Lakeside Needlecrafts recently sponsored a 6-week free SAL designed by Durene Jones. It was hosted on their Facebook Group. The theme was "Tea and Cake". The fun part of these mystery SAL's is anticipating each installment and seeing everyone's interpretation with varying threads, fabric and design adaptations. This is not a design I would have chosen to stitch otherwise, but the process was fun. I kept up on time through part 4. And then life interfered. But I finally completed it and made it into a large coaster or small mat yesterday.
It is stitched on 28 ct Jobelan over-2. The fabric color is "Twilight Mist". The threads are the DMC suggestions except for the border where I used Carrie's Mardi Gras cotton floss.
I changed the wording a little also.
A close colleague, friend and mentor passed away recently. I made this little condolence card for the family using a motif from the "Dear Rine" sampler SAL. This is another free SAL hosted on the Dear Rine FB group. I'm not really doing that SAL, but some of these circular animal designs are quite charming and useful when you need a small generic design.
I also decided to so some of Pam Kellogg's Never-Ending Band Sampler SAL. I don't think I ever stitched a band sampler, so I wanted to see what I had been missing. This is another free SAL with a Facebook group, but the patterns are all on Pam's Blog. I started with the second panel and did half of it. Each panel is about 18" long on 28 count over-2 fabric. I enjoyed doing this, but half a panel was about all I wanted to do before I wanted to move on. This on a light beige Jobelan fabric. I don't know if I will ever do anything with this piece, but I enjoyed it.
The patterns are all black and white so everyone chooses their own colors. Stitchers on the FB group have shown some lovely color choices. I had no idea what I was doing, color-wise. I just jumped in and decided colors as I went along.
