patgeary

Forget Me Not by Blackbird Designs

May 6, 2017 By patgeary

I had a request from my granddaughter that she would like something I had stitched with her father’s name on it. I had recently loaned out one of my Blackbird Design books, Tokens of Friendship that had the chart Forget Me Not. It had been stitched in a beautiful shade of blue. I decided that this would be the perfect thing to stitch in my son’s memory for his daughter.

Rather than using the recommended fabric and floss, I selected a piece of 16ct Doubloon Aida by Picture This Plus and a selection of floss from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

Churn Dash (dark blue)
Blue Sage (light blue)
Western Wall Flower (yellow)
Flower Basket (green)
Faded Barnwood (dark brown)
Primitive Taupe Brown (light brown)

Supplies for Forget Me Not

Started Stitching: January 13, 2017
Finished Stitching: January 22, 2017

Forget Me Not by Blackbird Designs

I decided to frame it with a dark blue frame I bought from Graphix Dimensions, my favorite supplier for frames.

Forget Me Not framed

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Floss

May 4, 2017 By patgeary

I am not sure when I was first introduced to Nancy Turner and her Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe floss, sometime in 2015 I think. Anyway it seems to have become as big an addiction as Blackbird Designs charts. As I accumulate more of her collections and after joining two of her floss clubs, I decided I had better organize this collection so I could find colors when I want to substitute the recommended colors in a project for the VMSS ones.

Each skein of her floss contains 20 yards so there is plenty for large projects. And the colors are luscious.

My DMC floss is organized by the color numbers, my Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts by color names. Since I select the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads by color, I decided to organize them in color groups. Here is my collection as of May 2017.

Browns and Tans Color Group

Shades of Green Color Group

Reds and Blues Color Group

Oranges and Yellows Color Group

Shades of Purple Color Group

I have a large drawer I am going to keep these in. The browns in a box and the rest in zip lock bags for now.

If you subscribe to Nancy’s blog, she has giveaways quite often. You could also join one or all three of her floss clubs. I promise you will not be disappointed in her floss.

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Floss Club

Sunflower Charms by Blackbird Designs

April 26, 2017 By patgeary

Sunflower Charms is another of the older charts from Blackbird Designs and one I had in my collection. It was in my collection, that is, until our new puppy dog decided to eat it. I had left it on the bed as I was going to use it to stitch the sampler for my great-granddaughter. Big mistake!!

Sunflower Charms chart by Blackbird Designs after being destroyed by puppy.

I was lucky as an online stitching friend offered to loan me her chart. I had the perfect piece of fabric called Frothy Toffee by Joni Nolen of Fabtastic Hand Dyed Fabrics on 14ct Aida and instead of the recommended threads, I chose to use Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads – Golden Chestnut, 1880 Pumpkin, Butter Pecan and Parsley.

Materials for stitching Sunflower Charms

I started stitching on April 18, 2017 and finished on April 22, 2017. It really was a quick stitch and I love the way it turned out.

Sunflower Charms finished piece.

Now to select a frame for it and get it in the mail to her.

Sunflower Charms Framed

It’s Spring Fever by Blackbird Designs

April 2, 2017 By patgeary

My favorite designers, Barb Adams and Alma Allen who are the Blackbird Design ladies have released a new series of Loose Feather designs. For the Birds! It’s Spring Fever is the first on the nine charts that will make up this series.

It’s Spring Fever chart by Blackbird Designs.

The cover model is stitched on 36ct PTP Wren but since I cannot stitch on anything that small, I chose 16ct Regency Aida by Picture This Plus. Each of the charts will be stitched on a different color fabric. Each of the designs measures 91 x 91 in stitch count, they finish approx 5 x 5 if you use the recommended fabric. Mine will be slightly larger. Celebrating our fine feathered friends, Spring Fever is stitched with a medley of taupes and soft dusty blues.

I started stitching It’s Spring Fever on March 13, 2017 and finished it on April 1, 2017. I stitched this in memory of my sweet husband who died on February 25, 2017 thus the letter J.

