May stitches!

Greetings stitching friends! I have a few finishes to share with you today.

  "Cross Stitcher at Work" - The Primitive Hare

36ct Lakeside linens Color???

I had found a flat shadow frame (wood) at Micheal's for $1.29. Painted it white then dark grey. Used a Civil War reproduction fabric for the background and mounted the stitched piece on top. I really love this design. I was soo surprised to see other stitchers outstanding  finishes on Facebook - The Primitive Hare Stitching Group.  

Finished BBD Her Sampler 1796 - YEA!!! I mis-read the instructions and of the gold alphabet row did cross stitches and then the 4 sided stitch around them. Would of been nice to only have done the 4 sided stitch but I love this sampler anyways:) I pushed finishing this sampler because I have some other projects I want to get to.

By the Bay Needleart Mystery SAL - Finished part 3. I added DMC 157 blue around the word welcome. The letters are in dark green and a lighter green sounds them. Well in good lighting you can well. But when I held it up to my walls I could not read the letters. SO I added the blue and now no matter the lighting I will be able to read easily. Part 4 should come out today!

 Newest start Begger's 4th. 

These flags I hand dyed in 2 cups of very hot water and 4 tablespoons of instant coffee. I let the coffee dissolve in the hot water and let the water cool down some. Then placed the flags right in and let them be for about 5 -6 minutes (yes I did check using tongs). Waited till I was happy with the tone and lightly rinsed in cold water. A few of the smaller flags I didn't rinse at all. Then I let them hang dry which they dried lighter in color. Hard to see in these photos but they DO have a Primitive look to them. You should of seen me when I was taking the flags off the sticks - I have not ever did this to flags before but saw in an old Leisure Arts magazine August 1989.
In the mean time I want to get some patriotic stitching done. Will share with you soon.
OH and I am collecting my supplies for stitching Elizabeth - A Sampler Pincushion Doll Maiden from SAN - Summer 2014 magazine. Shes on the cover. and yes I ordered the porcelain half doll from Brier Rose.


Hope you are well and enjoying some warm weather.
Always with my Appreciation and Love for you - Annette

Gifts, Updates on SAL's and a BBD Finish!

Hello friends! Today it was HOT - 97 degrees and to be hotter this week.
Been enjoying participating in BBD & By the Bay Needleart SAL's and I have a large finish to share with you. But first I've received some beautiful gifts...

 Lee from New Zealand ( Notes from under the Mountain blog) sent me a small box with some incredible treasures:) Lee made me a Spring ornament for my Spring tree - it's beautiful. Also as you may have seen on Lee's blog she had been stitching some lovely strawberries and I was given one. The needlework that went into to this strawberry is a piece of art. OH MY I LOVE IT! Lee posted how to make one HERE on her other blog.
 Also Lee made 3 more items to go with my Pink Rose stitching necessaries set. As I opened every precious wrapped gift - My soul soared.
If you can see the stitched rose tall piece in the back of the photo - that's a ort holder!! It came wrapped flat and the the bottom lays down then it becomes dimensional. AMAZING! And look at the sweet black box with  a rose on top. And the last piece is a walnut pincushion. Looks like a special piece right from a fairy's house:)  Lee I cherish every stitch and piece you made me - Thank you from my soul! How lucky and spoiled am I? But I'm totally appreciative.

 Here's a closer look at the strawberry and my fairy rose walnut pincushion. By the way 3 of these pieces are hanging on my Spring tree (our son Nicholas said HE wanted to enjoy them and took them and put them right on the tree). My goodness when I showed Nicholas what Lee made me - you should of seen his expressions. You'd thought they were for him. He went crazy - he acted like it was Christmas!!! Love that kid!

 Sweet Ranae (Stitch by Stitch Blog) sent me a Snooty Parrot charm. I had seen her Snooty Parrot scissor fob and asked her where in Hobby Lobby she had found hers. We have a Hobby Lobby here but when I went looking (hunting) they didn't have any. Well Ranae went to her store and sent me one. As soon as I got I pulled out my beads and made it the same day. I cannot tell you how much I have been enjoying my Snooty Parrot fob. It sparkles! Thank you so much again for your kindness Ranae!

 Loose Feathers Summer, Autumn & Winter 2011 BBD  & 32ct Vintage Exampler by Lakeside Linens

MY BIG FINISH!

 Loved stitching these charts! I made up my own number 4 since I finished it in 2014. The chart showed 2011 - I hope I did the right thing. I wanted the year that I stitched this sampler.

 Mystery SAL 2014 - By the Bay Needleart 

28ct Sand Carolina Linen by Charles Craft

Here's part 1 of Donna's SAL. Part 2 comes out today! I had first stitched the lines white, frogged, then stitched the correct color only to learn one late evening (I was way too tired) I thought it was the wrong color, frogged. Took a break. Next day learned that I had stitched the correct color. sigh.... 

restitched it again. 3rd time's the charm. So far using all the recommend colors. I did order Collards WDW but have not received yet.

