Gingerbread House Sampler

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I have started a new project. I know, I know. I have several WIPs already. But the deer in the woods is just not fun to work on, and A Summer Ball is quite challenging (and huge). I wanted to work on something that I could complete in the next couple of months, and have fun working on at the same time. I chose this gingerbread houses wall hanging from issue 141 of Cross Stitch Gold magazine. This pattern was designed by Durene Jones, and is just so adorable. There is no backstitching, no fractionals, and only a handful of french knots. The entire chart is done in only 7 colors, and has large blocks of one color. I have not worked on it much yet, just a couple of hours over the weekend, and I already have a good portion of one of the houses done. Photos to come!

This was not one of the projects I had in my “to do” pile. I really did want to start on either the colorful butterflies or the red headed mermaid. But I didn’t have the right fabric for the mermaid, and this chart seemed so much easier than either of them. Bigger, possibly, but with a lot less color changes and counting. And although I am not a huge fan of gingerbread cookies or cutesy things like this in general, I just knew I had to make this wall hanging when I saw it! I especially adore the green pom pom trim at the bottom.

XXX
Carrie


A Summer Ball is available again!

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I’m pleased to announce that A Summer Ball is once again available for purchase! Sandy Littlejohns and Deborah Lester have put the pdf version online for purchase through their Facebook Page, Cross Stitch Arts. The cost is £5.00, which is about $6.50 US. I think this is an exceptional deal, since I spent at least double that when it was offered before.

I have started working on this chart again, although it is slow going because I am working with white floss on white fabric, and even with the gridding the counting is difficult. I am at the edge of two pages, and I am trying to finish up those pages but also looking ahead to the next set of pages to make sure I don’t neglect a few stitches of white on them. I would hate to have to go back and fill in a few stitches here and there when I could have just done it now.

Please note that this version may vary slightly from the pattern that was in the magazine, because it is the “designer’s own version”. I am guessing it is the same version that I purchased, though. This is probably just a little technicality to be able to publish the design a second time, and there probably isn’t much difference from the original.

XXX
Carrie

 


Not enough hours in the day

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There hasn’t been much time for stitching lately. Once again, my husband and I are the volunteer librarians for our daughter’s school. This involves coming in every week to help 11 classrooms check books out, check in the books that come back, shelve the books that have been checked in, and keep up on overdue books and fines. Today is the end of the first full week of library duty. Overall, it has gone quite well, but I am exhausted! I have also been trying to figure out what to do with my daughter for Girl Scouts. For the last two years she has had commitments on the day that they had their meetings, so this would be her first year to join. It would also be the final year for Brownies. The troop that she was assigned to has a lot of members, ranging from 2nd grade through 7th. I guess last year they didn’t do a whole lot in terms of earning badges, and some of the other moms have thought about starting another troop just for 2nd and 3rd graders. I would love to help with that, but I certainly can’t be the leader, and I’m worried that none of the other moms will be able to find the time to do it either. So at the moment we are at a stand-still, although we have already paid this year’s membership dues. My daughter is so anxious to start, and keeps asking when the first meeting will be. I am also the chapter librarian for our local DAR chapter, which is keeping me busy. By the time you add in cleaning house and taking care of the kids, that doesn’t leave much time for my actual, paying job! And of course, cross stitch is absolutely last on the list, sadly. But I did manage to get in about 30 minutes yesterday on A Summer Ball, and have finished the man’s white pants. I have only a little bit left to do to have two full pages completed! That means I will be 1/5 of the way done with the chart. Yikes, that sounds impossible. I have also just received issue 141 of Cross Stitch Gold which has an adorable Gingerbread house sampler, and a Victorian Christmas scene. I know I will regret saying this later, but sometimes I wish my kids would hurry and finish growing up so I can retire and do nothing but stitch all day. Of course, that will probably never happen, and if it does I will be wishing that my kids were little again. But that’s life, I suppose.

XXX
Carrie


Deer In The Woods

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After finishing my last project, I decided to tackle the Deer In The Woods again. I have not worked on this in almost a year, and it was started several years before that. The shades of green and brown are not only boring to stitch, but difficult. Yet I want to get this one over with so I can start on something new. In a few days time, I managed to complete the last of the trees and started on the grass.

The grass is proving especially difficult, so after working on it a bit I decided to put it away again in order to work on A Summer Ball. In a couple of weeks I will go back to the deer and hopefully finish it up. Then I will finally allow myself to start on something new.

XXX
Carrie