Idea Binder

I have a binder that started its life ten years ago holding seminar materials for a software development conference. Not a very pretty thing to hold ideas and charts for future (and past) needlework ideas, but it was still in good working order. Besides, it couldn't help it if it had non-inspiring printing on it. So, I decided to doll it up a bit.

Presenting the new and improved Idea Binder!



I spent the weekend working on this idea and bringing it to life. Do you know how scary it is to take a nice sampler and start pinning, sewing and cutting on it? I learned that it is better to tape down the vinyl and needlework and then sew the opening than it is to trying pinning it all down. Trust me on this one. The tape worked so much better!

All the work was documented in pictures, I may do a tutorial on it in the future, but now, I just want to enjoy it and reload all the ideas.

First finish for 2010

Here 'tis: my first finish for 2010. This is Pat Rogers' Counted Collection A Lady's Alphabet, mentioned a couple of posts ago. This sampler gave my TUSAL bottle a nice start for the new year.

The designer's notes on the pattern mentioned that the omission of the letter V was intentional. Samplers were used as teaching vehicles in earlier times and since fabric and thread were precious, one would try to conserve and not duplicate lessons. Since the V is incorporated in the W, the V was some times omitted. Ms. Rogers did provide a chart that included the letter V, but I chose to go with the original design.

I've got an interesting finishing idea for this piece and I'll post it when it is completed.

Rainy Tuesday

I got a nice surprise in the mail: a $10 check from the State Fair Creative Arts department. That's $6 for the second place sampler and $4 for the one that placed third. I think that's rather quaint. Bet those prize moneys haven't been updated in a coon's age.

In the not so nice department, the city of Nashville no longer wants to foot the bill for the State Fair so this last one really may be The. Last. One. It was nice to have the experience of participating in it.

No stitching since the weekend. I've been mulling over the placement of the eyelets and haven't reached a firm conclusion. The original design called for two eyelets on each page and a ribbon run through both, tied on the front. That's great if you've just got a few or even several pages, but I'm dealing with 14 of those boogers. I'm thinking I need three to four eyelets for a more stable stitching book.

Mull, mull, mull.

Oh, Mr. Stinky II is browsing at the feral cat bowls. The first Mr. Stinky met his demise crossing the street last year, so I know this isn't the same one. Seems like I'm running a soup kitchen for animals these days: Patches, Ginger, Big Yellow Cat, Tabby with White Feet (who I now know is named Ziggy), Patches's Evil Twin, and Tippy, the chubby gray and white cat with the white tip on his tail that lives across the street but always likes to grab a bite or two on my front porch. And sometimes this huge white German sheperd comes by really, really early in the morning and cleans out what little is left in the bowl overnight.

TUSAL for September and Tennessee State Fair

While cruising in Alaska, I was working on a Susan Greening Davis design on mushroom Lugana with 738 #8 perle cotton - just about the same color as the fabric. The stitching involved pulling threads from the fabric for hem stitching. This meant lots of orts were generated and they were saved in this bag.

I managed to moosh the orts into the small bottle I'm using for Yoyo's TUSAL by compacting it all with the eraser end of a pencil. The label from the ball of perle cotton can be seen in the upper right side of the bottle.





Well, would you look at that? My sampler won second prize at the state fair! I think that's the second ribbon I've ever won. (The first was a blue for a poster in 9th grade - and that ribbon was stolen from the teacher's desk. phbbbt!)
Annnd...I entered a second, smaller piece that also won a ribbon - white for third place. If you'd asked me before this what color was used for third place I couldn't have told you, but now I know.

New Finishing Skill

Last year, I completed this sampler, shown here freshly ironed and taking up most of the ironing board. The sampler, it's a big 'un - 18" x 30" - and there's a lot of stitching in it. And not just cross stitch. All the grass is long and short satin stitch, the center flower is Turkey work and the vines are crewel, the top and bottom bands are rice stitch, the other dividing bands are various other stitches, and I finished it with an antique hem stitch around the whole magilla. It's on 32 ct Glenshee linen and stitched with Rainbow silks (except for the Turkey work and crewel which were done in wool.)

Since the piece was hemmed, it would have to be sewn to a mat board, instead of stretched, to be framed. I decided to try to tackle this myself and Cathy, the framing artist at the LNS, gave me a quick lesson in sewing on to mat board. A couple of weekends ago I started the (seemingly endless) measuring and pinning (and measuring and pinning) of this booger to the mat. (Note: this makes for some sore thumbs.) This morning, I decided to quit piddling around and finish the job.

It soon became apparent that the most important tool of this job was the handy-dandy paper piercer that I found in the scrapbooking section at JoAnn's. See it? It's at the bottom of the picture, between the pin cushion and the mat board and next to the glaring metal ruler. It made poking all those bleepin' holes a much nicer task than using a pushpin or a T-pin. So, with #22 needle and Gennie Thompson Ivory Linen Thread in one hand and the paper piecer in the other, I commenced to marrying sampler to mat.

Here we see one side (and a bit around the corner) done.

Yippe! Twenty inches down and only 76 to go!







And four hours later...taa-dah!

I meant to take the sampler to the LNS tonight to have Cathy the Great complete the framing, but the sampler failed to make it to the car. Rut-row. So now it will have to wait until Monday. Stay tuned to see the final pictures!