Old Books and an SBQ

"Old Books sampler" by the Cricket Collection

Stitched on 28-ct. lugana Silkweaver solo

Several hand-dyed floss substitutions

I really got obsessed with this design -- it feels like I just started it, and already it's finished! I was afraid the fabric would be too "splotchy," but now that it is done, it reminds of a worn leather book cover, which seems very appropriate. I can't remember all of the floss substitutions I made at the moment, but I think my favorites are the WDW "Sky" that I used for the word "old" and the GAST "Barn Gray" that I used for the horizontal sampler lines above and below the center design.

SBQ, 2/21/2007: What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitch over one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?
I'm not a small-count girl....32-ct. is about as small as I'll go! I may be only 30, but my eyes just can't handle a lot of work on very small fabrics. I have stitched over one, but only on 28-ct. And that was quite an accomplishment, I thought! (It was the hair and skin on Solaria's "Stitching the Standard"freebie...and the fact that I was using a fleshy-colored Jazlyn probably didn't help.)
I think the largest fabric I've used was my trusty old 14-ct. aida. Or maybe there was some 11-ct. waste canvas in there somewhere...I'm not sure. I don't stitch on aida much anymore -- I love the look of evenweave, so I'm saving the aida for the day when even 28-ct. fabrics are too hard on my eyes!

Getting to the bottom of things

Just a quick post to share the bottom of the "Old Books" sampler. Gosh, I'm really zipping along on this one!

I might even have it finished before the weekend is over...but I do have to work tomorrow night, and right now I have to go downstairs and kick DH's butt at bowling on the Wii. LOL

A peek at some peepers, and booksbooksbooks

Today I picked up my framed "Spring Peepers." My framer (at the LNS) does a beautiful job! And I was so good....I only bought a couple skeins of floss and a piece of light blue lugana while I was there. I barely looked at the patterns! OK, so that was probably because I'd gone through every thing 2 or 3 times when I dropped the Peepers off last month...but still.

Here they are!

(Sorry for the weird angle....had to do it to cut down on the reflection/flash. And please ignore the ugly wallpaper!!)

And here is the latest on "Old Books." It has been so much fun to work on -- I've sort of neglected other projects to focus on this. The next time you see it, it will need to be rolled up (or down) on the scroll bars....

Getting snowed in with my "ooks"

The latest progress on the Old Books sampler -
Changes I've made:
- Cranberry and Barn Gray hand-dyeds used for the first "O" book (not sure if I like that, but it would be too much work to pull it all out, plus I don't have the DMC colors used in the model anyway)
- Fig Pudding used for the brown v's on the second "O"
- The pattern has 3 gray bands on the bottom of the "K" book -- I thought it looked better with just 2
- All the lettering is done in Mascara instead of 310 (black).

We're supposed to get a pretty significant snowstorm here this weekend -- it was getting started when DH and I headed out for groceries early this evening. We actually went to Super Wal-Mart first, simply because I needed a few skeins of DMC....only to find that Wal-Mart no longer CARRIES DMC!!! Grrr. Since the grocery section of the Super Wal-Mart kind of skeeves me out, we headed to the "real" grocery store. When we left, the snow had let up a bit, and DH asked if I wanted to run to the craft store to get my floss. Well heck, I couldn't turn that down! So we went to A.C. Moore and I got the floss I needed for a Christmas ornie design. I was a little disturbed to find that A.C. Moore seemed to be cutting back on their stitching supplies, as well...they didn't have any fabrics. Which is really odd, since they still have a full rack of floss and patterns, plus a decent (although somewhat smaller than I remember) aisle full of kits. I haven't been in Michael's lately, but I sure hope SOMEBODY will continue to stock those tubes of cheap Monaco...I like to use them for ornies and such. Hmph.

Well, I'm off to sit and stitch and watch the snow fall. It is downright nasty out there now -- bitter cold winds and enough snow that I'm having trouble seeing my neighbor's house across the street!

Read a good...."ok" lately?

Here is my start on the Old Books sampler.

Eventually it will read "old books are like old friends," and the word "books" is written across the spines of five books. the only thing I'm not crazy about is the look of the book spines, so I've been tinkering with the colors already! The lettering was supposed to be done in 310 black, but I'm using WDW "Mascara" instead (almost the same, but a teeny bit softer, I think), and the brown Vs in the left-hand book are done in Six-Strand Sweets' "Fig Pudding." I have some other hand-dyed substitutions planned, too.