Trying Again

Here’s attempt number 2 at the My Dad pillow by Pine Mountain Designs. For Christine, the pillow came with the kit, so I can’t even begin to take credit for the fabulous fabrics they used. There’s a lovely solid dark brown on the back, which actually closely matches the dark brown floss I used. Obviously, I decided to use the dark brown floss as a substitute for the green that made no sense, as I had discussed. My dad’s birthday was today, so I won’t be getting to him in time for that. So, the question remains, do I just go ahead and send it now as a belated birthday gift, or try to remember to send it for Father’s Day?

Either way, I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out. It was well worth the effort and I’m actually slightly more happy with the antique white fabric than I was with the ivory. It’s all good.

Now, I need to decide what to work on now. I could go back to working on Thea’s panel for the Savannah reticule. Or, I could bring out Thea’s Heirloom Memories Sampler that has been a UFO for years. I have decided to try and finish it in order to have it framed by Christmas. I could start Hinzeit’s Brush ‘Em for my friend, which I hope to finish and have framed in time for my next dentist visit in November. Or I could start Picasso’s Rooster. Oh, have I introduced that one yet? It’s from Ladybug Designs, who apparently has discontinued it and their entire Picasso line, because it’s no longer on their website. Or there is a glitch with their website, since the entire Picasso page disappeared. I purchased it as a kit from The Stitchery. They’ve been carrying it for years and I’m afraid that they are going to just not have it one day. It’s not necessarily in my normal style, but Terry and I both think that it reminds us of the mascot of our alma mater, University of Delaware, which is a blue hen. Other U of D friends of ours don’t see it, but hey, it’s my house and I see it, so too bad for everyone else. 😛

Of course, the kit used a big old chunk of 14 count aida. Ick. So, I went hunting in my stash for a suitably large piece of white 28 ct fabric. Turns out I don’t have much white fabric at all. I have lots of antique white, but not so much in the true white department. I had a cut of 28 ct white Jazlyn that wasn’t wide enough. I did finally find an 18 x 27″ cut of white (Jobelan, I think?). I cut it to the appropriate size, went out and bought another set of 24″ scroll bars to accommodate it because all of my others are taken up with UFOs that I don’t want to remove from their bars for fear that they will never make it back on. I brought it downstairs and got ready to mark the center before mounting it on the scrolls bars, only to find a good-sized stain of the fabric. What the heck? I rinsed it out, think it was just a scorch mark. Didn’t work. So, I washed it with some Ivory Snow liquid. Nope. I tried again, this time adding a stain treater. Nada. Bleach stick? Still nothing. Finally, I used a good bit of Clorox Ultimate Care bleach and let it sit for a couple of minutes, then (accidentally) washed it in another bath of bleach with some detergent, then another wash with just detergent and finally a couple of rinses. I then ironed the fabric dry. I easily spent far more than an hour working on this stupid fabric. More than 40 minutes alone to iron it afterwards. No clue how long I spent on all of the washing. Seriously, I wouldn’t have spent so long on it if I had another piece in my stash, but I didn’t, so I was desperate. I’m thrilled that I just figured out the overcast stitch on my sewing machine and had just used it on this cut of fabric before having to put it through this whole ordeal. Otherwise, I would have ended up with a fringed piece of fabric!

Now, it is on the scroll bars and ready to go. Yikesl! I’m in the process of ordering more 28 ct white evenweave fabric from Where Victoria’s Angels Stitch. Yes, I know, Anna will probably be irritated with me for not throwing the business in the direction of my LNS, The Strawberry Sampler. I do have my reasons, though. I just threw a good chunk of framing business in the direction of TSS and I feel some loyalty towards WVAS because Tawny has helped me multiple times in procuring old Just Nan designs and kits. She provides great service and is lovely to work with, so I felt that I wanted to throw some business her way, as well. I actually needed an additional small cut of fabric to go with the last LE Just Nan’s that I bought from her, so I tacked on two fat quarters of 28 ct white Jobelan to the order. Of course, the more I thought about it, I decided to also kit up the Lizzie Kate Dog Lessons for People while I was at it. This will actually test Tawny’s long-distance customer service skills because I don’t want to use the fabric that the models were supposedly stitched on, but instead the color of fabric that the model photograph shows. Two TOTALLY different animals, I assure you. Tawny dug into her pile of fabrics and provided me with some suggestions, while I did my own research. We’ll see what she gets back to me with tomorrow, but I think I’ve made a decision. It was nice to have her be willing to pull the threads and place them against the fabrics in order to give me an informed opinion. Sure, it would have been easier to just look at the fabrics in person, but I don’t know that TSS’ fabric selection is accessible to the public. I’m not even sure where they store their bolts of fabric; I’ve only ever seen them pre-cut and packaged out in the store. Maybe Anna can enlighten me.

Anyway, what gets your vote for the next project I work on? The UFO Heirloom Memories Sampler? Already started reticule panel? New start Brush ‘Em? Or new start Picasso’s Rooster? I’m leaning towards Heirloom Memories Sampler. I just need to practice my bullion roses. Again. And again. And again. Hopefully remembering the pointers that Thea gave me in class in Savannah in February. In the meantime, though, I think that there are still other parts of the sampler remaining to be worked on. I ripped out the cross at the top after changing my intentions for the design from being for my Roman Catholic paternal grandfather to being for my late mother-in-law. I’m going to stitch the alternative Rhodes heart instead. Anyway, let me know what you think I should work on!