Happy July

I’ve got a finish-finish from way back when. I gave myself a chocolate chip cookie.  Mmmmmm.

July sampler by La Broderie, from a Just Cross Stitch Sampler in the ’90’s, stitched in 2008. 😳

Happy Flag Day

I’ve stitched a couple of flag-related smells recently.

This is part of the Glory House kit by Chessie & Me. I didn’t stitch the lawn. While I was finishing this, I thought it was a great size for a needlebook. Still love this the way it is.

This is Tiny Flag kit  by  Shepherd’s Bush. It’s so cute. I set up a small patriotic display for Flag Day/summer.

Happy stitching!

Spring into Summer

I’ve been keeping busy with small projects. I had a crisis of indecision with the modified Bargello Symphony, so I’ve been distracting myself.

I decided on a way to finish my Year in Chalk designs. I’m really pleased with the results.

I found a lasercut plaque I liked and painted it white. I stuck a Pro MAG magnetic card to the front. I mounted the finished piece on a piece of comic book backing board and put another magnetic card on the back.  It was tricky for me to get the piece to center on the plaque the way I wanted, so I added a few tiny rare earth magnets to the plaque’s magnetic card, et voila! A happy stitcher.

I’d say luck was with me with this finish. I prefer the magnets to Velcro. I also put a magnetic card on the back of the plaque so I could put it on my magnetic wall. The card wasn’t strong enough to hold the plaque and finished design, so I glued a few rare earth magnets to the card with much success.

I had some fun with my magnets.

What’s that, you say? Spring is almost over? I mentioned summer in my blog title? Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of summer? All true. Here’s A Taste of Summer by Shepherd’s Bush. I didn’t stitch the words.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Happy Stitching! 🙂

Pi, er, Squared

Happy Pi Day! I stitched a little pincushion for the occasion. At 9:26:53, it will be/was an auspicious Pi Day, indeed, if you write your dates in the American fashion. It will be 3/14/15, 9:26:53, the first ten digits of pi. Fun! Where’s the confetti?

This is Pi, er, Squared, a freebie by Tor-Rhuann Designs, which you can download here. In case you need your math refreshed, pi x r squared is how you find the area of a circle, with “r” representing the circle’s radius. I call mine Cocoa Bean and Cherry Cobbler, um, “Pi, er, Squared,” because those were the names of the Classic Colorworks floss I used. Yes, their names did influence my choices. I enjoyed stitching this so much. Also, Sir Cumference has asked me to remind you that you can determine the circumference of a circle by getting “pied,” that is, multiplying the diameter times pi.

Here’s the bottom, with some Cocoa Bean pis.

I’m going into pun timeout now.

Vitals:
Pi, er, Squared by Tor-Rhuann Designs.
Stitched 2 over 2 on 28-ct. linen (a light yellow shade closely resembling DMC 746)
Threads used: Classic Colorworks Cocoa Bean and Cherry Cobbler.

I hope you have a wonderful Pi Day. Happy Stitching! 🙂

 

Stitchier

Typing “stitchier” will get you a “that’s not spelled right, or something” red line. Stitchier, stitchier, stitchier. March isn’t half over yet, and I’ve already stitched more than last year, so stitchier it is.

Here’s what I’ve been up to–Oh, wait! I forgot to share this last year–

 

This is Just Nan’s Gingerbread Jingle Mouse, stitched on 32-ct gingerbread fabric (I want to say Picture this Plus?) with recommended DMC fibers. I stitched it for a friend for Christmas. It’s so freaking adorable. You know how sometimes you stitch a gift and don’t want to give it away? Yeah, that. I gave it to her, but it wasn’t easy. OK. Now for 2015 stitchier stitching.

Last December I was in AZ, and visited the Attic Needlework shop in Mesa. Yes, it’s as wonderful as you’ve heard. It was more wonderful than I expected, honestly. I relieved them of much stash when I was there. The Just Nan mouse above was one item that left with me. Another was this Rovaris pendant, which I stitched in January.

 

I completed the stitching fairly quickly, but I haven’t assembled it yet, because it went missing twice. The first time was in my stitchy trash can (gasp!). The second time was because I have too much stash. I rediscovered it yesterday. I’ve got to get busy with the assembly.

