Farewell, Marilyn

The stitching world had a great loss earlier this week. On Tuesday, August 14, cross stitch designer Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum passed away.

Marilyn was the hand behind the design company Told in A Garden, with designs under that name, as well as Lavender & Lace and Butternut Road. She was by far the most successful cross stitch designer of the late 1980’s through the early 2000’s. Between the three design lines, she produced a total of 128 designs, not including the free Christmas angel designs she offered for 20 years.

A little over 10 years ago, Marilyn moved to the Rochester, NY area, which is where I live. I had the wonderful experience of not just meeting this lovely and talented soul, but also to work with her and visit her beautiful home on several occasions. I was lucky enough to be the model stitcher for three of her designs (Winter Sampler and the two Button Box Babies). I also stitched trial bits of Angel of the Morning and Secret Santa, as Marilyn decided between possible color combinations. It was an inspiring time that allowed me to get a glimpse of her amazingly creative mind at work.

Over the years, I’ve stitched other designs of Marilyn’s. The first was Angel of Hope, which went to a teenaged cousin battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma (who is doing very well nearly 20 years later). Nantucket Rose (above) and Celtic Banner (below) both hang in my dining room. And I still have Angel of the Sea half-completed.

Marilyn and I fell out of touch in recent years, but I’ll always remember her generosity of spirit, her determination to make her creations the best they could be, and her stunning perennial garden. Farewell, my friend. May your family and loved ones find comfort in happy memories.

A Sampler from the WIP Pile

So you may be wondering just why I’ve suddenly actually started posting again. You’ll find the answer if you look at my posts in November 2007 and November 2009. Yes, I did it again. I signed up for National Blog Posting Month, a.k.a. NaBloPoMo, in which bloggers are challenged to write every day for the month. I’m hoping this will help me get back into the habit of posting more regularly, even after the month is out.

Over the past year, I have had a few prolonged absences from posting. For the most part, though, I did continue to stitch.

In the last few years, I’ve been in a bit of a counted canvas rut. I love it, but every so often I remind myself that I used to be much more balanced in my stitching practices, and I enjoyed other techniques, too. So I made myself pull out a sampler that hasn’t seen the light of day in a while.

The last time I posted about my progress on Hillside Samplings’ Be You to Others sampler, which I refer to as the Ninja Squirrel Sampler (for reasons that will become obvious as I stitch a bit more), was back in February 2010, right after my carpal tunnel surgery. At that point, the sampler looked like this.

After quite a bit of time with this sampler over the past six months, I’m happy to say it’s much further along.

The personalization and verse areas aren’t filled in yet because, frankly, I’m not that thrilled with the verse on this design, and I haven’t yet figured out what I’m going to replace it with, nor what I want to do about personalization.

Does anybody have a favorite verse that might work well on this sampler? Maybe four lines or so? I’m open to suggestions!

Anyway, I’m back to working on canvas projects for a bit, but I hope to not let this piece sit unattended too long again.

Looking ahead

Having finished My Way last week, I now have no fewer than THREE large canvas projects on my near-term radar.

The first, of course, is Mystique, the project from my Carolyn Mitchell class over the next two days. We did have to stitch the borders for the project as pre-work for the class, but fortunately the most time consuming part of this was the counting. The stitch is a simple slanted gobelin stitch over two canvas intersections.

Unlike My Way, Carolyn strongly suggested that all students use one of her two color combinations, so there’s no chance for my progress to stall simply due to decision paralysis. I’m looking forward to this!

Also on the horizon is Jim Wurth’s Prelude to Peace, an online class through Shining Needle Society. This class is scheduled to start October 1st. I’ve chosen my colors – just slightly brighter versions of the original blues and browns, but haven’t actually purchased any of my threads yet. I guess I’d better get going on this! (Note, the picture in the link above is another stitcher’s, not Jim’s original. I couldn’t find a picture online of the original colors, except in the SNS Home Room. If you’re really curious, you can always join – it’s free!)

Finally, my local EGA chapter is doing the correspondence course Cleopatra’s Cat by Mary Long. Since I’m not a cat person, I’m taking some liberties with this project. I’m making a greyhound outline from a picture of my Sophie, and will be stitching it in shades of brown and black to match her brindle coloring.

