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!

Easter Greetings!

I spent some time this week on a WIP--and I also started something new: "Dorothy Walpole" by the Scarlet Letter. I'm stitching it using AVAS (it's also charted for DMC) on 40 count Picture This Plus in Legacy. I love the PTP fabrics because they're substantial and the dying results in a particularly nice mottled appearance (which you can't tell from this close-up). The alphabets are mostly done in eyelet stitch. Interestingly, the alphabets make the sampler look Scottish, but it is Irish.


Here's Dorothy's chart.


This is Catharine McNeal 1843 by Samplers Revisted. I made some good progress this week, although the over-one section has slowed me down just a bit. This is being stitched on 36 count Picture This Plus also in Legacy, I think.


I have a concern though. Normally it's my policy not to frog unless it really bugs me or causes havoc with future stitching on the design. The windows should be done in rice stitch (the two-tone is correct on the left window, but I mistakenly stitched it in regular cross). Would you frog it and restitch in the rice stitch, which I correctly did on the right-hand window? There are several more windows, all of which should be done in rice stitch. Hmmmm. It does bug me a bit....


Here we have the Easter Bunny, investigating his treat basket. "Wait. Where are my treats?"

"No treats here! I'm throwing this thing around! And maybe moving out!"

"The Easter Bunny is very unhappy today and is going to make you pay!" Don't feel sorry for the bunny: the basket itself is the treat--it's made from Timothy Hay. And later on there will be fresh dandelions for dinner for all the rabbits.


Happy week ahead from the Grumpy Bunny and all his friends!

Bats in the Belfry

Happy Sunday, all! I crossed from spring into winter somewhere during Friday's grueling 11-hour drive here. Meet my mom, who will be 80 this year. We should all be in her physical condition at that age--I watched her literally run across a parking lot. May those be my dominant genes...


I was recruited to help with a spiff-up of my parents' church. Note the pipe organ on the right (the real kind with air--not digital). There were white streaks on the pipes. What is that, I asked innocently--some sort of oxidation? The cleaning crew leader laughed and explained that the church apparently has some resident bats, and they poo as they fly.


I loaded about six stitching projects into my car and have worked on two of them. Here's the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat (Carriage House):


And Liz Easdon (The Essamplaire):


I'm homesick and am missing my routine, my stuff, and my peeps including these guys (and Peaches too, of course). BF reports that the bunnies are having quite the party without me.


Happy week ahead!

Malasadas

Greetings, all! I've spent the day toiling in the yard and doing garden prep, so this will be short since I need a nap now! Why is it that working in the yard/garden always sounds like so much fun from the safety of one's desk, but in real life it's tedious and exhausting--and downright dangerous what with the brown recluse bite I got a few years ago.

Stitching is both safer and more satisfying. On Stitch Night last Wednesday at In Stitches I started this new design: "Roses de Mai" by Reflets de Soie.


It is charted for either Gloriana or AVAS; I'm stitching it using AVAS on 40 count Lakeside in vintage magnolia, one of my favorite Lakeside colors. And to those who wonder how many WIPs I have--well, I'm not really sure, since they're scattered around the house in various bags.


I indulged a little sweet tooth today, with a small batch of chunky peanut butter cookies (the recipe made seven cookies) from "Small-Batch Baking" by Debby Nakos. I highly recommend the book. All of the recipes make small desserts--layer cakes no bigger than an easy-bake oven cake, chocolate cream pies that fit a tart shell, a batch of brownies that yields just three treats. My cookies called for, among other things, just a bit more than 1/3 of a cup of flour, 1/3 of a cup of peanut butter, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter and roughly half an egg. Damage containment! What I have a craving for is a malasada (sort of a Portuguese donut) from the Portuguese Bakery in Provincetown, MA, which I intend to satisfy at the end of the week with a trip to the Cape. I'd also like a stuffed quahog and a cup of quahog chowder from the Green Harbor Fish Market. Mmmmm. I'll be heading out of here on Friday and posting pictures of all the fun stuff I eat.


Speaking of which, these are my parents, swiping some "wild" beach plums from a neighbor's back yard. My father appears to be the lookout. Bad enough to steal the neighbors' beach plums, but we drove to an upscale neighborhood and parked along a beach plum hedge when we went to visit a lighthouse a couple years back. My mother got that gleam in her eye; she loves free stuff. Mother, I said sternly, we are NOT helping ourselves to their beach plums! But they aren't using them, she protested, and we could make jelly! Typical Cape back yard--sand, scrub and the occasional dead fish deposited in the marsh. Some years ago I did a photgraphic study of the various decomposing fish in the marsh and posted them on my work bulletin board.


Pink: "I don't suppose you'll be taking the bunnies." *Sigh*.


Happy week ahead.

