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.   

 

A Finish~ Quaker Diamonds

I actually finished Quaker Diamonds. My second finish this year, which for me is a big deal.  (Summer Queen was completed last spring.) I started this on May 19, 2013 and finished yesterday. I have worked on other projects during this time, and had two other finishes of old projects in 2014.

A dear friend and I actually are doing this as a stich-a-long, but she has worked on other huge projects during this time so she isn't quite finished with it yet.

If you are working on this project, be careful with your orts. I ran out of vintage green and blue/black (I used the suggested Valdani threads) and had to scrounge through my ort vase to find threads to finish the piece.  I'm glad I save them now as for years and years they all went in the trash after each stitching session.

So now I am down to only two WIPs.  They were both started over 10 years ago, and then some. I don't think I have ever had just two WIPs, but for now I will focus on getting more progress on those pieces. (Paula Vaughan's Wedding Ring Bouquet and Theresa Wentzler's Fruit Bellpull)

Quaker Diamonds~~

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Finally, Some Stitching

It has been a busy almost two months. Between work, non-stitching fun stuff,  and home responsibilities I haven't had much time to enjoy any stitching. Finally, that has changed as I have a break from work for awhile. I've found a bit of time to stitch, and I want to share the updates today.

I've been working on Rosewood Manor's Quaker Diamonds.  The designer's name is Karen Kluba. I'm using Valdani threads for this one. I started this one two years ago, but I have had a few other projects going at the same time.

I switched some initials so that my husband's and my initials could appear here, together: 

After finishing one portion I noted a mistake I made in a stitch's placement. I am leaving it as is, to add to the "character" of the piece. 

Thanks for stopping by today!