Peaceful Silhouette

Peaceful Silhouette by Dimensions

stitched from a kit with included threads and fabrics

I'll be back in a few days with some pics from a recent Fair & Square exchange, but I am going through my draft posts trying to breathe some life into this blog.  Meanwhile, enjoy this piece from Mr. SweetPea, something he stitched up a few years ago and gifted to his brother (another one we failed to take a photo of once it was framed).

Mr. SweetPea doesn't fool around and often takes on more ambitious projects (and still manages to finish a few of them before I get through some of my smaller projects!).  To be honest, all these shades of brown and tan probably would have driven me batty, but he seemed to enjoy the process.  It is indeed a peaceful scene, though!

As for me, I've been very busy with Little Dude back in preschool and going back to work myself.  We're on the go all week, and try to do fun things with Little Dude on the weekends.  It's our favorite time of year to be out and about and we've been very fortunate to have some beautiful weather in the northeastern US.  Sadly, my stitching time has diminished.  I've been going to bed earlier (5:30 am comes quick!) and I'm a lot more tired at night, so I limit how much time I spend on my pieces because I'd rather not be endlessly ripping out mistakes.

But as I mentioned, I do have a F&S exchange to post, so you'll be seeing that soon.

SBQ for June...2012???

WOW has this post been sitting around for a while!!  Over two years.  Yikes!  (Yeah, so now I am just randomly pulling up drafts of posts and finishing them up.)  Still a good one though, and showcases some of my favorite pieces.

Also, since there seems to be some interest in SBQs, not to mention they're a great "blog prompt" when you don't know what to write about, I think I'm going to start something up in the fall with monthly questions.  More on that later.  For now, back to um.... 2012.

June 2012:  Do you stitch patriotic/national pieces (or maybe just pieces that represent a specific place)? What's your favorite? (submitted by CinDC)

While there are some very lovely "American" and "USA" pieces out there, they generally don't attract my attention for stitching.  I do, however, have more than a few pieces that represent specific places in the US, mainly lighthouses, such as this one from The Design Connection (though I must confess it was stitched by Mr. Sweet Pea).

NOTE: I believe this design is now OOP.  I can't find it in any of the stitching shops, only on eBay.

Or this piece, Maine Fishing Village by Seguin Designs, that we modified as a birth sampler for our son.  Without a doubt, if we were to chose our favorite places in the world, New England in general, and Maine in particular would be high atop that list, so we have several lighthouse pieces in our collection.

I was also gifted with Blue Ribbon Designs Americana Panorama, which is waiting to be stitched.  So yes, in that respect, we do purchase and stitch what could be considered national pieces for the US

I also tend to find myself attracted to those pieces that reflect my Irish heritage, such as this one from The Sweetheart Tree, Tangled Shamrocks, and my husband has honored his German heritage with a few pieces as well.

Fly away, butterfly

Back to sharing some of the finished pieces I haven't blogged about yet (or framed). These two are both by Mr. SweetPea, and they're both from Dimensions kits from our early stitching years.

Exotic Butterflies by Dimensions

Obviously it's not the best photo, and the silvery frame on the piece itself is a bit off, but it's still a pretty piece. I'm thinking this might look nice in our living room since we have some stained glass pieces we inherited from Mr. Sweet Pea's grandparents already hanging there.  One in particular is a pretty blue and pink bird piece that echoes some of the colors of this one.




The second piece is Butterfly Triplex, also by Dimensions.  This piece coordinates with two others Mr. SweetPea stitched.  One was gifted to his mom but is currently awaiting re-framing since our original framing job wasn't a good one (we had NO idea what we were doing).  As soon as that one's finished (it's a Dimensions Rose piece), it will appear on the blog.

A joint project from the early years

Things have been MUCH busier around here than I anticipated. Little Dude is done with preschool for the summer, so most of my time has been consumed by entertaining a 4 year old. Trips to the library and the park, fun activities, playing trains - the days are just loaded. I'm still stitching most evenings, but I know I haven't been posting as frequently as I was for a while there.  My ultimate goal is to post at least once a week.  We'll see how that goes. 

