My Second January Sunday Challenge Project

      Such an original title for my post! LOL My day started off so beautifully when I discovered I was the winner of two blog giveaways... it can't think of a better beginning to my Sunday. More details and pics in my next blog update.
      The sun is shining and the pups and I had a nice long walk this morning. It felt balmy with temps in the lower 20s. Winter arrived in northeast Iowa with a vengeance this past Wednesday night. We had a combination of snow, sleet, very gusty winds and temps dipping down into the negative numbers. Our beautiful prairie is covered in snow and the pups and I will have to be content to walk on shoveled sidewalks and plowed streets from the remainder of the winter. We've been so fortunate this year to delay snow cover until mid January... our winter snows have begun in November the past few years.
      First, I wanted to share a snap of a lovely gift I received from my friend Nicola in Cornwall. I was the first person to leave a comment on her new blog. If you haven't visited Nicola's blog, Stitching by a Cornish Sea Shore,  you must go right now and see her beautiful stitching,absolutely gorgeous photos of Cornwall and the beautiful cove on Lizard Peninsula, and her Boxer pups, Blue and Poppy. I feel like I'm taking a mini vacation every time I visit Nicola's blog.

 Nicola knows how much the prairie means to me and the pups and  she could not have sent me a more perfect chartpak. Look at all those lovely trims, floss and fabric. Thank you my friend... your gift is very much appreciated and your new blog a pure joy.
      Despite the snow, wonderful gifts in the mail and pup walks I was still able to find time to select and start my second January Sunday Challenge project. Without further fanfare or delay.... here is my start on Frederick.

 Frederick

Carriage House Samplings

40 ct Lakeside Pearled Barley

Needlepoint Inc silks

I wanted to pick a smaller project for my second start... I'm always drawn to the large repro samplers. I'm not sure I've really given myself a break though as I can't just stitch Frederick. He'd be too lonely without his mate Frederika. I don't know if I'll even get to start Frederika in 2012, but if not she's sure to make it on the list of 2013 projects.
       I'm looking forward to catching bits and pieces of the Australian Open the next couple of weeks. Most of the live action will be taking place during the hours I'm asleep... but I hope to catch some of my favorite tennis players in action.
       Be sure to check back next week to see what I found in my stitching closet and chose for my third January Sunday Challenge project.

I am grateful for the sunshine and blue skies on our Sunday morning walk.







  

Laurie's January Challenge

       I knew I wanted to celebrate the New Year with a new project to be started on New Year's Day. But... I didn't think that was a 'big' enough way to celebrate the New Year. So... I've decided to begin a new project every Sunday in the month of January. I impressed one other stitcher with my January Challenge. My friend Katrina,  The Needle's Promise, will also be participating in the Challenge.
      Here's a couple of snaps of Rebecca Cullin which I started on January 1st.

Rebecca Cullin 1801

The Scarlet Letter

40 ct. Lakeside Examplar

AVAS

      The added bonus of starting a new project each Sunday in the month of January is that I will also be doing a weekly blog update. I hope you'll check back next week to see what I chose to start on the second Sunday of the month.

      Emma enjoyed her New Year's Eve celebration a bit too much....

      I'm grateful for the love and companionship I receive daily from Emma and Owen.

A Stitching Year in Review

      2011 was a very productive year of stitching. I was able to finish some WIPs in January that had been kept in the stitching closet way too long.

Frances Eden, Hannah Pepper and Elizabeth Savilles  were all WIPs. The only new start to finish completion in the first group is Ann A. Tarbox. 

 Helen Vertue 1812, Ann Hall and two snaps of Dorothy Walpole.

I needed a break from the BAPs. Phebe's Forest, Autumn on Marigold Lane and Turkey Love satisfied my need for a few quick finishes. But, it's the large reproduction samplers that capture my fancy the most, so Mary Allen 1818 finally caught my attention after languishing for way too long in myy WIP closet.

 

I didn't want another year to go by before putting the final stitches in Country Life. To close out 2011 I started and completed Such An Undertaking.

      I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve Day by starting a new project, Scarlet Letter's Emma Miles. This is how Emma will look once she's completed.

       Here's a snap of my Emma WIP.

 Emma Miles 1848

The Scarlet Letter

40 ct. Lakeside Light Examplar

AVAS silk

 I love stitching eyelet stitch alphabets and the result looks wonderful. It's like solving a little puzzle with each letter as you figure out the best route to take and avoid carrying threads over the center hole. 

      My friend Michelle, Cozy Egg,  ends each of her blog posts with a 'Grateful' statement. I'm going to shamelessly copy Michelle and write my own 'Grateful' statement as a closing to my blog posts.

      Wishing you all: A New Year filled with all those things that bring you peace and happiness; A New Year of good health; A New Year filled with hope.

Laurie, Emma and Owen

I'm grateful for the wonderful stitching friends I've made over the years, the journeys my stitching friends have taken me on and a New Year filled with many new stitching adventures.  