I’ll try to post a bit more frequently to share how I’m approaching this. Yes, it means a lot of decisions, but since it’s mostly thread decisions rather than color decisions, it shouldn’t be too difficult, yet will still present an interesting challenge.

In the meantime, I’ve actually picked up one of my slow WIPs. Over the past week, I’ve made a bit of progress on the border of Rae Iverson’s Blackwork Band Sampler.

If I don’t actually finish a few things, I’m never going to meet my goal of ending the year with fewer WIPs than last year. But then again, I’m sure that’s not the only yearly goal that won’t be met! :-)

Friday Finish: How Great the Blessing

I can hear some of you thinking, “Didn’t she post about finishing that sampler a couple of months ago?”

Well, yes. I did.

But it wasn’t framed then.

Here you go.

Again, this is:

Design: How Great the Blessing (with a few minor changes)

Designer: Catherine Theron

Ground fabric: 36ct linen

Threads: silks, primarily from Hand-Dyed Fibers/Vikki Clayton

Stitches used: cross, smyrna, queen, oblong cross, chain, satin, slanted gobelin, tent, four-sided, leaf, lazy daisy, upright cross, long-arm cross, and cross over one. There may be one or two others, but that’s what I see right now.  :-)

Stitching timeframe: Started in a class April 2009, finished in February 2010.

The simple frame sets off the design. Nothing more was needed. Thanks to my LNS owner for great framing consultation, as usual!

A right-handed stitcher, stitching left-handed

(Updated to make the picture clickable!)

Thanks for all of the well-wishes on my carpal tunnel surgery. I'm now back to typing with both hands, but I can't lift anything heavy (as in >1 pound) or do much grasping or pulling with my right (dominant) hand.

As a result, I'm obviously slightly challenged in the stitching department! This situation rules out:

• Anything that requires the use of a laying tool – and I use a laying tool for everything that calls for more than one strand.
• Anything done in hand. (Thank goodness for my handy Elan lap stand!)
• Anything with less than tight tension on the ground fabric, since my left hand isn’t as sensitive to stitch tension.
• Any fancy stitches that require manipulation of the thread and needle separately.

This means that all of my canvas projects are on hold, as well as all of the in-hand stuff I was avoiding due to the carpal tunnel, and complicated areas on samplers.

What’s left?

Well, I guess I could read a couple of books that showed up in the mail last week (Samplers by Rebecca Scott and Stumpwork Medieval Flora by Jane Nicholas). I do want to write up reviews on each of these soon, but I want to stitch, too! So I’ll be picking up these books in between stitching sessions for the next week or so.

I tried to work on Hannah Thornbush, since the section in progress is a simple stitch in one strand. Unfortunately, I discovered that the Soie de Paris used on this piece (a very loosely twisted filament silk) wouldn’t  cooperate with my winter-rough skin. Even a sugar scrub wouldn’t help.

Back to the WIP pile. Oh, how about this? It’s my affectionately-nicknamed Ninja Squirrel Sampler. Mostly just simple cross stitch with one strand of twisted silk. That will work, especially since I recently laced the very limp linen to the sides of the scroll frame, so linen is now fairly tight, which lets me get decent stitch tension even with my “dumb” left hand.

Even with one hand, I’m slowly making progress on this piece.

I have a feeling I might want to work on something else soon, though. Does anyone see any candidates in my WIP list?

Happy Dance: How Great the Blessing

Ok, now it's done. Here is my version of Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing.

This is stitched on the 36ct linen supplied by Catherine as part of the kit, using Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers regular silk floss and a tiny bit of Rainbow Gallery's Splendor.

I made minimal changes to the design, primarily in the areas designated for personalization, but I also

• placed the birds and squirrels as I liked
• skipped the crown originally over the house (it just seemed odd!)
• left the queen stitch flowers in the large vase open, with just the outlines

All in all, I really like this piece. I think this one will actually get framed rather than finding a home in my closet. (Does anybody else do this?)

Is it done yet?

Here's where I stand on Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler. In the past week I've added the verse, and the numbers and personalization (with updated dates!) under the alphabet, along with four birds and another squirrel.

