I added the square to the right of the center, with the cabin from LHN's "Prairie Sampler," the swan in a pond from a Prairie Schooler design, trees from some freebies in my files, and the squirrel from another magazine design I found somewhere. I just love the whole thing!! I was going to frame it, but it recently hit me that it would make a lovely quilted wallhanging, especially if it was the center of a giant "log cabin" pieced square...but I can't sew (at least, not well enough to take on that project with this one-of-a-kind piece). So maybe I'll stop in at the local quilt shop and see if there is anyone there who would like to take this on??We're getting ready for Thanksgiving here, so things are rather busy. My mother-in-law and her husband are coming from Iowa, and will actually be staying with MY mother (my dad is hunting in Canada - Mom has made him swear this is his last trip), so we're going there for dinner and the weekend.
On the stitching front, I've been working on Labyrinth again. I joined the "WIP Killers" thread over at The Wagon BB, so hopefully that will keep me motivated! And I also finished up a piece for the "non-ornament Christmas smalls" exchange over at HOE. It isn't mailed yet, so I can't share.
The pattern had Easter eggs at the bottom of the April square, but I couldn't resist changing those to little bunnies (from one of LHN's ornament designs in a JCS issue). The eggs blended in to the fabric color a bit too much for me....and I like bunnies better, anyway! So this is the end of my Neighborhood RR commitment - yay, I made it through! I had a lot of fun stitching on everyone's projects, and I hope everyone is pleased with my contributions to their pieces.
I picked up 2 of the Crescent Colors called for - the green and the brown shades - and am substituting from my stash for the rest. I can't remember them all off-hand, but I know the blue is "Bluebells" by The Dye is Cast. So pretty!
They really ARE coming along....I added some more beads to the lower tail bit, plus more blue-green fins.
I'm also still toying with my Fairy Tale Towne layout for the Me Myself and I RR. I picked up 2 of the Elizabeth's Designs cottage series very cheaply on eBay (of course), and am tossing around a couple different ideas. I need to transfer all my dwellings to graph paper that is the same scale so I can try to get everything arranged in an appropriate perspective. Hmmm.
The house and tree are from Diane Williams' (Little House Needleworks) "Grateful Hearts" sampler, which appeared in the November 2000 issue of For the Love of Cross Stitch. The garden at the bottom is a modified version of one of the borders in the sampler, and the squirrel came from another pattern in the same magazine. I was originally going to use some little critter from one of LHN's Christmas ornie designs, but gave that up when I realized I'd have to go digging for my JCS issues... LOL I also thought about putting something else on the left between the garden and the tree, but I can't find anything that fits and looks right. Carol said she likes it the way it is, so I won't worry!!
My contribution is a design by Diane Williams (of Little House Needleworks) that appeared in an old magazine issue. It isn't quite tall enough for Carol's 60x60 square, so I'm going to add a little flower garden in front of the house. I hope you like it, Carol!!
The pattern she used for the biscornu is Ia! Ia! by One Star's Light. I guess it is supposed to be Cthulu...but I'm not a Lovecraft reader/fan, so I'm a little unfamiliar there. This geeky librarian knows OF such things, but not much ABOUT them. But I still think it is lovely! And the flosses are WDW's "Father's Day" and Dinky Dyes' limited edition "Summer Heat." Hmm, now what to use them for.....
In addition to my little gypsy wagon, I added a willow tree, a robin, some butterflies, and a little bunny. I worked really hard to make this mean something, and I think it came out pretty well. Here is a picture of the whole thing, so you can see how my little bit works into the whole:
It was kind of an odd space I had to work with, but because I knew what I wanted to stitch would fit there pretty well, I figured I'd take that stress off the stitchers who follow me!
This little project has been giving me fits...Annemarie told us all to stitch "whatever we wanted," which sounded great - and terrifying! I was so excited to have a reason to stitch this little gypsy wagon, though, and it has been worth the challenge of trying to fit it (and other elements) in appropriately. It is winding its way along right next to the Canadian capitol....LOL I have a few more bits to add, and then it will be on its way to Cathy B.
I love the frame I chose. The LNS owner and I tried several different mats, but then this moulding jumped off the wall at me. I don't know the bride and groom terribly well, so I didn't want the piece to become a giant attention-grabber...just in case it isn't their style (and that's how I usually deal with gifts, really...unless I know exactly where the recipient wants to put it and such).
The flower vine and the girl are from Homespun Elegance patterns, the house is from a sampler book by Brenda Keyes, and the sheep (my favorite part!) is part of a freebie by Brooke's Books. The tulips were a last-minute addition last night....I was getting sooooo tired of all that green! And since I have some lovely little tulips blooming in my front garden right now, I took my inspiration from there. (Besides, doesn't the girl in her blue dress look a bit like my profile picture?? LOL) This won't go in the mail right away, since our next mailing date isn't until the 15th, but it does free up some time for me to work on some other little things!
The sheep is my favorite. hehehe He came from a freebie by Brooke's Books -- the shepherdess is based on a Homespun Elegance mini-sampler. She isn't entirely from the pattern, though, since I gave my pattern away....I improvised from a picture I had of the finished sampler. Not that much left to do, just finish the bottom of the house and hill it "sits" on, and add my initials. Katrina, I hope you don't mind that I used a bit of plain white for the little sheepie....there was no white in the oodles of floss you included! The closest I could find to true white blended too well with the fabric for my taste.
Katrina asked that we stitch all the way to the edge of the block, so that is Judith's showing on the left-hand side. The vine is from the Homespun Elegance pattern, and the house is from my sampler book. It will be sitting on a little hill, and I have a few other plans for the bottom and right side of the block!
Michelle, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed stitching it for you!!
