Stitching Friends Forever

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