Another Bin O Shame Finish!

I finished this up moments ago. Another one that was started then set aside from the Bin O Shame. This makes the third one this year. Go me! Now I don't feel so bad about starting Maleficent, haha! 


Well, at any rate, here it is! 

Design: Adeline Ogier 1873 (Collection Privee)

Designer:  GiGi R

Fabric: unknown 32 count cream linen

Fiber Used: Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors  #194 Aged Plum

Stitcher's Notes: Part of the charity event Ricami Amo per l'Emilia in 2012. Stitched only part of the design as I truly did not feel like stitching either the border or the alphabet. :)

In other news, if rumor be true, tomorrow my favorite hockey player of all time, Martin Brodeur , will be announcing his retirement. I was hoping to see him play one more time before he hung up his skates for good, but alas, this is not to be. I wish him well and thank him for all that he has contributed to the sport I love so dearly. 

Well, I best be off. Need to clean up the area and find something for lunch. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Small Quaker Finish

Woohoo! Another finish from the Bin O' Shame pile. I am happy with the way this one turned out. There is a really elaborate border that surrounds the piece, but this time I decided to leave it off as I could not get it lined up properly and as I used silk thread on this project, I decided that I did not feel like clipping that much money away every time I had to frog! 

I cannot remember where I received this piece, whether from another stitcher or as part as an online order. I *can* tell you that sadly, Jackye Derhay Renahy of A Mon Ami Pierre stopped designing and closed her business in early 2014 due to folks sharing her charts illegally. I really do love her designs and broke my stash budget for many months trying to get as many as I could before she stopped designing. I have more of hers planned to stitch, but it will be a while (perhaps!) before I can get back to stitching her wonderful designs. 


Well, at any rate, on with the show! 

Design: Quaker Swan (retired freebie)

Designer:  Jackye Derhay Renahy of A Mon Ami Pierre (retired)

Fabric: unknown 32 count cream linen

Fiber Used: Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors  #1065 Independence Rain

Stitcher's Notes: There really wasn't a title for this piece, it's just what I named it. I will be stitching this again, so sadly, I will not part with my copy of the chart as of yet. Stitched one thread of floss over two fabric threads. 

Well, I best be off. I have to clean up my work area from the week and get together the next project, which will probably be another from the Bin O Shame. hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Block Two Finally Finished!

'Ray!!!! Finally!! I am so, so, soooooo happy that this block is finally finished. I set myself a goal that I was not allowed to work on Block Three any more (which I snuck in!), nor was I allowed to start any new projects, or even pick up anything from the Bin O' Shame and work on that until Block Two was finished. I am glad I stuck to my guns and saw it through. I think I am going to finish up Block three and then go on to the Bin O' Shame. I haven't decided yet, so I will see what tomorrow brings :). I knew that if I didn't put the spurs to myself, it would never get done. And I invested way too many nickels and dimes to just let this one sit!

I had a few issues with this block as the The Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors #035 Mint Frost at times would not 'seat' correctly in the fabric. I've had this happen with white and off white cottons and silks, where it refuses to 'sit' in the block and it looks a bit wonky. I picked out a lot of them and redid them to the best of my ability, however, there are places where the silk simply would not cooperate. At that point, I just threw my hands up and let it be. It's not like this piece is ever going to be shown at Woodlawn, so it's all good. :)


At any rate, enough of my blathering! Here are the before and after pics:

Design: Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow

Designer: Carriage House Samplings

Fabric: 40 count Picture This Plus Cashel linen in Legacy

Fibers Used: Needlepoint, Inc. silk flosses in 123, 124, 127, 128, 155A, 158, 159, 184A, 186, 204, 206, 241, 242, 244, 251, 293, 303, 313, 316, 331, 345, 401, 422, 473, 475, 512, 523, 524A, 526, 527, 548, 556, 587, 623, 636, 671, 692, 693, 694, 695, 722, 724, 725, 765, 767, 856, 867, 871, 902, 912, 928, 951, 957, 963, 972, 976, 982, 987, 991BB, and 993. The Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors #035 Mint Frost. 


Stitcher's Notes: Stitched a tiny 'W' for the gate. I let DH choose which house would be 'ours' in this piece and he really liked the house in block two over the one in block four. Letter taken from the book 

ABC Miniatures au point de croix by Françoise Prax for Marabout. 

Progress as of Friday, January 17, 2014 (without the 'W'): 

Progress as of today, Wednesday, January 29, 2013. (Finished block with the 'W' stitched on the gate):

Block Three progress as of Wednesday, January 29, 2013:

All three blocks:

Welp, I best be off. Have a rare extra night off of work tonight. DH will be out of work soon, and dinner will have to be taken care of. 

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Another Block Two Update

Haven't picked up Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow since last April, so I am pretty excited to see some progress on this piece. Block Two is taking FOR-EEEEEEEVVVVVVEEEEEERRRRRRRR. 42 rows of stitching 'snow' has me about half up a tree. I've decided to make a deal with myself that with every thread stitched on Block Three, I stitch two thread lengths of the Mint Frost in Block Two. That way, I am not bored to tears, and it gets taken care of. 


