Stash and Stashability

I don't have any amazing progress or finishes to show you, so I thought I would share some views of my stash with you. I love making piles of charts and rearranging the "stitching order." These are some that have been at the top of the pile for a while.

You all know how dutifully I have been working on Anonymous Women by Sheepish Designs.

Yesterday, I put her aside when the mail carrier delivered some fabric for Bridget Power Sampler by Of Female Worth.

Unfortunately there was a stain on the otherwise lovely 40 ct Angel Hair, so back it will go. But the linen for Renaissance Garden by Goode Houswife looked perfect, so I thought about starting it.

Whenever I see Renaissance Garden, I think of 1762 Canterbury Tapestry by Barrick Samplers for some reason. They are very like and very unlike to my mind. I have the fabric and could have started it.

But the birds were singing yesterday, and the bees were buzzing, and the day was unusually mild for February.(ETA: Thanks, Barbara! It is January! lol) So I considered English Cottage Sampler by Chessie and Me.

or Awake the Dawning Day by Blackbird Designs.

As you can see, I was spoiled for choice. With all this vintage-y goodness spread before me, my capricious needle may another stab, as it were. I sat myself down in my car in front of the ballet studio and stitched this.

I suppose I will always have a spot in my heart for Cross-Eyed Cricket!

I found this freebie in one of the newsletters at Stitchville USA. http://www.needleartworks.com/stv/nwsltr/svnwsltr.htm

The Week in Stitches

I am blogging to take my mind off the watery abyss that is my basement. It's not quite a flood, but it is wet. I expect the plumber any moment, but I won't be holding my breath!

I have wanted to stitch the Cross-Eyed Cricket design above for years. I finally started and finished it this week. My husband does not approve. When we were dating and he discovered I was an avid cross stitcher, he was not pleased. It was not that he was worried I would be stitching and never clean the house (that IS what he should have worried about), he was apparently scarred in the 80's by visions of cross stitched geese with blue ribbons around their necks advertising mottos such as "Backdoor guests are best." I had to solemnly promise to love, cherish and never cross stitch geese. Well, lucky for him my tastes are not 1980s. They are more like 1680s, 1780s and 1880s! He divides designs into two categories: "nice" and "goofy crap." The above design he deems "goofy crap." Too bad for him! I like it!

I also started the above Brighneedle design. I think it is called Windy Hill. We live on Windy Hill! I call our hill Wuthering Heights. Our house faces the mountains, and the wind roars down the mountains at break-neck speed for our house! I cannot have windchimes on my front porch, I soon discovered.

I also started this week ;) "Fishes and Bait by Plum Street Samplers. I love Paulette's designs and her sense of humour. There is a pair of mer-people in the traditional "Adam and Eve" sampler pose. The verse reads, "Fishes and Bait, Fishes and Bait, When a Woman marries then trouble's her fate."

More pictures from Mom

The middle design is one my parents bought at an auction in Kansas years ago. The other two are my mom's.

Michele