Is it done?

Early on in stitching this project, I deliberately didn't fill in the flowers in the large vase and left off the small berry bushes to the left of the large squirrel and the right of the bunny. Now I'm reconsidering.

The sampler doesn't have many blank spaces at the top, and the larger empty spaces by the bunny and squirrel seem to be screaming for something. Maybe those berry bushes would work after all.

What do you think?

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Erin update: Guess who had a birthday on Friday? Yes, already!

The best part about presents? The wrapping paper, of course!

My first decorated cake. Yes, that's supposed to be Elmo. I think I'll stick to stitching.

Erin's "personal" cake. Both cakes were applesauce cake, and they came out yummy.

The aftermath...

Somebody liked cake, but was clearly ready for bed!

Dealing with deadlines

It seems that lately I've been working against a couple of deadlines. My stitching time (to say nothing of blogging time) has disappeared as I've been trying to bake, decorate, buy, wrap, and write cards in preparation for Christmas. I'm happy to say that the baking, cards, and buying are done, though I still have to finish some decorating and wrapping over the next few days!

When it comes to stitching, though, I try not to set deadlines. Occasionally I'll have one for finishing a correspondence course, but I haven't even been trying to meet those this year! I have a standing policy when stitching for gifts: if I'm making something for Mom for Christmas, there's nothing that says it has to be this Christmas. I'll give it to her for the Christmas after it gets finished. Of course, this doesn't work too well for wedding gifts, but it does work for birthdays and holidays.

I'm curious. Who else does this? Do you set deadlines for your stitching, or are you of the "it gets done when it gets done" mindset?

However, I do have a stitching deadline looming now. This one has nothing to do with Christmas. Rather it has everything to do with one week later. Recall that I've already added '2009' on my How Great the Blessing from Catherine Theron. See the arrow in the picture. I really don't want to pull it out, so I'm trying to finish by the end of the month. Fortunately, I've made decent progress since I last posted about this piece, and I'm on vacation for the rest of the year. I'm really hoping to make it!

WIP: Heirloom Anniversary Sampler (by Victoria Sampler)

Yet another sampler is today's featured WIP. It is the Heirloom Anniversary Sampler designed by Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler. I'm stitching this as our wedding sampler, although I could have used it as our 10th anniversary sampler this year! :-(

(My apologies for the awful photo. I'll try to get a better one in the sunlight this weekend.)

Technique/Materials:  Lots of different sampler stitches, including drawn-thread work, pulled work, silk ribbon embroidery, and hardanger with silk threads on 28ct platinum Cashel linen.

Background:  I think I started this in early 2000, shortly after we got married in the fall of 1999, with the aim of making this our wedding sampler. Instead of a number inside the silk ribbon heart at the top, I'm planning to put the initial of our last name. As usual, I had to make the original design more complex by combining the big sampler with the hardanger border shown on the small design on the back of the chart.

Why it's not done:  Same old story, with respect to the hardanger. The carpal tunnel and the pinched nerve in my neck act up with the needle weaving. I also haven't found a great monogram alphabet to add our initial in the heart at the top.

What's left to do: I've just got to finish the rest of the hardanger border, then add a monogram in surface embroidery inside the heart.

WIP: Remember Me Photo Album (by Indigo Rose)

Today's featured WIP is likely the one that's got the least amount of stitching complete. It is the Remember Me Photo Album by Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose. Isn't it pathetic that I only made it this far before putting this aside?

Technique/Materials:  This photo album cover (and yes, the kit came with the album) is worked on 28ct evenweave with two strands of cotton floss. Not having the instructions in front of me right now, I can't be sure, but I believe most of the stitching is in cross stitch, though there may be a few other stitches here and there.

Background:  I'm not really sure when I started this. I think it was shortly after the design came out, and since Catherine's original had a date of 2003, I'm guessing I started in 2004. Since I never bothered to mount this on a frame/hoop/Q-snap or any such thing, I'm sure this was started as either a desk project (for stitching during my lunch hour) or a travel project. As such a project, it only saw hit-or-miss progress, which accounts for how little is completed.

