New Chart: Primitive Christmas

It's so much fun to be back designing -- this is one I finished this weekend, and am in the process of printing today.  It's called "Primitive Christmas" and is stitched in Weeks Dye Works over-dyed threads (Bark, Blue Spruce, Crimson, Gold, Guacamole, Kohl, Merlot, Mocha, Peach Fuzz, Rose Quartz, Whitewash ... yes, I did provide a DMC conversion as well.)  I used 36 count Natural Edinburgh linen by Zweigart.  The stitch count is 101 by 105.  You can purchase the chart through my Etsy site, or ask your local needlework shop to get it from Hoffman Distributing or Norden Crafts.

I finished mine as a box top lid using a $4.29 paper mache box from Hobby Lobby.  Three colors of paint, some basic crafting supplies, et voila!  An inexpensive finishing technique.  I have included finishing instructions in with the pattern, for those of you who are feeling craft.  It probably took me 90 minutes to paint the box and do all of the finishing.

The bad news for me that came along with stitching this piece is that I've had to upgrade to 2.0+ cheater glasses to see the linen.  I went at least 5 months without stitching one X this year, and I feel like the time away from making my eyes work really hard has left them weakened.  Yes, I will probably need to go see the optometrist.  Drat!

This is the only decent picture I could get of Pom Pom before I had to take her back to the shelter yesterday.  Yes, she's gorgeous.  She had ringworm on the top of her head a few weeks ago, and I knew I had to take her home to get her better.  She is probably the, um, daftest kitten we've ever hosted, but also one of the very sweetest.  Lots and lots of kisses, a very swishy tail, and oh, so bumbling.  She never could jump onto something without either falling off of it or having to scratch and claw her way up after a less-than-ideal attempt.  But she never lets that stop her -- she purrs all of the time, loves people, loves other cats, and really, has just the most endearing (simple) personality.

In fact, I'd put her in the same intelligence category as our dear Zero (this is Zero when he was about the same age as Pom Pom.)  Not a lot going on upstairs ... but we love him to pieces.

Now that it's finally December, I'm getting into the mood for Christmas decorating.  And as I was sitting here, I looked up and to the right and saw my Jane Pattison reproduction.  It's one of those samplers that doesn't scream Christmas, but with the colors and pine bough border, it is one that you could definitely hang this time of year (or all year!)

To me, this area of the sampler really has a "Blackbird Designs" feel to it, don't you think?  I think it's those partially-finished bird, and the wonkiness of the motifs (I love things that aren't centered and perfect.)

You can purchase this chart on my Etsy site, Letters Great and Small at https://www.etsy.com/listing/166269419/jane-pattison-cross-stitch-sampler for just $15.00 plus shipping.

Keep watching my blog and Etsy site -- I am going to be releasing pieces with greater frequency, and I could not be happier about that.

Christmas Season Greetings!

Lolly, Ty and Bane were all tuckered out after a big day of turkey and fun at our house.  Dinner was, oh my gosh, so good.  (One of our guests said the dressing was the best he had ever had.)  And now I've got Christmas music on my iTunes and am thinking where I might put the tree this year, now that I've got the old tree spot loaded up with my needlework business things.

Before we eat, we go 'round the table and say what we're thankful for -- and my sweet husband said he was glad that I quit my way-more-than-full-time job at the shelter that was causing us both a lot of stress.  I said that I was thankful to be back with my family, and I can't tell you how utterly happy, relaxed and contented I feel.

Now that I'm back at it, I'm looking to clear space, so I'm starting to list some of my old shop models on my Etsy site: "Letters Great and Small."  I got a lucky 13 listed today, and am still digging through the piles.  Of course I've only got one left of each of these models -- so go look quick, before they're gone.  (The one pictured is a Ewe & Eye & Friends piece called Joyful Heart.)

Also, don't forget to look for my French Cathedral Sampler Graph, which will only be on sale through Monday for $7.

This afternoon, I'm going to try to get a new model finished and start the printing.  Tomorrow, I'll be uploading hand-dyed linens to my Etsy site.  Such fun, so good to be back, so happy.

Thanksgiving Door Buster ... and Belly Buster!

Last Thursday was my final day as manager at the animal shelter, and although I do miss my employees and the animals, I am so thankful this week to be back with my family, cooking them meals (that didn't start out frozen in boxes) and visiting with them.  I feel like I've been away for six months.

I was reading on Facebook about how large the newspapers are going to be this week, stuffed with holiday specials.  I thought it might be fun to offer y'all my own little door buster.

Euphrasier Enout's French Cathedral Sampler

This is a sampler I picked up a few years ago, one of the first ones I purchased, actually.  I am still charmed by the cathedral, the acolytes, the birds and CATS!  The saying at the top says that fortune fades, but beauty is forever.