 BBD Her Sampler - 1796 SAL    

28ct Sand Carolina Linen by Charles Craft

As soon as the chart was posted on BBD blog HERE on May 4th I started stitching. I finished all the 4 sided stitches on both bands and got as far along on the letter "M". Then I thought I had run out of Grecian Gold thread. Ordered it and the next day found another skein. sigh......

The eyelet stitches on the letter "A" I stitched using Jaded Ivory by The Thread Gatherer Silk. But then thought it might be a bit too light. So the darker eyelets I stitched with DMC 3022. I think I may work with both threads here and there. In person it looks pretty. Difficult to see the beauty in the photo.

The threads that I am using. I made lots of progress a few days while watching (really listening) to the movie Mamma Mia! LOL I think I was stitching to the rhythm of the upbeat songs. I love how this sampler is looking. Hope your all enjoying whatever project your stitching. Thank you for visiting me.
With love and my appreciation - Annette

April finishes!

Hello and greetings! Lots again to share with you. I have 5 finishes and a little cool story with one of them to tell you. It's been hot here the last few days and should get cooler next week for a while. In the mean time like today - too hot to even stitch (99 degrees).

Also HEADS UP!!! If you haven't read yet there are 2 Free SAL'S coming up:
-    This coming weekend - Blackbird Designs SAL. They just mentioned it today on their blog and you can read it HERE. It's going to be a beautiful sampler and they posted a photo of the sampler.
-   Mystery SAL with By The Bay Needleart. You can see the listed supplies and the dates of when Donna releases the parts HERE.  Part #1 is on May 7th.
So have a look if you haven't read about them yet. I do plan to participate in both SAL's.

The next 3 designs I ordered from France. When I saw on Amy's beautiful blog - Thread in Hand HERE I was inspired. I also had to stitch this.
It was the design that Amy finished as a pincushion I feel in love with.

February 2014 kit by Martine Atalie of    -  Le fil Atalie 

Atalie silk threads (I had to stitch a small arrow in the left hand corner to know what side was up)

 Wow! When I received this kit it came with the chart, linen, silk threads & a silk ribbon. Just absolutely beautiful hand over dyed silk threads. The link is HERE to Martine's - Le fil Atalie.

February 2014 - Atalie

March 2014 kit - Atalie

 Hnd over dyed cotton threads by Atalie

 There were some beautiful embroidery stitches as well as some cross stitches in this piece.

 March 2014 kit - Atalie

Atalie's hand dyed cotton threads

 Beautiful piece of silk ribbon came with the kit.

Next is to make these all 3 of my finishes into pillow forms. 

Thank you Amy for your inspiration!

 Forget Me Not - BBD

30ct Expresso R&R Reproductions

In the chart of Forget Me Not - Barb's put the intial's of her great aunt. Barb put the year of her great aunt when she would have been 10 yrs old - thinking that would have been the age her aunt would of started stitching. So that got me thinking - How old was I when I first started stitching? At first I thought I couldn;t remember. Then it came to me - I had a Ah Ha moment! 

 I remembered that my mom had signed me up for a summer class thru our home town and it was sewing.
Okay but how old was I or what year was it? Well back at that time the classes were for free BUT we had to get all the supplies on a list that was given. My mom took me shopping for my very first sewing box. I picked out the blue. It was plastic and was a mini sewing box - I loved it! I remembered that I was so proud and excited I took it to show my grandparents. When I showed my Nonno (grandfather) he said "come with me Annette". We went into the garage and he took out his label maker. YES!!! Nonno made me a name tag and also he made one of the year it was (I had no clue and didn't know any different at the time but Nonno did). So right there in the inside of the cover is the year I first started sewing & stitching by hand.
After all these years I still have my sewing box and my very first project that I EVER HAND SEWED!
A pincushion! It was suppose to be a round pincushion, but mine came out very mis-shaped. All I remember is that I was super proud of my sewing box and my pincushion. And that's in the above photo.

So now I knew what year I first started hand sewing - 1973 and I was 9 years old that summer because I hadn't had my birthday yet. 

I stitched that year in my sampler!

My name label  that Nonno made for me. Thank you Nonno. What a heart warming surprise gift from Nonno even though  he's been gone for over 14 years! Can you believe it?

 I still have some very old threads kept inside as well as a few new ones. One spool of thread says .95 cents and the other .75cents. I have another sewing box that's not much larger than this one that I also use.

 1909 Bird Needlebook - Lorraine Mootz

Spring 2014 issue of Sampler & Antique Needlework Magazine

 I used both Sullivans & DMC threads

28ct Irish Linen  by Charles Craft

I still have the backside of the needlebook to stitch. This design I kept coming back to because of the colors and the bird. I think it has a Berlin style needlework look. 

 Finished stitching Autumn (middle section) of BBD and now am working on Winter by BBD

"Winter" - BBD  -  32ct Vintage Lt Exampler linen

Hope you are finding time to stitch. And thank you for your comments. I do love and enjoy reading every one. Some of you still have a no-reply email address so even though I did send you a thank you, I don;t know if you did get it. I do answer every comment. 

With my Love and Appreciation to everyone of you - Annette