Christmas in the Heartland Finished!

Christmas in the Heartland, design by Cindy Valentine

I finished the Christmas in the Heartland Sampler this past weekend.

Finished, and some other updates

It's nice to get something completed.

Father Christmas,
stitching complete

Father Christmas,
finsihed

Ravenhill Herb Farm Sampler,
finally ironed!

Christmas in the Heartland,
last row of branches

WOO HOO

Countdown until my annual spring stitching retreat!!!!



I am really excited, a weekend away to stitch, no kids! I had a great EGA meeting the other night. We did some finishing, and I brought an old completed piece (Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch, Rose Trellis) and got it all done last night. Then I made some really good progress on the Santa face. A few more days and I'll be back to the Heartland sampler.

Easel Front

Easel Side

Father Christmas Progress

Christmas in the Heartland Sampler Progress

the problem with going through the stash....

I found this old Lorri Birmingham kit I must have picked up somewhere on sale (the tell-tale orange price sticker).  Needing a change of pace for a while I started on it.  I stitched on it a bit last weekend, and then again this weekend (taxes took up my time during the week).  Hopefully I can finish the stitching on it this weekend and then get back to my Cindy Valentine sampler.

Father Christmas

details

Here are the bands that caused me troubles.

Christmas in the Heartland - my problem rows

It took a while to get the one marked with the orange arrow right, so I was happy to get that done.  Then, I noticed something was off as I worked on the one marked with the yellow arrow.  So, I found an issue with the orange row again, so I re-did it, but that wasn't quite right.  After lots of counting, I realized there were three mis-counts in the row marked with the red arrow.  So, I fixed that one, did my center basting line, and then the rest worked out pretty well.  One of these days I'll remember to put that basting line in at the beginning and leave it there!

stitch, un-stitch, repeat

Ahh, the process of getting it right. So much counting, recounting, and groaning.

I have been working on the Christmas in the Heartland sampler now that I have finished the Herb Garden Sampler.  And there was one row I just couldn't seem to get lined up correctly.  Turns out, two rows above I'd made a few mistakes, and that was what caused me troubles in the next two rows.  I was so frustrated with it, I didn't work on it for a while, but when I finally got it straightened out, ran a basting line down the center, the rest got easier.  I am almost to the bottom of the tree now.  This has been so much fun to do, I might think about doing it again in a while!

Christmas in the Heartland

I went through my stash a bit tonight looking for an old magazine that contained a pattern for an ornament I thought I'd like to make again.  But, I was unable to find it.  I did find a treasure trove of things I forgot I'd had, and an equally large trove of things I wonder why I even bought!  At least I have a good set of things to get started on, and keep me out of trouble!