Follow us by email

Follow us by email

Tuesday, April 18, 2017


April week three
Something Old

Week three of every month we will be showing some of our older stitches.   Mary and I started stitching together about four years ago.   She was brand new at this pastime and I had taken a long break from something I had loved so much.    We started with Little House Needleworks ornaments and at the time we just finished them with a basic fabric back and a hanger.  

We thought it would be fun to show these earlier stitches in their before style.   And then in their after finish as we add some additions to hopefully jazz them up a bit. Hope you enjoy their new look!

If you have some ideas or suggestions on ways to add adornment to plain finishes we would really like to hear about them for future third weeks.

We have also added a challenge at the end of this post for the two of us and we would love for you to join us.

RJ -  

Before:
I chose the pattern Blessed by Little House Needleworks for this month's old stitch.   This is the first ornament I made for Mary and myself when we started stitching together.   Here the ornament only has a fabric back and a ribbon hanger. I think this is such a pretty pattern and bigger than a lot of the LHN ornaments but it still needed something extra.

Blessed
by Little House Needleworks
stitched on 32 ct. raw linen
with called for threads

After: 

Her new look has embroidery X's all around the seam edge of the ornament. I've never done this before and I have to admit I had all kinds of problems with it. Having an upholstery weight fabric as the backing probably had a lot to do with it. But I think the more I do this technique, the easier it will get.  After my struggle with adding the X's, I added a brown plaid bow and a special  friend charm easily I feel very blessed to have such a kind, caring and generous friend to be my blog buddy.  I liked this ornament before but now I really like her new look!  I have a feeling Mary will too.

Here she is with an added bow and a charm.  

Here you see the little X's that were so hard to do.   I hope I get better at that technique as I attempt it more.

Blessed
by Little House Needleworks
32 ct. raw linen
used all the called for threads
special friend charm

                                                                         
                                                              ⧫

Mary -
Before:
I was a brand new cross stitcher when RJ discovered the LHN Christmas ornament series.   My new found hobby soon became an obsession!    We both wanted each and every pattern in this delightful group of ornaments.  Our stitching partnership was now in full swing.  My first selection to stitch was the Tree Farm because I have a dear friend that owns a Christmas tree farm.   I knew this would make the perfect gift for her.
Tree Farm
by Little House Needleworks
stitched on 14 ct.
called for threads


As my confidence in stitching improved, I re-stitched it on 28 ct. even weave which was an easy transition from 14 ct. Aida.

I had to make a trip to New Brunswick, New Jersey recently.  Whenever I'm in a new area, I search for cross stitch stores.   I was in luck!   The nearby town of Metuchen had a beautiful shop called Needleworkers Delight.  My luck got even better because that day they were having a "sit and stitch" with an instructor.  Dawn was a wonderful teacher who taught me how to make cording with a" Lacis" cord maker.  I was able to make some beautiful cording and added it to my older Tree Farm stitch.  It was easy to use and took my finish up a notch!!!
Here is the cording up close.

Tree Farm
by Little House Needleworks
stitched on 28 ct. evenweave
called for threads

attached tree button


                                    STITCHING FRIENDS CHALLENGE

We are starting a Stitching Friends Challenge.   I'm challenging myself to stitch a Santa every month and Mary will be working on more Christmas ornaments to add to her tree.  Our goal is to stitch them this year and then to finish them next year.  We will show our progress every third week after the "old stitches remake".    We would love it if you joined in.   Let us know what your challenge is.

Mary is on vacation this week but here is my first Santa challenge stitch.  It is called A Christmas Visit book 48 from Prairie Schooler.  It is just leaning on an old tin tile for the photos but will be made into an ornament. PS has so many great patterns to chose from and all different sizes too.  This one is a smaller Santa but so sweet with birds and a birdhouse. It's just waiting to be sewn up.  Ok one down and many, many more to come!

   

I'm sure you are wondering what are all of those brown x's all around the stitch!  I do that while I'm stitching so that when I cut it out I have a really straight line to follow.  As soon as I have the 3/4 inch allowance cut out around the stitch I pull them out and then sew it into an ornament.

