A nice quiet Sunday update

Greetings my crafting and artsy friends. It has been a few weeks since I last posted updates on my projects. I decided to wait a bit until I had a bit more progress on my projects underway before updating. Part of the problem is that I am fervently stitching daily and keep thinking, "Hmm, think I will wait and update tomorrow after I get in just a few more stitches." The problem is, a few more today leads to a few more tomorrow, lol. Before I know it, a week has passed then two weeks and still no update. I am still trying to get my right knee to mend so this is why I keep having extra time to work on my cross-stitching. As much as I am enjoying this, I think I would prefer for my knee to fully mend. There are places I would like to get out visit but with this big swollen lump, it is not very safe for me to be driving since it is on my driving knee and all activity just seems to make the swelling increase greatly. UGH! So here I am sitting with the knee elevated the majority of the time and stitching, stitching, and more stitching. Actually, I also did a little genealogy research through the use of my PC and had a really nice break in my Schreiner side of the family research. I have had trouble with this one brick wall as they say since I started researching in 1997. I managed to find a website on rootsweb.com that published a list of names in a biography book printed in 1911 and the email address of the contributor of this information to the website. So I sent the fellow an email to ask where I could obtain a copy of one of the biographies and honestly doubted if anything would come from it but a few days later I received a very welcomed response with the biography transcription of my ancestor included in it! How awesome was that! Through this data from the biography I have new searchable leads and another generation back. This was thrilling for me! Now I just need to get over this stupid knee injury issue so I can get out of this house and get over to the Ohio Historical Society Library and delve into some research. In the meantime, I continue with the embroidery counted - cross stitching, lol.

I did not work on all of my projects this time around but rather instead I selected just a few of them to focus on and worked on an old project that had been set aside for well over a year as well as started another new projects.

Since I am talking of genealogical stuff in this post as well, I will start the updates with two photos of my great-grandparent's 1899 wedding photo tapestry. My great-grandparents were Louis Schreiner and Evalyn "Eva" Mae McNutt.  I decided to put the tapestry on the scanner to get a better clean image of it but due to size limitation of the scanner bed, I scanned the tapestry into two sections. This tapestry is being worked on 32 count linen fabric working two strands of DMC cotton floss over two strands creating a 16 count image.

Here is Great-grandmother Eva. I completed the side of her and will continue working down to complete her wedding gown. I have more back-stitching to work into it but holding off just yet. I added some faded frosted lavender glass beads into her wreath on her head to better depict the flowers that were in her wreath.

And I have moved over to the other side to fill in some on great-grandfather Louis.

The reason part of his suit is so dark is because it is the shadow in the photo causing the dark shading. The photo was a sepia toned photograph and this is how the computer program I used to create a graph from the photograph interpreted the image for design. 

This next update shows one completed page of the "A Token of Love" sampler. I am already working into the next page and making more progress then is shown in this scanned image. I do love this simple one color stitching as it is a very nice break from my busier projects. This is 18 count Aida cloth using DMC cotton floss working with two strands.

In my last update, I was just barely started on a tapestry of "The Last Supper" which I created the design  chart for myself  from a photo of the painting but I have spent some time on that piece as well. Here is my update for it.This is worked on 25 count Lamb's Wool colored Jobelan cloth working 1 thread over 1 thread. 

I have really made some nice progress on this next tapestry, "Earth Song" whose chart was produced by Heaven and Earth Designs. I am slowly trying to make my way across the entire top of the design. 

This little nativity piece is the UFO project I started over a year ago. Actually the design has a bit of history to it for me. This is actually my second time to stitch this design. It is the symbol of my beginning into the realm of counted - cross stitch. 