I did go through our stitching drawer a while back and found some pieces I haven't shared on the blog.  There's a couple more of these posts in my draft pile, but here's something from way back.

The Sorcerer and The Sorceress by Dimensions

Stitched from a kit

These two pieces are from our early years of stitching.  Mr. Sweet Pea did the sorcerer, and I did the sorceress (why yes I did change her hair color to a slightly redder shade).  I don't even know if these kits are still available, but we bought these in the craft store.

Our tastes have changed since then, but these have sentimental value.  They were among our very first stitching pieces and there was a time when we both enjoyed fantasy literature on a regular basis.  They're still in the finished unfinished drawer, but perhaps some day they will be able to cast a spell and free themselves.

10th Anniversary Piece

I Will Love You by Annie Beez Folk Art

Stitched 2 over 2 on 25 ct. mystery linen with recommended threads

I finished up my anniversary piece for Mr. SweetPea. (We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in April).  As I mentioned before, I went to my LNS about 2 weeks before our anniversary to figure out what I was going to stitch for this milestone.  Because I enjoy waiting till the last minute....

Nothing was really doing it for me, until I spotted this one and remembered I had purchased it a few years ago and it was sitting in my stash.  I think I probably even bought it intending to stitch it for an anniversary.  So I picked up the fabric I needed, going a little larger than the recommended 32 count because I wanted to frame this finish.

For the most part, this was a super easy stitch, except for all those damn little confetti stitch stars.  I love how the look on the front, but they were kind of a pain in the butt to stitch.  I considered using seed beads but decided to stitch as designed.  Eventually I'll get this framed and hung on the wall.  Maybe even before our 20th anniversary.

And if you must have it RIGHT NOW, you can check out Annie's Etsy Shop for an instant download.

In honor of our recently departed extended winter season

Winter Bird Delight by Praiseworthy Stitches

Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct. fabric with recommended threads

Here on the east coast of the US, we had a VERY long winter.  A very long one - and the second snowiest season on record for our area.  As someone who can't stand the heat and humidity of summer, I don't generally mind the cooler months, but it does get to be exhausting when you have a four year old stuck in the house because the temperatures are well below freezing.

This is a piece my husband stitched a while back, as you can tell by the date on the bottom (2010).  It's been sitting in our FUFO (finished un-finished objects) since then, and I realized I had never taken a picture or shared it on the blog.  It's one of several bird themed pieces he's stitched or has in progress, since birds are an interest of his.  I'm not quite sure where it will end up as it's slightly too big for an ornament.  Chances are it will get framed and hung somewhere in our front hall or living room since the blue fabric it's stitched on coordinates nicely with the paint colors in those areas.

An ornament for our tree

I might as well get caught up on several of the pieces I finished at the end of 2013. I was determined to get some new ornaments on our tree, and someday plan to be caught up with the yearly ornaments for my son. (I can't tell if it's good or bad that he's four, and I'm already missing one year's ornament)

Angel Greeting by Kissy-Cross
Free Chart available here: http://kissycross.twoday.net/stories/4537414/
Stitched on 40 ct. linen with Belle Soie Cranberry Silk Thread

I apologize for the weird pink cast to the photo, but this is a beautiful piece.  The linen is a neutral sandy color, and the cranberry Belle Soie is a rich maroon color.  (The Belle Soie silks are always so lovely to stitch with, and they have a nice sheen to them)

It's been finished and sitting in a drawer FOREVER, waiting for my husband to stitch our name and the year (2011) for the back of the ornament.  (I won't even tell you how long it was kitted up waiting to be stitched in the first place)  I finally ended up doing it myself, and putting the piece together so it could hang our our tree this past Christmas.

Because his family is very proud of their German heritage, he went with the German wording, but the chart also includes Merry Christmas in English.