It’s Spring Fever

Keepsake Box & Pincushion

January 25, 2017 By patgeary

This lovely design, Keepsake Box & Pincushion, is another one from the Blackbird Design team. Dated 2008, it was a project from the Shepherd’s Bush Retreat. As with many of the BBD this one is also out of print.

The picture above shows the chart with the recommended threads on the right and the selection I have chosen to use from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Primitive Floss Collection. I am stitching this on 28ct Cream Monaco rather than the called for linen.

Keepsake Box

Started stitching: July 17, 2016
Finished: July 25, 2016

The colors I selected to use are:

Purple Hollyhock
Parsley
Rose Plum
Antique Gold
Peach Dahlia (from the Picket Fence Collection)

Keepsake Pincushion

Started Stitching: July 26, 2016

I selected 28ct Cream Monaco to stitch the pincushion on. I also chose to use the recommended threads which are:

CC Cappuccino
CC Clay Pot
CC Cinnamon Toast
CC Yw Old Gold
CC Pea Pod

UPDATE: January 25, 2017

I sent these to off to Vonna Pfeiffer and her The Twisted Stitcher’s Finishing Service and received these pictures today. Aren’t they beautiful?

I used the Keepsake Box chart to stitch a special gift for two of my step daughters. For these, I chose to use 16ct Aida to stitch them.

The threads I used to stitch the boxes were from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

Purple Hollyhock
Rose Plum
Peach Dahlia
Antique Gold
Parsley

And for the other one.

Concord Grape
Lavender
Rose Hollyhock
Catesby’s Trillium
Toffee
Parsley

Each design was mounted to the top of one of the RECESSED LID, 6″ ROUND NEEDLEWORK BOX by LeHay Shaker Boxes.

LeHay Shaker Box in Green

Keepsake Box Top in Mauve.

Boxes and stitched pieces before assembly.

Keepsake Box Top in Purple.

November 2018

I decided to stitch another one of these as a Christmas gift. This time I used 16ct Ariel by Picture This Plus since the box is blue. I used Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe threads (again) as they are my very favorite floss.

Delft Blue
Forever Blue
Sunflower
In My Garden

Keepsake Box with shades of blue

And this is the finished piece that was a gift to my granddaughter for Christmas.

Keepsake Box stitched in blue

Keepsake Box stitched in blue on LeHay’s Shaker Needlework Box.

Tis the Season Sewing Bag from Blackbird Designs

January 6, 2017 By patgeary

The last offering for the 2016 Ladies Prim Society is another gorgeous piece by Barb and Alma of Blackbird Designs. It is a lovely Christmas Design called Tis the Season Sewing Bag and pictured below.

Tis the Season from Ladies Prim Society and Blackbird Designs

The kit comes complete with 36ct linen for stitching the bag, and a piece for the lining as well as the threads and ribbon for finishing. Since I cannot see well enough to stitch on 36ct, I chose a piece of hand dyed Brown 16ct AIda. This design is a little different in that the front of the bag is stitched vertically and the back of the bag is stitched horizontally. I am also stitching with two strands of floss rather than the one strand that was recommended.

Tis the Season Sewing Bag – front in progress

Tis the Season Sewing Bag – front and back in progress

Tis the Season Sawing Bag from Ladies Prim Society by Blackbird Designs

Started: December 30, 2016
Finished Stitching: January 12, 2017

Tis the Season Sewing Bag front

Tis the Season Sewing Bag back

And the best thing about this one is I did the finishing all by myself!

Moon Garden by Blackbird Designs

December 24, 2016 By patgeary

Moon Garden is one of the early Blackbird Design charts I purchased soon after discovering these designers. While I sorta liked the colors and kitted it up, I could not really get started on it. Then Jane Douglas posted her stitched piece using totally different colors. I LOVED the look of it and decided to use at least some of her colors when stitching mine. Information on both color schemes can be found here.

Moon Garden by Blackbird Designs chart

Since there were no specialty stitches and only the date was over one, I selected 16ct Highland Aida by Picture This Plus as the fabric and threads from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

Moon Garden Fabric, threads and chart

Moon Garden Progress 12.21.2016

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Threads except where noted.

