HOE Exchanges and "Autumn Colors"

Today I want to show two pieces which I made for my HOE partners.


The pattern of the first piece is called "Welcome" by The Prairie Schooler, I finished it off as a floss holder+ pinkeep. The pinkeep is soft enough to use it as a pincushion so I also made counting needles to match the piece. The pattern reminded me of old times that is why I "aged" the fabric for an ancient look of the piece... But I do not think my parner liked what I sent her: she did not let me know when she got the package from me and I was worrying that it got lost.
Anyway, here are the pictures of that exchange:






As for me I like this multifunctional piece and will certainly make a couple of them for myself.

The pattern of the second piece called " Snap Happy Halloween" by Bentcreek was stitched for HOE Halloween Exchange. As my partner Joan likes pinkeeps I finished off the pattern into a pinkeep and also made counting needles in matching Halloween colors.

Here are some pictures of the Halloween exchange:

* * * * * *
I got some pleasant news from my new friend Lee Fun. She stitched my "Autumn Colors" Fob design and made it into... a needle book :-). She sent me some pictures of the finished piece - her finishing is so lovely! You can go visit her blog and see more nice pictures of the needle book and many other pretty things she makes. She will be delighted to see new friends on her blog. Lee Fun, thank you for sending me your lovely pictures!

I think next time I will show you the piece I am working on now. It will be something a little bigger than "smalls" :-).

Happy stitching to everyone! And Thank You to those who visited my blog and left a comment on my new design in the previous post.

Prairie Schooler Exchange Received

Yesterday I received Prairie Schooler Exchange package from Angela in Canada. I could not post straight away because I was waiting for some sunlight to take good pictures.
Angela made a scissor case and a fob for me. She chose a very interesting chart called "Pins and Needles" , the backing fabric matches PS pattern perfectly well. The Scissor case and fob are nicely stitched and finished, I love them so very much. Here are their pictures, look how bright they are:
Angela spoiled me pretty much including some extra goodies: PS chart, my favorite needles, some DMC floss, pins , beads, a beautiful post card.
She also wrote a short message for me. It is interesting that this was Angela's first exchange with HOE and for me it was the first Prairie Schooler pattern - I have not finished mine for the exchange yet, still a lot of doubts what to finish it into or maybe to stitch something different. Angela says she was nervous to stitch for me! I am stressed out every time I stitch for somebody.
I want to thank Angela for the wonderful exchange, I know how much of herself she invested into it. I really appreciate it. It was nice "meeting" you Angela!
Happy stitching to everybody!

Some New Finish

After a bad spell of weather last week here the Interner connection was acting up. I had to wait for about three hours to publish the previous post. Such waste of time! So I waited till they have fixed everything.

I had "A Lady's Heart" by Just Nan framed and wanted to show you some pictures. It was not so easy to get it framed: the quality of work was very poor, I even had to ask the manager of the store for help. Now you still can see some wrinkles on the fabric but with our humidity I hope they soon must be gone.

I was busy making some more "smalls", thread keeps. For them I used the pieces recently stitched and the pieces which were done about a year ago. They all are stitched on 28 ct Evenweave with DMC floss.

The first one is my "quaker inspired", one of my favorites. It is a motif from "Diminutive Dutch Sampler", Carriage House Samplings.

The second one is also very nice. I took the design for it from The Prairie Schooler Designer Series booklet "Spring Miniatures". I changed the colors in the design and now they perfectly match the color of my Azaleas .

The design for the third one is called "Reprise d'un motif ancien Coeur Muguet", a freebie from a French site. I like the design but I am not so happy with the result, tried different finishes - nothing helped so I decided to leave it as it is. Here is my the least favorite:

Anyway, I like to use them when I go to stitch outside , they can be hung on the arm of the swing or kept on a bigger ring together so the wind does not blow away my flosses.

Happy stitching and take care.