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My Needle's Song – Neulani laulu

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Home→Published 2016 → April

Monthly Archives: April 2016

The Writing on the Wall

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Every once in a while, it is great to pause and read the writing on the wall. I try to do that every few months to see if I am still moving in the direction I want to go. When I did that in January, the writing on the wall said, “Over Committed”. Wow.. yeah. How did they know? I stitch for 4 charity groups and love it. I get to try my hand at custom designs and I get a great excuse to shop for more stash. But.. Over Committed. It rang in my ears. Then it hit home.

Find the Beauty - Butterfly Wings from Stoney Creek

My husband’s beloved aunt and godmother turned 70 in December. Between school and all of my charity promises, I failed to stitch anything for this very important birthday. I was so very crushed. She is always so very interested in everything I am stitching and here I could not make time to do anything for her.

Fortunately, my husband and I had picked out the pattern last year but I just hadn’t had a chance to stitch it. I quickly kitted it up and stitched like a fool for 2 weeks. My in-laws rushed it to the framer who did this gorgeous work (and it is perfectly stretched!). I had it done just in time because they were going to go visit her the following week. (Find the Beauty, Butterfly Wings, Stoney Creek. Stitched on white 28 count linen from DMC). The worst part for me was I was feeling guilty over not working on my charity stitching during this time. What? Yeah. I had a full drawer of pieces that I had promised to stitch. I felt rotten and evil for pausing to do this once-in-a-lifetime piece for a beloved aunt. That writing on the wall was screaming at me now.

I went through the same guilt feelings when I worked on this small piece momdonefor my mother for Christmas last year. I could hear that voice in my ear the entire time, “How dare you! You ungrateful thing you!” It was my mother’s 89th Christmas. We needed to not only have it stitched, but framed and then shipped back to the US, all before Christmas and I did not get a chance to start it until NOVEMBER. (Feathered Friend, Laurel Burch by Mill Hill). Why? Because between school and the other charity stitching I was working on, I didn’t have time. How can you not have time for your own mother?

She didn’t have it for Christmas, but it wasn’t terribly late, and she knew something was coming. We also had a postal strike about the time we should have shipped it, so there was some delay.

ornaments2015

I also had to rush to do these small ornaments. The round ones were given to my teachers at language school as a small Christmas gift and a thank you. They constantly admired my stitching and enjoyed seeing the progress. I did not have these done for the last day of school, but I did get to deliver them the following week.

My husband has a new family member and it was important to do a First Christmas ornament for her, too. These really did not take me that much time to do and finish. Still, that voice nagged me. I had pieces I had to stitch and I dared to take time out to do ones I needed to do. Mind you, none of the ones in my queue had a time deadline, either. They were just all “Get them done so we can see how many more we need to make” kind of things. When did it happen that I let charity pieces become more important than my own family and friends?

eilaOne piece I started well in advance was this one for my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday. These are huge events here in Finland. We do celebrate each birthday as well as name-day but, the decade birthdays are extra special. My husband and my father-in-law helped me pick this design nearly a year in advance. We had it done plenty early to get it framed.

Still, I knew something had to change. When I made my New Years’ Resolutions I said I was going to do 1 piece a month for my charities. I am already well past that point for this year. Who really keeps their Resolutions anyway? In the past 18 months or so, I have done well over 50 pieces for charities, but only 3 pieces and 6 ornaments for my family. I used to do a collection of ornaments for family and friends every year but those spare hours I had for stitching were now spent learning Finnish. It means that I have had no time to do anything for the shop in over a year.

There is also the matter of the cost of materials. In January, when I finished kitting up the pieces I had promised to do I realized I was short on fabric. Fabric is very expensive here compared to the US. We could not afford to buy more until this past week. A yard of this special Aida cloth we use runs about $25 US here. I get 9 squares from each yard. I was also out of some colors of thread. Sigh…

Half-way into April and I already have 15 charity pieces completed for the year and 6 more in progress. I need to stop and read the writing on the wall… “Over Committed” and stop making promises. That doesn’t mean I will ever stop doing charity pieces. It means I will have to be a lot more selective about who and what I stitch for. I need to step away from the world for a while and just focus on what I have promised to do….

I will update my progress on the pieces in progress over the weekend. Right now, I just need to go stitch… and read the writing on the wall again.

