New Cross stitch...

I know that most quilters also have other hobbies related to fibres  or textiles. I myself love anything with fibers, --, stitching, embroidery, knitting, crocheting.....

I particularly like alphabets samplers.  During my latest hiatus from Crosstitch it seems like a new style has emerged, called quaker style. It has quite large motifs stitched in solid colors. I like them quite a lot

Of course I have to try one or two we'll see

And of course since I had a spare 18 in.² of Belfast linen,  there was nothing to stop me from starting right away. The threads are variegated for a change, again something new for me.

Maybe one more row

I sewed the 42 blocks that I needed for the propeller quilt and laid them out in the 6 x 7 grid.   Now I'm thinking I might need one more row,  which means I'll need to sew six more blocks.  It won't be exactly like it is in the book, but I think I might like the proportions better. I can always figure out the new size of the border and binding I guess.

I made this big Crosstitch Q for fun.

 I used a bunch of strands of schoolbus yellow yarn for the Cross stitches. It's base is a wire grid. Because the edges were pretty sharp, I covered them with masking tape. Then I had to cover up the masking tape, so I crocheted the yellow all around the edges.

It looks sort of pretty sitting in the sunlight.

Cross stitch styles

There are quite a few different styles of Crosstitch that people have done over the years. Yesterday I I completed the stitching on this alphabet sampler which I got as a kit a few years ago in France.  The company's name is "Picoti, Picota" in case you want to Google it for some of other projects.

I been liking alphabet samplers for a while already and the mono chromatic style appealed to me.

I think I might add a little simple band at the top and the bottom to make it more vertically  rectangular but I will just leave it as is for today.

The photos below show another type of Crosstitch. I purchased these at a  flea-market a few years ago for three dollars each.

They are unframed and stitched on Aida cloth.  the bird pictures are rather charming in my opinion.  I don't really know what to do them but I just thought they ought to be appreciated, and so i brought them home with me.  

All of these samplers are about 10 or 11 inches wide and 12 to 14 inches tall.

all Directions

Today is a day when I want to get lots of things done. Which is good because I have lots of projects on the go.

Every so often I get that feeling that I need to cut down the number of things I'm working on. That means that I have to finish some things off. Well a lot of these projects are work-related ha ha.  Having the shop lets me rationalize making all sorts of things, just to see what they will  look like. That way I can display them at the store and other people who have been wondering the same thing, will know what they look like and then be able to decide if they want to make them or not.

So today, this is some progress I have made…

Okay well not technically this morning but last night I got the findings also non-to this beautiful starburst quilt. I talked about it sometime ago, and it's made almost all from art gallery fabrics. I just love it. It's been washed and dried in the dryer so it's all wrinkled and thick.

I sewed on the binding by machine to my little stars table runner  sewn from primitive gatherings fabrics. Now I just have to hand stitch the binding to the back.

I finished the 42 blocks for my propellor quilt!

And ever since this little booklet on monograms Arrived last week I've been itching to monogram something.  I decided that my love of decorated tea towels would be a good collection to add to, And so I'm going to monogram this striped tea towel with dark olive coloured thread. 

Finally, for those of you who like Crosstitch I thought I would let you know that I am still progressing on my counted cross stitch alphabets sampler and have only eight letters left to do

That's the Thursday morning Roundup of things I'm working on today. Do you think I might have attention deficit disorder?