These Colors are AWFUL!!! GAK!!!

I've been working on Anniversaries of the Heart - Snow Garden.

Progress January 9

And, like a lot of you, I am NOT in love with the colors that were chosen.  But then, when you think about it, the garden does look very sorry at this time of the year; all brown and gray and parchmenty.  Since it is the block for January, which is when I was born and so the block will have MY initials - and, since it really IS all about me anyway - I decided to tart it up a bit.  The top and side flowers - which I think are the old-style Dutch carnations ( and they are the January flower) - I did in WDW Garnet and Lancaster Red.  I think that those are colors that are actually used someplace else in one of the other months, so it should not clash.  AND, garnet is the January birthstone, so it all sort of goes along.  I think I'll definitely be done by next weekend.  Which means I'll have two more stitchy weeks in January.  I can fill one by doing one of the Lizzie Kate double flips on Christmas Rules.  I figured if I do one a month, I'll be done for next Christmas.  Then I'll have to figure something out for that fourth week each month.  Hmmmmm.....  maybe some actual work on my finishing?

Speaking of being done, done, done with something . . .

Finished 1

Here's that shadow box I got at Michael's for $4.19.  And inside is Spirit of America.  Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but I just couldn't get myself to do a good one of this piece.  Also, finished this weekend is Spirit of Christmas Stitching (in another super cheap shadow box!)

Finished 2

And here is the 3D effect you get inside the frame  . . .

I am really pleased.  I especially like the way "Christmas" looks in her frame.  While I'm not so happy with the way "America" looks in hers, it's good enough and I'm just so happy to have something completed.  Now on to that wedding gift!  Hope you enjoyed

Thanksgiving Comes Again

Back in 2007 I picked up Prairie Schooler's Thanksgiving Comes Again (book # 141).  It features PS's well known verse/scene theme for this month's big family holiday.  Back then I was doing a lot of stitching for sale; time was of the essence; abbreviation was required.

 
I finally settled on this:

Basically I stitched a part of the scene on the bottom of the sampler and then a couple of words.  Added a few more geese to fill in space too.  I also wanted to speed up the framing process.  I picked up the frames, really nice coppery colored ones, on sale.  They are 8x10 photo size - that gives you an idea of scale.

I stretched WDW overdyed wool in Wine over foam core board and then cut my linen to a size that was smaller than the field of the background.

I then fringed about a half inch of the linen on all sides and laid it out on top of the wool.  I didn't even have to tack it because the wool grabs the linen and keeps it in place - like a flannel design wall grabs your quilt squares.

Then I just closed up the frames and covered the back with some very pretty scrapbook paper (they were small enough for that).

I thought you guys might like to see this way of decreasing the amount of stitching and saving money on framing.  I'm glad I did this post because I'd forgotten about my version of this - need to pull it out of the basement and hang it up since it IS that time of year again!  Hope you like it.

Wedding Sampler - Framed

Went into Michael's today and picked up this nice 8x10 frame.  Gives the sampler a cottagey feel; I thought they went well together.

Micahel's is having a great framing sale, by the way.  Several are buy one - get one for a penny.  This one was among the deal.