Thursday, December 26, 2019

My Eyelet Christmas Miracle

Sarah's House
Blackbird Designs

Ahh December 26, one of my favorite days of the year.  I love Christmas: the decorations, music, special foods and even some of the hustle and bustle.  I do not love the commercialism and the self imposed stress.  My goal is to finish Sarah's house in 2019--not many days left.  


Sarah's House was designed by the Blackbird Girls (Barb and Alma) in 2012--it was the second in a series of their Loose Feather designs.  The design was inspired by an antique sampler in their collection.  Alma wrote this about Sarah's House:
The alphabet potion was left unfinished.  Maybe Sarah realized too late that there wasn't enough space to stitch all of her letters.  We added another row of the alphabet to the reproduction but we found as did Sarah, there really wasn't enough space for the entire alphabet.

Barb and Alma included photographs of the original (antique) sampler and the original was stitched with eyelets.  I thought the eyelets added so much visual interest to the sampler I would stitch my Sarah with eyelets.  With all due respect Barb and Alma, spacing might have been some of the reason Sarah did not complete her alphabet but after stitching these eyelets, I think they challenged Sarah's stitching sanity.  They certainly challenged mine.  Let me just say reverse stitching eyelet stitches is not one of my favorite things.  The letter I will be completed after I replace the floss color, I ran out.

Sunday Social 2007
Threads that Bind--Shawn Williams

To give my brain a rest from the eyelets, I started needle punching Sunday Social.  Yes, like most of my projects, it has been in my stash for several years.  Thank goodness it was not dry rotted.  It is a fun whimsical design and will share space with my other sheep in the spring.  


To finish stitching Sarah, I've got to replace NPI silks 696 and 294 and to finish Sunday Social I've got to replace Gentle Arts Evergreen and Corn Husk.  While waiting for Nashville Needleworks to reopen from Christmas holidays, I will play in my stash and decide on my New Year's Day start--it's going to be a sampler.  

3 comments:

  1. Barb and Alma have a gift for designing, I love working the eyelet stitch, it adds such a beautiful element.
    I have only done one thing in punch needle maybe I need to get going again.
    I am so sad in October when I see Christmas stuff come out even before Halloween is over, its all about money for many business's, so sad.

    Merry Christmas
    Catherine

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  2. Looking good. Hope you finish in time. Janice

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  3. Sarah is so pretty. I [plan to do a lot of samplers this year so Sarah just might be among them. The eyelet stitch is not my favorite but it can be a good addition to an alphabet. It's better than the queen stitch which I have never tried! Getting supplies to try punch needle.

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