~ A Freebie for You! ~

 Hello Friends & Folk!

Happy Monday to us all ~

guess what? it's raining! AGAIN!

wow, have never seen this much rain in one month ~

good for the soil, plenty of nitrogen for our plants ~

 but the mold spores grow too and boy do they play with my allergies

 ~ yuck.

Since I am 'cleaning out' my 

"somewhat older/never completed/need to be finished and stitched"

 designs on my computer, I found this sweet honey bee that I charted a couple of moons ago...

and though ~ 

Hmmm....my friends might want to stitch this to add to their growing

bee-themed finishes that I see them displaying?

so, for your amusement and the fact that I love to share, here is

🐝 ~ Bee a Kind Soul ~ 🐝

 

I would LOVE to see your finishes of this design...

I originally charted it to be worked on 36ct linen with DMC threads ~

{symbols legend shows DMC}

but

make it yours! ...change the colors, 

how about stitching it really small, one over one on 30 or 28ct linen?

don't like to stitch on linen? then use that Aida cloth ~

there is NOTHING WRONG with cross stitching on AIDA cloth!

{{You have my permission to do so!}}

~ AND there are wonderful folks who offer hand dyed AIDA cloth now too!

You can Google 'hand dyed AIDA cloth' and it will show you many shops who offer it ~

I will also post this FREEBIE on my "Freebies" page

for you for future reference ~ that link is over there on my right sidebar ---->

လလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလလ

 Well, I am off to process weekend orders, then stitch to my heart's content...

...rainy days are made for stitching

aren't they?

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Industry ~

 

It is not how busy you are, but why you are busy — 

the bee is praised, the mosquito is swatted. 

~Author Unknown


How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From ev'ry op'ning flow'r!
~Isaac Watts (1674–1748), 

excerpt from "Idleness and Mischief" (children's hymn)

 

 Busy as a little bumbler-bee here lately...

working on punch needle ~

and rug hooking...

~ and more rug hooking.

I'll have 2 new cross stitch designs coming soon,

they are being stitched by another little busy-bee friend! 

The bees were busy, 

and their humming brought pleasant hopes of summer. 

~Lady John Manners, "Belvoir at Eastertide," 

in The Garden: An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture In All Its Branches, 

1886 May 8th

Happy Rainy Wednesday to you!

 

Blessings from the Farm ~ 

 Lori

~ Progress ~

Holy Moly 

~ get out your long-janes & warm woolies!

it is C O L D here in VA this morning!

poor chickens are laying ice cubes again, and the donkeys & sheep won't even come out of the barn!

thank goodness for the sun

Last night I was able to pull a few stitches on the "Pin" project, 

as we shall refer to it ;)

I must say that I do love working on my 30ct Ironstone linen!

I like the splotching & staining and how the base linen that I use takes the staining, 

with little halo-ing.

I don't even need a hoop as it has a good 'hand', or is a stiffer linen.

I prefer a coarser linen than a floppy soft one.

I'm working this project 1 over 2

or one strand of DMC floss over two threads of linen.

and I am waxing my threads lightly.

I love the smell of pure beeswax & how sweet and smoky the scent is ~

I cannot wait until Spring this year ~

Peter & I are hoping to begin keeping a hive of honeybees again!

waxing your threads helps keep it from knotting up as you stitch ~

it also helps protect the thread color if you were to stain your finished project…

{which is really good for protecting specialty over dyed threads such as Weeks or Gentle Arts}

for whatever reason, I have always waxed my threads.

I prefer natural pure beeswax to the commercial 'stuff' on the market.

…the old ways are just best for me I guess :)

so below, you can see that I've stitched the border of the project

and have begun the wording.

the finished stitched portion will be approx. 5" x 5" 

… but the finished project will be around 6" x 6" or a hair larger.

I'll share more progress tomorrow ~

keep warm everyone!!

Hoping you all have a honey of a day!!

~ Blessings from the Farm ~

 Lori