A TW Finish!!

I’m really happy with this finish.  I’ve done several TWs but honesty didn’t think I would do another until I was talking with Will about his Masters degree in Religion.  He basically studied ALL of them and I asked him if there was one that was his favorite (he is a multi-faith reverend).  When he said Egyptian mythology, an idea was born!

I knew of Teresa Wentzler’s Egyptian Sampler and I knew that I would stitch it for him.  That was 2.5 years ago and its finally done!  I’ve found some errors in this, but I’m choosing to consider them “unintentional personalization.”  I had trouble tacking the rays down and keeping them straight.. but considering that I spent about 8 hours fiddling with them, they are as good as they are going to get!

This hasn’t been washed yet. My giant tub of orvus was tossed when I moved and had to order some that should be here early next week.  I’ve found a local framer and picked out where this will hang in our home… right above his statues of Anubis and Wapawhets and other Egyptian objects.

TWs are certainly a lot of work and of all of them that I’ve stitched (non fantasy and no dragons) this is quickly turning into my favorite!

Now… what to stitch next?  I’ve got some ideas, but whatever I pick up will be smaller and less complicated!!

Egyptian Sampler Latest Update…

I’ve moved the Qs and am working in the bottom border. I’ll do the eagle next, then remaining side borders and Pharoahs. This year maybe???

Ornament and TW Updates

HI…  Even though I’ve been quiet on the blog, I have been doing quite a bit of stitching!

Here is my progress through yesterday on my Teresa Wentzler Egyptian Sampler.  I think my husband, who I’m stitching this for is finally starting to get what goes into cross stitch!  I’ve been working on this, on and off, for about a year and a half.  I’m happy to say that I’m more than halfway through with a long way to go!  I’m happy to have finished the frame all the way around and the background in the arch.  A little tedious but not as bad as I thought it would be.  When I started doing the background I had to pull out the staff and the flail on the middle figure but it shouldn’t take much to add those back in now.  I’m loving stitching this!

I spend the week of Christmas with some family and kitted up a Victoria Sampler ornament from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Edition to take with me.  When I travel I like to take something small.  There were some errors in the pattern as published, so for some of this I was just on my own.  Plus the accessory pack that I ordered had two different sized stars!  I contacted Thea at Victoria Sampler and she sent me the correct button size.  I love the little gingerbread man buttons!

So for now, I’m just going to keep on working on Egyptian Sampler and ignore all of my other WIPs.  I’d love to finish it up this year.  🙂

Ra Smiles Upon Me (Egyptian Sampler Update)

Here is my latest update on Teresa Wentzler’s Egyptian Sampler.  Its beautiful!  I love the colors and the subject matter.  I’m not really “into” Egyptian stuff, but my DH is so I’m doing this for him.  Since my last post, I’ve finished stitching and backstitching the border and the scarab, finished stitching the falcon (still needs backstitching) and started stitching Horus.  Please forgive the below par photos.   My camera battery is dead and I took these pictures in low lighting with my iphone.

I’ve also recently finished the VS Pennsylvania Hearts of America.  I have one of these for every state I’ve lived in:  New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Indiana!  I lived for a summer in Denver during college, so I might try to find Colorado and do that one too.  I received mail there, so it counts, right?  I’ll do something with these someday…. when I’m sure I’ll not move again.

The story on the Pennsylvania one is a little bizarre!  I searched for the pattern on google and saw it offered for sale on Amazon.  I thought that was a little weird, but bought it anyway.   When I opened the kit to stitch, I found that the border was already partially stitched – about 15 stitches in the upper right hand corner!  I guess someone started it and didn’t like it and put it up on Amazon.  I finished it and here it is!

 

I welcome all comments!

My Stitching Mojo is Back!!!

I haven’t done much stitching for the last couple of years.  One night, my fingers were feeling bored, so I picked up my Lizzie Kate Living with Charm Banner and reasoned that it was easy stitching and that I could finish the last three words pretty quickly.  So off I went and finished it!  This is the only larger project that I’ve finished in YEARS.  I am so excited to have it done and still love it!  I stitched this with all DMC and didn’t attach the little charms that come with the pattern.  If anyone would like the gently used booklets that include the charms, just e-mail me and i’ll put them in the mail for free.

I was so motivated by a finish that I decided to pick up a Teresa Wentzler design!  I’m not a big fan of dragons, but I like most of her other designs.  My husband loves egyptian stuff, so I started Egyptian Sampler.  I had forgotten how much dreaded back stitching her designs have….  not my favorite thing.  The thing with TW is that when you get to the finished products, the back stitching is so worth it.  So…. here is my new start!

