A Place to Share a Craft I Love
Great news for Blackbird Design quilters, The Raven has been reprinted. The Raven, is inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem. Each block’s name is taken from a bit of Poe’s poetry.
The finished size of the quilt is 68″ x 68″.
Wild is the music of the autumnal winds amongst the faded woods.
~ William Wordsworth ~
Mighty Acorn is one of the samplers included in the new book by Blackbird Designs called Winds of Autumn. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the cover photo. Once I received the book, I cut some fabric for two of the included samplers and pulled the floss.
Recommended Fabric: 36ct Wren by Picture This Plus. I am stitching this one on 16ct Heartland by Picture This Plus. At least, I think that is what it is.
Recommended Floss and any changes I made cause I did not have the color.
Started Stitching: December 31, 2020
Finished Stitching: January 31, 2021
And the finish line is in sight. I really am loving this one.
I added the initials of my two sons, Frank and Michael to honor them. We lost Frank to cancer in December 2011.
And here it is framed ready for spacers and glass.
Berries in Bloom is a free chart offered by Hands on Designs. The stitch count was on 65 x 64 so I figured it would be a pretty quick stitch. I was also looking for a design I could use with some buttons I had purchased for another project I decided NOT to stitch.
The picture above shows the project stitched on 32ct Vintage Tiffany from Fabrics by Stephanie. I chose to use 14ct Friendship Greene also from Fabrics by Stephanie. I switched out quite a few of the recommended threads for Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads.
The button is merry.go.round (#10196) shown below from Just Another Button Company.
The finished size on 14ct is 4 5/8 by 4 5/8. In hindsight, I probably should have used 16ct. I have three of the buttons so may choose to use the 16ct on the last one as I already have both 14ct piece cut and gridded.
I have the series of three Sampler Stocking Ornaments by Abby Rose Designs in my stash for a while now. I decided to get an early start on some ornaments for 2021 and pulled these out. They are small and would be a quick stitch.
I used 16ct aida fabric and floss that I had in my stash, some called for and some I used Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads. So far I have finished stitching two of the series.
I still need to stitch number 3 and then decide if I will attempt to finish them myself or send them off. And as you can see below, I sent them off the Vonna for finishing.
Winter Cardinal Etching was a design by Cecelia Turner that appears in the latest issue of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine (2020 Christmas/Winter – page 58). The stitch count was only 50×50 so would be small. It also only called for two colors of floss – Classic Colorworks Sticks and Twigs (which I had in my stash) and Cherry Cobbler (which I did not have.)
I chose a piece of 16ct aida I had in my stash, Parchment, I think that was large enough to stitch this design twice. Instead of Cherry Cobbler, I used Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Red Rooster on one and Victorian Motto Victorian Red on the other. I also changed the color for the bird’s beak to black and orange.
These are the beginning of my 2021 Christmas presents to be finished as ornaments.
Merry and Minty was a free SAL offered by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread. The chart was only 64w by 85h and used a combination of DMC, Weeks Dye Works and Classic Colorworks floss. It proved to be a quick stitch. I chose a piece of 16ct fabric I had in my stash. Not sure of the color but it was dark so the white and cream floss showed up nicely.
The cranberry and popcorn string called for Colonial Knots but I could not get the hang of it with my magnifying lamp in place so ended up doing French knots. If I stitched it again, I would use beads instead of fooling with the knots.
I decided to TRY and finish the piece as a cube following Vonna Pfeiffer’s (The Twisted Stitcher) excellent tutorial. She makes it look so easy. It was not for me but that was NOT the fault of the tutorial. First, my tacky spray would not spray at all. Trying to clean the nozzle was a total failure. Then I could not find my package of finishing pins so ordered some more. I was lucky enough to have two pieces of foam core that were just the right size so I used them. I covered one side of the foam core with one piece of batting and the other side with two. The stitched piece would go against the two pieces for a bit more padding. And a had a piece of red plaid fabric for the backing.
I still need to figure out what to do with the top of it but I am happy with how it turned out. Not perfect but . . . .
