A return to blogging. Again.

The last time I posted was back in September, and before that, it was the end of March 2013. Life with a toddler, now preschooler, gets in the way of blogging, I guess.

What brought me out in September was a tribute for Cathey's blogoversary, and it's part of what brought me out again. Sadly, Cathey passed away in October and our stitching community mourned her loss.  I still keep up with many stitching blogs, and I watched the ripple of sadness as the news spread.  It's taken me a while to get back to blogging, and I feel the need to make it more of a priority for the sense of community and friendship among stitchers.  Many of these stitchers will never be in the same room with each other, but still develop and nurture these bonds through our shared craft.  So many people came together to celebrate Cathey's blogoversary, to mourn her loss, and to help keep her memory alive for her husband and young son, people brought together by the love of stitching.

I want to make a contribution to that community, and I need to make a better effort to remain a part of it.  I've made some truly wonderful friends through stitching - some I've met in person, and many more that I haven't, and the sole reason our paths have crossed has been blogging.  Those relationships are important to me, and what brought us together should be more of a priority, especially since stitching is something I enjoy doing on a near daily basis.

Back in November, my friend Lee the Lake Stitcher wrote a post called "Why have we stopped writing?"  I put a great deal of thought into it, then failed to do anything.  I could probably blame it on November and December being busy times with the holidays.  We have family obligations, a four year old in preschool, loads of baking and cooking, etc.  If I'm being honest, though, I must admit things like Pinterest and Facebook have also cut into the time I normally would have spent blogging.  They're easier distractions, not really requiring me to put the effort into taking photos and writing a post.  By the time I've gotten through doing what I need (want) to do on those sites, I've hit a wall and am ready to get offline, without updating my stitching blog.

I'm lucky that a few of my stitching friends are on Facebook, but many more are not, and sometimes those relationships don't get the attention they deserve.  I tend not to share my stitching on Facebook either, because I've compartmentalized it.  I have Facebook friends from all aspects of my life and while it may be unfounded, I have this notion that people just aren't interested in my craft.  Which is ridiculous, I know, because I am proud of what I do, and I've actually changed the perceptions of a few people who thought cross stitch  was "those country looking pictures with geese wearing bonnets".

I want to put myself out there more than just following the blogs and making a few comments here and there.  I want to share more of my work, even if it's just for me to be able to say "I made a contribution".  I also need to keep up with my blog because it's my record of what I've done.  I've stitched many pieces that have been given away as gifts, and this is my way of remembering those pieces.  Knowing that I will eventually be blogging about my work also makes me more conscious of what I'm stitching, who I'm stitching it for, and the materials and time I put into it.  Right now, there are at least two dozen pieces of completed stitching sitting in a drawer, waiting to be finished and displayed.  Those pieces represent hundreds (maybe thousands?) of dollars and hours spent working on them, and I need to find some way to honor that effort until we can get them framed or finished and on display. It's not just my work that deserves to be on display either.  I have been the lucky and grateful recipient of some lovely pieces from fellow stitchers, and their work should be on display as well.

In a nutshell, I quit blogging because I'm a little bit lazy, a little bit crunched for time, and a little bit too involved with other forms of social media.  (Lee wrote a follow up post about why other bloggers have quit / fallen behind on posting).  I want to make it a priority to return to blogging because the relationships I've developed from it are important, contributing to this community is important, and honoring and sharing my craft is important.

Pumpkins for Cathey

I've been very bad about updating my blog - it's ended up taking a back seat to some other priorities.  I keep meaning to get back into it, and somehow it gets lost in the shuffle.

Something came up today, though, that pushed this blog post to the front of the line.  As many stitchers know, there's a great deal of friendship and caring in this community, many of whom have never met each other in person.  But that doesn't stop people from reaching out, from showing their support and from doing things both big and small to bring a little sunshine to a fellow stitcher.