Next came Leaping Cat by La-D-Da. I stitched this over one over one on 40-ct. Light Exemplar as an experiment. There are counting errors that I learned to accept, though I wouldn’t have on another project. It was just too small and confusing to find the errors.  I love it anyway, so the experiment was a success.

 

What this project needs is an image that gives perspective. Trust me, it’s small. The framing was unexpectedly expensive. It deserves the extravagance.

I did some work on a WIP, too. Going to Market by Dimensions. The mother and child are walking to market, waiting for the background stitches. I’m stitching this over one on 32-ct. It’s challenging, but much easier than over one on 40-ct. linen.

I have strong magnifying lenses I clip to my glasses.

 

I also finished the January design of A Year in Chalk by Hands On Designs. I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t wait to stitch it. I haven’t decided how to finish it. I don’t plan to stitch every month. I have March on order at my LNS. They are very cute designs.

 

I’ve also been working on a bigger project–Bargello Symphony by Loretta Spears. I’m not stitching this in the original colors. My sister saw my original Bargello Symphony and asked me to stitch it for her, but not in pink, as she doesn’t like pink. She ultimately decided on taupe and cream colors. My sister once asked me to never stitch anything for her, which, OUCH! But really, better to know beforehand, yes? I got over the sting quickly. More stitching time for presents for me. 🙂 When she asked me to stitch her something I was surprised and flattered. It’s really important to me that she likes it. I’ve been sending her progress pictures.

 

Fabric on the stretcher bars!

 

First stitch!

Part one (of six) complete.

 

Part two complete.

I have to wait to complete the third part. The instructions say you only need one spool of metallic, but I used it up already. Maybe I cut the pieces too long. I don’t know. But I’ll be able to complete part three when the spool comes into the LNS, as I had to order it. It’s so weird to be stitching this again. I never expected to.

I hope you’re warm and dry. Happy Stitching!

End of year report

This has been a rough year all around. No stitching or blogging mojo was just the start. On the plus side, I’ve had a sleep study and discovered why my CPAP machine wasn’t helping me. 🙂 Now I have a new machine, with a new pressure, and I’m sleeping better. I’ve decided it’s a sign of good things to come in the New Year.

On the stitching front, I’ve received a sweet, sweet ornament from Wendy. She and I have had a private ornament exchange the past couple of years, and I was determined not to miss it this year. Here’s what she sent me–

I always enjoy reading her blog posts about her garden and the birds that visit there. She made this one because she has robins visit her, and they make the sweetest song. I loved the ornament without the story. It’s that much more special now.

This is what I made her–

It’s a freebie I found on a blog somewhere. I’m not sure where. I’m usually better about noting sources. Wendy was organized and early with my ornament. I was unmotivated and late with mine. The good part about that is that after I finished my ornament, I was able to photograph both of them together.

I love that I was able to get this photo.

The one thing I managed to do last year was read, quite a bit more than I normally read. It’s nice to feel I accomplished something for myself during a rough patch. This year, I’m going to participate in Book Riot‘s Read Harder Challenge. There are 24 tasks, that run the gamut from reading a book according to an author’s age when published, to where the book takes place, to specific genres, to self-help (traditional to non-traditional, which is inspiring people in the Goodreads group to read cookbooks to help them and other non-traditional books to help themselves). It’s a very loose challenge, so if you don’t normally read 24 books in a year, a book can cover two or more categories to accomplish all the tasks. It’s entirely up to you. I’ll have the hardest time with the poetry task.  I’m excited for the New Year to begin so I can get started. Like cross-stitch, I seem to think I can finish the challenge in five minutes. I have a list of selections for each category (with some books listed in multiple categories). My goal is to read books I already own or to check out titles from the library. I don’t want to purchase books specifically to complete a task. Unless I simple can’t resist…

Happy New Year to all and happy stitching!

🙂

Final sharing from 2013

It’s time to clean up the hanging threads of 2013 and make sure I’ve shared everything I’ve meant to share. I’ve been a neglectful blogger this year, so I have a few pictures I haven’t yet posted.

Bone Appetit from Lizzie Kate’s Halloween Thrillogy. I finished this a few days after Halloween.

Later in November, I got Pieta framed. I took a quick picture to show my father before Christmas. He was traveling for the holidays, so I’ll be sending this off to him shortly. I never did get a better picture than this. Dad joked I should take a picture with my phone. I thought it was a good suggestion. That one wasn’t better.

