Preparing Eunice for framing

Greetings.  Eunice is ready for framing and I thought I would show my steps in case anyone would like to direct me to more efficient mounting.  First off, cutting the tails. 

When examining for the threads to snip, I also use a tiny piece of muslin to slip behind threads carried over.  This mystery linen is very limp, stretchy, and its weave is easily distorted.  No way for a thread to hide at all so I found several areas that needed this treatment, even though some were pastels.   Looking at the right side, you wouldn't know a dark thread is lurking.

On colored linen, I use something white since I mount on white foam core boards and it will just disappear.   

Even the over one got a few tiny threads of muslin here and there.  I tried mounting but because of the fabric, was getting flustered.   So I applied lightweight fusible interfacing to prevent the distorting, after I measured for squareness and marked the fold back line by running a perfectly straight single thread. 

 

So here she is, ready for framing.  Would you believe I had three large boxes of brand new stainless steel flat head straight pins from 20 years ago?  I did.  But prefer the round heads so I got rid of those boxes in favor of new cheap and easily bent crap.  It never dawned on me that they were for framing!   What a putz.

 Lucy and possibly Fanny are being framed also.  I like Fanny on the large basket but ..... haven't decided yet.  I was surprised at the cost difference of Hobby Lobby compared to Michael's (with a coupon).  Their weekly 40% off coupon can be used for the glass and the frames are always 50% off.  I also learned that the frames are not made at HL, they are ordered, shipped to the store glued/stapled, and then completed. 

My new sampler charts came in and I will show those to you next time along with a great zucchini casserole.

I'll leave you with my doe that comes to the back door for bread several times a day, and her disgusted look at the two boys tussling on the patio.  She will stand here for quite a while until she sees me, and then patiently waits for the bread to be thrown.  She has two fawns with her in the evenings.

 I'll be spending this afternoon looking through the new charts and trying to decide on another smaller design for swing stitching.  Pumroy will have to wait for a while.  I took her out last night and she is just too much linen lying on my lap when it's hot.  I should start the Santa but I so don't want to think of winter!  Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll talk to you soon.

Thank you so much for your visit!!

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A teeny little add

Hello sister stitchers!  This is a quick post that verifies my lack of decision making and my MIADD  (menopause induced attention deficit disorder).   I can't leave well enough alone and as I continued to rid the clutter, found this little 2" box, played around with the label, and this will also be included with the 4" box offer. 

It's a teeny little thing - maybe a thimble box?  It's still the same offer - click on the photo to the right for the entry post if you haven't left your name yet.  No need to enter again if you've already left a comment.

I have one anonymous that didn't leave her name so if it's you - please update your comment with a name!  

Now for Lydia Broome.  I still see her as a pouch.  This is what I came up with and I loved it, then changed it again. 

I made a little pocket for the stamp books and used the stitchery as the mail pouch.  I planned on a wood dowel and rope for hanging after wrapping the background fabric on foam board.  Even though I really liked it, it wasn't sitting well.  Just isn't me.  So she will probably become an ordinary pouch, but as you know, that could certainly change.  I'm holding on to this background..... just in case.  Lydia tired of the wood box she was renting and I don't blame her.  Just wasn't the right wood tone and the landlord couldn't find the dark stain.

I saw an interesting link on Pinterest, and I couldn't believe what it led to.  Maybe all you wool and yarn dyers know this, but I surely did not.

Kool-Aid.  Yep.  Kool-Aid for dyeing and just in case some of you would like to see the results, here is the link. 

http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/kool-aid.html

That's all folks!  Off to jump on the tractor and start cutting the grass.  We had a day of rain yesterday which was great so I'm hoping I won't be riding in a cloud of dust.

Thanks for visiting!  Talk to you soon.

An offering

Greetings.  It's been a little while since I offered you a token of my appreciation. 

Now ~ I've been seeing a few giveaways that include tons of charts, linen, and silk threads.  This isn't one of those.  It's just this.  Not much is it? 

As you know, I've been ridding my craft room of unused items and I happened across a few labels that I was playing with.  So I thought - what the heck?  The offer is for this small 4" paper mache box with the label of my free pattern (under Needle Keep). 

  You can stitch the chart into a little pinkeep, or a soft folding needlebook (instead of this complicated hard sided stiff book that my lovely sister in law preferred), and have a little box to match.  Or just the peacock for a fob. 

Stitching the right half of the chart beneath the peacock as Jill from Purple Peacock did, would make a great folding needlebook. 

 Thanks again Jill for coming up with this great alternative (which I actually prefer).

Anyway, I made the box the other day and of course, tore the house apart looking for it.  You've made me feel better by relating to my losing misplacing items, but this is really chapping my hide.  I found it, won't tell you where.  I would tape it to the TV (which is filling up rapidly) but I don't want the tape to ruin the paint finish.  So I'm putting it in my car.  I keep a large cooler in the back for groceries and I'll put a note on the TV of its location.  Of course I will need to remove it when I put the ice pack in and go to the market, which means it could end up anywhere.  I'll figure something out.

If you would like this wimpy little token of my appreciation to all of you that take the time to visit with me, please leave a comment stating so on this post only.
The offer will close on Saturday, August 11, at 9pm EST.

Later!

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Pay attention!!!

Hiya.  The putz did it again.  I was so close to having Eunice finished when I realized I wasn't paying attention to the chart once again.  I'll show you what I did and didn't do .... but first ..... my cupboard is almost done!

I've been spending a lot of time with buying removing buying changing buying sanding off the paint and all I have left is the aging wash, wax, wood latches, and knobs.  It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be but I'll have plenty of storage.

Eunice.  Poor Eunice.

