My Vickki Clayton Silk is Here!

I ordered my silk on Wednesday and received on Saturday! I got 9 skeins and one "grab bag" spool. I ordered the colors at random to work on monochromatic patterns from My Aunt's Attic. I am going to be looking through all the patterns tonite trying to pick my next one!

Don't Miss the Sale!

http://www.nouveauencore.com/

Starting today thru July 7th, all standard samplers are 15% off. They are beautiful samplers, made using copy-right free French patterns that are 100-200 years old. I bought the sampler above. This is one of the smaller sizes. Many are over 400 stitches square! I think I could buy just about every sampler they have! But, gotta put a daughter through college!

Something a Little Smaller

I found this freebie on Blue Ribbon Designs. It is the first time I have mixed one over one with two over two designs. The phrase and the not yet started alphabet are one over one. It is enjoyable and the result is really special. This is the smaller piece I can do later at night when I have put the bigger piece away for the evening.

Doesn't look like I made must progress but it really took a long time to do the black outline on the left side. You really have to pay attention to the chart. Once I get some more outlined, I can do the filling color pretty easy.

Another close-up

Another close up of my progress on the Mandala. I am stitching on 14 count Aida cloth which I don't use much any more but since it will be completely covered by stitches, I thought it would be a good choice. I wish now I had done the piece in silk, but too much done to change now!

My first Vicki Clayton order

I have read so much about Vicky Clayton hand dyed silk threads, that I placed my first order today. Didn't go too crazy, I started out with a $20.00 order. The prices are so reasonable and I have read nothing but good things about this thread. I can't wait because I have a small piece that I want to do as a needle keep. The pattern is from Blue Ribbons designs, http://www.blueribbondesigns.com/ called Crowned Heart. It just looks beautiful. It calls for Gentle Art sampler threads but I think the silk would look great also.

Still working on the Mandala and made some good progress. But as soon as I get the silk, I will have another WIP. I usually only have one or two projects at once, usually a large piece and then a smaller piece. But I have set a goal to finish the Mandala by the end of July which I think I can do.

One of the Prettiest Stitiching Blogs on the Net

http://gigir.canalblog.com/

I stumbled across this blog by accident and was literally amazed at the beauty of the site. Gigi is a very talented designer, as shown by her letter series which is available at http://www.hand-dyedfibers.com/oscnuked/index.php. These are magnificent letter samplers, which currently feature the letters A, B, C, M, S, V and the most recently introduced L.

What I really like about these designs is that they are timeless. Hanging in your house now or in your great-great-great granddaughter's house 100 years from now, they will still be cherished.

I just love this picture! I have been fortunate enough to travel to Paris once, about five years ago. You know how some cities never live up to your expectations? Well, Paris lived up to all of them and even more. It is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. Someday, I hope to call it home, at least for a couple of months...it would take that long to see everything!

This is a close-up of a picture I took at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. I love the look of the embroidery on the clothing.

A close up of the piece. Eventually, the entire 10 inch circle will be filled in with stitches.

My current work in process. This will eventually be the centerpiece in a small round table. It will look like a stained glass window when completed.

Another unframed piece. It is from the Debbie Draper design in Gift of Stitching but in different silk colors.

This is one of my favorite pices. It is from Cross Stitch Art and I changed the Chinese symbol from blue to red to make it stand out. The website is http://cross-stitch-art.com/. Be careful because every pattern is gorgeous.

This is a unframed piece from Prairie Schooler.

This is from a small sampler that I found in a sampler book by Brenda Keyes.

This is from a free pattern from Papillion Creations which I did in several different color schemes. Please check out the web site:

http://www.papillion-creations.com as it is one of my favorites! Join her newsletter and receive monthly installments of a wonderful sampler. I particularly enjoy her samplers and have purchased the Mary Queen of Scots which I think is just gorgeous.

I did the same piece but reversed the colors. On both, I used Needlepoint silk which was the first time I ever used silk in a project. I looooovvvvee silk!

This is one of my finished pieces. It is from a Debbie Draper design which was featured in The Gift of Stitching, an on-line cross stitch magazine. The original pattern is much bigger but I chose only to do part of it. It is such a perfect size piece to do when travelling, especially since you only need two colors.

Take a look at the rest of Debbie's designs at :

http://www.debbiedraperdesigns.com/

One of the newest, "Quaker Moments" looks especially delicious!

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/textiles/video_casket/broadband.html

This is a link to a wonderful hand embroidered "casket" or jewelry box from the mid-1660's which is housed in the Victoria and Albert museum in London. It was done by an eleven year old girl. Keep that in mind as you watch the video. There is no sound but it does have text to explain.

I am back!

I finally have a chance to work on my blog...that no one is reading! But that will change because I plan on adding something almost every day.

Today, I want to add one of the coolest cross stitch sites I have found called My Aunt's Attic...it is a site which is digitizing old cross stitch patterns and offering them for free. They are excellent! There is also a link to a designer "Noveau Encore" who has used the various patterns to create a wonderful sampler for free. Check out her other gorgeous samplers while you are there...

http://myauntsattic.web-log.nl/

http://www.nouveauencore.com/