A Finish! Winter Quakers

 I am so happy to be finshed with Winter Quakers by Rosewood Manor.  I started this piece in June of 2023 and finished it a few days ago.  

It is stitched on the called-for cashel linen.  The color of the linen is "dwarf".  

I enjoyed using the Valdani threads for this piece. I did, however, run out of certain colors. I ordered more of the green color.  Fortunately I had the primitive blue color left over from my long ago completed Quaker Diamonds piece as I also did not have enough of that color. I also ran out of the cream Subtle Elegance Valdani color, so I substituted WDW grits and also DMC 822 here and there. I am happy with how the blending of both called for and 'new' colors turned out, so to speak. 

The snowflakes were plentiful and I grew to enjoy stitching them. I will confess that at first they were tiresome for me, to say the very least. I did see that some stitchers used two threads for them, and I loved that look. I did not see those particular stitchers' pieces until I was too far into the snowflake stitching to redo with two threads. One strand provides a nice look, too. The snowflakes are just way more subtle. 

The large greenish motif in the left center of the piece took me way too long. I found the outside of it to be tedious and thus I set this piece aside for way too long. Once I resigned myself to simply working on it again, it went just fine. 

Here it is:

Some more views:

This is the final part I just completed. I swapped out the initial that would be stitched in the lower diamond creamy snowflake for a coordinating design: 

This past weekend we celebrated four birthdays here, so I didn't have much time to stitch at all in over a week.  It was fun to get this piece done on Sunday evening! 

This is one of the birthday cakes we served, and it's a triple chocolate bundt cake.  The vintage holiday picks were fun to throw onto this cake just for fun. 

Thanks for stopping by today.   

 

An Update of Sorts

Oh my, so long since I have been here. I will share some of my finished pieces and WIPs at this time. Thanks for visiting me here despite my lack of posts. 

I started this blog in 2006 and moved to this address in 2011 after the old one was hacked. In the meantime, I have started sharing my stitching on Instagram and Facebook, thus the lack of visits to this blog. 

I do enjoy reading blogs, however, and I vow to return to that wonderful pasttime.

Here is one of my current WIPs.This is Yvonne LeClerq 1905 from Reflets de Soie.I am so enjoying this piece. It is being stitched on 32 count linen using DMC threads. 

Originally I had vowed to refrain from working on a labor intensive sampler  but I just could not resist this one.

This is my progress on Winter Quakers from Rosewood Manor. It is being stitched on 32 count fabric with the recommended fabric color called dwarf. I am using the called for Valdani threads. What a joy it is to work on this piece, and I do so as often as possible. 

This is Summer Breeze by Prairie Schooler that I worked on mostly at various stitching retreats and gatherings. I used DMC threads. I decided to finish it by using a simple poster hanger. I love seeing this in our home each day!  

It reminds me of my late mother as she loved summer. She also enjoyed reciting little poems about summer. 

This is Cottage from an older Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine. My husband and I framed it and gave it to one of my dearest cousins. She enjoys looking at it in her kitchen each day. 

Several years ago, I worked on many different weather projects. This is one I finished that represents 2020's weather in our city, starting with January 1st in the middle of the design. 

Here it is again, shown with another one I did that represents the same weather zone but starts with a summertime birthday. These projects were fun, and I ended up doing four of them in one year. The poster finish came in so handy, although I did have the other two framed as they were gifts. 

This was the first weather project I did, and it shows the weather here in 2019. It was designed by Stitchin' Mommy, purchased off of Etsy. 

Finally, this is a weather project I did that shows midwest weather for 2019.  On the bottom is Fractal Bookmark 705 from Cross Stitch Collectibles. I did shorten the length of the bookmark as I decided that would work for me. The bottom piece is stitched one over one on 28 count fabric. 

So there you have some of my recent WIPs and fully finished items. There are many more that will be shared down the road. 

Life has been busy & full of both happy moments and sad ones in the past few years. That is the nature of it, of course. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Another Finish!

Several weeks ago I finished Lizzie Kate’s Spirit of Christmas Mystery Sampler II.  I started it in the fall of 2017.

There will be lots of framing done in the future!

Be Well - Finished

I am happy to be finished with “Be Well”.  This design is a freebie from Needlework Press. I used regular and variegated DMC, Valdani threads, and variegated silk threads. 

I will eventually finish this one in one way or another. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Another Finish!

