old and new samplers

Here’s my new treasure:

I will be sending it to the Craftmuseum of Finland to be cleaned. They won’t be able to do much though as the stains won’t leave and they are not sure it can be washed, they need to do some tests first to see that the colours don’t run. They will also prepare it for framing. I can’t wait to hear what materials are used on this one, it’s really hard for me to tell since it’s so old and worn. The museum estimated it’s from 1880-1900.

Last night I finished my Willow Trees Sampler. I didn’t have much left to stitch on this but it took me all evening because I had to do some frogging with the second tree.

about my recent purchases

I bought 2 reproduction sampler charts from The Scarlet Letter a few weeks ago and they arrived today.

This is Continental Sampler circa 1840:

The second one is The Sibmacher Sampler of 1763:

I would like to try to stitch these with silk thread but in that case I must wait some time as I’m currently unemployed, luckily it’s just temporary and most likely I will start working again in March. So the silks don’t fit my budget right now. For the fabric I was thinking either 36ct or 40ct linen.

I have been naughty and bought some stuff from ebay and from a similar finnish online auction site. I got some kits, normally I don’t buy these because they always come with aida but these were all so cheap I don’t need to feel bad about changing the fabric. I bought a little old-looking sampler from the finnish site, the seller didn’t know what it was or where it came from, I’m quite excited to get it into my hands. It has numbers and letters in red thread and it’s obviously unfinished, unfortunately there’s no dates or year on it either. But it’s a pretty little thing and didn’t cost much in my opinion.

And this has nothing whatsoever to do with stitching: I bought two recorders, a brand new Hohner soprano in pearwood and an old Mullenhauer alto also in pearwood. I used to play recorder when I was a teenager, so I will try to learn some stuff again now that I’m a grown up with more patience, LOL! I got some books to learn from too since I don’t remember much anymore and I never was more than a beginner.

what I’ve been working on

I started Wintry Walk Fae

Not much yet but I LOVE the colours and the sparkle! This is on 20ct Cork linen by Zweigart and it’s excellent! Yes you can tell it’s linen, it’s a bit uneven like linens are but it works out just fine when stitched. I just might buy this for my next project too.

Here’s The Betrothed, I think I’ve been stitching this on and off for a couple of years.

The chart is by Golden Kite and it’s based on a painting by John William Godward.

It has blends so that takes some time but otherwise it’s quite easy to do and the chart is easy to follow. I regret the choice of the fabric though, it’s 18 ct aida which I’m not so fond of stitching on anymore. The colour of the fabric is something called parchment and while it’s nice  not to have white fabric showing underneath the dark stitches, the colour is so close to some of the thread colours that sometimes I can’t see what I’m doing. But I WILL finish this someday, I have about 1/4 done now.

I think I might need to set up a rotation of some sort, I have so many wip’s. Right now I just stitch whatever I feel like stitching. First of all I should get back to my Willow Trees sampler, it’s almost done and it would be great to have one more finish for this year!

chessie and some wolves

Here’s my start on Chessie, started him a while ago but haven’t had the time to stitch more.

This is how he should look when ready:

LOL, I just love this one. My husband likes it too, he’s not usually interested in my stitching at all. I have 4 other Ash Evans charts too, it was really hard to choose which one to start.  I also have one original painting, Lollypop Wyrm. I’d add a photo but I’m not sure if I can do that without permission, so here’s a pic of the chart from the HAED site:

I had a wip which I had almost forgotten, I put it away while I was working on Holly Angel. This is Running With the Wind by Jody Bergsma:

This is how it will look:

I have stitched almost half of the first page. I’m going to spend the next week away from home on a course ( some a la carte cooking and maybe a little baking too if I’m lucky ) and I think I will take these two projects with me to have something to do in the evenings. I don’t like being away from home and I will miss my husband and our pets, so I think I need to keep myself busy!

my latest start

Here’s a pic of my new start, The Fairy of Calling in Sick. It’s not much yet but I love stitching the letters, even though they have lots of different colours and it’s a bit fiddly.

And again, the picture is too dark. The fabric is antique white 20ct lugana and I’m stitching 2 over 1.

I got a blinkie!

Yay! Now I just need to go figure out how to put this on my signature line on the HAED BB.

oops…

There is a sale on the HAED site so I treated myself to one of the charts I had on my wishlist. It’s Fairy of Calling in Sick by Jacqueline Collen-Tarrolly.

It’s a bit different from what I usually stitch, but I thought it’s so cute and funny. I actually call in sick quite often so I might as well have a fairy who does it for me!

I happened to have all the threads this chart calls for so I couldn’t resist starting it. I didn’t mean to start it when I bought the chart but I just can’t help myself. The background isn’t stitched so this shouldn’t take years to finish. I’m still going to start Wintry Walk Fae too when the threads and fabric arrive. I guess I just love having lots of WIP’s! Sometimes I have to put some of them aside simply because I don’t have enough time and I do like to finish something occasionally…

holly hd!

I have just finished Holly Angel!

I cheated a little and left off some of the black from both sides. I just didn’t want to stitch so much black. I’m so happy with how this turned out! I can’t wait to get her to the framers. That’s not going to happen soon though, we have almost 500 km to the nearest frameshop.

about my next start

I have ordered the fabric and threads for Wintry Walk Fae! They should arrive next week and I hope I will have finished Holly Angel by then. It was a tough decision but I chose Wintry Walk Fae because it has so many lovely bright colours which I need after the blackness and paleness of Holly Angel, and I also love that little kitty in her basket! I have seen many Nadia Tate WIP’s on the HAED BB and they all seem to stitch up really beautifully.

I ordered some 20ct Cork linen, I’ve read that some people like it and others don’t but I wanted to give it a try because I love linen and 20 ct would be ideal for my HAED stitching. I have some 20ct lugana if the Cork linen doesn’t work out. I also have a piece of 22ct evenweave. That’s the smallest count I’m willing to stitch on because I like to stitch with 2 strands.

I put a few stitches on Chessie last night but there’s nothing much to show so no pic yet. I’m going to work on Chessie a bit more too when Holly is finished.

so tired of black stitches…

I’ve been stitching more background on Holly Angel. It stitches up quickly but it starts to be boring. Luckily I still have those little leaves to stitch if I need some variety.

My husband is not helping me at all by saying: “Wouldn’t it be easier to just do it on a black fabric instead of stitching all that black?” I have never stitched on black fabric and I didn’t think to start with a HAED. And he doesn’t stitch so what does he know?

I have also worked on my Mirabilias for a change. Here’s my start on Archangel, the fabric colour doesn’t show too well, it’s not that gray in real life:

And this is Mermaid of the Pearls on opal white 28ct Cashel:

I’m not sure yet what to do with this piece, it calls for so many beads it’s just insane. I might substitute metallic threads for some of those beads.

It was nice to stitch these, I could actually see some progress. The 28 count fabric feels strange though after stitching on smaller counts. Both of these fabrics were meant to be 32ct but I got sent the wrong count and was too lazy to send them back all the way to UK and then wait again to get the right ones. I don’t mind stitching on 28ct, it’s just that it uses more thread as the stitches are bigger. But hey, at least I won’t be having trouble getting those beads to fit!