patgeary

Blackbird Design Christmas News

November 9, 2015 By patgeary

The ladies from Blackbird Designs will be including the popular Out of Print chart Blessings Be Thine in their Christmas book. Sorry, no additional details available at this time but I will post them when I hear.

Also Joyeux Noel will be reprinted before the end of the year. This will be the third printing for this beautiful book which includes 16 designs for the Christmas seasons. Includes sewing boxes, pincushions, samplers and ornaments. 40 pages.

One of the most popular ones from the above book is Tis the Season pictured below. The one shown below is stitched on a darker fabric than is shown in the book but is stunning!.

Stitched by Anka Julia on 32ct. Picture This Plus Haunted Linen

Robin’s Song by Little House Needleworks

November 3, 2015 By patgeary

I ordered Robin’s Song by Little House Needleworks some time ago. I’ve had it kitted up with fabric and floss ready to stitch. Then I discovered Blackbird Designs and lots of projects went into the “to do someday pile.” Because I am having trouble with my eyes, I decided to dig out some of the ones I really wanted to stitch and work on them while I can still see well enough to do so.

I’m stitching it on a piece of 16ct Toasted Almond from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie using Gentle Arts Sampler Thread and Classic Colorworks floss. Started stitching October 29, 2015

Design Size: 189w x 93h
Finished Size: 11 3/4 x 5 3 1/4

Floss Used: (DMC Alternates given)

GAST Brandy
GAST Old Red Paint
CC La Tierra
CC Tufted Yellow
CC Mossy
CC Roasted Chestnut
CC English Ivy
CC Straw Hat
CC Caterpillar

Finished Stitching: December 6 2015

Robin’s Song by Little House Needleworks

Casting a Spell Sampler

October 8, 2015 By patgeary

Casting a Spell us one of the newer booklet of charts from Blackbird Designs. It is meant to be stitched as a sewing box with two extra pincushions. The model was stitched on 30ct Confederate Gray by Weeks Dye Works with Gentle Art Sampler threads (or DMC 839, 3371, 3826, 829).

I am not real fond of finishing off little pillows or even of Halloween but I had seen the piece stitched as on all-in-one sampler by Carla Coburn on the Fans of Blackbird Designs Facebook Group. I liked the idea! I selected a piece of 16ct Chocolate Milk Aida from Hand-dyed Fabrics by Stephanie and used an assortment of threads – DMC and Gentle Arts Sampler threads.

You can read more about stitching Casting a Spell Sampler by Blackbird Designs on my website.

Forgot to note when I started stitching but somewhere around August 15 or 16 but finished stitching: October 2, 2015. Now to wait for a frame sale.

October 2020: After five years of sitting in the “to be finished someday” drawer, I finally ordered some fabric to finish Casting a Spell as a wall hanging. Fabric is Moda Fabric ~ Trick or Treat Smell My Feet by Sandy Gervais.

Casting a Spell and fabric. — Casting a Spell and fabric

And I finally finished assembling the stitched piece as a wall hanging as well as painting the dowel rod and ends black and hanging it on the front door.

Casting a Spell finished as a wall hanging.

Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs

October 8, 2015 By patgeary

Loose Feathers pattern #19, Quaker Garden is another very sought after chart that has been out of print for quite some time. While I kept seeing pictures of the finished piece, somehow I really did not yearn to stitch this. But as I kept looking I decided yes I would. I had a chance to buy the chart, floss, and fabric at a very reasonable price so did. I now have two of this chart, one out on loan, one I am using. The second one will go out on loan as soon as I finish.

I don’t stitch on linen so selected 16ct Wren Aida by Picture This Plus. The only specialty stitches are Smyrna crosses that work well on this fabric.

Started stitching October 6, 2015.

Progress October 23, 2015 – had to do some frogging last.

Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs

Finished but not yet framed.

Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs

Framed and ready to hang.

Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs – Framed

New Releases from Blackbird Designs

September 29, 2015 By patgeary

Patchwork Pumpkin and Bittersweet September were originally released as part of the Ladies Prim Society Club. They are being released as Reward of Merit patterns.

