Hey, Friends!
It has been a busy work week– so much that I didn’t even venture out for Stitch Night this week – not that I didn’t stop by the LNS to pick up the new Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart, Pumpkin Farm, and a couple of BBDs that were in the sale bin! What is the finish? It’s the December Cardinal ornament from Victorian Sampler Button Up Birdies series (I meant to pick up number two and forgot it). I used HDF silks and some DMC rayon to get the sheen I wanted. It called for red beads, but I wanted the snow to show up more, so I used beads there.
The SAL is with a Yahoo group called The Stitch Specialists. Abi is the moderator/owner of the group, and she is offering a SAL that will teach a number of special stitches. The first in the series, to get us going, is the trunk of the tree in cross stitch. I’m using 28ct Irish linen in Tea and started with DMC Variations 4140. Each ‘limb’ of the tree will focus on a different stitch.
And the new start? It’s the continuation of BBD’s Anniversary of the Heart series, Valentine Rose. It is a very tiny start - the green. There would be more if I hadn't had to take most of it out - I missed the change in design along the border there. I’m enjoying being a part of the BBD Yahoo group - a great gathering of very nice stitchers! I did set up a new system for my fabric, some graphs, and threads. They’re now in rolling plastic-drawer bins. They're not the most lovely things, but they are practical for me. I can drag the whole thing around, or pull out one drawer and take it along. 
There are graphs in these. They're by season, holiday, or theme...
These are fabrics, and this drawer has the 32ct and higher .
The top drawer here IS reserved for BBD graphs (my new obsession)!
And these are special fibers - the DMCs are in plastic tool chests*.
You will note that I didn't say "organized" within the system. These are Vikki Clayton's silk Hand-Dyed Fibers. Once I asked her about a certain color, and she asked what design I was using it for. When I said, none, I just like the color, she laughed ...
These are silk on wooden spools - often called Buttonhole Twist - that I've collected over the years. I used them primarily when doing embroidery on crazy quilts. They are mostly Belding - Hemingway, Coats & Clark or Corticelli.
These are a variety of miscellanous silk fibers. The ones on the big cardboard spools are what is sold today as buttonhole twist, but it's not quite the same as the fiber on the tiny wooden spools. The little black spools are Krenikik, Soie Perlee - don't know if they make it any more.
These are again some old fibers that I collected when I was into tatting. They're mostly cotton, but a few lovely silks on the wooden spools. They're smooth and so fine to touch.One of these days we'll have show and tell with some buttons! I hear your question, and No, there is hardly anything that has to do with needle arts that I don't love!
*- the DMCs are in plastic tool chests. Well, they were. While moving things about the other day I knocked over one of the chests that fell into the other and pushed half the drawers out, and then I grabbed for it, the others fell out, too. They're still spread out in there, but I'll get over it one day and put them all back in order! NO, I'm not showing you that but will show you how they did look. The forecasters are saying we may be in for more snow Monday or Tuesday. It’s not that I love snow so much, as you probably guessed, but I really do enjoy the extra stitching time if we don’t have to work! And since I’m not working today, enough dilly-dallying – I’m off to do a little more blog visiting then on to stitching!
Thanks for coming by today. I look forward to hearing your Needler’s Point and checking in to see what you’ve been up to lately!
PeaceëLoveëJoy
and Happy Stitching
I finished stitching Mistletoe by
Acorn House Designs from the 2012 JCS Christmas Ornament issue. It was the one that drew me in first. Of course you know I had to make it my own… instead
of the called for fibers, used Nancy’s Victorian Motto threads. The linen is a butter-ish color, so it was
hard to get the white berries to show up.
Beads worked better! Then I
realized I didn’t want to stitch Merry Christmas over one, so it turned out
bigger than the magazine model shows. 
Tanya of The Scarlett House designed a graph for the attendees of
Stitching at the Beach, and it is darling! Stitched over one on 28ct Tea linen (that's why I left the tag on, ladies). Haven’t decided exactly how to finish it, but love the way Michele decided to finish
hers! 
I picked up Gather, Give, Gobble from
Stitch and Frame, LNS yesterday. I love how it framed up - they always do an
amazing job – and I’m really happy with my choices. 
