Sunday, July 17, 2016

Cross Stitch and Lavender


Hi there cloud friends! I hope your Sunday is as pretty as mine.  It is sunny and probably about 78, I call that close to perfect weather. I have done lots of stitching to share with you today.  We went to the Sequim Lavender Festival on Fri. and I  have photos from that to share too. Let's get started.

 I am ready for the border on the Ghoultide Welcome. Here is what I am thinking,  to make it more like a sampler, I want to add the alphabet at the bottom.  That would not take up as much space as the charted "A Ghoultide Welcome"  so I would have to end the border at the two sides.  I have seen that done on other pieces.  I could then do just a simple line or zig-zag border on the bottom.  We (the engineer DH and I)  just can't make the border work with the alphabet design.  What do you think? I would love to know.

 I love this pile of pumpkins.  I could add a few of these to the alphabet line.
 
 The finished Fancy Blackett design by Pineberry Lane.  The chart is called Fancy Blackett Tea for Two.  I used the recommended floss.  This is for my DD as we often have coffee together.  I am pretending it is coffee not tea. The big letters were a snap as the B was charted.  I just took of the middle, flipped it over, and got an L for Laurie.  Now the letters stand for Barb and Laurie! Sorry Fancy and Otis!

 I love the design Cinnamon Stars by Plum Street.  I had started this one last Fall right after my accident.  I was not enjoying it at that time.  Now I really like it.  I just wish I had not chosen such a white linen.  I am thinking I might dye it when I'm finished.  However, it might change the colors of the floss too much.  I need your opinion again!

 The festival was a pleasure in both scent and vision.  Just beautiful!



I love the drift wood bird house.  Maybe I'll get more drift wood on my next beach walk and try one of these.

They were distilling lavender oil and this was the pile. It smelled divine!

Thanks so much for joining me today and have a wonderful week!

23 comments:

  1. Lovely stitching, Barb, and how clever were you with Fancey Blackett Tea for Two? Very clever. Re your two questions. 1. Yes, add the alphabet and I like the idea of the two side borders only. 2. Don't dye it, you risk changing the floss colour, I think. Thanks for sharing the Lavender farm pics. I love the look of lavender but, unfortunately, I am allergic so I tend to avoid Lavender farms. This way I got the best of both worlds - lovely pics to look at but no scent. thank you.

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  2. I am with Kay--seriously allergic to lavender, so I did enjoy the benefits of seeing the farm without my health suffering--yay! As for the border idea, sounds good... Maybe if you want to, you can insert Larger sized letters for your name, which might fill in the needed spacing. And as for Cinnamon Stars--I was just working on mine the past few days!! I am doing it on a light color, and I like it. I don't know about dyeing it... But a friend recently 'inherited' some older stitched pieces, one of which is stained from washing non-colorfast threads (was a kit), and we are thinking of giving it a tea dye and see what happens. I can let you know how that goes... Hugs!

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  3. Use a paint brush to paint on the dye on the exposed fabric

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  4. I absolutely love lavender - have a couple of bushes and even harvested some lavender flowers this year! blessings, marlene

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  5. Love Fancey Blackett... that cup is wonderful! Great personalization too! As for Ghoultide Welcome, I'd put an alphabet in and add little pumpkins or some other small motif to take up whatever space is left. I replaced the phrase "Feast of Friendship" with an alphabet on the BBD piece of the same name. Doesn't have to be perfect, in fact I think a bit of irregularity adds to the charm of these pieces...happy stitching!

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  6. I'd wait on the linen color until the design was finished. But my understanding is that coffee staining the linen does not impact the floss colors. Good luck!

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  7. Your embroidery as always - lovely!
    Thank you for sharing the beauty of lavender! I just finished cross stitch lavender sachet.
    Pa!

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  8. Great progress on Ghoultide.
    An alphabet sounds nice.
    I think you could still dye Cinnamon Stars.
    That birdhouse is too cute, and what a pretty filed of Lavender.
    Marilyn

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  9. You have been busy stitching a lot!! Beautiful progress! Thanks for sharing the lavender farm pics:)
    Whatever you stitch on the border will look good, any motif that you like. I have never worked on dyed fabric so I find any stitching piece beautiful on white.

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  10. LOVE lavender. The most relaxing scent for bathing. You could always put a (tested) solution of Tan in a spray bottle with a fine mist and try that. Or make your dye bath, test the DMC colors you used in the design first. Then you'll have an idea how they will change. I know yellow does! If moving the bottom border up two flowers to shorten it doesn't leave enough room for the alpha, could you add a row of crows and pumpkins with more lawn to fill the excess?

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  11. Barb Blackett and Laurie! Cute design too. I've been meaning to buy all the other Fancey B designs too but keep forgetting. I looked at my Ghoultide chart and I think you have an idea there. Leave off the bottom border, take out that white in the grass, chart in your alphabet in white or whatever light color shows through, and fill up around the letters with the green/grass. Make the bottom border your grass. Bring your side borders down to where your grass ends. I can take Lavender in small doses, like a sniff of it in the wind but concentrated in candles, soap...nope! They are pretty flowers though.

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  12. What a pretty post. Try making that driftwood birdhouse!!

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  13. I say add the pumpkins and the alphabet! I'm excited to see it finished. You have the best taste in patterns!

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  14. I love lavender, I had a lovely hedge of it at the old house but only a pot here.
    I'd try tea-dyeing the fabric, that would be less harsh than chemical dyes.
    I always use a pencil and paper to chart things out, plain paper first and then graph paper.

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  15. I just love ALL the stitchings!! I can't chime in on what to do since I am no where near knowing what I am talking about, its all just so lovely to me! And the lavender! I bet it smelled just so heavenly! Nothing like lavender to calm the senses. We are heading into a heat wave - our national weather people have issued a warning about it already and it hasn't even started. I think this one will be rather bad. Yuck. I hate it when it gets like this. Send us some of your perfect weather! :) Have a beautiful week!

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  16. Hi Barb! I love, love, love all of your fall stitching. I have most of these in my stash and I just need to get stitching!
    The lavender looks amazing! We visited a lavender farm in Michigan a few weeks ago... heaven!
    I hope that you are having a wonderful summer :)

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  17. I love seeing fields of lavender! I have a dream of planting rows of it out on the railroad land behind my house, lol! Glad you had such a nice time in Sequim. :)

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  18. I love your idea for your sampler, Barb--prefer it to the wording, actually! And your Fancy finish is just adorable--your daughter will love it. Is she as crazy about Halloween as her mom?

    Lovely lavender! We have a very small patch in our garden and each year I have the best of intentions to cut and dry it, but, I rarely remember until it has passed its prime...

    Hope your July is going well and your weather isn't too hot!

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  19. well.. I have been enabled .. Thank goodness I have already stitched Cinnamon Stars! Love the lavendar photos Barb!

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  20. Beautiful stitching.I have never dyed any fabric without cross stitches already sewn on it,so I cannot offer any useful advice.
    Lovely Lavender photos,I love the scent and varied purple hues.

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  21. Oh my goodness - this will be my third try at leaving a comment. Hopefully they don't all eventually show up. : ) I love your idea for finishing Ghoultide Welcome and even though I like the fabric for Cinnamon Stars I think Marly has a good idea for changing the color. So much lovely stitching in this post! And I would love a visit to a Lavender festival - I'm sure it was heavenly. And could you please send some of your wonderful weather my way? : )

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  22. Lovely stitching and heavenly lavender...I am so happy that I stopped by from visiting Octoberfarm~

    Jan

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