If you missed out on these from the Ladies Prim Society, call and reserve yours soon….limited release. GO TO DYEING TO STITCH. NOW! You can give them a call at 757-366-8740.

Patchwork Pumpkin was originally released as Bittersweet Lane and was the Ladies Prim Society release for 2014.

Bittersweet September was the Ladies Prim Society Release for 2013.

What is the Ladies Prim Society you ask? The Ladies Prim Society is an exclusive club through Dyeing To Stitch, featuring Blackbird Designs and Heartstrings Samplery. Every 8-10 weeks you will receive a complete kit including any finishing supplies needed. The kits to are priced between $35 and $40. Membership is closed for the 2015 calendar year BUT you can read more about the Ladies Prim Society and Dyeing to Stitch.

The third pattern being released is the start of a new series, the Garden Club.

In the next 12 months, our Garden Club series will reflect a cherished aspect of gardening. It might be a lovely basket of flowers, bees buzzing from flower to flower, or, like this month, an abundant harvest of cherries. In any case, you won’t have to worry about getting your hands dirty!

On the back cover, you will find our Basket of Cherries made up as a pincushion. But if you’d rather, you can wait and stitch all 12 projects into one large sampler.

One pattern will be released each month for a year. The picture above shows the front and back cover of the first pattern. All 12 pieces are stitched on 32ct. Weeks Dye Works linen. Each pattern uses a different color of linen. Basket of Cherries was stitched on 32ct. Cocoa. Each piece in the series is a 4" square. On the back of the pattern cover you can note the first three samplers of the series sewn together.

My plan is to stitch them all together as one piece. Two previous pieces offered in this manner (stitched on different fabrics then sewn together) were the Mystery Sampler (out of print) and Flea Market Souvenir (out of print).

You can read the full article with even more pictures on Barb and Alma’s blog, Blackbird Designs One Stitch at a Time.

Unraveling the Secrets of the Pull Skein

September 29, 2015 By patgeary

If you have ever wondered why your embroidery floss pull skeins end up in a knotted mess? Here are some tips for pulling the right end of the floss brought to you by Mary Corbet.

All this talk about embroidery floss organization lately has raised some good questions from fellow stitchers, from newbies and experienced alike.

One recurring question has to do with the embroidery floss pull skein, and how to pull thread successfully from the pull skein without having to wrestle a knotted clump of embroidery floss to the ground to subdue it.

Read Unraveling the Secrets of the Pull Skein

Olga’s Tart by Plum Street Samplers

September 6, 2015 By patgeary

A few days ago, someone posted on the 123Stitch Message Board about a giveaway on the blog To Stitch or Not To Stitch. I wandered over to see what it was all about. I don’t usually enter a giveaway unless it is for something I really want to stitch. I read some of Barbara’s posts and the chart she was giving away was Olga’s Tart by Plum Street Samplers. I’ve looked at some of the projects that were framed by using a tart tin and have wanted to stitch one of them but never got around to ordering the chart or the tart tin to go with it.

What a wonderful surprise to get an email from Barbara telling me I had won and she would be sending me the chart and the tin and the DMC floss to stitch it. It needs to be stitched on either 36ct over 2 or 16ct over 1 in order to fit in the tin. I will be using 16ct as that is easier on my eyes.

I’ve looked at some of the other charts in this series, Jack’s Sweet Shop and I think I will be ordering a couple more of these. Thank you Barbara. Please visit her blog, To Stitch or Not To Stitch.

Olga’s Tart stitched on 18ct Davos

Stitching Finished but still need to be finished as a tart.

Olga’s Tart by Plum Street Samplers

With Needle and Thread by Blackbird Designs

August 31, 2015 By patgeary

This Blackbird Designs cross stitch book is chock full of projects – there are eleven in all! Designs include everything from the alphabet to birds to floral motifs. Projects range from pillows to wall hangings to sewing boxes!

