Scarlet Fever II

I've put quite a few stitches in Ann Smith this week including lots of over-one in the words and area beneath the words. I love this Scarlet Letter sampler, and in fact I'm a huge fan of Scarlet Letter's approach to selling her wares in general. What I especially like about the Scarlet Letter is that most of her designs are sold not only as kits but as separate charts too. I look at her very good website and pore over her printed catalogs as well: they are absolutely gorgeous, and pure needlework porn.

Here's my latest Scarlet Letter obsession, which I ordered today in chart form-- Catharine Metcalf--and in spite of the strict stash diet I've tried really hard to follow. Just look at these photos, borrowed from the Scarlet Letter's website:

How can anyone resist this spotty cow with the bullion knot tail?

Or this cheerful-looking serpent with his pink forked tongue or the Adam and Eve as played by Brad and Angelina?


I've gotten a couple of questions lately about my stash. My header photo is La Famille Lapin, but I'm forgetting who the designer is. I believe I bought it at In Stitches in Alexandria, VA, and you can try calling them--it seems as if I've seen the chart there fairly recently. Their phone # is on the link.

Someone else asked how many WIPs I have. Well, I counted my project bags--almost all of my projects are stored in those nice mesh bags--and it seems as if I have 48 project bags. As I look through them, there are a few I will not continue because I've fallen out of love or my interests have evolved more into the historic sampler reproductions, but I probably have a good 40 WIPS that I would be happy to pick up and work on and someday even finish. My "rotation" is loose: at any given time I work on about my six favorites in a rotation of about three weeks on each project until I get tired of it and put it away until later. I'll pick up and restart an older one to put it back in the more immediate rotation, and I'll start a new one from time to time and add that to the rotation also. It's very fluid and frankly, I don't worry much about whether I finish something or not; for me, it's about the process. It has occurred to me that I need to make some provision in my will for passing them on to someone(s). No one in my family would be even slightly interested or would even know what I had. Maybe I should have a contest for being in my needlework will? LOL!

Pink and Elvis: "We're irresitable too!" Right, guys, but none of the critters on that Scarlet Letter sampler are likely to doot on the floor!


Happy week ahead, all!