Nannies, nannies and more nannies

It has been a while since I last posted.  No excuses just stating the obvious!  Spring has arrived and I am ever grateful.  My beautiful lilacs are blooming as well as my redbuds, dogwood and daffodils and paperwhites.  My peonies in the front yard are about 4 foot tall with flower buds. The peonies in the back are against the house are half that size, they don't get the full sun.  Hubby has already mowed the yard twice!

I want to plant some herbs and keep them in the sun room.  I have been busy working and stocking a pantry.  I want to get about a 3-6 month supply of basic food stuffs put back.  The craziness of the world, that I knew was there, has reared it's ugly head and made me realize I was dragging my feet.

My life has changed little in the past 2 months, still working and coming home each day.  Hubby works at the same place I am, we are contractors with the government.  I don't feel comfortable going any further with what I do.  As hubby has playfully suggested to the nosy, "if I told you I would have to kill you!"

So since this is a cross stitch blog, let's get to it. All my stash has gone down to the basement EXCEPT my beloved Just Nan designs.  I have bought a few older designs on E-Bay and Etsy, filling in my collection with designs which I wanted or have been recently seduced into wanting via the enabling process.  You know the drill....right?

So at the end of January I purchased an older pattern of Just Nan, "Heartfelt".  It doesn't have a copyright date that I can find but her design number is JN157.  It has 3-2"x 2" designs, "Forever Friends", "Happy Birthday" and "Love".  I wanted to stitch the "Forever Friends" for my best friend Leslie who lives somewhere in the wilds of the United Kingdom.  (I know exactly where she lives but for her own protection I will not divulge it.)

I stitched this on a light blue 28 count Zweigart linen that I had in my stash.  I changed the word "Friends" to "Besties" which I charted myself. I used all DMC floss and fortunately the blue sequin beads came with the chart.  It was finished on February 22, 2022. I love, love love how it turned out.  I had bought 2-2"x 2" frames at Hobby Lobby for 40% off however the design was a wee bit too big to properly show off the needlework.  So I went up and bought the 3"x 3" frame you see and I didn't really love it but it was the best I could find.  I washed, pressed and laced the design on foam core board.  I had to remove the glass from the frame to get it to properly close at the back.  I ADORE this.  It is filled with lots of love! You can also see on the side of the roses at the bottom of the heart I stitched over one a L in blue and an S in maroon.  It was a personal touch to the piece to add our initials.  I am still filling a small box with items and will soon enough go to the post office to wing it's way to the bestest bestie a stitchy girl can have.

 So this is what I am currently working on.  Roses For St. Nicholas is an older design from 1995.  I love the Victorian style of it and I have had the pattern forever.  Unfortunately I did not purchase the bead pack with this design and I have struggled trying to match beads.  I believe Nan used more then Mill Hill beads, I know she did use some SJ Designs beads.  The 2 mm bugle beads have flummoxed me totally.  6 mm beads are way too big, I did find some 3 mm bugle beads in a sampler package of 10 colors for $10.00.  I found a nice big piece of 28 count opalescent raw linen in my stash!  SCORE!!!!

I gridded with red perle cotton down the right hand side of the stocking with a tick to the left every 10 squares.  On January 18, 2020 I started it and this is how far I got by January 22.  You will see a purple Sulky Sliver metallic grid lines.  The rose you see came completely out and was restitched.  That is when I gridded with the Sulky.


This is the progress by February 22, 2020.  I had stitched "Forever Friends" between the last two pictures.


This progress photo shows the cuff completely stitched and I have started on the lace in the cuff of the stocking as of April 4th, 2020. At this point I had tried to put the bugle bead squares between the stitched cabbage roses and well it didn't work.  My counting was off because the cabbage roses weren't exactly alike as they should have been.  I wasn't about to tear all those stitches out so it took some pondering.

So here we are today April 12, 2020.  I tired of the lace and moved to the green tassel on the right.  I finished that today and added the gold beads at the throat of the tassel. The beads are sitting side to side with the holes at the top and bottom.  I am very picky about the position of my beads.  Position makes a world of difference in how the light reflects off of them.


Here you see I pondered well on the bead situation between the cabbage roses.  The red plum beads were called for as bugle beads, which I could not find a suitable substitution.  I am using Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads 02012.  The gold bugle beads are supposed to be round seed beads,  I am using 3mm Japanese Bugle Beads that I purchased thru CB Beads on Etsy.  Here is a link to the sampler pack I purchased: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/118526423/3mm-japanese-bugle-beads
I really love the colors I received and am sure I will use them over and over again.

Also on the above picture you will see I backstitched a square to help me properly place the next square of beads between the roses.  I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner but the important thing is that I finally did think of it.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my stitching.  Getting the stash out of my Happy Room really helped me get out of that paralyzing place I was in.  Working on a variety of stitches in one piece is enjoyable and exciting to me and Nan's pieces fill that bill to the tee.

Most of my stitching is done on the weekends and I will make no promises but I will try to post updates a bit more promptly.  God Bless all and may all your stitching be just perfect!