March WIPocalypse

 Last month I was so close to the finish line on Heartstring Samplery Victoria's Garden that I just powered on through to finish it up in the first few days of March. I started this last May on my birthday and I was determined that it would be done before my special day rolled around again once more! 

This was such a sweet stitch although I must say that the border needed close attention. The child who stitched this originally was easily distracted and the border was never guaranteed to be the same number of stitches where you expected it to be. I love how she adapted when the corners would meet! 

After my finish I felt it was only right to begin something new. I know I should have returned to stitching my 1897 Schoolhouse Sampler piece but I was being drawn down a rabbit hole. Thirza Hudson 1825 is the sampler which dragged me down, lol!

There are a lot of stitchers out there on social media who have fallen for this sweet, little sampler. I've seen several finished already! Thirza is a design from Whilst Iris Naps and is available as a PDF download. As you can see, I'm also very close to a finish on this one. Only the border and the over one stitching remain. In taking this picture I discovered an error in counting so I have since spent some time frogging and restitched a portion of one of the trees. I should have the border complete in a few days but I'm not sure if I'll have enough silk floss to complete the over one. I'm thinking of removing that one letter and starting with a different silk. 

The sampler called for some R&R fabric which I didn't have and with the mail being what it is these days and linen supplies difficult to find, I chose to find an alternative from my stash. I'm stitching this on Lakeside Linen 40ct Vintage Chantilly Creme which has a very soft blush undertone to it. I'm using the suggested floss with one DMC substitute in addition to the silk floss for the over one. I started stitching with the called for floss for that but it just seemed too thick for the 40 ct and silk works so much better when doing over one on the higher counts particularly if it's a Tudor silk.

My plans in the coming month are to finish Thirza Hudson, get back to My Precious Jewel and possibly join in on a local SAL of Brenda Gervais' Winter Rose Manor. I have it kitted up but I'm on the fence as to whether or not to start it. There are a couple of other designs that I would prefer to start first. I'm just not in the mood to stitch Christmas either. I have two Blackbird Designs all ready to go in addition to The Scarlett House Little Deeds Sampler. Then I received my order from the Needlework Expo with Hannah Ann Wallace, 1850.  Oh my word, she's a beauty too! 

A lot of my stitching time has been replaced over the past six months with my efforts at a healthier lifestyle. I spend an hour or so every day walking. When the weather was too cold to walk or it snowed heavily I relied on a dance video to burn up those calories. We have returned to more healthy eating, including a lot of vegetarian meals, lots of beans, lentils, chickpeas and more chicken and fish with very little beef or pork. Over the course of those months I have lost a total of 55 pounds and I am now in remission from my diabetes and have been since November. In my case the pandemic has helped because we are not eating out and cook all our meals at home. Here's a before and after pic. 

Taken in September with my youngest sister

Taken in March

I intend to continue on the journey and lose more weight over the next few months hopefully. Shortly after the second pic was taken I decided to take the plunge and change my hair colour. My natural colour has quite a bit of gray and I decided to head in that direction. Here's the new look!

I hope everyone is remaining safe during these times. I know many of you in the US may have already had your vaccines but here in Canada the rollout is much slower. I figure it will be several weeks before I feel that needle. It can't come soon enough! See you next month!

February WIPocalypse

 Besides a new start this month I've spent some quality time with a WIPocalypse that I started last year on my birthday in May. Heartstring Samplery's Victoria's Garden is a lovely reproduction design. I've really been enjoying my time spent with her.

As you can see, I'm in the final few days of stitching this beauty. Only the border remains and let me tell you, I'm having an interesting time with it. It met up but after stitching it I have decided that the child who originally stitched this was easily distracted, lol! You can't go on auto pilot when stitching this border. She added stitches, she dropped stitches and she improvised her corners just as many of us may have done throughout some of our own stitching. I am loving every stitch!

When I need a bit of a break from Victoria I turn to my new start, 1897 Schoolhouse Samplers My Precious Jewel - Ann Alice Townshend. Lianne Van Leyen is the brains behind 1897 Schoolhouse Samplers and is a personal friend of mine. She is passionate about reproducing the samplers in her collection, particularly the ragamuffins. Although I have several of her reproduction samplers in my stash this is the first I chose to spend any time with and it certainly won't be the last!

When I pulled the called for floss for this I realized that I didn't have many of them in my stash. With the pandemic and shipping times what they are, I didn't want to wait and so I have chosen to stitch this with silks from my stash. The majority are Belle Soie choices so far. I'm sort of converting as I go. 

I hope to continue with this one during March and I'm sure Victoria's Garden will be complete by the end of the coming week. I haven't decided which design is next but I have several in mind. 

I hope you are all staying safe and stitching your hearts out!

October WIPocalypse

October is almost finished! Where has the time gone? At times it has seemed to stand still during this pandemic and at other times it just races on. This month we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving.....sort of.

