Top of the Bag

Here are the projects that are at the top of my bag......I just received the second of the Prim Sisters project in the mail.  It is adorable and I can't wait to start stitching it!!  As you can see it is by Primitive Betty.  The Prim Sisters club is run by The Country Sampler shop in Wisconsin. 

I recently discovered this amazing bargain and totally great book by La-D-Da!!!  Eight projects in this book that costs about ten dollars!  And every project in the book is great.  Especially the one pictured below.  It is now on my short list.

I started the small project in Rain, Rain, Go Away!  I love her!!

Here is one of the projects I forgot to show you when I was having my Prairie Schooler inventory.  Love it!  I know I have more PS projects started upstairs too.....will have to get them all in one bag.....hmmmmm, one new Vera Bradley bag just to hold PS projects!  Great idea!!!

The Frenzy Takes Hold

You will recall from the last post that Summer Jubilee by BBD was a group obsession.   Brenda showed us her fiber and fabric for the project and then we were all jumping on the bandwagon.  Many of us had the book that the chart is in (the most glorious Souvenirs of Summer) and some of us went home that night and scoured the internet for it.  Lucky for me....it was in my stash.  

I started the project on 32 count Black Sheep Black by R&R and immediately had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It was hard to stitch on.  Hard to see.  It was work.  I was not going to stand for it!  Stitching is supposed to be relaxing.

So I started it over on 32 count Belfast Cream.  But my sinking feeling continued.  I imagined all my friends stitching along on the darker fabric.  I looked at the picture of the finished design.  The dark color fabric really makes the design pop.  It is integral to the design.  So, I decided that I would not let that dark fabric get the best of me.  I figuratively hitched up my pants and put on my determination cap and tried it again.

With my newfound vigor and support from my buddies, I went at it again and by golly, I can do it!  It was a little harder at first, but then it became kind of intuitive as to where my needle should land on the fabric.  Here is where I am now.

And the whole project is housed in this new stitching wallet from Natalia at Stitch 4 Joy.  The minute I saw this on her website I knew it had to come live with me. 

 Isn't it just adorable and so totally cool!!!!!

Do you have any stories of projects that you thought were too hard to do but that you conquered? 

Okay, back to Summer Jubilee!!!!

Saturday Night Stitching at Jayne's

 

We had another total blast at my friend Jayne's house for Saturday night stitching!  We laughed so hard and had a great old time with our stitching obsession.  

Above is Jayne's finished Flower Pot Sampler.  She picked a stunning frame!!!  The effect of project and fame together is perfection!

Pat stitched this gorgeous beauty from Jardin Prive.  It is definitely on my to do list!!!

These four photos are entitled, "Anatomy of a Frenzy."  First, Brenda pulled out a BBD book called "Souvenirs of Summer."  Then she showed us some fiber and fabrics she purchased to do one of the fabulous projects contained within.  This produced Stage I of frenzy; group love and excitement over the project.

Which leads to Stage 2 of the Frenzy.  Call for the hostess to bring out her entire supply of BBD charts and books for group perusal with attendant frenzied remarks and feelings of excitement in the pits of stomach.

Which leads to Stage 3.  One (or more sometimes) finds a project she must start right that instant!  In this case it was Teresa who started this fabulous Patriotic Bouquet.  She did not let the fact that she had no fiber or threads stop her because we were at Jayne's house and not in a stitch shop.  Jayne had a supply of fabric and fiber for Teresa to shop in and Voila! project was started.  This led to everyone searching the web for every BBD project book known to mankind to fill in the gaps in each collection!

Here is Brenda's fabulous finish of the LHN May Cottage!  Please visit her BLOG HERE to see more of these fabulous finishes.

This is a previous finish of Jayne's!  Gorgeous little flower basket!!!!

Why yes, our hostess has scissor fobs for every season and she has the correct fob on her scissors at all times!

Pat received this stunning ornament back from the finisher.  It is by BBD.

This is Pat's finish of Tisket A Tasket.  It is done in the called for Dye Pot Blend fabric.  I still love, love, love this little project.   And as you can see, a really good time was had by all.  If only we all lived on the same block.  We could really give the needlework industry a shot in the arm!

PS

 I have a pile of bags near my stitching chair that have various and sundry projects waiting in the wings.  I want to organize everything so that I just have a few projects in rotation and my area is neat and clean (Hah!).  But seriously, I really am trying.  I started going through this process today and what came to the fore???  A lot of Prairie Schooler!  Seriously, I should not buy any new stuff because I love, love, love these projects and need to finish them!