A Woolly Story

Hi, All! I stitched away on several samplers this week, but mostly it was nuts and bolts dull stuff--borders and more borders, filling in, stitching lots of leaves and vines--not much worth looking at really. But, I did start a little something new this week:

"A Woolly Story" by Homespun Elegance. It's a sweet piece with lots of writing, but I loved the sheep and the simplicity of it.

As always, I had to fiddle with the colors and did a conversion from the recommended GAST, WDW and DMC fibers to Silk n Colors. I'm stitching it on a mystery color of 40count Lakeside from my stash.


We have a big, noisy thunderstorm moving through, so off I go to disconnect. Happy week ahead, and hopefully you can spend time with a friend.

Binky!

I've been working like a fiend this week on my stitching. I've made some progress on Liz Easdon (The Essamplaire):


And started something new. This design is by Green Apple--Beatrix Potter's "Christmas Tree." I'm stitching it using DMC on a mystery piece of 32 count linen (whatever it is, it's very creamy and heavy) over one. I was inspired by the piece that someone had exhibited at the Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Show. They had stitched three Green Apple/Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit Christmas designs on a single piece of probaby 40 count fabric over one. It got a "best in show" ribbon, I believe. Stitching an entire design over one on 40 count is a bit much for me--no sense putting it away because it's too onerous to work on! I have the designs they stitched (from a single leaflet) on order, but since I had this, I just had to start it. It's pretty much a daylight-only project!


Here's the design. Nobody illustrated animals like Beatrix Potter. All of the rabbits remind me of Peaches, since she has the classic rabbit shape and coloration.


And speaking of rabbits, I was lucky enough to capture bunny joy last night. During bunny run-around time in the bedroom (so far still empty since yours truly has procrastinated on painting--goodness, but I hate to paint walls), the bunnies devised a game. First Elvis dashed around the box.


Pink headed him off, dashing in front of him.


Elvis binkied here--all four feet are off the ground--with the joy of the rabbit game they were playing.


Have a joyful week, and express it with a little leap in the air!

Essamplaire Sunday Progress--Liz and Liz

Hi, all! Just a quick drive-by since it's been a busy day, and tomorrow is shaping up to be the same. The colors in these photos are a bit light, but here are a couple of shots of my two Essamplaire starts:

Liz Couper:


And Liz Easdon:


Off I go! Pink, Elvis, Peaches and I wish you a happy week ahead!

We Represent the Lollipop Guild

Normally I post on Sundays, but yesterday was busy, so here I am today, with a couple of new starts that arrived in the mail last week. Both are by The Essamplaire.

This one comes as a kit and is called "Elizabeth Easdon." Although it came with fabric, I swapped it out for Lakeside from my stash in 40 count examplar. I am using the AVAS shipped in the kit.




Doesn't this look like a lollipop vine? I'm enjoying the border. I wanted to stitch this because of all of the yellows and golds. This came as a chart only, and I kitted it up with 40 count Lakeside vintage strawflower and the called-for AVAS.




Pink likes to hang out under the recliner, so it's really important for us to lower the chair very s-l-o-w-l-y.


Happy week ahead, and many thanks, Erin, for finding the name of the Beatrix Potter chart I was looking for. I'm ordering it and will show it when it arrives.

Happy week ahead.

Sampler Sunday

Just a quick one, since I'm getting ready to head out to In Stitches in a bit, to work this afternoon. Here's a peek at Mary Ann Gollins. She's coming along nicely:


And I started Amy Breucken's April Lilybell Sampler. It's a fun little start, and the WDW 30 count fabric makes it a very relaxing stitch. (Two over two--something I never do.) The fabric, in "Morris Blue," is soft, but not floppy, and nicely dense. I love the little belly button on Lilybell.


I'm enjoying it so much that I'm going to do the May Rosebud sampler also. ("Rosebud is pretty but prickly.") I have the perfect color of Lakeside (left), but it's 40 count, and I'm thinking I should buy the called-for pink WDW so I can hang them together and so the buttons and beads are the right scale.


Oh, and a question I had last week about sharing my conversions for projects that I'm working on. Absolutely--I'm happy to. I'm a bit disorganized and don't always write down my colors as I convert on the fly, but I'll take a look at Ann and her project bag and write down my conversion a little later this week and email anyone who wants it. If you want it, just leave me an email address in my comments. The same with Mary Ann Gollins, which I'm converting. Bear in mind that I'm not completely true to the DMC chart because I adjust based on the fabric color (no sense having threads fade into the background), what I have in my stash and whether I want to dial the intensity up or down. Just my taste

Peaches: "I am pretty but prickly too." Yes, that's true; Peaches Prefers that you don't Pet her, although she's always eager to touch you with her nose and then run off. That's love from Peaches. Pink will sit next to you, getting closer and closer until he's almost in your lap, and present his head to be rubbed. And Elvis, unless he's in a mood, will let you rub his head and scritch his bottom, and then run in circles around you, honking gently, the only noise any of the bunnies ever makes.


Happy week ahead!