The Peacock's Feather

Organizational Project

Another day with no visuals.  More stitching on my exchange project!  I want to work on a little organizational project.  Actually I did this a year or so ago, but I need to go and update it.  Am I the only anal person--I created an Excel file that lists all my projects that are kitted up and ready to go.  It is nearly three pages long!  I was thinking that since I am "budgeting" (what a dreadful word!), it would be nice to have this list.  Then when I am feeling the urge to buy something new--I can go to my list and choose something from there to stitch (which I should be doing anyway...) rather than buying more new stash!  I am going to start a "wish list" too.  Quite often when I buy things, they are impulse buys.  Sometimes when I make myself wait a few days, I can talk myself out of buying whatever it is.  If I still "must" have it, then most likely it is something I will hopefully stitch or use right away.  I have never made a list of just charts...but that could be kind of scary!

Not Much Stitching Time...

I'm afraid I have got in very little stitching time this weekend.  What little time I did spend stitching was last night while watching a movie ("Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason").  I worked on my exchange project.

Yesterday I went with my mom to a craft fair, and I bought these two lovely needlework pieces, so I had to share them!  The booth was literally packed with framed pieces such as these--most much larger.  She even had some cross stitch pieces (which I didn't buy for obvious reasons...I even had some of the same patterns!).  Everything had the same folksy flair to them.  I really would have loved to buy something larger, but my pocketbook would only allow these smaller framed pieces (and actually even though they weren't necessarily cheap--knowing how much time is spent one these and the cost of framing--they really were bargains!).  I would have loved to get a larger bee skep design, but I thought this little one was cute.  The emboidered house will go in my living room, and the bee skep will go here in my computer room.  I have never tried emboidery like this (but I may now have to give it a go), but I do have some penny rug wool kits that I want to work on now....

Exchanges!

Sorry, I have no photo to post today (maybe later...) as I am working intently now on my project for my Birthday Buddies group.  We are doing a Friendship theme.  I don't want to give anything away just in case the recipient might happen along here.  I belong to another Yahoo Group where there are lots of exchanges going on.  It is a small group, but they are certainly active.  After I finish this project I have an ornament to make.  I think I have a nice Christmas ornament picked out and need to go through my stash for floss and fabric.  After that I will be stitching a heart square for a quilt.  One of the ladies in this group is a quilter, and she offered to piece a quilt.  We each will make a square and then all the stitcher's names will be put in a bag and one will win the finished quilt!!  I have yet to choose a heart design.  After that there is a Halloween sweet bag, and then a Christmas exhange.  I also have been thinking about what to make for my Birthday Buddy.  I think I have a design chosen, but I will need to order it.  Her birthday is not until December, but it is still good to get a start on it!  Everyone in that group always makes really LOVELY things, so I want it to be really nice (of course all my projects I want to be nice!!).  I also have a few other birthdays interpersed that I would like to stitch for.  So I guess there is no lack of stitching projects....

Freebies!!

I love freebies!!  I tend to forget sometimes, though, what a great stash of freebies I have and that many of them would be wonderful stitched up.  I need to stitch an ornament for a group I am in, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to stitch that the recipient might like.  Finally I thought about going through my freebies and finding something.  Whenever I do that I tend to find a lot more!  So tonight I think I will go though the whole plastic bin and see what is there.  I have a pretty good collection considering how long I have been stitching.  I was in a freebie swap some time ago where everyone contributed a few different freebie charts and then everyone got a copy of the whole group of them.  It would be nice to have a place on one of the bulletin boards where freebies were listed and we could swap with other stitchers as I am sure I have missed lots of good ones!!  It is really nice that designers offer freebies--a definite lure into buying their other charts!!

