulally's Wool Crazy book, my favorite hero Horatio Hornblower, and some beautiful wool!

This is what I have come up with so far!

This is my first block of a 4 block wool crazy quilt. Each block is 24" X 24", and they are seasonal. this one is spring.

This project is fun, fun, fun! I can hardly put it down!!!

So thats what I have been doing in my spare time;  and in my work time I have been coming up with new dolls and woolie pin cushions for TDIPT at the end of the month, and new cross stitch charts to be released very soon! 

Thanks for visiting my blog, and I enjoy every single comment, so don't hesitate to leave me one!!

~Annie

Ooh La La! Wool is so fun!!!

House on Strawberry Hill

I adapted this from a design by Lyn Hosford, which is found in the Need'l Love book: Strawberry Threads

I love just about every project in that book and I'm so happy to have finally made something out of it! Hee hee, it is no longer considered Stash!

This will be released for sale tonight at 10PM on the TDIPT Mercantile website. Hope to see you there!

My mini wool design wall

I have had a very busy week so far, with guild meetings and deadlines and order fillings! I am working on a little wool applique pillow. This is how I like to work, by pinning the design to this little board I have made out of foam core, batting and muslin. It works very well.

Tune in again to see the completed pillow!

A WIP and a Win!

Here is my progress on the unicorn sampler; MD1660. I am truly enjoying working on this piece, even if I do find italian cross stitch somewhat tedious. I now have to call this an adaptation instead of a true reproduction, as I changed the stitches in the salmon carnations from italian cross stitch to just regular cross stitch. Also, I am considering omitting the next band altogther. It is really similar to this one, with almost all of the same types of stitches.

Here is the top portion again-just because it is so pretty!

And here are my winnings! I joined a contest at the Legacy Embroiderers Guild a l-o-n-g time ago. It was a WIP contest where you had to post where you were on a particular WIP at the beginning of the contest and then after a year post your progress. I came in 3rd place! Amazing isn't it? I feel like I never get anything done! LOL!

Anyhow,

I won the skein of Valdani thread and the beautiful scissors, fob and needle threader. See how well they just happen to match my pincushion and thread picker? I am very excited!

Quilty Neighborhood

I am halfway done with this piece now. I think it is really shaping up, don't you?

The forth chart is this series will be available at Hoffman Distributing and on my website next week. It is called Dandelion Cabin.

This whole piece is starting to remind me of my living room-which is red and yellow!

LOL!

More progress on the Unicorn sampler

I managed to finish the alphabet band with the date 1660 and signature "MD". The letters are all done in italian cross stitch, and the dividing bands are montenagrin.

I put in all of the needle-woven stitches, so now you can see the acorn and star motifs. The little eyelet looking things are darned wheels.

I also started withdrawing the threads for the second drawn work section. You cut 2 horizontal threads at the center where the basted line is, withdraw them, (pull them out) and then weave them into the border on the back. You skip 2 threads and then cut the next 2, withdraw them and so on. After all of the horizontal threads are removed you do the same with the vertical threads. Then you weave over them to bind each set of 2 threads together to make a grid. The lacy pattern is worked on this grid, using the stitches I have used above to make the unicorn panel-doves eyes, needle weaving and darned wheels. This bottom panel will look like a piece of lace when it is done.

Its really easy-it just takes time. But it is SO worth it when you are done, don't you think?