Sunday, January 11, 2015

I'm moving slow in 2015...

Well I thought I was off to a great start for 2015 by posting 4 days in a row at the end of 2014, but that burst of energy didn't last.  It seems like I've been moving slow in lots of areas, slow to sew, slow to knit, slow to stitch, and even slow to move. I did something to my knee last week and hobbled around for days. Quite like the guy in the Holiday Inn Express commercials, I played doctor with Google and diagnosed myself with strained quadriceps muscles. Treatment: rest, ice, compression and elevation. It definitely helped. I've moving just fine now. As for the cause of my pain, it was suggested that I had engaged in  jumping/running/quick movements and should refrain from these activities- ROFL.... if you ever see me running, you need to look to see who is chasing me with a weapon. I don't run... EVER!

Sitting around I watched waaaay too much HGTV, but I did stitch a bit. I finished a piece by Lizzie Kate, but forgot to take a picture before I took it to Bev at Joanns to frame. Check back. I should have it in 2 weeks.

New Year's Day did inspire me to start a new cross stitch project. I found this sampler on the Facebook group... either Sampler Lovers or Sampler World... I forget which one. It is called Band Sampler Calendar 2015 by Cross Stitch It... you can see it here as I can't seem to copy it.  I loved what I saw so I ordered the whole thing and jumped in. Here's what I've accomplished so far.




I really like that I can put some decorative stitches in this band samplers. I used a long arm cross variation in the first band and did what I call a bow tie stitch ( a long arm cross stitch with a tie down stitch in the middle) in the second band.



I pulled my palette of colors from this rug that is in my dining area...turquoises, pumpkins, golds,browns, creams. ( I have a love hate relationship with this rug - LOVE the color and the design. HATE the way it fuzzes up all the time. I actually shaved it once with an old electric hair clippers I have. Looked much better afterwards but just fuzzed up again in a week or so - ugh!




Anyway back to the sampler. Each month you get a section and you can print it out as a calendar if you want. The first section is 60 stitches deep and 125 stitches wide. The entire sampler will measure 653 stitches in length, about 40" using the 32 count linen I chose. This whole project is going to be FREE for me as I already had the linen in my stash and I'm using threads from my stash - Gentle Arts, Weeks, and Crescent Colors.  They give you a key with DMC numbers and I looked at it but I'm pretty much winging it. I figure if  I use  a bit of each of the colors in my palette in each month's section it should balance out nicely. I have a range of each of the colors I selected and I'm anxious to use a bit of each of them.

I haven't done a band sampler in quite while. The first major cross stitch sampler I did was this one from Eileen Bennett of The Sampler House, called Seasons of Flowers. Here's my sampler.


When I stitched this sampler my past experience had been in needlepoint so I loved all the decorative stitches in this piece.

Satin stitch and four sided stitch...


Long arm cross stitch, plaited stitches and eyelet and  Queen stitches...


And more Queen stitches!


Now this sampler also taught me to be very very careful about how far down you start stitching as I ran out of linen before I ran out of sampler. The original sampler has two bands I couldn't fit in. One with flowers and one where your name should go. I realized about three quarters of the way through the piece that I was going to run out of fabric and cried. Then I dried my tears and figured out how to make it work. I didn't want to leave off the last line of the verse so other parts had to go!

I'm taking it slow today. Chili for dinner is in the crockpot and I'm going to sit and stitch for a while. Maybe  I can find a show on HGTV that I haven't already seen 20 times!

Happy stitching-
carol fun






9 comments:

  1. That band sampler is going to be very pretty. I love it that you are working with the colors in your rug. I can't seem to get the queen stitch at all. I have tried several times. I think I need to find a person who can show me.

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  2. I love stitching samplers, although I've only completed one - lol

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  3. I LOVE that rug!! Wow, those colors are fabulous. :) And your stitching is a lot of fun, too!

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  4. Great stitching. It is going to be a lovely piece.

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  5. Very interesting colors Carol. Bold like your quilts.

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  6. I just love your cross stitched samplers, I'm definitely keen to give one a go, but perhaps I'll do some smaller practice pieces first!!

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  7. So sorry to hear about your knee. Sitting and stitching sounds like a good way to spend the day.

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  8. Stitching is perfect for recovery :)
    That must have been awful to realize you were running out of sampler fabric...yikes!
    Thanks for linking up and enjoy your stitching!

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  9. Very pretty start-and older sampler too! Stash pays off...

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