The Peacock's Feather

Needlework Update

I buy very little in the way of new needlework designs these days.  Aside from the fact that I'm not stitching quite as much as I'd like, I also have so much needlework stash that it's more than I could ever finish even if I devoted all my free time to it for the next decade!  Unlike with books I am pretty good at knowing when to say when!  One of my favorite needlework shops offers a birthday discount, which I took advantage of in February, however (it's hard to say no totally).  A couple of the designs hadn't been released yet, so this week I finally had a nice surprise in the mail!

The two designs on the left are by Chessie & Me.  The chart on the top is "Miss Chessie's Tuffet" and the bottom chart is "Busy Bee Tuffet".  A tuffet (also called a biscornu in French) is a pin cushion with eight corners (four pointing up and four down).  They are my favorite accessory to finish.  I've made lots of them, but I've only ever kept one for myself.  Both these charts have tuffets and fobs.  I ordered the fabric to go along with the charts, but the photo of the bottom one looks distinctly blue, but the chart calls for a color called putty.  Hmm.

The designs on the right are by one of my favorite designers, Just Nan.  If anyone knows how to market her designs, Just Nan does!  They're so clever, and very tempting, and also pretty expensive.  She's designing a series of four of these little tins with stitched lids and fobs to hang on your scissors.  "Hop" is the first one.  It's too bad this didn't come out before Easter, as I'm not sure I'm in the mood to stitch rabbits!  It's a small project at least.

What am I working on?  I've finished what's going to be a pincushion.  This is a freebie design that Carriage House Samplings offered several years ago.  This is another very favorite designer.  Her designs are very American folkish.  I'm a very lazy finisher and I should have sewed this ages ago.  I thought I might finish it as a mattress pincushion.  I've never tried this, and it doesn't look particularly hard, but it does look time consuming.  I tend to be a lazy finisher, so I might just sew a nice piece of fabric to the back and call it finished.

I did start this one well before Easter, but it's been languishing.  It is  by designer Drawn Thread (I have lots of her stuff, too).  This is a another series of designs, one for each season, that are finished as little cushions.  This is the "Spring Spot" and really I should be pulling out the "Summer Spot" soon, since it's getting so warm.  Like books I always have more than one project on the go.  Unlike reading I don't feel too guilty to set a project aside (I hate to admit how long some have sat waiting for me), but it's nice completing something.  Especially something small, which really shouldn't take all that long to stitch anyway.

And my most recent new project?  Little House Needleworks also makes very folksy American types of designs.  I have lots of her charts, but I've yet to actually finish any of them (unlike the other designers that I've mentioned).  This is called "ABC123".  It's not very large, just a tad over 4" x 4".  I think I will try and finish this as a mattress pincushion.  I like small projects as they usually give me the satisfaction of working on something and finishing it relatively quickly.  I've been in the mood for a larger project as well, though I can't seem to settle on one thing.  I used to stitch in the mornings before work, but lately I've been spending the time reading.  This means stitching just on the weekends usually when I am watching a movie.  And I've really not even done much of that lately either.  I wonder how other people do it...reading, working, and maybe some other small hobby.  Do you do something more than read?  Hopefully I can work on one of these this weekend (and finish a book--I'm still being optimistic!).

**I actually posted this on my book blog, which I hope will explain my explanations in my post.  Normally I wouldn't be so specific over here!  I've been terribly neglectful lately of my stitching blog.  I'm not quite sure what to do with it.  I want to post more regularly, but I've disovered how hard it can be to just post in one place let alone two!  I would love to update this blog a few times a week, but I haven't been stitching a whole lot, which means I don't have much to share!  I do thank you for anyone who still comes around and checks in here!  I'll do my best to try and update more often.  And I absoutely say thank you to everyone who is still kind enough to stop by and leave comments.  Oh, to have a few more hours in the day!

New-ish Projects

Although I'm moving very slowly, I do have a couple of progress photos on two new projects.  Actually this one I started ages ago and really need to finish.  It is by Carriage House Samplings.  It is a freebie called "Pins and Needles".  I think I will make it into a plain cushion when I am done--something easy.

This is Drawn Thread's "Spring Spot".  I plan on stitching all four seasons and finishing them exactly as the photo shows.  I'm only curious...if this is a cushion, and it uses hemstitching around the edges, what do you do so the fiberfill doesn't stick out of the hemstitching? (Does that make sense?).  I've never finished one of these.  I need to look more closely to the instructions!

The Secret Flower Bed

Just in time for Spring, I've finished Trilogy's "The Secret Flower Garden".  I finished it as a little pillow--one of the few finishing methods I'm pretty confident in doing (despite the fact I need to use the sewing machine!).  I'm pleased with how it turned out.  Sorry, my photo is a tad bit dark.  Now I'm working on Drawn Thread's "Spot of Spring".  It's coming along nicely and I'll be sharing a photo of it soon.  I think I might have come questions on how to finish that one, however.  I plan on stitching all the spots!  I even worked a little this past weekend on CHS's "The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow"!

Progress Report

I've actually been stitching  bit lately.  I'm more or less back in the habit of stitching a little each morning before work.  I bought an MP3 player and have been listening to podcasts as well as a book while stitching.  I'm actually much further on "The Secret Flower Garden". I took this over the weekend.  I've got most of the large motifs finished and just have to fill in the flower centers and some vines.  I hope to sew it into a cushion over the weekend!  Photo to follow!