I actually received my very, very first cross -stitch kit as a Christmas gift in 1982.  It was sent to me from a sister that was living out in Germany at that time. The kit was very tiny and the image was a rose to be stitched on a very small count fabric with a small wooden frame. I remember when I opened the gift and looked at it, another siblings now former spouse made a comment about, "You actually think you can stitch that?" He didn't mean it in a negative way, he would never do that but when he saw the sheer size of it, he had his doubts. To me, I saw this as a challenge and I welcomed it. I was not quite 18 at that time. So I did stitch it and complete it but not without errors. It was rough going, I will be honest of that. I think it was 32 count, 1 over 1 and not a beginner's project by any means. I kept that piece for many years but eventually lost in in one of my many moves. Okay so that was officially my first cross-stitching kitted piece. I did other types of embroidery before and after that rose. But still had no clue about charted cross stitching designs that you kit up yourself. 

Sometime after entering my 20's I moved across the county (1986), working, living single on a too tight budget with little to entertain myself with. I couldn't even afford a TV, lol. My dad eventually bought a small color one for me just because he could not imagine surviving without a television set. I found ways. I read books from the library! However everyday on my way home from work, I would pass by this store that was called "Spare Time Crafts." Being a crafter/artist type of person,  I decided to stop one day to check it out. It was not a craft store that I thought it would be. It was a cross-stitching store that sold fabrics for embroidering on, lots and lots of cross-stitching design charts and embroidery floss. I had never seen anything like this before, ever. The store clerk was not the most friendly person but she did explain to me about cross-stitching and how to follow a chart, purchase the cloth and floss. I had no clue that there was a thread called DMC with a number coding system, lol. I had very little cash to spare but I saw this chart for a nativity scene that just sort of called out to me so I purchased my very first ever design chart that day of the Stoney Creek design "Humble Stable." I also purchased my fabric and a few of the flosses. Not many as this was about to break my limited budget. So I opted to purchase the colors that were used at the center of the deisgn, the starting point for my stitching to get me going. I later found that the floss was far less pricey at another store in town and slowly began purchasing the flosses each pay day. It meant work went slowly on that design. I set it aside when I met my husband, got married and had the first child. No real time to stitch for a while but I picked it back up when my son was a busy toddler and eventually I finished that design. I discovered I could actually use these stamps we had been collecting from the local Big Bear grocery store over in the Hearts department store to purchase the remaining floss I needed so I basically got a lot of the floss for free that way. :) I made a gift of that finished piece and have been a cross-stitcher off and on every since. I had marked up that original chart as I worked each stitch which I later regretted as I found obtaining a fresh copy nearly impossible. I really wanted to make the design again, this time to keep for myself. A few years ago a friend on one of the yahoo email groups I am in had a great windfall. She received a number of tubs of cross-stitching charts from off of her local freecycle group and decided that she didn't want all the charts and freely offered to share them with others of us in the group. We simply paid for the postage. Well, the Humble Stable chart was among them!!!! I finally had a copy again. I am still so thankful for this. I have nearly half of that design complete now.  I have also since learned to go make photo copies of my charts as a working copy that I can mark on and still have the original design chart to refer back to in he event of a disaster such as having to restart a design. I had that experience on a few projects. 

I absolutely love this nativity "Humble Stable" working this on linen.

I know this is a really long post already but I do have one more tapestry piece to share today. It is simply called "Lion" and he is a design I created from my own original painting I did back in 1999. I always felt like this Lion would look so much better in thread then he does in paint but I kept storing him away and debating on whether or not I should try and turn him into a tapestry. As you will see, I finally decided to move forward and have completed the first page of the tapestry. I am working 1 over 1 on 25 count Lugana a linen blend fabric. I have no clue if he will turn out well or not but I do like what I have completed of him so far. 

This is an image of the painting I created the design chart from. I made a few tweeks to the painting in Photoshop to obtain a sharper image in the software I used to create the chart and added a copyright across his face hopefully prevent copy theft. 

Well I think that about sums up what has been keeping me busy with my stitching of late. I do hope you have enjoyed reading up on the progress and seeing the photos. 

Until next time friends.