Charts for Sale

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Country Life, Turkey Love and More

     Finally... Country Life is finished... or I should say finished as far as I'm concerned. CL was started way back in July 2010. It got put away at the end of the summer only to be freed from the WIP closet and finished this November.
The original sampler had a horse in two corners and a pig in the other two corners, outside of the vine border. I never cared for the look of the animals and chose to leave them off my sampler as well as the two line border.
I'm happy with the way my sampler turned out.


 Country Life Sampler
The Scarlet Letter
40 ct. Lakeside Vintage Lentil
Belle Soie, Gloriana, NPI, DMC

 
The moment I saw Plum Street Samplers Turkey Love I knew I had to stitch this little gem. I plan to finish this off as a small decorative pillow and tossing it in a bowl or basket to display. I'll post another snap when I've completed the finishing work... and hopefully that snap will turn out better than this one.
Turkey Love
Plum Street Samplers
40 ct. R&R Abecedarian
NPI and Belle Soie
I was all over the place with my stitching this past month. I couldn't seem to focus on any one project... so I continued working on two old favorites and started two new projects.
 Hannah Lancaster Sampler
The Porcupine Collection
Silkweaver - 40 ct. Days Gone By
Belle Soie silks
Poor Hannah has fallen out of favor. I can't seem to stick with her for any length of time to make much progress. I think it's a combination of the handdrawn chart and the Belle Soie.  Too many of the symbols used are similiar, which makes reading the chart difficult for me. Handdyed silks are also lossing their appeal, especially the ones with major shade changes per floss length. The striped look isn't cutting it with me anymore. Oh well, I've put Hannah away for now... who knows, I may have a change of heart the next time she's released from the WIP closet.
Ann Grant 1829
Shakespeare's Peddler
40 ct. Lakeside Sand Dune
Silks as Charted 
I was thrilled when Ann's border matched up and rewarded myself with working on the house and lawn. But, Ann too lost favor with me and was cast aside for a new start. 
      I've had my eye on Brown Egg Farm for a long time and thought it would be a perfect autumnal stitch. 
 Brown Egg Farm
Notforgotten Farm
32 ct. Lakeside Vintage Meadow Rue
DMC and overdyed cottons
I've really enjoyed stitching on the lower count linen as it gave my eyes a needed break from the 40 ct... but I got bogged down when filling in the huge BEF sign and it was time to move on to another project.
      I've had this Amy Mitten kit in my stash for a couple of years and thought the time was right to start it.
 Such An Undertaking
Amy Mitten Designs
R&R 36 ct. Iced Cappachino
Fibers to Dye For

It's been a fun design to stitch and it's going to look good hanging with all my other tombie designs. This is the first time I've stitched with Fibers to Dye For and they are a wonderful handdyed silk with muted tones. Beautiful!
      So... as you can see by all the different snaps... my stitching has been all over the place since I've last posted. I started a new project in honor of Thanksgiving Day... CHS - Garden Glade. I spent most of the afternoon stitching the trunk of the tree on the left side of the sampler... I will be spending the rest of the evening unstitching that tree trunk. I'm using a Belle Soie and I don't like the look of the zebra stripped effect I've achieved on my tree trunk. I've pulled out a nice NPI silk that I think will be much more to my liking.
     

       Can you tell that Emma loves her peanut butter!
Take some time to chill out and relax this holiday weekend. Until next time... happy stitching.