Why it's not done:  Have I ever mentioned that I really don't like to work on 28ct? I really don't. On 28ct, you have to use at least 2 strands of cotton floss, and then you have to lay each stitch to get halfway decent coverage. Of course, this is much easier if the fabric is mounted on some sort of frame and in a stand, so you can use a laying tool. Trying to stitch on 28ct in hand is a pain. (Yes, I know about railroading. I never have good results with it, because one strand eventually overtwists and the other undertwists on me, so I don't use this technique. If it works for you, please share your secret!)

What's left to do:  Just about everything. Fortunately this piece isn't huge, and if I actually mount the fabric on a frame of some sort, it shouldn't take too long to do.

WIP: Be You to Others Sampler (Hillside Samplings)

Today's featured WIP is the Be You to Others Sampler, designed by Leslie Rudnicki of Hillside Samplings.

Technique/Materials:  This sampler is primarily cross stitch, with a few other stitches (satin, smyrna, herringbone, eyelets) thrown in as a change of pace. I'm working it on an unnamed color of 36ct Lakeside Linen received during a Fabric of the Month club several years ago. Most of the threads are Hand-Dyed Fibers from Vicki Clayton.

Background:  I picked up this piece in the summer of 2007 when I was looking for a project that wouldn't take tons of concentration when I was stitching with a group. In my stitching group, this quickly became known as the Ninja Squirrel Sampler due to the fact that the squirrels on it are as big as the little Adam and Eve in the center of the sampler.

Why it's not done:  It turns out that I like pieces that require concentration, at least most of the time!  That's not the only reason this hasn't seen more progress, though. The other reason is that the fabric seems flimsy and too soft. It's strange, because I've used 36ct Lakeside before and didn't have this problem. With this piece, though, I have to be more vigilant than usual about my tension, because the fabric threads distort very easily, especially with satin stitch.

What's left to do:  This is another sampler that still has a looong way to go.

Floating windows and door

(Note:  I actually started this blog post last Monday, and somehow never actually finished posting it.)

It was great. I was actually starting to post again on a regular basis, multiple times in a week. And that's how long it lasted. One. Week.

I really do plan to get back to posting frequently. Unfortunately, I timed my increase in productivity poorly. It just so happened that my favorite author, Diana Gabaldon, released the seventh main novel (as opposed to shorter sideline novels) in her Outlander series on September 22. My copy of An Echo in the Bone (which I preordered when I was in the hospital in January!) showed up last Monday.  Usually, I do most of my "reading" via audiobook, which has the distinct advantage in allowing me to stitch at the same time.  Echo is not yet available in audio, so it has definitely made a dent in my stitching time.  I'm on page 404 today.  Almost halfway through.  Give me another week and I'll be back to stitching and blogging more. 

The little bit of stitching I have accomplished in the past week has been on my Blessing sampler.  Here we have floating windows and a floating door above a brick walkway:

Despite the minimal time I've devoted to stitching this past week, this is actually working up fairly quickly.  Yes, it's over one thread of the linen, but fortunately it's just tent stitch, not full crosses.

(Update: I finished my book yesterday.  Let the blogging and stitching resume at whatever passes for a "normal" pace now.)

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Erin update:  Erin is doing fairly well out of the cast.  She's pretty wobbly from the waist down.  She has to wear her brace most of the time, so she doesn't have much time each day to rebuild muscle tone.  She's just starting to roll over again.

The brace is okay...

But free time is more fun!

Flowers and berries and bees, oh my!

Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler continues to be the focus of my stitchy attention.  As you can see, I've added the bees (cross stitch and double-running), a few berries (satin stitch), the outer area of several flowers (queen stitch), and the grout of a brick walk for a house (tent stitch over one).  Only in stitching can you add grout before the bricks!

All of the flowers are "supposed" to be filled in like the one on the left, but I really like them just with the outside areas done.  I can't really pull out the central areas of the bottom left flower due to the fabric distortion caused by the queen stitches, though.  Right now I'm going to proceed with filling in the flowers off of the vines on each side, but leave the center plant as it is. 

There's also supposed to be some small vines in freehand surface embroidery in the empty areas next to the squirrel and the bunny, but I think I like the space there for now.  We'll see how this looks as I get more of the sampler done.  I can always add them later.

