Almost Half

 I am almost half done stitching Isabella’s Heart.

I wonder what it would look like if it were stitched in many colors. Like green for the stems and blue for the bird. 

I have a neat new start that I’ll show you tomorrow.  

I could have walked outside today but it was 28 degrees and  I decided to walk inside. I walked outside yesterday and part of the trail was snow and ice. Maybe I’ll walk up the street and back later today. I have learned that if I don’t walk early in the day, walking may not happen at all.  Yes, I’m lazy.

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Looking

 I have enjoyed looking at the new offerings coming from the Nashville market. I ran across some sweet little animals. I found them at Needle Case Goodies on Etsy. They weren’t really new as they are available right now as a pdf. 

I also have the little rabbit. They look so cute and small. They will be a quick easy stitch. I have never hear of Cotton Pixels. They also have some sweet bells. 

These will be a fun stitch.

Have a great weekend. The sun is shining.

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A Finish

 My A is all done.

The backstitching added a lot of clarity to the design although I am still not sure that thing is a rib roast.

I had a very exciting day already. I went to the grocery store! I bought what I wanted! 

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Pin Ball

Our guild is having a program  on pin balls. 

I got a kit for the pin ball in the mail yesterday. I couldn’t resist, I started it. Then I kept going. 

Here it is:

Now I would like to try making a pin ball using different fabrics that I have. I would also like to make a pinball by cutting up a stitched piece. Although it might be hard to make a small pin ball with linen.

Anyway, it was fun.

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On A Roll

 I worked all yesterday on my “A”. I made good progress. I bet I could finish this up today if I tried. 

It is kind of interesting to try and figure out what I’m stitching. I stitched some and then realized that I was stitching a pineapple. There are ribbons and curlicues and a few other things that I haven’t figured out what they are yet. There’s something that looks like a rib roast or a leg of lamb. I think this is a design that dates to 1720. I’m not sure because it is in a foreign language like Dutch or German. I sort of think it is Dutch.

We are back to cold weather today. But I know spring is coming.

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A

 A friend gave me this kit. I like doing “A”s.

It’s going well although I had to frog some yesterday. It is 50 degrees right now but it is raining on and off so I just walked inside. Cold weather is coming back tonight. 

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Saturday

 I am still working out where I am off on Isabella’s Heart. 

The stitching is all done on Wreath House.

I think it will be a Christmas ornament. I didn’t want to waste much linen so I put it a little too close to the side of the fabric but it will be fine. 

It is very cold out so I walked inside. There is supposed to be another warm up next week. I think I’ll be glad when the Olympics are over and we get back to regular TV programming. 

I need to get organized and make a list of WIPs I want to finish this year. I also need to figure out the next thing to work on for my caskets. I ordered a Yvette Stanton book called Early Style Hardanger so I could learn how to make picots. I read that my friend in New Zealand also had a problem with making picots and solved it using Yvette’s book. 

Have a nice weekend.

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Thursday

 It is still warm! I was able to walk my regular short route today. I even walked and talked with a neighbor.  I feel much more normal. 

I started a new project. It is the Evertote/Modern Folk embroidery kit Isabella’s Heart.

 The linen is such a lovely color.

I wanted more of it. So I looked to see if it was available on the Evernote site and it was. So as I lay in bed this morning (after doing Wordle) I order a fat quarter of it in my favorite 36 count.

I saw that The Crewel Work Company was selling some kits and decided to order one that I liked. I also saw that Amy Mitten is going to post her new design this week. I know I will order that one. I saw another piece of it on FaceBook yesterday. Love it!

I can’t wait to see the whole project. 

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Something New

 I had a new start. I found this chart when I was looking for something else. I’m not sure if I bought it or if I got it from my friend Terry. It had the fabric and floss with it so it was easy to just find a needle and begin.

I am almost done. But this has not been an easy stitch.

I am not happy with the floss symbols and colors. First of all, two of the colors are not distinguishable from each other. Deep Sea and Soot. There is a window frame of Soot but against the Deep Sea, you can’t even see it.

