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


What a Find!

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bear

Yesterday while out for a walk we spotted a garage sale where everything was free. There wasn’t much left, as it had probably been quite picked over before we got there. But imagine my surprise when I found a box full of cross stitch goodies! There were a couple dozen leaflets from back in the 1980s, some folded up pieces of Aida, and even a finished, framed piece. I could tell by looking at it that it was a Stoney Creek design. Of course, I grabbed anything cross stitch related and went home to check out my new treasures. The framed piece was taped to a piece of cardboard and then put in a cheap frame with a broken piece of glass. I removed the stitched piece and will wash it, and then I will reframe it and hang it in my shop. I did a quick search on Google for “Stoney Creek cross stitch teddy wheelbarrow” and found the book it came from – Teddy Treasures, Book 158.

Another finished piece came from the booklet Something Special in Plaids and Monograms by T&N Designs Inc, Book 4. Copyright 1982! Ironically, it is a finished pillow cover with the name James, which is my husband’s name! But the date, 1991, means nothing to me. I have no idea what I will do with this. I am not sure if it was meant to commemorate the birth of a child, or to represent a last name.

james

There was a barely started piece from the book Country Barnyard which I think I will just cut up and save the smaller unstitched parts for other projects. It is not my style, so I won’t bother finishing it. But the Aida is in good shape and should be fine after a quick washing.

There was another barely started piece, a sampler, which I actually would finish and frame, but the chart was just a photocopy and I actually don’t think it is all there. The top of the piece is the end of the alphabet, and no top border design. I have no idea what the piece is called, and could not find it when searching Google. I think I will post a picture of it on Facebook and see if anyone knows what it is.

sampler

The last piece has a good amount done on it and I can tell it was stitched on Smoketone Aida. It is a sampler with an alphabet, some waves, and lightning. At first I could not find anything like it in Google, and then I decided to search for a Noah’s Ark sampler. It turns out that not only do the waves and lightning represent Noah’s Ark, but that the pattern was with the leaflets I got! It is the cover piece from Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine, Jan/Feb 1987. The magazine is in such bad shape, I didn’t even realize the pattern was there all along until I saw the images on Google. At first I thought I might finish this one, but now that I know what it is, I doubt that I will. It is a huge project and I just don’t have time to work on something like this. It is also done on fabric much darker than the magazine sample, and the pastel colors kind of get lost. I think I will probably cut the excess fabric off of this one, too.

noah

I don’t know the woman who owned these charts or stitched pieces, or why someone was giving them away for free at a yard sale. I do know that they had belonged to a woman named Julie Ziegler. I found a birthday card with her name on the envelope, and inside it was signed Jeremy, Jessica, and Travis (her children, I presume). The card came with “birthday coupons” for things like breakfast in bed and a day of housecleaning. None of them had ever been used. There was also a photocopied recipe with her name at the top. Perhaps she died, or just couldn’t see well enough to stitch anymore. Maybe her children had no idea what the items were. But I feel good knowing that at least one of her pieces will be “rescued” and put back up on the wall.

Also included in this set of goodies was a couple of small kits and a Dimensions stocking kit. It has been opened, but all of the materials are there and are in good shape. I don’t care for the design, and I don’t need to stitch another stocking anyway, but this will be a nice piece of fabric to add to my stash.

 

XXX
Carrie


His Name Is Jesus

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Done at last! I thought this would be a quick stitch but with kids, work, volunteering at school, physical therapy and exercise, it just didn’t happen. I finally finished this today. It needs to be washed and ironed, and then I am going to check out Hobby Lobby for a frame and mats, and will do the actual framing myself.

hisname

I did change the word “saviour” to “savior”, to be more American.

This pattern can be found here, for free: http://www.joyfulexpressions.us/HTML/FreePatterns.html

Now for my next project… I think I need to get my little hedgehog pincushion put together. And that deer in the woods is not getting finished just sitting in a drawer. That might need to be a summer project, though, as the counting and similar colors are horrible. I desperately want to start on John Clayton’s pyramids. And it should be an easier project, with huge blocks of one color and extremely small amounts of backstitch. Time to look through my stash again and see what other treasures I have set aside that I forgot about!

