Stamp With Jen

December TUSAL

Here's my TUSAL update for December.  This is a top view of my TUSAL jar with ORT's from all year.  You can tell that I'm stitching with silk because the ORT's are straight.  When I use cotton those bits of threads tend to be curly.  Just something interesting that I've noticed by doing this challenge this year. 

You can read more about the TUSAL challenge on Daffycat's blog here.  You can join in at anytime and I'm hopeful that she'll host another TUSAL challenge for next year!

This darling pincushion shown in the photo with my TUSAL jar is a gift from my good friend Katrina.  Earlier this year, I stitched several Mary Little pincushions, one of them was for Katrina and at our sampler guild meeting last weekend she brought me this sweet sampler pincushion for my basket!  I love it, thank you so much Katrina!  This makes me want to get out a couple little pincushion projects that I have kitted up and stitch my brains out during my Christmas break from work! 

I've been plugging away at the border of Christmas Garden over the last couple of days and here's where I'm at with it, over half way done with the strawberries.  Yay! 

Christmas Garden by Blackbird Designs

And, here's a close up of my Christmas Garden with my Sexy Black Dovo Scissors for scale.  I originally bought a conversion to silk that used this linen, the linen was in a bag that said 36 ct. Vintage Navy Bean but this is so tiny that it must be 40 count.  And, the silk conversion was all to shades of brown so I changed the whole thing to be pretty bright colors more in keeping with the original colors of the sampler.  That will teach me not to buy a conversion to silk sight unseen!! 
Lastly, here's a close up of the pincushion, I just had to show it to you again.  Isn't it sweet?  I just absolutely love it! 

Finished Smalls

I won't keep you in suspense any longer, here is what was in those wrapped packages. 
Didn't they turn out wonderfully??  My finisher Deb really does an amazing job!!

I also have a little progress on Ann Sandles to show you.
She's a bit wrinkly but has been a fun stitch through the Olympics.  I obvously won't have her finished by the closing ceremony but I've really enjoyed this little sampler so far.  I did make one change, I changed the white thread used for the lettering to GA Straw Bonnet from my stash.  I found that the lambswool just didn't show up very well even on the darker linen so I just swapped it out for something that suited me a bit better.  I am already looking ahead to what's next to stitch.  Both Ann Priest and Lucy Redd are calling to me right now so they're sitting out waiting for me to finish this Ann! 

A New Technique

I don't have a ton to show you today, but I did start to learn a new technique at Wednesday's EGA meeting.  One of our members is very proficient at Temari and she is teaching us how to make them at our August and September meetings.  This month we learned how to make the mari, or the ball itself starting from rice hulls.  I have a bit more wrapping to do on mine but am starting to make progress.  How I will finish this with a dog and two cats who shed is beyond me! 

An interesting piece of information, I've often heard of these referred to a Temari Balls.  But, the word Temari means hand ball so if you say Temari Ball you're really saying "hand ball ball".  Now I'll know better!  It's been a fun technique so far and I can't wait to do the wrapping with bright colors! 

I also received a couple fun packages this week, one of them contained the following three items.
Stay tuned to see what these contain, you can kind of tell through the tissue paper if you look closely!  Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Mary Ann Blackburn Start and a Peacock Finish!

This week I have a teeny little start on Mary Ann Blackburn by Blackbird Designs to show you.  I have the most lovely piece of 40 count R&R Sheep's Straw linen that I'm stitching it on.  It's nicely aged and overdyed and to make it a bit more splotchy I spritzed it with water.  OK, that was an accident but I like the way it turned out and am loving these colors on it!  I'm stitching it with the called for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads by the way and even though I haven't gotten very far yet I think this one will go quickly!  I initially wasn't sure about the rooster/peacock that is in the center of the sampler (on top in my photo) but in the end I'm very glad that I stitched it as charted.  I did think about swapping it out for one of the peacocks in Grace Bridges or the one in the Peacock Pinkeep but decided to leave it as is and am happy I did.  Of course, now I am jonesing to start Grace Bridges.  Good thing I have that all kitted and ready to go as she may be next!  :)

I must be on a peacock kick because I also started and finished the Blackbird Designs Peacock Pinkeep in the last week.  I also did the bonus needlebook chart while I was at it.  If you're not familiar with this piece, the peacock pictured in the upper right of this picture is the top and the band at the bottom wraps around to form the sides of the pinkeep.  When it's all done it will look like a drum.  Normally I would crop this photo but as I was taking these pictures I had the pieces laid out on the couch to get a decent snap and the kitty was looking for attention, that's her foot peeking in the very bottom of the photo so I had to leave it in.  :)

I purchased this chart, the pattern and the Belle Soie when I was at Attic Needlework back in January and it's been in my bag to stitch every since.  Now she's stitched and will go off in the mail to my finisher this week.  I can't wait to get her back and display her! 

