First Finish Of 2018

Greetings, stitch fans! I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Mine was extra busy and jam packed as I am sure everyone else's was choc-a-block. 

It has taken me almost the entire month of January, but I have my first finish of 2018. It is a small finish, but it is a finish nonetheless. I am very happy that I have decided that I am only going to finish 12 projects this year. At this rate, I will be lucky to get the 12 per year unofficial goal obtained! 

Well, at any rate, here is the first finish of 2018!

Design: Let It Snow

Designer: Barbara Ana Astray Mendez of Barbara Ana Designs

Fabric Used: 28 count natural/raw opalescent Cashel linen by Zweigart 

Fibers Used: Anchor six strand embroidery floss in 02 and 103. Crescent Colours  cotton floss in Caterpillar and Pink Champagne. The Gentle Art Sampler Threads in 0570 Bittersweet, 7013 Green Apple, and 0880 Punchberry.

Accouterments: Mill Hill Magnifica beads in #10001 Ice. White pom pom from Joann Fabrics and Crafts. 

Stitchers' Notes: Substituted called for DMC for a conversion that I found many, many years ago. If I manage to remember where I found it, I will be happy to update this post in order to credit the stitcher that had the original piece. In the original conversion Cerise from Crescent Colours  cotton floss in was used, however, I substituted this substitution for Pink Champagne.  

Time for me to be off and away. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week. Happy stitching!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

It Is Done

At precisely 2 PM PDST, I finished up my oldest UFO. I had originally started this project three weeks before what would have been my father's 51st birthday. Pride goeth before a fall, and I foolishly thought that I could finish this up in time. On his birthday on Friday, August 29, 1997, I presented him with the following that was gaily wrapped up for him as he was a huge Civil War buff:

I apologized that I had not finished it in time and I was presenting him with half finished work. I promised him that I would have it finished as soon as I could. I was in September that we found out that he had pancreatic cancer. He went through the surgery in early October and had died on Thursday, October 23, 1997. In the almost 18 years since then I have rarely, if ever, touched this piece. It just plain hurt too much to stitch on it. Apparently, this has been the year for me to stitch through my grief issues, as I managed to get through the memorial sampler for our son a scant month ago. It's a lot to emotionally process, but I am smiling through the tears. :)

At any rate, here it is. 

Design: Faded Glory from Portrait of the Civil War Book #119 (an OOP booklet)

Designer: Jeanette Crews Designs

Fabric: 26 count undyed natural dirty linen

Fibers: DMC 347, 415, 762, 930, 931, and 3328


As of Wednesday, July 22, 2015:

As of Saturday, July 25, 2015:

Happiest of birthdays to you, daddy. There is not a day that goes by that I do not miss you. Remember that I love you.

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Respectfully submitted,

Your loving daughter, C. 

Happy Birthday, America!

This has always been one of my favorite versions of this song. I think folks can tend to over sing this song, so this is generally my preferred version. Although, for actual sung versions, it is very, VERY hard to beat the the U.S. Military Chorus, during the 2005 Superbowl. Chorus members from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Air Force Academy, Coast Guard Academy, and Naval Academy put aside their rivalries and performed a stunning rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

For whatever reason, I do not have a lot of patriotic themed stitching. I know I have a ton of it in my stash, however, for whatever reason, I have just never gotten around to stitching any of it. I rectified that yesterday, but getting out this design that I have wanted to stitch since it came out in 2013. Two years is a long time to wait to stitch something, but I found the perfect threads to stitch it and I am so pleased with the outcome. I should probably turn this into a stand up or maybe even a pinkeep. Since there are a lot of fabric sales this weekend, perhaps a wee stop somewhere would not be out of line. 

Welp, here it is, in all of its' stitched glory:

Design: Yankee Doodle Flag

Designer: Sandra Dering of SanMan Originals

Fabric Used: 28 count raw natural Cashel linen by Zweigart

Fibers Used: Crescent Colours cotton floss in Bamboo. Victorian Motto Sampler Shop floss in Limited Edition Wolfpack Red and Blue Devil Blue. 

Began: Thursday, July 2, 2015

Finished: Friday, July 3, 2015

Stitcher's Notes: This was either a Message Board freebie or this was a Secret Shop purchase. As it is a .pdf and not a hard copy chart, alas, it is not for sale. 

Well, I had best be off. I have some chores to attend to such as figuring out dinner and cleaning up my stitching area. I hope every has a wonderful 4th of July!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Another almost finish

This is another UFO that was part of the grab bag from the other day. It's almost finished, however, I have to wait for more floss to come in. I decided to stitch it with 2 strands of silk floss on 14 count aida, which resulted in having to order floss. These things happen and I don't regret stitching it on 14 count. I also ran out of the Teddy Bear and had to substitute Cinnamon Stick, since the Teddy Bear that I had was so far off it would NOT have matched at all. I think I did a fair job of blending the two in to where you can't tell where one left off and the other began. :)


The first in this series, Cappuccino, was stitched on a 14 count tan marble starlight aida from Sassy's Fabby's .  I have the last one in the series, Caffe Latte and I am thinking about stitching it on a 14 count Chocolate Raspberry to complete the coffee series on 14 count aida cloth. 


At any rate, here is my almost finish:


Design: Frappuccino


Designer: Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks


Fabric: 14 count aida in Beige


Fibers Used: Crescent Colours Belle Soie silk in Beanstalk, Carnation, Cinnamon Stick, Old Crow, Strawberry Shortcake, Teddy Bear, and Vanilla Pudding

I did manage to remove all of my pictures from Webshots, although it was a long a tedious process. They didn't make it easy on a person, but get them I did. I am toying with the idea of going through and uploading them directly to Blogger. It will take a looooooooooooong time, so that may be a long term project, rather than one that's finished in a day. :)

Well, at any rate, I have to bolt for the door. I need to get my materials out for Simone de Jong's 1905 Sampler SAL.  It's raining to beat the band here and it's the perfect weather to stay indoors and stitch. :) Hope everyone has a great week! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C.