Floss box source

Greetings.  Hope everyone is fine and dandy.  For those of you interested in ordering a floss box, I am happy to say that Firecracker Kid Primitives will take orders, and will customize for you.

 Here is a photo of one they recently made, a bit smaller than mine.  Several of you requested one from us and we won't be getting to that any time soon, so you can go to their blog here and contact them.  Their Etsy site is here. 

 

 

 

I want to show finishes of the February pear that I've received and since crashes seem to happen frequently here, thought I better do it now.  Previous pears were lost.

Murielle finished with double leaves and button and her blog is here.

 

This one is from Karen's Handiwork here.  She used cardboard to shape them and trimmed the edges.

This one from Lynda was stitched on both sides, one with III and the other with V.  If I missed any, I apologize. I know I had a few others and can't find them.  I can't find anything I save and I've had it.  I'm calling the tech so he can rid me of 7 and reinstall my old Vista. 

While I was doing this post, every sip of coffee I took poked me.  Yes, poked me.  I kept looking at the rim of my mug to see what was on it.  Nothing.  Poked again!  Thinking something may be stuck to my lip I checked the mirror. Nothing.  Look closer.....closer.....OMG.  There it is.  Menowire.  The eyebrows I've lost have been replaced with a few black wires hairs that I could use as needles, and are now spreading to my lip.  Right in the corner, hidden in that saggy folded lump of fat that used to be in my cheek.  Good grief.  I avoid my magnifier mirror but I think this calls for an inspection.  Maybe I should look into getting those cheek strings a.k.a. one hour facelift, so there will be no where to hide.

Have a great day!

Thanks for visiting.

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What's your size?

Hi everyone.  The wind is howling, the brats are in their condo, and my wind chimes are singing.  But no snow!!!  Lots of errands to run today but thought I would show you what my husband came home with.  He heard me mention several times, the magnitude and my amazement of The Manifesto from Scarlet Letter.   Here's what I usually use...

 

 3" FLOSS RINGS -

 

His gift to me - 

MANIFESTO SIZE FLOSS RING  -

I could never attempt a project of that size, so I'll probably use it as a towel ring.

Have a good day!

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Mary and Sue

Good day to you.  Just a quick post to show Susannah French on the wall and my progress on the Bargello.  Sue fit perfectly on the wooden lid of a basket and I had padding and studs ready, but decided it wouldn't be practical.  Those baskets hold supplies and are used frequently and stacked. 

So I fringed,

 attached the stiff interfacing at the top for the nails and hanging stability,

 sprinkled her with some black coffee,

and stuck her on the wall with tacks to be replaced later.

 

Here's progress on Haslehurst.  I'm going to start the center now and then return to the Bargello on the other side.  I'm so glad I started this design.  Love it.  The center calls for 422 which is barely noticeable so I'm using the 434 that's also in the design.

 Thanks for visiting.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Heft to my weft

Greetings!  I know it's the start of the weekend, but I didn't know the month.  When I listed the anniversary offer, I hadn't yet flipped the page on the calendar so I thought Valentine's Day was this Monday.  Wrong.  The drawing will still be Valentine's Day which is not until Thursday.  Good thing the doctor's office called to verify my Monday appointment or I would still be in January.

 

I started going through the RandR charts, Essamplaire's new order, and also Scarlet Letter's.  Do you have any idea how much time I can waste reading each chart, looking for those nasty over one stitches, Queens, and counting blocks when the stitch count isn't given?  The heck with it. 

Mary was still lying there and a close by piece of linen was the right size.  This Bargello or Irish stitch is easy.  I did have difficulty with the start position of the black floss.  When you are doing a straight stitch in each hole, where do you start the adjoining cross?  I thought it would be in the next hole but then the cross was not lined up with the over two backstitch in the border.  So I magnified the sampler from SL's website and it looks like the cross enters the same hole.  That makes sense since all the crosses use the prior stitch's hole.  What a putz.

 For once, I'm using all the correct colors and the linen is the coarse heavier weave that I enjoy.  I like heft to my weft.  The pieces that I have no desire (or ability) to stitch on have very thin threads or a thinner weft and I really can't see them even with magnifiers. 

This piece is the 25 count Scarlet Letter hand dyed green from years ago.  It has a bluish green warp and a yellow green weft.  I had trouble stitching with it and dyed it to a much darker green.  Didn't work. 

You can see there are still two different shades to the threads and for some reason, this throws my eyes into a tizzy.  White fabric in my lap or a lamp setting on the floor makes it worse.  I just can't see the vertical threads, and fabrics with a sheen are even worse.   It wasn't until I really studied the pieces I'm not comfortable with that I realized the reason for my difficulty.  I can tell right away if my vision will adjust to see the over two threads for stitching.  Whether it's a particular type of linen or just my aging eyes, I don't know.  Even if the dye is exactly the same on all threads, some seem to disappear and all I can see is one direction.   So the thick thread rough and ready linens are my choice. The mystery linen I'm working on is perfect for me. Sending a small piece of the texture and colors I like to a shop would certainly help them determine what would be best for me.

