Hooray! New Threads . . .

I thought I would share with you some new thread releases that I recently received. They just arrived in the mail today. What a wonderful treat on a Monday!

The first is from Crescent Colours. It's not a thread line I use often but these new colors are wonderful. When I ordered them I was told they were "plain". You know what I love about over-dyed threads? They're never plain. There's always so much subtle variegation and depth in even such a "simple" color as brown or grey. I specifically like Eggshell and Polliwog. Brown Hen is a very complicated color with light and dark brown with hints of grey/green and yellow. Honestly, I don't know how to describe it.

The next is Gentle Arts. You've already seen Antique Lace; it's used in Blest Art. Wheat Fields is my favorite of the new threads. It's a wonderful combination of dark and light gold and green. It's perfect for Autumn and I'm trying desperately to fit it into a design but that rarely ever works for me. I'm sure that if I let it sit long enough on my table it will eventually inspire its' own design. I'm still waiting on the new Weeks Dye Works colors but I'll share a picture when I receive them.

On another note, a friend of mine purchased the e-pattern for Marked Anne and commented that she had difficulty printing the pattern so that the chart lines were dark enough for her to see. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, please let me know. I always print out a test of all my e-patterns and assume that if it prints well for me that it will for everyone else. If you've had any problems please e-mail me. I would hate to think that anyone purchased a chart they couldn't use.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have this month's free pattern stitched and ready to post. It's in honor of my favorite time of year, apple picking season. Until then I hope everyones week got off to as good a start as mine did.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Blest Art Sampler

Blest Art is finally finished! I've been busily (and happily) stitching away at it every free minute this past week, hence my lack of blogging. It is finished, though still unframed. I just couldn't wait to share it.

I have been working on this piece for awhile now, stopping from time to time to work on another piece, but then dutifully returning. The design is somewhat whimsical (for me anyway) which I've come to like in it. As I said before, the border was a bit of challenge to design and I had to go back and tweak it a few times after I had started stitching. I do like it, even though it is a bit wonky. I had difficulty choosing how to design the vine border between the first to lines of the alphabet. I'd considered stitching a simpler version of the outer border but in the end decided on a stem stitched vine with a few little leaves added in cross stitch. Finding the perfect color white was challenging as well. Thank goodness for Gentle Arts latest thread releases. The color looked perfect online and I ordered it right away but still I had my doubts. When my package from Gentle Arts finally arrived the color was even better than I had originally thought. Of course I opened the package minutes before the children were due home from school with hours left before I could stitch with it. I think I showed a great deal of patience that day though I do admit to rushing through the evening cleaning. GA Cornhusk is a wonderful color as well. It's a little bright and I was skeptical at first but as I began stitching it won me over quite quickly

The colors are Gentle Arts Cornhusk, Weeks Dye Works Onyx and a new color from Gentle Arts Antique Lace. It was stitched on 30ct R and R Reproductions American Chestnut and finished measures approximately 12 inches square.

The verse is one of my favorites. Be my ambition to excel in the blest art of doing well. I adore the sentiment and hope I in my own life take care to do well in all that I choose to do.

The pattern is available for purchase as either a printed or e-pattern. You can visit My Design page or e-mail me directly for more information, pricing, and to order. I have one more finish to show you (what I worked on while waiting for my thread to be delivered). Hopefully I will find the time to post it tomorrow; for now the time has come to start preparing dinner. I hope you enjoy the pattern and please let me know what you think of it.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Shades of Halloween

Apparently, I have All Hallows Eve on my mind. I chose these colors for my Blest Art Sampler and don't they just make you think of Halloween? That shade of green is wonderful. I'm not sure about the white, though. I might replace it with an acorn brown or perhaps a sunflower yellow? Sometimes I just have to stitch a little with a thread before I can make a final decision.

The linen is lovely too with all of these little black specks on it. The ladies at my LNS show think me odd because I'm the one asking for the most aged and mottled pieces of linen they have. Every time, the lady who cuts the linen for me sighs and shakes her head and wonders why I would want the "dirty" piece. It's a "prim" thing, isn't it? Please tell me I'm not alone :)

Recently I've been working on quite a few samplers. There's something soothing about stitching an alphabet. Borders drive me batty though. They don't have to actually meet in the corners do they? I had difficulty in this sampler getting the border to do just that. It's quite an unruley vine so rather than fight it I just let it grow it's own way. I like the way it turned out though and even though it's not a Halloween design I think the colors are just perfect. In a day or so I should have some progress to show you. Hopefully that wild vine will be easier to stitch than it was to design.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Budding Wreath Free Pattern

I have to say this one took a lot longer than I had expected to finish. It's not even finished yet. I still haven't decided what to put in the center of the wreath. A date? Initials? A verse? It took so long to stitch the wreath I have to put it aside for awhile. Normally with the smaller patterns I stitch without a chart. With borders, however, I am never able to get them to match up without charting first. Silly me to think that would make it easier. This one was charted first and I still had to frog my stitches three times before I could get the wreath to match up. To look at it you wouldn't think it was that challenging a stitch. But a word of advice for those of you (like me) who are stitching in the middle of the night with less than ideal lighting and perhaps are a little tired . . . stitch the ring first then go back and add in all the little stems.