Last week I finished my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Instead of completing 12 blocks, I decided to just do four of them. I renamed it HHRH Quartet.  I did change some of the wording.  I started this one in 2016 and it is stitched using DMC threads.

I also had another finish a week ago of a smaller project, and yesterday I was glad to have  finished another older one.  Hurrah! I am now down to seven WIPs.  I will share my other finishes on a different day.

I do plan on starting a new Satsuma Street one in the very near future.  I had quite a bit of the colors that are needed, but yet I did have to order a few from 123 Stitch.  Those items should arrive soon, and I am looking forward to that project very much.

Here is the quartet which will be professionally framed down the line.

I changed the wording here, deleting 'dead' and 'grave' and making it a bit more gentle.

I slightly changed the color of the flag's red stripes on this part.

I would love to live in one of these four homes. Most likely it would be the yellow-toned one, which is similar to our outside paint color now, in fact! 

Please take care of yourselves, and thanks for stopping by today. 

Variegated Sampler- Finished!

I recently finished this project.  I started it a few years ago, and it comes from the magazine Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. (March 1988 issue)

It is called the Variegated Sampler.

It was a joy to stitch, and I look forward to having it framed after the 'shelter in place' orders are behind us.


Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope you have a sweet day celebrating love, friendship, and all things beautiful.

Maybe some chocolate thrown in, too?

Some stitched pieces brought together for today 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

A Finish! Temperature Quilt

I am happy to have my first finish in over two years!

This is Stitchin’ Mommy’s Temperature Quilt.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 A bit of a wash and next will be a simple frame.

Finished Ornament and Progress on LK Christmas Mystery Piece

I finished this ornament by Little House Needleworks quite a while ago. Thus far it is not finished into an ornament, but here is the finished piece after stitching.

It was a lot of fun stitching this one!

I made a bit of progress on the LK Spirit of Christmas Mystery Sampler.  It's slowly coming along. Here is the last photo I took of it, before I did a bit more work:

I've also been working  a tiny bit on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  Photos are to come soon!

I wish I had  more time to stitch.  I keep figuring I will sometime, when I retire.

Happy Stitching to all,
Sue

New Year Greetings, Stoney Creek, & Non-Goals

Happy New Year.  Here's to a great 2018 for all of us!

The holiday season has come and gone. It has been a VERY busy and fun season.  I hope you have also had a nice holiday time with your family and friends.

I finished this Stoney Creek Freebie in 2002 or so. I had started it in 1989, I believe.  It has sat in a drawer since 2002, which is awful.  This year I simply placed it in a hoop and had fun displaying it.

This pattern was sponsored by DMC, and the advertisement for it was on the back of a magazine.  This was of course way back before the internet was in homes, so I had to send away for the freebie pattern. 

Do you have any old completed pieces just sitting in a drawer and not displayed?  I confess I have a few others that are also sitting in drawers.  Maybe this year I will do something about that.  On the other hand, I won't stew over it if they remain in drawers.

I feel happy with things I have been able to do in my life, but I am not a huge goal setter, per se.  Therefore I don't have any stitchy or other goals to share as the new year starts.  Some would say that makes me a slacker, and I am okay with that.

I do strive to do more walking and exercise this year.  It isn't quite a goal, but it is something I need to do.

Happy Stitching today! Thanks for stopping by, and please tell me if you have things in your drawers that need to be finished.

Breadcloth from long ago & Peanut Butter Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

Recently I had a delicious meal at my brother and sister in law's home, and I was so excited to see them use a breadcloth I stitched for them years and years ago.  I had to share it here, of course. 

I recently baked up some delicious cookies.  Here is that recipe:

Chewy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. honey

2 tsps. baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

4 1/2 cups rolled oats

11.4 ozs. bag butterscotch morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter, peanut butter until well combined. Add brown sugar , sugar, and beat until smooth. Add honey, baking soda and mix in well.  Stir in oats and butterscotch chips.  (see below for variation) Use a cookie dough scoop to put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes, do not overbake. Cookies are flat and chewy.  Cool on the pan for a few minutes, then remove and enjoy! 

I split the batter into two parts and added 1 cup butterscotch morsels to one part, and the other part was doused with 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of butterscotch. (semi-sweet chocolate morsels)  My family preferred the chocolate chip ones over the butterscotch ones.  To each his own, I say! 

Stitching and Memories

First of all, I hope those of you in the USA had a great time celebrating yesterday.  We watched a great display of fireworks near our daughter's home.  What a great time we had!

