Stitching Friends Forever

June Post One
Styling with Stitches
Sal Update with Meg

Happy Summer everyone!   We hope you are all enjoying good health, good weather and good times as the summer season begins.

It's been awhile since the stitching girls have been on.   Here is the lowdown. Both of us went on vacation during the month of May and early June. We thought we could post on the road but coordinating two people's posts away from our computers did not work well. But, we are back now refreshed and ready to go. Mary was able to have a relaxing and fun trip at the beach in Florida.  She got to visit with cousins, took a trip on a ferry to a beach island and did lots of shopping. I drove out to Texas with my husband to see our son Mike. We enjoyed golf, shopping, more Tex Mex food then we should have and a great visit. On the way home, we visited with good Air Force friends in Alabama for a nice stay and rehashing old memories.
                                                                   
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Styling with Stitches

Our Styling with Stitches project this month is bulletin/message boards. Remember our seasonal wreaths that we made in April using the "Basketful" series and the "Hello" series for Spring.  Well, this new project is using the Summer patterns and we switched charts.   So Mary will be doing all of her message boards with the "Basketful" series and her wreaths with the "Hello" series.   And I will be doing the opposite.   I will use the "Hello" series for my message boards and the "Basketful" series for my wreaths.   This way we each will have a wreath and message board for each season but they will be different. 

                                                       ☆☆☆


RJ's Styling with Stitches

I've always wanted a large message board for my craft area up in our bonus room.   I think it will come in handy to leave messages on what flosses I need, to tack up fabric pieces for small projects, and ideas for future projects etc.    I found a nice sized frame while out in Texas.   In Kohl's, I came across a large 16 by 20 frame marked $50 on clearance for just $9.99 and when I got to the register the lady gave me another 20% off on my whole bill.   So this pretty cream frame was only $8.  Kohl's frames are always nice and deep and perfect to add a stitch to.   I was off to a good start.

I added blue ticking to each side of the "Hello Summer" stitch and then added lace underneath.   I stitched this to a big piece of blue paisley fabric and then hand stitched the cutest, vintage buttons on the lace.   After that I attached it to foam board and put it in the frame.

For the tacks, I used wood letter tiles glued to thumb tacks.  This was an easy way to have custom tacks and inexpensive too.

Stitching "Hello Summer" was really a joy. It is such a pretty pattern. My husband retired as a full colonel and his rank that he wore was an eagle so I loved that this stitch included that regal bird.  And, the flag is very special me.  I love patriotic patterns of any kind but this is a real favorite of mine.

Love the eagle and flag on this stitch

Closeup of vintage buttons and tacks

Messages added 

Hello Summer
by Plum Street Sampler
40 ct. vintage mocha linen
Called for floss
Frame from Kohl's
Fabric from Joann's
Letters from Michael's

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Mary's Styling with Stitches

Basketfull of Summer by Brenda Gervais was a delight to stitch and I am looking forward to stitching the rest in this series.

My town has a "free day," donations of anything in good working order are accepted and volunteers organize it all by category on day one.  The following day it is opened up to the public and you can take anything you want for free!!!  I found this metal sign and thought it would be perfect for a bulletin/message board. A quick coat of DecoArt's Dazzling Metallics  in rich expresso was all it needed for an update.

This is my second "Priscillified" finish using magnets and washers.  I was fortunate to have fabric in my stash that worked so well with my stitch.

I updated magnets to coordinate with the stitch

Who doesn't love a dog carrying a flag!

Basketful of Summer
by With Thy Needle and Thread
40 ct. Summer Khaki New Castle linen
Called for floss
one over two

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SAL Update

We are all enjoying stitching the Summer School house series by With Thy Needle and Thread.   We love the soft colors and the pattern images.  They are all being stitched on 28 ct. mushroom lugana over one and we are using the called for floss. It's been awhile since we updated our SAL's so we have a lot to show.   Having Meg from "I live to stitch" join us has been such a joy. If you have not seen her lovely blog yet, you can visit her here.  You are in for a treat. 


Mary's SAL's

Mary has part one and three done and is on her way to catching up in our SAL challenge.   She just needs SAL two and she is already stitching it.

SAL one completed

             

SAL three completed too!

                 

Meg's SAL'S
Meg has been quite industrious and has completed one, two and three plus has started four.   Way to go Meg!!!

SAL two completed

SAL three competed too!

And even SAL four started ... looking good!

RJ's SAL's

I completed SAL two and three since our last update to join number one.  I'll be starting number four tonight and can't wait.   I did make a mistake on number two.   I didn't notice I was stitching the girl's dress in the wrong color until it was done.   It was supposed to be Lexington Green instead of the Mountain Mist I used.   It is so hard to rip out on 28 ct. over one and the two colors are so close in shade that I just left it.

SAL two completed with slightly darker dress

Sal three all done to join the others

Here are the first three parts to our Sal (it was hard to get them all in one photo)

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Thanks everyone for stopping by for a visit. We really appreciate all of you. Can't wait to catch up with all of your blogs and see what you have been up to while we have been gone. It's hard to believe it is summer already. Hope you all have special outings planned and are enjoying your newest stitching project. 

                                                  Stitching Friends