Here are the 'deets' as they say: 

Design: Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow

Designer: Carriage House Samplings

Fabric: 40 count Picture This Plus Cashel linen in Legacy

Fibers Used: Needlepoint, Inc. silk flosses in 123, 124, 127, 128, 155A, 158, 159, 184A, 186, 204, 206, 241, 242, 244, 251, 293, 303, 313, 316, 331, 345, 401, 422, 473, 475, 512, 523, 524A, 526, 527, 548, 556, 587, 623, 636, 671, 692, 693, 694, 695, 722, 724, 725, 765, 767, 856, 867, 871, 902, 912, 928, 951, 957, 963, 972, 976, 982, 987, 991BB, and 993. The Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors #035 Mint Frost. 

Well, here is my progress as of my last post, on April 16, 2013:

And here is my progress as of today, Friday, January 17, 2014: 

And a quick snap of both Blocks One and Two together: 

Well, I best be off. Got stuff to do before dinner and what all. Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Another Block Two Update And New Goodies!

It's cold and snowing off and on here (this despite the calendar date!), so I picked Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow back up. I discovered much to my dismay that the roof on the East Wing of the house was one row off and had to be completely frogged. So, I bit the bullet and frogged that section out and went on to other places in the piece that needed attending to. I haven't yet restitched the roof of the East Wing, simply because at the bottom of this block, it is ALLLLLLLLLLLL fill in with Thread Gatherer's Silk n' Colors Mint Frost.  As in 23 ROWS of it. And that's not including the fill in of the windows of the house with Needlepoint, Inc. 871, which is an off white. Needless to say, I am stitching the Mint Frost  right now while the mood is upon me. Proper pacing procedures are being followed, however, I do anticipate a time where I get disgusted with stitching with so much white and off white. 



At any rate, here is my progress so far:

Design: Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow

Designer: Carriage House Samplings

Fabric: 40 count Picture This Plus Cashel linen in Legacy

Fibers Used: Needlepoint, Inc. silk floss as charted

And now for the goodies that came in the mail yesterday. First up is a Maia cross stitch kit entitled My Fair Lady. It is based upon the artwork of Karen Dupré. The original piece was titled My Fair Lady IV. 

This second one needs no introduction. I have been looking for this one for forever now and every time it comes up on eBay, it's in the $100.00 range and above. I managed to snag this at a VERY reasonable price and was overjoyed when it came in the mail yesterday. It's by Midsummer Night Designs, and it's the much heralded Memorial Sampler: 

I am probably going to stitch both pieces on my beloved Legacy linen by Picture This Plus. I think both pieces would really 'pop' on that fabric. I am also seriously thinking of converting the Gentle Art Sampler Threads to silks, probably to either Belle Soie or Au Ver a Soie's Soie d'Alger. Or, I may stitch this on my 48 count Dower linen I recently snapped up and stitch it with Gloriana's Luminescence or Tudor Silk threads. Lots of decisions to make. Which, I think will probably boil down to availability and pricing (!) of materials. 

Well, I best be off. The Hubmeister will be here with lunch soon and I need to get my desk cleaned off of all this stitchy goodness. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Newness And An Apology

First off, an apology to my viewers out there in Blogland. I was a bit highly cranky the other day. I apologize for this. I realized quite after the fact that it was the 15 year anniversary of my father's passing and it's been almost 3 years since I lost the baby. That being said, I am putting all this out there as an explanation and not an excuse for my ranting about Webshots going to a full paid site.  It was uncalled for, and I do apologize. :)



This has led to a lot of soul searching. This post makes 295. With the vast majority of my photos being hosted on weak sauce Webshots, I really have no choice but to find another hosting site due to the site wanting to charge. It's the way of the world, I suppose, but that is still a lot of photos to re-upload onto another site and a LOT of posts to change all of the code on. So what I propose is this: Once Webshots takes all of the non-paid for photos offline, I will not redo the code on 290 posts, unless someone wishes to see the final product. If I stay unemployed and hit a level of boredom previously unknown, I do not see me changing the posts. But, never say never. I'll let the Universe decide that. :)


So, right now I am in exploratory phase of finding new photo hosting sites. I've tried Picasa and HATED IT. I am less than enthralled with Photobucket. I've used it twice in the last two posts and each time it was different. I'm sorry, guys. I'm getting to the point in my life where I do not like constant change. Upgrades are fine, but really, some of your beta testers need to be old folks. If they can't operate it, go back to the drawing board!


Any who, I've decided to test out Smug Mug. Yes, it's a paid for site, but the cheapest is 35 bucks a year and if DH says it's doable, then so be it. I've been playing around with it, and I really like it so far. We'll see how it goes once I start finishing things and what all. Never say never, let the Universe decide that. :)



Here is the latest project I started today during a Sex and the City marathon. Yes, it's so very late 90's of me, but honestly, it was just on for background and there wasn't my preferred SVU marathon on and Create was just not showing anything I wanted to see. 


Design: Quaker Swan freebie (the chart really doesn't have a title and this was gifted to me by another stitcher, so that's what I'm calling it! :P)


Designer: A Mon Ami Pierre


Fabric: 32 count Antique White Belfast linen by Zwiegart


Fiber Used: The Thread Gatherer Silk n' Colors #1065 Independence Rain


Stitchy Notes: One silk floss thread over two fabric threads

Well, that's all for now. It's late and I need to go to bed. Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)