Sunday, January 17, 2016

Very slow Sunday stitching...

It has been weeks since I posted any cross stitch because...I am stitching very very very slow these days. In the evenings I've been gravitating to knitting instead of stitching and that severely limits one's forward progress. Here is as far as I've gotten on "Instead of Sheep" by Heartstring Sampler.



Excuse the wrinkles, not only am I stitching slow I am too lazy to go give this a press. What is left is 2 trees, the fill-in on the basket, the front of the house and the initials and assignation at the bottom. I've been dragging my feet on this one because I am going to run out of thread. The chart called for 1 ply of floss over 2 threads. I prefer 2 over 2 and that is going to take more than one skein of the needed brown or green. I will have to search my stash for something close in color or complementary as I don't want to buy more floss for this piece.

And then I got sidetracked with this little piece...


my plan is that this is the start of a small pincushion in the vein of this piece...


There was lots of chatter about this pincushion on the Fans of Blackbird Designs Facebook page. It was sold in quilt stores to promote one of BBD's fabric collections. It was machine made in India and I thought I might be able to re-create it. I enlarged a copy and charted out the alphabet. From what I could see it wasn't true to the linen grid but since it is a primitive I don't think it matters. I'm going to add a little checkerboard-y motif under the letters but I'm not sure about the numbers. They would have to be stitched over 1 thread and right now I'm not feeling it. What makes this so adorable is the finishing. I have some large rick rack and plenty of fabric. I could add that line of embroidery on the fabric frame with one of the many stitches on my computerized machine. It is all do-able... except that I lack the motivation to "do" at the moment.

If you can't read the tag, it is 36 ct. Smoke Blue Edinburgh linen. I purchased it at 123 Stitch. It has a nice turquoise cast in real life. The cream thread is Anchor 275. I love the idea of a display bowl full of smalls, but I don't know if I want to do the finishing they require. I think I can do it, but again I don't know if I want to do it. Just feeling lazy...maybe I can blame it on the weather. It is cold and there is snow blowing. I'm already looking forward to next weekend as I saw a 40 degree temperature in the forecast.

It is nice to have the 3 day weekend...last week was crazy busy...and this week is getting busy too. I hope to squeeze in some stitching time and some sewing time and some knitting time. We shall see.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday.

happy stitching-
carol fun

8 comments:

  1. Your cross-stitch is beautiful. Enjoy your knitting, it is one of my favorite winter activities.

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  2. I can see knitting on these cold winter nights. That little pin cushion is going to be wonderful. It looks hard to do to me but that's because I am such a lame finisher!!Love that sampler. I prefer 2 threads also. Sometimes that means buying more floss. It's hard to figure when you need to do that.

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  3. I do love the sentiment on your little sampler!

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  4. That is going to be a great sampler!

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  5. Nice little sampler and nice sentiment......it reminds me of a song sung by Bing Crosby in White Christmas.

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  6. Your sampler is beautiful and I really like that alphabet. I am sure you will be able to copy that pincushion. Enjoy your knitting and stitching.

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  7. Beautiful stitching on the sampler!!

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  8. I know what you mean about knowing you can do something but not sure if you actually want to do something. Usually in January I'm so motivated to get things done that it's go, go, go but this January I've hardly gotten anything done.

    I do love the little "when I can't sleep" sampler!

    Your idea of a display bowlful of smalls sounds pretty. I had a similar idea to do a bowlful of quilted pincushions to display in my sewing room. So far, I've made one. :)

    May we both find our motivation to get going again soon!

    Thanks so much for linking up to last week's Stitchery Link Party and for the link back. Aloha hugs!

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