The book includes charts and instructions for all 11 projects and is 48 pages. The book finishes with a conversion chart and source list. And, of course, the book is now Out of Print and much sought after. A stitching friend offered to loan me the book so I took her up on it.

I picked three of the projects from the book that I wanted to stitch – My Quaker House,My Pink House, and, Let Heaven and Nature Sing.

All of them called for Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts Sampler Treads overdyed floss so I order the colors I needed to stitch all three projects.

My Quaker House

I decided to stitch My Quaker House on 18ct antique while Aida since it only had regular x’s and Smyrna crosses. I started stitching on August 20, 2015 and took the final stitches on August 31, 2015. Such soft, pretty colors. Here is the finished piece.

Framed Sept 18 2015

My Quaker House by Blackbird Designs framed

Let Heaven and Nature Sing

Let Heaven and Nature Sing is another of the designs from With Needle and Thread. I selected 16ct Aida to stitch it on as it is easier for me to see. Recommended threads are Gentle Arts Sampler threads and Weeks Dye Works. Started stitching this one on September 10, 2015.

Fabric and floss for Let Heaven and Nature Sing

And the finished piece.

Let Heaven and Nature by Blackbird Designs

April 24, 2022 – After sitting in the drawer for 6 1/2 years, it is finally framed and will join the others on my Christmas wall in the Craft Room.

Bittersweet September Ladies Prim Society

August 14, 2015 By patgeary

Bittersweet September by Blackbird Designs was one of the Ladies Prim Society patterns for 2013. After stitching Bittersweet Lane I wanted to stitch Bittersweet September as a companion piece. Not being a member of the Ladies Prim Society, my only hope was to find someone who was willing to sell theirs at a reasonable price or loan me the chart. Luckily, I was able to find another stitcher willing to loan me the chart.

Never heard of the Ladies Prim Society? It is an exclusive club through Dyeing To Stitch, featuring Blackbird Designs and Heartstrings Samplery. Every 8-10 weeks they send a complete kit including any finishing supplies needed to the members of the group. The kits usually cost between $35 and $40 and are NOT available except through the club. However you can find them listed on EBay, usually for a pretty steep price.

I chose to use 28ct antique white Monaco along with the recommended Gentle Arts Sampler threads to stitch this piece. I had to enlarge parts of the chart because the alphabet was stitched with 1 thread over 1 small square. It also called for satin stitches along the too border.

Started this project on August 3, 2015.

Progress on August 11, 2015

Progress on August 14, 2015

Next year I may just have to join the Ladies Prim Society although I don’t stitch on linen and I usually frame my pieces rather than finish them as small pillows. Almost finished one.

Bittersweet September Finished

Now to frame the two Ladies Prim Society pieces.

Finished and Framed

Bittersweet September by Blackbird Designs

Bittersweet Lane – Ladies Prim Society

July 4, 2015 By patgeary

Bittersweet Lane by Blackbird Designs was one of the Ladies Prim Society patterns for 2014. Never heard of the Ladies Prim Society? It is an exclusive club through Dyeing To Stitch, featuring Blackbird Designs and Heartstrings Samplery. Every 8-10 weeks they send a complete kit including any finishing supplies needed to the members of the group. The kits usually cost between $35 and $40 and are NOT available except through the club. However you can find them listed on EBay, usually for a pretty steep price. I was lucky enough to find another stitcher who was willing to sell one of the kits for what he paid for it. I jumped at the chance.

Two of the kits I had seen and wanted to get at least the charts for were Bittersweet Lane and Bittersweet September. Bittersweet Lane is pictured below with all of the supplies that came with it which include the linen for stitching it on, the required floss, backing fabric and trim to finish it off as a pin keep or small pillow.

I don’t like stitching on linen and I wanted to frame the finished piece rather than make a pillow out of it. Since the chart includes full cross stitches and Smyrna crosses, I decided to use a hand dyed 16ct Aida Heritage from Picture This Plus. Below are my supplies for stitching this piece.