 I pined away for Birdsong II for months!  Then I got it and this is all I stitched!  I think I stopped because I was not sure I liked the one strand of thread on 32 count linen.  What do you all think?

 I also love the individual ornaments on this chart! 

 Here is another lovely chart that I searched high and low for.  At first I could not even tell which of the four designs I started as there was so little stitching done.  Then I spied the yellow thread and figured it was for the horse's decorative harness so that is how I know what this one is. 

 This is the most ridiculous thing of all!  Everytime I look at this chart I swoon.  I mean I really love everything about it!!  And not one stitch taken.  I need my head examined!!!

 Another start......I saw it done on blue fabric somewhere and loved it, so I started it on the blue and stopped.....I don't know why...probably some BBD conspiracy took place and I started one of their awesome charts!

 Winter Wind.  Another chart I was insane for and had to have "yesterday."  Need to get back to this one too! 

 And here we have one gorgeous Santa without a face!  Oh, and one hand is missing too.  I need to be sent away to a cabin by a lake for three months so that I can finish all of these.   Make that six months if there is a stitch shop within 100 miles!!!!

So Excited!

 Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments!  You sure know how to make a stitching gal feel good!!  It was so exciting to read everything you said.  

Above is one of my three million works in progress.  This is June by Prairie Schooler.  I think PS was my first love as a stitcher and I still love them.  I dream of having every chart they ever published and just leafing through them once a day!

 Another exciting development was getting this extremely cool stitching wallet from Natalia at Stitching-4-Joy.

Natalia makes these exquisite wallets to carry your current project in.  She has already made bags and, as another option, you can send her fabric of your choice and she will use that!  My Mom and I went to Shipshewana, IN sometime before Christmas last year and I bought several  fabrics to send to Natalia over the next coming months.  This is my favorite so far!

 So vintage!  So cool!  Natalia's work is beyond compare.  It is just perfect!  You can click HERE and check out her shop.

Again, thanks for the warm welcome back and I will try to keep photographing WIPS and stash!

I'm Back!!

 Phew!  That was a long absence!  I still have not found my camera battery, but in the meantime the Duet household went a little crazy and purchased an iPad!!!  It has a camera on it and that is what I used to take these pictures of my current project.  I am so excited!  I think I might just start taking tons of pics of all of my WIPS and post them intermittently this week.  You know, to make up for my lack of recent posts.  


As you can see, the current project is Perching by BBD from their new Loose Feathers book. 

 I loved it the moment I saw it.  What a sweet bird!  I am not sure if I am going to put the current year in or not.  I would like to put in a family memory year, like 1941, but I don't know if I can figure out how to chart that so I might just leave the numbers out. 

 I purchased the frame specifically for this project.  It has been in my LNS, Inspired Needle, for a long time and I have loved it but I would not let myself buy it unless I had a specific project in mind.  I think it goes perfectly with this design.

 I was at Target yesterday.  They have some darling Mary Englebreit items in their dollar section.  I spied this cute tin and bought it even though I had no specific use for it.  Her designs just call to me.  On the way home I thought of this idea.  I put all the threads for my current project in it!  It is now a "current project thread holder!" 

So glad to be back in blogland!!!!!  See you soon!!!

Accessories from Dutch Sisters

 I was at stitching night this week and Karin showed me her new bag!  See below; that is Karin's bag.  She bought it from an Etsy shop, Dutch Sisters.  The shop is run by two sisters who live in Holland.  They shop in thrift stores looking for old stitched items and then they repurpose them into bags and ornaments.   I loved Karin's bag and so I went home and looked up the shop.  Lo and behold, there was a bag that was perfect for me.  The two Dutch ladies drinking tea!  I am pretending they are drinking Tab out of teacups though.

I grew up in South Holland, Illinois where there was a strong sense of history and roots from Holland.  My brother and I even had Dutch costumes and marched in the Tulip Parade with our cousins.  So this bag has great meaning for me; above and beyond the fact that it is totally retro-cool!!!

 Isn't Karin's bag smashing???  You know Karin is actually from Holland and getting ready to go back for a visit later this month. 

She also purchased this darling ornament from the Dutch Sisters Etsy shop.  It is a beauty for sure!!!!

Here is a link to the Dutch Sisters Etsy Shop.

Here is a link to the Dutch Sisters Blog.