September Update

JA beautiful for stitching outside. My current Charland Designs band sampler. This is my second one. I have 4 or 5 more. Next up will be the Welsh one. 

And tonight I finished mu Cooper Oaks Swan. Next up, pillow finishing. Not by me, I pay a professional. 

Canadian Primitive #3

 

This little pulled work band is killing me. I can go all the way down and back before I see my mistake. Oof. But it's pretty. 

September and the Light Changes

 Because of a blogger, I discovered the Bloggess right before she wrote about the big metal chicken. I still read Jenny today and purchase her books. And try to absorb some of her hard learned lessons. So today Amazon brought me my first light therapy box.

Because I know I suffer from seasonal affective disorder. I can tell even in August that the light is changing. We'll see if this helps.

On the stitching front, I finished a gift piece. No photos allowed. And I wasn't feeling inspired to pick up any of my current works in progress.

Because I have been organizing (yet again) this Charland Designs sampler popped up. I did not have the right colors of Flower Thread so I'm substituting DMC Linen Thread. I hope this works for the pulled work.

I love these little Charland samplers. Fun stitches, not too big so I don't get bogged down. 

Continuing my UFO Tour

 When does something lose WIP status and become a UFO?

Maybe when you can’t remember the last time you worked on it? 

I started this project in 2006. It’s the Tsunami Charity Sampler from SANQ. Designed by Martina Dey. I was attracted to right from the start. I spent a lot of time changing my threads from silks to overdyed cottons. Everything in here is Gentle Arts or Crescent Colors. The linen is 32ct Magnolia by Picture This Plus.

That motif on the left is the halfway point. I’ve got more than half left to stitch. But there’s no time like 2021!

Threads

What's available now? Anchor Tapestry Wool and six stranded floss. 
Where?This is my local Michaels. I hear JoAnn's has the floss, too, but haven't confirmed it for myself yet. 

35th Anniversary Sampler

 My eyes. They gave out on me in 2019. I was scheduled for cataract surgery because of an oil drop cataract. Couldn't focus my right eye. Surgery canceled because of Covid-19. But miraculously my eye got better. I could and still can see.

One of the things I was working on was the hemstitching on my EGA anniversary sampler. This was stitched by July 2018. But the hemstitching I was working on in 2019. It's 29ct Glenshee and I am using DMC Floche for the hemstitching.

So today I removed 8" with the worst mistakes. And I started back down the long side.

I was doing this outside sitting by the bay talking with my sister.

Black and White

Catching up with a busy month. Here's some progress on a pilot class our EGA chapter had with Terri Bay. 

In person, eight intrepid stitches met for the first time since Covid-19 began. We were almost giddy. 

Terri is a joy as a teacher. Informative, organized, prepared, and professional. 

It's Ukrainian whitework and blackwork. I have completed 6 diamonds. Twelve to go. 

 

Framed

Beach Dance by Lindy Stitches back from the framers. And by the way, my framers are Total Framing in Fairfax. Always a pleasure to work with them and have them protect my needlework heirlooms. 

 

Unearthed

I was organizing in June and found this. A Jiffy needlepoint kit from 1992. Probably finished in 1992. 

It's on interlock canvas with wool and floss. Because of the interlock, I lost track of my direction more than once, giving me lines in my background thread. 

I've always had a thing for blue and white. 

Now what do I do with it? 
 

Look, A Finish

 Because my Mystery Sampler is on a scroll frame, I didn't take it with me on Memorial Day when we took a short road trip to Antietam. Instead I grabbed my O Canada Sampler by The Victoria Sampler.

Started in 2011, I think. I modified this to be an homage to my ancestors who relocated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia when the British brought in people to replace the evicted Acadians.  They arrived in 1761, thus the 250 in the sampler.

I changed some stuff on this one. Didn't have a good color of pearl #12 so I used floche which was then too thick to do the satin stitch so I designed a cross stitch band.