Black Watch Plaid
Iris Leaves
P27
Dried Peaches
Gentle Arts Pineapple Sherbet
Carrie’s Creation Soot

I used Iris Leaves for the alphabet with the exception of my initials, for which I used Black Watch Plaid. For the words Moon Garden, I will be using P27. The birds are stitched with Soot and P27 so they look more like Red Winged Blackbirds. The bird’s eyes were stitched with VM Sunflowers.

Started stitching December 18, 2016
Finished stitching: December 28, 2016

Moon Garden Finished

Moon Garden Bottom

Moon Garden Top

UPDATE DECEMBER 2017: Now that my sister has received her package and unwrapped it, I can show the finished piece. I decided to finish this one as a bellpull.

Moon Garden finished as a bellpull

Join The Floss Club!! And enter a GREAT give-away!!

November 8, 2016 By patgeary

If you are like me and enjoy stitching with (and collecting) Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe floss, the Floss Fairy (Nancy Turner) has started a Floss Club. You can join the Floss Club in two ways:

You can buy 6 skeins a month, 20 yards each and $2.45 each of the Ultimate Collection (*****you will be buying 5 and get one free!) $12.25 plus $2.60 postage. (states only)
Or you can buy 12 skeins in a gift box $26.95 (***** you will be buying 11 and get one free!) plus postage of $2.60.
OR you can receive special limited editions I will dye each month! Same deal…buy 6 and get one free or buy 12 gift boxed and get one free! $2.45 each. I will try to do theme colors if a holiday falls in that month.

You can buy one each month, as often as you would like or sign up for auto, or you can pay for the whole year and get one month free!!!! Email Nancy with your orders. nbelgian@aol.com

Now for the giveaway!! Nancy will give one free month to a lucky winner. 12 skeins boxed! The drawing for the winner will be on December 17th as this will be part of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Head on over to Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe to read all of the details and enter for a chance to win. And you can see the beautiful colors in the ultimate collection pictured below.

Climbing the Trellis: Garden Club Series #7

October 22, 2016 By patgeary

Welcome to our Garden Club! You’re going to love belonging to our little sewing circle….. This month we are delighted to see our pomegranate an our lily popping up out of the ground. We planted them at the bottom of our trellis and are waiting for them to bloom.

This is #7 in a 12 part series by the Blackbird Design Ladies. I am not stitching them in any particular order and will be finishing them as small pillows or pin cushions. Rather than stitch these two as one picture, I am doing them separately.

I’m stitching Climbing the Trellis on 16ct Milk Chocolate Aida from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie with the recommended threads. Started stitching on October 18, 2016,

Finished stitching October 24, 2016.

Climbing the Trellis by Blackbird Designs

November 1, 2021

Because I had not stitched these two side by side, I wondered how I could finish them, sew them together or finish separately. I had two pieces of Blackbird Designs fabric, Rhubarb and Ginger that matched the colors of each one so decided to use them for these two. Some lacey trim and glass beads and I am happy with them. They have been sitting in the drawer for 5 years so now they can join the dough bowl with some others I am working on. The backing fabric is the same as I used on the sides.

How Does the Lily Grow–Garden Club Series #10

October 22, 2016 By patgeary

Welcome to our Garden Club! One of the most pleasant places to be is in the garden, either weeding or watering. We enjoy seeing the new growth appear on the plants, and watching our flowers bloom is an added treat.

This is #10 in a 12 part series by the Blackbird Design Ladies. I am not stitching them in any particular order and will be finishing them as small pillows or pin cushions.

I’m stitching How Does the Lily Grow on 16ct Milk Chocolate Aida from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie with the recommended threads. Started stitching on September 6, 2016 and finished on September 10, 2016.

We have a Stitch-A-Long Facebook group for the BBD Garden Series if you are interested in joining us.

And here it is finished into a small pincushion/pillow with chenille trim.

How Does the Lilly Grow ~ Garden Series #6.