Chatelaine: Summer Fruits - Pear

Newest acquisition: Chatelaine's summer pear. It is currently an ongoing yahoo group class, but you can buy the pattern on the European cross stitch website.

Isn't it lovely?

I am quite excited to start! I have been itching for a new start, but have instead been plowing through the Queen's Farmhouse. I think it's time for another update on that project too!

Queen's Farmhouse!

My kit from the European Cross Stitch Co. has arrived for Queen's Farmhouse! Gosh it is just the most exciting thing. I haven't used Delicas beads or petite treasure braid before, so it will be a journey to say the least. I am not sure when I'll start - maybe within the next few days? Enjoy my stash pictures, I know I do!

Wrapped up, pretty and nice like a present!

My specialty fibers

My beautiful beads and tweezers? Not part of the kit.

This will be the finished project:

For those who are curious, Chatelaines can be purchased in a variety of different ways. You can download the pdfs right off the website, buy the printed chart off the site, buy everything (beads, specialty threads, fabric) but the chart as a kit or everything but the chart and fabric. 123stitch also carries Chatelaines too, but only the printed chart version. While I love 123stitch's fast and efficient service, the printed charts do not seem as desirable as the pdf, which you can enlarge and print right from your computer. Personally I prefer the downloadable version.

When you buy the pdf chart, it will usually take a few days to be emailed to you so be patient. If you decide to go with the kit, sit back and stitch something else because it will take a few weeks to get to you. It sure is worth the wait for me because I do not have to hunt everything down in different stores, both brick and mortar and online.

Newest Acquisition: Hanging Gardens of Semiramus

Today I tried something new: instead of emotional eating, I emotionally shopped. With my eyes. And my credit card. It was glorious!

 I am still waiting for my Queen's Farmhouse kit from European Cross Stitch Company, and the large mandalas can be quite intimidating, so I looked for a chart which is small enough for me to draw from my stash of fabric. I've had my eye on the hanging/walled gardens, so I chose the most colorful one: the Hanging Gardens of Semiramus by Chatelaine. I am so so SO excited! I will go rifling through my fabrics when I get home from school.

This is approximately what it will look like. I am thinking maybe working on a dark blue or light green fabric.


More images can be found at the lovely and talented Dana Oliver Smith's Chatelaine Galleries.

Newest Acquisition: Six Wives of Henry VIII

Eeeek!! Too excited! I have been fortuitous in snagging a copy of The Primitive Hare's Six Wives of Henry VIII.

Sword not included

I am a major Tudor history fan and while I think Henry VIII is a sneaky bastard, his tumultuous reign, both personal and professional, makes for really interesting history.

This video is a totally accurate representation of his modus operandi and general thought process. Please feel free to use in your history reports and at dinner table conversations.

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Sale! Sale! Sale!

FYI: Picture This Plus is having their one day only, annual "Christmas in July" sale today! 25% off! Go forth and shop, let me know what you bought!

How to become an excellent Stash Acquisition Specialist

There are a few things that I think I'm good at: lifting heavy weights, baking cakes, driving really fast. The activity that I am the very best at is buying stash. Specifically, charts and fabrics. In fact, I am so damn good at it that I have divided my stash up into four or five discrete boxes and distributed them throughout my toybox apartment to fool others (Fiance) that I am actually a paltry stash acquisitionist.

LIES.

Ask me how many Heaven and Earth Designs charts I have. Go ahead, I won't fib. Really, that low? Okay, deep breath...

I SHALL NEVER TELL!

What I will say is that while there is no such thing as too much stash (Fiance will scoff at this but I shall point to his fishing minivan that doubles as his everyday vehicle with a raised eyebrow), I am happy to report that I have enough projects to keep me busy for a few years.

So why do I buy more if I have so much? Irrelevant question.

What only you understand is that there are certain standards that a cross stitching fiend must rise to. For instance, my lifelong goal is to paper every inch of my free wall space with a finished project that radiates with love. Since I live in the aforementioned toybox apartment and have three projects on the wall, I am well on my way. When I marry Fiance, the long suffering man of my dreams, we shall move into a larger abode with more wall space and thus the standards rise. Additionally, with the variety of threads, fabrics and designers out there clamoring for our attention, it is our responsibility to support and nurture their businesses and help the stitching community grow. I'd say it's rather generous of us, no?

In fact, I feel so generous that I will demonstrate my stash purchasing abilities for you all.

1. First, I surf facebook for the latest update in my favorite stitching groups. If there is a chart that someone has stitched that I adore or some fabric that is quite lovely, without any time to waste I zip over to the website.

Enablers on Facebook, the best kind of stitching friends

2. Today, I feel like buying some fabric. Luckily, Dawn Munday at Crafty Kitten has a 10% off sale on her website (see, the stitching community is exceedingly generous!) so I select my fabric, change the currency and browse the lovely colors.

 

Those cotton clouds look simply divine

3. Hmm I like the looks of that Sunlit pool. Into the cart you go!

What an excellent addition to my "paltry" fabric box

4. Since the shipping is going to be high, may as well make the best of it and combine multiple purchases! Also, now is the time to try out something I've been interested in for a while - hand dyed threads. Why is now the time? Why do you ask so many questions?

Spring Crocus. It's environmental.

5. And another fabric jumps in the cart... Seriously, I don't know how this happens to me!

It's going to be so fun to sniff them when they arrive.

6. Okay, enough is enough. I am on a budget, after all. I'll just have this purchase applied to my August stash budget. Time to check out!

7. Now it's time to wait by the door and check my mailbox obsessively every single day, mostly to get to the package before Fiance, that wonderful man, asks me why I need more threads and cloths.

Your turn!