New Projects

After the two completions last week, I needed to find one new project and one UFO to finish.

The new one was easy.  One of our nephews is going to be married in September.  I am making a wedding sampler.  His mother, my husband's sister, suggested using light peach in the sampler.
The most recent issue of Just Cross Stitch had arrived a day or two before we found out about the wedding.  I was captivated by the My Heart Wedding Sampler designed by Karen Kluba of Rosewood Manner. 

Above the picture of the sampler is some light peach linen that I found in my stash.  Does it get any better than this?

Since the threads were selected for antique white linen, I had to substitute them out.  With the help of one of the needlepoint experts at Three Kittens, it turned out to be fairly easy. 

Below is a picture of the threads on the linen.

Now for the UFO.  That was a little more difficult because there are so many from which to choose.  The one that I finally chose was not even on my radar.  It's finish is long overdue.

It is First Stitches from Just Nan.  I had finished Last Stitches but First Stitches was languishing. 

First of all, I changed the wording from My Last Stitches of the 20th Century to Last Stitches of 1999.  That necessitated changing the wording of First Stitches from My First Stitches of the 21st Century to First Stitches of 2000.  The original wording is not correct because 2000 is really the last year of the 20th Century.  My wording is correct. 

With that change of wording, I ended up with a shorter sampler for Last Stitches.  I added a band to take up the space and ended up changing out a couple of the other bands.  I also substituted Meadow Waterlilies by Caron Collection for some of the green and Parfait Waterelilies by Caron Collection for some of the blue in Last Stitches.  I think that I need to show you a picture of the originally designed Last Stitches and my version. 

I have the same issue with First Stitches and had a difficult time finding suitable stitches to make up a band to absorb the additional space.  I had decided to substitute Grape Melange by Thread Gatherer for some of the purples.  I am not certain if I decided  to substitute Meadow for some of the green but I think that I will find a good place to add it.  Because I had so much trouble finding the specialty stitches, I put it all away and forgot about it.  It has now been so long that I have forgotten any previous substitutions and/or changes I might have decided upon.  It feels like I am starting over with a new project with the exception that I have stitched the top of the sampler. 

The band at the bottom of what I have stitched is not what was originally designed.  It was a bargello-ish satin stitch in dark periwinkle and reddish orchid.  My version is two rows of herringbone stitch in Grape Melange each overlaid by a row of herringbone stitch in off white pearl cotton but I think it might be creme silk pearl.  I need to search out whether or not I have some silk pearl that might be correct tucked away with my other silks and separately from the silks I had selected for both designs. 

I made many substitutions in Last Stitches, the final stitches of which were done on 31 December 1999.  I began making substitutions in First Stitches, the first of which were done on 1 January 2000; I think the are more to come.