Broccoli Band

I know, some of you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about.  Well, I've spent some time recently stitching the bottom, inner band of Elizabeth Sheffield.  The picture on the pattern makes it looks like this band contains giant broccoli or else really little animals.  I know that they are supposed to be trees with giant animals but I've had it in my head that this is broccoli so that's what I thought about when stitching it.  Take a look:

With any luck I'll finish her around the New Year so my New Year's start can be the only thing I'm stitching on for awhile.  Oh, and I decided that Paradise Lost will be my New Year's start.  I still have the band with the people and house which will take awhile but I'm almost done with the bottom of the sampler.  I decided to wait to stitch the people for last because I think they're going to be a lot of fun!! 
Here's my overall progress on Elizabeth...

The Immigrant Sampler

Several years ago, 2005 actually I attended a Great Lakes Regional Seminar in Illinois.  It was actually co-sponsored by my chapter, Needle's Nest.  I took this great class by Lucy Lyons Willis called "The Immigrant Sampler".  I enjoyed stitching it with the dove's eye flag, hardanger band, and just the colors and the way it came together.  However, the neat part was that Lucy suggested that we do a little bit of family history research and add the initials and whatever other information we could find about ancestors who had immigrated to the US.  I didn't pick the first of my relatives to come over but rather picked a family on my father's side who arrived in 1864 on a ship named "The Stella".  Those are their initials, the year and the ship name all in the band with the ship.  I also wrote up the history that I found and put a copy on the back and another copy inside the backing paper. 

You can see by the date that I finished stitching this sampler in 2005, the same year as the class but I just finally framed it and hung it up in my living room.  It looks great there!  When I finished it in 2005 I also completed the hem stitching but the way it was designed it was to be mounted on the teal backing fabric and then mounted in a frame.  Let's just say that I'm a good procrastinator and put off stitching it to the teal fabric until a few weeks ago.  I'm somewhat sorry I did too since it looks great and was super easy!  And, as I was stitching it to the backing fabric I was able to straighten it quite a bit.  With all the open and hardanger work the sampler had somewhat wobbly borders but it's much better now!  I actually have another piece framed this same way and I did both of them in a day to get them out of the guest room where my parents were going to be staying at Thanksgiving and it was suprising at how fast and easy this was.  I guess I just needed guests in order to get it done! 

Baby Quilt

OK, so I found a photo of the baby quilt I made.  This is actually the second or third quilt that I started and the first one that I finished completely.  I just LOVE these bright colors!  This is me with my friend Kristin, the new mom to be and the recipient of this fun quilt! 

In this photo you just get a taste of the quilt but the baby is a girl so I picked bright colors with pinks but not all totally pink.  This quilt is machine pieced and quilted with a hand sewn binding. 

Here is a so-so quality photo of the back of the quilt.  It's an adorable green and pink check/gingham print.  However, the quilt was a bit larger than the fabric wide.  Because I didn't want to even attempt to piece the back together, instead I cut it about 1/3 of the way down and added a pieced strip to give me enough width that I could quilt and bind it into the finished product. 

Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler Framed

Here it is, all framed up!  This is my Mystery Sampler by Birds of a Feather, stitched by me on 35 ct WDW Tin Roof fabric.  Enjoy!

Shopping Spree!

I was home a few weeks back and went over to my favorite needlework shop in Wisconsin, Lynn's of Madison.  I ordered a frame for my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler and also picked out a few new treasures.  I need a new project like I need a hole in my head but it sure was fun to shop and add some new projects to my stash!  I love seeing these photos so I thought I'd post one here.  :) 

Finished Smalls

After finishing a few larger pieces I stitched a couple smalls.  Here are some photos to share:

The first is "Pray for Peace" by Birds of a Feather.  I started this on 9/11 as a way to remember those whos lives were tragically lost 10 years ago:

The next piece is a scissor fob by Ewe and Eye and Friends, I stitched this just because I've had it FOREVER and needed a little project to stitch:

Lastly, is a project that was handed out at a retreat at Fanci Mats and More, a local shop in the Denver area that I went to.  It was all kitted up and a very quick stitch, it is called Boo-Yah by Cherry Wood Design Studios:

 Of course, all of these projects need to be finished, I plan to make the pink piece into a scissor fob and the other two will become pincushions (in all my free time)...

Birds of a Feather Finish

Here is my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler completed!  I stitched this on 35 count WDW Tin Roof Linen with the called for sampler threads.  On this darker linen I did change the alphabet to Bark to match the color of the tree trunk and changed the key to match the color of the birds' beaks (Olive?).  I am really happy with how it turned out and will have a framed picture for you soon!