FINALLY!!

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

We have progress!! I kept thinking and thinking about what I wanted for my header image. One night as I tossed and turned it came to me. I wanted to use the last needlepoint picture my grandmother ever completed. We now have this out of the frame for photos, but also so that we can take it to the framer in June to have it redone.

masterheaderThis is really a very typical Finnish-Swedish theme, with the small village with its church on the hill overlooking the river. I have had this hanging on my wall for over 30 years. It was with me in California, then Colorado, then Texas and now here in Finland. This was also the first piece where she trusted me to help her. I did some of the dark brown on the birch trees. I remember so well stitching carefully in her small apartment in Los Angeles. So very many years ago, and it brings back such memories. I used parts of this piece for my new headers. The great facelift has begun!!

It’s been an interesting week here. I did not get as much stitching done as I would have liked. But then, how many stitchers can say that they accomplished everything they set out to do? As long as I make progress, I try not to get too grumpy about it.

cgeese2My geese only got about 8 hours of love total. Not really so much when you think about it. The tough parts are actually done now. I really don’t like counting the blank fabric like I did with the darker wing. It is just too easy to mis-count and then everything has to come out. This is also on 18 count fabric which is a bit harder to count. Why so fine? This will be part of a quilt and the squares have to have a certain size so that they all blend together. Too large and they get cut off, too small and they disappear. Each group specifies what size the fabric must be cut and the minimum/maximum dimensions. It is up to the stitcher to make the design work from there.

 

We also went visiting one day this week. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am never without a project in my bag to work on. I try to keep it something simple that I can do with distractions and minimal counting as well as something that can be done in poor light. 8star1I do have a little mini-light that I can clip onto my hoop but I find it awkward to work with for long periods and frankly, it is quite tiring. The 8 point star fits the bill as I have the outline done and don’t need the reference the chart. Here’s this week’s work:

 

It doesn’t show very well, but most of the white on the upper right point is done. There is just something so unsatisfying about stitching with white floss on white fabric. You can stitch for hours and have it look like you did nothing!

Now that I have the new header images for the shops done, I will begin to relist the items in the Boutique (Etsy shop). They are all still listed in the other shops hint hint. I just have not updated pictures or descriptions.. or prices.

 

S-L-O-W-L-Y

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu
A couple of tough days here… must be spring fever! Everything is in bloom and starting to come back to life after the sleepy winter months. Even Jessie is running around like a crazy little kitty these days. I almost think we need a traffic light here in the house so we know when it is safe to cross the room! You don’t really want to collide with a full grown cat racing through the house at top speed, do you?
 
cgeese1I worked on something different yesterday, and I did promise a progress picture on the geese for the RCMP detachment in British Columbia. You can scroll down to the previous post for the reference picture, or simply click here. 
I know, it really does not look like much of anything. This is the lighter silhouetted goose on the left, and I am using DMC 3813 for this one. When we work on squares for these quilts, we often are given a minimum-maximum size range along with any other special instructions. For these hand cross-stitched quilts, we are told between 6 and 8 inches for the design size, but we are not told what fabric size to choose. That is really up to us to figure out.
The chart on this says the design is about 130 stitches wide by 90 stitches tall. I can either break out my calculator or use a fabric size calculator on websites like Cyberstitchers (I use theirs because it is easy and they have a simply fantastic website with tons of useful stitching information).
fabsize

When you click on their Fabric Size Calculator, all you have to do is put in the dimensions from the chart and you can easily see how big the stitched piece will be on different sized fabrics. I like it because I can compare the size outcomes side by side. Looking at the sizes, if I went with 14 or 16 count Aida, it would simply be too large. Ah, but look at what that gives us on 18 count Aida! A very nice 7 inches wide by 5 inches high! This should give a nice sized square PLUS I will be using only a fraction of the floss that I would stitching this with 2 strands of floss on 14 count.

I am actually finding this faster to stitch than it would be with 2 threads because I don’t have to worry about trying to keep the threads laying flat (I will do more about that later!). With good lighting, it really isn’t that much different from stitching on the other counts. It just takes a bit of patience, but that is true with all needlework, right?