After I sent Wendy her ornament, I started working on ornaments for myself that I’ve wanted to stitch for a very long time–Brightneedle’s “To Thee” stockings from JCS Ornament issues. I stitched them on 28-ct. Country Cream Vintage linen. I used all DMC for each ornament.

           

To Thee Love, from the 2004 JCS Ornament Issue, and To Thee Hope, from the 2006 JCS Ornament Issue.

                     

To Thee Peace from the 2003 JCS Ornament Issue, and To Thee a Very Merry from the 2008 JCS Ornament Issue.

I rotated the colors in Peace to give her a pink dress instead of pink accents. For A Very Merry, I added the year and moved around the eyelet stitches above the year to fit. I also had fun with the eyelets. Many of them are off center.

Finally, I made progress on 272 Words by Primrose Needleworks. I’m not quite done with the first page. Instead of GAST Nutmeg for the text, I’m using soot by Nina’s Threads, which I ordered from The Thread Basket.

That does it for 2013. I’m going to participate in the Sampler World Snoot Parrots SAL 2014 on Facebook, so I’ll have another WIP very soon.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year.  Happy Stitching! 🙂

Merry Christmas

I participated in an ornament exchange with Wendy this year.  She sent hers early, but I had to wait to open it. Like all things this autumn/winter, finishing and sending Wendy’s ornament took longer than it should have. Here’s what she sent me:

It’s the gorgeous Fresh Fallen Snow by Little House Needleworks, which was published in the JCS 2011 Ornament issue. It was quite easy to verify the particulars, because this was on my list of ornaments to stitch–

I’ve got a few ornaments rated 10 before I move on to the ones I’ve rated 9 (or lower), but I don’t have to wait for this one. I’m so lucky! Thank you, Wendy. I love it.

Here is the ornament I stitched for Wendy. It arrived before Christmas, and we opened our packages sort of together on Facebook. That was nice. 🙂

A “Tweet,” Merry Christmas and Healthy, Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.

Happy Stitching. 🙂

Berry Emery

I stitched Blackbird Designs Berry Emery over the last couple of days. I used the charted fabric and fibers.

Just a quick cutie to break up the Pieta stitching.

I’m getting a full fruit bowl. 🙂

Vitals:
Berry Emery by Blackbird Designs from It’s Berry Time
Stitched with recommended fibers and fabric

Happy Stitching! 🙂

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I have a brown thumb, so I grow mine one stitch at a time. 😀 Here are the pieces awaiting assembly. At a quick glance, you can see the pink pieces appear to have seam allowances that are too small. If any parts are going to end up in difficulty, these are the pieces you’d predict. You’ll soon see that wasn’t the case.

    

Assembly in progress~~

The top and bottom pieces stitched together…

At this stage of assembly, the boy and I agreed it looked like a Chain Chomp from Super Mario World. You might also be able to see that in addition to interface, I lined each piece with quilt batting. I had two reasons for this. First, I came across the idea on this blog while looking for photos of other stitchers’ completed balls. That post’s pictures didn’t load for me, ironically. I was intrigued by the recommendation to use batting. I’ve never had the experience with lumpy fiberfill she mentioned, but that seemed a good reason to try it. My second reason for using the batting is that I love this project so much, I wanted to prolong the experience.  Eventually, though, it was finished…

I love it. There are a few wonky things “wrong” with it. But I love this piece so completely, I don’t even care. That’s so uncharacteristic of me. Here’s the wonkiest part~~

I’m not sure how/why that happened. That’s the white fabric, which puzzlingly, had the largest seam allowances of all of the linen colors. It’s DMC brand. It had the loosest weave and was the stiffest fabric I used. The stiffness was nice for finger pressing, but something went wrong with the stuffing. I chalk it up to the loose weave. I would ordinarily flip out over this. But Fray Check is my friend, the ball is safe and I am wabi-sabi about the whole thing. As I said, uncharacteristic. Love is blind. 😉

Happy Stitching! 🙂

Adventures in Framing

Happy Independence Day!

Framing isn’t usually adventurous, is it? It can be deeply satisfying, maybe nerve-wracking or frustrating, but it’s not especially dramatic. Up until now, the most adventure I’ve had with framing was when I made a poor choice for a frame, and “fixed” it with gold cream paint~~

That was it. Until yesterday. A couple weeks ago I took the Doctor Who piece for the boy, and Missing You by Prairie Moon to be be framed. Missing You is three years old! I haven’t had anything framed in three or more years! Truth be told, the adventure wasn’t in the framing, but in photographing it for the blog. Anyway. First up, I’ll show you an ordinary framed piece. I loved the look on the boy’s face when he saw the finished piece. He just loved it. Made me so happy.