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #12, Framed

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Willow Tree House Sampler, designed by Catherine Theron for Kreinik. Just Cross Stitch magazine, June 1999 issue. Stitched on 30 count linen with Kreinik Silk Mori for the cross stitch and Northern Lights silk for the grass. I did change the color of the lettering and house door and shutters because I did not have the right color on hand.

willow1

I am really pleased with how this piece was finished. I found the frame at Hobby Lobby, on clearance for $3. It doesn’t have any hanging hardware, so I will have to add some. For now, I will display it propped up on my dresser.

I used acid free foam board and silk pins to mount the stitching:

willow2

willow3

willow4

Then I used pearl cotton to lace the back.

willow5

willow5b

I then added two more layers of foam board to fill in the extra space, and finally glued kraft paper to the back.(I didn’t take a photo of the kraft paper)

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I normally don’t take this much care with my framing. Actually, most projects I finish don’t even get framed – they end up in a box with all of the others. Now that my walls are pretty much filled up, I like the therapeutic value to stitching more than just making something to decorate the home!

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #12

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Finally done! I was afraid the slanted stitch on the grass would take forever, because it is over 1 thread. But it actually went a lot faster than I expected. I am really pleased with how this turned out. And just in time! We leave for Disney World in a few days and then it is back home to Michigan.

willowtreesampler

The color is a bit off from my camera, and it is badly wrinkled. I will have to wait until I get home to wash, iron, and frame this piece.

XXX
Carrie


Nearing the End

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virtue

I finally got back to working on this project. The last bit of cross stitch (the pink flowers) went very quickly. Now the only thing that remains is the grass. And there is a LOT of it! After Labor Day the kids go back to school, so hopefully I will have more time to stitch then. All summer we have been so busy doing things, stitching has been put on hold. Today, for instance, we went to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida and watched the Blue Angels practice. Next week we will be at Disney World. I need some stitching time!

XXX
Carrie



Slow Progress

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Progress has been slow on this willow tree sampler. I got my braces on Wednesday and so my teeth have been hurting for the last 4 days. I haven’t felt much like stitching, but here is what I have done since my last post. The roof was really difficult. I am using two strands of Silk Mori even though the directions call for one, because I am using a different count fabric (28 instead of 32). The roof is not done in cross stitch, but a slanted stitch. It turned out really well and definitely gives the look of real shingles. But it was difficult to find the holes in the fabric on all of the partial stitches. The grass is also going to be done in this stitch, but worked all the way across, not start and stop every few stitches like the roof. So that will be a lot easier. The colors on this are a bit different from what the pattern called for, but it was what I had on hand. I didn’t want to order more colors when I had some that were good enough.

willowtree2

XXX
Carrie


So Little Time…

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Wow, so much has been going on lately, I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off! My two favorite men (my hubby and father) have been replacing the roof on my store. On Tuesday they worked from 7:45 a.m. until 9:45 p.m. Hubby came home for a can of ravioli for lunch and then skipped dinner. Wednesday and Thursday they quit at dinner time, I think from sheer exhaustion. This roof was probably close to 100 years old, and had layer upon layer that had to be ripped off. I am hoping they get done today because tomorrow is probably going to be the last day without rain. Actually, while they were working it started to snow. Yes, I said SNOW.

I have been going to the orthodontist since November to try to address my major TMJ issues. In January I got a bite splint which makes me look really weird, and for the first few weeks I couldn’t talk very well. But I was amazed at the results. My headaches disappeared, as did my sinus pain. My earaches went away and I actually got the hearing back in my left hear. I could walk up and down the stairs or around the grocery store without my knees killing me. I could sleep at night. And I was finally able to eat again. I had lost about 9 pounds, which is not a good thing on an already skinny person. Now that I have had the device in 24/7 for 4 months, we decided to continue with braces. I go next Wednesday to get them on my lower teeth only, so that I can still wear the bite splint on my top teeth. So running to the orthodontist for bite splint adjustments, x rays, impressions, and consultations has really eaten up a lot of my time.