Anyway, I still really like this one, and it was fun to stitch, so I'm offering it to you through next Monday for just $7.00 (regular price is $20).  You can find it on my Etsy shop, Letters Great and Small at https://www.etsy.com/listing/170629518/sale-for-thanksgiving-euphrasier-enout.  I also just listed some great holiday patterns by The Primitive Hare and Lizzie Kate, and this week, I'll be beefing up my store with lots and lots (and lots) of hand-dyed linens.

I am stitching on a primitive Christmas sampler.  I worked on it yesterday while watching Ken Burns' documentary about prohibition.  After that one was done, I started another of his films about the dust bowl.  If you've never seen any of his work, you should.  He's got great films about the national parks, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, jazz, baseball, and most famously, the Civil War.  Netflix has got them where you can watch instantly from your computer.

This morning I prepped my grocery list for the feast on Thursday.  Steve and Harrison came in and tried to see what I needed to add, but I hadn't forgotten anything.  I've been making this meal for years, and think it's the most delicious meal you can make, and it's not that hard to do.  Everything is homemade here at the house -- and I can't wait for those familiar smells: turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing (outside the bird), cranberry sauce (with apples and orange juice), green bean casserole, Mississippi sweet potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie.  

Our friends Joy and Michael will be joining us this year, and they have ordered kuchen from South Dakota.  Kuchen is sort of pie, sort of cake, sort of pastry filled with a custard-like filling...it's a dessert commonly served in areas of the country settled by the Germans.  Peach and strawberry are my two favorite flavors, but there are lots of other varieties, including fig, apple, rhubarb, blueberry, cinnamon, you name it.  If you're looking, there's a pretty authentic recipe here: http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/foods/recipe/kuchen_memories.html.

We start Thanksgiving Day with the Barefoot Contessa's favorite party starter: whiskey sours and dill dip.  The boys help with cutting up the vegetables.

Ina Garten's Herb Dip:

1 brick cream cheese (8 ounces)

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. mayonaise

4 minced green onions

2 T. chopped parsley (fresh)

1 T. fresh dill (minced)

1 tsp. Kosher salt

3/4 tsp. black pepper

Sometimes I run this through the food processor, or sometimes I use my beaters.  It's always good with cut up cucumbers, carrots, celery, and bell peppers.  I also add to the tray various pickles, olives, and cherry peppers.

Ina Garten's Whiskey Sours:

3/4 c. whiskey

1/2 c. fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)

1/2 c. fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)

2/3 c. chilled simple syrup (simmer in a saucepan 1 cup each of white sugar and water until the sugar is completely dissolved)

We sip these while we make the food -- the citrus flavor is so refreshing.  Make sure to serve on ice with a maraschino cherry (or two...or three).  We always make a sticky mess of the counters with all of that sugar syrup and hand-squeezed citrus juice, but it is worth it.  These put a little blush on everyone's face, and soon everyone is relaxed, chatting and having fun.

Whatever you'll be doing this week, I hope you'll be doing it with family.  Happy stitching, and I am thankful for all of you!

Hannah Carter's Christmas Tree Sampler

When I found and purchased Hannah's sampler last year online, I felt really lucky.  It's always fun to add another sampler to the collection, but also, a Christmas tree on a sampler is extremely rare, especially in the 1830's.  Christmas trees were uncommon with simple folk in Britain until the 1840's -- and in fact, only royalty (and the rich) had such an extravagance.  As a teen, Queen Victoria had a Christmas tree in her room in the 1830's.

I also love that Hannah finished her sampler just a few short weeks before Christmas.  It makes me wonder if her family had a tree, or if she really just wished that they did.  Note the moth that is drawn to the tiny lights all over the tree.  How charming!

The sampler itself is fairly simple in its style -- a number of stark black alphabets against the linen ground.  The negative space around the letters and alphabets gives if kind of a Quaker feel (as do the particular alphabets chosen.)  It was typical of a Quaker sampler to be stitched in just a color, or a few, but I can't be absolutely certain that is what this is.

The linen she used is a 30-count, and it has aged nicely.  There is a little thread loss here-and-there, but overall, it's just in grand condition.  Hannah was a fairly good little stitcher -- there are some flubs here and there in the border and in the lettering (the verse is especially quirky, as a lot of the letters are different from word-to-word.)  The fibers are silks, and I am recommending Gloriana Florimell Antique Black and Needlepoint Silk 693.  Stitch count is 208 by 255.  The stitches used are cross stitch, cross over-one, Algerian eye, and four-sided stitch (MY FAVORITE!)

The verse is one found in a New England children's primer brought to America on the Mayflower by the Puritans.  The poem is called "Learn These Four Lines by Heart."  I found a charming snuff box online (from a previous auction) with this same little poem on it.  I love the idea of it -- a virtuous statement along with the purpose of the snuff box: "Please, please try to be a virtuous and Godly person...now here, stick this up your nose."  (The box is thought to be from the late 1700's to early 1800's.)

