And now for ... what?

Lately I’ve been working on LHN’s Seasons Greetings when I have both the time and energy to stitch, which has been far too seldom recently.  And while working, my mind is greatly occupied by the what-to-stitch-next conundrum. 

I’ve rooted through the main stash as well as the readily-to-hand stash (this is a real and very intentional distinction).  Of course I want to stitch it ALL, and fondling perusing all the pretties makes me want to stitch it all RIGHT NOW!!

There are … I suppose I could whittle it down to four.  There are four things I want to start.  Two are samplers Wonderful Husband gifted me with, one is a full-coverage piece (also a gift from WH), and the last is another sewing case.

Oh, better make that FIVE.  I have succeeded in acquiring the chart for Goat Load from Plum Street Samplers and want to stitch it over one as a Christmas ornament since goats are the subject of a longstanding joke between Wonderful Husband and myself. 

But how do I decide??!!

What’s that?  You can’t give out advice without seeing what I’m talking about?  Okay.

Sampler #1, aka Mary Goodburn

Not tiny, but all cross stitch and should stitch up relatively quickly.  And Mary looks like a fun stitch with lots of bright colors.

Sampler #2, aka Betsy Davis

Can’t work on this one in the winter since my hands get so dry I’d shred the silks, but it IS springtime now.  In my personal classification system, Betsy falls under the Large and Complicated heading.  She is supposed to finish up at 13 by 15, and even though she’s on 25 count (which will likely feel like I’m working on burlap since I normally prefer higher count fabrics), she will undoubtedly take quite a while to stitch.  No new stitches to learn, but there are lots of Queen stitches (which I like, but they're time consuming) plus sections that are freehand embroidery (why does that worry me so?).  Not sure I want to do another Large and Complicated yet, but I’ve loved this sampler going on twenty-five years now….

Full coverage – Cluny Unicorn detail

When I start this, it will be with the knowledge that I will NOT be monogamous with this piece, even though I’m essentially a one-at-a-time stitcher.  I’ve never done a full-coverage piece before and know I will need breaks.  Perhaps a great many breaks.

Ellen Chester’s (With My Needle) Acorn Sampler Sewing Case

Um, yes.  Apparently I *need* to have a sewing case in process.  While this piece has been kitted for several years and has been in my easily-accessed, do-these-really-soon project bag for well over a year, now that I’ve finally finish-finished a sewing case, this one’s voice has gotten considerably louder.  Perhaps it’s all those squirrels….

Goat Load

This should be a reasonably quick stitch, even over one.  But this small project will require Thought prior to beginning.  Many of the called-for colors are Classic Colorworks (Crescent Colours), and since my stash contains very few of those threads, substitutions will be necessary.

Oh wait.  Forgot about this one.  If you blow up the picture, you can see that I wrote “completed 13 July ‘92” on the pattern.  I really did stitch this guy.  I know where I worked on him most often (on the bench by the caboose in downtown Vienna , Virginia, where we used to live, stitching and keeping one eye on the kids as they clambered all over old railroad car), and I specifically remember doing his beard and adding the stars once the regular stitching was done, but as I was undecided about how to finish the back, I never cut him out.  Instead, I put him in a Safe Place.  He’s in such a safe place that I’ve looked in every reasonable place and a number of unreasonable places with no sight of the guy. 

Actually, I feel pretty lucky that I found the pattern and picture and for several years they were in hiding also!  I do have some tan perforated paper in the stash, so I’d just need to match DMC colors to the picture – you can see that the colors have names only in the thread list.  I have several other early kits in this series, but haven’t been able to bring myself to do any of the others until this first one is complete.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble.

>^..^<

Small tip

Wanted to share a quick little tip with you.  If you wind your DMC floss on those plastic bobbins, then you probably already have the winder tool.  What a marvelous thing – so much faster than winding those bobbins by hand. 

But not perfect.

