An Old Favorite for a New Little One

My last finish for 2011!  Design: Baby Surprise Jacket by E. Zimmerman.  Fiber: Rio de la Plata Multicolor Sock.  Needles: Size 3 US.  More info on my blog & Ravelry.  Here's to a productive and joyful 2012!!

Last Finishes for 2011

Here are my last 2 finishes for the year. Both were done in time for this year's tree! :) But neither were on my list :( They were in the 2010 JCS Christmas ornament issue.

Now I'm trying to clear the decks for starting Ann Dale on Jan. 1. I didn't do a very good job with my finishing list in 2011. I only achieved 2 of 11. One of them, however, was Margery Dean, which I completed in 10 months. I really, really hoped to finish Shores of HRH, but am only through block 9 of 12. Maybe I need to learn how to make realistic lists!

How did you all fare on this crazy project?

Scarves!

Gift scarves! Finished a few days before Christmas! Yay!

Some Finishes!

I haven't posted here since August so I thought I'd post some of my finishes that weren't on my goal list for 2011. A goal list is just a list and it's ok to be inspired to do other things!

Raindrops on Roses

Pattern By IrishGirlieKnits for the Woolgirl Sock Club

Yarn MadelineTosh Sock

Colorway Raspberry

2010 $5 Quilt BOM for Calico Station

Flimsy Finished

Anniversaries of the Heart

Block for April

Personalizations to Come

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

2 Finishes!

A finished shawl/scarf!  Design: Tanta.  Yarn: Malabrigo Sock, color Abril. Needles: Size 6. Love it! Just in time for chilly weather.

Design: Blackbird Designs - a Loose Feathers chart whose name I cannot recall at the moment.  Fibers: Weeks.  Fabric: linen that came with the kitted up chart.  Framing: The Frame Shop, St. Augustine.

Lake Effect Socks

Finished sock, now to cast on 2nd sock.  Design: Lake Effect Socks.  Wool: Dream in Color Smooshy.

Can I get a big ol' "WOO-HOO!"?

Margery Dean - 1748

40 ct. Vintage Basketweave

NPI and Gloriana

I finished her today! This was a lot harder to me than it looked going in. All of the over-one areas were graphed incorrectly, as was part of the border in the lower right. I frogged the words in both cartouches and the left-hand tree. I'm still not completely happy with the word placement, but they're staying put. On to Shores of HRH!

Summery Finishes

Wondering if I'll ever catch up with myself...but have managed to get a few things finished (nothing like a deadline for motivation).  Little kimono sweater & wee matching socks for a coworker's baby shower:

They look so large in this snap but they are tee-nine-sy.


Finally got Olga kitty to the frame shop

And completed this Just Nan birth sampler in the same year of my great-nephew's birth...awesome!

This doesn't show the 9 million color changes...every few stitches argghh and little bees and lady bugs over 1, and the cutest little bunny button...all worth it.

How was your summer?

A Knitting Finish

I finished another project that was on my goal list from the beginning of the year!

Looking over everything that's left on my list, I've made progress on some but at this particular moment, I'm not interested in bringing any of those projects out of hibernation. So, I'm off to find something else.

What is everyone else working on?

July 4th Already?

Hope you all had a great one! I had fun at the races in Daytona this weekend. Got a little knitting done. I've gone off THE LIST on my stitching a bit, but hope to re-focus this month.

THE HARES

I thought for sure I had these little hares on my 2011 Challenge list but NOT - dang but anyway - A finish is a finish.  This is a freebie design by Paulette Stewart - Plum Street Samplers - I had emailed her and asked if it was OK to transfer the pattern to rug linen and she said OH HOW FUN !

I am proud to say this was hooked entirely with stashed wools.

This is a gift for DF Anne Marie who knitted two beautiful crayon box jackets -  one for mom and one for me.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer projects.  Melody

Two WIPs

Haven't finished anything but will finish this little Just Nan piece soon:

Little but mighty...a zillion different colors of floss. It's Just Nan's 3 Violets Humbug.  The fabric has lots of sparkly mylar woven in so I almost have to wear shades to fight the glare & find the right threads for the needle.  Also wrapping up part one of the mystery sampler from With Thy Needle & Threads:

This snap doesn't show the glowing colors of peach, ruby red, kudzu, greens, etc.  Eagerly awaiting part 2 which should arrive next week.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  Now could we get some rain down here in North Florida to assist the fire fighters?

Jenny Bean Finish!

Jenny Bean Halloween is finished and framed!

Close up of the frame.

Very fun stitch. I have a new start as well - Anniversaries of the Heart. Goodness knows how long that will take but I'm enjoying it too!

Off Topic Finish

Here is a picture of Just Nan's Needletweet "Daisy". I've been wanting to do something "springy", and this fit the bill. I wound up giving it to my Mom for Mother's Day. She's stitched on WDW honeysuckle w/DMC. The inside has a little lt. green wool page to hold needles.

BBD Dear Sister

My sister and I picked up this piece from the framer last week--

she is happy with the way it turned out.