There are eight colors in this chart. Each color should have its own symbol. There is a heart for both Soot and Avocado. Three sets of the flosses have the same symbol: two hearts, two squares, and two triangles. It is easy to make a mistake and use the wrong color. The darkest color, Soot, has the lightest symbol. It is a subtle thing but the darker floss should have a darker symbol. The lightest color floss, oatmeal has a dark symbol. Not good choices. I suspect the person doing the floss key is not the person who had to stitch this. 

Whining over. I went walking outside today. It was 45 degrees! Not all the sidewalks were clear so I had to alter my usual route. I’m hoping to walk outside tomorrow before the weather takes a turn for the worse. It is supposed to get up to fifty today and tomorrow. Love it.

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Finished

 I finished-finished my Mill Hill Snowman. I was going to put white felt on the back but down on my ironing board was some iron on batting. I thought I would try that.

I wish the batting were a little thicker but it will have to do. 

I think he turned out pretty cute.

I saw a post on Facebook by Amy Mitten. Yeah! She has a new project going and it is right up my alley. 17th century slips of flowers. I can’t wait to see what she does with them. I saw about 7 different slips all on one piece of linen. 

I also am keeping an eye out for new things available at the Nashville market. I have two things I especially like . They are by Teresa Kogut. I love that Newcastle biscornu. I also like one of her samplers. I wish we weren’t in a pandemic as I would love to go shopping for picture frames. I have at least four things I want to frame. It is hard to pick out framing online. I need to see it in person. Maybe one of these days I can talk DH into taking me to Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

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Happy Valentines Day

 I recently finished up this heart kit by Hannah Burberry that I got from the French Needle.

It is embroidered on felt with DMC floss. The back is just plain. The edge is blanket stitched.

I made my scissors fob on Saturday. I’m not very good at beading. But It is now in one piece.

Have a lovely day!

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Zoom

 I have a Zoom class today! I joined the Orange County Sampler Guild to be able to take more classes. Today they are having a scissors fob class. I got the kit in the mail.

The directions look detailed but I didn't try doing yet.  They said not to open the kit.  Oops.

I'll show you how it turns out on Monday.

The sun is shining and I'm feeling better today.

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Magazines

 Okay, this idea came from watching a YouTube by Jacob DeGraaf. He is a designer from The Netherlands of Modern Folk Embroidery. He was supposed to give the program at one of our guild meetings but unexpectedly he had to go to India. He is going to give his program. Sometime this year. On his FlossTube video he talked about designing a three part stitch along for a Japanese magazine. The design will be released for the general public next year. I wanted to see if I could track down the magazines. I went to Etsy and found them. They were shipped from Tokyo and came very quickly. I expected to wait a month or two. But the shipping was quite expensive and they got here yesterday.  What’s weird about these magazines is that they open the opposite way a normal magazine would. The spine is on the right instead of the left. They are all in Japanese. Luckily the numbers are recognizable so I can read what DMC colors they are. The first two magazines have chart pages in them reminding me of Inspirations magazine. 

There are a lot of designs in each magazine along with instructions and illustrations on how to finish them. 

This is two thirds of the design by Jacob. 

The magazines were really fun to look through as they have embroidery, cross stitch, temari and all kinds of other designs. 

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Second Nicola Kit

 This is my second Nicola Jarvis kit. Like the first one there is a pattern printed on the fabric that you embellish. 

This is what is in the kit.

The printed design is big enough for a pillow.

Included in with the kits was a small coloring book of Nicola's designs. Cool.

This must be how the design started, as a drawing.

It is 38 degrees now.  Maybe some of the snow will melt.  It is much more interesting to walk outside. But I can't do that until the snow disappears a bit more. I had a hankering for white cake with chocolate icing so I made one.  Now to try and control how much I eat of it.

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A New Kit

Sometimes I order stuff and forget about it so it is a surprise when it arrives. I ran across Nicola Jarvis' name when I was signing up for a class and thought I would check out her website and see if she had any new kits.  She a a few new ones and I decided to order two kits.  They came in the mail yesterday from the UK. I have a kit of hers already but I haven't made it.  It would be interesting to see how long it would take me to find it! Then there is a Nicola Jarvis bird in an Inspirations magazine that I would like to make also.  I think I have kitted it up already. 