A sentimental gift

Remember Me by My Big Toe Designs
Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct. Fog
With Crescent Colors Blacksmith Blue and Raspberry Parfait
Accented with antique buttons

I spotted this design early in 2011, after my husband's beloved grandmother passed away just days after her 99th birthday. I knew it was something we had to stitch in her honor for his mom. He agreed, and I picked up the chart and threads. I originally wanted to do it in two shades of pink (Grandma's favorite color) but he thought it would be too much pink and chose a darker blue accented by pink.

I picked this raspberry shade of pink for a particular reason. Right after Grandma passed away, I sent out an email to the extended family and cousins to let them know what happened and what the funeral arrangements were. (I stay in regular touch with most of the cousins via email and Facebook and it was my way of helping my MIL, who was feeling overwhelmed at the time.) As the response emails started coming back, I noticed a consistent theme in what people were saying they'd most remember about Grandma - her welcoming kitchen and delicious food, specifically her homemade raspberry jelly. My husband has mentioned this himself numerous times, and it seems he's not the only one it had an impact on. It's a little thing, but I am very sentimental like that, and I think my husband appreciated it as well.

What is obvious in the piece are the antique buttons used in place of some of the specialty stitches. I've mentioned the button collection we inherited from Grandma before, and these are some of the buttons from that collection. Just before he framed it, Mr. Sweet Pea picked out some of his favorites and stitched them onto the piece.

This is another American Frame, with a twist, as it's not the original frame I selected. Right after I placed the order, I got an email saying there was a mistake on the website and the frame I ordered was not in stock. Ugh. I hate it when that happens, but I went back to the drawing board and picked another frame. As it turns out, I like this one better than the first one I chose, and it works beautifully with the furniture in my IL's dining room, where it now hangs. I should also mention that Mr. Sweet Pea used acrylic on this piece (which is why you can see the glare) and some clear spacers to leave enough clearance for the raised buttons.

My MIL absolutely loved the piece and was deeply touched by the time and care her son put into stitching and framing the piece. She says she walks by it every day and it makes her smile to see it.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

Or rather, my lovely mother in law does.

My Sunshine by La D Da

Stitched over 2 on 32 ct. Lakeside Vintage Light Examplar
with Crescent Colors Black Coffee, Manor Red, Queen Bee and Pewter

Last year, I saw this design floating around the blogosphere and knew immediately that it was something we had to do for my mother-in-law. I remember my grandfather singing this song for me when I was very young, but it's a song my husband's mom sings to her three grandchildren all the time. This was perfect for her, and my husband stitched it for her for a Christmas gift. (Yes, I am just now getting around to posting a photo)

My job was to figure out how to frame it. Sometimes when I see a pattern, I have an instant vision of how to display it and this was one of those instances. I lucked out - stitched on 32 ct. fabric, this design fits perfectly into a pre-made 8x10 frame. However, finding an 8x10 frame with two matching smaller frames that we liked *and* that worked with the design proved to be a challenge. I hunted through several stores to find something that worked - not an easy task when your constant companion is an active 13 month old boy! He's a good kid, but he only has so much patience, and there's only so much room in the picture frame aisle. You need eyes in the back of your head to keep on a curious little one so he's not grabbing things off the shelf!

But we did manage to stumble across a frame at Bed Bath & Beyond, and lo and behold, there were matching 4x6 frames as well. Not only did they work with the design, but they were perfect for my ILs house. Score!

I ordered up prints of our son and his two cousins. The original plan was to do four total smaller frames - one for each of the three grandchildren and an extra one for any additional grandchild, but the 8x10 frame ended up looking much better with just the two frames, so we decided to put our son on one side and my BIL's children on the other. If any additional grandchildren enter the picture, it's easy enough to change out the photos.

The gift was a HUGE hit with my in-laws, especially my MIL, who cried. (good tears, not bad ones) She was so touched that we found a pattern for the song, and she absolutely loved the framing idea. The set now hangs at the top of their stairs so they can see it every day.