Today is Cathey over at Pumpkin Patch & Co.'s blogoversary.  To be blunt, Cathey has cancer and it sucks.  It sucks because cancer in general sucks.  It sucks because Cathey is a sweet, wonderful, generous, talented, kind, considerate and compassionate woman.  And it really sucks because Cathey is a mother to a young son, which hits me a little harder because her son isn't much younger than mine.  I think about being in her position, and it breaks my heart.

But thanks to Sharon (Daffycat), Pumpkins for Cathey has been organized so we can all show our support for Cathey in her fight.  And she is a fighter. 

I haven't posted in forever, but I thought this was enormously important.  I don't have any needlework pumpkins to share, but I do have quite a collection of pumpkin recipes.  Since one of the things that has been limiting my blogging time has been meal planning and cooking, I think it's appropriate to share some delicious pumpkin treats in Cathey's honor.  Enjoy.

Baked Pumpkin French Toast by Dana Made It

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins by Annie's Eats

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Streusel Bars by My Baking Addiction

Pumpkin Scones with Spiced Glaze by Brown Eyed Baker

Tantes Zolder Patterns

The other day, I received an email from Karen at Ambitatterous.  She was looking for the Tantes Zolder butterfly chart I stitched a while back but the link in my blog post was dead and the page refused to load.  It wouldn't load for me either, and  it appears that the Tantes Zolder / My Aunt's Attic blog is offline.  From what I can make out from the translation, it appears the weblog.nl  that hosted the Tantes Zolder blog has been moved to wordpress, but I cannot find the blog itself.

I did, however, find another site that's hosting the patterns.  You can now get the Tantes Zolder patterns here, so you may want to update your links (I did in my previous post).

And if you're not familiar with Tantes Zolder, you should definitely check them out.  There are some very beautiful patterns.  They're from a collection of handwritten charts that were digitized and published on the blog.  Lilian Kok found the charts in her aunt's attic (hence the name) and with the help of some volunteers, generated almost 300 images that she made available for free.

If anyone knows where the original blog may have gone, please let me know.

A wedding gift for a happy couple

Sew Blue by iStitchaholic 

1 over 1 on 28 ct. evenweave
with Belle Soie Peacock

Personalized as a gift

This was a freebie pattern offered by Carol of iStitchaholic.  The original pattern has an alphabet across the top of the design, but I wanted to personalize it for a wedding gift, so I used the alphabet for  their names and wedding date, and charted out my own ampersand.

Gina is a dear friend of my husband's from college, and we wanted to send her and her new husband something personal since we could not make it to their wedding.  This is actually the first of two pieces I stitched - the other is a framed piece for their walls that has yet to be framed.  At least this one got out in time to hang on their Christmas tree this year! (And you'll see the framed piece later, once it's finished up)

So I changed the pattern to personalize the piece, and I took the ribbon from their invitations to my LNS and found a perfect match in the Belle Soie Peacock silk.  Gina also had a bit of a lace motif throughout her wedding plans, so I picked up on that with the trim around the edges, and found some teal blue fabric (what you see in the background) for the back of the piece.  The lace is actually much nicer in person.  I didn't realize it looked off in the picture until after I had mailed it out.  But rest assured I didn't send out a wonky ornament.

I've been on a bit of an over 1 stitching kick, and I never fail to be thrilled with how the tiny little stitches come out, especially with silks.

On Safari

I keep meaning to check if these gifts have made it to their intended recipient, and it keeps slipping my mind. That happens sometimes.

So these are two pieces I stitched up for my friend's son.  We meant to get together over Christmas so I could give them to her, but between family obligations and illnesses, it just didn't happen. I left the pieces with my mother-in-law, since she is good friends with little Mitchell's grandma.

Animal Alphabet Birth Sampler
by The Historical Sampler Company Limited
Stitched 2 over 2 on 36 ct Edinburgh Linen
Personalized as a gift

This is a piece I modified from the original.  Whenever I stitch a birth sampler, I like to include as much of the information as possible.  The original didn't leave room for the weight, length or time, so I added in a box under the last row of letters and extended the border.  Luckily, this worked out perfectly.