 

As for this computer, I am avoiding being online because of it.  I changed my settings to Classic Windows style, got my tabs back to separate listings in the bottom bar, shut off that ridiculous screen filter, changed the log on screen, but regardless of the touchpad setting changes, this constant clicking is insane. I click away and nothing happens, I don't click and tabs appear, pages scroll, I lose my place, I highlight text and sometimes it won't delete, and I hate being online now.  My labels - what a fiasco.  The photo gallery is a mess. Small changes from Vista are huge headaches for me with photos.  Find it if you can, then click to edit, do it again, another view! And why can't I have a desktop icon instead of right clicking?  Clicking seems to be a fixation.

 

That's the start of my weekend.  Hope everyone is safe.

Thank you so much for visiting with me.

Enjoy your weekend and stitch with gratitude, for two working hands, your sight, and your ability to be productive.  I think of my cousin in CA every day and what she lost from her devastating stroke. 

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Third R&R finish

Greetings from Nitzyland.  What a wacko cat.  He's been running full tilt back and forth, jumping into snow piles, digging like a dog, sneaking up on his mom and dad, and attacking his catnip pole.  Boxes are sliding across the deck, benches bumping into the house, sounds like someone is trying to break in!  Anyway,  I wanted to show you Mary Moseley.  The linen is the coarse 28 count that I like and it never photographs well for me.

 

 I haven't decided (big surprise) on where to keep her but does it really matter?  She won't stay there for too long so why do I bother?  What surprised me, is that I love the bright color.  Usually I change the floss to muted shades but I'm liking this contrast.  Maybe Eliza Pumroy should be done in the charted colors.  If I could find her, I would check into that but I can't.  She was started, floss dyed with gray to tone it down, and she's obviously hanging with the other girls that are missing.  Mary in several poses....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't the brighter colors look nice for a change?  That means my last order from the Essamplaire will be stitched as charted.  The designs are all bright and I planned on doing a gray dip, but maybe not!  That of course, will depend on my mood at the time.  My mood was not good when stitching the over one numerals at the bottom.  Regardless of instructions, my thread disappeared constantly.  As long as I continue choosing primitive reproductions, my errors and lack of perfection won't be an issue.

My little tool was invaluable when turning under the edges to press. SO much easier to set the width instead of measuring.  Time to choose another project which won't be easy.  Another R&R?  Mary Hazlehurst?  A larger piece?  Search for Eliza?  Too many things on my mind that really need attention.  All the remodeling projects are top priority and I don't know how to handle this inability to make decisions.

The wood flooring needs to be chosen by the weekend and we'll be running around looking at options.  He is really against the pine but my biggest problem is finding lengths.  Even the local mill has bundles with pieces ranging from 12" to 48".  Requesting 5' lengths doubled the price, 8' tripled it.  You should have seen the look I got when I said I wanted to use finished plywood cut into 12"x 8' strips for the bedroom.   So confusion will reign for the coming days.

I'll leave you with a snow covered  Nitzy taking a break from beating up his fish.

 

Thanks for visiting.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

 

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An anniversary is a'coming

Greetings from snowy Pennsylvania.  Not much.  Just enough to aggravate me.  Nitzy (short for Nitwit) loves it.  Since all three love cardboard boxes, I open the flaps and tape them at the corners so they have a deep box to play in.  Some are completely covered with large plastic bags and taped to stay dry.  My deck looks like inventory day at Wal-Mart.  

So here's the deal...my blogging anniversary will be February 14 and you know that means another offering.  I clicked on my blog archive and went back to the very post here.   One thing about that post is not true.  I was ashamed to admit it in the beginning, but I DO eat treats and chocolate while stitching!  I guess I've come a long way, admitting to a multitude of needlework etiquette failures through this last year.  I continued reading and saw that some finishing methods changed as did my attitude about stitching properly.  The only constant has been menopause, my love of samplers and santas, and I still have trouble cutting into a full yard of linen.

  My side bar shows 16 giveaways in these two years, but I can't remember to always label a post and I think there were more. 

 This one will be for the tissue box, since I received so many nice emails and comments about it.   I can always make another for myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's dark brown with a tiny bit of red, some dark blue, and natural wood showing through the primitive paint finish on  1/4" wood.

 If you would like to enter for the drawing to be held Valentine's Day at 5pm EST, please leave your entry in the comments on THIS POST ONLY.  No-reply must leave email or name and initials.
 
I want to sincerely thank you all for the friendship and help through blogging these last two years.  I was so afraid to start, and now so glad I did.  I seriously doubt that I would have started stitching again without feeling this connection to others who share their needle's work and inspire many.  For us gals without a shop, your blogs are our source for new items, and old ones we've missed, ideas for finishing, along with the sharing of your tips.
So again I thank you, not only for your visits with me, but for inviting me into your stitching realm.
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