A Finish and a Start

Yay a finish! Bent Creek Peace Be With You is now finished. I have GOT to get on framing my finished cross stitches. I have over ten finished and I think I've framed maybe two. Here it is!

I had a really fun time as this was the first time I've ever worked on linen. Right after I finished I got another one ready to start. Bent Creek Leaf samper. I absolutely love fall as you can see from previous posts so this one I had to start now. My rotation is now this piece and the Baby Sampler which I need to get finished soon as the baby is due in early December. I have two smalls I want to get started on too as well in addition to a large piece during Chrismas break.

Bent Creek Peace Be With You start

Right after I finished Shy Violet I started this small Bent Creek kit Peace Be with You. It came with the pattern, fabric and three stoneware buttons to sew on once the piece is stitched. I LOVE this one. I went ahead and got the thread for this, which is GAST Dried Thyme which was for the leaves. The pattern is from 2004 and the colors I think have changed a bit since then. The skein I purchased at my LNS was almost pastel compared to the more olive color on the model. I swapped it out for Valdani Olives which is a nice compliment to the WDW Chesapeake and Teal Frost. I also used WDW Molasses which I got for another Bent Creek pattern I'll be doing later for the GAST Dark Chocolate since they were so similar and I already had the Molasses. Can you tell I'm thread happy?
I'm seriously in love with Valdani threads, they are so great to work with, really nice colors and the skein is twice the length of WDW and GAST for the same price. So far I've used three different colors in two projects and I'm going to get more in the future. I can't say enough good things about Valdani thread. I'm also hooked on Bent Creek as well. I found quite a few patterns that I love and got a good price. I have another one of these Bent Creek Stoneware kits on the way and I can't wait to get these done. They are really fun to stitch.

Shy Violet finish!

With help from my official lap warmer Sage. Isn't he cute? (Nose is not this large just too close with the camera..lol).

Decisions decisions...

I've completed the dark green portion of Ink Circles Shy Violet and now I'm debating on a few things. The model is stitched on Vintage River Willow linen from Lakeside Linens & Designs. I am stitching mine on a piece of cream aida which is either 18 or 16ct (bit of a mystery piece floating around my stash). The piece calls for a cream thread accent using GAST buttermilk, but instead because I used cream fabric I'm thinking of filling in the green with a green that matches the River Willow color much like the model. The color match is either DMC 522 or 523. I'd leave the cream accents unstitched so the cream fabric shows through. The other change I'm thinking of is the GAST Sugarplum changed out for Valdani Mauve Orchid. I really like that deep purple color. I still might use Sugarplum as I'm also thinking of stitching this three times in a row, maybe dark purple in the middle and the lighter on either side? Oh I always do this to myself instead of stitching what it calls for I play with the colors...Decisions decisions...

MMM Fall is here...

Been busy with putting up Fall decorations, finished a small cross stitch project and still working on the LK Birth Sampler. I also started Ink Circles Shy Violet to keep up with my Ink Circles SAL. Get ready, lots of pictures today... Here is our mantle before, aka the clutter shelf...

 Here it is now all prettied up for fall (my favorite time of year).

 These are some letters I'm working on, sneak peak of a project coming up...

This is a little project I finished up and isn't she cute? It's a little kit I got and spruced up with glitter, because glitter makes everything better right?

 I even glittered her feet with striped green and black socks...

Here is my start on Ink Circles Shy Violet. I'm using Valdani Evergreens right now, its such a rich green I LOVE their threads.

Sew Oregon Shop Hop

This past Saturday my best friend and I went on the Sew Oregon Shop Hop 2011 traveling from Southern Oregon up to Riddle, Roseburg, Sutherlin, Drain, Coos Bay and Bandon. We had so much fun and got some great stuff.

Birth Sampler update

Here is the latest update on the Lizze Kate Birth Sampler. I really like the evenweave fabric it's a lot easier than I thought to work with. This is 28 Ct Lugana in Miracle Mint color.  The design isn't large just 3.5x7 so I used what my local Needle shop calls Little Bits, this one being 13.5x17.5 so I'll have some fabric left over for smaller projects.

Birth announcement

My nephew is soon to be a proud Papa and so all other projects got set aside to do a birth announcement. I searched around and found Birth Sampler by Lizzie Kate. Here is my progress so far.

The baby is due in December and I'm hoping to have it done well before then except the date of birth. As soon as the baby is born I'll finish it up, frame it and send up to them in Washington state. I'm so excited to be a Great Aunt!