I also changed out the original panda bear for an elephant.  The panda bear was very cute, but the elephant was better suited to the "vintage safari" theme used for the nursery.  Once again, my husband did the framing (with a frame from American Frame).  I'm not sure if I've shared this tip before, but I always give him the chart I've stitched from with the rest of the framing materials.  He uses the chart to find the center of the stitched piece, and pins through the center gently into the backer board, then works out from the center to stretch the fabric over the edges.  He finds this especially helpful when framing something with a stitched border such as this.  Once he's done, or has enough of the piece pinned to hold it in place, he removes the center pin.

In addition to the framed piece, I also stitched up an ornament for Mitchell, keeping with the vintage safari theme.  As soon as I spotted this piece at my LNS, I knew it would be the one I did.  This one was done as charted, except I left out the bird charm (the original has a tiny bird perched on the back of the giraffe) and stitched in the birth year instead.

Zoo Line Up by The Trilogy

Stitched 1 over 1 on 32 ct. fabric

I'm super happy with how both pieces came out.  They're very different, yet have a similar feel to the pieces I stitched for Mitchell's older brother, Mason.  You can see them here.

Gift for a baby girl

Gabrielle Rose by La D Da
Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct. Antique White
Name intentionally blurred for privacy

Here's another piece that I finally finished up and framed, and delivered.

Kelly is the daughter of a childhood friend of mine and I wanted to make something special for her nursery. Since the parents didn't go with a specific theme for her room, I chose this piece from my stash.  It's pretty and feminine without being overly girly and I think it will be something pretty for her room for a long time to come.

I used the recommended colors for the piece, but left out the initials in the corners, and changed the wording on the banner to Kelly's last name.  In hindsight, I might have used a lighter color thread for her name, since the grey does seem to blend in, but I like the subtleness of the grey.

You may remember the piece I stitched up for Kelly's brother Ryan.  They went with a jungle theme, so I stitched Safari Birth Sampler by Mary Stickley for The Coleshill Collection.  Since the furniture in the nursery remained the same, I ordered a similar frame for both pieces.

Back at it: Valentine's Day Fair & Square

So it seems I'm back at my blog after yet another extended break. Sometimes life gets in the way, and sometimes I get frustrated that I can't do things as quickly and easily with this updated version of Blogger that I was able to do before. I have a whole backlog of posts I've set up, most of them partially written, and I'll try to be more consistent with posting. (I say this every single time, don't I?)

Let's start with an easy one - the latest Fair and Square exchange. Before I show the photos though, let me make another pitch for people to sign up. The Exchange IS taking new members. Participation has been down in recent rounds, and perhaps a few new members will re-energize the group. Jill has been a really wonderful administrator for the group and I have had a fantastic time getting to know my exchange partners, some with whom I've developed real friendships. If you're part of the group and haven't participated in a while, please consider signing up when the next round opens up. If you're not part of the group, submit your application to Jill - you won't be sorry.

Back to the pictures.  Peg and I were paired up again.  I enjoyed our last exchange, and was pleased to be her partner again.  These are the pretty squares Peg stitched for me.  The pattern is called Random Hearts by Erica Michaels, stitched on Vintage Strawflower with WDW Romance thread.  I'm thinking these would be lovely done up as an ornament or doorhanger with some lace trim, or maybe as a no sew cube with a Valentine themed ribbon around the edge.

And these are the squares I stitched for Peg, Valentine Heart 2008 by Dragonfly Stitches, on Antique White with WDW Begonia.

  

The pattern was a freebie I've had in my collection for quite some time.  Whenever I post a freebie I've stitched, I like to provide a link to the original so others can stitch it as well, but try as I might, I can't track this one down.  If you know where to find this chart, please let me know and I'd be happy to update the post with the link.

At the Hop: Stitching Tools and Aids

So I was reading Meari's blog, and discovered there was a Blog Hop going on!  Loretta over at Stitching the Night Away is hosting the blog hop, and if you were wondering what a blog hop is, here's how Loretta explains it:

The idea here is to pick a topic, sometimes a specific question, everyone will blog about the topic and then come back here and enter a link to their blog post in the link widget on the current post. That way everyone can check out the participating blogs, meet new blog friends, and comment on each other’s work, etcetera.

