Old Sampler Part 1

Before I tell you about the Old Sampler project I'm working on, I would like to tell you who "won" the charts in my previous post. Mark was a good sport and drew names out of his hat.

Michelle won the "Acorns" kit and Nancy K. won the "Pyn Pillow" chart. Please email your snail mail address to me and I'll pop them in the post next week. My email address is in my profile. I hope you enjoy the projects as much as I did! Thanks to everyone for the nice comments about my acorn goodies. I do appreciate it!

In spite of the fact that I have 61 projects in Diane, kitted up and ready to go, I couldn't resist the lure of an Italian mystery sampler. (They had me at "Italian.") The website is here and the Old Sampler info page is here. If I'm understanding things correctly, you must finish the current part in order to receive the next part. I hope I can keep up with this! This is the first part.

I'm stitching over 2 on 32 ct R&R Goldfinch with DMC 930. I love the way the blue looks on the linen. It's exactly the look I was going for.

Speaking of new projects, thank you Katrina for sending me the Lilybet freebie. It looks like such an easy stitch, I couldn't resist kitting it up. (Do you detect a trend here?) Instead of making an ornament I am going to make a pillow, so I'm planning to use 18 ct Cork and stitch over 2 with #5 perle cotton.

These are the colors I came up with from my stash. I'll be using Holly instead of Grape Leaf and 729 for the gold. I'm sure I have a star button or charm somewhere in my stash, if I decide to use one. I'll worry about that when it's all stitched and ready to pillowize.

I have one last thing to show you before I run. Jenna sent me this Eventide pineapple chart and I stitched it twice while visiting Joy this summer.

I'm going to try to make a stand-up with them so I wanted to make them as large as possible. The design is tiny, just 16 x 23. I used Klostern with #3 perle cotton. Since I'll be stuffing this I was worried about stuffing coming out of those big holes in the Klostern. I thought iron-on interfacing would solve the problem but I was worried that the white interfacing would show through the cream colored fabric holes and give it a polka-dotted look. Those worries were unfounded. I used a very lightweight interfacing and you don't notice it at all. Hurrah!

That's all for now. I have a busy weekend planned. The fall stitch-in for the St. Louis Stitchers starts tomorrow. We'll be descending on Jeanne's house like a cloud of needle-carrying locusts. In addition to this, the Violet Threads needlework group was invited to demonstrate handwork during the ArtEast Studio Tour. I've always wanted to attend ArtEast but it never worked out due to other stitching commitments. (October is always a busy month!) This year I'm going to make it work. I'll be sprinting across the Mississippi River, back and forth between Jeanne's house and the ArtEast venue. I'm looking forward to a lot of stitching time, fun with friends and good eats. With any luck, I'll get to teach someone to stitch. I'll have pictures to post next week. The batteries are on the charger.