Dreaming of Tuscany

Dreaming of Tuscany by Dimensions
Stitched on 18 ct. Aida with included threads
Finished 2005 - Framed 2011

This is another of my husband's pieces, again from back when we first started stitched and stitched primarily kits. Neither of us are Italian or have any Italian heritage, and while I've been to Italy, I haven't been to Tuscany. Still, we both really like this piece. We both love a good bottle of wine, so that counts, right? (And I love Northern Italian food)

I framed this one as well, but used a black wooden frame with an open back (small metal clips hold the artwork in place). Since there's more room in the frame, I was able to use the glass also with the mat board and the needlework, and not have to worry about squeezing in a backing board. When we're ready to hang this one, my husband uses double stick framing tape and brown framing paper to seal off the back of the piece. (The framing tape and paper are available at any quality art supply store).

I wanted to be able to cover this one with glass because I plan on hanging it in our kitchen. We have a small section of wall between our basement door and the doorway to the dining room that this will be perfect in.

But I'm also holding off on hanging it up until my husband finishes the piece he's currently stitching on: Tuscan Greeting by Dimensions, seen here


When I was preparing to write this post, I went looking for a link to the first piece. I like to include a link whenever possible because I've had people email me asking where they can find the piece for themselves. And I know I always appreciate a link on someone else's blog when I see a chart I really like. It's nice to know where to be able to find it. Anyway, when I went looking for the link, I saw this piece in the "You May Also Like" section and decided, yes, I really do like that one. The next time I was in a craft store, I picked it up (it is available at chain stores like Michael's and AC Moore), and now my husband is working on this piece. We already have a large enough unfinished pile, but I already have the frame and mat for this one ready to go. As soon as it's done, we'll get it framed and both pieces up on the wall.

I've made a small dent in our FUFO drawer, but there's still several other pieces I'd like to get finished and framed our our walls. The problem is that I like to have an overall plan in mind before I start framing, so I can make sure the pieces I want to hang together look like they belong together. They don't have to be matchy-matchy, but I do like them to coordinate. I've learned to be a little more patient with things and hold off until we've decided what we want to do. Yes, sometimes I get a little antsy and would like to display more of our work, but in the end, it ends up being worth it to plan ahead.

I know how this looks...

Safe Passage by Bucilla

Stitched on 14 ct. Aida with included threads

I know what you're thinking.

These people are nuts. How much lighthouse stuff can two people possibly collect?

Would you believe me if I said, "Not that much, actually?" Or at least it's not blindingly obvious the second you walk in our door.

Sure, if you poke around long enough or dig through the stash under the guest bed, or visit us at Christmas and happen to notice that a good 30% of our ornaments are lighthouses or of a nautical theme, you might come to the conclusion that we have a *interest* in lighthouses (to be polite about it). But I've worked hard at not covering every available surface with lighthouse stuff, and we limit ourselves to things we're really in love with, which cuts down on the impulse purchases. Just because something is a lighthouse, has a lighthouse on it or is somewhat reminiscent of a lighthouse doesn't mean we need to own it. (We won't talk about the camera bag that I HAD TO HAVE because it was covered in lighthouses. Or the fact that it wasn't actually a camera bag, but rather a canvas purse. And yes, I did retire it in favor of an actual plain black padded camera bag).

For the most part, our displays of lighthouses are restrained and spread out around the house. Except in Little Dude's room, where there's a concentration of photos of lighthouses from around the world. Nevermind that. He LIKES them. And he's going to like this piece too, because that's where it's going. Yeah, that's right. It's another lighthouse on our walls. (also, he's not even two years old, so it's not like he gets a say in how his room is decorated)

It's also another of my husband's earlier pieces that I dug out and framed - easy pickins as the 5x7 standard size is a quick one to do up. You may be noticing a trend in black frames - I am, too. I hope I don't find it necessary to scale that back, and I hope I still love how it looks years from now because we have a LOT of black frames in our house. Eh, black is always in style.

Another piece escapes the FUFO drawer!

A little while ago, I mentioned a drawer full of finished unfinished pieces / objects - FUFOs, as I've heard them called and it got me thinking about actually DOING something with them. Yes, many things I've stitched have been finished and given as gifts, but there are still many more languishing in a drawer in our guest room.