Take a look at the main chart. The dot symbol is for 310 (black) and since the over one was dots - I figured black!  Wrong.  Also, look at the distance between Eunice and Birchard along with an element between the two.  (The white line is the fold of the chart which is done on tan paper and kind of hard to read.) 

This is the over one graph printed beneath the main graph.

It clearly shows the symbol of the required color but I didn't double check because I assumed it was black.  Any other symbol would not fit in the tiny space so of course a dot would be used on the main graph.  Pay attention!   I also didn't catch that there is no element and certainly not the space required between the two names as shown on the main chart.  But I wasn't paying attention and continued to follow the over one graph without checking the main graph, stitching "aged 13" right beneath "sampler" which is also wrong.  Look at the main graph putz!  So I had to remove "Birchard", the sampler line was fine, and also removed the "aged 13" line.  Not easy on over one for me even though it is only 30 count.  The black floss left a nice smudge so I used my duct tape to remove the fuzz and it looks pretty good now.  I should have been finished but once again, my lack of focus and patience cost me.  I decided to keep it all in 310 since I would have had to remove "Eunice" as well.  When will I learn?  I'll bet Lucy is shaking her head. 

I'll end with mushball Bud playing kissy face with his girlfriend who is his baby momma.  Does anyone else find that term disturbing?  I do.  Very much.  But this baby momma will no longer be having babies.  Bud bathes her and she just lays there enjoying.  She has no shame.

Hello to new followers.  Thank you so much for signing up to endure a procrastinating, flashing, indecisive, forgetful, menopausal stitcher.  Hope you all have an enjoyable and safe weekend.

Thank you for visiting!!

p.s.  I wanted to mention that I didn't realize the free chart from The Gentle Art was from the fabulous Nan!  Also visit her Threadwork Primitives and click on Free charts to see her great offers.

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Marking samplers and sources #2!

Hello stitching buds. I'm almost finished with the over one (AUGH!!) on Eunice and decided on a simple black frame. I messed up with the starting point of the single thread journey and it's one thread off in the top area. You can see how close it is to the V. Too bad. There was no way I was removing it, even though I caught it at this point.

I wanted to answer a few questions emailed to me about finding out of print charts and ordering new ones. First off, Thistle Needleworks has a listing of #19801 through #43000 of older charts, many of which are already gone.  You can use Control+F keys to create a search bar at the top for a particular item or designer, or just browse through.  Another is Old Stitch and you can choose a category to browse.  There isn't a lot of samplers but they have a nice selection of Christmas, Santas, and other topics.  Inventory seems to change often so check back.  Another that I have never ordered from is Cobweb Corner. And of course, there's Ebay.  When I search for a particular design, I save it.  Getting an email whenever the item first lists saves me from constantly checking and I won't miss an opportunity to bid.  I received an email a few days ago that the Plantation Sampler was newly listed as Buy it Now for $4.95 with free shipping.  Needless to say, it didn't last long.  Without these email notifications, lots of charts are gone before I even know they were listed!

As for purchasing, a lot of designs I did in the past and even now are from The Scarlet Letter, and R&R Reproductions.  I prefer marking samplers and found a great selection with these two.  You can order both through Homespun Samplar, which I just did again.  I haven't found the R&R selection anywhere else and for the $5 and up prices along with the quality of their packets, a great deal.   There are other online shops that I use too and one carrying the R&R charts whose name I can't remember!  She has much clearer photos of the pieces than Homespun does and although I Googled, still can't find her.  I prefer the marking style for several reasons, #1 being that I am a stitch wimp.  I prefer simple stitching.  #2, if I had to constantly change thread colors or count numerous linen threads to place a small element, I would give up.  When an intense hot flash hits, it makes me fidgety and I have to get up, walk around, open a door, jump out a window, stand in front of an open fridge, all of the above, bathe.  When I settle down and return, coming back to a row of letters or a large house is much easier than having to locate and count in a motif or large border.  And #3, I like 'em.  The simplistic alphabet, primitive creatures, houses, and odd elements of a stitching lesson, are what drew me to samplers in the beginning.  Sure there were young ladies who created elaborate and complex samplers, but I prefer to stitch their laid-back cousin's work.  Viewing these pieces is fascinating and I enjoy seeing all types, but for now I have no patience to stitch them so in my stash they will stay.

I wanted to link a sweet free chart that Ann was nice enough to pass along from the Gentle Art folks here.  Another that has some of my favorite frees is The Workbasket.

My husband makes these egg pancakes called Pizzarelles with wild mushrooms and he decided to modify the recipe for zucchini. No mushrooms yet! It's chopped bell peppers, onions, lots of eggs, parmesan, seasoned bread crumbs, and twice squeezed shredded zukes fried in very little oil. Damn they were good. We even ate them cold. I think we should all post at least one of our go-to zuke recipes this month. And don't forget about the chocolate zucchini cake recipe I posted! Fabulous.

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe and enjoy the final month of summer which is breaking my heart.

Thank you much for visiting!!

Added note - my preview of the first post was fine but after seeing the post - it was all HTML and I couldn't correct it so hopefully this new post will be OK.

Marking samplers and sources

Hello stitching buds.  I'm almost finished with the over one (AUGH!!) on Eunice and decided on a simple black frame.  I messed up with the starting point of the single thread journey and it's one thread off in the top area.   You can see how close it is to the V.   Too bad.  There was no way I was removing it, even though I caught it at this point.

 

I wanted to answer a few questions emailed to me about finding out of print charts and ordering new ones.  First off,  Thistle Needleworks has quite a listing of older books. 
OBVIOUSLY A PROBLEM WITH BLOGGER!  WILL TRY TO CORRECT AND REPOST.