This kit is Jacobean Moth.

The design is printed on the fabric.

This is what is in the kit, DMC flosses.

I like the instructions. One step at a time in a booklet. I can do that.

DH is off to the grocery store. The weather is much better today. I'll show the other Nicola Jarvis kit tomorrow. 

The sun is shining today and I love it!

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Monday

 It is Monday.  We had to go have an infusion and freezing rain was coming down. We slid to a stop at a red light.  It was really icy.  We weren't sure we could make it but we did. Everything went fine and we carefully and slowly made our way home. We (meaning me) have another infusion on Thursday. It is a two infusion week. 

I worked hard yesterday to get that Mill Hill Snowman done.  I did it. I cut it out.

The back is messy so I want to put some white felt on the back.

Boy was this a lot of work! Lots and lots of beads to sew on. At least there were no half or quarter stitches.  He turned out fine.  I'll give him to my grandkids next Christmas. What else can I finish?\

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Happy Mail

I ordered a kit from Evertotes.  It is a project bag, a small coordinating bag, a chart, linen and floss. The chart is from Modern Folk Embroidery with floss from Leo and Roxy. There was also a sweet scissors fob with a heart included. The linen is a much nicer blue than shows in the photo.

 

The project bags are very nicely made.  They come from Canada, I think. I expected it to take longer to get to me but they came sooner than I thought they would. 

The sun is shining brightly today. I've done some walking around the the house.  A mile before breakfast. I've enjoyed some ice skating from the Olympics. Twice. I think I heard the announcers day that there is a 13 hour time difference from the Olympics. Of course that depends on what time zone in the US you are in.

Have a great weekend!

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Back Order

 I got a back order from Needle in a Haystack a couple days ago. It was a fat eighth of Woodsmoke 36 count linen from LakesideLinens.  Why did I order it?  What was I going to use it for?  I have no idea. I looked through the pin cushion book and the Willing Hands 2 book. Nothing rung a bell. Not a bad color though I am not usually a fan of overdyed linen.  The holes are too small or it is too floppy.  I have no clue.

I thought about making a list of things I wanted to stitch this year.  I do have a couple WIPs in mind that I would like to finish. Susan O'Conner's mirror comes to mind. 

I have been working on the Mill Hill Snowman.  It is a lot of work! But progress is being made.

I had a mistake and had to take the time to figure out where I went wrong and fix it. I'm back on track now.

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New Start

 I decided to start this kit.

This is a pretty easy stitch.  No difficult stitches. It is different stitching on felt compared to stitching on linen or satin. 

We got about 11 inches of snow.  Poor DH had to shovel snow twice yesterday just to keep up.

Not to mention scrapping snow off the roof.

I went looking for my Amy Mitten kit "Final Soliloquy".  The amazing part was that I found it! I had almost completed a male figure. I tried putting a few stitches in.  Nope, not going to happen.  I can't work over one on forty count linen. I wanted to see if this design could be worked on larger count linen for one of my casket panels. It is too large to fit the casket if I work on a lower count linen. So I will look for another design. While looking for Final Soliloquy I found a half done pin ball.  One side is done but I didn't find the threads to be able to stitch the other side.  I can just make it into a pin cushion. I don't have the hardware for a real pin ball anyway. To be able to sew it, I'll have to clean off my sewing machine area.  That's a whole other story.

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It's a Marshmellow World

 We have lots of snow this morning. It is supposed to snow all day and tomorrow.

Out front

Backyard 

Outside the dining room window.
I'm having trouble with my Android tablet that I usually do my blog on.  The device is old and I think it is failing.  So I'm trying to switch over to the PC. DH is helping me but now he is outside shoveling snow. So I'm on my own here.

I got a new book in the mail.  It saw this book on Instagram and loved the embroidery. I tracked it down and ordered it over Etsy from Japan.  At least three times Etsy has asked me to review it but that was before I received it.

Wouldn't it be fun to draw a few flowers and see what they looked like embroidered? 

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