Broken link to Marjolien Bastin freebie

In adding more links on the Freebies page, I discovered that the wonderful Marjolein Bastin Garden Sampler, which was originally posted online by BH&G Australia in 2001, is no longer available. It's a wonder that it was accessible for as long as it was. A very sad loss and a reminder that when you find a freebie you may EVER want to stitch, d/l and backup the chart immediately.

And PLEASE, if you run across a broken link for a site listed on one of the Freebie  pages, please let me know so I can remove or at least note it. Thank you!

WIP UPDATE: I'd planned to finish stitching LK's ABC's of Aging Gracefully and move on to something else that has been waiting patiently in the wings for months (or years as the case may be) while watching the Olympics. Instead I'm absolutely stuck on trying to substitute ONE color which just doesn't show on my blue fabric. I wanted to just choose a slightly darker hue but immediately realized the DMC # of the provided floss (3848) was incorrect, spent a long while trying to figure out whether it was 504 or 3818 or 3813 (all so close in hue under my home lights all but impossible to determine), spent over an hour driving to Hobby Lobby and my LNS with different lighting trying to determine same, then emailed LK who kindly took the time to email back and confirm it is 3818, and would like a photo of the finish on the Wedgewood Blue fabric. The the next darker hue is 503, but darker than I want, so have spent even MORE HOURS trying to choose a totally DIFFERENT color and haven't been happy with a gold or yellow or a peach or a different blue or aqua or a lavender; definitely did NOT want another pink, etc. In the meantime, I could have FINISHED the piece had I not been stuck on that one single color choice. As of last night, I finally decided I did not want to introduce a whole new color into the original color scheme so my next experiment will be a blend of the provided 3818 and 503, and see if that works. If I hadn't already ordered and put money down for framing, I'd just set it aside and come back to it in a few weeks or months.

Don't you hate it when one tiny, pretty much totally inconsequential thing stops you dead in your tracks and you simply can't move on until you resolve the issue? Or in my case, make sure it's exactly right?

WIPs as of July 15th

See previous post for background info on my Sunflowers project. The stitches on the far right were those made by Mother before she passed away. I stupidly trimmed the fabric way too close. I wish I could have centered the design so that these would be with the center flower. Not sure what I'll do to accomplish  that, but they WILL be on the finished piece. There are only a few stitches here and there to complete it, but  I've been thinking I may instead just leave it as it is now, not quite completed. Just like my Mother's life.

When I set Sunflowers aside, I started up Lizzie Kate's ABC's of Aging Artfully. I'd bought the kit some time ago but couldn't decide what fabric to use.  This is Wedgewood blue, and I like it. With full crosses only it could go pretty fast if I didn't have to complete each stitch one at a time because of the overdyed threads. Until last night, I hadn't stitched on this since early June.

I hastily grabbed the "Bless This Nest" kit at Walmart to take with me to San Antonio in mid-June, but ended up taking ABC's instead - though I never took it out of the suitcase. I began stitching this end of June. Why I'm spending time even working on it I'm not sure as I not sure I'll ever finish it. I had a horrible time trying to sort some of the greens and I still have 3 strands of some green leftover that may or may not even go with the kit. I knew when I started should substitute an evenweave for the 14ct Aida because it is chock full of 1/2 and 1/4 stitches. Yet I didn't. Not sure why. Last night I FINALLY got around to setting it aside to finish ABC's of Aging instead - a much better use of my stitching time.

There is simply not enough space on Blogspot to accommodate ALL the WIP's I've got in my stash, some going back almost 3 decades. Some I lost interest. Some the reason for stitching long since disappeared or was outright rebuffed, and even if completed would have no home to go to. 

Nonetheless, I've had Prairie Schooler's Birds and Berries kitted up since last fall to work on, but haven't yet, I have a LONG overdue wedding sampler to design and stitch for my DD and SIL, who will celebrate their THIRD anniversary in a couple of months, and because they are BIG Halloween people, I recently bought Whooo's There to stitch for them as well.  It would help if my eyesight were a LOT better and I wasn't the slowest stitcher in the entire world!!

ABC's of Aging Artfully - Lizzie Kate

Part of my current project on 28ct Wedgewood Lugana. I've completed almost all of the first 3 lines.  "e" is charted for "eat chocolate." I'm allergic so I may substitute  "eat ice cream" if it will fit. I debated about fabric color and have decided I quite like the blue! The LNS owner advised I would need a full fat quarter. Nope. Just 1/2 that. Instead of wasting all that extra fabric, I'm utilizing a 2-1/4" allowance, which is more than enough for framing purposes. I would have preferred chart only, but it only comes as a kit with 4 skeins of CC Caterpillar, and 1 skein of each of the other colors (of which maybe 1/4 is actually used), plus some DMC white and an aqua. Except for the Caterpillar (which is a mix similar to 3371 with 898), I would have preferred to use same or similar CC's I already have on hand, and definitely didn't need the white or aqua. Still I liked it enough to buy.

PS:  Click here for some simple Patriotic and 4th of July designs and ideas!