Will update again in a few days – probably over the weekend.
Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Just a Little Behind…

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Yeah, I know. We are off our schedule already. I had really been hoping for a nice, sunny day to take pictures. Well, it is spring here in Western Finland. Spring means lots of rain showers and gloomy, cloudy days. Not good days for photos! But, we do have some sunny days coming up this week, so I am sure we will get them done.

In the meantime, you are welcome to click on the link for the Headquarters to see what items I have available. A full 50% of the sales price will be donated to a shelter you choose or to Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary. If you are here in Finland, of course, I will happily donate to a Finnish shelter or rescue, too. If you need to buy through Etsy, please let me know and I will relist the item for you.

I’ve always posted pictures of the pieces I do for the various charity groups on my personal Facebook timeline, and items for the shops on my Facebook Page. Why hide all the good stuff behind a logon? So, I am changing that up this week. I have a very busy roster of pieces to stitch right now…

8pointstar

First up is doing the outlines and “setting” the colors on this 8 point star that will be headed to Canada Stitches for an injured RCMP officer’s quilt. The colors have several meanings to the various First Nations tribes, and the officer that will receive this quilt is a member of the Mi’kmaqs. It isn’t a difficult design at all, but it will have a good amount of solid cross stitch. This is one of my own charts. It is being done on a 12″x12″ piece of white Aida, using 9 colors of DMC floss. This design can be done in so many color combinations. If you want the chart I am using for this, do feel free to post a message on my Facebook Page.

I do have this in progress as this is published, and will get progress pictures posted on the Facebook page in the next day or so.

cansI have an ongoing project I am working on to make hand cross stitched squares for fallen RCMP officers. Sadly, there always seems to be a need for this.

I’ve seen this one done up before and always loved it. It’s bright, colorful, and yet very appropriate for a memorial quilt, especially for a young, vibrant officer. You can get this chart as an almost instant download from Crosstitch.com (along with so very many others, including Ursula Michael). The design is from Marv Schier.

This one is kitted up, and ready to start. I will be doing this one on 14 count white Aida too. I do use a lot of that fabric!

canada-geeseMy other start this week is this lovely Canada Geese design from the recently retired Canadian designer Lynne Nicoletti. Although her website is now gone, you can still get these designs in many local shops. I ordered this one from Gitta’s in Ontario Canada. They have the best selection of her designs and outstanding service. i’ve always loved this design and have just the perfect place to send it.

I am doing this one on 18 count Aida with one strand of DMC floss. I went with soft blue-greens (think pine trees) for the geese in the background. So far, I have a good portion of the lightest background goose done. I will get scans posted on the Facebook page.

So, outside of that, you can tell it is crazy-busy around here. Is it really any wonder why we didn’t get the pictures done this week?

 

Getting Closer…

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

We actually have set Tuesday as a day to start taking new pictures. I have an idea for the header for the shops. I am hoping we have a sunny day in store so our lighting is better. Looking at the weather, that probably isn’t going to happen, but we will make the best of what we do have. Spring is coming to Western Finland. I see little buds on the birch trees and berry bushes. Our days are getting nice and long now. Before long, it will be summer!

jinglebunny-1

Of course, this is the first weekend of the month, and that means it is time to work on Christmas ornaments. These are from Jean Farish Needlework’s Jingle Babies. I did not do the border or sentiment on this set as I really don’t know how they will be finished yet. I do need to add the beads, but that happens after I wash them. I love the primitive look of these designs.

junglelambThe stitched area on these are about 2×2, so they will be nice additions to any tree. I love smaller ornaments because they fit in so many more places! Most of the ornaments out there are twice this size. The lamb will have bright red beads added to the wreath for a more festive look. This is as charted, though the pictures show either red beads or French Knots. For ornaments, I love using beads. I am thinking of doing a very simple padded ornament finish with a beaded edge.

jingleset1Here’s the full set of 8. These are going to be so cute for the animal lovers out there. I have never seen a beaver on an ornament before, and I have been collecting these for many years! I will be stitching this little set at least once more, but on different fabrics and with different finishes. Both sets will be available soon. I think animals are a refreshing change from the traditional Santa, angel, snowman, and gingerbread ornaments.

This next week will be a busy one, and I am not sure how much real stitching time I will get. Small projects like these are great ways to handle busy weeks because you do get to finish them quickly. Watch the Facebook page for updates!!

Until next week, Happy Stitching!

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