I really do want to finish this sampler this year (after all, I've already added the year), but I've got an itch to do some canvas work.  I'm going to pull out Carolyn Mitchell's My Way, which I started last year before my pregnancy eliminated my ability to work on large canvases mounted on stretcher bars!

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Erin update:  CAST-OFF COUNTDOWN:  6 days to go!

Decent progress

Wow!  It's been a bit over a week since I last posted, but I've been making good progress on my Blessing sampler.  Erin's been cooperating by going to sleep around 8PM each night, so I've had time to stitch! 

I finished the grass and the vases, then added the strawberries, the squirrel and bunny, the center plant, and one queen-stitched flower.  There are 14 more of these flowers (5 on the center plant, and 5 on each side), and they'll take some time. 

A few pieces in my stash are calling to me to start them, but I already have too many started, and really need to finish a few (ok, at least two) before starting anything else, hence the concentration on this piece.

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Erin update:  We have a date for cast removal!  Cast-off day is Monday, September 21.  Two weeks to go.  Erin is getting very impatient with the cast.  She's now seven months old, and wants to GO!  She's constantly getting frustrated that she can't reach something or she'll try to throw herself backward when she's sitting on someone's lap.  It's like she knows she should be able to move more, but can't quite figure out why she can't.

Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago.  Somebody had given us this really pretty dress, and it was just hanging in her closet waiting for a special occasion.  I finally decided that any day could be a special occasion, or the dress wouldn't be worn at all!  When DH first saw this dress, he commented that it looked like she was wearing a tablecloth (though since then he's decided it's really cute on her). 

This past week, Erin's started to wrinkle her nose at times.  It's pretty funny.  Here she is (in a different pink gingham dress) when trying Cheerios for the first time yesterday.

Don't worry. Other pictures showed that maybe Cheerios were ok after all.  :-)

Slowly growing grass...

...on my sampler.  (Not the stuff outside - it's been a pretty wet summer and it's growing fast!)

This week I've been filling in the grassy area at the bottom of Blessing.  I'm leaving the areas to be filled in as strawberries empty.  In the last post, you'll see that I started the strawberries on the right side, but I wasn't happy with how the stitch was covering, so I took them out.  I also thought that particular stitch (upright cross) would be more easily worked if I didn't have to count it quite so carefully.  By doing the grass around each berry, now I just need to fill in the blank spaces.  It seems I'm continually trying to take the easy route these days!  Works for me - at least I'm stitching.

Sampler progress

No, not that sampler, the other one. Since Hannah Thornbush wasn't cooperating with me, I decided to pick up the How Great the Blessing sampler from my recent class with Catherine Theron. I've made some decent progress on it in the last week or so, getting in a little over an hour each night after Erin falls asleep.

The picture on the right is where my Blessing stood after the weekend class. Here's what I've been able to accomplish since then:

Wow! Looking at the older picture makes me realize just how much I've accomplished: the trees up top, the vines at the bottom and the sides (with lots of leaves on one of them), the blue parts of the vases, and an "A". Oh - and the personalization. Yes, I've dated it. I'm hoping that will keep me motivated to finish it this year! :-)

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Erin update: As of last Thursday, Erin is on cast #3. This was the scheduled cast change to allow for growth, and she did really well, now that we've figured out what medicines work for her in combination with the anesthesia.

I took a couple of pictures of cast #2 for posterity. In case any of you were wondering about it, here's one. Note the heart cut out of the tummy area. It helps with breathing and digestion, not to mention occasional belly pokes!
One week earlier, Erin came home from Grandma's in a great new outfit. Thanks, Aunt Sharon! It may just be due to Erin's cheering that the Yankees swept the Red Sox starting that day!

Wonderful class with Catherine Theron

You may recall that I took Catherine Theron's Examplar IV in 2007, and finally finished it this year. A couple of months ago, I posted about Catherine coming to town to teach her How Great the Blessing sampler. That class was this weekend, and while I wasn't able to attend for both full days, I enjoyed and appreciated the time I was able to be there!

Back in 2007, I described Catherine's teaching style:

She handled it wonderfully, going over a stitch or two and giving us lots of time to practice and add it to our sampler.

