Whitman's Cloisonné Tin Sewing Kit - Finished!

This is going to be a quick one today.  I got the itch over the weekend to dig into the "box o'shame" aka the box where I keep my finished stitching waiting to be completed.  Good lawd, it's pitiful!  Shame is the correct word, I tell ya.  As some of you might know, I have kept an Excel sheet of all my starts and finishes since I took up stitching again in 2009.  This one was one of the oldest in the box!  Let's check it out.

Here's the outside.  I found the receipt inside the chart.  Can you believe I bought this back in 2005?!  Yes, four years before I even took up stitching again.  The receipt shows I bought the tin at the same time as the chart and linen.  Wow!

Design:  Whitman's Cloisonné Tin Sewing Kit

Designer:  Jane Timmers aka Fancy Work

Fabric: 32 ct. Sand Dune

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started:  5/24/10

Finished: 5/25/10

Completed: 8/21/16

To add to the "shame" it only took me six years to actually get around to finishing this project.  Oh that's just pathetic!  I guess it just had to "ripen."  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I liked that there were "how to" instructions for lining the tin included with the chart.  It was way easier than anticipated!  I'll definitely do that again on future tins.  I may even go back and do it for the ones I've already made too.

The back did not come charted.  I did that myself using the same motifs from the front and free-styling the initials.  Thankfully the letter "P" was already charted. I included a nickel to show the tiny size of the pincushion.  I just love tiny little things!

Overall, I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.  I'm mildly ashamed of myself that it took me this long to finish it though.  It really didn't take me that long to do.  Oh well, at least I can cross one off the list now.

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Well folks, thanks for stopping by to visit today.  I hope I've helped some of you feel better about your stitching.  I'm sure you all are much better at getting things done than I am.  Have a good rest of your week!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Heaven Above...progress

This past weekend was a washout in my neck of the woods.  Don't get me wrong, we needed the rain.  It actually made for good stitching weather.  DH and I decided we'd do the weekly grocery run on Saturday in anticipation of the monsoon that was called for on Sunday.  This also meant we didn't have to leave the house!  Such a luxury when you work all week long.  I decided to dedicate the weekend's stiching time to "Heaven Above."

Progress as of 3/16/16

Progress as of 8/14/16

As you can tell from comparing the pictures, lots of progress has been made.  My goal was to get all the small motifs in and start on the sun in the lower right corner.  Friday night the peeps got together for a girls night of stitching.  I got a good many of them done then and decided I'd keep on rolling with it.

Here's a closer shot so you can see it a bit better.  I plan to stitch the sun "in the round" so I don't get a stripey look.  I'm hoping the variegation of this floss will give a nice spiral effect.  We shall see!  Once I get the sun stitched in I'll be able to start page three of four and will be half way finished!  The bottom half is mostly all words.  I like words.

This is what was next to me the whole time I was stitching.  Shelby was quite the Velcro dog all day yesterday.  I couldn't resist a snap of this cuteness.  Two of her favorite things right there with her, that blanket and that bone.  Love that silly pup!

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Well good people, it's a short and sweet one today.  Hope you all are well and able to push needle through fabric today.  Thanks for stopping by to visit today.  Have a good week!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Speak To The Earth - FINISHED!

Well folks, I've finally finished "Speak to the Earth!"  Yes, it's true!! I can hardly believe it myself.

As I may have mentioned before, this went out of print in 1997 but was brought back by popular demand.  I'm so glad they did!  I first saw it at a Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild meeting before it was reprinted.  My peep, Marsha saw it first shared on Facebook by the person who shared it at the guild meeting.  That set us both in motion to keep an eye out for it and once found, the SAL with the peeps ensued. The picture below is clickable to see it larger.

Design:  Speak to the Earth

Designer: Sandy Orton -  Donna Kooler Designs

Fabric: 36 ct. Light Mocha

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started: 1/1/15

Finished: 7/12/16

Framed: TBD

It feels good to finally have this one ready for framing.  When that will be? Well, who knows but at least it's done.  This was one that I will miss spending time stitching.  It was a joy to stitch.  The colors were what grabbed me, particularly the sun and moon.  The other part that really grabbed me was the bee hive in the lower right.  You all know how I love my bees.  Now I just have to decide how I want to sign it.  I've got a couple ideas.  We'll see which I fancy more.

I thought it might be fun to see some of the progress pics too.  This was taken this time last year.  I was over half way done.  I have to laugh at myself, I was so close but yet it took me so long.  Ah...life happens.

Here we are on our last check in back in May.  Heading down the home stretch!  I decided before I left for Russellville that I really wanted to finish this one up before the summer was over.  I'm so pleased I did.

