It's time for St. Charles!!!

Despite my best blogging intentions, it seems that another couple of months have slipped away without a single post from me.  I think about blogging.  I even take photos to use for a post.  But then the post never happens, and I'm not even sure why.

At any rate, I'm here today, and I wanted to share SOME of what I've been working on these past few months.  It's almost time for the St Charles needlework market, and I have 4 new pieces that will be available at the show.  I'll share two today, and the other two in a day or two.

First up is my newest reproduction sampler, Antonia de Cruzba.  This one is a Spanish sampler I picked up at a local antiques fair for a good price.  It is very faded on the front, but you can see from the back that there were a couple of shades of pink in the sampler that are absolutely undetectable from the front.  Here's the orginal sampler:

And here's what it looks like once you add those pinks and use a clean piece of linen:

The model is stitched on 40 count Parchment linen from Weeks Dye Works using silk threads from NPI and Rainbow Gallery.  It is almost a perfect square, but not quite.  If you stitch it on 40 count, it is almost exactly the same size as the original sampler.  Although it is A LOT of stitching, the only types of stitches used are cross stitch and satin stitch.

This second piece is a Christmas ornament.  I actually designed it last year, and debated on what to do with it.  Well, here it is, all cleaned up and available as a chart:

It can be VERY difficult to capture the true color of a stitched piece when you are photographing it, and that is certainly the case with this piece.  The ornament is on a lovely piece of 35 count Guacomole linen from Weeks Dye Works, and you don't quite see that pretty green in this picture.  The stitching is all done with Weeks Dye Works overdyed cottons.

If you like what you see, please ask your LNS to order the patterns for you!  All of my designs are under the name "Threads of Memory," but they can be found in the Cherished Stitches room at the market, or, if your shop isn't going to market, they can be ordered through Cherished Stitches: lucystitch@earthlink.net .  If you have any questions about my designs, feel free to leave me a comment, or email me at robin@threadsofmemory.com .

Next time, I will share my Halloween design and a limited edition kit for a small pin pillow.  Til then, stay crafty my friends!