New Bag with Vintage Embroidery

I've made a new purse to add to my collection, maybe I should start calling this blog the Bag Blog!  But I love having lots of purses and bags to use.  The pattern for this pot of flowers design is from a new book I got recently and I love, love, love this book!

It's by Nori Koenig and you can find it at Amazon.  It's full of beautiful old floral designs with a pattern for each one of them.  The book shows a photograph of each original antique piece so you can see the colors that were used to embroider them.  Then in the back of the book there are black line patterns for you to trace and transfer to your fabric.  I counted 53 of them!  If you have any interest in doing vintage embroidery I believe you would love this book, too.  I'm sorry if I sound like a commercial, but when I find something that I really love, I just have to tell you about it!  Here's a closer picture of the one I chose for my bag.

I used all DMC floss, plain black and DMC variegated colors for the rest of it.  I wanted to use thread colors that would have been available at the time these were first embroidered.  It was such fun to stitch!  Here's the back of the bag:

This is a double pocket panel with patches of rose fabric for decoration.  There are also small side panel pockets of the same rose fabric for cell phone, etc.  I got this fabric and the wooden rose buttons on the front from Anita.  I've got another order coming from her soon with new stuff from Nashville and I can hardly wait!  I've also been working on some cross stitch, a Shakespeare's Peddler design called Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler.

It's charted for Gentle Art threads but I was in the mood for silk so I changed it over to Belle Soie and Gloriana silk floss.   It's only about halfway done, I'm anxious to get down towards the bottom where there is a nice Adam and Eve scene.  I just love Theresa's designs, don't you?  And now I have a question for all of you nice blogging people;  have you been having any difficulty with leaving comments on other people's blogs lately?  On just a few blogs, when I try to leave a comment, the comment box will come up, but for just a second and then it disappears.  No matter how many times I click on it to bring it back, it just goes away again before I have time to add a comment.  Sometimes the blog itself will only show up briefly and then it goes blank and stays that way.  It's very frustrating, and I've been wondering if it's happening to anyone else?  So, if I had been in the habit of commenting on your blog, but haven't recently, please know that this is why and not that I don't find your posts just as lovely and interesting as always!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog again and thank you for each wonderful and thoughtful comment that you left for my last post!  I'm going to leave you with a picture of my latest tattoo, just a small one this time.

 This bee represents my husband, Tom.  I wanted to get it because we have always been in the habit of calling each other "Bee", you know, like in "honeybee."  So now I think of him whenever I see the bee on my arm. 
Thanks again for visiting!

Old Mill Embroidery

Here's what's been keeping me busy the last few weeks, I've really enjoyed stitching this!   I'm always thrilled to find a vintage pattern like this one.  I love the old country scenes more than anything.  I found it on one of the Flickr embroidery groups, can't remember which one, though.  I used a lot of Gentle Arts and Valdani threads plus a few odds and ends I had laying around.

This is a slightly closer view, do you see the nest with the baby birds in the tree?  They have their little beaks open waiting for Mama Bird to come back with a worm.  If anyone would like a copy of this pattern, let me know and I will email it to you.  Now, for a bit of cross stitch:

You can find this free chart from Lori at Notforgotten Farm.  She provided a DMC color code but I decided to use Carrie's and Dinky Dye's silk in just four colors.  Thanks, Lori, I've always loved your designs!

The lovely red that fills the house is Carrie's Quaker Red.  Some time ago, Anita slipped a skein of this into one of my orders from her as a free gift and now I've put it to good use.  Thank you, Anita!  

Thank you for visiting once again and thanks also for the sweet friendly comments you left on my last post.  I always enjoy every one of them!

Peppermint Ornament

Merry Christmas, everyone, I hope you are having a good one!  I don't have any of my own projects to show you today, but I wanted to show you a beautiful little ornament that found its way to our mailbox all the way from Spain.

It was made and sent to me by Margaret as a sweet thank you for my sending her an embroidery pattern.  It's perfectly stitched and beautifully finished and I absolutely love it!  It completely made my day finding that little unexpected package when I went out to check the mailbox, thank you, Margaret, I will treasure it always!

We had our Christmas celebration yesterday, it was the best day for everyone to get together.  Here's our daughter Jessie and her husband Joe having a bite to eat.  I wanted to show how Joe is no longer in his wheelchair all the time, he's mostly using crutches to get around.  It's been a long recovery since his accident last summer, I want to say thank you again for your good vibes and prayers, I truly believe they have helped.

I will end this post with a couple of kitty pictures:

Cricket, helping me make up the bed a few mornings ago.

Harley, doing his silly, flipping upside down flirtiness.  He's adorable and he knows it!

Thank you for the comments left on my last post.  I appreciate the compliments on my stitching and my new tattoo.   It was mentioned that it must have taken a while to get it done, it did take 3 hours; it is fairly intricate, but it was worth it, and I'm really enjoying having it.  I seem to have been bitten by the tattoo bug, I have more planned and can hardly wait to get them, I will show them to you when I do!  Thanks again for taking the time to look at my blog!

A Harvest of Blessings

 

Hello everyone, I'm glad I finally have something done to show you!  This is a Brightneedle design from the 2002 Keepsake Cross Stitch Calendar.  I used my own selection of Gentle Art Sampler threads and finished it up like a giant pinkeep for hanging on the wall.  Here it is in our kitchen.  I changed the  little dog figure at the top to a cat, not that I don't like dogs, but it just seems more appropriate in a house full of cats.

Brown ric-rack finishes off the edges.

I also did an embroidery for another wall hanging, this one will go in my sewing room.  It was a free design that was shown done all in variegated pink but I decided I wanted to do it in different colors.  You can find this lovely free design at the wonderful blog We Love French Knots.  Click on free patterns, then scroll until you get to the August 29, 2011 post where there is a feature on the artist Verna Mosquera of The Vintage Spool.  At the bottom of that post there is a link for downloading the pattern.

Do you remember in my last post where I had shown a picture of a morning glory growing in our house and mentioned that I was thinking of getting a morning glory tattoo?  Well, about a week and a half ago I went to Lakeview Tattoo and here is the result.

It's not the best picture, I had to take it in the bathroom mirror, which isn't very easy to do, it was hard to hold the camera still with one hand, but you can get an idea of how it looks.  It was done by Erik, the artist who also did my cat tattoo last summer.  I love morning glories and I think he did a great job on it.  Thank you for all the very kind comments on my last post, it's always so nice to hear from you and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!