The Last Supper

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I was recently able to visit my parents at their home, for the first time in 3 years. While there I got to see the beautiful Last Supper picture that my mother stitched (from a Leisure Arts booklet). I had seen it as a work in progress but then we went into lockdown and couldn’t visit. I think the framing she chose compliments it wonderfully!


What is This Pattern?

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You never know what you will find while in a thrift store! Recently I was visiting my parents, and we went to a church-run thrift store. I found a scroll frame in a bag, along with several finished cross stitched pieces. The bag was all stapled shut, so I could not see exactly what was inside. But the parts seemed to be all there, and the price was great, so I decided to take a chance. Back at my parents’ house, I opened the bag and found that the frame was not only all there, but it was a tabletop/lap model, and included three sets of scroll rods in different sizes. Score! I can pretty much only stitch hands free now, and I have not been able to find additional rods for my lap frame (it was made by a handiman, not a major company). But what I was really taken with was this half finished design of yellow roses. There were other designs in the bag, completed and partially completed, but I threw them out. Most of them were stained badly, and the only one that wasn’t was just not to my taste at all. But these roses are beautiful, and expertly stitched. The stitcher put a basting thread down the middle of all of the pieces she did, which I thought was interesting. I might have to try that sometime. I did a Google search for yellow roses cross stitch patterns and even tried to search with my image, to no avail. I’m not sure why this piece was never finished, or why it and the frame and other pieces were thrown in a bag and donated. Perhaps the stitcher died, or could not see to cross stitch any more. Even though I don’t know who she/he is, I would love to give this a home on the wall.

If you know what this pattern is, please let me know! I would love to finish it.

XXX
Carrie


Some Beautiful Finds

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Every year our local Boy Scouts have a Labor Day “yard sale”, where every item is donated and you pay for things on a donation basis. This year we got there just as the gates opened, and after checking out the book section (which was disappointing compared to previous years) I decided to see what kind of frames they had. I always have projects needing to be framed, and I was delighted with the frames I found this year. But what I immediately noticed, and could not pass up, were two framed pieces of completed stitchery. They appeared to be in great condition, and I couldn’t bear the thought of these countless hours of work being thrown away at the end of the weekend (sadly, anything that is not purchased is either recycled or trashed at the end of the last day). One of the pieces was small but contained a ton of beading, and appears to be worked on canvas. The back of the frame was professionally done with kraft paper and a hanging wire. The other project, a blackwork design done in all brown and gold was framed very poorly. The fabric was simply folded over the cardboard backing from a cheap frame, then inserted into the frame with glass on the front. When I took it out, it was rusty around the edges and there were actually a few bugs trapped between the fabric and the cardboard. I soaked this piece in a warm water and a drop of dishwashing liquid, and the water immediately turned yellow. I don’t think this is from the floss bleeding, but from the grime and rust on the piece. Perhaps the owner was a smoker. Here is a picture of the piece right out of the wash, wrinkles and all.

A query on a Facebook stitching page led me to believe that this piece was a correspondence course through the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. Sure enough, I was able to find that it was designed by Judith Logan and was from about 1990. The tile of the course was Blackwork is Fun! The main outlines are the same for everyone, but a Google images search shows that each individual personalized their design with blackwork filling patterns of their own choosing.

My search for good bargains also turned up a good sized stack of cross stitch fabric. Some pieces were large, some were small. There was Aida and linen and evenweaves, in all colors and counts. When I finally sat down to look at everything this afternoon, I was shocked. In the stash were two completed pieces, all folded up. One was definitely a Hinzeit pattern, because of the block lettering and charms. I did a quick Google search and found that although it is now out of print, the last price on it was $19 for the chart and charms!

There was also a large piece of an eagle, soaring with wings spread open. Sadly, I had no way of knowing who the designer is. But then I uploaded a picture of it (right out of the wash bowl!) and found that it was a chart by Cross My Heart Inc, from their book Majestic Birds of Prey. This project took a long time to stitch, and I can’t believe someone would just toss it away like that. It does have some rust marks along the edges, but they can either be cut off or, worst case scenario, they will not show when the project is framed.

I will iron these projects and then get better pictures.

XXX
Carrie


Friends Forever – UFO #1

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I have decided that I have way too many unfinished projects, and I am going to be strict and not allow myself to start anything new until most of these are completed. So I went through my stash and picked out a couple things to work on. This Santa and snowman banner is not actually one of my cross stitch pieces; I believe it was in with the inventory of a shop that I purchased. The chart was with it, and the only thing left to be done was the black beads on the snowman’s face, the snowflakes (made from seed and bugle beads) and the finishing. So I worked on this over the weekend and am pleased with how it turned out.

banner

Sorry for the bad photo, I took it with my iPod and the quality is pretty low. I will take a better photo once I get it hung up, closer to Christmas. I am so glad I didn’t have to do the actual stitching on this; the blue fabric was really hard to work with. I had to keep holding it up to the lamp to see where the holes were to attach the beads.

And here is the “before” photo, which I had shown you several months ago on another post. You’ll notice that the jingle bell I used on Santa’s cap is bigger than in the photo that came with the chart – it was all I had on hand. And there were no charms for either side of the word “friends”, so I just left them off.

friendsforever

XXX
Carrie


Whirligig Santa

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Here is another project I found amongst some linen fabrics at a thrift store. Not much has been done on it, but I think I will try to finish it up at some point. If the items I found are from someone who passed away, I like to think that they would be happy that someone finished them after their family members got rid of their stash. And if it was just from someone who got bored with the project and decided to do some spring cleaning, oh well.

XXX
Carrie


Friends Forever

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This is another project I found somewhere, can’t recall where. I have no idea who stitched it. But it will go in my “to finish” pile, since it is so close to being done. All that’s left is some charms and beaded snowflakes, and then the ends have to be finished off with a tassel and the hanger. Super cute! We STILL have snow, so I am thinking it is definitely not too soon to be thinking Christmas! 

XXX
Carrie