Now, I'm a little late to the party - the other stitchers are already on question nine, but hey, better late than never, right?  I figure I'll start with question nine, then work backwards (and forwards).  And away we go.

Question #9:  What are your must-have stitching tools and aides? Other than your trusty scissors, of course. Is there a problem you have had when stitching that you created your own solution for, or have you purchased a tool that helped?

My must haves include at least a dozen John James petite 28 needles, usually purchased in packets of 50 from Anita's Little Stitches.  I like to thread up a few needles at a time so that when I get in a rhythm while stitching, I don't have to break it by taking time to thread new needles.  If I'm working with 2 strands, I'll thread up 3 needles of the same color, and stitch as much as I can of that color to use up the needles.  I have been known to stick the threaded needles back into the pack, but I do that mostly when traveling.  At home, I use a biscornu I stitched as a pincushion.

Another must have when working with metallic threads is Thread Heaven.  Occasionally I'll use it on cotton threads, but for some reason, I find it makes them tangle up more than usual.  I generally only use it for metallics as I find it makes them SO much easier to stitch with.

I am, in general, a fairly organized person, and I have two items that help me keep my stitching organized.  (These tools are just for the act of stitching - we won't talk about my obsessive excel spreadsheets or my underbed storage boxes, at least not in this post).  Since I occasionally suffer from a short attention span, I like to have a few projects kitted up and within easy reach of my stitching chair.  I also have a 3 year old, so I need something that allows me to put things away quickly out of his reach.  For this, I use a Vera Bradley Little Travel Case. I've been using mine for several year - they're hard to find now as this is a discontinued design, but you can still find them being sold on eBay.  If you do come across one at a good price, it's very handy to have.  It zips around 3 sides, has a few mesh pockets inside for holding the aforementioned bags of needles and thread heaven and leaves plenty of room for my kitted up charts.

At home, I also use a square Rubbermaid container to contain my scissors, pincushion, needles and other stitching bits while I'm working.  I don't have to worry about my scissors falling off the table, and when I need to put it away, I snap on the lid.  As an added bonus, I don't have to worry about my scissors accidentally putting a hole through my fabric or in my Vera bag.  (I have yet to find a good sheath for my scissors).

Another kitchen product that comes in handy are snack size ziploc bags.  I am a fan of winding threads on bobbins, but my husband (also a stitcher) is not - he doesn't like the kinks in the threads when he unwinds them to use.  We looked at the baggie systems put out specifically for stitchers and decided instead of paying extra for that, we'd just use what we already had - the snack size bags.  They work out GREAT - colors are sorted out, easy to access, and no kinking involved.  We'll leave either the DMC color band with the number on it, or if using an overdyed, the color card, right in the bag with the thread.

Finally, one more tool that I find incredibly handy is a box of page protectors.  I rarely, if ever, stitch from an original chart - I will usually photocopy the chart, put the copy in a page protector and keep the original stashed safely in one of my storage boxes.  The page protector protects my copy, but if something happens, it won't happen to the original chart, and I can always make another copy if necessary.

And if the chart happens to be a freebie or a chart I've modified in PC Stitch and printed, the page protectors make it very easy to file the chart in one of my 3 ring binders when I'm finished stitching.  If I ever want to stitch the chart again, it's already printed - no wasting paper printing it up again.

So these are my slightly unconventional, but highly useful, tips and tools for stitching.  Be sure to make the rounds and see what the other participants have to offer - who knows?  You might find the perfect solution to a problem that's been a thorn in your side!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:

Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

Breaking up is hard to do

February 2012:  Is there anything in your stash that you are ready to end your relationship with? (submitted by CinDC)

Oddly enough, this ties in nicely to the January SBQ about the oldest patterns.  I started stitching in 2002-2003, and over the years, have acquired several charts, patterns and kits I am now willing to part ways with.   In some cases, my tastes have changed, such as with these snowmen, Mr. Mittens and Frosty.  They're very cute, and I stitched them both as gifts, but they're not really my thing anymore.

