Hearts and Red Robins

A little while back I stitched a Christmas Robin by The Victoria Sampler for my Nana but never found a frame for it until about a week ago.  Originally, I was going to stitch the little robin into a pillow ornament for my Nana, but she requested that she wanted it framed so that's what I did.  It was my first time framing a stitched piece ever and I'm happy with the result! Once I find a good frame for my geisha, I will also be framing her myself.

Onto hearts, cause it's close to Valentine's Day.  I was thinking about what to do for my husband.  I found the perfect heart to stitch and the perfect threads and linen!  I got the pattern from a wonderful Barbi's website.  I have never stitched a heart before so I've been thinking about the process and how to finish it.  It will take me awhile, like all other finishes, because I muse over how to do it for a week or so.  Hopefully he will love it and cherish it with his heart, like I cherish him! Before I can post the heart picture, I have to wait for permission from the creator of the pattern.  But here is the robin!

Stitched on 32 count Natural Linen, DMC Threads

Geisha Finished!

Finally! After two years the geisha girl is done! I am very happy it is finished and can't wait to frame it. I managed to take just one picture with my testy camera before it gave out on me completely.  Here she is!

Mai by Dimensions Finished 1/26/11

The sticky scroll tape I used glued itself to the top and bottom of the fabric, which I couldn't take off, so I had to cut about an inch of fabric at both ends.  Luckily there is just enough room to fold the fabric behind a piece of matte board for framing.

LESSON LEARNED: NEVER USE SCROLL TAPE AGAIN!!!!!

A Mad Stitcher

Ever have one of those nights where all you do is stitch until your neck hurts? Well that was me last night.  I decided to pull out my geisha girl and attack all the lazy daisy stitches and backstitching that I have put off.  Plus I started a new Dimensions project and made some progress on that.  I'm pretty proud of myself that I managed to finish the geisha's obi!! My first lazy daisy stitches were ok, but I got better at them as I progressed. 

Look at the lazy daisies!!

Hobbit town as I like to call it

Half a man, buggy, door and horse!

I'm going to try tackling the geisha backstitching and try to finish it today! It was started, eh hem, 2 years ago! That's how much I hate backstitching!

Celtic Knots

Hello!

I stitched up two cute little Celtic knots for a scissor fob that I am making.  I love all Celtic patterns and especially loved this one.  I stitched two sides, one in a dark red and gold, the other in a dark purple and gold.  I am thinking about trying my hand at making a twisted cord, but we'll see if that works! The pattern is from this wonderful website that is called Dragon Bear. It talks about the history of samplers from various parts of the world and is quite a good read if you are interested in the history of samplers.

DMC Threads stitched on 32ct Sandstone Linen

Teaching, Kids, And The Things They Do

I just have to share this bit with you all today.  So here I am teaching at a literacy center, where the kids all have chores to do.  I tell one of the fellas that he has to water the plants.  He tells me he doesn't know how to do it, at that point the aid and I chuckle and tell him "Use the jug fill it with water and pour the water into the plant!"  As he is filling the plants with water, I check each of them to see if they are damp when I notice (here's the bit) that he filled the PLASTIC FLOWER VASE WITH WATER!!!! So cute! I tell him that "these are NOT real flowers honey! Feel them! They are plastic!" He replies "Well someone was watering them before! Look at the other vase it's full of water too!!"  So someone else in the class started the "watering the silk flowers" trend well before this lil' guy.  I think they need a lesson in what's real and what's not real!