Stitching away......

I'm still here and still loving my stitching.   I'm sorry so many of you are still dealing with awful winter storms the last month or two....it's the perfect time of year here in the southwest.  I took time off work this week to entertain houseguests and attend 2 spring training baseball games.  It was wonderful being out enjoying good weather - we'll have  our bad weather this summer when the high temperatures get here.

I've been stitching on the Valentine Sampler pieces by With Thy Needle & Thread for awhile. For some reason that project seemed to take me a long time to do.  It wasn't only the stitching, there  was finishing work to do, the box to paint, etc etc.  Anyway, I'm happy to say it's finally finished.  I had a few of the Whitman heart-shaped candy boxes that are called for in the pattern.  You are supposed to paint one and mount the main stitched piece on the lid.  Well I got my box painted but I was a bit dismayed at how flimsy those boxes are and really there is very little room to fit in the stitched accessories and I'd already put a lot of work into them.  I decided to look for a better box so I headed over to Hobby Lobby. I was prepared to get any shape that would work but luckily they had a heart-shaped box paper mache that fit it just great and is very sturdy.  It's a bit taller than I wanted it but it worked out well. I lined it with music-themed scrapbook paper.    I changed things up a bit and did my own pincushion version using a few motifs from the chart and I made my needlebook with a snap closing and rickrack trim instead of the hanging buttons. I want to keep this set by my recliner and use it instead of just displaying it.

"Valentine Sampler" kit by With Thy Needle & Thread

stitched on Lakeside Linen Vintage Exampler linen

 The stitching accessories - folded sewing case for needles,  a pincushion and scissor fob

 

 

I also started a few new pieces in the last month.  I'm doing an SAL with a friend and we're stitching "Forever Young" by Heartstring Samplery.  Love the verse on this one which is from a song by Bob Dylan,  and also performed by Rod Stewart:

 

May God bless and keep you always

May your wishes all come true

May you always do for others and

  let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars

  and climb on every rung

And may you stay Forever Young

 

You can see the completed version of this on Beth Twist's blog:    http://thetwistfamily.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-forever-young.html   Here's my progress so far, I'm close to done with the verse and anxious to start on the bottom half of the sampler.  I substituted some of my own overdyed flosses and didn't use exactly what was called for in the chart but it's close.

 



 

 

I also started a piece for my mom from Little House Needleworks.  I grew up in a town in Illinois along the Mississippi River.  We used to go on the paddlewheel excursion boats occasionally although there aren't many of them left now.  When my mother was a young girl she spent several summers at her aunt's house along the river and she has always loved the riverboats.  When I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to stitch it for her.  Not too much to see yet but the boat is starting to appear and one of the two islands in the 'river' is done.  I'll be visiting my mom in May and want to have it done and framed to give to her then.

 



"Mississippi Riverboat" by LHN

 

I've been seeing some of the Market reports from various stitching shops...more cute items of course but nothing I didn't feel I had to rush out and buy.  Of course when you've got a room full of stash waiting to be stitched it sort of dampens the urge to get even more!   I can't think of hardly any of my charts that I don't want to stitch so I'm content to keep on stitching from stash for awhile.  I've got several projects kitted up and I'm so anxious to get started on them but I need to keep my head down and finish these couple of pieces first. 

 

I think I'm finally going to cave in and join Facebook...I've been resisting as I don't know how I'll find more time to spend on the computer when I can't keep up with all your blog posts.  So if you have any tips for me as to stitching groups I should check out please let me know!  

 

Hope spring is headed your way soon - thanks for stopping in!