Finally another finish for me

I finally have another finish in this series. This is the Schoolhouse by La-D-Da stitched with the recommended floss on 32 ct (over 2) Wichelt lambswool linen. I toyed with stitching with CC Sassy Brass instead of the Flax but it didn't show up well against the Cinnamon.

The Cricket Collection's Clock Tower

I finished another Town Square SAL piece, Cricket Collection's Clock Tower. I am guessing the town [or towns] that inspired the designers who participated in this project must be one of those Midwestern towns where loads of immigrants from Europe settled to farm and run shops. If one is to judge by this clock, it had to be a place filled with Europeans accustomed to seeing the work of skilled artisans and craftsmen in their public buildings: lots of colorful mosaics and brilliant stained glass and fanciful brick/stone work.

Val's Stuff Train Depot Finished

I finished this over the long Columbus Day weekend. I am stitching all of my Town Square pieces on 28 ct linen over-dyed in compatible shades of blue. The first few were done on Silkweaver's Starquest. This was done on Zweigart's Meditation. I used the charted GAST and WDW fibers for this and made those changes in the chart detailed in the last post.

I believe that I will do the Clock Tower next. I am trying to do all the "public" buildings first [the post office, fire station, library, school house, church, town hall and a few others remain] and then I'll stitch some of the shops I'd be most likely to visit: the bookshop, the tea shop, the quilting and stitching related shops, the primitives and antique shops, the bakery and chocolate shops.

Finally ... I am back to this project

It seems no one has really had much time for this project ... not a single post since the end of June. But I have started one more of the pieces ... Val's Stuff's Train Depot. Typically, I have made some changes ... this time in the actual design instead of my usual switching out of fibers used. I thought the benches looked too small to fit in with the scale of the rest of the building and I didn't like the way the porch roof supports were charted, hence my changes.

the wedding shop

by Keslyns?

Does anyone have the key for it? Whereever I got my set from didn't include the key for that shop.

Crescent Colors' Village Saloon

This was a very enjoyable project. I enjoy using Crescent Colors fibers and the colors in this piece are just luscious.

Sharon of Crescent Colors shared a bit about the inspiration for this piece in a post on the 123stitch message board. As a child, she always wanted to be Miss Kitty [Gunsmoke] wearing those pretty dresses and feathers in her hair. It was only when her mother gently broke the sad news that Miss Kitty did a bit more than pour whiskey and play cards in her saloon that Sharon abandoned her dream.

This was stitched on a Silweaver cashel linen, 28 ct., called Starquest.

Finally Finished: Monsterbubble's JAIL

I am so glad to be done with all this grey ... especially since art has been imitating life ... several days in a row of overcast and/or drizzly weather ending in night time thunderstorms. My container vegetable garden has been benefiting but all this humidity and dreariness hasn't been doing much for my mood. I shall be glad to turn my attention next month to Crescent Colors Saloon ... much more colorful.

I don't know what the deal with my photos is lately ... that wavy effect doesn't show up when you click on and enlarge the photo ... you can see all the long-stitched outlines of the granite blocks quite clearly ... I think my camera is just showing its age. I'll have to ask for a new digital for my birthday or for Christmas.

Monsterbubble's Jail Progress

I have made a little progress since my last posting ... but, to be frank, this piece was put aside for most of the last two months. Mainly this was because late April and early May are my busiest times professionally: registration mailings for 2010, Confirmations, First Communions, End of Term Exams and Progress Reports, etc., etc. But I am also involved in a RR that has had some difficulties with one of the participants. As luck would have it, the problem child is immediately before me in the rotation. When the first piece was "lost in the mail", I felt nothing but concern and even though three of the four weeks for that rotation had already elapsed ... I recreated the lost piece for her: buying new fabric, stitching borders and dividers as well as my own panel. Now that the second piece has gone missing, neither I nor the organizer are nearly as sympathetic ... believing that nothing has ever been or will be mailed. The problem child has been dropped from the rotation entirely. So between stitching my own very ambitious piece for said RR and re-creating the piece for the stitcher who shall remain nameless, what little stitching time I have had in the past eight weeks has been consumed by the RR.

But three days ago, I got back to my Jail. I think this design is a hoot and I will love the finished product but at the moment I am a little weary of grey. I need to finish filling in the arch and the taller tower with WDW Dolphin and then will have to outline the granite blocks that make up the whole building with WDW Charcoal. Since the upcoming weekend is supposed to be just as grey and grim, I expect I'll have a lot of indoor stitching time over the next two days. Who knows, I might even finish the piece! The next piece I plan to stitch in this series is Sharon's [of Crescent Colors] Saloon ... a cheerful and very colorful piece. It will be a most welcome change. I'll use the same Silkweaver 28ct Starquest linen but I expect it will look like an entirely different fabric with the bright palette of Sharon's overdyed cottons.

Finally! My first finish

I've had the stitching done on the Candy Shop for a while but had to wait to order a button. Once it arrived, I wasn't sure where it was to go (the pattern said there was an outline for it but it seemed to be missing. I emailed LK about it but maybe they didn't understand what I was asking because I never got a response.)

The button may be a little too big (I stitched on 32 ct. instead of 28 ct.) but here it is anyway.

Weekend Progress

I was able to spend a bit more time on my Monsterbubbles pieces on Sunday and I am happy with the way it is shaping up. At this stage, it is a perfect piece for waiting rooms since there are large blocks of a single color to be filled in. I should have thought of that before I mounted it on a doodle lap frame ... not exactly the most portable of stitching frames. Ah, well, live and learn.

A New Sidebar: The Master List

It has been suggested that a master list of the charts in this series be included as a sidebar. I should have thought of that myself, which only goes to illustrate what I said in the very first post about fine tuning this blog as we go along. Apparently, not every shop distributed the entire set, so folks want to see what they might be missing. So I spent a little time this morning putting it together.

Thanks!

Thanks for setting this up, Riona.

I finally found my patterns and have barely begun stitching the LK Candy Shop for my first one. I have to order a couple of the overdyes (and button) for it. Not enough progress to show yet.

I'm in!

Thank you Riona for setting up this blog! I'm really excited to get some of these stitched up. Eventually I'd like to have a tree full of these little finishes making up my Tree Town. ;) So far I've finished two in the past, but unfortunately don't recall the designers. I have another kitted up, but again don't know which one, will look later tonight. I'll also dig out the CD and see which ones I'd like to work up first...

Let's Get Started

I hesitate to say this but it was relatively easy to set up this blog ... which means I will probably discover I overlooked all sorts of important details. Until such time, let's all have some fun with these great charts ... we can fine tune the blog settings as the need arises.

My first suggestion is that, once we have established our roster of charter member participants, we divide up the list of designers and wholesalers who contributed charts and e-mail or snail mail each a thank-you note and invite them to drop in from time to time to view the uses to which we have put their generous gift.

I couldn't wait to get started ... as soon as I printed my charts from the CD-rom ... three jumped out at me immediately:
Monsterbubbles' Jail
Crescent Colors' Saloon
Val's Stuff's Train Depot

Since I needed to pick up a few skeins of floss for the Saloon, I began on the Jail first.