On Pins and Needles

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weekend.  I know I have.  Saturday, I headed to Greensboro to meet up with my mom and some other fellow stitchers.  I got to see several friends, and make a few new ones (and even put a face and personality to at least one person whose blog I follow!).  We took a tour of Blandwood Mansion.  I haven't been there since I was in my early teens and participated in a historic cotillion class (I don't know what else to call it, we dressed in period clothes and had our 'debut' after several weeks in dance and history lessons).  It was an interesting tour.  Afterwards, we had a tasty lunch at a local cafe.  Several of the ladies headed over to the Greensboro Historical Museum, but Mom and I were a little tired and needed to refrigerate some leftovers, so we headed back to her house.

What followed was a 4 or 5 hour session in pinning.  No, not Pinterest, pinning samplers to boards so that they could be framed.  Apparently, it was time for me to put on my big girl shoes and contribute to framing my own pieces.  I am by no means perfect at centering my finished stitching, but I don't think I'm hopeless either.  I was able to completely finish 2 designs, Mom did one for me, and I finished one more that will have to be redone because it was too tight to fit into its little frame after I finished (not my fault, though, so it's okay).  How exciting to finally have some of these pieces going into frames!

I started small, of course.  A few months ago, I posted a photo of my long overdue Sarah Johnson finish.  Here she is now all framed up:

She's resting on the mantel right now, but she's destined to hang in the kitchen before too long.  I've never shared either of the next two pieces.  Mostly because I didn't have a blog way back in those days.  Yep, that's how old they are!  I stitched Salem Sisters by PlumStreet Designs back when the pattern first came out,  2006, I believe.  Mom pinned this one for me, since it didn't have a nice border to help me match up the edges:

And finally, we have Mary Ann Henderson.  I finished her in 2005.  I can't remember whose reproduction this is, maybe Scarlet Letter?  I'm just not sure.  Anyway, here she is:

Very simple and elegant, yes?  I think this one is headed for the dining room wall.

There are still quite a few frames and boards waiting from this first round of finishing.  But I ran out of time yesterday, and Mom didn't want me to take her box of pins home because she has to pin and frame a couple of pieces for another stitcher. (ahem, you are welcome, Chris)  I hope to have several more framed pieces to share sometime in the next two weeks.  Of course, what's left to frame are all large pieces: Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, Sarah Hatton McPhail, and Elisabeth Ramsay.  Somehow, I suspect I won't be pinning all three of those in one night!  Jenni Bean Halloween, Spot the Cat, and a miniature sampler are also in the pile.  Hopefully, the edges of my fingers won't get too sore and I'll get them all done soon!

Meanwhile, I'm back to working on Soleil as of this afternoon.  I'll stick with her for the rest of the week and probably move on to my giraffe sampler at the end of the week.  Til next time, I hope everyone stays safe and cool!