Erica's Stitches

I've started on a small portable kit as portable kit as a travel project. I'll admit, I haven't done a kit like this in a while and I did toss the plastic canvas it came with and substituted an indigo blue Aida (which matches the background color eliminating 1/3 of the stitches). There were 2 greens in the kit so I separated them out and matched them to forest green (the darker green) and emerald green (the lighter green) on the chart and started stitching.  It didn't quite look right and I don't have the picture of the finished piece so I kept on stitching.  Then I moved to the next section and looked up the next color:  apple green.  Darn, I missed a green.  Closer inspection under brighter light revealed that I had two darker greens mixed together. My eyes are getting old.  I think the middle green is emerald and the one on the right is forest.  So, I'm ripping out and starting the greens over.  They were generous with th...

I just finished a Stitchmap challenge.  It was to finish a stitched item as a bag filled with accessories. Since my goal is to finish items I signed up.  I didn't plan on it but most of the fabric I used in the challenge came from cut up shirts.  The main bag used a blue-gray oxford shirt. Another oxford shirt and a flannel shirt provided lining fabric. And finally some paisley fabric.  Remember when that was in style?  I saved my favorite shirt from that era and every few years I use a piece of it. A few pieces of leftover ribbon and some buttons finished everything off.  It's fun making something out of scraps.

I've been using the cardboard case some double pointed needles came in to carry them around.  It's functional but not pretty. So, I started designing some elaborate dpn holders in my head in various techniques.  I was excited about the project but didn't know when I would be able to do it. Finally I decided on something fast and simple.  I found some pretty paper I'd been saving and glued it over the cardboard.  In a matter of minutes I was done.  I liked so much I made another.  Then I ran out of cardboard holders.  If I want more I'll have to buy more needles. I wish every project could be finished as quickly.

Note:  There's a blizzard outside.  There is no decent light for a picture.  So, I went wild with Photoshop trying different brightness/contrast and hue settings.  The colors are in no way accurate. It is so much fun to start a new project.  This one was my last spring project.  I stitched a small sample (above) and then started the fabric prep for the real project.  That involved withdrawing almost 400 threads from a large piece of small count linen.  I finished the withdrawing the day before the Colorado class started.  Both projects were going on the same stretcher bars so I put it aside and started Colorado.  I never suspected Colorado would take so long to finish. Yes, that means Colorado is done.  I removed it from the stretcher bars a few days ago and put the Naversom linen on. I savored the start of the project.  One night I turned the raw edges in.  The second night I put it on the bars....