Slow, steady projects

Linda of Stitch Lines blog did a little fall cross stitch for her daughter last year and asked if anyone was interested in the chart once she finished with it. I was the only one that expressed an interest and so she sent it to me. It called for 32 count Belfast linen but I went with 16 count Aida - which I had to purchase. Most the Aida cloth I have is 14 count and one is 18 count. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find cross stitch fabrics in the city - especially 16 count. I finally let my fingers do the walking and found a place east of me that was a needlework and wool store. The lady had been at the same location for 47 years. It was a wonderful store and I will go back since she also had knitting yarns and needlepoint supplies.

 I am not following the colours exactly as they are numbered on the chart. I have a lot of embroidery floss (many of which no longer have their little paper holders with the colour numbers) and so I just chose the ones that I thought would look nice. Once it's done I will show you the whole thing. There are some buttons that get sewn on too. I have purchased some of the buttons but I couldn't find an acorn. I have to look for leaf buttons too. The Aida cloth is an off white and the lettering is actually brownish even though it doesn't look like it in the photo. The actual finished size is 2" X 10.75".

 This is the beginning of a long term project that I want to make (and saying that, it seems like I have several.) It's going to be an alphabet quilt. I am hoping that I have enough of the dark gray so that all the letters will be the same. I have nothing drawn on paper, I have no idea of what the finished quilt will be in look nor in size nor do I know how long it will take me to make. I have a lot of off white fabrics so the backgrounds will be different. The sizes of the blocks will vary too depending on my whim. All hand applique. I did order some alphabet fabric that was on sale from a quilt store just north of me but when the other things arrived in the mail today, that item was crossed off. I guess it was all gone. Too bad since it was letters on a darkish red background and I thought it would be a great starting point. I now have to find something else. Perhaps different fabrics with words written on them. The true size of this block currently is 5.5" X 6.5".