I also have several birth and wedding records in my stash that I stitched once and will most likely never stitch again (more from my early days of stitching, when I stuck to pre-packaged kits.)  Now that I regularly modify things to personalize them, I've moved away from kits and I'm ready to make room in my collection.

There are a few charts I'd be happy to send along to a new home for more personal reasons.  I bought them at a different time in my life, with the intent for stitching them for people who are no longer a part of my life.  There's nothing wrong with the charts - some of them are brand new and have never been out of the package.  They just don't fit with my life, and in fact, going back to look over them as I was writing this post kind of annoyed me, that minor annoyance you feel when you look back at mistakes you've made along the way, ones you didn't realize were mistakes at the time. but can see them in hindsight.  No point in kicking yourself over it, but no point in keeping reminders around either. 

Along with these charts, I have a collection of Aida cloth taking up space.  The more I stitched, the less I relied on what came in the kits I was still purchasing, and I branched out.  I started by substituting fabrics, exchanging a 14 ct. Aida for a 28 ct. evenweave, and going from there.  

Don't get me wrong - sometimes those pieces of Aida come in handy for some projects, but it's now become a design choice I make, instead of having it made for me.  Sometimes I like the chunkier, more obviously stitched look that Aida gives to a piece, and I have two birth sampler charts that I've used several times that I stitch on Aida fabric.

These are "Snips and Snails" and "Sugar and Spice" from Serendipity Designs.  I like them because they stitch up quick, and done on a 14 ct. fabric, fit perfectly in a 5x7 frame.  They're my go-to design when there's no specified theme for a nursery.  So while I may not chose kits anymore, there's still some room left for Aida fabric.  Perhaps just not all of it though...

So, that's my story.  If you're interested in any of the charts I have listed, please let me know and we can work something out.  You can see them all here: Stash for Sale or Trade

Birth Record for a Baby Girl

Way back in June, I showed you the ornament I stitched up for a new family member, and I am now getting around to posting her birth record.

Inspirational Scripture - Faith (with thread) by Little House Needleworks
Stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct. Sandcastle with included thread
Modified for personal use

Once again, I modified a chart to suit my needs because I couldn't really find a birth record chart that worked for what I wanted.  I took out the wording that was in place and charted in my own.  I ended up extending the flower stem to accommodate all the birth information, but I love how it turned out.  

If the parents choose a theme for the nursery, I like to match or coordinate as closely as possible, and this was the bedding they picked for their baby girl:

CoCaLo Baby Mia Rose

I've had the piece finished for a while (oh, maybe since December of last year), but framing is another story, especially with a stitched border in the piece.  Getting the border lined up and straight before framing isn't hard, but it is tedious and time consuming, and not my husband's favorite job, so sometimes it does take a little convincing.  I also had a small hiccup with this piece by not starting it where I should have.  Somehow I managed to mess up centering the piece and by the time I figured it out, I was too far into stitching it to rip it all out.  The piece still fit on the fabric, but there wasn't quite enough room to securely wrap the edge around the mounting board.

After some discussion, I took the piece to my LNS to ask for the owner's advice as she also offers framing services.  She suggested stitching a piece of muslin on the short edge, since the seam would be hidden by the matting and no one would be the wiser.  One, two, three - she stitched a spare piece of fabric on and we were ready to go.  (On a side note, this above and beyond type of customer service is one of the many reasons I continue to shop there.  Please patronize small businesses, especially niche businesses like LNSes, whenever you can, or we risk losing them all together.)

Now that the edge wrapped around the mounting board, it was much easier to frame.  Getting a decent photo with the glass was another issue, though, but this one did come out.  Finally, I was able to send this, the butterfly ornament, and the other Bride's Tree Ornaments we still owed the parents from their wedding (4 years ago) off to the family where they were greatly appreciated and able to be enjoyed for years to come.  I love it when a plan comes together.