It’s just about the end of the school year, which brings about lots of excitement and stress at the same time. The kids are excited that they only have 10 full days and 2 half days left, but I am stressing about their fighting which will start up about 5 minutes after they are forced to be together on the first day of vacation. I am not sure how I will handle that all summer long. Next year they will be in separate schools, which will probably make our routine even harder than it is this year.

We have also been making plans for the summer, which include going to DISNEY WORLD! This will be my son’s 5th trip and my daughter’s 4th. It will also be our longest trip by far. Normally we do 3 or 4 days, and the last time we went we did 5 days because Disney gave us the 5th day for free when booking a 4 day trip. This time around we will be in the park for 7 days! My daughter’s birthday is the middle of August and our trip will be right after that, and we will get home just a few days before school starts up again.

I have been stitching a little bit each night, but not taking progress photos. My current project is one I kitted up last summer, so it is technically from my stash.It is worked entirely in silk, which I had not used before. But I am finding that the Kreinik Silk Mori is a dream to work with. It doesn’t knot as bad as DMC, and it glides through the fabric (I am stitching on linen). The pattern is from an old issue of Just Cross Stitch, which I found at a thrift store. After deciding to stitch it, I found that issue on my Just Cross Stitch DVD which has 10 years of issues (see my previous blog post). I was able to print the pattern out so that I could cross off my stitches as I go and not ruin my physical copy of the magazine. I LOVE these DVDs!

house1Here is my slow progress from the past couple of weeks. Maybe since it is a holiday weekend (and my birthday!) I will get some well deserved stitching time in the next few days.

house2

XXX
Carrie


Reader, I married him.

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janeeyre1

Ah, one of the most well known lines in the history of English literature: Reader, I married him. I have been alternating between the Christmas stocking and gridding the Summer Ball project, and was getting bored with both. Luckily I finished the fabric gridding over the weekend, but I wasn’t ready to get back into the stocking yet. I had this project kitted up for a while, from a free pattern I found online. I decided to start on it, and it is going along nicely. The quote, of course, is from Jane Eyre.

XXX
Carrie



Time for this stitcher’s name!

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All of the regular stitching is done on this, including the white borders that were so hard to do except in sunny daylight. All that is left is the stitcher’s name and date. I looked through my family tree on ancestry.com and found several women who could have made a sampler like this, and then just had to decide which one to use. In the end, I decided on Margaret Winzenried, my second great grandmother on my mother’s side. I had wanted to use Elizabeth Feaster, also a second great grandmother, but she was born in Virginia. I looked at antique samplers from the time period in that area of the country, and they were quite different from this design. On the other hand, Margaret (Maggie) was born in Ohio and samplers from there often had simple alphabets like this one. If I find a suitable sampler with a large brown house on it, perhaps I can stitch that one for Elizabeth. (Google antique samplers Virginia and you will see what I mean.)

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This sampler looks like it is already well worn, but it is actually just due to taking the picture late at night! The shadows aren’t there in the actual piece. When I am done I will have some distressing to do to it. Unfortunately, the fabric was so badly wrinkled that when I wet it to iron it, most of the “staining” came out. This would have been the perfect already-distressed fabric if that had not happened. I was given the fabric from an acquaintance, so I don’t know what it cost her. I do know, however, that R&R Reproductions fabrics don’t come cheap. When I use the rest of it, I will have to remember not to wet it when ironing.

XXX
Carrie



Making Progress

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sampler5I have finally been able to get some work done on this sampler. We have had such a long winter, and even today – April 27 – we still have snow. But the last few days have actually seen some sun, and it has made working on this project easier. The white stitches on the beige fabric were really testing my eyesight in the dark days we had previously. I still have not figured out what name I will put on the sampler, so I have started working up from the center and I will leave the bottom portion with the name for last.

XXX
Carrie


Jane Austen Inspired Samplers

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Lately I have been spending my evenings watching episodes of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice on Netflix. Today I was curious whether there were any cross stitch samplers devoted to these two books, and I found a website for The Stitching Parlor Inc, which designs antique-looking samplers. There are quite a few that are based on Jane Austen novels: Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. I know I wouldn’t have time to complete even one of these immense samplers right now, but as one of my suppliers distributes charts from The Stitching Parlor, I think they may be next on my list to order for the shop.

The Daughters of Longbourn

The Daughters of Longbourn

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy of Pemberly

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy of Pemberly

A Ball at Netherfield

A Ball at Netherfield

Mr. Collins Abode

Mr. Collins Abode

Rosings

Rosings

So maybe you can’t dine at Rosings twice a week like Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, but you can stitch it to hang on your wall. The Stitching Parlor doesn’t seem to have any Bronte-inspired samplers, but I will keep looking!

XXX
Carrie



Too many ABCs

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sampler3

My 4 year old informed me that I was stitching this all wrong. When I asked what she meant, she said “you already stitched all of the ABCs”. True, I had already stitched the entire alphabet once. Why was I doing it again? She will probably be shocked to see how many alphabets this thing ends up with when it is finished.

I haven’t been able to do much stitching lately. We went on a wonderful trip to Disney World during the kids’ Spring Break, and when we got home there was the usual unpacking to do plus lots of catching up work-wise. I am still not completely done, and we have been home for 6 days. But the trip was so worth it. We have been to Disney before, but this time we stayed an extra 2 days longer than usual. We are already talking about when we will get to go back. Whenever it is, it won’t be soon enough for me.

Today marks the start of the weekend and I am hoping I can get some major Spring Cleaning done in the next couple of days. My daughter doesn’t have preschool on Fridays, so she was home today. This meant that I couldn’t get any work done, so cleaning was about all I could do. I washed the kitchen floor and the cleaned the cabinets, and got caught up on laundry, vacuuming, dusting, and dishes. Tomorrow I tackle the bathrooms. The windows will have to wait, since we still have snow and they are calling for another 8 inches in a couple of days. Yes, I realize that it is the middle of April. That doesn’t mean much in Michigan. And the day the snow is all gone, we will have to turn on the A/C! That day can’t come quickly enough…

XXX
Carrie



Starting Out

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sampler1

I am really enjoying this 1884 sampler. It is fun and relaxing to stitch, just as a project should be. I know it looks like I made a mistake, but I didn’t. It is kind of weird to see a sampler from the 1880s without a J, though. Usually samplers before 1800 were the ones made using the old alphabet. I’m not sure exactly why this one has omitted it, but I love older samplers and will be changing the stitcher’s name and date anyway. I’m thinking of sometime in the early 1800s, but I have to scour my family tree on ancestry.com to see who this sampler should be named after. I think she will have to have had a short name, in order for it to fit into Flora’s design!

XXX
Carrie


1884 Flora Dellow Sampler

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sanqThis is the sampler that caught my eye in the current issue of Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly. It only contains two colors, cream and red, and is a pretty straightforward project. Something I have always wanted to do was to have a huge stash of stitched reproduction samplers, all with one of my ancestors’ names in place of the original. Each sampler would be stitched on linen, of course, and I would try to “age” it by tea dying and snipping holes in the fabric here and there. I have never had time to actually follow through with this plan, though. And I rarely find a sampler that really speaks to me. Most samplers have motifs of people, trees, birds, and crowns. I actually prefer samplers that contain only alphabets or sayings. This Flora Dellow sampler might be just the project to start on after my current project is finished. I could stitch this on a scroll frame, and at the same time be working on the petal pincushion pieces. I like having different sized projects on the go at the same time.

XXX
Carrie