 

I've also pulled out my Hawk Run Hollow designs.  I ordered "The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow", but I'm not sure when I'll get it (Drema was still waiting on fabric).  I didn't order any floss yet, as I am making myself finish one of the others first!  I am hoping to work on these a bit more regularly now.  We'll see if it really happens!  I'll probably keep going on the first design, since that has the most progress so far.  If I could just finish a square I think I'd feel like I was accomplishing something and work harder to finish more.  It's always a matter of having enough stitching time!

Fevrier

Before February slips away, I better post this photo!  My friend Laurence C. in France made me this lovely redwork pillow and the little fabric container to its left for my birthday last week.  It came as a lovely surprise.  I hadn't expected anything at all from my stitching friends as I haven't been stitching much lately.  She also sent along two skeins of L'atelier floss in the colors India and Epices.  I can't wait to use them.  Perhaps I'll look for a Quaker medallion and use one of the colors!  She also sent along "Quatre Miniatures" by Un Rien de Fil Rouge.  There are four designs (over one stitching) with the floss and fabric included.  Merci Laurence!

Nashville?

This is how out of it I've been when it comes to stitching this year.  Did Nashville just happen last weekend?  It's probably better not to look too much...then again maybe I will read Elegant Stitch's market report...I already know I want the new Hawk Run design, and I am being tempted by a few of the new Just Nan designs.  I love that little tin in "Hop"--and I've never tried finishing anything like that.  And "When Barnabee Met Bella" biscornu is a must have for me.   Any other favorites?  I plan on choosing carefully.  Aside from not stitching as much lately than in the past couple of years, I am still working hard to whittle down my credit card bill.  Why doesn it never seem to decrease very much?

So I might just splurge on a very few items.  Otherwise I can keep working from my stash.  At the rate I'm going I'll never get through it all anyway.  I am still working on Trilogy's "Secret Flower Bed".  I have mostly been spending my stitching time working on a project that I am stitching for a lady who will give it as a gift to a friend.  I'll share a photo of it soon!

Another One!

Another one!  And I've not finished either the first or the second.  But will I buy it?  Probably.  I think I might invest only in the chart and wait to buy supplies until I think I might actually stitch it (maybe I could finish the first two???).  I do like the design, though!  You can see the list for supplies here.

Something Green...

Okay, how long has it been since I posted last.  Better not look.  Sorry I've been such an exceptionally bad blogger so far this year!  I have good intentions, but sometimes I come home from work, finish my 'chores' and think I really need to take some photos to update my blog, but usually I just don't have the energy.  I finally did drag out my camera.  I need something nice and green and pretty to work on as it is frigidly cold out right now.  Spring isn't that far off is it?  On a whim I pulled out The Trilogy's "Secret Flower Bed".  It will measure 4" x 4 when it's finished.  There's lots of shades of pink, some reds, greens and even some little bees, a ladybug and a rabbit.  There are also a few tiny buttons as well.  I'm not sure how I'll finish it.  Perhaps a pillow with some nice border fabric?

I also started a freebie by Carriage House Samplings some time ago.  I haven't picked it up for a while, but it would be easy to finish if I could find a little extra time.  I will definitely finish this as a cushion, and perhaps will even try to make it into a mattress cushion.  I've yet to try my hand at that!

I haven't yet started on Toccata 2 yet, though I have pulled it out and taken a look at the chart.  It somehow looks more complicated than the first one, but I think I just need to start and it won't seem so overwhelming.  I keep looking at the things I want to stitch, but never seem to have the time for them!  I need to try and fit in a tiny bit each day--even if it is only 15 minutes!  Why is it when you are young you have loads and loads of time on your hands, but as you get older you can't fit everything you want to do in?!

Toccata 1

It's a good thing I didn't set any sort of goal concerning the updating my blog, or I would already be failing miserably!  I finished this on January 1 (actually still have the hemstitching to work on), but I've not had the energy to post a photo.  Actually this is a poor photo, and I mean to take a better one when I've pressed the linen and can take it in better light.  But you get the idea.  I had problems with several of the last motifs, but they are finally all finished.  Everything matches up, all the squares are the right count, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I've pulled out Toccata 2, but not started it yet.  Instead I decided to work on a couple of other small designs--a Carriage House Samplings freebie and a small Trilogy design.  I promise to share photos soon, though neither are yet finished. 

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very safe and Happy New Year!  I won't be doing anything special for the holiday--watching movies and stitching, which suits me just fine as I am not much of a partygoer.  I have two rows left to stitch on Toccata #1, which I am hoping to get in tonight.  I plan on pulling out Toccata #2 for 2008!  I will, of course, share a photo of my finish!  I had hoped to accomplish a bit more over my vacation, but I find I am amazingly slow on these Toccata motifs!  I am also in the mood to start something new for the new year (something with plain cross stitch, nothing fancy), but I am not sure what.  I had thought a LHN design, but now I am not sure.  I could work on one of my unfinished Hawk Run Hollow designs, but you know that thrill of starting something new.  I'll let you know what I choose.  All the best to everyone in 2008!!