The turkey fixings and pumpkin pie were still on the table but this year it was only my husband and myself sharing in a much smaller feast. Despite the fact that family were not able to join us because of the increasing covid cases in our region, we still have much to be thankful for. We are blessed with a very supportive family and friends as well as contined good health up to this point. My husband is also continuing to be paid from all three of his employers even though choirs cannot sing and the churches were closed for a good part of the year. Also we have that new grandbaby on the way!!

Stitching this month didn't occur until about the midway point of the month. The holiday, storing things for the winter and putting away summer clothes occupied a good part of our time. However I do have a finish to show you!!  First though I'll show you what little stitching I did on two of my other projects.

I have almost completed the Birth Sampler with the exception of the child's name and birthdate. Just a bit more on the bottom border and then we wait for baby's arrival.

I hope to get the name charted next week but I won't be putting it in until the baby is here.

Next I have a pathetic amount of stitching that I added on Victoria's Garden. I only managed to get in one flower and part of another.

No stitches were put in on Fanny Compton this month because I was determined to finish A Yuletide Welcome once and for all! I'm pleased to say that my mission was accomplished. 

I'm so happy with how it has turned out! The designer is Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers and I stitched this on the suggested fabric, 40 ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Buttercream with the suggested floss with the exception of one. This was my New Year start and it was the second time that I started this piece. I originally started it in November 2017 on a 32 ct fabric by Kiwi Illusions but I was really unhappy with the loose linen and I wanted it to be smaller. It was put aside for a little more than 2 years before I tackled it again. I also have A Ghoultide Welcome in my stash but I think it will still be awhile before I get to it.

 With Thanksgiving over I spent a bit of time putting some of my Halloween stitching on display.

The next pic is of my Halloween finish last year,  The Primitive Needle Annie Hyssop's Harvest Moon. I've had it stretched but as yet it is not framed.

Here are a few other favourites. The first pic actually resides at my son's home now.

I'm busy working on some Christmas gift stitching now and don't think I'll get to any personal stitching for a bit yet although I'm itching to start something new. Who knows?.... maybe there will be something started during the next month. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

September WIPocalypse

 This month is known as Sampler September for those of us who love samplers. It's a great excuse to start a new sampler of course! I decided to do just that but I didn't get very far. On September 1st I put the first stitches into a design that I'd eagerly been awaiting..... An Orchard Invisible - Fanny Crompton 1833, designed by 1897 Schoolhouse Samplers. I didn't get very far however before I realized that my dye lots on some of the colours were just a little too close and that I would have to make some new colour choices from my stash.

The lettering for Fanny's name is GA Holly Berry. The same colour is also used on the crowns. As you can see my dye lot for the lettering looks more pink. Rather than frog it I decided to leave it for now and I changed the floss on the crowns to a substitute. At some point I may frog the letters but I'm waiting to see how the rest of the piece plays out. Fanny it appears, likes pink! Follow my link above for the pattern and you will see that the  flowers in the urns as well as the berries in the basket are all stitched in different shades of rose but my lots are all looking pretty much the same.  I will have to sit down with this one at some point and make some more colour substitutions. I had other things that needed to be worked on so I've put it aside for now. It's definitely a disappointment as I was hoping to get going on her but that's a fairly frequent occurrence with dye lots. I'm stitching this design on a lovely piece of Lakeside Linen Vintage Meadow Rue, one of my favourite fabrics.

Next I pulled out Victoria's Garden to see if I could get a bit further ahead on it.

 

It's a lovely design and is slowly taking shape. I'm really enjoying my time spent on this. After a several days I put it aside as much as I hated to and put some time in on the birth sampler for my upcoming grandchild. Baby is due at the end of November and I know I'll be working on a few Christmas pieces throughout that month so it was best that I moved along with this one. Sorry about the lighting on these. It's been overcast most of today and I can't seem to get the colours right on the fabrics.

I have only the bottom border and a few more stars located above it to complete. The personalization will wait until after baby's arrival. I know their name choice as they are aware that they're having a boy but one can never be too sure! I just might jinx it if I go ahead and stitch it now. Plus we have to wait for the birthdate. I can't even put in the month of November because baby is due at the end of the month and could very well be late, arriving in early December. I will, however, work at the charting of the name over the next several weeks.

So I started Sampler September with one sampler and ended the month with two others! Yuletide Welcome didn't even appear on my radar this month. 

I have so many charts that I want to get going on. Some are seasonal and some not but I also know that I have two designs to stitch as Christmas gifts for my granddaughters which will take considerable time. In fact, overall I'm stitching much slower this year. I think I'm having a hard time concentrating during the pandemic. I've never stitched so few pieces as I have this year so far. 

In my previous post I showed pics of the sweet pillow which accompanied part of my gift for my daughter-in-law's baby shower but I neglected to post photos from the event. I'll leave you with a couple of those now.

August WIPocalypse

August was a somewhat productive month for my stitching. I say somewhat because I did stitch but not on a regular basis as usual. As Covid rules have relaxed here, we started going out a bit more and have had some close friends over to distance with us outdoors. It's been a pleasant change and I know my mood has certainly lifted.