Hannah would no doubt be proud to know that so many of you are looking at her work today.  You can purchase the chart by going to my Etsy site Letters Great and Small.  Or you can have your favorite shop order the chart for you from Norden Crafts or Hoffman Distributing, who will have their copies in the next couple of days.

In personal news, I am nearing the end of my time as manager at the animal shelter -- the 21st is my last day.  I am anxious to get back home to my family, and feel almost like I have been away for six months.  I was able to bake an apple pie and make ham soup yesterday -- how wonderful.

I also have a number of foster kittens, including dear little "Shoe" (above) who came in to the shelter late on Saturday.  A local man went out to his mailbox that afternoon and heard squawking.  He looked around and found a shoebox in the road with the lid on.  When he opened it up, there was a little cold and hungry kitten inside.  She is a Siamese/tabby mix (pale creamy grey with faint striping.)  And she would not have made it the night without his help.  She's only 10 ounces and probably 2 1/2 weeks.  But boy, is she cute and spunky.  She uses the litter box like a champion, and has a hearty appetite, as you can see by the food all over her face this morning.

She'll be with us through the holidays, no doubt, and we're glad to be able to help her out.

Happy stitching -- I'm excited to be getting ready to come back to the world of needlework!

When I grow up

My major announcement this week is that I have resigned from my position as manager of the animal shelter.  After very long work weeks that put me home most nights between 7 and 8 (or later), nightmares, insomnia, and countless frozen pizzas I have realized that I cannot sacrifice myself or my  family for my job.  I'll be done around Thanksgiving and will continue to volunteer and help fight the good fight for an organization that has my heart.  I am very proud of my time served, and my hat is off to those who have committed their lives to this mentally, physically and emotionally very challenging work.

I have seen things and helped do things that most people will never see or do.  Every single day, I have consoled someone who was crying.  I have been yelled at, threatened, covered in vomit, urine and feces, I have tried to handle every situation with strength and grace, and when I was feeling really unsure about what was going to happen now, I would say out loud to myself: I am not afraid of anything.  Just under 3,000 cats and dogs have come into the shelter's care during my five months at the shelter, and my staff handled all of them professionally and with great heart; I am really proud of those men and women.

What this means to you is that I am going to go back to designing, but do it full-time from home.  After 17 years in the cross stitch industry, this last year had me feeling very burned out, because I had spread myself way too thin, and could no longer do a good job at most of it.  Trying to run a shop and a web site by myself, in addition to traveling to teach and attend shows, and designing under two different lines (Raise the Roof and Shakespeare's Peddler) had gotten to be too much for one person.

But I've missed it this past six months, and one of the reasons I left this newest job is that I had no time to stitch anymore, ever (I went probably four or five months without picking up one needle).  In the last few weeks, I've been picking it back up, and it makes me so happy.  I am not re-opening my online store, although I have a new Etsy site called "Letters Great and Small."  My son Harrison is going to be packing and shipping orders for me from there, at least for the time being while I get back to the business of the needle (Harrison attended a few trade shows with me in the last few years; he's 22 now and getting a degree in psychology to become a counselor.)

I thank you with your patience with me this past year -- I've been a bit of a flake, and this was probably some sort of mid-life crisis.  I am learning that a person cannot be all things to all people, and what I would like to do now is do three things: design needlework, help this area's animals as a volunteer, and most importantly, take care of my family.

I have a whole stack of old samplers that need reproducing, and a mind full of design ideas for original designs.  My needle is waiting.

(The picture at the top was taken about eight weeks ago.  A group of eight puppies was brought to the shelter one day; they had been saved when a woman bought them for $20 each on the side of a country road from a man who was just hoping to sell them to be bait for dogs that were being trained to fight and kill other dogs.  All eight of them found homes.)

Chart to Benefit Southern Pines Animal Shelter: St. Stephen's Day

St. Stephen's Day has been celebrated in Ireland for hundreds of years and is one of the country's nine official holidays.  To this day, on December 26, merrymakers dress in old clothes and straw hats and go door-to-door with fake wrens to dance and make music.  These revelers are sometimes called "Mummers," which is how I got the inspiration for Mary's last name.

There is a wonderful song to celebrate St. Stephen's Day, and you can see an older recording of it  by The Clancy Brothers here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7icoFY0U0.

I am making this graph available to you and am asking you to make a donation of any size to Southern Pines Animal Shelter by using your Paypal account.  Go to Paypal and send your donation to vrachal@comcast.net (Valerie is our grant writer and fund raiser extraordinaire!)  If you do not have a Paypal account, you can send a donation check directly to the shelter at 1901 N. 31st. Ave., Hattiesburg, MS 39401 (as always, I don't recommend you send cash in the mail.)  I am not requiring any particular donation, but can tell you that just $10 will feed two animals for a month.  Five dollars will buy us ten (very needed) rolls of paper towels for keeping things clean. If you're feeling extra generous, $30 pays for neuter surgery for one male cat or kitten.  Even just $2 will help us protect an animal from rabies with a vaccination.