So, that went well. 🙂 Then, there was my piece. It all seemed to be going fine. When the framer put down the molding, we both knew it was exactly right. I was, and am, so pleased. I kept it in front of me for hours that night so I could enjoy it. I’m weird like that. I get excited when projects are all done. I took a photo with my phone, and shared that on Facebook. I should have been satisfied with that photo. So much trouble would have been avoided. I didn’t take Missing You outside to photograph when I took the Doctors, and ended up waiting quite a few days before I took it outside. The weather was very uncooperative here. Another opportunity to avoid trouble wasted.

I finally had the right combination of remembering and good weather yesterday. The picture-taking went according to plan. Then I went inside. Wait. No I didn’t. I tried to go back inside. The front door was locked. The back door was open, but the deadbolt was locked. All I can say is, I am so grateful I was “properly” dressed and had shoes on. That wasn’t the case when I snapped the pic of the Doctors Who. I had just spent the night alone. The husband was out of town, and the boy was at a sleepover. I couldn’t call anyone. My phone was inside. The husband wasn’t going to be home for about six hours. I had a doctor appt. in fifteen minutes. Needless to say, I missed it (oh, shucky darn). Then I remembered my friend has a spare key to my house (CHEERS!!). She only lives half a mile away. Off I trudged. Her car was gone. GROAN. No one wanted to answer the door, except their dog, who, you know, can’t. GROAN. I thought I knew where she was, figured she’d be home within an hour at the longest, sat on her stoop. Finally her husband answered the door. I’d woken up the sleeping household. I sympathized, believe me. Their insistent, barky dog is now one of my best friends. 😉  Hubby went to look for said spare key with no luck. It was in friend’s car. SIGH. He called her. I heard the confused silence when he informed her I needed my key. 😀 Lucky me (considering), she was on her way home. Fifteen minutes later, the door was unlocked! Hooray! She was going to give me her spare key. NOOOooo, I need you to have it in case I do this again! I wouldn’t put it past me. You shouldn’t, either.  This is what all the fuss was about:

I should have been satisfied with the phone picture. It wasn’t bad. In fact, it’s arguable a better picture. It has much less glare. That’ll learn me.

Happy stitching, and may your stitching be free of woes. 🙂

February Catch-up

This is what I was up to in February:

Vitals:
Peace on Earth by Victoria’s Sampler as appeared in 2011 JCS Ornaments issue. Stitched on 28-ct Cafe Mocha linen.

I love this little purse so much. It was fun to stitch.

Vitals:
Think Snow by Sweetheart Tree. Stitched with recommended fibers and beads on 32-ct Blue Ice linen.

I’m not going to mention how many times I’ve lost and found this chart, mmkay? I think I love the final choice of linen color, though I do occasionally wish I’d used the opalescent gray I bought for it, because it was sparkly. But the icy blue makes me happy without opalescence, so it’s all good.

Happy Stitching! 🙂

Fruit of the Vine

Peel me a grape?

No?

Fine, I’ll stitch my own. 🙂

It’s supposed to be a scissor fob. I forgot to add the cord. Maybe I’ll do it later. I’m fine without it right now.

Vitals:
Fruit of the Vine by Sheepish Designs
Grapes stitched on 32-ct Lavender Bliss, leaves are 36-ct Patina linen.
Grapes stitched with Crescent Colours Plum Paisley. All other stitching used recommended DMC floss.

I have a tiny bowl of fruits:

Warm Heart

I finished Shepherd’s Bush Warm Heart a while ago. I had the box the model is finished in. I especially love the flowers coming out of the snowman’s head. I love the box, too. I filled it with lucky stars, because I like to have a reason to make them.

Vitals:
Warm Heart by Shepherd’s Bush
Stitched with supplies included in kit
Modifications: Stitched a couple extra snowflake motifs instead of words

Ornaments, plus a couple other goodies

Well, I’ve been scarce, haven’t I? Part of it was not feeling like blogging, and part of it was Webshots changing over to Smile. That completely discombobulated me. I’m still pouting that all my linked photos are gone.