I often think of the things I have stitched over the years, and I remember the time in my life when I was working on that certain piece.  Do any of you do this, too?

Due to the 4th of July holiday yesterday I thought of a patriotic piece I stitched for my son long ago. It was from the now long gone "Cross Quick" magazine.  I started this piece when my son was six and finished it when he was eight! So much for quick.   I remember dragging it along with me to many of our children's activities at that time. It was also a pattern my son chose for me to do, so that made it special as he was just a little guy then. He is now 31 years old, so that gives a time perspective, doesn't it?

Once I brought the little patriotic sampler with me to a local hairstyling place so that I could work on it while my son got his haircut.  My daughter was about 10 years old at the time, and she was probably sitting there reading a book happily by my side.  I sat working on the sampler, waiting for my son's turn.  After a while a young adult  male walked into the salon with a group of about five teens. It turned out they were from a group home of sorts.

One of the boys from the group home was entranced by my cross stitching work, and he exclaimed to me, "I can't believe you are making this for your son. How kind of you!"  It just really struck me that he was so taken with this small token of love for my son.  One could not help but wonder about the roads he had traveled in his very young life.

In time, my son outgrew having this piece on his wall. That sort of thing has never bothered me.   He allowed me to take it to my work where I hung it on the classroom wall, near the flag.  Somehow in the course of moving either classrooms or homes during the last several years it has become packed away somewhere.  I can't seem to locate this cute sampler.  Just the same, its memory stays with me. I  know it is somewhere here in our house. It didn't just walk away, right?

Patriotic Sampler- Cross Quick Magazine

Thanks for stopping by today. I do wonder, what sort of memories do you associate with your stitched pieces?

Purchases, Finishes, and Progress!

I am so happy to have some time off. In fact, I have already been off one month. Time is passing quickly.

The last several months have been busy and full of happy events, with some stitching thrown in from time to time.

Some time in spring I was fortunate to be able to attend a Lizzie Kate Trunk Show at our local LNS. My dear friend and I had lots of fun oohing and drooling over all the fabulous patterns and models.

I had to purchase something, right?

Here is what I selected:

While in the shop, I saw this one stitched up as a model and just had to purchase this Plum Street Sampler pattern. It is gorgeous in person! 

Back to Lizzie Kate, I started stitching up one of the ornaments right away.  Despite having collected scores of ornament patterns, I do believe this is the first one I have ever stitched!   

I usually stick to large projects that take me forever, but I finally decided to do some smaller projects so that I get a sense of completion. 

Here is Jingle, which was a nice, fun quick stitch: 

I am not sure how I will finish this one.  I have been watching Flosstube videos for quite some time now, and love one gal's (Yvonne- Dough Bowl - Night Owl Stitcher Yvonne) dough bowl idea of displaying various seasonal smalls in a beautiful antique dough bowl. This is something I might pursue down the line.  I found one dough bowl while on vacation recently, but it was too rustic for my taste.  The hunt continues...and I must stitch items for this bowl. The finishing is the tough part for me, and I may have to call upon my finishing friends for help in this project.  I move slowly, so who knows when an actual dough bowl will be ready for display.


In June I purchased some plain tea towels at a discount chain store.  They were just crying out to be stamped and embroidered.  I thus went ahead and stamped one to stitch.  Much to my dismay, I found that the weave was way too loose to be of much quality for stitching.  Just the same, I had already stamped the towel so I decided to go ahead and stitch on it.  The weave was SO LOOSE that I couldn't do french knots but instead had to improvise a funky sort of stitch for the center.

I have collected way too many iron-on patterns for years, and I decided upon Aunt Martha's Colonial Girls and Puppies.  My stitches are very poor, but I did finish it. The towel is of such poor quality that this one will simply be a decorative towel. The good thing was it was done in just a very short time.

Besides working on Jingle and the tea towel, I have been working on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  Progress IS being made, ever so slowly.  Here are a few photos:

           Photo from April 

June and July Photos: 

I am enjoying this piece, but it is slow going. There are twelve total blocks, and I am on just the third one after over a year of stitching.  Perhaps I will just stitch four squares? We will see. 

We recently returned from a road trip that took us to beautiful places around the USA.  In our travels were able to visit a fantastic needlework store.  Oh, to live close to that mecca!  I will share more information on that journey in an upcoming post.

Thanks for stopping by today.