The small peg that holds the bobbin in place is made of the same hard plastic as the winder and (for me at least) works best with the paper/cardboard bobbins.  But I want the durability of the plastic bobbins.

Over the years, I’ve tried a bunch of things to either snug up or take the place of the peg, most often stuffing a piece of paper in the hole with it so the peg doesn’t fall out after three or four turns.  Some plastic bobbins are thicker than others and I’ve had ones that barely fit into the slot – the peg was unusable with those as the holes did not align perfectly and then I used a piece of copper wire snipped out of a bit of leftover romex.

Having quite a bit of floss to wind right now (will explain that below), I was once again mentally grousing that the peg has no give and then inspiration struck.  Years ago, a friend suggested using knitting needle point protectors on the tip of my embroidery scissors to protect both my fingers and the scissor points and at some point I’d bought a package of them.

Ta-dah!  A softer, friendlier peg!

And why am I winding all this floss?  Some of you might remember that Wonderful Husband gifted me with an incredibly scary amazing chart of the Unicorn in Captivity tapestry for Christmas. 

I took advantage of a great sale at my favorite online needlework shop to get fabric for the unicorn.  And since I expect this project to take approximately forever, it seemed wise to just go ahead and get new DMC, so have been using coupons at Michael’s and JoAnn’s to accumulate all 119 colors in the design.  Eeek!

The other day, Wonderful Husband asked me what I’d like for my birthday.  And being mindful that the size of the Unicorn is 285 x 404 and is solidly stitched (eeek again!), I thought perhaps something smaller would be a better first for a solidly stitched piece.  So I suggested this, which is a detail from the Cluny tapestry known as  À Mon Seul Désir. 

(image from Scarlet Quince website)

Hey, it’s only 123 x 274 stitches.  And has only 109 colors of DMC. 

Yes, I probably am crazy.

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

>^..^<

Stitchy stash (yay!)

A round up post of what I stitched last year would be deadly dull (multiple bands of Jane Turner plus two starts).  And a what-I-plan-to-stitch-this-year post would be only moderately more interesting (finish Jane, finish those other two, then pick one from the three or four at the top of my list).  Showing off my new goodies seems like a good alternative.

Wonderful Husband gifted me with two good sized projects for Christmas.  Seems selecting large or long-term projects is his forte - he also chose Jane.  First he gave me the chart and silks for True Wisdom from Examplar Dames.  I’ve been wanting to try a Quaker style sampler and think this is lovely.

And then he completely surprised me.  I love the unicorn tapestries from the Middle Ages, both the Lady and the Unicorn series and the Hunt of the Unicorn.  Our very first Christmas together, he surprised me with this - he built the frame and gave it to me ready to hang, and it's been on the wall in our home ever since.  He had planned to frame a similar museum show poster of the Unicorn in Captivity but never got around to it.

So what was it he surprised me with this time?  Also under the tree was a chart (um, *booklet*) of the Unicorn in Captivity from Scarlet Quince.  Who knew there was such a thing?  At 285w x 404h this is NOT small.  

And, oh yeah, it’s solid coverage - see that little grid in the lower left?  Eep!

I went through every bit of my linen stash and discovered that I had nothing large enough for either project.  Good thing the Silver Needle’s New Year’s Eve sale was coming up, right?

I had made it all the way through 2017 essentially without buying stitch stash.  I allowed myself to buy threads, but that’s all since the previous NYE sale.  Just thread.  Really.  So even though there’s virtually no chance I’ll get to them this year, I did order a couple of charts. 

I got fabric for both of the very large projects – 40 count for True Wisdom and 36 count for the unicorn.

   

The impossible-to-resist, just had-to-have-‘em charts.

  

And of course I had to buy more threads.  One each of all the new DMC colors…

… plus another card of my favorite GAST green (forest glade), and a few other overdyed cottons because they looked so pretty.

I will now return to my regularly-scheduled stitching of Jane Turner.  

Thanks for stopping by!

>^..^<