Quick progress update photo. This is where I left off last night. I have the Hot Cocoa block finished and I’m just finishing off the snowflake doodads that go in the upper block and then I will have to figure out which block I want to stitch next (I’m not following the layout for all blocks that was shown – just doing my own thing). This photo actually shows the color of the aida I’m stitching n pretty well.
As planned, the evening of May 1 I joined in the BuildingBlockSal I had seen on a flosstube, which is using #buildingblocksal on Instagram.
This was a WIP – I had started last December and this is where I had left off on it.
But when I pulled it back out to work on I just wasn’t loving that fabric (which is part of the reason I think I put it aside). Just too much light splotchy mottling and in other places it has a greenish tint to the tan which I don’t like. I decided when I pulled this back out on May 1 to look for some different fabric and I found a perfect one in a smaller count. The above was 18 count but I restarted it on 20 ct Tephra from Cedar River Linens. Here is where I was when I put this down last night.
I have made some good progress on it today but haven’t taken a new photo yet. I’ve got the cabin (see chart cover below) nearly done with “Jack” standing on the porch. I’m just working on the roof now. I’m hoping to maybe have this block finished off later tonight but that depends on how quickly the fill in around the sign goes. I’m really enjoying getting back to this one.
Above is where I left off when I last stitched on it – March 29-30. I was working on the man block on the left and hadn’t completed the bee skep yet.
This is how far I got when I picked it up the evening of April 29, worked on it last night, and put a few more stitches in it this morning before work and for about an hour when I got home. Oh I think I worked on it April 28 evening too.
Here is where I have just left off and will be putting it away. It’s getting long so hard to get a photo of it all.
And below is a closer look at the section I’m working on. I changed the mail color of the lady’s dress from the called for – which was the color of the birds bodies. That color shows up in reality okay for the birds (better than in this photo) but I didn’t want her whole dress that color with the white trim because I think it all would have blended together.
Now, after I grab some dinner, I will be pulling out my Jack Frost’s Tree Farm since today is the start of the #buildingblocksSAL I talked about in my last blog post.
Last night and today I continued working on The Good Shepherd. I wanted to get all the animals stitched in the grassy area so I can just fill in grass around them. I also finished the house.
There are five sheep that you can barely see in my photo but will show up after the grass is stitched. Plus it’s a very dark, dreary , rainy day so the photo is not great. At least it’s only raining, which should stop soon. There was quite the thunder and lightening show last night as storms moved thru- it was 80 yesterday and so humid outside and now it’s in the upper 40s. Prayers go out to all affected by all the recent tornadoes.
I think I will put this project away and since tomorrow is April 29 (gosh April went by fast!) so I will pull out my Leap Year project and work on that for a day or two.
I’m contemplating joining a stitch along (SAL) that starts May 1. On Instagram, it’s the #buildingblockssal and I heard about it on Two Needles Pulling Thread flosstube #46. Missy and Kathy are on my regular flosstube watching list and I’ve been watching them for a long time. Which then led me to The Carolina Stitchers flosstube #27 which talks about the SAL too. I haven’t watched their floss tubes before but have added them to my watch list as I’m always looking for new videos to watch. Anyway, I won’t actually be starting a new project if I join in, I will be picking back up Jack Frost’s Tree Farm that I started in late December and got about half the first long block done before setting it aside.
After finishing This Happy Morning, I couldn’t decide what to work on so flipped thru the project bags in the basket next to my chair. The basket holds the things I’m “most currently” working on; there’s a separate basket of the rest of the wips that are biding their time until they get to move to the “current” basket. 🙂
picked up Soar again Thursday night and stitched on it Thursday night and part of last night until I thought – do I want to add the border all the way around or do I have a frame that it would fit in without that border? I set it aside and went to look at the frame stash. I found one but it just made the piece look too dark. But I did spy a large finishing board that I’ve had in the stash for probably two years or more waiting for just the right piece. – Found the photo of it and I got it in 2021 on sale. The only one I’ve used so far is the black one.
The white one with the dark fabric I’m using, I think may make the light colors in the stitch pop a bit more. In any event, I decided to stitch the border so will go back to working on that. There’s how far I got before I put it down to search for frames/finishing boards.
The building and flag were added. also backstitched the eaglets in the nest so they would show up more , I also added the sort of hill line from flag to building thru horse pasture so it looked like they were sitting on the ground. And also added the border line below the fish and started up the left side. There are supposed to be two rabbits above the tree but since I don’t want hovering rabbits, I may stitch one below the flag if there is room or just leave them off.
But I didn’t feel like working on this one the rest of last night so I pulled out The Good Shepherd. I got the roof finished and have started filling in the house. Sorry for the blurry photo – it is really windy today and it was threatening to blow off my patio table.