I hope you had a happy, blessed holiday season.

I may have been hiding, but I was stitching while doing so! So, pictures, pictures, pictures!

First: June Monthly Sampler finished into a flat fold. Yes, I finished stitching it in ’07. Yes, I have many more flat folds to complete. Don’t judge me.

Next is God Bless Those by Shakespeare’s Peddler. I ordered this as a gift to myself and stitched it up straight away. Now it needs to be finished, as my many previously mentioned monthly samplers do.

Vitals:
God Bless Those by Shakespeare’s Peddler
Stitched with included supplies as charted on 40-ct linen provided; key charm added where stitched key was charted.

Now the ornaments. 🙂

I finished the Shepherd’s Bush Merry Be pincushion as an ornament. The fabric you see was used as backing. The red isn’t that bright, but you get the idea. When I try to darken photos, Picasa gets upset. I was going to ruche the ribbon like the model, but I liked it plain. I like the knotted ribbon, too. Amazing ideas can come from impatience and laziness. I liked the plain finish so much that I didn’t bother to cover the slice I put into it with a seam ripper. I’m learning to be wabi sabi about my stitching. Sort of. You can see where the slice was, but I’m not helping you find it. 😀

Hardanger Poinsettia by Carole Rodgers for Cross Stitch & Country Crafts, April 1994. This was stitched on 32-ct Picture this Plus Phoenix linen. The flash was really bright on this. The red is darker. The splotch is pink, which I really like. That only took eighteen years.

He’s a Flake by Little House Needlework. I stitched twins. One for an exchange partner, one for myself, because I lurve him. They were stitched on 32-count linen (I think Rue Green) with the recommended colors, except the red. I don’t remember what I used. It was less brick-y, but not really bright.

Christmas Beer, front and back. This is modified from Christmas Cheer by Heart in Hand, as appeared in the JCS Ornament issue, 2001. I removed the year, moved the stars, and used the hearts from a different ornament on that page (I can’t remember the designer offhand. You don’t want me to procrastinate posting this to go check, do you?). The beer stein was modified from a picture of an old design I had saved on my computer. This was stitched on 32-count linen, Rue Green.  I’ve been planning this for forever, too. This ornament has great family sentiment behind it. It’s based on a carol my husband “wrote” while enjoying Christmas cheer. Here are the lyrics:

A McGinty Carol

Christmas cheer
For Christmas beer
Christmas is
Our time of year!

{You’re welcome. 😉 }

I’m thrilled I finished two ornaments that have been on the back burner for so many years. You know how it is: so many ideas, so little time. And so many distractions.  Nod, nod

Happy Stitching, and all the best in 2013.

I’m in Love with a Tiny Quaker

Quaker aux Clefs by Jardin Prive. This would have been finished sooner, but life events prevented me from stitching. I suffered withdrawals, but I’m OK now.

I changed a few of the colors because the colors the chart called for didn’t resemble the model. I know that colors can “change” or appear different depending upon the surrounding colors, but there was no way the peachy color of the vase and medallion outlines was ever going to resemble the pink of the butterfly. I’m so glad I modified the colors, because I love these colors so much. I can’t get over it. They make me so happy.

This piece was a case of irresistible start-itis. I tried to decide what sort of finishing treatment I wanted to do, and I only wanted it to sit on a table, inviting you to pick it up. I thought I’d make a hemstitch and it would be pretty, pretty, all done. But the scrap I stitched this on wasn’t big enough for a standard hemstitch. I decided on a picot-edged pulled thread edging. That’s sort of what I ended up with after a few adventures. The most amusing adventure was with the light green. I thought I was using the original color. I certainly meant to. But when I had to cut a second length, the newer stitches weren’t the same color. Somehow during a previous project, I had wound a different color around the stitchbow. I figured out what color that was, and continued stitching with it.

I began the first step of the picot edge: pulled satin stitches. Next I was supposed to pull around the satin stitches in a “V” shape, after which I would tuck under the edge and hemstitch it. I started to do that with little success. I decided to tuck the edges under and hem it without the typical hemstitch, which amounted to just tacking it down on the backside (see below). Then I was going to do the final pulled stitches for the picot edge. Only by that time I was in love and my heart said it was done. So it’s done like this, and I’m so happy. I’m in love with the colors and the piece.

Here’s a peek at the back and the tacking of the hem.

