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?

Stitchy Weekend

I had a lovely stitchy weekend, due to the cancellation of one of DD's basketball games. So I took advantage of some relaxation time to pull the Unicorn Sampler out of my WIP pile.  I actually finished the doves eye stitches in the top cutwork band. There are still some needleweaving stitches that go in to form an acorn and other motifs. Then there is the lower band that I haven't even started yet-but for now I am pleased to have a big chunk of the top one done.

Here you can see the lower alphabet band, all done in italian cross stitch. I am working this one in silk threads on 35ct. cream linen. It seems every stitch in this sampler is time consuming, but it will be a great accomplishment when it is completed.

And here is my progress on AED 1746. I affectionately think of this one as Adam and Eve and the Devil. It has a lot of religious motifs on it, which I love,  and a great  A&E at the bottom center. This is another repro from Scarlet Letter that I started in January during the Crazy 15 Challenge. It is mostly if not all cross stitch, so it will go much faster. I love the 35ct Tea linen I am working it on-such a pretty color. I am stitching it in good ol' DMC.

Hestia Jones Sampler

Here is my progress on Hestia so far. This is the second fabric as the first one was just too dark. This is "earthen" by PTP.

At first I tried stitching this 1 over 2. I didn't like it. I am working this on 28ct. because there are several 1 over 1 motifs. I didn't like the 1 strand coverage, so I went back to 2.

 Then after putting in the entire top floral border I began working the left hand bird, only to discover my entire border was off by 1 stitch! If this was not a model believe me I would have fudged and left it forever, BUT, I cannot do that. So out came the froggie! *sigh*. But now I am back on track and moving on!