One More Finish for 2011

      I wanted to get one more finish in to wrap up a wonderful year of stitching. Amy Mitten's Such an Undertaking was a fine way to end my stitching year. I discovered how wonderful Amy's Fibers to Dye For are to stitch with and how much texture the chain stitch adds to the tree trunk. I'm going to have to remember that for future tree trunk stitching.

 Such An Undertaking

Amy Mitten Designs

R&R 36 ct. Iced Cappuccino

Fibers to Dye For

 

      I just couldn't resist starting a new project. I've really fallen off the 'finish one project at a time' wagon. I've wanted to stitch CHS - Garden Glade for some time now and it just felt like the perfect project to start now that the winter grey skies and dreary days are upon us in northeast Iowa.

  Garden Glade

Carriage House Samplings

40 ct.  Lakeside Vintage Bluegrass

Over Dyed Silks

     

      Friday night into early Saturday morning we had some snow showers. Emma and Owen made the most of that one to two inch snowfall on our Saturday morning prairie walk.

 

      It's hard to believe that next Sunday we will be celebrating Christmas Day. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my blog readers a wonderful holiday season. May your wishes and dreams come true.

      Merry Christmas! 

Laurie, Emma and Owen

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.

Mary's Village Square

      I've put the final stitches into Mary Allen... and enjoyed stitching the village square portion of the sampler the most.

  Mary Allen - 1818

Samplers Remembered

34 ct. Legacy Oaten Scone

NPI silks

I also spent a little time with Ann Grant...

 Ann Grant 1829

Shakespeare's Peddler

40 ct. Lakeside Sand Dune

Silks as Charted 

But the falling leaves outside of Corgi Cottage turned my thoughts to seasonal stitching.

 I finally narrowed my choice down to one of the latest  Pineberry Lane designs.

 

 Autumn on Marigold Lane

Pineberry Lane

30 ct R&R Old Town Blend

Overdyed Cottons

Why, even though we have at least one hundred skeins of overdyed cotton floss in our stash, do we never have all the necessary colors for the design we've chosen to stitch? That was the dilemma I faced when kitting up Marigold Lane. I even went as far as to search through already kitted up designs in the hopes of finding what I needed. I ended up subbing a few of the colors with what I already had in my stash.

But... the search for missing floss colors ended up in the discovery of Phebe's Forest. I started it who knows how long ago, but didn't get very far. It was stuffed into a bag with the chart and DMC... all wrinkled and unloved. Not for long though... here's this sweet design all stitched and pressed.

Phebe's Forest

The City Stitcher

40 ct Lakeside Examplar

DMC 

I haven't decided what to stitch next. Another seasonal design? Return to one of my many WIPs? I'm sure something will catch my interest before the day is done. 

Emma and Owen had a visit from one of their favorite people. Izzy, my brother's granddaughter, stopped by earlier this month. 

Can you tell the camera is not Owen's best friend?

I'll close out this post today with a snap of Emma and Owen's friend Tildy, a very sweet Labradoodle that lives next door.

A Finish, An Old Friend, A New Start

     A couple of weeks ago I put the final stitches into Dorothy Walpole. I can't remember when I enjoyed stitching a sampler as much as I've enjoyed stitching Dottie. Without further ado... here she is in all her glory.

 Dorothy Walpole

The Scarlet Letter

Lakeside 36 ct Vintage Pecan Butter

AVAS Silk

 

 

      It wasn't hard to decide what to work on next. Once I saw Robert's, A Gentleman's Samplings, recent finish, I knew I had to unearth my Mary Allen from the bottom of the WIP pile. It took me some time to find poor Mary. I had started her way back in 2008. I have no idea why she got banished to the closet for three years... but her time had come once again.

  Mary Allen - 1818

Samplers Remembered

34 ct. Legacy Oaten Scone

NPI silks

 

      I've mainly been stitching my samplers  on 36 or 40 count linens the past few years, so it felt strange to be working with a 34 count linen. Now that the days are getting shorter I'll save Mary for nighttime stitching and give my poor eyes a break.

     Unfortunately I had to put poor Mary aside once again. I ran out of four of the colors needed. Fortunately my not-so-local needlework shop had all the colors I needed and I'm good to go once again. I hope I'll be celebrating another finish soon.

     Of course I couldn't remain idle while waiting on the silks. What's a gal to do??? Why, start a new project, of course. I've had the silks pulled and a nice piece of linen set aside for Ann Grant. It was time to get her started.

 

 Ann Grant 1829

Shakespeare's Peddler

40 ct. Lakeside Sand Dune

Silks as Charted 

 

     While I've been busy stitching Emma discovered the perfect headrest for watching the world go by.

       

      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time out of your busy schedules to leave a comment. I enjoy reading each and every one and value the friendships I've made since starting this blog two years ago.