This week I dog-sat for my second favorite dog in the world and I happened to pick up a new piece of training equipment over the holiday weekend.  I was working "off contacts" with both dogs and had them each on an end.  Maverick sat down as I took this but I thought it was a cute photo and thought I'd share a bit of what I do in my free time when I'm not stitching.  You can see more about my adventures with Sage over at my dog blog.  Enjoy!

Sampler Guild Pincushion Exchange

A few weeks back, over Mother's day weekend my parents came into town to visit.  It just so happened that it was Mother's day on Sunday but on Saturday we had a Sampler Guild of the Rockies meeting that included a pincuchsion exchange.  I honestly don't know which I was more excited to share with my Mom!  In a previous post I showed you the wrapped packages that I had all ready to go.  Well, one of them held the pincushion that I gave away at the exchange.  It was Mary Little, her finish photo is above.  I actually stitched her twice because I knew I'd want one for myself.  Now I'm stitching her a third time.  :)

The exchange was so much fun!  We got in a circle and passed the pincushion to the person to our right each time we heard the word Pin or Pincushion during the reading of a brief history of the pincushion.  It was really fun!  After the reading was finished we opened our gifts.  This is what I received and I am absolutely gaga for it!  It is so awesome to have a pincushion stitched on a colored fabric for my small but growing collection!  Thank you Tina for this treasure!  I simply adore it!   

When we got home I put my new treasure with the rest of my collection of smalls which I'm housing in a cute star shaped basket.  Right now since I only have a few the basket is sitting up but my hope is to continue adding to it to where I have to set it down or even get another basket.  :)

Here's a photo of the basket with what I have so far.  My Lady's Trimkeep from Plum Street Samplers doesn't quite fit in the basket without cramming it in so I've got that sitting out in front.  There are also the two pincushions from the SGR exchange, a BBD Designs pincushion that my friend Theresa stitched for me and the SGR Fundraising pincushion designed by The Scarlett House.  I just love this little collection and have plans to start adding to it.  I would love to start Wild Garden for this basket too! 

The other gift that I showed in that previous post is a gift that I put together for my Mom.  She opened it at the meeting and I really enjoyed her reaction!  The little Vera Bradley bag contained some EOS lip balm, a humangear bottle with udderly smooth hand lotion, some needles, a sampler cloth and one more of the Scarlett House pincushions!  It was really fun and I think she really enjoyed it!  I forgot to get a picture of us at the meeting but here's a picture of her gift.  Happy Stitching!

Sampler Guild Gifts

Not too much to see here... yet!  Today is our Sampler Guild of the Rockies anniversary party.  It's an annual event in May but my first since this is my first year as a member.  This year we are doing a pincushion exchange so the package on the left holds my pincushion ready for trade.  If you've been paying attention you know what it is, pictures soon! 

The other package shown is for a very special guest who is attending the meeting with me tomorrow.  I can't wait to give it to her or to watch her enjoy it's contents!  One of the items in here is the second wrapped item that I showed in this post.  More soon! 

Spring Song Finish

Well, I finished Spring Song last weekend.  Here she is in all her glory!
I love the Old Blue Paint fabric threads and am really happy that I took the time to remove and reweave to get this look!  I have the box and went to get a piece of matboard yesterday so I'm all set to do the finishing. 

I also made a great deal of progress on Mary Roe.  I was enjoying this sampler but I needed to add some color so I did the strawberries in the vine to brighten it up a bit.  This is such a fun stitch especially with all these bright colors!  Once the vine was done I started on the Rice Stitch mounds at the bottom. 

I enjoy rice stitch so this part went really fast and now I'm ready to move onto the shepard and sheep at the bottom left.  I haven't decided if I'll work up from the bottom (although it seems as though that's what I'm doing now) or if I'd like to go up and finish the vine.  We shall see I guess.