I saved this post until the peeps could all see it first.  Thanks to all who have cheered me on here during the life of this one.  It really is so pretty in person.  I wish you all could see it too.

I've been working on some smalls lately.  They are wonderful instant gratification after coming off a long term project like this one.  Hopefully, I can find time for a finishing day soon so I'll have some more to share.


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Russellville Recap - part 3

Finally, an annual favorite and the grand finale of the weekend...the stitched gift exchange.  I've saved the best for last.  I know I've said it before, but we are a really talented group of stitchers.  Go grab a cuppa, there's lots to see and this is going to take a while!

Design: Summer/Bee Happy (freebie)

Designer: Lynn B @ Happiness is Cross Stitching

Fabric: 28ct. Antique Ivory

Floss: DMC as charted

Started: 5/28/16

Finished: 6/25/16

Completed: 7/4/16

This was my contribution to the exchange.  The minute I saw this one on Lynn B's blog, I knew it was what I wanted to stitch.  I did my finishing a bit differently than she showed.  I decided to try knotting the cording, fraying out the ends into a "faux" tassel, and attaching it on either side.  I like how it turned out!

Belinda's

Bobbie's (front view)

Bobbie's (back view)

Dee's

Diane's (outside view)

Diane's (inside view)

Evie's (front view)

Evie's (back view)

Judy's

Kathy's

Nancy's

Patti's

Sandy's

Sue's

Valerie's

The funny part of the exchange is that I got Valerie's gift and she got mine!  That happened for two other folks too.  Also, speaking of Valerie, she's our hand model in all the pictures except the first one, that's me.  Thanks, Val for helping me get pictures of all this good stuff.

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That brings us back to the return trip on the ferry and back to reality.  Oh how I wish I could just stitch all day with the peeps like we did this past weekend.  I really needed this getaway in more ways than one.  I've also had another finish since returning home but I'm going to save it for it's own post.  I think you all will be pretty excited to see it.

More soon,

The Inspired Stitcher

Russellville Recap - part 2

The show and tell table really proved we have been a busy group of stitchers since we last got together!  I  had a hard time getting it all in one picture so there are several.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Here we go!

Four things in this picture are mine.  You've seen the Pomegranate Pincushion in the upper left.  The Remember Me pillow, Strawberry scissor keep and the Antique Vases sewing case are all mine too.  I need to do a separate post to record their finishes here on the blog.  The pillow was last year's group project last seen here.  The Antique Vases sewing case was last seen here. 

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I also wanted to show you the stash haul from the Queen Bee's "boutique" this year.  There were several things on deep discount that I couldn't resist!

These three were all complete kits that included fabric and floss!  The two heart shaped ones even included the Altoids tin as well.  The first one even has silk floss.  All were priced too good to pass up.

All but the Scarlet House one in this picture were also on sale.  I got the kit with the pansy scissor fob.  It has everything but scissors!  Loved the tea themed one and Miss Peepers was just to cute.  I've really been into Patriotic pieces lately and I've seen this on several blogs lately.  Nice!

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What!?!

With that I'll leave you with this picture of a rather odd looking tomato bought at the Farmer's Market behind the "Hive."  I'll let you use your imagination here as to what you think this looks like.  Needless to say we had some fun with this one and everyone had a go at a guess.  Shenanigans abounded.  Oh yes, they did!

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So that's the end for today.  Har har...couldn't resist!  I've got one more post to wrap up the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by for the second installment.


More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Russellville Recap - part 1

Well folks, it's that time of year again!  The annual Russellville "reunion" has come and gone.  There were only 15 of us this year.  Those that weren't present were missed.  Our drive down last Thursday started out pretty uneventful.

We took the ferry across the Ohio River.  The girls humor me every year.  I appreciate that!  They know how much I love riding that ferry.  This was the one we rode on.  I took this picture on the return trip while waiting for the bigger ferry to come back the Kentucky side to fetch us.

We also made our annual pilgrimage to visit Sondra and Carol at The Finishing Touch in Louisville.  This was the stash haul this year.  I've got an idea for the two pieces of fabric and I couldn't live without the other bits and pieces.  Sondra said those thread keeps fly right out of the shop as soon as she gets them in.  I can see why.  It's really pretty!

After we shopped we went to Cafe Classico for some sustenance.  Then a brief stop at the Hadley Pottery outlet store on the way to the highway.  I forgot to get pictures there.

As we were tooling down the road we noticed the truck beside us had a really cute passenger!  Y'all know I'm such a dog person.  That face just melted my heart.  Imagine traveling with your best pup friend.  So sweet!

