Friday, October 05, 2007

On a Betsy Stinner binge!!!!


Here is a pic of my latest finish - this is the Martha Washington sampler that Betsy Stinner taught at Celebrations in New Hampshire last spring. Her pieces are so lovely - I think it took me about three days to do the bulk of the sampler; but then two calamities hit - I ran out of the dark blue thread (Soie d'alger - which is a royal pain to find and purchase) and then I encountered the dreaded Bullion knots. I did finally receive the thread I ordered and I found a fabulous website with video tutorials of many stitches. The website is here: http://www.needlenthread.com/. Now this is not to say my Bullion knots look good - but I can see improvements from when I started.

I also did the preface piece for this one:

I also finished up the Eliza Pinckney piece that I started last fall. By coincidence, I ran out of dark blue thread on that piece also, and had to purchase more. This is how it looks:

And the preface piece for this one is lovely:



I think these preface pieces would make charming biscornus; but for now they are going into my drawer of completed stitching.

I have also finished Just Nan's Peacock Cipher - I will photograph it next time.


I am working on a piece for my Spot RR. Then I will need to work on the next Neighborhood RR piece. The next Neighborhood RR has a theme of English cottages - so I will need to go stash diving to find something suitable - I love doing that, except that I'm sure I'll uncover at least a dozen projects that I simply must stitch next!!!!

Last week I started Indigo Rose's Monogram Sampler - it is from a class I took with Carol (http://www.carolsxsblog.blogspot.com/) last spring. I will need to get DH to photograph that one, so the shite on white stiching will show up.

Until next time, happy stitching, Margaret

3 comments:

Jenn said...

Your finishs looks great Margaret. I love the colors. Very Pretty

Carol said...

What beauties! Congratulations Margaret! I feel so guilty that I have not stitched my class pieces yet :-( I do hope you got my emails thanking you for the birthday gift. I did not hear back from you, but figured you were just busy.

Von said...

These BS designs are amazing, Margaret! The preface pieces would make great biscornus. :D

Bullion knots are very fiddly to do, but I think they're one of the most gorgeous stitches - I absolutely adore bullion knot roses. One smocking project I did had 52 bullion roses - deliberately chosen so that I would improve my skill, lol! It worked and when I finished, some of those first roses were redone. :)