Autumn Song was published in 2007 and is now Out of Print. I have had it in my stash for some time now and decided it was finally time to stitch this piece to place on the top of one of LeHay’s 8″ recessed lid Needlework boxes. I had ordered two of them in black.
I chose a piece of 16ct Carmel Macchiato from Fabrics by Stephanie and switched out a couple of the threads for Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads.
Design Size: Wreath is 114W X 107H
Recommended Floss: Weeks Dye Works
And here is the finished piece mounted on the box.
From Alma’s Instagram post: Our newest book is almost ready to go to the printer. We have a bit of editing to do first, and then we will ship it out to our distributors. Look for it in your cross stitch shops in about 3 weeks!
THERE IS A CORRECTION FOR THE CHART ON PAGE 11 – Nebraska Prairie. See Winds of Autumn (the-gearys.com) Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Some of the projects included:
Trix or Treat by Blackbird Designs is copyright 2005 and is now Out of Print. NOTE: Reprinted in November 2021. The book includes eight separate designs. I am not normally a Halloween stitcher but the more I saw one of the projects posted, the more I wanted to stitch it.
Trix or Treat is the design and I LOVE the bird in this one and it looked like it would be a quick stitch. I chose a piece of 16ct Carmel Macchiato from Fabrics by Stephanie and switched out a couple of the threads since I did not have them in my stash.
Design Size on 16ct: 5 1/2 x 5 1/8
Started Stitching: October 31, 2020
Finished Stitching: November 6, 2020
Now I just need to decide how to finish it. Probably a small pillow for my basket of smalls.
May 2022 – I had originally thought of framing this but decided to use one of the boards I bought at Michael’s instead.
Hearts Come Home for Christmas is a SAL being offered by Jean Farish Needleworks. The chart is available as a digital download (pdf) in her Etsy shop. Once I saw it posted, I knew I wanted to add it to my Christmas collection.
The chart is on sale thru October 20th for $5.90 but will return to the regular price of $10 after that date. It has no backstitching and no half or quarter stitches and no specialty stitches which is good for me since I normally stitch on 16ct aida because of poor eyesight.
The stitch count is 114w by 113 high so almost a perfect square. Two color schemes are included: All DMC or Cosmo floss. Jean also suggests two variegated flosses in the Cosmo Seasons line which I chose to order. #8061 for the verse and #5012 for the vine.
I thought about using 28ct cream Monaco but decided on 16ct Colonial Parchment from Fabrics by Stephanie. I will use some of the recommended DMC thread colors but will switch most of them out for Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads.
Jean has set up a Facebook group for the SAL – JFN SAL – and she will be doing a series of Flosstube videos with stitching tips.
My color selection for floss. May make more changes as I stitch.
| DMC | Cosmo | Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe |
| 939 | 169 | Darkest Midnight Blue |
| 224 | 222 | Prairie Stitching |
| 223 | 223 | Victoriana Pink |
| 3721 | 2223 | Hearthside Stitching |
| 221 | 2224 | True Red |
| 732 | 685 | |
| 730 | 686 | Olive Branch |
| 840 | 716 | |
| 3782 | 365 | |
| 613 | 366 | |
| 612 | 367 | |
| 372 | 822 | Sagebrush |
| 370 | 823 | Dried Spice |
| 420 | 576 | |
| 470 | 2631 | Stitching Parlor |
| 936 | 635A | Ripe Avocado |
| 934 | 637 | Mountain Pines |
| 927 | 981A | |
| 926 | 983 | |
| 834 | 573 |
While I love how this turned out, if I stitch it again, I will use a darker floss for the lettering. Now to finish it.
September 2021 – While I was in Hobby Lobby this morning, I found a round board that I thought would work for finishing this project. It was on sale for half price which made it $4. Now to repaint it to cover up the wording and what color – black or a shade of green?
Well as you can tell from the final photo, I decided on black. I sanded the board to remove the word and repainted it with Licorice folk art paint. Since I do not have a circle cutter, I ordered some 8″ thin wooden discs from Amazon. My last time trying to cut a circle was not very successful so these worked well. I did add a layer of batting to the top. I may decide to add some trim but since it will be displayed on a wall with other Christmas stitching, I probably will leave it plain.