Great Needlework Reference

This is an excellent needlework resource.  I know I use it quite often, and it was even not terribly expensive.  It covers needlework, embroidery and counted thread.  Each section covers a bit of the history, fabrics, threads, equipment and tools used.  And the best part for me is, of course, the stitch diagrams.  There is a color photo of the stitch and clear diagrams of the steps taken to accomplish each stitch.  There are even some patterns in the back to try out, though I have yet to stitch any of them.  It is the one book from my needlework collection that I am continuously using!

House #3

My poor Houses of Hawk Run Hollows has been languishing by the bedside for too long!  I finally picked it back up to do a little work on it.  I am not finished with house #2, but to get a bit of a jump start on the project I went on to house #3 so I would have something new to work on.  For some reason I am just stuck on that second house.  I don't have much left on it--just the windows and trees and the little birds.  But I will go back later and finish it.  I really love this chart, and I would *really* love it if I could finish it this year, but that may not happen at my rate of stitching.  I hope to make serious progress though.  I realize I am not showing much new stitching, but I hope this will help urge me on!!

After This... I'm on the wagon!

My supplies came today for my Spanish Wine Sampler by Wild-Heart Designs!  Yay.  I better enjoy them...this may be the last biggie I get for a while!  Now, in my defense I ordered the silks and fabric before I got my last credit card bill.  Had I seen the bill first, I wouldn't be celebrating at the moment (I would have no new silks)!  The fabric is 36 count Navy Bean by Lakeside Linens, and the silks are AVAS.  The silks are on spools, so they must be different than the kind I usually use that come in skeins.  I am assuming you use this as it comes off the spool.  The colors are lovely and bright.  Now that I have everything, it will all join the stitching queue.  As I am working on another Spanish Sampler...one at a time.  At least it is all ready to go!  And I can look at all my goodies--that alone should keep me going for a while!

Great New Fabric

I am not sure how well this scan is going to show up--it may be a tad bit darker than it really is.  I ordered this from Shakespeare's Peddler.  It is the fabric of the month special.  It looks like it could be RR Reproduction fabric, but it is good old Zweigart.  I am not sure how new this line is, but it is Vintage Belfast (32 count).  The color is Autumn Fields.  It has a nice distressed look to it.  I guess they also sell this in Cashel, but I like 32 count better.  There are a bunch of other colors, but this one was discounted this month.  I don't think I will have any problem finding a project to use it with!  And a bonus--I filled up my "frequent buyer's card", so I now have a $20 credit to use!!  I am not sure whether to hold on to it for a splurge later on (there is always Market in July...), buy a cut of Birds of a Feather linen (she carries it), or buy Drawn Thread's Toccata 2 chart.  Good decisions for once!!  I will have to think this one over a bit! 

Cute Little Beehive!

I am making decent progress on at least one of my projects!  I finally got to the little bee skep at the top of the John Foster reproduction that I am stitching.  That was one of the draws to this chart, but I really love the whole thing.  It is really a great project to stitch and I am enjoying it immensely!  I love working on lambswool and the colors are nice and cheery.  The left side is basically the same as the right, and then I will move on to the big red brick house.  I hope to stitch on it later, but I really need to work on my "friendship" exchange project.  I stitched on it a bit yesterday.  I may not be able to post many progress photos until I get that one done.  I will post a picture of that when it is all finished and the recipient has it!

**Just took a look at the picture online--the colors are much darker--trust me it is really much prettier than it is showing up on your monitor!**

Klimt

I bought this chart, Mosaik Nach Klimt, a while back, and I think it is really gorgeous!  The designer is German--Der Feine Faden.  Klimt is my favorite artist.  I love anything Viennese actually (I was fortunate enough to live in Austria after college for a year).  I have this all kitted up and ready to go, but I don't know when I plan on stitching it.  It just uses DMC, but some of the colors are overdyed DMC colors, which are new to me.  The only thing I think I may not like is all the backstitching.  After work today I stopped by the library to pick up a few books.  One of them is a new fictional book called, The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey, which is about Klimt and his muse Emilie Floge.  I can't wait to start it.  Maybe I might even be inspired enough to start stitching this chart...