Unfortunately, I need to set Mary aside for a few days to do the finishing on my Mary Little pincushions and to do some stitching for an EGA project.  I thought I had an extra week on the EGA piece but panicked a bit when I realized I need to have it done for our meeting next week!  I have some pretty blue ric rac for the trim on Mary Little but also ordered some blue chenille from the Attic.  Either one would need to be attached after the cushion is assembled so I'll probably do the finishing and when the chenielle arrives then I'll make a decision on the trim.  I can't wait to get these finished, they are going to be so cute!!

Here's a close up of those beautiful rice stitch mounds.  I just love this sampler!

   

Happy Stitching!!

Fun from the Mailman

Remember in my last post, I showed you what I had received in the mail...
Well, here's what was in those pretty packages...
It's the new Liberty Hill star farm box and my finished pincushion from the fundraiser we had a few weeks back for the Sampler Guild of the Rockies designed by Tanya of The Scarlett House.  Didn't it turn out great??  I love the Liberty Hill box, I think it's actually called a stitcher's companion, it comes with the ruler, the painted thread winder and a paper sleeve for needles.  Since I purchased mine from Attic Needlework they included a pack of 28 ct. Boehin needles to fill it and I loaded it up with some scissors from my growing scissor collection!  I just love it!!

Here's a closeup of the pincushion, didn't my finisher do an awesome job??

  
Now I'm sure you're wondering by now what is in the third package well that is a surprise so you'll just have to wait a bit to find out.  :)  Happy Stitching! 

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

At least that's how I think the poem goes.  Why oh why did these little girls in the 1800's stitch with teeny tiny letters on teeny tiny linen??  I started the words on Mary Roe the other night, mostly to get placement and partly to get them out of the way. 

I decided to stitch one thread to start each line so I could add the vine and make sure I had the placement right.  I had really wanted to stitch the whole verse to get it out of the way but I suspect that maybe I'll do one or two strands of verse with each sitting alternated by the fun stuff.  This is a really fun little sampler and I can't wait to finish her and have her hanging up on my wall!  But, that's going to take me a little while.  :) 

I did manage to finish Mary Little.  Here's a snap of her all completed. 

I actually stitched her twice, one for me and one for a gift.  I'm thinking that once I do the finishing work that I may take the second one to the pincushion exchange at the May Sampler Guild of the Rockies meeting.  Since she is out of print and was hard to find I was thinking that would make my exchange piece more special.  And of course I used my own initials instead of those on the chart.  She was such a fun little stitch!  I used 40 ct. Autumn Gold linen and switched to overdyed cotton threads. 

The third Mary I started is the box top in the Mary Ann Blackburn chart by Blackbird designs called Spring Song.  Here's where I am so far (sorry for the wrinkles in the photo):

 

One of the things I loved about this piece is the blue marking lines.  On Friday night I caught a peek of my friend Katrina's start on this piece and decided that I needed to start it too.  I have done this type of weaving of linen threads before on drawn thread work but this was so much fun!  I had a super busy weekend so when I finally had a little bit of time to sit down on Saturday afternoon I found an Indiana Jones movie on TV and started with the blue lines.  It was such a relaxing, easy and fun project to start, and for those of you keeping track I now have more than one project going at once...  

I'm stitching Spring Song on 30 ct. R&R Sheep's straw linen with the called for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads.  I have to say that stitching on something with stitches this big and with two linen threads has taken some getting used to!  I had purchased a beautiful cut of 32 ct fabric originally to start Anniversaries of the Heart on but was fretting about stitching with two threads as I prefer to only use one.  I ended up calling Lynn's to order a piece of 36 ct. Vintage Pecan Butter for my AotH and I can tell after starting Spring Song that it was the right decision for me! 

This past weekend was our seminar for the Sampler Guild of the Rockies and it was so much fun!  On Friday night we had Jackie du Plessis in to teach us the finishing for the Briar Rose Etui.  I now have a finishing kit and great instructions to get started.  Sunday she was back at our guild to talk a little about her embroidery and finishing and she had some great make and take kits for sale.  Of course, Sampler guild is so much fun!  Getting to visit with friends there, stitch and see others work, it is always my favorite Sunday of the Month!  When I got home the sky looked threatening even though we didn't get a drop of rain at my house.  I'll leave you with a snapshot of what the sky looked like.  Happy stitching!

Briar Rose Finish

It's done, it's done!  My Briar Rose etui stitching is done!  Big happy dance going on here!  I love the way it turned out but stitching with a deadline just isn't my favorite thing.  And with all those pinks and overdyed silks for fill in I sure do have a pretty layer in my TUSAL jar!!  But now that it's done, I'm all set to take the class on how to finish it.  Yay!!