The same was true of this weekend, but it was even more relaxed, since this sampler was originally designed to be taught in a single day. We decided to make it more approachable to those less experienced in sampler stitches by having a two-day class. I'm very glad we did! It was a fun, relaxing class, with enough challenge for more experienced stitchers, but still do-able by everyone. The picture shows my (minimal) progress.

As the education chair of my EGA chapter, I was responsible for making all of the arrangements for the class. With everything that's gone on this year, I'm very grateful to a few ladies in my chapter for contributing some of their time to make this class a success. Thank you to Sharon and Rosemary for taking extensive notes for our "ghost" students, and a very big thank you to Annlouise and Nancy for hosting and entertaining Catherine and picking up the essentials for lunch. (And a big kiss to DH for taking such good care of Erin while I played this weekend!)

And, of course, thank you to Catherine for a fantastic class!

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Erin update: Erin made it through the recasting without needing to be put under anesthesia. They just used Tylenol since she was only undergoing a little bit of manipulation. Immediately afterward she seemed quite sore, but a bit of codeine helped. She came home Thursday afternoon, and has been her cheerful self since, with minimal soreness. Right now she's sitting on my lap, with her hand halfway down her throat. I think she's hungry! :-) Gotta go!

Happy Dance: Examplar IV

After the trellis motif took so long, I never imagined I'd be completely done with Catherine Theron's Examplar IV by this time!

The strawberry motif worked up fairly quickly. The leaves are all done in detached buttonhole with return. The stem uses long arm cross, diagonal cross, and colonial knots, and the strawberry itself is in tent stitch over 1 with occasional cross stitches for the seeds.

The caterpillar (who seems to be heading for that strawberry!) is also done in tent stitch, and the crown in the lower right corner is in rice stitch.

After these, all that remained were the corner motifs in double-running and diagonal queen stitches, and the personalization.

Catherine had the great idea of personalizing her sampler with both start and end dates. I wanted to do the same, but also wanted to add a bit more detail. After a bit of thought, I ended up with "2007 Mid-Eastern Region EGA" to commemorate the seminar at which I took the class. The "SMH" in "SMH 2009" stands for Strong Memorial Hospital, not that I'll readily forget where and when this piece was finished!

As of tomorrow, I'll once again be working on Joan Thomasson's Celebration Santa, which DH brought in today!

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Pregnancy ticker: 34 weeks, 1 day.
Less than 1 week to go!

Examplar IV progress

This motif is one of the simplest on the entire sampler, but it is so elegant! I can see using it when I need a little something on other pieces. The flower petals are just long laid stitches, the leaves are made up of tied stitches (like very shallow fly stitches), and the center is yet another spiral trellis.

Over the past two days, I've also been working on the strawberry motif in the upper right corner. This motif should be finished tomorrow.

The sampler is getting there! Thank you to Catherine Theron for a design that's doing a great job in distracting me as the days seem to be getting longer here in the hospital!
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Pregnancy ticker: 33 weeks, 5 days.
The doctors tried to confuse me this morning when they made some mention of inducing me on Friday. I pointed out that I'm sure they meant next week. It was pretty funny to see three doctors all spinning around to look at the calendar (with my ticker written on each day) and do a double-take. Oh, yes. Next week! :-)

More flowers on Examplar IV

After lots of over-one stitching, the flower trellis in the lower right corner of Catherine Theron's Examplar IV. This motif took a lot more effort than it appears at first glance. The green bars are outlined and filled with chain stitch. All of the flowers are tent stitch over 1, with backstitch over 1, and the yellow flower centers are tiny spiral trellis with one strand of floss.

This has kept me busy over the course of the weekend! Here's the entire piece so far.The next few motifs should work up a bit more quickly.

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Pregnancy ticker: 33 weeks, 3 days.
Sorry. I know some of you worry when I don't post for a while. Everything's fine. It's just that I've been taking it really easy over the last few days, and didn't want to drag out the laptop. My blood pressure seems to go up considerably when I'm up and about, so I waited 'til DH was here this evening to get the laptop out.

On the other hand, today was the first time the doctors seemed to think that making it to January 30th (35 weeks) was a likely possibility! We're continuing to hang in there!