I continued to work on my Sunday Stitch from the weekend thru last night and it’s finished. Here’s the chart cover – This Happy Morning – so you can see what changes I made compared to my version.
I had originally stitched three of those berries in the border but as I’ve said before I’m not fond of stitching berries. And when I started to fill them in on another part of the chart, I stitched just the bottom color of several (they are two shades of red) and decided – hey, I like that look. I ripped out the three I had done and stitched them all the same. I also changed the direction on some of them. Along the outside they all pointed away from the vine but I kept them going in the direction of the inner side of the vine – basically straight in line with the vine.
As you can see, I left off the peacock, urn and fines above it. I added the tree on the right of the barn, based on the tree designs within the large grassy area (which I also left off along with the bottom border and just added three rows of grass). And then added another deer and star and some other doodads. I haven’t measured my finished stitch yet but my adjustments made it turn out smaller than the original chart which is what I wanted so mission accomplished with this lovely barn.
updated: 6:49 pm – CHART HAS BEEN CLAIMED BY Cathy H. 🙂
Anyone interested in this chart, email me by midnight CDT tonight at my personal email address (not in the comments) and first come first serve will get it, but you must be in the United States. I’ll put it in the mail next week since I’m working from home tomorrow (and Sheryl T if you read this, remember how I told you I put the chart in my bag to take to work — well it’s been going back and forth to work all week in that bag but didn’t get pulled out to be mailed …DUH, so it will get mailed Monday as well.) 🙂
Progress since yesterday – got all the words in , ran a basting stitch up the right side so I knew where I could bring down the border on that side since I didn’t want to make it as wide as charted with a lot of space to the right of the barn to fill in. In looking at this photo go I do need to check the last couple of leaf sections I stitched. It may just be the way the fabric is laying, or I may not have stitched enough stitches in the angled section so they line up properly. Will look into that. So I’ve made up for lost time stitching on this for a couple days rather than just on Sunday since I had not worked on it the past couple of Sundays. I may continue to work on this the next day or two or go back to one of my other WIPS – will have to see what tomorrow night brings.
First – I called this chart by the wrong name in my last post. It’s not “This is the Day” it is “This Happy Morning” by Plum Street Samplers.
I had originally planned to change some things on my version of this – like leave off the peacock and urn and that leafy fine above them. The words are charted over one for linen, so I pulled out my Ultimate Sampler Motifs book by Brenda Keyes to find an alphabet to use to rechart it for Aida once I found the graph paper book.
Here’s where I am at the moment – there was a nap that interrupted my stitching time or those words would be much farther along! Since my words will be larger, I moved them to the top where those vines are. And as I was stitching those, a new plan of attack for this piece was formulated.
I had originally planned to duplicate the deer and some of the trees on the other side of the barn where I was removing the peacock, etc. But, depending on where the words end, I may just add the berry vine up the right side next to the barn. Also – all that grass below the barn -likely not stitching more than a couple rows of it depending on how I want to adjust that bottom border. That also will make it a smaller, more frameable size project if I decided to frame it. I only brought down the left side border to meet the bottom of the barn row and after I get the words in, will make decisions on how I want to do the rest of it.
Time to make some dinner first before settling in for an evening of stitching.
Here’s the last photo I had shared of my progress. But I had worked on this after the photo was taken prior to my picking it up again yesterday and all the main darker color “floral” motifs I had finished on the side of the barn.
So when I picked it up again yesterday, I filled in the lighter shade of red on the barn side which took a while. That’s a deceivingly big barn – it must measure about 5.5 – 6″ wide. I’m actually thinking I may make this one into a throw pill for the couch rather than framing it. I’m working my way down that vine. The windows in the barn are supposed to have backstitched light color windowpanes but I’m going to leave those off.
It’s sort of a cold, very windy, dreary day here – the temps have not even hit 40 degrees yet which of course with the high winds we had yesterday and today, makes it feel even colder.
My immediate task for the morning is to get that fridge cleaned out – I hate that job. But grocery order will be delivered in a little while and the fridge is a disorganized mess. Must hop to it.
I pulled this out either last Sunday night or on Monday to work on and have been working on it this week. I filled in the six window areas and door area on the blue building. The roof of that one is mostly snow and I wasn’t in the mood to stitch that so I moved on to the building next to it and made some good progress.
I worked from home today and was able to punch out early so have paid the bills, started a load of laundry, and will figure out a grocery delivery for tomorrow and then I will just relax and stitch. Although, I think I will switch to something else for tonight – those houses require a lot of counting and I think some fill in work is more my mood for today. So maybe I can get that side of the barn filled in on my Sunday stitch.
Justquiltin with Denise Russart 