Some of those pieces were stitched by my husband. Technically, I'm not allowed to discuss his stitching, but I am going to ignore that "rule" because I'm quite proud of him. While most stitchers I know are women, there is a handful of men that stitch and my husband happens to be one of them. He does amazing work, and has patience for things I don't, such as massive projects. I might have even said before that he was the one that started us stitching as a way to curb our nighttime snacking habits. He figured we should do something to occupy our hands that wasn't conducive to snacking as well, and stitching fit the bill. We were living in an apartment at the time, and stitching didn't take up a whole lot of room. We started out with pre-packaged kits from places like AC Moore and Michaels, then discovered our LNS, The Strawberry Sampler, where we graduated to charts, overdyed threads, linens and evenweaves.

Since my husband will NEVER start a blog of his own, I'd like to showcase a few of his pieces on my blog. This is one of the first pieces he stitched, and here's a shocker for you - it's a lighthouse!

Nautical Light by Creative Accents (Dimensions)
Stitched on 14 ct. Aida with included threads
Finished 2002 - Framed 2011

The project was in a kit in a standard 5x7 size, making it quite easy to frame with an 8x10 frame and 5x7 mat. This one will be going on display on our living room bookshelves.

I should have taken a picture of the back of the piece, but didn't. I will say it's amazing how far we've both come with technique, especially carrying threads over the back of the fabric. See the whale and the ship off the stitched coastline? Mr. Sweet Pea used one long thread to stitch all of them, carrying the thread across the back. Yikes! We'd never do that now, especially on linen or evenweave. Fortunately, the thread did not show through the Aida fabric, so I let it go.

I did, however, restitch the outlining on the lighthouse. Originally, the outlining on the lighthouse was done with long, somewhat loose threads (Even on the package photo, the outlining is done like this and at the time, we didn't know any better.) But when I went to pull it out for framing, those long threads drove me NUTS and I had to pull them out and restitch the backstitching over single threads. It looks so much nicer, I think.

I should also confess at this point that we were not as careful with the fabrics as we are now. In fact, there might have been some *gasp* masking tape residue on the edges of the piece as we used regular old masking tape to prevent fraying. (I'll give you a minute to pick yourself up off the floor). And before you call the stitching police on me, we're much better now. Most pieces we stitch now are on custom cut pieces of fabric from my new LNS (is it still new after 2 years?) Just Crossstitch in Lederach, where Carolyn serges the edges. On fabric I cut myself, I use a fabric fray check and pinking sheers which works out fine.

But back to atoning for my previous sins. On one hand, the fabric under where the masking tape had been was clean. On the other, that stripe of clean, bright fabric around the edge made me realize how dirty the rest of the fabric was, even though I had washed the piece in cold water and Ivory dish soap before putting it away. I wanted to make sure the piece was as clean as possible before I framed it, but I had concerns about the red dye running. After a bit of google searching, however, I found that many stitchers agreed OxiClean was safe enough to use on stitching and could remove most stains, so off to the grocery store I went for a tub of OxiClean.

Lucky for me, it worked just fine, and I had no bleeding of the red dye. (YAY!) I was quite nervous but it all turned out in the end. The stains were gone and the piece looked much better.

I have a few more pieces from my husband that I will be posting in the future, and I'm hoping to rescue even more FUFOs from the drawer.

Changed my Mind

Based on the advice from comments in the previous post, and my quickly losing interest in the gridding process, I've decided NOT to grid the fabric for Paradigm Lost.

After 10 minutes of gridding, I started thinking, "This is ridiculous. I've never gridded before, these are all separate motifs and I should be able to stitch this without a grid." Then I thought, "This isn't like one of those HAED pieces with multiple color changes and edge to edge stitching." And then I thought, "If I have to grid out this HUGE piece of fabric, I may stop stitching forever, and possibly throw myself under a bus." So I stopped gridding, pulled out the single piece of thread I started with, and we're all happier for it.

I had been hesitant about using the red thread all along anyway, as I've seen several complaints about stitchers having a hard time getting rid of the red fibers left behind whenever they've frogged out that thread.

