The Peacock's Feather

Odds and Ends and Updates

I was hoping I would have finished all the stitching on my Quaker Heart freebie, but I still have a couple of motifs left on the back to stitch.  I plan on back stitching and whip stitching the hearts together and making this into a pin cushion (I have a fondness for pin cushions).  I was wondering how it would look with beads attached to the edges as well?  Maybe small pearl/white beads?  I've done this before, but it's been so long I can't quite remember how I did it.  I always use two plies of floss for the backstitching, but I wonder if only one ply will be sufficient for the whip stitching, as I'm not sure two plies will fit through the beads.  Any ideas?  I may have to just mess about with it a bit to see.  Hopefully I can share a finished photo sometime tomorrow--just in time for Valentine's Day.

 

I finally finished the first row of the border on my sampler farm and did a bit more of the over-one stitching.  I've not worked on this one much in the last week, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to it.

 

Here's a little close up of the over one stitching, which wasn't too awful at all!  What I find hard is solid rows/areas of over-one stitches--I tend to lose my place easily, but letters and borders are pretty easy (only I hate the counting part--too tiny stitches).

 

I've put in only a very few stitches on my Valentine Wabbit by Sheepish Designs.  I still hope to stitch this before the end of the month.  And thanks very much to Pam F. for sending along the ribbon that I needed.  What a lovely surprise!  Now I am all set to go, and really there isn't much to the design, so I think it's the finishing that is going to take a while on this one.

 

This is an awful photo (again no sun so I have no natural light to work with), so you can't get a good idea of that the colors really look like.  I've decided I do want to start this Quaker Heart Sampler by The Needle's Content.  I pulled out 40 count Lambswool, and I think the colors look okay on it.  It calls for Navy Bean, which I think is closer to off white, but we'll see how this works.

 

And one more.  I am hoping to finally start my Blackbird Design Mystery Sampler very very soon.  The first section is seen above and calls for Korty's Blend fabric.  I'm all kitted up and ready to go.

But first I'll me working away on my Quaker Heart.  Happy weekend everyone.

Stitching Projects for February

Is it too soon to start looking forward to February?  I'm ready to put January behind me (and all this snow!).  And it'll mean it's one month closer to spring!  I decided to take advantage of the link Annemiek shared and have started stitching Piecework Magazine's freebie 'Quaker Heart'.  Here are my first few stitches from last week.

 

And I made a little progress over the weekend.  I am using my very favorite linen, Lambswool.  I love the stiffness of the fabric (which is easy for me to work with) and how it becomes nice and soft/flexible with handling.  I had a variety of colors set out to choose from but in the end I chose red as it seemed to look the best against the fabric.  It is pretty predictable, so I might stitch another one using a different color.  It depends on how fast the stitching goes, though it seems to work up pretty quickly. 

 

And I've pulled out a couple of Valentine's Day charts, too.  I am not overly fond of the actual holiday, which seems really commercialized, but I will admit to a fondness for Valentine's Day-related needlework designs.  This is an older chart by Sheepish Designs called "Valentine Wabbit".  I ordered my supplies--well, some of them. I need to read the materials' lists a bit more carefully.  I didn't order enough beads/treasures, but I should still have enough materials to start work.  And I am also missing a few floss colors and the ribbons (am not sure where I can order those).  I think I may change the phrase in the heart--what's there seems a bit cutesy to me (or maybe I am feeling especially cranky this winter).  Any ideas?  I could just stitch 'love'---something simple.

 

I stitched "Valentine Holiday" by Birds of a Feather before, but I gave it away in an exchange.  You can see a photo in my Picturetrail album in the 2005 Finishes section (scroll down).  It's not a great photo as I used my scanner.  This was before I owned my trusty little digital camera.  I didn't use the fabric that was called for, but did I bother to note what I used?  Of course not.  This time around I am using the fabric as listed on the chart.  It seems very red, but I am sure it will work just fine.  I think I will start with this one.  I am excited to finally stitch this for myself!

I'll still be working on my GH "Sampler Farm", but I really like having smaller projects on the go as well and being able to switch back and forth.  ...And after these I will start thinking about some spring designs!  But first things first!