May Wrap Up

Hello again! I hope you've all had a productive week. :) I'm still a bit scattered (but beginning to find my flow) so I've got a lot to share this week. But first, here's a little story about obsession.

So, have you ever had something kind of on your mind a lot to the point where everything you encounter reminds you of that something? Like if you're thinking about cinnamon rolls, and someone mentions "aluminum foil" and you say, "Yes! I love cinnamon rolls!" Well, that's kinda what happened with me and Louisa Horsey.

So I started Louisa Horsey, another one from Shakespeare's Peddler. After a lot of internal debate, I made this my birthday start, though I've been resisting her since March. I had intended to start Ann Thomas from HATS, but that can wait. Louisa is one of those charts that didn't appeal to me at first, but hearing Theresa Venette extol all her virtues when she was released, I decided to get her anyway. I am a chart collector after all. Then sometime in February, I just got this impulse to pull her out and look at her. I was busy, so I shrugged off that impulse, but then she kept popping up at random places, so I finally gave in and pulled out her chart. And then I fell in love!

Louisa's border is probably one of my favorites. It has a double vine which is very time consuming, but also very beautiful. There are several kinds of flowers with different styles and color palettes, and a few odd bits thrown in for interest. I'm stitching her with dmc on 40ct Vintage Examplar from Lakeside Linen, starting in the bottom right corner:

I'm about 2700 stitches in and loving it so far. I wish I could have splurged on the silks, but I can't always indulge. The dmc colors are really nice though. The white/cream flower does blend into the fabric a lot, but I can't decide if I want to change the colors. Whenever it catches the light, it just seems to glow. There's a little girl in the other corner to mirror the boy, though the french knots I did for his eyes aren't the best. Still, isn't he cute? It's the little details, like the heels of his shoes done over 1, that really draw me to this pattern.

If you're not familiar, Louisa Horsey is a mourning sampler done to commemorate the death of her infant brother. The middle has a ton of over 1 stitching that lists her entire family and a verse, plus various motifs. I'm not the best at over 1, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. But I know it will be a while before I get there. For now, I'll just focus on that lovely pastoral scene. If you want to hear Theresa talk about Louisa, check out her Quicky StitchyTube 2 around 14:05.

Ok, I'll stop gushing about Louisa. For now.

I haven't shown Elizabeth Oliver in a while, but I haven't been neglecting her. It's just taken me a long time to finish off all this grass:

So that's the entire lawn and drive that will eventually lead to a great manor house. It's only about 3000 stitches, but I've been working on it since March. I'm hoping to have the house done by the end of August, but we'll see how long construction takes.

I also got a little addicted to Ginger Nova and managed to finish off page 2 with a little start on page 3:

It's fun to stitch all those bursts of color, though the stars are very confetti heavy. I kind of want to keep going on her, but I have too many other projects calling. *sigh*

I'm still playing catch up with Luna, but I managed 4 columns in May:

I hope I can keep up this pace for a while longer. There's still 17 columns left to finish the row.

Well, that's all for now. It always feels like I have nothing to talk about or everything to talk about. I'll try to work on that. :) Take care of yourselves. Happy stitching!