Partway through the month I decided it was time to get moving on my Victoria's Garden again. Here is a pic of my progress at this point.

 It's moving along and I do enjoy what time I spend on it. The motifs are lovely. I particularly like the larger flower baskets on either side. Also the off centre flower in the basket on the bottom left. There's a reason for that as you'll see once I have the border complete.

Here are a few close up photos of the motifs.

Isn't that little dog cute? Victoria's Garden has some little creatures in it as well as flowers!

In the last few days of the month I got started on a birth sampler for my grandson who is slated to arrive at the end of November. This design is actually called A Birth Sampler and it was designed by The Goode Huswife. The chart is now out of print but a good friend has loaned it to me. When she mentioned that she had just the sampler for me to stitch I asked her to send a picture of the design. I showed it to my son and daughter-in-law and they loved it. It's simple and the colours are most suited to a boy.

As you can see, I started in the middle of the piece so the final line was stitched first. Then I moved up and started working at the beginning. Just two more lines of text, a few more stars and the border, which is quite simple, and it will be finished. Of course I won't be stitching the name or date of birth until later despite the fact that they have already chosen the name. With my luck they would decide to change the name or it could end up being a girl, lol!

Here's a pic of what the actual design looks like.

I love the simplicity of it! When this is done I will be looking at charts for a birth sampler for my nephew and his wife who are expecting for January. I also have promised my granddaughters some stitched pieces for Christmas so I expect I should get moving on them too. With all of this my Blackbird Design I started earlier in the summer has been on the back burner along with the completion of Yuletide Welcome. If you recall I was waiting on the arrival of more floss to finish it. The floss has arrived and I hope to get back to it very soon. I say that but Sampler September arrives tomorrow with the first of the new month. You'll just have to wait until my September post to see what I've chosen. That is, unless you follow me on Instagram!

July WIPocalypse

It's a HOT summer here! I know it's the same for many of you across not only Canada but in the US as well. I've been very thankful that we have our gazebo in which to enjoy the weather but during the past two weeks there have been periods of high humidity which just scream "Stay inside!" On days such as this I spend my time with my needle in hand in the air conditioned comfort. 

I had hoped that I could finish off A Yuletide Welcome but sometime during the first few days I ran out of the floss needed to fill in the label at the bottom of the piece. I have some on order but Lord knows when it will arrive. Postage times have increased as has the time to fill orders in many shops. Here are pics of the piece where I left off.

I'm really hoping that by next month my floss will have arrived and I will close to a finish if not there already!

In the meantime I worked on some patriotic stitches for display this month. You'll see some photos of those on my smalls SAL post at the end of this month.

Once the smalls were finished I pulled out Heartstring Samplery Victoria's Garden. I've added a bit more to it than I had last month.

This one is going to be really pretty when it's done. I'm enjoying my time spent with it. I really love that flower basket! The muted colours are lovely and show up much better in real life than in the photos. On the cover of this pattern there is a photo of both the original sampler and the reproduction. The reproduction is very true to the original colours because it's hard to tell them apart.

I'm thinking that I might get started on a few Christmas ornaments in August. I need to stitch some for my granddaughters as well as a friend. I've also ordered a Jeannette Douglas pattern, Friendship No Borders, which has both a Canadian and a US design which can be stitched as individual pillows or combined into a double sided pincushion. I like to stitch this as a gift for my sister who lives in the US. It's on order with my shop so it may take several weeks to arrive.

No stitching was done on my Blackbird Design piece but maybe I can get that finished up for next month too. Keep an eye for my Smalls post on Friday to see all of my patriotic finishes!

June WIPocalypse

The month of June has seen my stitching time increase somewhat. As much as I would have loved to see a finish on A Yuletide Welcome it just hasn't happened. If you remember from last month's post, I was pretty much finished with the exception of the bottom grass with the lettering and background fill in. At this point I have everything complete except for all that white fill. I started out stitching it from one side of the piece to the other but I keep on having to move the Q snap when I do it that way. So instead I decided to fill in one small section at a time and it feels like I'm progressing more.

I'll continue to plod along on this as the urge strikes me. As long as it's complete before the year's end, that's all I care about. I think the larger Q snap (11x11) is what is slowing me down.

Heartstring Samplery's Victoria's Garden was the next piece to get some attention.

Last month's start

This month's progress

I'm really enjoying this particular design but then again I've always been a huge fan of any Heartstring Samplery pattern. I'm hoping to get back to this very shortly.

As for my Blackbird Design, Her Fair Works, very little was done. I finished up the bottom lower left flower basket and started to add the little bird to the right of it. 

Last month

June's progress

Then my interest waned and I switched to a small design for Canada Day which can be seen on my previous post. 

The plan for July is to continue working on the above three until at least one is finished before I start something new. Our weather here the past couple of weeks has been extremely hot and humid which I find just doesn't give me the energy to do much of anything, lol!

As Covid restrictions start to ease up some here we are also starting to see some of our family and a few friends. I've missed everyone and I'd much rather be doing that this month. I hope everyone continues to be well during this difficult time.