I thought I'd  share a lovely finish that Linda P. had at our last meeting way back in April. I took a couple of pictures, this was the best of them, and asked her to send me some information on it and I'd post it for her. Well, she sent it and I apparently lost the email so I asked her to send it again, which she did and I'm finally getting around to posting it so everyone can see. I love how this one looks and believe me my picture doesn't do it justice. Linda always does a fantastic job and I hope you enjoy and are inspired!

_______________

Title:  "Marie-Lucie 1920" Sampler

Book:  Petits rouges di ici et d'ailleurs

Author:  Muriel Brunet and Francoise Ritz

Linen: Gander 38ct nacre

Fiber:  ThreadworX 1089

The sampler was very enjoyable and I loved watching the variegated reds change shades.  Naturally I breezed through the first portion, but once the alphabet became bigger and more elaborate the pace slowed down a bit.  Although the border may look tedious, there was a nice rhythm to it.  I actually have one last "tiny" motif to completed on the sampler....and it will be done on my daughter's birthday next month (April), then dated.

VIERLANDE FINISH

Good day !

This Vierlande sampler was repro'd by our good friend Lorraine Mootz and appeared in an issue of SANQ in 2010.  We discussed having it as a guild project and several of us started it in early 2010.  I think Henri and now Jane have finished it.  I have not worked on mine in a very long time and now there is not much motivation since I can enjoy Mom's. 


You can't see the frame very well but it is an aged very dark red painted frame.  We use the Frame Shop in St Augustine.  It is stitched with the called for DMC colors.  I love how it came out.

Maybe Mom will bring it to sampler guild next weekend so everyone can see it in person.

Congratulations Mom !!!!!!!  well done

blog post by Melody

Update on Margery Dean

Here is a picture of Margery Dean as of today (about halfway through). There has been some gnashing of teeth. I realized at about this point that the color number of the light green inside the border was wrong (The Attic had sent the wrong color). So I had to cut it out and find the right green (not in AVAS, but DMC because I couldn't find it and wouldn't wait for them to ship more). So, back on track now. I think it looks fine and no one but you and I will ever know.

Azalea Sampler Guild - March meeting

Most of the contributors to this blog meet monthly to stitch as the Azalea Sampler Guild. Many in the group have been meeting for a number of years, while some of us are relative newbies to the group, if not to stitching. Regular viewers may notice the new header. At the last meeting (back in March which means I'm really late getting this written) I managed to get pictures of the items everyone was working on and thought it would make a great header, at least for awhile. And so you know what each masterpiece is and who is stitching it I thought I'd give the rundown.

First is Maria working on JCS 1707 from The Scarlett Letter. It's an amazing piece and Maria has been lucky enough to see the original in person at the Sampler Museum in Celle, Germany. It's an amazing piece and I look forward to seeing it finished. Unfortunately that won't be until later in the year since Maria is off to spend the summer at her home in Italy. Our group will miss her while she's gone.

 Next is Loretta's Margery Dean. It's a beautiful piece with some amazing colors. I love the honeysuckle border but I'm not sure I'd want to do as the pattern suggests and fill in the entire background with cream cross stitches. I'll have to remember to ask Loretta if she's going to do that part or just let the linen show through. Either way I think it will look fantastic.

 Next is Jackie working on Jenny Bean Halloween. (At least I think that's which one she's working on, you'd think I'd know but I didn't write it down because I just knew I'd remember!) I have to tell you all that Jackie hasn't been stitching long and she's really learned a lot since her first lesson and is becoming a great stitcher.

 Kerri was taking a break from stitching on a BAP to work on Elizabeth Easton by the Goode Huswife.  You just have to love that large bird at the top! Normally Kerri is working on a large piece and she's got some lovely BAPs that I hope you get to see pictures of soon.

 Jill is working on an OOP 1798 Quaker Sampler by Goode Huswife. There are several different colors of green that she's using and it is very lovely. I am in love with the simple elegance of the Quaker designs and this one is amazing. I'm sad it's OOP.

 Kris' start on 1830 Susan Rambo Sampler from the Spring 2011 Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly is everything that the picture on the front of the magazine promises and more. Kris is using DMC and the colors are amazing. Plus she'd made great progress when we met last month so I'm looking forward to seeing what else she's accomplished when we meet this month.

 Well I'm not sure what Henri was working on here. I wrote down that she was working on Black Willow Farm by Carriage House Samplings, but that's not what this is. So I'm totally lost. Hopefully she'll see this and put a note in what it really is. Totally silly of me.

This is Linda's Ann Rogers 1820 from The Essamplaire. Linda has another beautiful piece in the making here and she's almost finished. I didn't get a good picture of this one, the colors are much better than this picture shows.

I didn't get a picture of Karen's start on AotH or what I was working on, HallowEden. Karen said she didn't have enough done for it to show up and well I was being lazy taking a picture of mine. I'm hoping to do this again when we meet and maybe even getting the post up earlier to give you an idea of what we are doing.

Susan Rambo Sampler - WIP

Here's my latest obsession...the Susan Rambo Sampler, the cover girl from the current issue of SANQ.  I'm using a single strand of DMC on 32 ct linen (whose origin I cannot recall at the moment).  Based on another blogger's comments about the NPI colors, I'm glad I decided to stick with DMC.