A Christmas Visit Book 48
by Prairie Schooler
32 ct. raw linen
over dyed threads I already had

Hope your week is filled with lots of stitching.   Next week we will be showing new bunny ornaments.   Hope to see you.   Mary and RJ


                   Spring adds new life and new beauty to all that is

                                                          Jessica Harrelson

21 comments:

  1. How exciting to see your comment on my new blog! And how fun that the two of you are stitching buddies.
    I love your re-do's and the added enhancements! And the Blessed by LHN (my favorite designer) is adorable!
    I would have loved to join into your challenge, but I'm in over my head with projects and now Stitch Mania (Facebook) is on the way..I plan several new starts for that event.
    I'm really looking forward to reading your blog ...love your work (both of you!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Susan...thank you so much for visiting and your kind comments. We love LHN patterns too. I enjoyed visiting your blog and will be following you. What is Stitch Mania? You have me interested. RJ

      Delete
  2. What lovely LHN ornaments you have stitched! I like the originals and I like their new "states". Good luck with your challenge! I am working on Christmas gifts (mainly ornaments) at the moment plus an ornament SAL with a stitching friend (we are stitching LHN/CCN ornaments during 2017, one per month).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Robin...great to hear from you again. You have been so sweet to us and we really appreciate your visits and comments. As we are beginners in the blog world we are still learning...so what is a SAL? Thanks. RJ

      Delete
    2. SAL means stitch along. My friend and I stitch "together" (she lives in NY and I live in VA) the third weekend of the month for our SAL.

      Delete
    3. Robin so both are you are doing the same stitch but in different places is that right? Or do you mean you are stitching at the same time but different charts? That sounds like fun. Thanks for letting me know. RJ

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. We each chose 12 LHN/CCN ornaments for the year and we stitch them together over the third weekend. Until we share our finishes with each other, the ornament is sort of a surprise. Last year, we stitched the 12 Days of Christmas complimentary charts by Plum Street. It was a great motivator to work on them each month instead of putting them on the "back burner". We are applying that same philosophy to this year's SAL.

      Delete
  3. I loved seeing your then and nows! It's always insightful to sit back and really look as how much our skills have grown.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jackie...thank you for your visit. Yes a lot has changed in four years. I'm glad you liked the small changes we made to our older ornaments. RJ

      Delete
  4. Beautiful ornaments! How adorable the green charm on the "Tree Farm"!
    Lovely Santa!
    I belong to the "Christmas Ornie SAL 2017" blog and "Hallowe’en Ornie SAL 2017" blog! Each month we have a theme and we stitch a ornament!

    Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lili...how sweet of you to stop by and see us. Thank you for your kind comments. It is so hard fixing up old ornaments but we are giving it our best. Can anyone join the SAL's? Do you start in the beginning of the year? Thanks. RJ

      Delete
    2. Hello RJ!
      Yes, anyone can join! There are many stitchers with different tastes on both blogs.
      Yes, we start at the beginning of the year. But you can join us now! :)

      This year on the Christmas SAL we have two themes. The first one is "The 12 Days of Christmas" and the theme two is a variety of themes. I decided for the theme two, for example the April theme is "Snowy Scenes".
      On the Halloween blog I decided to work on a "large" piece, and fit it with the month themes.

      Take a look on both blogs!

      Blog links:
      http://christmasorniesal2015.blogspot.com
      http://halloweenorniesal.blogspot.com

      Happy weekend!

      Delete
    3. Thank you so much Lili. As soon as I have this blog thing down I would love to join a SAL. Hope you have a happy weekend too. RJ

      Delete
  5. I enjoyed seeing your before and after ornament finishes! I sometimes look at the ornaments that I finished when I began blogging and just shake my head. I'm tempted to re-do some of them, and probably will, but they are a good reminder of how far I've coming in my finishing skills over the past 8 years :)

    I do love your PS ornament stitching--you probably know what a PS addict I am from reading my blog!

    Hope you both are enjoying a most relaxing weekend, RJ and Mary!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Carol! Thank you for stopping by. When we started we had no idea about all the beautiful ways there were to finish. Our early ornaments are very plain but it is really hard to dress them up but we thought it would be fun trying. It is your beautiful PS Santas that gave me the desire to want a group of my own. They are hard to resist. Hope you are having a lovely weekend too. RJ

      Delete
  6. I like the different themes for the weekly posts. The two "Before" photos look fine, but the "After" photos are really gorgeous!
    I see Lili has already told you about our Hallowe'en Blog, I'm the admin for that one, you'd be welcome to join any time of the year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jo! Yes Lili was so kind to give us the info and we are both very interested in joining in the near future. Thank you for the invite. RJ

      Delete
  7. Jo, I'll be looking to join your Halloween Blog as my niece's birthday is Oct 31 and she is crazy about Halloween décor. Thanks so much for all your comments and visiting! Mary

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love your ornament finishes. I look forward to seeing more of your challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful ornaments! How adorable the green charm on the "Tree Farm"!
    Lovely Santa!

    ตารางคะแนน

    ReplyDelete