Catching Up Part 2

   I have been staying in, hiding from the heat, and stitching for the most part.  We did manage to have a 'cool down' the last couple of days.  If you can call the high 80s and low 90s cool.  Temps back up into the upper 90s by the weekend so I guess I will continue to stay inside and stitch!    I really need to do that too since I am starting to get a little anxious about the big pieces I am working on the deadlines they have for them.
   I have taken the summer off from the majority of my stitching groups to make more time to stitch and to recharge.  It always takes more time than I think to get a piece done and although I have been working like a madman on this rotation, I am still not sure I will have it all finished in time!
   I really needed to make some progress on Jane Tindall.  It is for a November birthday and I'm not sure how much time that bottom is going to take.  So out she came and I worked on her until I had the top section with the verse all in.

It went pretty quickly so that made me feel better about the time factor.  So then, I moved on to the next piece in the rotation.
   I started a new piece for one of my other fall birthdays.  It is a Scottish sampler and although the colors seemed very bright at first, it is growing on me!

Agness Horsburgh 1844 by Samplers Not Forgotten
40 ct Lakeside linen w/ overdyed threads

The eyelet band is the half way point and I am back to working on this again so I hope for a finish by the end of the month.
  At this point, I put this one aside and I really wanted to work on All Creatures again so I put another section on it.  I am down to the verse section so it went pretty quickly.

I would love to have this finished this year but I'm not sure I can manage it with the others that HAVE to be finished.
    Then the Quaker Mystery did another turn through the rotation and I added on another page here.

This is only through page 2 and has a long way to go but I really like the way the colors are coming together.
  I am also working on a Catherine Theron piece that is a pilot class.  I pulled it out to work on it in the middle of all this and realized I had an error, near the beginning of the vine, which all had to come out.  Then, since I had referenced the outside border and the inner border off of the vine, the whole right side of those borders  had to come out as well.  I was having a lot of difficulty with long armed cross on the diagonal, both ascending and descending, and keeping up with the count (obviously) and so I had a lot of ripping and rework to do on that.  Not a lot of fun but I got it all back in and started on the alphabet too.  I am feeling the most pressure about this one since it has to be finished by the end of February.  It is a tremendous amount of work and I can't really concentrate on it until after I have the other 3 done.  Keeping my fingers crossed for a shift in the space-time continuum!!!
  So that's me, caught up again.  As I said before, I am back to work on Agness and want to finish her before I move on to something else.  I hope to have her finished by the end of the month because the
schedule has me starting a new piece the first of September (a Christmas present) and too many things in the rotation gets a little crazy!!

Hope you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

Catching Up Part 1

   I had intended to make this post in July.  I even had these pictures taken.  But once again, life conspired to keep me away from the computer and it didn't happen.  In the mean time, I have been stitching away so in order to catch up, I will need to post in 2 parts.  Hope you all can stand it!!
  So,  in the period covering this post, I had 2 small finishes.  I have borrowed several OOP charts from the Facebook group Blackbird Lending Library this year and was able to stitch the 2 pieces below.  They are older patterns and I just pulled from my stash for colors and linen and just made them my own rather than try to match up the old dye lots.

Evergreen by Blackbird Designs
40 ct Lakeside linen
w/ overdyed threads

Wild Garden by Blackbird Designs
40 ct Lakeside linen
w/ overdyed threads

  Then I worked through a rotation of most of my SALs and made some progress on each of these.

All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana

Love, love, love the chickens in this new section!!

Jane Plews  from the Facebook group Sampler Heart

This is so pretty and I really like that strawberry band!

Old Glory by Rosewood Manor

Bet you didn't think you would see this old nugget again!  I did pull it out and work on it a few times but those stripes take forever and it doesn't look like anything for the time involved.

Quaker Mystery Sampler from Facebook

   Last but not least, I made a start on the Quaker Mystery Sampler from Facebook. Stitched on 40 ct. Lakeside linen with the colors from Ann Bowers.  I gave Ann away and I thought it might be nice to stitch something with the threads I had left over from that finish.  There are a lot!!  So when this came up, it seemed like the perfect thing.
  So, that's my catch up for July.  I will post the newer  things in a day or so. Hope you come back for part 2!!


Hope you're enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

Finally Stitching Along

   Even though I  promised myself I wouldn't, I have signed up for a ton of SALs again this year, most of which are on Facebook. (That darned place gets me in so much trouble!!)  I knew there were quite a few I still hadn't started and it was beginning to make me feel pressured about my stitching. Again! So yesterday I got it all organized and made a plan so I could work on them and all of the other things I have obligated myself to stitch this year in a more reasonable manner.  This is my current rotation:

My favorite and the farthest along is All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana.  I've added quite a lot to it since my last post.

I REALLY wanted to go on to the next section, the one with the chickens that I just love, but I need to work within the schedule if I want to get all of these done this year.

Next is one I signed up for in the Facebook Sampler Heart Group, Jane Plews.  It is a mystery so I have no idea what it will look like when it's finished.  I don't usually do that since I have been burned in the mystery category before but it is a Scottish Reproduction.  How bad can it be?!

40 ct. Lakeside Meadow rue
w/ DMC

The next SAL I am finally working on is Marquoir de  Dymphne.  It is a sampler available on a blog I read and is up to part 6 now.  I thought I better get it started if I had any hope of getting it done.  She very graciously does a SAL every year and this is the first one I have actually gotten any traction on.

40 ct. Italian linen in ivory
w/ DMC

This is part one.  It is quite a large sampler so it will probably be in the rotation for a while. It is moving to the right and those next few sections are mostly alphabet which goes pretty quickly.  I hope to have it almost caught up in the next round.  If you are interested, you can find this sampler here:  https://www.tresorsdeboitesacouture.fr/marquoir-de-dymphne-6/.

The next sampler is one one on Facebook, The Quaker Mystery Sampler.  I plan to start it today, after I finish this post, so I have no pics yet.  Next time, for sure. It is pick your own everything, which can sometimes be a challenge for me, so we'll have to keep our fingers crossed on this one.  I have selected a pretty Lakeside linen, Pecan butter I think, and I have decided to use the threads left over from Ann Bowers since I have a ton of them.  I love those colors and it can be a reminder of Ann.

Last, but not least, I pulled out Summer at Cherry Hill by WTN&T.  I love this one and it would be wonderful to have it hanging on my wall before the end of summer.

I couldn't find the before picture but basically I added the lettering and symbols from 'A' down, stitched the skirt of her dress, and put in the trunk of the cherry tree.  I'm not sure I like the stripes in the tree but I am going to live with it for a while and see.

Love her face! So sweet!

  So that's where things stand today.  I am a lot calmer about my deadlines and am really enjoying this new rotation.  I plan to add some new things in as I finish what's already here, either a WIP or a new start.  I have plenty of each!!  And lets not forget those gift pieces that need attention too!!  Then there's that Catherine Theron pilot class I am doing the middle of July and the EGA workshop in November.  I guess I need to figure out how to stitch faster!!!!

Hope you're enjoying your stitching as much as I am,   Laura