This is my very first reproduction sampler so it's been interesting to recreate the well, not mistakes...the originality of the motifs.  Not all are symmetrical, not all punctuation is correct, but those things make it endearing.  However, my OCD tendencies have been challenged haha.

For the last 2 weeks I have forsaken all knitting to work on this sampler...that's almost unimaginable to me!  Also took the plunge & boldly started in the "ULHC" (upper left hand corner)....hard to break a lifetime habit of starting in the middle.   Hope to post major progress in a few weeks.

First Finish!

Hey, it's small, but it's a finish!! I present Squirrel Fob by Heart's Content:

Well, it's not a fob yet. But I'm calling it a finish. I do have a whole stack of things I need to finish...mostly ornaments, but also some needlework accessories.

In my absence, I have also made progress on some of my other challenge pieces. I've been keeping up with my goals for Random Thoughts:

That blackwork border was fun! I thought it would be a pain, but it was so clever, I marveled at it the whole time I was stitching it.

I managed to get one of the corner gardens done on Chatelaine's Mystery II...but it's not looking good for me finishing this in 2011! This one corner took me so long, and there are 3 more to go...not to mention the rest of the thing!

That's a LOT of Jessica stitches!!

Another AotH block complete

The goal was to finish one block a month on my Anniversaries of the Heart sampler. I'm not quite doing that, but I did manage to finish February's block, even if it did take until almost mid March!

This block was dedicated to my mother's sister, Nora. She's been a huge part of my life and if you want to know more about how head on over to the post on my blog. I won't bore the rest of you that have already read it there here. But I will repeat myself and say that the "J" above her name is for her husband, Uncle Jim; the "S" is for her granddaughter Sara; and the other "J" (which is hard to see I know) is for my paternal aunt Joann. All four of these folks have birthdays in February.  Somehow I realized I didn't put my DF Heather on this and her birthday is in February, so when I pick it back up I'll put the H in for her, probably across from the S.

That's all for now. Stitching continues on Alphabets, and I've been slowly knitting on some shawls and a scarf that are on my needles. Hopefully I'll finish one of them soon.

Anniversary and Finishes

First the anniversary was my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. It was March 3rd,  I didn't quite finish their sampler in time, but since it's a surprise I'm not too worried. I finished the stitching on the 7th I believe and got it over to the framers where I'd already decided on the frame and they had it in ready to be put together. It should be all ready later this week. My pictures aren't great since I had to take them on the sly and was using my Dazor lamp for lighting.

An Emblem of Love, Designed by With My Needle

And a bit of a close up of the bottom, right hand corner.

It was stitched on 36ct Lakeside, V. Lt. Examplar with a single strand of Belle Soie in Eggplant and Florimell Silk Floss from Gloriana Threads in Old Gold. I couldn't have done this without two very special friends. First Melody (Woolwoman) who not only had the pattern in her stash and was willing to let me purchase it from her, but had the perfect fabric and the Belle Soie in her stash as well. "Shopping at Melody's" was wonderful and so helpful and allowed me to get started on it that much quicker. I knew I wanted to add some gold in, since this was for their Golden Anniversary. I tried two different silk fibers from my own stash and neither was right. Lucky for me Jackie (Jackie's Stitches) bought the perfect Gloriana silk while we were at The Attic in January and since I didn't need much and she doesn't need much for her project loaned me her skein so I could "get'r done". It's wonderful how great stitching friends are!

Speaking of Jackie, she's not the only one to finish Stacy Nash's Schoolgirl Linen Sewing Book.

Mine is a stained a little darker than Jackies as you can see, and the inside is probably different since I didn't like the pocket and decided to use some mother of pearl thread holders I had in my stash.

It took a lot of time to put together, but they look great.

I also finished a needlepoint ornament. I adore how it turned out and can't wait to see it on the tree next year.

And of course the back because...isn't this fabric just too adorable?

I was very lucky to be in just the right place at just the right time when I purchased this canvas. DF Jean and I were at In Stitches in Atlanta looking for a little something for me to work on while I was up there one time since I hadn't brought any stitching with me and we were going to stitch group that evening. I found this adorable snow bunny and of course had to have it but was having trouble deciding on fibers. As luck would have it Julia Snyder was in the shop just hanging around having gotten into town early for classes she was teaching at the shop that weekend. Since everyone else was busy she helped me put together a stitch guide and pick fibers. Of course that meant Jean and I had to sign up for her class the next time she was going to be in Atlanta, but that's a whole other post and picture.

That's all the finishes. I have been able to mark 2 more items off my list, the bunny was stitched last year. I'm slowly getting February's block of AotH finished. I did finish February's goal for Alphabets.

And with January's goal:

I'm not sure I'll attempt to take it off the scroll again any time soon. Maybe wait a few months. I'm hoping I can get March's goal complete, hint it fits in the blank spot you can see, fairly quickly. But first to finish up with Valentine Rose (AotH - February).

Hope everyone else if having a wonderful spring and enjoying time spent with needle and fiber!