Vitals:
Quaker aux Clefs by Jardin Prive
Stitched one over two on Lakeside Linens 40-ct Oyster Mist
Fibers used: DMC 152, 223, 407, 522, 926, 3022, 3051b 3768, 3859

Happy Stitching! 🙂

Hello, Poppet

I completed the stitching of the bunny side of CHS’ Patty Parsley in 2009. I completed the name side in 2011. I finally finished it yesterday. What can I say? I have a talent for procrastination, coupled with a tendency towards a short attention span where stitching is concerned.

Here is my poppet showing off her handiwork. I used to call her Poppet. Now she’s Patty Parsley. I suspect her nickname will remain Poppet.

     

She loves to stitch.

Patty with just her new pillow~~

     

And here she shows off the pillow on its own~~

I don’t know why I took so long to finish this pillow, but then, I never do.

Happy Stitching! 🙂

Challenged to the Limit

This project took FOREVER to complete. I mean years.  I’d never stitched on silk gauze before. That wasn’t too difficult, I don’t think. I can’t be 100% certain, though, because stitching this piece was so much harder than I anticipated.

Ring O’ Roses by Elizabeth R. Anderson, Miniature Embroideries.
Stitched one-over-one on 48-ct. silk gauze with black silk floss, as provided in kit.
Finished with a two-sided mirror as provided in kit.

When I bought it, I assumed it was 40-ct. gauze. You know what happens when you assume, don’t you?

It’s 48-ct.     This was definitely my limit.

Anyway. HARD. Hard to see, harder to frog. I used 3X magnifiying cheaters. It was still hard to see. There are many mistakes. I don’t know how many, but it’s so hard to frog when you can’t see. There’s enough that the image was a little wide to fit perfectly in the mirror that was included in the kit (that I was tricked into buying because it was 50% off). I don’t care. I finished it, and I’m so glad. I would stitch a bit, get confused and stabby, and not pick it up for months on end. Even when I became determined to finish, I put it down for months after completing a mini-goal. This week I persevered and stitched the girls in the center. And now I’m done!!I rewarded myself with chocolate. Because I didn’t have cookies.

Here are the ladies–

See? TINY. So, hooray, I did that. But never again. Not 48-ct, no, no, no.

Happy Stitching. 🙂

Fiddly bits complete

So I had this idea. I got it when I was thinking about stitching Shepherd Bush’s Warm Heart. I thought I could make it work for Take Joy, too. And I could have. Except the motifs are so tiny, it turned out the return on time invested was pretty small. I don’t like empty boxes and such. I remember when I was a kid, someone told me it’s bad luck to give an empty wallet as a present; you should always put at least $1 in it. Now, I know it’s bad luck to be superstitious, but I still don’t like empty vessels. If I see a box, I want to open it and see what treasure it holds. But making a tiny star, or tiny ornaments didn’t hold much promise after I completed this tiny star. I stitched the star twice, once each for front and back and whip stitched them together. It’s “stuffed” with the excess fabric, nothing more.

 It’s cute. It’s TINY.

See? So tiny. I made about a zillion lucky stars from scrapbook paper, and the star is about the smallest item in the box. But the box isn’t empty, and that’s magical.

Take joy in your stitching. 🙂

Full of Hope

So WordPress changed the page for writing posts. The old page was intuitive and helpful. This page, the opposite. I only see things that appear to help those that know HTML, in spite of clicking the Visual tab. I am not one of those HTML-type people. I’m pretty pissed and discouraged. WordPress doesn’t want casual bloggers? Tell me. <insert irrational, frustrated name-calling here> It doesn’t help that I discovered this on a day when other programs are successful in their  attempts to make me crazy. Oh, whaddyaknow? I saved the draft, and everything changed back to “my” normal. So that’s a good thing.

Anyway, Full of Hope is finally finished.

I used the ribbon from the kit and attached it in a simple serpentine fashion. I bought additional pink pearly pins to attach the ribbon with the serpentine pattern. I love it.

Here she is, ready to be mailed to my cousin. She was diagnosed with breast cancer just before Christmas. I stitched this in my mother’s honor, I finished it in hers. With the pinkeep, I sent all my hope for a smooth recovery. I noticed in the picture that one of the pins is sneaking out. I hope she slips that baby back in.

I hope this finds you healthy and that you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day.

Happy Stitching! 🙂