To access this graph, you can click on the graphic below (the chart), and drag and drop it on your desktop. Then you can print it out for use; I have saved it for you 600 DPI as a jpg file.  The quality of the copy you print will depend on the capability of your printer.  If you don't have much luck printing this off, try asking a friend with a different printer to print it for you.

If THAT doesn't work, you can send me a SASE to Theresa Venette, 10 Plainview Crossing, Hattiesburg, MS 39402.

For fabric, I would choose something hand-dyed and old-looking.  I might suggest Vintage Exemplar by Lakeside Linens or Espresso by R&R Reproductions.  The key appears below the graph.

Symbol/DMC floss (over-dyed alternatives)

■ 3371 (Sampler Threads Cherry Bark)

= 831 (Sampler Threads Endive)

X 829 (Sampler Threads Heirloom Gold)

. 613 (Weeks Dye Works Light Khaki)

3 3826 (Sampler Threads Gingersnap)

w 3859 (Sampler Threads Raspberry Frost)

+ 3857 (Weeks Dye Works Rust

↑ 3031 (Sampler Threads Pecan Pie)

/// 3781 (Sampler Threads Maple Syrup)

A little bit about what we do at the shelter: Southern Pines was established in 1952 and last year accepted 5,000 unwanted, neglected, abused and lost dogs and cats from a 15-county area.  We are a non-profit organization that strives to reunite lost pets with their owners, educates the public about the importance of responsible pet ownership, adopts out thousands of animals a year, sends other animals on transports and to breed-specific rescue groups, assists with hoarding, neglect and abuse cases, offers pet food to those in need, and much, much more.  We operate a low-cost spay and neuter clinic that has done over 20,000 surgeries in the 3 1/2 years it has been open.  We also have opened a Thrift Store and Adoption Center to assist us in our mission.

Thank you for your help.  I hope you enjoy this design!

I'm back!

Well, to be fair, I never left. In fact, in my neck of the woods, there's been a lot more of me everywhere.  I've been putting in very long, hard hours at the animal shelter I manage. I go to bed so very tired every night, that some mornings I wake up in the same position in which I went to sleep, sore on that side, and still aching from the previous day's work.

I've still been fostering kittens, and of course my days are filled with animals.  In the last ten weeks, our shelter has taken in around 1,700 animals.  I have hired staff (and let a few go), have handled multiple crises with as much grace as I could muster, have been on the news a number of times, and really, I've just been working my butt off.

And when I get home every night around 7...or 8... I think about cross stitch.  But I haven't had the strength to even pick up a needle.  I had to close down my shop in the last few weeks, too, so that means in addition to extremely long weeks at the shelter, I've been hauling boxes, tearing down displays, and moving things back home.  I'm setting up a home office; I found a desk and chair yesterday to order, so for today, I'm on the kitchen table, and we're just going to have to eat our dinner in our laps.  I have missed you guys!

Okay, so ...

I've got Mary Bate's reproduction ready to go.  Look for it on my eBay shop.  The chart price is $20.00.  The piece is 270 by 390 stitches and can be stitched in DMC floss or Needlepoint Silk/Gloriana/Silk N Colours.  Here is a supply list, if that helps:

Needlepoint Silk 763, 993 (3), 756, 203, 693, 957, 913 (2), 333
Gloriana Silk Old Gold (2)
Silk N Colours Rye Grass
Linen: 40 count Espresso by R&R Reproductions or 40 count Vintage Light Exemplar by Lakeside Linens

Yes, I've been fostering.  But I've got a roast in the oven, so I just want to share some pictures with you real quick, hopefully to tide you over until next time.  I have lost a few kittens, but have saved a bunch this year.  I am trying to limit myself to three at a time, but right now have five (several came back sick from the shelter.)

Bacchus.  

Currently here at the house -- absolutely one of the most affectionate kittens I've ever had.

A baby doll.

Stephen.

Adopted.

Super-funny and active.  And look at those amazing whiskers.

Bubbles.

Came in by herself, and was terrified at first.

Trying to get over a cold here at the house.

So nice.

Freddy Mercury.

Also came in by himself.

Adopted last weekend.

His new little boy has the same color hair he does!

Blossom.

At the house -- also with a cold.

VERY unusual coat of cocoa brown and cream.

Her eyes have become concerned-looking, but she hasn't a care in the world.

 Yeti.

Also at the house.

Slightly cross-eyed.

Handsome, nice, and very soft.

I hope life has been treating you well.  Life is treating me well, and I'm treating it well right back.

Be good!  Hope to talk to you again real soon.