But DH did take the chart to work this morning to photocopy it. IMO, those Long Dog patterns are expensive, and I don't see any point in ruining the original when I can just as easily stitch from a photo copy. Even though I use plastic sleeves for my charts, I have a tendency to fold them up here and there to focus on the section I am working on. Which means I am usually working off a copy if the original is a large chart or printed on cardstock.

I would also like to add that I am grateful for all the advice I've gotten, especially Vonna and Tracy J, both of whom not only commented, but replied to my emails with great advice as well.

Question about BAPs and Q-Snaps

DH and I have finally decided to get started on Long Dog's Paradigm Lost. We're stitching with DMC 823 (a dark navy blue) over 2 on 28 ct. Antique White. The piece of fabric we're using is 36x40 (which gives us a 5-6 inch border on each side of the piece).

I've already been advised to grid out the project using a contrasting thread, so I picked up a skein of DMC 666 to do the gridding with. Since it's one strand, I assume one skein should be enough to grid out the fabric (I've never gridded before either). The woman at my LNS assures me I should have no problems at all pulling the grid threads out once we're done with it. And we purchased a whole pile of the DMC 823 a while back so I know it's all come from the same dye lot and we should have plenty to get through the project. When I bought it, the stitchers at my old LNS said they used about 23 skeins for the project, but we bought 30 just to be safe.

This is by far the largest project we've ever taken on, and there's no way it's going to fit on our usual scroll frames. I have a very hard time stitching in hand - my hand cramps up and it's very uncomfortable for me, so we've decided to try Q-Snaps for this project. I've never used Q-Snaps before, so any advice on using them would be most welcome, as would advice on stitching a project this large. Do the Q-Snaps stretch out the fabric or the stitching? What's the best way to deal with the excess fabric not being stitched on? Is there a better way to stitch a project this large?

Look what came back from the framers!

Rocky Point by Dimensions (kit)
This is one of the first pieces my DH stitched. I know! Quite ambitious!!! It took him over a year to stitch the piece, and it languished in a drawer for a few more until my MIL asked us what we wanted for Christmas. DH and I had been discussing getting some of our more complicated pieces professionally framed, but the expense was a little daunting. However, getting one or two pieces at a time done made it less daunting, so we asked MIL if she'd like to foot the bill to have this piece framed. She thought it was a wonderful idea, so I took it to my LNS to have it done and picked it up yesterday. It's absolutely gorgeous, and will have a place of honor in our new home.

A few other things also managed to follow me out of the store. I don't know how it happened. Really. I swear. LHN's Princess and the Pea followed me home. I was just going to stitch it in DMC floss, but then I thought well why not stitch it in the recommended fibers, so that necessitated an order from Stitcher's Closet when I got home. And then I saw on Kim's blog that she was working on the piece as well, so we'll be stitching them together as soon as my fibers arrive

Also following me home were threads I picked for Carriage House Sampling's Acorns and Threads. I went with GAST Dark Chocolate, Apple Cider and Chamomile instead of the recommended fibers. (A gorgeous dark blue/purple called Auntie Dee slipped in there as well, though I am not sure what I will use it for). And then there was the Crescent Colors Belle Soie in Creme de Menthe that will probably be used for some Christmas ornaments.

Finally, some fabrics. I've been deciding on a few ornaments to do from the JCS ornament issue and decided on Snow Bunnies and Winter Love for myself, and DH is going to do the woodpecker. Our house backs up to woods and we have a feeder on our deck, so we get lots of different birds for us (and our cat!) to enjoy looking at. My favorite is the red bellied woodpecker with the cool red head (like me!), but DH likes the downy and hairy woodpeckers - the black and white ones with the tiny little red stripe on the males. I've been looking for a woodpecker ornament for our tree for a while now, so this is perfect.

Last night, I made a little more progress on Nautical Dreams, but I didn't take any pictures. I need to hurry up and get it done because I can feel myself getting bored doing it and itching to work on new projects.