Then we ran into this!  Yep, we are the blue dot on that map and yes, we went through all that nasty.  We all agreed at one point it was saints and angels carrying us through that storm.  Oh. My. Goodness!!  It was one nasty storm.  Later that evening one of the peeps' husbands called to let us know Russellville had made national news for the flooding!  There were yards and fields that had lakes of water in them.  I'm pretty sure they aren't normally like that since I've been going down there for the past seven years.  Thankfully, we arrived unscathed and ready to stitch!

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Design: Russellville Getaway Group Project

Designer:  The Queen Bee aka Belinda

Fabric: 28ct. Fog

Floss: WDW & DMC

Started: 7/7/16

Finished: 7/9/16

Completed: TBD

This was our group project designed by the Queen Bee.  We all did the outer border with the same WDW Confetti floss and then had the option to choose from a basket of curated DMC for our words and flower colors.  I chose to make my flower a poppy and the words are a teal color.  We were instructed by Queen Bee to each bring enough charms, beads, buttons, etc. to share with everyone.  The thought being to attach them to this stitched piece once finished and then the whole thing would be attached to the top of a wooden box.  I decided to wait on that part until I got home but I'm happy I got the stitching done while I was there.

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Dogs seem to be a common theme on this trip.  This cutie pie above is Donald (no, not named for any political figure in case you are wondering).  He's my peep, Valerie's furbaby.  Val forgot her embellishments for the group project embellishment exchange and her DH kindly drove them down to her.  Donald wanted to come along to meet us girls.  He was well received.  Such a good pup!

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Well, this one is getting a bit lengthy so I'll stop here and resume with the show and tell next time.  I hope you've enjoyed our trip to Russellville so far.  There's lots more to share so stay tuned!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

What I've been working on...

I've had some requests to see my progress on a couple things so I thought I'd pop in and share.  The first one is Speak to the Earth.  Here's where we were when you last saw it.

As of 3/6/16

As of 5/12/16

Now the truth of the matter is that if I would just buckle down, I could realistically get this one done without too much trouble.  Um...yeah, I have no excuses.  Moving on...

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As of 3/6/16

Design: Pomegranate Pincushion

Designer: Hands on Designs

Fabric:  30 ct. Aztec Red

Floss:  As charted

Started:  1/1/16

Finished: 3/12/16

Completed: 3/26/16

Okay, this one I completely forgot I even finished it until I looked a couple posts back.  I'm a shameful blogger in more ways than one.  Ahem.   Seriously, I really enjoyed this finish and it wasn't nearly as difficult as one might imagine it to be.  I do have the linen and fabric to make the pocket...at some point.

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Design: From "Tokens of Love: Quaker Pinballs" book

Designer: Erica Uten

Fabric: 40 ct. Linen linen

Floss:  DMC 221

Started: 4/9/16

Finished: 4/30/16

Completed: 5/8/16

This one I made as a thank you for Mary Uhl Brooks who graciously shared the Quaker samplers with me at the Westtown School back in May.  I'll have to write more about that trip later.  Needless to say it was a morning I won't soon forget.  If you find yourself near Westtown, make plans to see the needlework.  You'll want to call in advance but it's very much worth it!

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As of 6/26/16

This one I'm calling a "do-over."  I'd started it originally who knows when, I'm thinking maybe 2011.  I could be wrong.

All I know is the fabric I'd originally used was definitely not made for cross stitch and I don't know what I was thinking.  I also don't know the designer on this or if there ever was one.  You see, I saw this in a friends sun room and fell in love.  She received it as a gift.  We don't know if it was a commercially made pillow or if someone actually stitched it.  All I knew was I loved it and charted it from the picture I took that day.

The original was done on large count fabric.  I suspect from looking at my picture, it was Tula.  That's what I'm using now.  The peeps have given me such grief over this one since I usually like to work on 40 ct. and this is 10 ct.  What can I say, I liked the chunky look of the original and that's how I wanted this one to look as well.  I plan to finish it into a pillow too.  It's going pretty fast.

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I've also started and finished a couple other things but can't show them until after this weekend is over.  I'm going to try to have a finishing day real soon so I can clear out some of the backed up stuff in the box o'shame.  I'm sure you all have one of those too where finished stitching waits to be completed.  LOL!

I hope you've enjoyed this quick little check-in.  I really wanted to make sure I documented these things.  I really didn't realize how much I relied on this blog to help me remember the things I've stitched.  I've got some more catching up to do!  If you've read this far, thanks for still being here after my long absence!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher