Did you hear me squeal ?

CHS Alphabets

I am surprised if you didn't. My framed pictures from the Rensel Studio came in the mail late Thursday and I was so excited and happy. I knew they were on the way but didn't know when they would arrive. The frames are gorgeous. I am so pleased. Jill found the perfect compliment to the designs. They are just so awesome. The sun is not up here yet so I the photos do not do them justice but I just had to share them with someone. I love them. It is always exciting for me to be able to add something to the walls.
       
The first is Carriage House Samplings Alphabets. I finished this a while ago. I did not stitch it with the charted bittersweet as the fill in at the bottom of each letter. I am just not into orange or yellow so much. So after much agonizing over it I chose to go with blue and I love it. It is bright and cheerful and when you live where grey can be the predominant color for most of the year bright and cheerful is good. Thanks so much to Jill for such a wonderful job. I love how the frame inset is so much like the pattern of the border. Lovely.

detail of frame 

Next up is the small darning sampler from Trenner needleworks  that was part of the SAL that Ellen Chester from With My Needle sponsors every year. It called for green but I used a deep rose color. I loved stitching this and am definitely going to do a large darning sampler after I get some of my WIP's finished. I really like the darning, it goes quickly and makes such lovely designs. I just have to choose one I want to do.  Jill found the perfect inner border that really makes the color of the thread pop. I can't wait to get them on the wall.

Trenner Darning Sampler

This week I am stitching on the Maryland Inspiration sampler. So far I have had to take out exactly every stitch that I put in because I caught the thread on the back and did not realize it until it was more than a knot, it was just a mess. and what  a mess it was. Talk about waste of time.  I hope to have a Monday progress picture to post on that lovely piece. The thread colors are just beautiful.

I am taking a small design to stitch group on Thursdays  that a friend came up with as a teaching piece for our EGA several years ago that I never got finished. I am hoping to make Thursdays stitching time for some smaller more portable projects so they too will get done. I was without scissors and missing a thread which just makes me realize how disorganized my stitching stuff has become. So this weekend, along with mailing out some of the stash for my friend that has sold I am going to be sure all my projects have scissors, all their threads and thread holders so the process is not held up when I do have time to stitch. Fortunately for me I had a second project with me or I would have been out of luck. I made some progress on the Button Up Birdies Whiskey Jack since I couldn't work on the drawn thread piece I had taken (without the appropriate threads.) These little birdies are quite fun to stitch. I will be able to move onto a new one by the end of the weekend as all I have left for this little guy is the backstitching.
Well, I am off to get to the post office and mail some packages off and then it is time to stitch. Hope there is some stitchy time in your day.
Marjo