Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue...

...because it's going to give me a break from these eyelets. All the same, I have completed four of the ten lollipops or "candles." Just six to go. Very time-consuming, but they're turning out well. We will not discuss the tedium of the over-one verse on 40 count.


Here's Dorothy Walpole, as far as I've stitched. Although I complain, it's going to be a stunner.


I love stitching patriotic designs in the same way that others like to stitch Christmas, and I actually manage to finish one most years. (Last year was Prairie Schooler's "July." Or wait. The year before?) I was thinking of stitching "America" or "Brave Hearts" by Little House, but then I spied this little Crown and Thistle kit on ebay called "Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue" (I think--I don't see the name on the package). It came with everything in it, but I swapped out the included 32 count fabric for a 36 count mystery linen from my stash. After all those eyelets, I'm enjoying the variegation of the WDW threads and stitching the little white stars. Of course, I've defied the instructions to stitch with one thread in most of the areas since I don't like that coverage even on 36 count, so we'll see how that goes.


Here's what the the design looks like. Out of print, I'm fairly certain.


Pink: "I'm a little white star." Yes you are, Pink!


Happy week ahead!

Eyelets

Greetings, All! I've been stitching eyelets this week! Scarlet Letter's Dorothy Walpole is full of them, and while I don't really MIND stitching them, they are time-consuming and a little tedious. I've been working industriously away on the alphabet eyelets:


And then came to the realization that this entire band is made up of eyelet stitches as well. (Fabric: Picture This Plus in Legacy 40 count, using the charted AVAS fibers).


So mid-week, to take a little break, I started "Town House Sampler" by Brenda Keyes of The Sampler Company. I'm using my favorite go-to fabric (again, PTP in Legacy, 40 count), and I did a little conversion from the DMC to silks--a combination of AVAS and NPI from my stash. I'm happy to say there are no eyelet stitches in this sampler! It's also not huge, as you can tell from my progress of not quite a week.



And here we have ten pounds of bun in a five-pound box. Just before I shot this I saw little Peaches try to squeeze herself into this box as well. There just wasn't room, so she went off to the corner to pout.

Peaches is happier now; I went out into the garden and gathered some salad for the bunnies.


Happy week ahead!

Madonna of the Trail

Greetings, all, and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! I had occasion to go to Bethesda on Friday. I do not care for the escalator at the Bethesda Metro (although Dupont Circle is worse)--too steep. I cling to the railing on the way down, not skipping down the stairs as I see many doing (some wearing stilettos or flipflops). I walk up without fear, eyes forward, not imagining my demise, but I don't like the downward trip at all.


Right outside the Metro stop is this statue, placed by the DAR in 1929, to commemorate the mothers who ventured on the trail west. There are 12 such statues between Maryland and California, although only Maryland's faces east. Lost already? Reluctant? This statue sits right on Wisconsin Avenue, facing an Indian restaurant across the street, cars whizzing past.


I picked up and put down lots of projects in the past couple of weeks. Here is Essamplaire's Sarah Hatton McPhail. It just goes on and on, however much I stitch, but I don't begrudge a single thread, because it's really fun to work on. I added to the right-most rose and the tan alphabet at the top.


And Dorothy Walpole. Such a pretty sampler, but like the Bethesda Metro, it goes down and down and down. I can't wait to get to the large area of flowers at the bottom, and away from the eyelet-stitched alphabets.


We lost our kitty, Little Friend, two weeks ago, to a long illness. We miss her terribly. She had belonged to another family in our former neighborhood, but that family just moved away without her. She sat patiently on their step for weeks, which broke our hearts. We began feeding her and eventually moved her inside.


Little Friend must have whispered in this guy's ear on the way out. He showed up at the door the day after she died. We have been feeding him--he consumes a huge amount of food, but he's quite the scaredy cat.


Perhaps these guys look in the door and see this piece of needlework hanging in the foyer:


Here's little Peaches, waving hello, getting ready for her pedicure.
Peaches: "Heeeeellllpppppp Meeeeeeeeee!"


Happy week ahead!