So shortly after starting this, I put my christmas tree up and realized that my husband needed an ornament like every other member of my family has.  This is based off Victoria Sampler “Humour” Virtues ornament that you can download for free on the Victoria Sampler website.  I stitched, finished, and put it on the tree last weekend.  I bet I’ve stitched at least 20 of these virtues ornaments over the years for friends and family.  I like how each one has a different design but all of the ornaments obviously look like part of a set, but each one has a different family member name instead of the virtue in the design.  So…. here is Will’s ornament photographed on the tree! The fabric is actually white, even though it doesn’t look it in this picture:

So now that is done and I’m ready to get back to Egyptian Sampler!

Finished Project of the Week – TW Smalls

Another post in my continuing (but long neglected) series of posts of projects finished before I started a blog!  This week I’m featuring a few of the smaller Teresa Wentzler designs I’ve completed, but not shown on my blog yet…

Think Snow:

Delft Flowers:

Square Mosaic:

Modified Square Mosaic finished as an ornament:

Sad News – TW Designworks is Closing!

I read today that Teresa Wentzler’s design business is closing!  Read about it on her website.  Boo hoo!  See below for pics of the TW designs that I’ve stitched over the years…  I still have some of her stuff in my stash and am sure I’ll get to them someday!

I finally have a computer at home again, so will be catching up on my blog reading and writing soon.  I’ve been working on my December ornament and chose something relatively challenging.  It’s 4″ in diameter and solid stitching, but I should be able to finish it up before the new year.

There have been some changes personally for me… I’m single again.  I think it needed to happen, as we had different ideas about what we wanted regarding our futures, and even though it saddens me, I’m doing OK.  We are still friends and spend (very platonic!) time having dinner or going to movies.  The worse part is that its the holidays and am spending a lot of time home alone as I don’t have any family locally.  Even though I’m doing OK, I’ll be really glad when the holidays are over. 🙂

Here is a selection of some of my finished TW Designs.

Day of Finishing!

Yesterday I visited Susan at her place and we pulled out all of our combined finishing supplies and went to work.

Here’s what the table looked like when we took a lunch break!

Susan gave me some great cording tips (I’m not very good at it) and I was able to finish the following:

Brittercup Britty Christmas Kitty (January Ornament)

Teresa Wentz)ler’s He Who Indulges

Next Susan helped me finish a VS Beyond Cross Stitch kit as my first ever pinkeep/ornament and I’m totally thrilled with the result! I think I see many pinkeeps in my future.

Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch Kit 4-06

Susan finished an amazing 5 pinkeeps!  It was a fun, educational (for me anyway), and productive way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Thanks Susan!

Awaiting Ornamentification…

I recently was showing a friend some of the stitched stuff I’ve done, but never finished and she said, “Those are ornaments!”

She was right…. here is everything that is awaiting ornamentification in my collection of stitched-but-not-framed-or-finished pile…

From top left:

• Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch Kit – 3-06- Roses
• Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch Kit – 6-06 – Daisy Chain
• Miscellaneous Unknown Design from a magazine
• Teresa Wentzler Think Snow
• Teresa Wentzler He Who Indulges
• Teresa Wentzler Closionne Ornament
• Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch Kit – 4-09 – Rose Trellis

DBF and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire tonight – I loved it!!!  The music was good too… I think it destined to end up on the “cardio” playlist on my iPod.

I do have some progres to show on Alpine Seasons, but haven’t had a chance to take a pic yet… stay tuned!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I finally got my Christmas Tree out and set up.  I really wasn’t too excited about doing it and haven’t felt in a holiday mood, but then I decided maybe I wasn’t in a holiday mood because my Christmas Tree wasn’t up yet!

Here is the tree – the tree skirt was made for me by my grandmother:

I have several stitched ornaments on the tree that I thought I’d show pictures of… some were made by me and others were given as gifts or received in ornament exchanges:

There are a couple of other stitched ornaments on the tree, but I felt like this post was getting a little too photo intensive! As I was hanging my ornaments last night, I had the thought that I’d love to have even more stitched ornaments on my tree, and might try to stitch at least one a month in 2009, either to keep for myself or to exchange with others. 🙂

The tree has been up for two days now and the kitties have not destroyed or tampered with it in any way – AMAZING! It could be that I set up the vacuum cleaner (aka cat eater) next to the tree to discourage any sort of tree climbing or ornament batting. LOL. I should put some lights on the vacuum and a bow on top.

Thanks for looking at my tree and thank you always for the lovely comments that you all leave.