The colors are WDW Molasses and GA Summer Shower and was stitched on a piece of 30ct scap linen. Once I've gotten it completed I'm thinking of using it to cover the lid of a paper mache box. That's a finish I have yet to try. If you'd like the free pattern you can find it here. Feel free to put whatever you would like inside the wreath and share with me. Perhaps what you choose to stitch will inspire me. I'm desperate to get back to the sampler I was working on. It's been calling to me in the evenings, I just couldn't pick it up again until I had finished this darn wreath. Now that it's finished I have to admit that I am happy with how it came out (so far) and proud of myself for sticking with it until it was done! There was a time that after pulling out stitches for the second time I would have simply given up. This time I just couldn't let that pattern get the best of me :)

I hope you enjoy the pattern and remember I love to see your finishes!

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Keeping Joy Sewing Book

Let a joy keep you . . .

Even the simplest of joys can carry you through the most difficult of times. Sometimes that tiny pleasure is all you have to see you through a hardship, so keep that joy and let it keep you.

That sentiment has helped me through more than few tough times in my own life. There are times things are so dark there seems to be no path to the light. This little sewing book is a reminder to myself to find and keep that joy.

It is a tiny little pattern that on and off took me the better part of a month to stitch; it spent most of that month untouched. For such a short month February has an awful lot packed into it in our house. I finally finished it yesterday morning; I was just waiting for some sunlight to take the pictures. I have to say I think it was worth the wait. I finished it into a little sewing book using some civil war reproduction fabric. I just adore that shade of pink; it has a wonderful age to it. I lightly tea stained it as well. The book when open measures 6 inches by 12 inches and has four pockets inside each of which is 3 inches square.

The pattern itself is stitched over two on 40 ct R & R Reproductions Park City Blend and measures approximately 3 inches square. It was stitched using Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts threads. The black thread in the design made me a little nervous so I chose not to tea stain the finished stitching, but of course you could. I chose the pink thread to coordinate with the fabric, but it is a lovely color. The skein I had of it was highly vareigated pink and cream. I wanted only the pink so I had to "fussy cut" the thread to get just the bits I wanted. There are times I've done that and ended up with only a couple of inches to stitch with; that can be quite a hassle. This skein worked much better though since half of every 18 inch length was pink.

The pattern includes finishing instructions to make the sewing book (it's really quite easy). A printed pattern is $7.50 which includes shipping and an e-pattern is $6.00. If you'd like to purchase the pattern simply e-mail me at appleseedprim@yahoo.com or use the link on my sidebar. The pattern will also be available in my Etsy Shoppe.

I do hope you like the pattern. Tomorrow I'll be posting another free pattern for the little butterfly I showed last week so be sure to check back.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Journey's End

Let thy love my spirit cheer as my guard, my guide, my friend, lead me to my journey's end.

Now I have to admit this one gave me some trouble. (See earlier post regarding the trials and tribulations of hand dyed threads). Now with my husband being so busy the framing is going to take longer than I anticipated. So I decided to put up a picture of it unframed. I was just waiting for a nice sunny day since I was having a lot of trouble getting the white to show up. It shows up quite nicely against the dark linen but my photography skills are somewhat lacking. Then again I'm a stitcher, not a photographer, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

Let me know what you think of the finished piece; feedback is always welcome. I was going to wait until it had been framed to put the pattern up for sale, but if you're interested simply click on the Patterns to Purchase link on my sidebar or e-mail me.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Sneak Peak of Journey's End

Here is just a little peak at my next pattern and I haven't got much more than this stitched. I don't know if I'm the only one with this problem, but hand dyed threads present me with unique challenges. They are beautiful and I love stitching with them. I had a skein (well some of a skein) of WDW Gold Leaf left over from another project. Now I must have bought that skein a year ago if not longer. I was using it in this design, ran out of it and needed to buy another skein. The new skein had so much more brown in it than yellow it looked like a completely different color. It was still a lovely color but it looked so different than the one I was already stitching with I had to take out all the old stitches and redo them with the new thread. This was the only part of the design I've had time to restitch. I despise taking out stitches but I suppose lesson learned. Always check my threads and when necessary stitch with a new skein, preferably before I start any stitching at all.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn